Albums you do not get...a plea for help and understanding

I listened to Paul Simon's Graceland for a heck of a long period of time. For one, it has some of the best sound quality of any LP of the period. The Ladysmith Black Mambazo cuts were revelatory .in their freshness, 3D imaging and sheer beauty. True, Simon's sincerity could be  a bit suffocating but I was willing to let him follow his muse.

I'm truly lovin' this thread. Don't be shy, ladies & gents. Proudly proclaim your preferences! And diss the ones you don't dig!

I saw Miles Davis live in concert during his Bitches Brew days. I never liked the album but I got to say that the performance was truly involving and excellent.

My problems with Zappa are many. He's too arrogant.  Too mean. His stuff is more complicated than complex. The stuff comes off as busy.

This thread has forced me to dig into my past, as anything I did not like has pretty much disappeared from both my record/cd shelves and my memory. But yeah, anything from "ain't  I cool" hippie bands and acts really tested my patience.  "Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young" did this. Delaney and Bonnie sounded generic and bland. The proverbial pasted-on smile. I loved David Crosby when he was in the Byrds but nowhere else. I truly enjoyed the Grateful Dead the two times I saw them in concert but, not to sound like a broken record(!) their recordings were distressingly lacking in energy and burdened with 'tude.

@DeKay -- Wow!! Maybe the most unintentionally hilarious album cover I've ever seen.

I listened to and loved Springsteen for a good long time. The two Springsteen concerts I went to are still among my handful of favorites. I'd grab my guitar and bellow out his songs.  But yeah, he eventually got a little long in the tooth.

Not that I liked everything he did, but Bob Dylan remains a touchstone for me. There are stretches of Dylan lyrics that course through my brain almost daily.

The New Wave/Punk bands of the 1970's revitalized my interest in rock-and-roll.. I saw every one I could when they'd play L.A. My hair might still have been shoulder-length but I hated hippie-dippy music.

Okay, you've prompted me to quote some Dylan off the top of my head. From Mr. Tambourine Man.  Sorry if it ain't quite perfect --

"And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind

The foggy runes (ruins?) of time

Far past the frozen leaves, the haunted frightened trees.

Out to the windy beach. far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrows.

Yes to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand wavin' free

Silhouetted by the seas

Circled by the circus sands

With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves

Let me forget about today until tomorrow."

As lovely a stretch of poetry as has ever been writ.

I agree with cd318's assessment of Zappa. Too noisy. One dimensional. More of a technician than an artist.

I essentially like any genre. The only thing I insist on is that the music be delivered with passion, commitment and skill.  Invention is always nice, too, but it isn't crucial.

Did I ever mention on this website that I went to Jim Morrison's 'concert' at the Aquarius Theater(?) to hear him spout his poetry?