I’ll jump in on an interesting thread. I didn’t get the Grateful Dead, hated the Europe 72 album as my roommate played it again and again. But a year later it was my favorite. Also, I am from New Jersey (don’t hold that against me) originally, and never got into Bruce. Great live shows I will admit, some of his lyrics and rhyming are brilliant, but just can’t enjoy him.
I also have tried “Kind of Blue”, I can understand the brilliance of the musicians, but I have not gotten it yet. I think if I had been into Jazz music when it came out, then I could and would appreciate it.
I enjoyed Graceland when it came out, played it over and over. At the time there was nothing like it. Just to be clear, I am referring to the US, no one was playing music like that on any of the big/popular, progressive radio stations and most stores did not stock ‘world music’. Now it’s easy to find it; again meaning in the US, and I think that album had a lot to do with it. That said, I haven’t listened to Graceland in 10 years at least. Diamonds on the soles of my shoes was a great song.
