What band(s) did you stupidly overlook for decades?

There are a couple of bands that got great critical praise but for some reason the reviews I read made me suspect they were too arty or esoteric for my tastes. The (already-mentioned) Mekons and Pere Ubu are now top favorites.

 

Rush.

 

Talking Heads and Toto.

 

Radiohead

Only started listening a few years ago. In a way, it was a really wonderful surprise and gift to have all of that back catalogue up to "King of Limbs" and then the anticipation of a new release.

One of my all time favorites now.

 

The Tragically Hip. Could have been the name or the fact that I have never lived anywhere close to our neighbors to the North, but it sadly took the news of Gord Downie’s diagnosis to make me curious and then the Long Time Running documentary turned me from ignorant to “where have you been all my life!!!?”.

 

Love
Traffic
The Move
The Shocking Blue

 

Many bands and solo artists. My discovery last year of the 70's output of George Duke was one of the most exciting discoveries I've ever made.
Sloan was another band I was way late for, but I caught up fast.
I completely ignored the Breeders (except for Last Splash) for many years, and I've recently been catching up.
Too many jazz artists to name.

 

Believe it or not The Beatles. Just got into them the last couple of years buying there album on vinyl again.

 

Hahah Front loaded with the Joe Perry tracks. I use a similar playlist myself.

 

The Damned
The Pretty Things

 

The Yardbirds.

Only song I remember hearing (on the radio, anyway) was "For Your Love," which I certainly did not "love."

Then about three years ago I got turned on to some of their other stuff, most of which is fantastic.

Definitely one of the best bands of the 60's, IMO.

.

 

Canned Heat. I only knew those two songs.

 

Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. I’m now obsessed.

 

Ha... I really didn't know whose songs they were, but good for us, right? I just put a runlist together that I think flows top to bottom much better than the album itself. What's your track list?

 

Yeah. Those were tunes Joe Perry finished before he split. haha I use this playlist
1. No Surprise
2. Chiquita
3. Cheese Cake
4. Three Mile Smile
5. Bone To Bone
6. Reefer Head Woman
7. Remember ( Waking In The Sand)
8. Think About It
9. Mia

Very very similar to yours. Can't beat those first 5 if you ask me.

 

Someone else whose music I've not made the effort to explore yet (but intend to sooner than later) is Elvis Presley.

I always liked "Suspicious Minds" and "In The Ghetto", both of which were from 1969 so they were contemporary songs to me -- unlike his material from the 50's which, to a nine year old, might as well have been before electricity. If either of my parents had any Elvis albums I'm sure his music wouldn't seem so ancient to me, but they didn't and it does. So I intend to go through his catalogue on iTunes and put together one cd of his popular hit songs, and one cd of cool, unknown-to-me album tracks.

Why Elvis? Why now? Well, I know he's still popular and there's always been an aura about him. And you can't deny the hits he churned out in the 50's and his place in music history. But something else really opened my eyes to him in the last year or so. I've been watching the occasional Elvis movies from the 60's on TMC, and in his movies he really does seem like a friendly and nice guy. He doesn't seem arrogant at all (like I presumed a rock & roll star might). And for some strange reason, that makes a difference how I perceive his music. His music already seems that much better to me just through his movie persona. That may sound weird, but if I thought he was a jerk in his movies, I think that sentiment would transfer over to his music in my uninformed mind. But we shall see.

 

Wow, that really is amazing. Both tracklists are identical, minus "Reefer Head Woman" with I omitted to balance out each "album side" with four tracks. You got good taste in Aerosmith, sir. Well done!

So now there's two people cgw can trust to steer him right on this album.

 

As a teenager in the 60’s the only music I heard was the top 40
The top 40 in those days featured of course some of the best music ever made
Otis Redding Aretha Franklin Wilson Picket Sam Cooke and lots of other soul music were as much a part of that as The Beatles The Stones etc
In the 70’s With my own money and stereo I was on a record buying spree of records released both in real time and in the past but apart from greatest hits compilations I never really got into those incredible black soul singers till this century when I picked up various box sets of original albums
I’ve got a very good stereo system now and whilst I have always loved the vocals what has really knocked me out is how great the musicians were and how incredible the records sound
Not so much a regret about a specific band I missed out on but a whole genre that I really should have explored in detail over decades

 

Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush....kicking myself I didn't discover them til this year!

and...Nazareth - glad I discovered them recently as I could pretty much scoop up their whole catalog in one purchase!!

 

Talk Talk... But no longer

 

I love Talk Talk's Talk Talk album. That's the album with the song "Talk Talk". Great song, great album!

 

I had no idea Savoy Brown were such a great band (especially '67 ~ '70) until just a few years ago. Saw the albums going back decades and just shuffled past. My loss...

 

Up to about eight years ago I had, for the most part, ignored R.E.M. I had the Monster cd (which I kinda liked), but everything else I knew by them was just from what I heard on the radio (most of which I thought was just "meh").

But my brother has all their cds which I went through with a fine-tooth comb one day and made one cd of their radio hits and one cd of their finest album tracks. 30 years ago I would've been the last person on the planet to think that there would be a day I would like 30 songs by R.E.M., but I do now. And I actually like the album track cd more than the radio hits cd -- even though "Superman" is on the radio hits cd. I love that song.

 

Pink Floyd - I liked a couple of their tunes as a teen (Money and Another Brick in the Wall Pt 2) but heard other stuff that left me with the idea they were depressing. Started listening to them around 2006 after a conversation I was part of about early Pink Floyd. I like most of their stuff now.
Rush - Couldn't stand Geddy Lee's voice as a teen. Started listening to them this year after realizing if I can listen to Cedric Bixler-Zavala in the Mars Volta, I should be able to listen to Rush. My listening sessions stalled somewhere in 2112 (I had started with their first album), so I need to pick that back up again.
1990's BritPop - Reading about it at the time didn't make me interested in hearing it, but I finally got around to listening to Blur, Oasis, Suede, Pulp, the Verve, etc. in 2009 when I had some free time. Enjoyed this music scene as far as I sampled it (~25 albums).
There is a lot of music in the world I'm sure I've not heard, but I'm only human. There is so much music.

 

I never got into The Rolling Stones, I just cannot find the justification to dive into their catalogue.