Great artists that you were oblivious to at the time.

[Swamp Yankee]

Nick Drake

Even though he was recording a style of music that I loved back when I was listening to lots and lots of music, learning to play acoustic guitar, buying all sorts of recordings, spending hours and hours every week combing through record bins at the local record shop and congratulating myself for knowing of so many diverse artists - I knew nothing about him during his lifetime.

My first exposure to his work was from the VW commercial "Pink Moon" on TV in the late 90s.

[zombywoof]

I could care less for Alice Cooper in the day but now really enjoy the Coop.

I never cared for Gordon Lightfoot and still don't. I first caught Brewer & Shipley in Oklahoma at the OSU student union in 1969. There were probably less than ten people there. But I really liked them and ended up hanging around with them after the show. "Shake Off the Demon" remains in constant rotation on my turntable.

My tastes in music though have remained relatively unchanged since the early 1960s. I listen to Joan Baez and Judy Collins far less than I once did. And yeah, Pearls Before Swine can seem a bit dated but I still love Tom Rapp. How can you not enjoy his rendition of "Playmate." Dave Van Ronk is timeless as is John Hammond Jr. I have never stopped listening to Lonnie Johnson, Scrapper Blackwell, Memphis Minnie, Lucille Bogan and the blues players I first discovered in the mid-1960s while David Bromberg's first LP was a revelation. I have been known to still listen to The Fugs and will always think the Blues Project, Paul Butterfield Band, Byrds, Hot Tuna, and Fairport Convention were the best bands going.

[Rondoraymundo]

Another vote for Nick Drake. I totally missed his stuff when it first came out which is unusual since I worked as a DJ back then and had access to stuff most people didn't hear.

I also went back after I had heard Crowded House and got into Neil Finn's first band with his brother Tim, the Split Enz. Anything with Neil is pretty good stuff.

I played guitar for over 30 years when I decided to get into the bass. That was a revelation; Jaco Pastorius, James Jamerson and Chris Squire. It made me listen to their music in a whole new way and to appreciate it much more.

[mechanic1908]

Johnny Winter for me.
Hadn't heard of him for some reason until a friend rented a Woodstock festival tape Anndd holy crap! I was floored

[00Buck]

Eva Cassidy. I learned of her music shortly after her death. Lived in the DC area while she was performing and regret not discovering her sooner.

Tom Waits. I don't think he ever had a "peak" in a commercial sense, but I discovered him around '79. It was love at first listen. Don't care much for his later "howling at the moon" stuff.

Thanks to you tube, I've also come to appreciate talented artists who were fading during my youth. Among my favorites Jo Stafford, Frank Sinatra (young Frank), and Ella Fitzgerald (young & and sans "scat"). The difference between young Frank and old Frank is stark. They almost sound like different singers.

[Rodger Knox]

As I was driving home one day in my '68VW bug, I heard on the radio that Jim Croce had been killed in a plane crash. I remember thinking "no great loss", since at that time the only two songs I had heard were Don't Mess Around with Jim and Bad Leroy Brown. It wasn't long before I heard "Operator", and completely changed my mind about his talent.

[Stratcat77]

Originally Posted by N+1

I've long held that the greatest moment (I really mean a single moment) in the history of rock music can be found in the film of Elvis's 1968 Christmas Special. In the section where he's in the square 'boxing ring' he sings a version of 'Tryin' to get to you' which lifts the roof off, but let's keep focusing more closely on a moment in the middle of the song: he's sitting down; he's playing a guitar with no strap; his instinct is to stand, but he can't, without a strap; he's so completely given over to the performance of the song that his body doesn't know what to do; he lifts the guitar, he tries to stand, he can't, he sits down, the guitar goes up again, and down again. He's like a bomb trying to explode, but still he's in complete control of the song. The whole 'moment' lasts about 2 seconds but, for me, those two seconds encapsulate the entire musical explosion that he invented.

It's SO odd that you bring this up. I saw my brother over the weekend. He lives a couple of hours away and was in town to come see me play. He is the biggest Elvis fan I know - crazy library of knowledge about details most don't care about. We were talking about this very performance of this very song on that special and my bro said it's his favorite Elvis moment. Hard to argue.... Powerful.

[catdaddy]

I suppose Nick Drake would be the best example for me. Just discovered his music a few months ago.

[Jim Owen]

Wade,

I recall someone asking me years ago what I thought of Bert Jansch. I knew the name, knew that he'd been angry at Jimmy Page over "Blackwater Slide"--and also that Paul Simon sort of played Jansch's version of Davy Graham's "Angi."

But I'd never heard him play. In my part of the south, even the best record shops didn't have lots of imports.

When I first heard him on CD, I started listening to him seriously. But I still never saw him play. I wish I had.

[Billy Hill]

For many years, Gram Parsons was just a name I had heard praised by other artists. Then, maybe ten years ago, I heard him and Emmylou Harris' version of "Love Hurts" and it was time to investigate further. The man wrote and performed an impressive number of great songs (with and without Emmylou), especially for a guy that didn't live long enough to be in the 27 club.

[dirkronk]

Townes van Zandt. Living in Texas my whole life (1950-present), I probably had dozens of chances to hear him live back in the day, but was totally oblivious.

Also way late to the dance for Eva Cassidy and Kate Wolf. Admire both of those artists.

Did see Jerry Jeff Walker before he got seriously popular...Sand Mountain in Houston, late '69 or maybe '70. Loved his songs at the time (Mr. Bojangles, My Old Man, et al.), but he was already rocking the cowboy wardrobe: pearl snap pocket shirts, pointy-toe cowboy boots, the works. Odd vibes for the time. Knew he was from way up east and he wasn't fully convincing in that gear yet, so it came across to me at the time as stage-costume schtick, like he was giving the yokels the look they wanted. Didn't see him much after he got big.

Dirk

[Wade Hampton]

Your mention of Jerry Jeff Walker led me to wonder: "Is Jerry Jeff Walker still alive?" I haven't heard anything about him in decades, plus I know that he had serious drinking and other substance abuse problems for many years. If half the stories are true, he should have keeled over a LONG time ago.

So I ran a Google search on him, and guess what question popped up as the most common question about Jerry Jeff Walker?

"Is Jerry Jeff Walker still alive?"

So I'm not the only one wondering that!

Here's what the little blurb says:

"Jerry Jeff Walker (born Ronald Clyde Crosby on March 16, 1942, in Oneonta, New York) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Best known for writing the song "Mr. Bojangles", Walker's prolific music career and widespread musical influence have made him an iconic fixture of the Texas country music scene."

You were right about him not being born a Texan, too, which came as a surprise to me, since he's always been presented as the quintessential Texas Outlaw musician to the rest of us outside of Texas. So I can see where him putting on a cowboy hat and presenting himself as an exemplar of Texan culture would irk a genuine local like yourself.

Never knew that before. Interesting.


Wade Hampton Miller

[N+1]

Originally Posted by Stratcat77

It's SO odd that you bring this up. I saw my brother over the weekend. He lives a couple of hours away and was in town to come see me play. He is the biggest Elvis fan I know - crazy library of knowledge about details most don't care about. We were talking about this very performance of this very song on that special and my bro said it's his favorite Elvis moment. Hard to argue.... Powerful.

Your brother will probably know Greil Marcus's book Dead Elvis. Marcus too recognises the significance of the moment we're talking about. Quote:

'Remember where you were when you first heard Elvis sing "Tryin' to Get to You" like that? Forget that you can't remember where you were when you first heard Elvis sing "Tryin' to Get to You" like that - he never did before, and he never did again.'

[AX17609]

There are a lot of musicians who I didn't like at the time and still don't like. Bob Dylan comes to mind. There are a lot of musicians I never heard of at the time and came to love. Eva Cassidy comes to mind. There are a few musicians whose brilliance I recognized at the time, but who came to public attention more slowly. Stevie Ray Vaughan comes to mind. I first saw him when he was just Jimmy's brother, but he set the room on fire, and his talent was unmistakable.

The one musician whose brilliance I recognized at the time but just didn't want to listen to was Eddie Van Halen. At the time his band was emerging, I just didn't want to hear the guitar played that way. I wanted more Clapton and SRV. These days, I'm tired of listening to guys imitating Clapton and SRV, and I appreciate EVH more and more. The guy is spectacular.

[RP]

I was a sponge for music in the 1960s, especially growing up in the shadow of the Liberty Bell where a lot of great one-off music originated. At the time, who knew what artists would stand the test of time, there was just so much great music of many different veins...