I do know someone who completely missed The Whitlams when they were completely unavoidable ten years ago, then “discovered” them last month and was very upset that she didn’t have anyone to share her find with.
Although I’d heard the song over the past 30 years and was a Moody Blues fan, I never connected with FOREVER AUTUMN from “War Of The Worlds” until a year and a half ago.
Even worse, tho I’d heard snippets in the movie HEAVY METAL years ago, only last week did I experience the greatness of BOC’s VETERANS OF THE PSYCHIC WARS.
One of the disadvantages of growing up in Western New York in the early 80s at the time is that the music didn’t come to us until a couple years afterward, if at all. So much New Wave I didn’t even discover until the Orlando stations would play it on retro night in the late 90s-early 2000s. The biggest examples I can think of outside of obviously obscure techno and goth are Yaz(oo), Obsession by Animotion, and Arcadia.
Well, for the past few decades I’ve been collecting vinyl LPs … mostly in the 90s, when it seemed like every other yard sale had a box of them for 50 cents each. So I’ve been in a sort of continual process of discovering old music for quite some time. One that particularly stands out is Tim Buckley… I first heard “Goodbye and Hello” about 10 years ago. (I probably heard it a few times back in the late 60s/early 70s but it didn’t sink in.) The last three songs on side 1 – to use an expression from that era – blew my mind.
By the way… unlike the OP, I’ve always liked Dylan, but wasn’t familiar with a lot of his stuff until later. I remember listening to Side 2 of “Another Side of Bob Dylan” sometime around 1980 and feeling like “how can anything possibly be this good”.
In my younger days, when my musical tastes were still forming, I would periodically have the experience of listening to an album a few times and having it do nothing for me, then coming back to it sometime later and thinking “Wait – this is actually incredibly good.” That happened with Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”, Genesis’ “Nursery Cryme”, John Mayall’s “USA Union”, and some others.
Waltzing Matilda which, if you didn’t know, is the Unofficial Australian National Anthem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV5nbOGRu3Y&feature=PlayList&p=69C120275F3D0F66&index=0&playnext=1
I learned about this song in the 70’s, but it’s been around for a long time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltzing_Matilda
I had heard of The Rolling Stones and knew who Mick Jagger was but probably couldn’t name any of their songs when I was 20. Then when I was 21 (1991) I went to see a midnight showing of “Rolling Stones at the Max” in IMAX with footage of their Steel Wheels tour. Awesome catchy stuff that made me an instant fan.
In 1982, I happened upon a copy of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s 2-disc greatest hits compilation (Chronicle) in a record store bargain bin for 5 bucks. CCR had been broken up for 10 years, and I was just a kid when they were popular.
I looked at the album jacket and thought, hmmm, I know Proud Mary and Bad Moon Rising. Those are OK, I guess I’ll take a chance on this for $5.
Imagine getting hit with Green River, Commotion, Down On The Corner, Fortunate Son, Travelin’ Band, Up Around The Bend, Lookin’ Out My Back Door and then some… all for the first time in one sitting.
I’m a big fan of Creedence especially Down on the corner and Bad Moon Rising. Thanks for reminding me.