I know X is important but I can't stand their music

[alister prince]

Inevitably, I've thought of others: the Byrds (especially the Byrds - Beatles tribute band, who morphed into a Dylan tribute band); CSN & Y; Neil Young; the Smiths(not Johnny Marr post Smiths); Depeche Mode; Franz Ferdinand; Radiohead (110% with you there Andy); Sun Ra (and acres of 'modern'/avant-grade jazz); Fatboy Slim; the Byrds; Sparks; Chet Atkins (esp as a producer); the Byrds...
Aly

[Adam Blake]

Oh, I like The Byrds, me. Anyone who uses a Rickenbacker 12 string gets at least two free go's.

[john poole]

Well, first of all I’m not sure that I consider some acts “important” and others not - some are important to me, the others I imagine are important in their way to their fans.

But, I always hated Led Zeppelin - I identified with a comment I recently saw in an old Alex Chilton interview that they were the first big rock act that he did not like. I also have low tolerance for singers who appear to be attempting to emulate Robert Plant (Jack White, Jeff Buckley …). I liked “In a Silent Way” by Miles Davis, but couldn’t enjoy Bitches Brew or anything that came afterwards. Steely Dan (I liked a couple of tracks on “Countdown to Ecstasy” but otherwise deathly dull for me); The Mahavisnu Orchestra; Stevie Ray Vaughan; The Who “Live at Leeds” (apart from ‘Young Man Blues’) and most that came afterwards ; Tom Waits (mostly). More recently - the Sleaford Mods - Iggy plays them all the time on his BBC 6 Music show, but they sound like a Fall tribute act to me; Bellowhead. Many more that I’m indifferent to, rather than disliking, but I’m probably just too old for them.

On the other hand Patti Smith (and I was rather older than 15 when ‘Horses’ was released), John Cale, the Byrds, Beach Boys, Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, New York Dolls, Stooges, Talking Heads, Donovan have all made music that I’ve loved at times during their careers to a greater or lesser extent, but I did not stick with any of them for the full journey. The Lovin’ Spoonful however I would include in my list of “undislikeables”, at least until John Sebastian quit.

And as for David Bowie, I liked some songs (‘Win’ from “Young Americans” would possibly my favourite); I was one of the few who bought “The Man Who Sold the World” with the original “dress” cover when it was first released; but having first become aware of him through songs like ‘Love You Till Tuesday’ and ‘Over the Wall We Go’ (all coppers are ‘nanas) for Oscar (aka Paul Nicholas) I just never took him as seriously as those who have recently been writing in newspaper tributes that they first saw him on Top of the Pops with Mick Ronson and were never the same again (‘Starman’ and ‘Life on Mars’ are amongst my least favourites, along with his cover versions).

[Adam Blake]

I would include in my list of “undislikeables”,

Possibly another thread there.

Mine would be: The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Velvet Underground and The Bonzos.

[john poole]

Possibly another thread there.

We've done it already -
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=15955

[Adam Blake]

Oh yes. Sorry. Well, at least I'm consistent.

[Pete Fowler]

This is when the generations collide and old farts like me raise our disappointments from the dead and still say, ‘The Shirelles are a bloody sight better than The Crystals and, in any case, who the hell are The Crystals?....they change their lead singer every week...’

I didn’t get Scott Walker either, a pretentious prat who thought he was in a Truffaut film but should have stuck to “Carry on Posing’. And I never really got The Animals. Have any of their records stood the test of time?

But this gets worse with age. In the ‘70s, I could see, and even really like, Bowie; but never Queen, and never Bryan Ferry. Unlike some here, I came late to Floyd, dismissing their early stuff as silly Notting Hill light shows, and only really liking the odd single (Barrett’s stuff, really). But The Wall and Comfortably Numb hit all of my chords, sorry about that, but it’s what I feel. I still see Numb as one of defining songs of the period; and am quite happy seeing it sung by Van or by Bowie.

Van Morrison hit me hard, and it was one of those things that separated me from The God of Liston Road. I loved his Belfast songs, the Hymns to Silence, Coney Island, Vanlose Stairway. The ‘line’ that Van dropped off after Brown Eyed Girl was always a nonsense to me. However nasty he was.

I ran away in the 1980s. Those daft groups with their synthesisers and their clothes. Sure, Bowie might have kick-started it, but he always at least had something to say.
Duran Duran, The Pet Shop Boys. Maybe it was because my children were teenagers at the time, I don’t know. Boy Bloody George. AB bloody C.

I remember one late evening, when the kids had played Rio and Orchestral Manoeuvres for an hour or so, and they’d finally gone to bed, that I looked through my old singles – we had still had decks at the time – and all I wanted to hear was a London single that I eventually tracked down.

Rumble.

[will vine]

(A lot of ) Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen.

[NormanD]

- Most of the country singers Bob Harris plays (and they're mostly the future - ie guaranteed profit-generators - of country music).

- Pete Seeger

- Anyone who sings with his head thrown back and eyes closed

- Sandy Denny's nautical metaphors

- Nic Drake, I can't get on with. I've tried, and started to break through, but it's passed now

- Bowie, post-nazi. He burst his own bubble

- Grace Jones. Roll up folks, she can sing and hula-hoop!

- Led Zeppelin. It never worked

- The Stones, since about 1969 when Jagger became a schmuck in a poorly-fitting Hyde Park frock, and now impossible to take seriously since "Stella Street" (Bowie too for that matter).

- Nirvana. Bernard Levin, I believe, praised them to the skies, which is when I decided it wasn't worth bothering.

- Radiohead. Lord, I tried, I tried.

I suppose we'll now get the Lord of The Manor coming back from exile to tell us how we should love one another and how hate leads to hate yadda yadda.

[Rob Hall]

And I never really got The Animals. Have any of their records stood the test of time?

Some have Pete, but not many. I've got a CD collection of their singles and it contains a handful of tunes I'm happy to listen to today.

Van Morrison hit me hard, and it was one of those things that separated me from The God of Liston Road. I loved his Belfast songs, the Hymns to Silence, Coney Island, Vanlose Stairway. The ‘line’ that Van dropped off after Brown Eyed Girl was always a nonsense to me. However nasty he was.

Van was a very important artist for me, but his impact on me was probably very different from how he struck you and Charlie. To my ears, 'Veedon Fleece' was the last thing he did worth listening to.

I remember one late evening, when the kids had played Rio and Orchestral Manoeuvres for an hour or so, and they’d finally gone to bed, that I looked through my old singles – we had still had decks at the time – and all I wanted to hear was a London single that I eventually tracked down.

Rumble.

Very nicely put.

[Kari Salonen]

No use really putting on such a detailed list, I have a habit of not paying attention to stuff that doesn't give me anything. Later on I may find it even rather entertaining or I find a new ankle to it. It might have something to do with the fact that there is much less of inevitable exposure to pop culture here than there has always been in UK. Especially for those of you who are in some way part of it.

But generally: artistes who take themselves too seriously. For me that would include Moody Blues, whose 70's prog records we used to find hilarious with a cousin of mine.

And David Coverdale in his unbottoned-shirt-alpha-male phase, especially when he got seriously upstaged by Girlschool one time on a festival over here in 1981 or 1983. And Rage Against the Machine, who got pulverized by NY&CH on another back in 1989.

Kraftwerk I still like in small portions. But one time I got physically allergic to their synth soundscape. Too much exposure to Man Machine. I got a headache and my teeth were aching if I tried to listen to them. Ditto Tangerine Dream et al.

[john poole]

And I never really got The Animals. Have any of their records stood the test of time?

Some have Pete, but not many. I've got a CD collection of their singles and it contains a handful of tunes I'm happy to listen to today

The Animals' singles all still sound good to me - amongst the best UK records of their era. Their LPs less so; the final one recorded in the US and produced by Tom Wilson was their best but was never released here to my knowledge. The first two were produced by Mickie Most who only cared about the hits, and the third was not much better - I cannot imagine any of the other major groups of the time being content to release an uninspired version of 'Sweet Little Sixteen' in 1966. An early EP they recorded in Newcastle prior to signing to EMI, a rough live recording that Giorgio Gomelsky made, and their BBC radio recordings are a better representation of the group.

Not to be confused with Eric Burdon & the (New) Animals who could go from good to embarrassingly bad, often in the same song.

[will vine]

An opportunity to link two of Andy's posts here.

At the jazz club we sometimes had on the stage a revered and clearly extremely competent player who we knew we were expected to love and admire. Rather than admit to not liking or not getting his performance we, when asked our opinion, used to resort to the response that we thought it to be very musical, a term Andy has explained to us, on another thread, that was also once en vogue to signify being gay.

[AndyM]

Tactful, Will, tactful!

[AndyM]

Can I add P J Harvey and the Manic Street Preachers to my list ?

(Though both of them might be more properly classified as self-important.)