Considered A Classic Album ( But You Don't Call It That )

Supertramp - Crime Of The Century

Never heard the full album before.Purchased the CD a few years ago.Tried so hard to like it.Gave it 3 or 4 plays all the way through.It just never did it for me.Maybe i would have felt differently if i had been around when it was first released.It certainly doesn't seem to have aged as well as other classics i have checked out from that era.

 

If you don't think it's deserving of its "classic" status, you are entitled to your opinion. I certainly don't think you need to have been there at the time in order to make that call. Quite the reverse, in fact. "Classic" implies staying power, which in turn implies an appeal beyond the demographic that bought it on release.

 

For "Byrds album that is considered a classic... but not by me" I would be inclined to nominate Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Ok, it was influential, starting or at least helping to usher in the phenomenon of "new country". It's just that I'm not at all a fan of country music and all it represents. Moreover I don't consider its country to be all that new. It's old style music, sung by young men. I contrast it with an album like The Eagles'' Desperado, which wears its country influences on its sleeve but genuinely brought something new to the table, melodically and production-wise.

 

Not a favourite but I've grown to like it more over time but it's definitely country and not country-rock, at least to my ears.

 

I'll second that. Found ' Sweetheart..' dull and somewhat lifeless. A couple of good tracks but that's it for me.

 

That's one that I prefer to call "a forgotten classic" Got it on vinyl in September 1987 as a birthday gift from my best friend. She asked what I wanted and I said I wanted this record. Still have it, even though I built my music collection much later on with CDs only...

 

This is not the way I remember it - I agree it was a big deal but don't think it was praised unanimously

 

Problem with these types of threads is that most people cannot distinguish between two issues: one is "classic albums that I don't like", the other is "classic albums which probably don't deserve classic status anymore".

Those are two different things, and I am afraid to say, but with all due respect I think yours also falls in the first category. In the Court of the Crimson King is a classic album you don't like. Does it deserve its classic status? Definitely. Why? I think just reading its Wikipedia entry is proof enough: it has influenced many artists, it has helped kickstart an entire musical genre, and it is still influential to this day. Those are reasons enough for it to be allowed to keep its “classic” status, whether one likes the music or not.

Now the second category is an interesting one: albums that are considered classics, but time has proven them to not be as great as initially thought. It's much harder to come up with examples, but it leads to more interesting discussions. I know this is what you actually meant, but I'm afraid that with your leading example you already set a precedent for people just going "I'll list an album I don't like and be gone".

[I know I'm repeating what others have already said in this thread, but I wanted to participate in some way. ]

 

If there's a term that even more problematic than "instant classic", it's "forgotten classic"!

 

If I may chime in by relying on a possibly fading memory, this is the impression I had retained too. To the point where when I saw the truly glowing, track-by-track review the album received upon release from French mag Rock & Folk, I was surprised and intrigued by it from then on (and I was already a reasonably "good" Zeppelin fan).

 

I am a Van Morrison fan but I have never take k enough to Astral Weeks. After a long listening absence I tried again recently but gave up half way through.

 

I know a lot of people feel this way.
They're expecting ' Brown Eyed Girl ' to be knocking at the door but when they answer it there's ' Madame George ' !

 

And did you get lucky?

 

Porn music, eh? Don't think I've caught the one where Donald Fagen shows up to fix the cable... but yeah, "Everyone's Gone to the Movies" is pretty skeevy, even for the 70's...

 

Well, I like jazzy Joanie too, but...yeah

 

There's a few highly regarded bands and singers I just DON'T LIKE. So you can file their entire output in that folder, supposedly classic albums and everything!
Here's a few of them off the top of my head

The Who. Ugh!
King Crimson. Yikes.
Any metal band of any description.
Randomly - Joe Cocker. I mean, why?
The Eagles.
Queen.
Coldplay. Obviously.
U2.

I feel better for getting that off my chest anyway.

 

One highly regarded album I really tried to like was Lynyrd Skynyrd's debut. I tried but a lot of the tracks I felt blended together. I respect Skynyrd but they aren't for me

 

Hmm, well I wasn’t referring to the critical assessment which has always been a mixed bag for Zep. More to the point, it was hugely anticipated by fans and radio and when it came out my recollection is that radio and listeners bought in hook, line and sinker. As a comparison, there was major press anticipation in 1975 for Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, and indeed scored big on the charts. But FM rock radio definitely kept this record at arms length in comparison. Charted well, but however huge Elton was at that time, Led Zep and this album were more important, by a long shot, in the rock world.

The other record of the 1970s where I felt like there was unbridled acceptance and heavy rotation regardless of any other considerations like “is it any good?” was Pink Floyd’s The Wall. And after that, Bruce’s The River. But that was the 80s!

 

I've heard many instantly forgotten albums....

 

Please don't take my comments as criticism - I still think it's a decent album myself, and the TTD show I saw in 1988 was epic.

But it's an album that would've been taken as a "classic" 30 years ago and much less so now, IMO...

 

Some Girls

 

I can agree with this one as well. I honestly find a lot of the Post-Brian albums to be overrated. Not bad, but to me peak Stones was Out of Our Heads

 

A classic album is classic regardless of my opinion of it. If any album's not a classic simply because someone somewhere says "Well, I don't consider it to be a classic." then no albums are classic.

 

One man's classic is another man's yard sale item.. wouldn't have it any other way

 

In between the first and last track of 'Notorious' lies one of the best strings in rock music. Love it!