Have you ever went sour...

3-3-09 Have you ever went sour on an artist and reverted? I think you are pretty final but I have had recursions [see: Simple Minds, David Bowie]

In the case of the two above-mentioned artists, I found out about David Bowie in the summer of ’72 – the dangerously titled “Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars” caught my attention, I dug the Clockwork Orange references etc. My friends all bought “Aladdin Sane”, but by that time, I was no longer on board. Next Bowie blip for me was “Station To Station”, then “Never Let Me Down” and “Tin Machine”. When I got the vinyl guilties in ’97 or so, I re-started my Bowie vinyl collection with a rather expensive LP of “Low” ($10) – the only one I could remember liking that I did not own in any form. So, after a total Bowie “dis” in about ’73 that lasted for 25+ years…I now have 93 Bowie titles in my collection. I never paid much for any of ‘em. I think I have a full contiguous set of stuff from “Man of Music, Man of Words” up to “Tin Machine” (may not have a CD for “Tonight”, however).

Simple Minds I think belong being discussed in a few days (in the “Artists that got too popular” section).

I went through MANY examples of being all hot on a band when they were ‘new’ or ‘initially active’, then not caring about their later output – Jethro Tull, The Who, The Rolling Stones, P.F.M., Black Sabbath etc. I did the Tulls in real time, roughly “Stand Up” to “Thick As A Brick”, I found “Passion Play” impenetrable…and stopped. Nothing for 25+ years, absolutely no interest at all. The vinyl guilties of ’97 had me formulating a few Tull questions: How many do I want? What’s the ‘arc’ of time of JT interest? In 2009, I’m roughly “This Was” to “Heavy Horses”, with the odd live album and compilation disc thrown in.

I loved The Who to death from “Magic Bus” until “Live At Leeds”. Never got “Quadrophenia”, at the time. I only got back on the bus at “Face Dances” – ‘cause I love those songs. ’09, and I have a full set, vinyl & CD’s, but I am still not overly warm on “Quadrophenia” or the next few albums. Similar tale for Les Rolling Stones – in there 100% from “Aftermath” to “Exile On Main Street”, then nada until the newer releases (“Flip The Switch” etc.) – I’ve ignored a few best ofs and live albums, but I try and get all the ‘initial works’. I only recently got a CD of their US debut album, so – I think I now have all studio LP’s on CD, and damn near all of them on vinyl (never went for the multiple disc LP of “Bigger Bang”).

P.F.M. is a band I throw in, just to show that my musical snobbery isn’t restricted to ‘merely’ classic rock: I did ‘em in near real-time from their first album up to “Jet Lag” – I got to see them play live and loved ‘em. I got my “Jet Lag” LP autographed, even. I’d buy anything with their name on it now, it if was cheap enough – but I never came back, after “Jet Lag”. I think the only post-“Jet Lag” CD I have a double “Live Best Of” (Japanese 2CD set, very inexpensive).

And Black Sabbath pretty much sucked after “Volume 4”, though I will admit to really liking “Never Say Die” when it came out. But NOTHING without Ozzy. Nothing.