What Lazaruses have you made walk again?

Jorge Ben

I used to think Stan Getz was kinda square, a smooth jazz artist before his time maybe. Later I really began to appreciate his tone and phrasing, and the later records like Captain Marvel are great.

Neutral Milk Hotel. Heard the first album and stopped paying attention. Curiosity led me to the second album and it's pretty great. I've heard two MP3s "Naomi" and "Bucket" which are pretty great as well... anything else I should be looking for?

Daft Punk. I dug them for a little while in '97 when Homework was big but eventually I got kind of tired of all their songs not named "Da Funk" or "Around the World" and I fell into the belief that they were stuck in a seven-minute-songs-that-went-nowhere rut. I sort of half-paid attention to "One More Time" when it came out and felt like my belief was still justified, but eventually I heard "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" and "Aerodynamic" and thought "Hey, maybe they're not that bad." Long story short, I've gotten to the point where I'm kicking myself for not getting Discovery the day it came out.

Hm, good question...*thinks*...no *major* revelations per se, but a slew of things over time, whether it be Gallon Drunk or Enuff Z'Nuff. Sometimes all it does take is time. :-)

This actually happens with a lot of things which eventually become favorites for me.

The first one that springs to mind is the Hollywood-era Elvis, believe it or not. I had always accepted the notion that his early records and the post-films comeback stuff were the only "real thing". Then a few years ago I went on an Elvis movie kick, and listened to nothing but those soundtracks for weeks (I know. Save it). I came out the other end liking that era the most. The idea that his early records were more "genuine" became a suspicious minefield of contradiction, then ceased to make any difference to me. However massive his contribution to rockn'roll may have been, it had done fine since then without his help.

What really intrigued me was the way he "lost touch" with the music, and so quickly. Did he really? (Colonel Tom only figures as a sinister empty space to me in this respect; that role was bound to be filled by someone). When I try to imagine the music he would have been making if he had tried to stay "edgy" throughout the 60's, I can't. Could he?

At any rate, he didn't. What we're left with instead are these half-hearted artifacts, some of the most bizarre, cynical pop songs ever written: Harems! Frauleins! Shrimp as Refugees! Vegas as Fantasyland! etc. Taken in context its all so weirdly compelling, I'll never quite get my head around it. I still like the Sun records too, but in a different way. The dreamworld of the MGM musical just fascinates me more than some uppity white kid singing like Arthur Crudup.

The Beautiful South and Prefab Sprout- I'm getting old! But I've developed a taste for their sense of the tragic, although on first tentaive purchasing I thought "Jamie, why are you listening to music for people 20 years your senior?"

Nirvana

this is probably more worthy of the unintentional emotion thread, since i'm not sure if it'd ever affect me again, but they were playing "i just called to say i love you" in the bookstore yesterday and man, was i feeling it. similar experience with that lionel richie song "hello? is it me you're looking for?", but this was partly because i didn't have to see the video. you know, with the blind sculptor and lionel's soul-glow hair.

for me, to answer my own question, it would have to be Marty Robbins's Gunfighter Ballads album, but then again, I suppose, that would apply to the whole genre of country as whole, the age old predicament of getting past the music I drowned in as a youth only to rediscover what was good about it later when i could approach it on my own terms

suede

When I first heard Tindersticks I was appalled - where was the beat science, analog madness etc that the times demanded? - a few years later and I heard them on Spanish radio - I went mad for them and up until the last album - loved them.

sinatra - once i discovered he was a sleazy old obnoxious tragic fuck, i fell in love. see also ms Stresiand/Liza