Curious: which 80s Goth and hip-hop do you like, that these are the exceptions to?
I ask because those are both firm favourites, even though I could happily ignore some of their contemporaries in both genres.
Hip Hop im good with about anything. I just didnt like Terminator X. His beds were discordant to me. Im from LA though any loved LA Hio Hop. And I loved 80s music. Bauhaus was just too dark to me and my sisters boyfriend liked it alot and I didnt like him. 
Jack Sullivan, in the Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, 1986:
“Like Berlioz and Liszt, Rachmaninoff was fond of quoting the medieval plainchant Dies Irae. In mature works such as Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini and the Symphonic Dances, the allusions are shivery and diabolic one moment, sarcastic and parodic the next, a clear testament to the influence of the witches’ sabbath movement in Berlioz’s **Symphonie Fantastique. **“
Take that as you will. For my part, the Symphonic Dances are spooky.
I know enough not to challenge people who say they don’t like the Dead because of the “guitar noodlings.” But I throw out for your edification the “Eyes of the World” from the September 1977 show at the Englishtown racetrack in New Jersey. Dead lovers will swoon, and haters of guitar noodling might change their opinion, cause this ain’t no “noodling.”
Please note the second guitar break at 7:30. And the peak just after 9:00.Did you hear it? DIDJA HEAR IT? Wait, I’ll play it again…
Back in the day, EVERYONE loved Janis Joplin. Aside from “Piece of My Heart,” I could never get into her. And I can’t stand her version of “Me and Bobby McGee.”
I’ve never understood the enduring popularity of Rod Stewart, either.
The cult-ish mania for the Dave Matthews Band is also a mystery to me. I bought the CD that had “Where Are You Going” on it, because I really liked that song, but I found the rest of the disc rather dull, as I have other songs by him I’ve heard. I have a 40-ish niece who travels far and wide to see him perform, and who has attended dozens of his concerts, sometimes multiple concerts in the same week. I can’t fathom why.
I like some blues, most soul but definitely not Wilson Pickett - he overdoes it, on the few songs where he dials it back to 10 he’s great but there just isn’t enough of it.
Janis Joplin - guilty of overcooking it and when she drops it down a notch it works fine - I second the hate for Me and Bobby McGee - pity no-one told her to take more notice of Aretha Franklin
Joe Cocker - just utterly horrible, sounds like he has a bad case of cataarh all of the time - just cough it up lad and get on with the song.
REM - for me they are just the most miserable set of passive aggressives I ever heard - the whinging whiny moaning set of twonks - there is almost no joy whatsoever in the vast majority of their output, but there isn’t any real fire either - oh woa life is sooo hard.
Yet I’m fine with Radiohead and most Indy stuff and lots of Coldplay.
King Crimson - music for people who claim they know about music, a bit like buying a copy of ‘A brief history of time’ - sure its all there but really who cares or even understands? Its just something to fill up a supposed cognoscenti shelf.
U2 - They have some fantastic stuff, fortunately you don’t have to buy the entire album these days - you can just go for the good stuff and leave out the filler.
Grateful Dead - noodlers extraordinary - pointless meandering, goes nowhere , says nothing
Bob Dylan - seems he can do it when he wants, but he wants far too little for my taste, tend to like stuff that has been covered by others that he wrote.
Michael Buble - I like other pianists but something in his voice a bit nasally and with a bit of fry in it too, Harry Connick Jnr does it so much better
Steely Dan during their heyday were famous for never touring, so a bit surprised to see that they finally decided to give it a go. Not much of a surprise then that they sucked.
For me, it’s gotta be Bowie. I have like 2 songs by him on my hard drive (Rebel Rebel, & the title cut from Ziggy Stardust). No matter where you it’s always “He’s so massive, he’s so influential!” I tried Low last month, in its entirety, and it bored the living fuck out of me-pretty much every song [before we get to the ambient ones on side 2] sounded the same from start to end (and to each other), had no real groove or hook.
Note I love his contemporaries Roxy Music [as in I love maybe 25% of their catalogue, to be precise], but they have the variety, dynamics and key changes and such out the wazoo that he apparently hardly ever attempts.
Definitely Bowie. I never got why he was considered a thing.
[quote=Ukulele Ike]
I know enough not to challenge people who say they don’t like the Dead because of the “guitar noodlings.” But I throw out for your edification the “Eyes of the World” from the September 1977 show at the Englishtown racetrack in New Jersey. Dead lovers will swoon, and haters of guitar noodling might change their opinion, cause this ain’t no “noodling.”
I’d still consider that a bit of noodle, but it’s a damned good one.
I love jazz, but Art Tatum just annoys me. He always sounds to me like he’s showing off. He had perfect technique, could play really fast, could arpeggiate the hell out of everything, but I don’t find his playing to be artistic. Thelonious Monk could be technically poor, but even so I’d much rather listen to his playing because he was so expressive and musical.
What I came in to say. He was doing a live stream on Verizon the other day, and I gave him another chance, and it just did nothing for me.
Hey pulykamell, I’m a big fan of Hüsker Dü, but I went back and listened to them the other day and was amazed at how bad the production was on many of the early albums. Maybe I was just used to that in the 80s? Maybe that was just part of the lo-fi musical vernacular back then? I dunno.
Yeah, I have the same issue with Tatum, and Oscar Peterson too. And Joe Pass on guitar, who I mentioned above. Who was it who said the spaces between the notes were just as important as the notes themselves?
Here’s a vid of them doing Reeling In The Years on one of the late night rock and roll shows.
Looks like they’re just going through the motions IMO. Not that that’s necessarily representative or their whole touring act but I can see how it might get tedious and boring.
seconding Janis. Although I don’t mind her version of Bobby McGhee. And I hate Piece of My Heart.
I love minimalist rock music that is a bit offbeat/strange/psychedelic. So you’d think I would like Pink Floyd. Nope. With the exception of the first album, I can’t stand their music.
I like blues guitar. But I can only take about five minutes of B.B. King for some reason.
I think it is the production for me, as well, but it’s weird, as I tend to like lo-fi production and not like ultra polished records, and a lot of late 70s/80s underground/alternative music had gritty production, and none of it bugs me, except for theirs. I don’t know why. I’m listening to bits of Zen Arcade now, and, it actually sounds better than I remember it, but there’s still something – I think the way the vocals sound buried to me or something. They feel way too low in the mix for my tastes.
Very interesting. Many, many guitarists cite him as an influence. But to me, it just seems like he does that same thing over and over, hard to describe, holding that one note. Vibrato?
Now his singing, love that.
Neil Young is such a mystery to me. I just don’t see it. I love Bob Dylan and friend of mine try to convince that Neil is songwriting genius but he doesn’t click with me. To me, the songs are nothing special and his voice is too whiny to be taken seriously. I even hate his electric guitar playing. Yuck…not for me.
For classical, it’s Robert Schumann. I love all the early Romantics - Chopin, Schubert, Mendelssohn. But Schumann I have a problem with. I know he’s the real deal - his piano concerto is an amazing work and some of his chamber works are ok. And his peers, and the great pianists, seem to revere him.
The symphonies are dull, predictable things with stupid relentless dotted rhythms.
The worst are the piano works - he picks a pattern in 16th notes and sticks with it to the bitter end. Floats a simple melody in quarter notes above or in-between the two hands. Very four-square. And ABA form with no depth or sophistication. Compared to Chopin it’s just artless.
I’ll be listening to classical music in the background, and suddenly get an uncomfortable irritated feeling. The music hits my conscious brain and I think “I bet it’s that fucker Schumann!” And I’ll be right every time.
What about Mahler? There is an episode of Frazier, where he is reminding Niles about how he would get up every day and play Mahler for Marris. But there was one problem. Frazier says, “You hate Mahler! Other than Marris, who doesn’t?”
I don’t hate or like Mahler. Don’t listen to much classical music and when I do it’s piano, and Bach is good enough for me.
