Albums you do not get...a plea for help and understanding


So like most of you (I bet), I listen to tons of music.  But there are just some albums I never learned to appreciate.  I hope this thread can serve as a teaching tool.  I did not get Mingus at first but now he is one of my favorites.

Perhaps ending each post with, "What am I missing?" would be a good idea.

I will start with Graceland by Paul Simon.  Most of my friends call me crazy (still after all these years...OUCH that was bad) but I never desire to listen to this record.  I get the African influence and rhythm but it just does not impress me.  Alternatively when Peter Gabriel did the African influence thing I found it stunningly good. Paul Simon as a musician impresses me in his other works.  What am I missing?

bancsee

@tony1954  My sentiments exactly.  

Graceland does not hold together as an album for me.  

I am not into Springsteen.   

There's so much Miles Davis-I prefer his 50's and early 60's recordings with great sidemen.  I generally prefer Lee Morgan (and like 30 or 40 reed players as much).  

However, my childhood in the 50's-60's was filled with opera, classical music of post classic period eras, pop, do-wop, blues and some traditional jazz.   Quite unusual for a 4 to 10 year old.  Now I have 42,500 LPs/CDs/78s which have a nice big dose of jazz from all eras (about 5,000 of the total) rock to early 1990 (helped by my wife who loves rock) but NO hip hop or rap.  There are some imaginative artists today but just so much dross that it is difficult to shift through it all.  SNL artists are typical of what we don't like.  I like country as well, especially great singers from pre-1980s, (mirroring rock era as well).  

Agree on Dave Matthews. Good musicianship but boring and the drummer thinks he is the center of the band and hits the skins way too much. 

Okay, you've prompted me to quote some Dylan off the top of my head. From Mr. Tambourine Man.  Sorry if it ain't quite perfect --

"And take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind

The foggy runes (ruins?) of time

Far past the frozen leaves, the haunted frightened trees.

Out to the windy beach. far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrows.

Yes to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand wavin' free

Silhouetted by the seas

Circled by the circus sands

With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves

Let me forget about today until tomorrow."

 

As lovely a stretch of poetry as has ever been writ.

I don't see any direct references to Dreampop or Shoegaze singers or bands. I am sure a lot of folks here can't stand either genre. I personally like Dreampop, and some of the shoegaze folks.

How about Frank Sinatra? I get he has an amazing voice and phasing (my Mom and her sisters once skipped school in the late 1930's to hear him sing in the Bronx!). But I never put on a Sinatra album/song to sit back and listen and enjoy. And I have tried multiple times.