Albums that became heralded as masterpieces years after release

Those are valid points. Part of what makes it a masterpiece in my mind is its ambition and the fact that he didn't have the structure he wanted (the rights to 1984). I like the fact that it's rambling rather than a neOften Bowie appeals to me least when it's obvious he had a very clear plan going in to the project. But I can't argue with the critical reception being what it is.

 

I think with Paul's Boutique, more than anything it's initial reception was due to the fact that it was so different from Licensed to Ill.
I wasn't a huge fan of LTI but PB...man, that was smokin'

 

Apart from your point about their stature growing I have to disagree with pretty much everything you have written in this misinformed post. I'll leave it at that.

 

I fully understand your point but my point in this thread here is that originally the album was received with mixed reviews as well as sales. Some critics gave it good reviews, some thought it was convoluted lyrically but a good rock n roll record. It wasn't received as ground breaking like a Sgt Peppers was. This album was the major divergence from Dylan's folk roots. His hard core fans were not happy with the electrification of Bob Dylan. Yes, "Like a Rolling Stone" was a top 5 hit but as for overall sales, the album was released in September 1965 and did not receive Gold certification until 1967 and get this, Platinum was not certified until 1997. Time has provided an opportunity to truly appreciate it and to most of us in 2017 it is and deserves to be considered a masterpiece that influenced many musicians for many years thereafter just like Astral Weeks and The Velvet Underground and Nico did too.

 

Pretty much bombed upon release. Now heralded as Bowie's classic.

 

The reviews in the UK music press were OTT positive. Peter Noone's version of Oh You Pretty Thing probably got airplay because of the Hunky Dory reviews.

 

Here's the issue--albums are only certified when the label applies for it and provide proof of sales (or at that how many were shipped). Just because it was certified as Gold in 1967 and platinum in 1997 doesn't mean that it didn't achieve these milestones earlier. Now I tend to agree it probably took some time to achieve platinum but

With all the buzz that "Like A Rolling Stone" had at the time, while I don't doubt it was as big a seller as the Beatles or Stones albums of the time, I suspect it was a bit more popular. The other thing to consider is that multi platinum sales of albums was a recent development withThe Beatles in rock-pop music. Until that time things had sold well and could even be platinum but that level of sales could be rare when selling 500000 could be considered a success particularly for someone like Dylan who didn't have the most appealing voice compared to others.

By the definition of the day, it was a successful album and, while there the occasional negative reviews, most, as I recall, were praising the album.

 

Positive reviews sure. Heralded as a masterpiece like it is now? Not so sure.

 

Todd's Wizard

 

Seriously NME reviewed it like it was a lost collaboration between Lennon and Dylan. I doubt Bowie ever got a more over the top review.

 

I only got into Hunky Dory after being really into Ziggy. In a very fine overall catalog, Hunky Dory holds its own and then some.

 

Young Americans is probably the Bowie album that has been re-assessed the most.

#2 Tin Machine 2

 

Pretty sure this idea applies to just about everything that is popular today with the exception of albums by name bands like Bob Dylan and The Beatles. If H61R went silver two years after release then it hardly took a long time on its journey towards 'masterpiece' status. Conversely I still do not hear people saying Abbey Road is a masterpiece, but maybe I'm just not listening.

It seems to me that 'masterpiece' status creeps up on albums whilst no one is looking. No one knows how it happens. Some people try and make it happen. But it has to happen by itself.

These albums (to name a few) have slowly slowly become considered as top albums of their genre (or lack of genre) over the years. At the time a handful of people liked them now they seemed to be defined 'classic' not only by the association of those famous trend-setting musicians who cited them, but from reading the forums today, their ubiquitousness on lists, their use in Hollywood popular movie ost's and their continued influences.

Neu!/Neu! 2
Can Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi, Future Days
Amon Düül II Yeti

This Heat - 'Yellow/Blue' - this one is bubbling up

I still don't hear people calling
Henry Cow Legend a masterpiece. But a few in-the-know do consider their Unrest to be one.

And still hardly anyone thinks that
Dub Housing and Modern Dance (etc) by Pere Ubu are masterpieces but their time will come (ie. still not as popular as Can, Neu, Duul)

It will happen but some albums are still 'too difficult' or 'annoying' or 'out of time' even today.

Examples of early NY school experimental music like Terry Riley's Rainbow In Curved Air are currently achieving 'masterpiece' status as they pre-date and influenced the massively popular 'minimalists' like Reich and Glass.

NB. The Shaggs LP is still not a masterpiece. They had a moment but now are just a blip in people's 'curios' lists. Hard to define how that album could be a masterpiece. A masterpiece of what exactly? Ineptitude?

 

That doesn't fit the chronology - Noone's cover (for which Bowie played piano) was in the charts in May 71, HD not released until December.

 

I remember Noone singing it on the Morcombe and Wise show pretty soon after the NME review.

 

I am not sure how "big" they were considered in the day and I bought these albums at the time of release, but these albums are all considered very highly now, especially by me and all listed in "1000 Albums you must Listen to Before you Die", I am sure there are many others you can add as well.
The Specials, "The Specials"
Elvis Costello, "Armed Forces"
The Clash, "London Calling"
Iggy Pop, "Lust for Life"
Kraftwerk, "The man Machine"
The Jam, "Sound Affects"

 

Maybe they wheeled him out again to perform it after the HD LP was released?

 

Actually one of the English reviews mentioned the Peter Noone version. I still reckon Hunky Dory was considered a classic from the day it was released.

 

Well, I loved it the day I heard it, but did everyone? And how many? He was not well known yet, at that point. Mostly overshadowed by him glam years at the time.

 

A little surprised Van Morrison's Veedon Fleece hasn't been mentioned (or if it has, my search didn't find it). Gradually emerging from under the shadow of Astral Weeks as time goes on.

 

I'm really surprised at how popular all the classic Can albums (Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi etc.) have become over the last decade... when I first got into that stuff somewhere in the 90s those albums were pretty obscure and only fondly remembered by a couple of scruffy old hippies and 70s prog collectors, at least that's how I remember it.

 

I agree; although i have always liked Can. There again i am one of those "scruffy old hippies" and i do love 70s prog rock

 

It is still an 'under the radar' album, although it's my favourite by him.

Exile got some very poor reviews upon release: reviewers referred to 'several very boring songs.'

 

Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue

Nothing by the Beatles is underrated

 

I mentioned in another thread long ago I remember seeing a "good review" of Hunky Dory at the time of it's release in something like Time magazine. Please don't test me though; it was on a table in a pizza shop in 1971!! Might have been anything but it was an A4 glossy.
It caught my eye as a friend had just bought it saying " you should hear this!"