Overrated artists/albums

[Summertime Blooz]

I guess I'll never understand how Pink Floyd (post-Barrett) ever became so mega-popular making such quiet uninteresting music. Do you have to be stoned to "get" them? They would certainly be my pick as most overrated.

[Ovi]

I guess I'll never understand how Pink Floyd (post-Barrett) ever became so mega-popular making such quiet uninteresting music. Do you have to be stoned to "get" them? They would certainly be my pick as most overrated.

Nope, the music itself provides the high. 

[Julia]

Ive tried numerous times to like the 13th Floor Elevators with how highly regarded they are but just cant get the appeal.

I respect Bob Dylan and think he's a great lyricist but I don't enjoy his singing or overuse of the harmonica. (With some small exceptions I hate the harmonica in an ensemble arrangement.)

Procol Harum is alright but not earth shattering to me.

The Who are ok but a lot of their big albums dont do it for me.

I can't get into Janis Joplin's work after she left Big Brother.

Jefferson Airplane went off a cliff after Bathing at Baxter's and even that album isn't as good as Surrealistic Pillow, which was lightning in a bottle.

I think the Rolling Stones have some great songs but aren't "album artists." I don't care for some of their most acclaimed albums, like Exile on Main Street or the one with the bulge on the cover (Sticky Fingers?). I love Satanic Majesties which is the one actual Stones fans don't like and my favorite member was Brian Jones, whom everyone forgets about. Flowers and Let It Bleed are really good too.

I hate the Velvet Underground. Their albums sound very bland to me and I think without Andy Warhol they wouldn't have gotten anywhere. I tried to read the book about them "All Yesterday's Parties" and couldn't get past the preface/foreword or whatever, where the author just kept going ON AND ON about how they were "the only band besides the Beatles who saw God" or whatever, just putting down EVERY OTHER BAND who ever existed to prop up these guys. Brian Wilson's admirers never do that. And then Dorothy Moskowitz (lead singer of the USA) said they were very rude when they toured together, plus back in my stint on the PetSounds Forum, one of the rudest posters there (not Mikie) was a huge VU fan. I made a similar "acclaimed artists you dont like" thread and started the conversation off with these sentiments for the VU--well he didn't like that and spammed the thread for TWO PAGES to kill the discussion. Cant defend your precious "best band ever" who're so enlightened, can't handle anyone else criticizing them, so just act like a massive douche. Ironically just like the VU themselves, if Moskowitz is right, and I have no doubt she is.

[JK]

I’ve been planning to get back to you on this for a few days now. I'll do it piecemeal, otherwise I’ll never get it done!

The Who: I’m not a fan of the rock operas either, although Tommy sounds good to me as a single LP:

Side One:
1. Overture
2. Amazing Journey
3. Sparks
4. The Hawker
5. Cousin Kevin
6. The Acid Queen

Side Two:
1. Pinball Wizard
2. Go To The Mirror
3. Tommy Can You Hear Me
4. Smash The Mirror
5. Sensation
6. I'm Free
7. We're Not Gonna Take It

Bonus track on the CD version:
Underture

Who's Next and Sell Out are my go-to Who albums, in that order.

[JK]

Feel the same way about Bob, with the inevitable exceptions, all '60s electric-era and mostly sans harmonica.

I remember being amused by your hatred of that instrument at PSF and elsewhere! These two examples, played by Mark Felpham (the solo) and Toots Thielemans respectively, may possibly meet with your approval:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAlLQaDXc4I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVZB3Dinp2M

And then there’s Stevie Wonder with the likes of the solo in “For Once In My Life”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d3F8F_kfYM

I rest my case...

[JK]

One song by the 13th Floor Elevators (“You're Gonna Miss Me”, with Tommy Hall on electric jug) is enough for me. I do like Primal Scream's version of "Slip Inside This House", which included a sample of Roky Erickson in the opening seconds ("It's the war of the worlds, the Martians have landed!"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StskEnmH9l8

As for Procol Harum, whom my brother and I found ourselves opposite in a cafe in 1967, I’m not a major fan. “A Salty Dog” is pretty cool and “Shine On Brightly” holds some interesting memories for me, but that’s about it.

Totally agreed about Jefferson Airplane. Surrealistic Pillow is the business and the rest is immaterial, except perhaps “The Ballad of You & Me & Pooneil”, which I liked enough to buy at the time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkW9Efbt25A&list=RDrkW9Efbt25A

We Brits were screwed with the "expurgated" version of Pillow we were served up.  

Although I like Exile on Main Street, like you I love Their Satanic Majesties.... Strangely, our joint favorite Stone Brian Jones hated it, although he’s all over it, including a theremin wishing us all a Merry Christmas at the end of side one.

I’ll submit my take on the VU next time!

[JK]

I recall reading a highly detailed description of the VU posted on your behalf at either EH or PSF -- all to no avail, it seems! I like their early things: all of the first two albums, part of the third and one track of the fourth.

Lou did some interesting work post-VU, such as the live album Rock and Roll Animal with a fantastic backing band to help him along, and Metal Machine Music, probably the most polarizing album ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB1cEyy0fKs

Nico made some wonderful music too, often aided and abetted by fellow ex-VU member John Cale. This is “Valley Of The Kings”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YwF3BlQ_5o

Who do I think is overrated? H’mmm -- I’m going to have to think about this a little longer!