Album(s) That Took The Longest To Come Around To

It's funny the Band .I remember hearing there second album back in 1969.It took time to listen to it.I mean It sounded better when you were stoned.I played on of the greatest hits albums just a couple of weeks ago and well ,I wish I was stoned again.I really didn't care your it.

This could be TL:DNR, but here goes...

Almost my entire music listening history is loaded with: albums, musicians, bands, composers and even entire genres and subgenres, that took many listens and time to get into. Mostly because they pushed the envelope of what I was already listening to, and challenged me, hell, even made me "work".

My first loves in music were: The Beatles, The Who, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Ten Years After, Grand Funk, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, etc. Those all came easy for me to like.

When I reached my late teens, early 20’s, I discovered prog with the likes of: Yes, Genesis, King Crimson, Camel, Renaissance, etc.

Someone at the time recommended Gentle Giant, but I had a hard time with them. My mind wasn’t quite ready for their use of atonality, polyphony, somewhat irregular rhythms, complex multipart vocals, syncopation. So, I put their record on my shelf, kind of ignoring them for at least half a year.

As I continued to explore the prog genre, especially the Italian bands, my tastes began to encompass more, diverse bands. So, I decided to take that GG album off my shelf and give it another try. What was I thinking!? Their brilliance was now obvious to me.

This experience of not immediately liking an album, but later coming to love it, immediately stuck with me throughout my life since, and taught me to give music quite a while before I decide whether I like it or not. Especially if it has most or all of the attributes I love in music going for it.

I.e., very high levels of musicianship, high levels of complexity, deep and broad emotional and/or intellectual content conveyed.

Even more, TL:DNR.

This happened again with the subgenre of jazz, jazz fusion (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather Report, Brand X, Return to Forever, Allan Holdsworth, etc). But giving this time to get into, allowed me to also begin to love: post-bop, avant-garde, chamber-jazz, etc.

It happened again with the prog subgenre of avant-prog. A particularly "thorny" sounding subgenre, with abundant use of: atonality and dissonance, very complex and unpredictable arrangements, polyrhythms and highly complex time signatures, free improv. Avant-prog took me the longest to get into, but turned out to be extremely rewarding for the "work".

And finally, it happened again in my early 50’s with post 1950’s classical music, i.e., atonal, serial, avent-garde, Spectralism, New Complexity, etc. This probably the most challenging of all the music I love.

For me, to a large extent, the music that takes a long time to get into, also seems to have the best staying power. Holds up to many listens without getting tired of it. It always seems reveal more, have more to decipher, more discover, more subtleties, more varied emotions, on further listens.

Anything Leonard Cohen. A true musical poet.

@bubinga , in that case, why would Leonard Cohen be on the list of "albums that took [you] the longest to come around to"?

Anything Leonard Cohen. A true musical poet.

Spirit-Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus. Was familiar with this album since my early 20's/late 1980's. WRIF/Detroit had a DJ(Arthur Penhallow) that loved playing "Nature's Way" and I thought it was just another "Baby Boomer/Hippie" track without giving the album any thought. Proceed to 2010 when I started collecting vinyl and found a 2nd pressing(Epic/Orange) and realized the excellence of the complete album/recording. Easily a Top 100 Pop/Rock recording of the 1970's!

Astral Weeks. Wait, I still don’t get it. 

A different post in this forum ('music') made me think of a couple:

right after I read the review in Stereophile of Steve Earle's '97 releases, Train A Coming and I Feel Alright, I went out and bought them.  It actually took me a while to start liking them, but after I did, I couldn't get enough of them.

@immathewj

re Van Morrison/Blowin Your Mind - the re-release is fantastic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang_Masters

Can’t really think of one example of a song that took me multiple exposures to develop an attraction to. With me it works kind of in reverse. On some occasions if I’m overexposed (in my estimation) to music I previously found acceptable it can become quite offensive.

That Boston album is a great example...you could say it's more than a feeling.

@bdp24

I have very low opinion of the John Lennon post Beatles body of work, compared with Paul and George's. (I have nothing against John, I just don't get most of his albums.)

Band On The Run is kind of a mess but a beautiful mess. I just bought the album. I also heard London Town about 6000 times in the 80s so I can't really listen to it again. 

Wings is much like Paul McCartney, one album great, next one is forgettable, next one is on the way to great again, and next one is brilliant.

I like the Travelling Wilburys too, but my #1 is probably All Things Must Pass.

@grislybutter: RAM is my favorite of McCartney’s early albums, though I also like his s/t solo debut. I have never heard anything post-Band On The Run, so my opinion is of questionable value. I did get the Wings Wild Life album when it was released, but didn’t think much of it and didn’t keep it. YouTube video maker (and Beatle fanatic) Norman Maslov ("Mazzy") has been raving about the album, so I recently found myself a used copy cheap to try again.

I realize I’m very alone in this, but John Lennon is the only Beatle whose solo albums I own none of. Sorry, I just don’t care for him on his own (or with Yoko, of course ).

My favorite post-Beatle work of any of them are The Traveling Wilbury albums.

It was a game time decision, but I started the session off this afternoon with Patricia Barber/Nightclub (red book).   I bought that one back in the '90s shortly after I bought Cafe Blue (even though, at the time, I wasn't grabbed by Cafe Blue).  I won't say that I just came around to liking Nightclub this afternoon, I listened to it a few years ago and decided that there was more to it than I originally thought, but today I decided that I liked Nightclub even more than that.  The vocal is very palpable in between the speakers and the instrumental work in the sound stage is very good.

Yes "Fragile" for me. I always knew that's something I should be listening to and bought the cassette. It took years to sink in. Still have much Yes to discover.

The Isley Brothers was just another band for me but with the advent of streaming they are now in my top 5. I love the stuff from the early 70’s, especially the 3+3 album.

It was also interesting to learn that Jimi Hendrix got his first proper guitar when he was in the 60’s edition of the band. He taught the young kid, Ernie Isley, how to play and man that guy is a great guitarist.

@grissley You should check out some of McCartney’s latest electronic releases (collaborations)

I had always seen “Shoot Out The Lights” on many greatest albums lists. Got it a couple of years ago at Goodwill for a buck, but I don’t think I’ve given it a proper listen. I’ll do that very soon.

AND Shoot Out The Lights is a great sounding recording, a bonus. I regularly use it as one of my demo LP’s.

@bdp24 ans @nicholsr I hadn’t played mine (red book CD version) since sometime in the early to mid ’90s, and it wasn’t that I disliked it, but it didn’t really grab me by any body parts either. So it went out of sight/out of mind until today.

Maybe I just wasn’t ready for it back then, or what I think is more likely is that my system went through several stages of evolution since the last time I played it, and today I really started to hear how well it truly was done and how good the vocal and instrumental work really was. With that all typed, it is not nearly the best of my best red book stuff, but it is getting up there with the best of the good (if that makes sense). Not everything I am blowing the cobwebs off of and putting in my CDP during this speaker audition/break in sounded as good as Shoot Out The Lights did today. I’ve got a couple of solo Richard Thompson CDs post breakup with Linda that I haven’t listened to much at all since I bought them sometimes in the ’90s (I bought those other two after I bought Shoot Out The Lights for songs I heard on the public radio station I used to listen to) so maybe I’ll put them on the list for tomorrow or the next day or the day after that.

When Paul McCartney starts experimenting and getting lost in the notes and instruments, it gets better with every listen. RAM is the best example...

When I’m in the mood AC/DC, The Band just won’t do. And visa versa. But I am no longer EVER in the mood for Cream. Or The Jimi Hendrix Experience. I saw both live twice, in 1968 and ’69. And The Who twice those same years (performing the A Quick One While He’s Away and Tommy suites). Seeing and hearing The Band on their brown album tour relegated all that to the dust bin of history.

AND Shoot Out The Lights is a great sounding recording, a bonus. I regularly use it as one of my demo LP’s.

I had always seen “Shoot Out The Lights” on many greatest albums lists. Got it a couple of years ago at Goodwill for a buck, but I don’t think I’ve given it a proper listen. I’ll do that very soon.

Back in the early or mid '90s I heard a Richard Thompson song on the public radio station I used to listen to, so i went to the CD store and bought Richard And Linda Thompson/Shoot Out The Lights (1982, I think).  I remember listening to it a few times back then, but it was never really grabbing me.  I made it to hour 96 plus on my speaker audition/break in journey, and Shoot Out The Lights was the second CD I listened to.  It sounded very good (actually better than the two Linda Ronstadt CDs that I finished with) and it is a CD that I now appreciate and should be listening to some more.

I am going to add Van Morrison/Blowin Your Mind.  I remember hearing Brown Eyed Girl frequently on AM radio stations when I was growing up in Montana and I thought it was a catchy tune but I never thought much else about it.  Then in '91 when I had a rack system I ordered that CD from the record club I had joined, but back then everything was background music and I never sat and seriously listened to anything.  I had also gained a passing familiarity and interest in Van Morrison via The Last waltz (video) and the Rodger Watters remake of The Wall/Berlin (video).  Then a few years ago (so I'll say '18 or '19) on an impulse I ordered a used (Sony red book) SBM remaster of it and I discovered that not only were there some good tunes the SQ of that particular remaster is fantastic!  And I am generally not thrilled with all of the other SBM remasters I own.

So with that typed, I am adding Van Morrison/Blowin' Your Mind to my list.

. . . here's another one I bought back in the late 90s that I just played today and really enjoyed, although I probably hadn't played it but a half dozen times (if that many):

Dave's True Story, the Sex Without Bodies CD (a Chesky aluminum disc, 1998).  Kelly Flint's vocals almost have that same palpable quality that I was raving about above on Rosanne Cash's Ten Song Demo CD, and I like much of the quality of the instrumental work around her.  I particularly enjoy their cover of Lou reed's Walk On The Wild Side. 

@simao  +1 on that!  If I had a TT, I know that I would have a few Patricia Barber LPs.  

Ten Song Demo is incredible, so amazingly great.

@rpeluso  , I find it hard to understand why that didn't hit me when I bought it almost 30 years ago!  I guess I was in another life-mode back then, and if a CD or song did not have a real catchy obvious grab-line, I put it (the CD) out of sight and then it was out of mind.  I am way happy I rediscovered it a few days ago.  There is a palpable quality to her voice on that one that is not there on all red books OR SACDs.  Maybe it's because of these new speakers that I am auditioning/breaking in . . . but if it is, it isn't happening on all my old red books I am trying to rediscover.

Ten Song Demo is incredible, so amazingly great.

@immatthewj Now you have me thinking of getting a good lp copy of Companion

I remember being 15 and buying Elvis Costello's "Get Happy".  Played the first song, took it off in disgust, and left it un-played for literally 30+ years.  Threw it on one night (after getting into his vast catalog) and was blown away by it. 20 two-minute songs that encompass a wide range of everything that is rock. Sometimes it just takes a little time to get it. 

I can count the number of recordings that I’ve "learned" to appreciate on the fingers of one hand. It’s extremely rare that revisiting music I didn’t enjoy the first time changes my mind.

As to The Band, the brown album is one of my all time favorites. Never did understand the appeal of Big Pink. Nor do I understand the need to champion The Band by declaring other artists inferior. The Band’s music speaks for itself. I certainly don’t regard EC as some ultimate arbiter of taste, given that so much of his output has been mediocre at best.

When I’m in the mood for Cream, The Band won’t scratch that itch and vice versa.

I like apples AND oranges.

. . . Holly Cole Trio It Happened One Night released in ’96(?) and I know that I bought it in the ’90s, but I didn’t listen to it closely enough to realize how good it is until ’18 or ’19.

Same with Patricia Barber/Cafe Blue . . . I bought the red book HDCD version not long after it’s release (’94?) for her cover of Ode To Billy Joe but I never really listened to it and started digging it until ’18 or ’19 . . . and I’d say the same also goes for Patricia Barber/Companion.

The Man Comes Around (Johnny Cash) I bought after its release (’02?) and I am sure I played it a couple of times, but it was basically gathering cobwebs until two or three days ago (the same session I listed to Rosanne Cash/Ten Song Demo) and it was, "Wow! Good stuff!"

It’s not been that way with everything I am pulling out of mothballs . . . I played Cowboy Junkies/Open tonight, and it left me pretty cold and clueless.

For me I guess mostly it's CDs, but for the purposes of this thread that might be okay?

There are several I am pretty sure, but at the moment I cannot think of most of them.

Back when I was in the Air Force in around '79 I made friends with this guy from NJ who was always playing something by Springsteen.  I mostly tolerated it but didn't get most of it.  That would meet the LP criteria (AND 8-track) if there is that criteria.  But when I got a CD player in '89 Darkness On The Edge Of Town was one of the very first CDs I bought anyway. But I didn't come around to it until the early 2000s.

I've been auditioning/breaking in a new pair of speakers and I am coming up on 90 hours, and to get there I've been playing a lot of CDs from my truly vast collection that I thought might be interesting when I bought them but for whatever reason they didn't grab me at the time so they may have been played once or twice and that was it.

Rosanne Cash's Ten Song Demo from I think around '95 was one of those, and the other night it really blew me away how good it is.  The same for Kiki Dee's (of Don't Go Breaking My Heart fame with Elton John)  live Naked Songs CD from about, I think, the same time period.  Sounds wonderful!  She actually does an acoustic version of Don't Go Breaking My Heart (but I wouldn't put that as the best work on the CD) and a real nice cover of Joni Mitchell's Carey.  

I was the same way with The Band. I took a class in college called Introduction To Film. Basically learning to be a film critic. Well, one of the required viewings (in a theatre, big screen) was “The Last Waltz”. This was the mid-80s and I knew nothing about The Band, and didn’t like the film at all, but loving music and music history I felt an obligation to learn about them and try to “get it”.  The first CD I ever bought was Big Pink. It still didn’t resonate, but I started researching them and it just all came together. They were different and truly a band of brothers (until they weren’t). They’re approach to everything was fascinating.

As I have previously recounted on several occasions, I was mystified by The Band's 1968 debut album Music From Big Pink when it was released. I was completely in the throes of my love for the likes of Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Sure, I still liked my Beatles, Byrds, and Buffalo Springfield albums, but that music seemed like the past to me.

It wasn't until I saw and heard The New Buffalo Springfield (only drummer Dewey Martin remaining from the original lineup) live the following year that I finally "got" The Band. Overnight Cream and Hendrix were the past, and The Band were leading us out of the darkness. Or as Eric Clapton put it: "Music had been heading in the wrong direction for a long time, and when I heard Music From Big Pink I thought 'Someone has finally done it right.'" He disbanded Cream, and traveled to West Saugerties, New York (the location of the Big Pink house) to try and get The Band to let him join. Naw Eric, we got it covered 😊.