Unpopular Opinions in Music

[Mart68]

“A Love Supreme” kind of blows, especially compared to “Crescent” and “Live at Birdland” immediately preceding it. Only Coltrane sounds like he’s in his element. The rest are just kind of along for the ride. Even then he’s so damn repetitive. And Jimmy Garrison takes the longest, dullest bass solo ever.

I bought that album decades ago and I'm still trying to get it.

 

[Sal1950]

I bought that album decades ago and I'm still trying to get it.

Bob who ? LOL

 

[Kr2d2]

I refer the honourable gentleman to the post I made some pages ago. So clearly Hendrix. I'm sure there must be a Dylan song that hasn't been performed better by someone else, but I can't think of one. Great songwriter, but not much of a singer.

But isn't this a more popular opinion in music?

This thread is about unpopular opinions!

So this is the rare chance for me to step on my soapbox for my unpopular opinion & shout: He's s great singer of his stuff, Nobody sings Dylan like Dylan!

But ... No ... actually no public opinion of mine, but a private perception deep in my soul.

 

[Multicore]

PKD wanted Ronstadt to sing the songs of John Dowland and he was right. The key feature, the idée fixe of Dowland was crying as in "Flow My Tears", his best-known song. Ronstadt has a "crying" sound and affect in her singing. It would have been a very interesting pairing of singer and composer. My understanding is that Philip K. Dick was obsessed with Ronstadt and created a fictional version of her in "The Divine Invasion." As it is the rock star who "covered" Dowland turned out to be Sting, possessed of a voice particularly unsuited to Elizabethan melancholy.

Iirc, the Dick-ish character who has the idea becomes a bit of a Ronstadt stalker. And he was a hifi retailer, right? not the only instance of hifi enthusiasm in Dick.

 

[pinger]

The thing with classical music -and let's admit it, all of them- is that it is not a "you like one you like all" proposition. I'd say I am a classical fan, but I never listen to Wagner, for example, and I cannot take a single second of opera, sorry. I'd also say I love jazz, but never listen to some super highly rated stuff like "Kind of Blue" or "Sketches of Spain" or such.

It's a silly exercise to generalize music genres. Even with our top fav artists, we all know we skip 50% of their songs.

I love Classical but also never listen to Wagner or Opera. Instrumental, chamber, Orchestral there is so much there. Solo piano is my favourite. I grew up with 70's classic rock but now its Classical for serious listening. Very rewarding. Still love 70's rock but there are only so many hours in a day, days in a week etc etc

 

[Robin L]

But isn't this a more popular opinion in music?

This thread is about unpopular opinions!

So this is the rare chance for me to step on my soapbox for my unpopular opinion & shout: He's s great singer of his stuff, Nobody sings Dylan like Dylan!

But ... No ... actually no public opinion of mine, but a private perception deep in my soul.

Let me put this in a different way—Bob Dylan is the perfect interpreter, the perfect performer, of Bob Dylan. Nobody does Bob better than Bob. (Except Hendrix).

 

[somebodyelse]

But isn't this a more popular opinion in music?

I guess it depends how you define 'popular' - if you include 'grudging acceptance' then maybe, but in my experience that comes after initial disagreement. Maybe I'm just meeting a skewed population, but it's had more pushback than likes here

 

[Timcognito]

 

[shuppatsu]

Mind you, there's a Johnny Winter cover that's respectable. But my favorite is a November 20, 1999 performance with Susan Tedeschi. The lyrics are damn near incomprehensible, the band just smokes:

The band wasn't the only thing smoking in that video.

 

[Robin L]

 

[Sal1950]

Bob Dylan,, Seriously? Does anybody listen to him except hippies in the 60s? OMG no thanks.

 

[Doodski]

Bob Dylan,, Seriously? Does anybody listen to him except hippies in the 60s? OMG no thanks.

I agree fully and completely. My oldest brother a ex-hardcore party animal sold his gorgeous Chevelle SS 396 Cowl Induction in metal flake gold with black stripes and pin striping and used the money to buy a Euro-Rail Pass and to fly over to Europe and he got into heroin in Amsterdam, was beaten to a pulp and tossed in the harbor for dead and was rescued by Christians who made him a reborn and when he returned to Canada years later he introduced me to Bob Dylan. I read as many books as I could get my hands on in my pre-teens about the history of rock and roll and was aware of Bob Dylan but had my hands full with so much other music that filled my time. So anyway... The oldest bro the reborn Christian is all like... O' you gotta hear this new Bob Dylan album and I was almost vomiting when he was playing it. The singing was horrible, the lyrics where all over the place and frankly he was just being a bit weird about his love for Bob Dylan and that made it worse...LoL.

 

[shuppatsu]

Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” is a B+ effort. The title track and Mercy Mercy Me are tremendous but does anyone really listen to the rest? Recycled strings and self-indulgence throughout.

EDIT: Ok, Inner City Blues is great too.

 

[shuppatsu]

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club band is one of the Beatles’ least essential albums. The concept is corny as hell, Paul at his worst. John was mostly checked out with the notable exception of Strawberry Fields Forever, intended for the album but was left out.

Musically and thematically, not anywhere near as groundbreaking as Rubber Soul and Revolver.

Of course it’s the Beatles, so it’s still great.

 

[Sal1950]

I agree fully and completely. My oldest brother a ex-hardcore party animal sold his gorgeous Chevelle SS 396 Cowl Induction in metal flake gold with black stripes and pin striping and used the money to buy a Euro-Rail Pass and to fly over to Europe and he got into heroin in Amsterdam, was beaten to a pulp and tossed in the harbor for dead and was rescued by Christians who made him a reborn and when he returned to Canada years later he introduced me to Bob Dylan. I read as many books as I could get my hands on in my pre-teens about the history of rock and roll and was aware of Bob Dylan but had my hands full with so much other music that filled my time. So anyway... The oldest bro the reborn Christian is all like... O' you gotta hear this new Bob Dylan album and I was almost vomiting when he was playing it. The singing was horrible, the lyrics where all over the place and frankly he was just being a bit weird about his love for Bob Dylan and that made it worse...LoL.

Sorry about your brother @Doodski I hope some day he can clear his mind of the cult thinking. OMG, he traded off SS369 ?

 

[Sal1950]

Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” is a B+ effort. The title track and Mercy Mercy Me are tremendous but does anyone really listen to the rest? Recycled strings and self-indulgence throughout.

EDIT: Ok, Inner City Blues is great too.

Well, as a MG fan plus as always "a listen to a complete album" guy, yea I do.
But I fully get what you say about the rest of the album, lyrics are very "religious preaching stuff".
Marvin was in the cult too at the time.

 

[Doodski]

Sorry about your brother @Doodski I hope some day he can clear his mind of the cult thinking. OMG, he traded off SS369 ?

Yeah he's totally gone into the dark side, in isolation and @ last visit with him and all visits before he quoted scripture in detail in effort to explain everything occurring around us. He thinks everything evolves and is explained by biblical bloodlines and by prophecy etc. I mean everything... I was getting very annoyed and so I went out and left him at home and got plastered in the night clubs and pubs for the night. LoL... I have not seen him for near 20 years and am better off without his kinda stress and manipulation attempts.

Yes, a minty wonderful SS. It was bone stock with chrome 5 spoke Cragar rims and wide low profile radials. Freakishly awesome car that went really good and was fun as can be to ride in. I've been in some pretty powerful cars built solely for burning off the tires but the Chevelle SS was so smooth to ride in, sounded real nice and was comfy.

 

[TimF]

b...b....b...bjork makes me puke. Similarly, is Aurora. Excess showmanship and coy personalities. Over-the-top showmanship and self-promotion to the point of freak show, now that is Lady Gaga.

 

[kidprofessor]

Mind you, there's a Johnny Winter cover that's respectable. But my favorite is a November 20, 1999 performance with Susan Tedeschi. The lyrics are damn near incomprehensible, the band just smokes:

My unpopular opinion: PJ Harvey's version is the best:

 

[xanalog]

I would like to give a big shout-out to Bruce Sh*tsteen.
You sucked then, now and will always! If NJ was not the armpit of the nation, you'd give it a BO, regardless!

OT: Notice that I did not use caps!