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Artists that you came to late in the game


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I only just started listening to Harry Nilsson about a year ago.

Maybe it was the 70's thing that kept me away and that whole connotation. I don't really know. But the more that I heard about Nilsson, the more that I wanted I wanted to hear him, until I finally gave in and bought Nilsson Schmilsson.

Oh lord, what an album! If you're a fan, I don't have to tell you, but I felt like I was listening to a kindred musical spirit (only with about 2.5 octaves greater vocal range than I have). Then I got Son Of Schmilsson and realized that the first purchase was no fluke.

I have this box set on its way now:

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(Pandemonium Shadow Show/Aerial Ballet/Aerial Pandemonium Ballet )

 

And I could not be more excited. Except that I have even more to explore from him. So glad that I do!

 

What about you?

Anyone that you came to inexplicably late in the game?

Tell me why and how.

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Every band I like really. I don't listen to much new music (not sure why), so pretty much everything I listen to is older, and since I'm pretty young, I would qualify as having come to them late in the game.

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Harry Nilsson is someone I've always wanted to hear and just never made the point to buy anything. Perhaps he'll go on my Christmas wish list.

 

 

I was late to Big Star and Chris Bell and was amazed how great they were. Big Star's first 2 records are great and easy to like. But their third, "Sister Lovers", really got me. It's one of my favorite all-time records. Same goes for Chirs Bell's "I Am the Cosmos".....holy smokes is that great.

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i wouldn't listen to Modest Mouse because i thought their name was pretty dumb. still do. but i donated to KEXP and they sent me a funny shirt that had a "modest" mouse cartoon on it and thought that i should give them a shot and at least listen to something... and now i can't get enough of their music...

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Elliott Smith. back in like '03, I was going through my first Dylan obsession and was actually freaking out over all of Dylan's early, acoustic songs. I know I woulda loved Smith back then but never really heard/ paid attention to him until '07.

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I've only started to appreciate Elvis Costello quite recently. This Year's Model has been getting a lot of play- love the bass work of Bruce Thomas on that disc. I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea is simply top-shelf badass pop/funk/ska somethin' or other.

 

I think Costello's lyrical approach and meticulous melodies work better as the listener gets older...

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Wilco actually...

I loved "Outtasite" when I first heard it, was in '95 or '96? so grade 11 or 12. Bought the cd, but was disappointed & gave it to a boyfriend at the time.

I don't know why I didn't like BT, I listen to Misunderstood or Sunken Treasure now & wonder how come 17 yr old me didn't like it?

Didn't start listening to Wilco again until a few years ago.

Funny, BT is one of my favorites now.

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The Grateful Dead.

 

Rejected them forever for the wrong reason, because of the culture surrounding the music.

 

Never dreamed that a band whose music I believed to be as pointless as the lives of the lifers who followed them around in VW vans was actually some of the best American music ever created.

 

I still can't stand the endless Dark Stars and some of the Weir tracks and most of Donna's yowling and much of the second-set jamming.

 

But the songs and the melodies and the garcia/hunter lyrics are just mesmerizing.

 

I just didn't realize it until I was about 40.

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The Grateful Dead.

 

Rejected them forever for the wrong reason, because of the culture surrounding the music.

 

Never dreamed that a band whose music I believed to be as pointless as the lives of the lifers who followed them around in VW vans was actually some of the best American music ever created.

 

I still can't stand the endless Dark Stars and some of the Weir tracks and most of Donna's yowling and much of the second-set jamming.

 

But the songs and the melodies and the garcia/hunter lyrics are just mesmerizing.

 

I just didn't realize it until I was about 40.

:cheers Better late than never.

 

I guess I wish I would have got into the outlaw country much earlier than I did (late 20s). I had a stupid bias toward ANY country music, thinking it was just redneck music. I would have to say that Jerry Garcia (especially his work with NRPS) cured me of that - and then getting into Cash, Jennings, Nelson, Haggard, etc. was a revelation.

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Wilco. I saw them in 1999 live, thought they sucked, and refused to even go anywhere near them until 2002, when everyone whose music taste I admired was into them, so I gave them another try. The rest is history :love

 

I still have to listen to my first Grateful Dead song :ninja

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Frank Sinatra.

 

i thought he was an old fart and then a friend introduced me to his music and i fell in love with it

 

Mende...if you like Frank you should come visit Emily and I! Every morning when I head off to work I drive past Frank's birthplace. I live 6 blocks from it! We also have Frank Sinatra park on the waterfront :pirate

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I guess I wish I would have got into the outlaw country much earlier than I did (late 20s). I had a stupid bias toward ANY country music, thinking it was just redneck music. I would have to say that Jerry Garcia (especially his work with NRPS) cured me of that - and then getting into Cash, Jennings, Nelson, Haggard, etc. was a revelation.

:thumbup

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biggest one for me would be the clash/strummer. not sure how i never got into them in HS/College. i just never actually listened to them, not like i heard them & disliked it. it wasn't until 7 years ago maybe, i heard london calling for the first time.

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Back when I was working retail at Camelot Music, I remember a girl that I thought was pretty hip suggesting that I listen to this album called "Bone Machine." She said she'd just been to a concert by this guy called Tom Waits and that he had this really gravelly voice that sounded like he smoked and drank too much. Maybe b/c I didn't partake in either of those pastimes (at the time--I was just 17 or so) the description didn't do anything for me, and I never sought out Tom Waits' music.

 

It wasn't until I'd hit a low patch in 1997 that I picked him up after hearing him on a film soundtrack. I must have purchased his back catalog in the span of 2 weeks. I was hooked from the start.

 

Kevin

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Elliott Smith. back in like '03, I was going through my first Dylan obsession and was actually freaking out over all of Dylan's early, acoustic songs. I know I woulda loved Smith back then but never really heard/ paid attention to him until '07.

 

I got in to Elliott in '03. A lot of my peeps in college talked about him, but I paid no mind to them. Shortly after his death, I found a few of his albums used (XO, Either/or, and Figure 8). I picked them up and was floored at how good they were.

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umm... Uncle Tupelo & Wilco? Hell, all of "alt-country" for that matter. I couldn't shake the image of some Garth-Brooks-meets-Billy-Idol-wannabe, so I entirely avoided the genre like the plague.

 

Only after continuously hearing about Tweedy, Wilco & UT on the Westerberg board did I decide to finally check them out. Got Being There and the UT Anthology and haven't been the same since. Good stuff. :thumbup

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Another one for me... The Minutemen. Granted, I was a little young during their peak, but I really should have tried them out much earlier than I finally did. Double Nickels On The Dime is quite possibly the most delightful, creative, exhilirating & different album I own. Still listen to it probably more frequently than anything else I have.

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