I’m not super contrarian. My tastes are fairly mainstream.
But there are MANY artists in MANY media who’ve recorded a few good songs, written an enjoyable book or two, or made a few good movies but who just don’t strike me as geniuses. And who’ve left behind at least as much awful work as great work. Among them:
Bruce Springsteen
Eugene O’Neill
Stanley Kubrick
Robert Altman
Jim Hendrix
Joni Mitchell
Jeff Beck
John Fogerty was sued for plagiarizing himself.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/27501/time-john-fogerty-was-sued-ripping-john-fogerty
A friend of mine commented, “It’s a fine line between having a distinctive style and all your songs sounding the same”.
Martin Prince: As your president, I would demand a science-fiction library, featuring an ABC of the genre. Asimov, Bester, Clarke.
Student: What about Ray Bradbury?
Martin Prince: I’m aware of his work…
Joni Mitchell. I appreciate the purity of her high voice and guitar playing. But I’ve never enjoyed listening to much of her music. I have her hits album and that’s plenty. Her style doesn’t engage or excite me. I’ve been at friends houses and they had Joni’s albums stacked on the record player, one playing after another. I usually tuned her out and focused on my friends.
I’m not a big Bob Dylan fan for similar reasons. I like a few of his hits but never enjoyed his albums.
I love Carole King’s piano playing and admire her song writing. I’ve tried hard to enjoy her albums. But, I always lose interest. I treasure the hits she made.
Elvis Costello, Frank Zappa and David Bowie I never liked at all. I don’t like artsy or eclectic music. It’s just not a music style that I seek out.
I do highly recommend Carole King’s album, Tapestry. It is brilliant.
But her next two albums Music and Rhymes and Reasons sold mostly because of Tapestry. There weren’t any huge hits on her follow up albums.
Speaking of Bono’s ego, some months back there was a Sinatra special on TV that comprised modern artists performing Sinatra songs, most of whom were terrified at the idea but soldiered on and did adequate jobs. But Bono and the Edge decided to perform an original composition which they introduced by explaining they wrote it for and pitched it to Sinatra but he declined to record it. So I’m sitting there thinking, “And this is the way you honor Sinatra, by singing a song on his special which you wrote, that no one has ever heard of, and he rejected?” I can’t imagine how anyone not firmly in the grip of a huge ego could possibly think this would be a great idea.
I saw Elvis Costello about 10 years ago, at a solo acoustic show for which I paid $11 admission, and it was wonderful. He’s more of a storyteller who puts those stories to music.
I also don’t get Tori Amos.
Warren Zevon. I’ll give his “Best Of” a spin once in a while and there are some good songs, to me he’ll always be the Large Print Tom Waits. Clever and often amusing, but absolutely no depth beyond “Look, it’s BLACK HU-MOUR”. Also his lumpen version of “Raspberry Beret” is just embarrassing, like Dad doing karaoke at a wedding.
Off music for a moment, Joss Whedon is okay. Don’t get the (ahem) “enthusiastic” fandom though.
I can appreciate the musical genius of Paul Simon, but I rarely listen to it much.
Like Sonic Youth, I think Joni Mitchell is more of a “musician’s musician.” I’m not trying to put you down, but to really appreciate what she’s doing (e.g. alternate tunings) I think you need to have a working knowledge of music theory.
I agree wholeheartedly. Jimi wasn’t just a brilliant guitar innovator, he wrote damn good songs.
You have to listen to the notes she’s not playing?
I can’t understand the worship of The Doors. (Or really Jim Morrison. I can’t even name another member of the band) I find them to be a mediocre band with a handful of hits and a whole bunch of notoriety due to the antics of Morrison. And his “poetry” sucked big time
Agreed, but to me, Dylan has his own world of language that he doggedly sticks to, and his cleverness as well is sui generis. It sometimes works for me, often doesn’t. Whereas, I feel Costello is using regular language and is just trying to damn hard.
Damn, I thought I was going to be the first one to mention the Beatles… :(:D;)
I “appreciate” them in the sense that I stipulate their greatness, but they don’t do anything for me, on any level. Same for the Beach Boys and the Rolling Stones.
Also, there are at least two versions of “Yesterday” that I like better than the original. That’s right, I said it!
The Doors are very hit or miss. Their hits were often great songs, but their albums were filled with mediocre music between the hits.
Manazarek, Krieger, and – damn – can’t name the drummer. Usually I’m good at remembering the drummer. Dislike the band very much, but I’m not sure I can quite scrounge up appreciation for them, so didn’t bother naming them in this thread. Well, I can certainly appreciate Krieger’s guitar and … oh, this is going to bug the shit out of me, I’ll look it up … John Densmore (:smack:) on the drums. Excellent musicians. And I guess I begrudgingly have to give Ray Manazarek credit for sculpting the Doors unique sound with his keyboard parts. The Doors really aren’t the Doors without Ray.
Anyway, just thought of another one (I guess it’s been mentioned a few times in this thread): Frank Zappa. He still remains a curiosity to me. Probably just way ahead of my time. I appreciate him in an abstract sense–almost everyone whose musical opinions I respect say he’s a genius, so I’ll believe them. His work just doesn’t connect to me.
The Beatles, Springsteen, Leonard Cohen.
Some great songs, a bunch of good songs, but not everything they do is spun gold.
Gah! I have a ton.
And, to be clear, by appreciate mean I recognize their importance and talent but dislike thier work.
Dylan. Important? Yup. Rather gouge out my ears with a fork than listen to him? Yup.
The Beetles. I could live happily never hearing another one of their songs except ‘Here Comes the Sun’. A friend of mine named Anne (who I had a giant crush on) gave me a ride to high school and played that every morning when she picked me up so it gets a pass for purely sentimental reasons.
U2. Another fork please…
Springsteen. Eh.
There are more, I am a bit picky when it comes to music and a bit eclectic (my playists cover ground like kd lang -> Metallica -> Miles Davis -> Fates Warning -> Lyle Lovette -> Lily Allen -> Paganini)
Slee