The longest gap between listening to an artist and "getting" it?

How about the best part of 47 years? The band? The Grateful Dead.Have dipped my toes into their catalogue on numerous occasions,and moved on,neither disenchanted or particularly moved.What changed? I was on a long rail commute,armed with just an Ipod and a reaonable set of ear buds,with a recently loaded playlist set to "shuffle"....time(and stations) came and went....and then "St. Stephen/The Eleven" from the Live/Dead album started playing...some fifteen minutes later I became aware that I had despite the limitations imposed by "music on the move",I had become absolutely and completely immersed in the music in question,and it was an almost physical shock to be suddenly be pinged back into the real world.Did I go back home and listen again on a more forgiving platform? You bet I did...and it worked for me again....problem is..where do I go next with regard to perhaps the band with the widest recorded catalogue in history?

 

Yeah, in the last couple of yeahs I've actually started to "feel" soul music.
I'm mid 40's now.
And when I say soul music, I really mean by the bands I already know and love, but they just happen to dabble in a bit of soul now and then, and wouldn't be considered a true soul band.
I guess the Stones is the most obvious example.
I actually prefer the Stones soul and even the blues, old material now.

When I was younger, those soul songs were just an annoyance until I could get to the rock tracks like "respectable", "hang fire" or "get off of my cloud".
By the way, "beast of burden" from the Live in Texas 78 dvd is soo damn soulful. Love it!
So, up until recently I was always a bit bored by songs that had a soul feel
But, now I just "get it."
Or, more importantly, I "feel" it.

I've even search around on youtube for stuff like Sam Cooke and Arthur Conley.
And that movie The Commitments was on Fox a while ago, and I freakin' dug the shyt out of it.
Yeah, I know... watered down white man versions of soul classics, but it was still sweet!!
I knew just about every damn song in the movie too, much to my surprised!!

 

Mine would be Nick Drake whose music has always been in the background since their release.
Friends had albums, songs heard in shops, cafes on radio and Tv, kind of a ghostly figure following me around.

Anyway last year I finally took the plunge and bought the “Tuck Box” (5 cd's), I know people criticise yet another release of Nick Drake (Milking the cash cow), but for me it was perfect.

 

For me it had to be Joni Mitchell. I somewhat enjoyed her Pop hits, but it wasn't until the 90's when I started to buy and
get her music. As an aside, this Forum really helped with that - there are just too many fans here who share the same
musical interests.................Thanks


....................Kliph

 

Born to Run (didn't like it until I saw the Hammersmith dvd that came with the 30th anniversary set, so 30 years on that one (I liked Asbury Park and the Wild...)) I lived in NJ for around 8 years, and that didn't help things.

 

When Kanye West's "Stronger" came out I was in high school and I remember thinking it was garbage, that he'd trashed a great song. I remember hearing it at prom with that booming under-the-bleachers quality to it and feeling like I was the only guy I knew with taste. I wasn't even really into "Gold Digger"

And then when My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy came out I remember everyone raving about it and I thought "well I have to give it a shot" and again I just didn't understand it, I heard beautiful choruses and then some ******* rambling over them

and then Yeezus came out, now it's 2016, I'm 26 years old, and I'm a contrite Kanye apologist who thinks every album he's ever done is brilliant and I buy into an us vs them mentality where Kanye West fans "get it" and nobody else does and I feel like I was blind from the age of 15-23. So that's my longest gap at this point.

 

The Band and the Dead for me, too. First started disliking them in high school; finally "got" them around my 40th birthday. Go figure...

 

A recent example was I think I first heard Fugazi at 15, and didn't really click until a couple months back I'm 30 now

 

30 years for me to like Abba.

 

I possibly heard Robert Wyatt in the 80s. But the first album I really noticed was "Shleep" in 1997. And with "cuckooland" (2003) I became a fan for life. Nowadays I even count "Old Rottenhat" (1985) as one of my favorite 80s albums but I never listened to it in the 80s.

 

I' still trying to "get" Forever Changes, guess the gap is pretty long and getting longer by the day.

 

The Replacements. Where to start? I should get them.

 

I agree with the last two! I kind of like both but don't really "get" them. Forever Changes starts out hot but somewhere around "Andmoreagain" I start to tune out.

And I like some Replacements songs just fine, but have never really latched on to them...

 

Radiohead. I remember thinking Creep was good when I was 23, but then just lumped Radiohead in with all of the other post grunge bands... I finally figured it all out this year and realize how great OK Computer and Kid A are! I'm 47.

Although I think their latest might be the best! (But what do I know...)

 

The answers to your dilemma can be found at bt.etree.org and archive.org

 

I always liked a bit of jazz. For 20 years I've owned 4 or 5 jazz albums...

But in the last couple of years... I love it!
Jazz albums in the hundreds now.

Blame Miles Davis.

 

In my late 40's before I liked Nat Cole and Miles Davis. Better late than never I say!

 

Michael Jackson, more than 30 years for me!

 

Mamma Mia!!
You knew somebody was gonna say it.

 

10 years for The Ramones. I could understand anyone asking "What is there to get?" It was too samey but I kept buying albums. It wasn't until reading a book about them and meeting a friend that I got it. Still a favorite since then.

 

Back in the late '60s, I thought I was too cool for any of the bubblegum groups (Ohio Express, 1910 Fruitgum Company, Archies, Partridge Family, Banana Splits). Over 30 years later, something clicked. Now I love that stuff.

 

About 30 years - mid-70s when I first heard them to the mid-00's - to like Genesis.

 

Just individual albums in the 40+ year range from when I first heard them until I finally "got" them.

• MILES DAVIS Bitches Brew
• VAN MORRISON Astral Weeks
• JOHN COLTRANE Love Supreme

Some artists it took me a lot of years to really become a fan of most of their catalog (versus having one or two albums I liked)

• ELVIS COSTELLO
• FRANK ZAPPA

 

As someone who loves hip hop, has a pretty solid collection, and considers Kendrick Lamar my favorite artist of the past 5 years (not just hip hop, we're talking all genres), I still don't really get Kanye. I like College Dropout and Late Registration (like, don't love) but after that he falls off a cliff for me. He is a superb producer (actually I like his production for other artist moreso than his own stuff, but I disgress) but an absolutely awful rapper with no flow and a not-so-self-aware narcissistic streak that really turns me off and likely most others who don't care for him. But I trust when you say you feel like you're on the "other side" and that us others don't get him, because I've experienced that with other artists. I'm fascinated by the fact that not only did you break through, but that it sounds like it was Yeezus that did it which I find to be a downright awful album. What would you say to my criticisms? Like, what's your perspective as someone who's cracked the Kanye code, so to speak? Genuinely curious.

Final thought - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sounds waaaay overproduced to me. Total brick wall production job.

 

About twenty years....the usual suspect...Grapefruit Dead.