statcat

just an idea I thought up, could be interesting. Name a couple of artists you like but most people consider them a joke without "real" music.

I'll start with one that I know gets zero respect as a group that is if you even ever heard of them.

Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich. These guys were a brilliant 60s pop group that used a lot of heavy fuzztone. I don't think I've heard another group with a nice heavy flatwound bass tone like that ever either. They weren't Beatles clones, they did their own quirky thing and were seriously good musicians. They even experimented with some psychedelic stuff (the sun goes down) Quentin Tarantino is even a fan and used Hold Tight in Death Proof even if he didn't notice the name of the band is screwed up.

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Ky-Fi

Very cool, statcat. I had not heard of them. And it's funny, after listening to that, I would bet that members of the band I'm naming were fans of that song.

I will throw out Bow Wow Wow. Because they had funny haircuts and outfits and were assembled by Malcolm McLaren, I think they got dismissed by critics as a flavor-of-the-week band. But I think they had really interesting rythyms and song structures, bassist Leigh Gorman was clasically trained and threw in some incredible lines, and guitarist Ashman played a lot of really tasteful, restrained parts on his big hollow-body Gretsch that always served the songs.

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Tscott

Nancy Sinatra. Pretty much only known today for These Boots Are Made For Walking and overshadowed by her father. But she's got a great voice and a sultry sound, and knows how to phrase a song for maximum effect.

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wendersfan

Rick Nelson probably isn't as respected as he should be.

statcat

He's one of my favorites. I like all of his stuff from the early rockabilly to his country music. I like him so much that I own the 6 cd set of all his recordings from 57-63. I would like to get the Decca one as well. He had enormous amount of talent, it's too bad he died like he did.

cungar

Deserve not to be taken seriously just for their name

statcat

yeah and that's exactly one of the reasons why they aren't but they're one of my favorite bands probably. Hell I didn't even want to like them when I first started listening to them. I think the first time I saw them was the episode of Beat Beat Beat or Beat Club they're on. I thought they were a manufactured pop band joke but I soon found out a lot of their songs are seriously good and they could play live a lot better than tons of bands. I like a fun quirky pop band and they do that perfectly.

rw2516

The Bear Family American Dream set is simply awesome. Not only was he was of the best talents of that time but I think they are some of the best sounding recordings of the time period.

These guys get slammed nowadays, and admittedly don't hold up that well, but are the soundtrack of my high school days.

REO SPEDWAGFON
KANSAS
STYX
BACHMAN-TURNER OVERDRIVE

statcat

James Burton's guitar on all of those tracks is superb. No wonder Elvis, who was supposedly Nelson's friend, picked Burton up to play guitar for him.

roughdraft_zero

Oh man, there's a lot for me. It's amazing how many bands seem to be one-hit wonders (or something close to it) with the general public which the general public think to be stupid/crazy, but are actually good bands. And I'm not talking about the people who actually know what's up, music freaks like many of us are. I'm talking about people who only casually listen to music and retrieve it from places like the radio, MTV and Napster/KaZaa. They make fun of these bands because they are "one-hit wonders" whose hits were off-kilter or strange, or tragically suffered from overplay and severe aging. An incomplete list of mine would look something like this:


Dinosaur Jr. ("Feel the Pain")

The B-52s ("Love Shack")

Crash Test Dummies ("Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm")

Devo ("Whip It")

Joan Osborne ("One of Us")

Blind Melon ("No Rain")

The Flaming Lips ("She Don't Use Jelly")

Q Lazzarus ("Goodbye Horses") This one's a little different, because as far as I can tell there was never a proper album, if even another song besides this one ever recorded by the band. But still, this song is generally laughed at because of the context from which it draws from the scene in The Silence of the Lambs. But this is a legitimately fantastic song in my opinion.

Spiderbite

Jeff Lynne/ELO

JasonF

Not quite the same thing, but my first exposure to Stevie Wonder was the saccharine "I Just Called to Say I Love You," and for years, that colored my impression of his work and I thought his catalog would be full of these jive, syrupy ballads. Every time I'd hear something that went counter to that mental image, I'd compartmentalize it, convince myself that Superstition or Higher Ground or Sir Duke weren't really typical of his sound. Finally, at some point, I sat down and really took a look at his catalog and realized that his funk infused pop was far more typical of his work than the sappy calendar ballad I associated with him.

Fist of Doom

This one's easy for me: Journey

They're derided as soulless arena rock, but I love their late 70s/early 80s albums. Just good, straightforward rock - and I think Steve Perry has one of rock's best voices. Their earlier albums are also good.

EDIT: I would have also mentioned Hall & Oates, but based on the recent poll here, they're pretty well appreciated.

Hiro11

I happen to love Blink 182. They're (were?) a very underrated pop band, IMO. I think "Take off your Pants and Jacket" is one of the best pop albums of the '00s.

I think ABBA's one of the great musical groups of the past thirty year.

Cheap Trick gets no cred these days, but their first five albums are stone classics. Their first album and Heaven Tonight are particular favorites. Far too few people listen to them... Their new one isn't bad either.

Lots of classic new wave is dismissed these days but to me it's still great. OMD, The Cars, The Pretenders, Simple Minds. All great bands that get nowhere near the respect they deserve. Even the poppier new wave stuff had a bunch of high points. In particular people will never respect Duran Duran. I think their first few albums stand the test of time and are hugely influential. Rio is great all the way through by any measure.

Hiro11

I like Journey and Hall & Oates as well. Journey in particular made a bunch of really good tunes.

Hiro11

I disagree that your average person considers the B-52s and Devo one hit wonders. Both had a bunch of hits. The Flaming Lips had a few hits recently as well and sell out stadiums frequently. They're particularly huge in Europe.

I agree that Joe Average considers Dinosaur Jr. a "one hit wonder". That bugs the shit out of me.

cungar

Can anyone explain the difference between this and the dozens of "guilty pleasures" threads out there?

Fist of Doom

The difference is, I don't feel at all guilty about loving Journey. But there seems to be a consensus that they're not a serious band.

statcat

difference is I meant artists you think should be taken more seriously as in they had talent but nobody ever seems to see it. There's also no guilty feelings in liking them.

Sean O'Hara

Meat Loaf w/ Jim Steinman -- I love over-the-top rock operas, of which Loaf/Steinman collaborations are the pinnacle.

Robot Rock

Blink 182. I don't care what anyone says, Dude Ranch is one of the greatest albums of all time.

AnonomusBob15

Blink 182 rocks, but not something i'd take seriously.

Phantom Planet released two great albums, but were never really taken seriously.

Jimmy Eat World. Clarity - Bleed American - and Futures are all terrific albums, but nobody ever has anything nice to say about the band. Clarity, in particular, is one of my favorite albums from the 90s.


Blink 182 is something i'd consider a guilty pleasure. Jimmy Eat World is a fucking awesome band, and I don't care what anyone says.

Drexl

Yeah, them and the Bee Gees, who seem to be strongly associated with their disco period. But on the other hand, they are in the R&R HOF, and not just recently.

Oh, and of course the Alliance of Magicians.

wendersfan

That is just weird to me. I know I'm several years older than you, but having been weaned on early '70s pop radio, Stevie Wonder is one of the finest musical acts of the past 40 years. It's odd to imagine someone would have a different view.

JasonF

Yeah, I don't know what my excuse is, other than what I said -- early exposure to a bad Stevie song that made a bad first impression, which led to cognitive dissonance any time I heard something good from Stevie (which includes just about everything he ever did except "I Just Called" and that duet with Sir Paul). It "helped" (so to speak) that I had relatively little exposure to him just because the radio stations I listened to didn't play much of his stuff and I never sought it out.