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User
Reviews 166
Approval 97%
Soundoffs 15
News Articles 16
Band Edits + Tags 3,434
Album Edits 8,415
Album Ratings 3527
Objectivity 88%
Last Active 12-03-22 11:37 pm
Joined 08-18-16
Review Comments 16,120
| My Musical Journey
As someone who recently came out as probably the oldest guy on this site, I figured I might as well do one of these. This might take a while. | | 1 |  | The Monkees
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.
1960s -- started with AM radio. Listened to a lot of pop rock, like The Monkees, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. | | 2 |  | The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Are You Experienced
Late '60s -- started to get into guitar driven rock, like The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Led Zeppelin and Santana. | | 3 |  | King Crimson
In the Court of the Crimson King
Late '60s-early '70s -- Got into my best friend's older brother's record collection, and learned there was so much more out there, like King Crimson, The Who (Tommy), The Mothers of Invention (We're Only In It For The Money) and Procol Harum (Shine On Brightly, with "In Held 'Twas In I"). | | 4 |  | Jethro Tull
Thick as a Brick
Mid-'70s -- Got an FM Radio, and started listening to bands like Jethro Tull, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and The Moody Blues, and later Pink Floyd and Yes, and folkier artists like Joni Mitchell, and later, Cat Stevens. | | 5 |  | Bruce Springsteen
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Late '70s-Early '80s -- Still listening to '70s rock, like Bruce Springsteen, The Good Rats and Rush, but starting to mix in early New Wave, like Blondie, The Cars and The Police. | | 6 |  | The Go-Go's
Talk Show
Mid-to-late '80s -- never stopped listening to '60s and '70s rock, but most of the new stuff I was listening to now was New Wave, from bands like The Go-Go's, Eurythmics, Duran Duran, Squeeze and 'Til Tuesday. | | 7 |  | Nirvana
Nevermind
Early '90s - listening to grunge, especially Nirvana, and other things from alternative rock radio, from The Cranberries to Garbage to The Flaming Lips. Also mixing in Celtic and Celtic Rock artists like Black 47. | | 8 |  | Future Bible Heroes
Memories of Love
Mid-to-Late '90s - as radio goes full-on Spice Girls and American Idol, I start listening to college radio, and alternative '80s-influenced bands, like the various projects of Stephin Merritt. | | 9 |  | The Slant
Try This
Late 90s-early '2000s -- I sink further from commercial radio, meet my wife, start managing her band, and wind up totally involved in my local music scene. I'm listening to a lot of different artists in a variety of genres, but my favorites are alternative pop bands like My Favorite, Iridesense, The Basals and This Island Earth, and folk artists like Crystal Rose and Blackmore's Night. | | 10 |  | Paramore
Riot!
Mid-to-late 2000s -- starting to peek at the national scene again, and to listen to bands like The Kaiser Chiefs, The Killers, Paramore and Bayside. | | 11 |  | Foster the People
Sacred Hearts Club
The 2010's -- Largely a blur, because I became an Dad of two older children at the beginning of the decade. I still listened to everything I used to listen to, plus modern alternative bands like Foster the People, Passion Pit and Walk The Moon. And when I feel the need for something a little heavier, sometimes operatic/heroic metal like Nightwish. My kids hate it all. | | 12 |  | Nightwish
Endless Forms Most Beautiful
What I listen to today: A lot of '80s influenced alternative rock, with pop hooks and synthesizers; progressive rock that is classical-music influenced or folk influenced (as opposed to jazz influenced); some folk; some Celtic and/or world music; a little bit of heavier guitar-based rock and psychedelic rock (when I can find it); a tiny bit of Americana.
What I don't listen to: hip-hop -- I'm not trying to shit on it, but I just don't relate to it or have any frame of reference for it (although I can take it to a certain extent if it's mixed in with rock); jazz -- I can deal with some smooth jazz, but not jazz fusion or especially acid jazz; straight-up country -- I'd prefer it to jazz or hip-hop, but I'd prefer something that's more folk or Americana. | |
Divaman
05.03.19 | By necessity, left a bunch of stuff out, but this is the gist of it. | budgie
05.03.19 | i don't see a single mention of memory house | Divaman
05.03.19 | True, but in my defense, I never heard of them before this minute. Looks like I'd like them, though. I like Beach House. | TheNotrap
05.03.19 | Nice.
I started with 70's hard rock, jumped into 80's pop, then metal and prog rock.
Now I'm into extreme metal. | zakalwe
05.03.19 | ‘This might take a while’
Lol. What an absolute chap.
What was the general consensus of Tull at the time? Boundary pushing rock or wank?
And I have to ask what was it like when Lennon died? | dedex
05.03.19 | Yeah I would love to have some insights on how now-revered artists were seen by contemporaries | Divaman
05.03.19 | Here in the New York, the general consensus of Tull was very positive. When I first started listening to them, Aqualung was already out, and it was pretty big. (Especially in my age group -- when you're a tween-early teen, how great was "SNOT running down his nose!"?)
Thick as a Brick was huge -- when it came out, it was event, and FM radio would play all of side one. It was one of the few albums that I ran out and bought the first week it was out.
I don't personally remember much of any feedback about Passion Play, although I know they started taking negative press for that one. The first negative I remember hearing was when War Child came out, and a lot of my peers thought it, and "Bungle in the Jungle", were kind of lame. (But I really liked it for "Skating Away" and "Last Hoorah", and it still got a lot of airplay on FM radio.)
There was a huge outpouring of emotion in New York when Lennon was shot, and a kind of stunned, angry feeling. I was working as an assistant manager in a retail store at the time, and the whole crew used to hang out and drink together. I remember a bunch of us just aimlessly driving around that night and drinking, trying to make sense of it. The other managers were my age, but the kids in the crew were younger, and I remember that they took it particularly hard. (And a lot of people were really pissed that the shooter had missed Yoko. I remember a lot of people who seemed really pissed that Lennon was dead and Yoko was still alive.)
I can also tell you I was working at a teen suicide hotline years later when Cobain killed himself, and we took a lot of calls from kids who were hit hard by that and thinking of killing themselves too. If I'd have had Cobain there, I'd have choked him for being such an asshole and not even thinking about the effect his death would have on so many desperate kids. | Divaman
05.03.19 | Anyone particular you had in mind dedex? | zakalwe
05.03.19 | Incredible!!!
70s >
And yeah I was 14 when Cobain killed himself and I was absolutely gutted. Not to the point of crying and phoning helplines but it was a massive loss. Massive. | DoofDoof
05.03.19 | I went out the next day, day after my 15th birthday, in a Nirvana t-shirt not knowing (before the Internet for those under 25 who can't believe that) and got pointed out and laughed at by some 'bigger kids' who delighted in telling me
Will never forget that lol | dedex
05.03.19 | Didn't have anyone in mind, mainly because you may have discovered artists/bands after their peak. But what you wrote pleased me very much, thanks for sharing that with us ! | Divaman
05.03.19 | I enjoyed reliving it. Had some time to kill this morning before running some errands, and am watching some very early Procol Harum footage on YouTube.
| Divaman
05.03.19 | That's quite a memory, Doof. Teens are so vulnerable to their favorite artists too.
The other main musical memory I have from the teen hotline days was how many outsider kids used to talk about how much they related to the Radiohead song "Creep". I think it took me a long while to get into Radiohead in their prime because I thought they were dicks were disavowing that first album. I get where they were coming from now, but as much as the later albums are way better than that first one, that particular song had a huge effect (mostly positive, I think) effect for so many kids who identified with it. | Divaman
05.03.19 | I'm gonna stop rambling after this, but the other weird memory I associate with the night Lennon died was The B-52's. My friends and I were already driving around and drinking before we heard the news Lennon died, but it was a good night up until then. And the radio station must have been playing The B-52's right before they announced Lennon had been shot. I think it was "Private Idaho". | zakalwe
05.03.19 | It not rambling it’s historical document! I’ll stop firing the questions though as understandably it’ll probably be getting on your tits but.....
Of all the musical fads, trends and scenes. What in your experience has been the worst?
And who musically for you has been the most overrated? | Divaman
05.04.19 | What I'd call the "American Idol" trend. When the '60s musical revolution hit, and you had artists writing their own music, it was great. But when the record industry hit the wall in the mid-90's, you started getting more and more of these pre-fabricated pop idols. It's great for the record companies -- it gave them back a large measure of control that they'd lost. But it sucks for the music.
I don't know if I'd use the term "overrated" -- there are icons who do nothing for me, but people I respect swear they were inspired by them.
Elvis Presley comes to mind. By the time I was growing up, Elvis was a washed up old fat guy who was kind of a joke to kids my age. Except for maybe a couple of his ballads, his music does nothing for me -- I grew up a rock kid, but I'd rather listen to Sinatra than Elvis any day. But some of my favorite rock artists love Elvis, and found him to be a huge inspiration.
Another is Prince. He has one or two songs that I like OK, but I never could take him seriously. When I met my wife and discovered she liked Prince, I was shocked. I always just thought he was a goofy little dick, even before he changed his name to a squiggle. But I've had people I respect tell me they thought he was the greatest guitar player they ever saw, so maybe it's just me. |
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