Artists You Once Considered "Essential" But No Longer

This was inspired by the thread on some albums not aging well. I know we all have an artist or two or three..., that we once considered essential but as time went on & our musical tastes changed/grew/evolved/devolved, they fell out of our favor.

One of those for me is Eric Clapton. A caveat here, I never warmed to Cream all that much, (I had no idea who they were when I 1st heard Clapton), & I found Blind Faith an interesting, if failed, experiment. So, my main criteria for him is his solo stuff. 1st thing I heard by him was I Shot The Sheriff when I was 12 in 74 & I liked it enough to pick up his 1st solo album, 461 & Layla soon after. While I still has, liked & played all his solo albums up through Backless & Another Ticket, not long after that he started dropping off my radar.

Now all I have are the Icon single CD collection & Layla, which is the only album of his I still find essential, & not just because of Duane Allman being on it. The combo of Duane goading Eric to new musical heights & the impact of his, (then), unrequited love for Pattie Harrison spurred Eric to lay his soul bare, & still makes for an incredible album. Other than that I just don't care enough about his music anymore to have a large collection of it.

There's others I have similar feelings about, but that's a good start. Your turn.

 

Same here. Got into Clapton around the time of 'August' in '86. Got all his earlier stuff and collaborations then. These days I'll play his stuff with Delaney & Bonnie and 'Backtrackin' and that's about it.

The Rolling Stones I rarely play anymore. Heard them all, bought a few, the most recent being 'Steel Wheels'.

 

The Beatles
Bob Dylan
Elvis Presley
The Rolling Stones
Chuck Berry
Jimi Hendrix
James Brown
Little Richard
Aretha Franklin
Ray Charles
Bob Marley
The Beach Boys
Buddy Holly
Led Zeppelin
Stevie Wonder
Sam Cooke
Muddy Waters
Marvin Gaye
The Velvet Underground
Bo Diddley
Otis Redding
U2
Bruce Springsteen
Jerry Lee Lewis
Fats Domino
The Ramones
Nirvana
Prince
The Who
The Clash
Johnny Cash
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
The Everly Brothers
Neil Young
Michael Jackson
Madonna
Roy Orbison
John Lennon
David Bowie
Simon and Garfunkel
The Doors
Van Morrison
Sly and the Family Stone
Public Enemy
The Byrds
Janis Joplin
Patti Smith
Run-DMC
Elton John
The Band
Howlin' Wolf
The Allman Brothers Band
Eric Clapton
Dr. Dre
Grateful Dead
Parliament/Funkadelic
Aerosmith
Sex Pistols
Louis Jordan
Joni Mitchell
Tina Turner
Etta James
Phil Spector
The Kinks
Al Green
Cream
The Temptations
Jackie Wilson
Carl Perkins
The Police
Frank Zappa
AC/DC
Radiohead
Hank Williams
The Eagles
The Shirelles
Beastie Boys
The Stooges
The Four Tops
Elvis Costello
The Drifters
Eminem
N.W.A.
James Taylor
Black Sabbath
Tupac Shakur
Gram Parsons
Miles Davis
The Yardbirds
Carlos Santana
Ricky Nelson
Guns n' Roses
Booker T. and the MG's
Nine Inch Nails
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Martha and the Vandellas
Diana Ross and the Supremes
Roxy Music
Curtis Mayfield
Lee "Scratch" Perry

 

George Harrison (solo)

 

A lot of typing just to get a laugh

 

Are you burnt out on Jerry Solomon yet?

 

I was a big Crowded House fan in the 90s, but I find it really hard to listen to them these days. I still think some of their ballads are lovely, but their pop songs are far too chirpy and bright. My tastes have changed with age, I guess. The only album of theirs I can play from start to finish is Together Alone, but even that has about four tracks that make me wince.

 

+1

 

When you say "essential", what does that mean to you? That you still automatically buy everything new they release? Every reissue? Still listen to regularly?

 

Never heard of any of these...Justin Bieber and Kanye West RULE!!!!..

 

I'll admit I like Gold Digger (insert Carlos Mencia quote here)...

 

Rush
Little Bobby Zimmerman
Uncle Neil

 

Any of my Beatles albums.

 

beatles. I think I od'd on them in my youth.

 

Eric Clapton.

I have a love / hate relationship.

He is the reason I play the guitar. Back in 1990 when I was 15 years old I was an EC freak, my world revolved around him. I had all the albums, posters in my bedroom, books, tabs, memorabilia, blackie Fender artist series strat, 5 years later a 00-28 Martin EC guitar. I LOVED him. I learned 99% percent of his songs. I played along the unplugged album everyday and in 94 when "from the cradle "was released I tried to copy all the solos until I got a hold of the official tabs. But then something happened, obviously he has always been famous, but around 2005 he became larger than life and not in a good way IMHO. He was everywhere,for years to come, his albums were boring ( back home in my opinion is one of the worst records by anyone) , his playing live was almost always on autopilot, where was the EC from 24 nights? Compare his guitar playing in that live album with One more car, one more rider. That 2001 live album is so uninspired. Then the crossroads concert, the first one is great, but then the magic was lost with the other ones. Seemed like he was in a happy place for the first time in his life but the artistry because of that was gone, in my opinion. For me the last great record he made is From the Cradle, it was inspired. Riding with the king and the Robert Johnson´s felt artificial. The rest of the albums are boring. He became lazy. The fire is gone. As much as I like JJ Cale I think EC wen´t to far with his worship of him, during a period of time everything sounded like it was written by JJ Cale. Look at Jeff Beck´s playing in these day of age, look at Clapton´s. Enough said.
Back in the early 90's I begged the universe to met him and shake his hand. I m really glad I ´ve never had the oportunity, because I would be brokenhearted for sure, because most probably he wouldn´t be nice to me, it´s well documented that he is not very fond of speaking to fans.

I love the artist that inspired me to play the instrument, I love all the records he made until From The Cradle, I revisit his 70´s and 80´s music very often and absolutely love his work with Cream. I love the artist that opened the doors for me to learn about Buddy Guy, Robert Cray and the Vaughan brothers.

But sadly I don´t care about him and his musical production no more. The spark is gone. He will always be my musical hero but he is not even 1/3 of what he was as an artist. Im happy that he seems to have a bautiful life now though, he deserves it and I wish him all the health in the world, god bless him.

 

Jazz Fusion like Mahavishnu Orchestra. They are extremely talented musicians but I grew tired of the long instrumental parts. I used to love this, now I can’t stand it.

 

Words to live by. So...now you're all about the lyrics, eh?

 

Bob Dylan

 

Never play the Beatles maybe revolver if pushed . Bob dylan , also Arcade fire loved em but not hot desire to play em for a long time

 

Had not hot lol

 

I think Clapton is one of those “you had to be there” sort of music icons. I have tried to get into his music, but outside of Cream and Dominoes I find his music to be safe, boring, bland, and uninspired. I understand that he was a trailblazer in his day, but in modern times he is the poster boy for generic middle aged white guy blues rock.

 

Essential to what? The quest for the holy hand grenade?

 

Artists You Once Considered "Essential" But No Longer

 

Bruce Springsteen.
When Born to Run was released it was listenable for a short period of time. I never was motivated to purchase or be interested in anything else he recorded. The CD I have has quite a bit of dust on it . Poorly recorded , there hasn’t been much of a reason to give it another listen .

 

Hey..another thread to bash artists and albums...can never get enough of these...