Dancing About Architecture

Beyond the Horizon => Cornucopia => Topic started by: Saxman on July 15, 2010, 08:56:03 pm



Title: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Saxman on July 15, 2010, 08:56:03 pm
How about the opposite?  Who do you like that everyone else seems to hate?


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Perplexio on July 15, 2010, 09:15:57 pm
How about the opposite?  Who do you like that everyone else seems to hate?

None that I love that others hate but there are some I love that not everyone "gets":

Toto
Dream Theater (my wife doesn't get how I can listen to Chicago one minute then turn around and listen to Dream Theater)
Drama-era Yes (the only album without Jon Anderson)
Starcastle (often derided as "the American Yes" or a "Poor Man's Yes" but I'd argue that when they were active they were playing better music than Yes was in that same era-- Yes was in a creative lull when these guys were mildly successful)


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: CelticGal on July 15, 2010, 10:20:52 pm
A lot of people don't understand why I like KC and the Sunshine Band so much, pointing out the repetition in the lyrics mostly. I tell them they really weren't disco, they were more of a R&B/Cuban/Bahamian fusion and that I just consider the vocal line as another instrument. Still, it's not the way everybody likes it, uh huh uh huh.

Bagpipes! I love them!

Banjo music! I love it, especially the more progressive stuff like Bela Fleck (my cat's namesake).

People either really love the Grateful Dead and the spin-offs (The Dead, Other Ones, Phil and Friends, Ratdog, Planet Drum, Rhythm Devils, Old and In the Way, Jerry Garcia Band) or they don't like them at all. There's very little middle ground.

I think Beyonce has a good voice, but lousy songs.

Finally, I still have a soft spot in my heart for post-Kath pre-Scheff Chicago, even though I know it's not their best work.


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Charlie on July 16, 2010, 06:30:36 am
Starcastle (often derided as "the American Yes" or a "Poor Man's Yes" but I'd argue that when they were active they were playing better music than Yes was in that same era-- Yes was in a creative lull when these guys were mildly successful)

I agree, their first album was great!


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Hourman on July 16, 2010, 08:47:23 am
How about the opposite?  Who do you like that everyone else seems to hate?

Oh geez, a lot of my music...

I'm partial to a lot of silly little love songs -so long as the sings it with sincerity and doesn't scream the lyrics in order to convey a faux emotional feeling.

Listening to country does cause a lot of eye rolls too.


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Saxman on July 18, 2010, 08:08:58 pm
Liquid Soul (Acid Jazz)
War
Oregon (jazz/world fusion)


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: CelticGal on July 19, 2010, 04:08:25 pm
War

I love War, but I could live without ever hearing "Low Rider" again. My favorite of theirs is "Me and Baby Brother."


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Perplexio on July 20, 2010, 09:24:19 am
I just thought of another artist/musician that I really enjoy that I've noticed tends to be derided by critics and naysayers as being "bombastic" or "over the top."  Meat Loaf's longtime collaborator, Jim Steinman.  I dig Meat Loaf too but given that others have recorded the songs of Steinman I can't really limit it to Meat Loaf and all of Steinman's songs seem to have that same over the top anthemic bombast to them... and I love it! 

Some of Jim Steinman's songwriting efforts include:
Meat Loaf's entire Bat Out of Hell, Bat Out of Hell II, and Dead Ringer albums; select songs from Midnight At the Lost & Found, Welcome to the Neighborhood, Greatest Hits, and Bat Out of Hell III
Jim Steinman's own solo album Bad For Good
Nowhere Fast and Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young by Fire Inc. (from the Streets of Fire soundtrack)
Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart
Air Supply - Making Love Out of Nothing At All (incidentally the only song of theirs that I can still justify listening to)
Pandora's Box - (a studio project done by Steinman-- many of the songs were later re-done by other musicians)
Celine Dion - It's All Coming Back to Me Now (previously recorded on the Pandora's Box CD and since re-recorded as a duet on Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell III... the version on the Pandora's Box CD is my favorite)
Whistle Down the Wind - Musical co-written with Andrew Lloyd Weber.  It had a successful run in London but was a flop on Broadway.  The London cast recording is available on CD.
Tanz der Vampire/Dance of the Vampires - Dark Gothic comic musical originally done in German.  It was re-done in English on Broadway but was a total flop because the Americanized version downplayed the Gothic darkness and played up the comedy making it rather campy and lame.  Musical themes from some of Steinman's other songs were included in many of the songs in the musical, most notably Total Eclipse of the Heart and Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young.

I love his over the top bombastic anthems.  But I also realize they're not for everyone.


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Packercracker on July 22, 2010, 06:47:32 pm
I just thought of another artist/musician that I really enjoy that I've noticed tends to be derided by critics and naysayers as being "bombastic" or "over the top."  Meat Loaf's longtime collaborator, Jim Steinman.  I dig Meat Loaf too but given that others have recorded the songs of Steinman I can't really limit it to Meat Loaf and all of Steinman's songs seem to have that same over the top anthemic bombast to them... and I love it! 

Some of Jim Steinman's songwriting efforts include:
Meat Loaf's entire Bat Out of Hell, Bat Out of Hell II, and Dead Ringer albums; select songs from Midnight At the Lost & Found, Welcome to the Neighborhood, Greatest Hits, and Bat Out of Hell III
Jim Steinman's own solo album Bad For Good
Nowhere Fast and Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young by Fire Inc. (from the Streets of Fire soundtrack)
Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart
Air Supply - Making Love Out of Nothing At All (incidentally the only song of theirs that I can still justify listening to)
Pandora's Box - (a studio project done by Steinman-- many of the songs were later re-done by other musicians)
Celine Dion - It's All Coming Back to Me Now (previously recorded on the Pandora's Box CD and since re-recorded as a duet on Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell III... the version on the Pandora's Box CD is my favorite)
Whistle Down the Wind - Musical co-written with Andrew Lloyd Weber.  It had a successful run in London but was a flop on Broadway.  The London cast recording is available on CD.
Tanz der Vampire/Dance of the Vampires - Dark Gothic comic musical originally done in German.  It was re-done in English on Broadway but was a total flop because the Americanized version downplayed the Gothic darkness and played up the comedy making it rather campy and lame.  Musical themes from some of Steinman's other songs were included in many of the songs in the musical, most notably Total Eclipse of the Heart and Tonight Is What It Means to Be Young.

I love his over the top bombastic anthems.  But I also realize they're not for everyone.

I love Meatloaf, but I think it irritates the hell out of some people who end up in my car. 


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Poem58 on July 28, 2010, 01:36:42 pm
While growing up, I felt like I was the only one who liked Chicago. Once I met my band director there was 2. My best friends mom gave me her Chi II album. I really thought despite 17 being so successful that no one liked them. Maybe it was the embarrassed to like them thing and no one admitted it? Then again maybe it was mistaken Identity. No one seemed to know Bills songs of 19 were Chicago. Some guy I knew told me Rush did a remake of 25or6to4 (that being Chicago with Jason)

I only bring them up cause I never collected the albums of any other band up to that point. Singles/45's etc but not albums. My first album was 17.

Nobody I know likes Champlin's stuff but me. too close to Chicago. so let me think...

Well, Extreme and Stone temple Pilots broke up (and both have surprisingly reunited), I can't say no one likes them, but no one I knew listened to them.

My neighbor HATES the BEATLES!! Get's mad if I play them.

Aside from that. I guess that's it.


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Saxman on July 29, 2010, 06:56:15 am
Revisiting this topic, I think War is probably best served by a 2-disc best of, now that I think of it.  I have that "Great 8" box and it's gonna be sold fast to Half Price books.  Like certain bands I've mentioned and yeah, at this point I'd even throw Chicago in there, their albums had plenty of filler.  But most people I know hate them.  And Chicago....that goes back to high school....only band geeks like me liked them.

My favorite rock band has always been The Beatles, but they were hated at my high school.  Zeppelin, Zeppelin and more Zeppelin!  GAG!

It's funny, I jam with a fellow sax player who is only a couple years older than me and HATES all pop music.  He couldn't name one song by the Stones or any other band you can think of.  He only listens to jazz since he came out of the box.  I love jazz too, it's my favorite music, but I think he's missing a lot.  I think of even all the great classical music he'll likely never hear.


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Poem58 on July 29, 2010, 11:05:34 am
Oh geez, a lot of my music...

I'm partial to a lot of silly little love songs -so long as the sings it with sincerity and doesn't scream the lyrics in order to convey a faux emotional feeling.

You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs, but I look around me and I see it isn't so. Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs and what's wrong with that?

I too enjoy the love songs, the happy, the sad, the sappy, the mad. Just as you said, as long as it's not some faux emotion. Unfortunately there are plenty that probably fit that category and ruin the who concept of the love song for others.


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Hourman on July 29, 2010, 03:58:12 pm
Well, admittedly I grew up on AM radio in the 70s -with my formative years really being the early to mid 70s, so I grew up listening to a lot of Bread, Barry Manilow, the Carpenters, Carole King etc. right along side the likes of Stevie Wonder, Barry White, the Stylistics, and so on...

So yeah, I like a lot of wimpy songs... but at the same time, just because it's a ballad doesn't mean I'll like it. There's quite a few that were very popular that I find dreadful.

But that 70s sound of strings, organ, the "what-cha-ka-ta" guitar sound (listen to "Love's Theme" as a classic example) is firmly embeded in my psyche... which is why I enjoy "If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago... that sound fits right in with that 70s sound -which is why it was such a hit.


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Perplexio on August 01, 2010, 12:03:37 pm
To turn this thread on its head a bit which more contemporary artists do you feel best capture/play tribute to that 70s sound?

My wife & I just got back from our vacation several hours of which were spent in a car (approximately 900 miles each way).  My wife popped in her Lenny Kravitz CD and listening to songs like It Ain't Over really captured that 70s vibe but with a (then) contemporary twist.  Of all the "bonus" tracks between the 2 Heart of Chicago CDs and XXVI my favorite was the Lenny Kravitz produced The Only One

Are there others?


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: KATH on August 01, 2010, 06:37:21 pm
I'll bite on that...

I think it's more 60's than 70's, I guess...but Duffy, V.V. Brown and Amy Winehouse. 


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Saxman on August 01, 2010, 06:37:41 pm
To turn this thread on its head a bit which more contemporary artists do you feel best capture/play tribute to that 70s sound?

My wife & I just got back from our vacation several hours of which were spent in a car (approximately 900 miles each way).  My wife popped in her Lenny Kravitz CD and listening to songs like It Ain't Over really captured that 70s vibe but with a (then) contemporary twist.  Of all the "bonus" tracks between the 2 Heart of Chicago CDs and XXVI my favorite was the Lenny Kravitz produced The Only One

Are there others?

I think that Kravitz/Chicago track is decent except for Jason sounding totally like a refugee from the Bee Gees on his vocal lead.  

I saw Kravitz in 1989 opening for Tom Petty and IMHO he blew Petty off the stage.

I played in a rock cover band for a couple of years until March of this year and from having to learn a couple of Kings Of Leon tunes, they seem to really have captured (at least on their guitar solos/lines) some of that U2 1980s vibe.  The vocals, no way, but the rhythm section and lead guitar work is similar.  There is also some of the jangling guitar work of REM's (a band I used to adore) 1980s IRS-era work as well in KOL.  I quite enjoy some of their tunes.

A lot of people see The Black Crowes as a Stones tribute band.

Oasis always sounded to me like a Beatles/Stones/T Rex tribute band, with the singing Galleghar brother trying to sound like John Lennon most of the time, so i guess that's a little bit 60s, a little bit 70s.

Aerosmith has been dismissed by many for years as a Stones wanna-be, with Steven Tyler possessing the Jagger lips and strut to prove it.  I'm totally ambivalent about the band, so I have no opinion.  I saw them in 1978 and the only thing I remember was they opened with "Train Kept a Rollin' " and had to start it three times because they were so wasted.  They had big buckets of coke on stage and it showed: sloppy as hell, worst "professional" show I ever saw except for The Who in 1982 (Daltrey couldn't hit a note with a baseball bat and they didn't care) and Ted Nugent in 1978 (totally disgusting, had a rug in front of him he spit on all night long: seriously...the guy never stopped spitting when he wasn't singing).



Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Hourman on August 01, 2010, 10:27:25 pm
I thought Maroon 5 captured the late 80s sound with their hit single, "This Love"...

As far as Kravitz's work with Chicago... Jason was bad, but Robert's lazy lounge singer crooning "What's been going on..." usually has me pushing the skip button before he even finishes the first syllable.

Kravitz has a reputation as a control freak and has to include himself in songs he produces, and "The Only One" wasn't an exception.

Ironically, when he comes in at the end of the song, that's the part I actually enjoy.


Title: Re: Artists I Like Everyone Seems To Hate
Post by: Saxman on August 02, 2010, 06:33:37 am
I thought Maroon 5 captured the late 80s sound with their hit single, "This Love"...

As far as Kravitz's work with Chicago... Jason was bad, but Robert's lazy lounge singer crooning "What's been going on..." usually has me pushing the skip button before he even finishes the first syllable.

Kravitz has a reputation as a control freak and has to include himself in songs he produces, and "The Only One" wasn't an exception.

Ironically, when he comes in at the end of the song, that's the part I actually enjoy.

Lamm (he of no small ego - can you tell I'm finally OVER this band?) has taken to singing other people's songs like he's in a coma in recent years.  On the Xmas and big band stuff (except for maybe "Caravan" and "Feel" where he SO over the top, it's comical - "my first single lead vocal since 1977....LAAAHHHHHHHHHH!") he sounds like he talking in his sleep he's so bored.  Why?  He didn't write it, so it's not good and he's not going to put the effort in.

I like the Kravitz vocal bit at the end a lot, too.