I just thought of a whole genre we forgot:

Toots and the Maytals "Funky Kingston"
Bob Marley and the Wailers "Exodus"

"But then, I'm a goofball whose favorite Elton John album is "Captain Fantastic".

That's not as bad an album as people made it out to be. It had the unfortunate distinction of following "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," which was impossible. No one knows what DaVinci painted after the Mona Lisa, but I'll bet most of the art critics at the time gave him shit for it not being as good.
Yellow Brick Road was the first real album I ever owned. My uncle gave it to me because he hated it. I have no idea how anyone gives away that album. And there were so many good songs that never made it to the radio.

"short and tempestuous relationship with the Columbia Record Club"

Is there any other kind? One of my friends from high school thought he could beat the system by signing up under a pseudonym and then informing them of the untimely death of same. I'm not sure how it worked out.

Max wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

Max wrote:

some continuations:

absolutely for "Who's Next", and I would throw "Quadrophenia" in there.
Neil Young "Harvest", "Live Rust".
(dare we mention Frampton's "Comes Alive" for its key role in popularizing the 'double live' format.)

You could, but you'd be inaccurate since "Kiss Alive" came out a year before.

Well shit, if we're counting any hack band, then let's go back to:

Wishbone Ash "Live Dates" for a killer double live album.

I'm sure the eight Wishbone Ash fans in the world were thrilled, but I thought we had qualified the discussion with the word "popularize."

alz wrote:

I have to give a rec to "The Joshua Tree" by U2 for the 1980's.

and last night I thought of another album from the 1980's, albeit a slightly obscure one for American audiences, that I wore through the grooves (well, actually it was a CD, so there was no actual wear on the grooves:

Christy Moore "Ride On". 

So, I'll bump The Cars off of my Top 10 list to make way for Christy Moore.

Max wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

I'm sure the eight Wishbone Ash fans in the world were thrilled, but I thought we had qualified the discussion with the word "popularize."

To this day I'm not 100% convinced that I have ever heard a KISS song, ever, anywhere.  They weren't played on Chicago radio, and were frankly considered to be kind of wimpy joke band, like the Village People without the talent.

Sort of like the way John Cusack is to Keanu Reeves in the acting community, eh?
If you were alive in 1976, how did you not hear "Beth?" That song was as ubiquitous as it was awful. Even my grandmother knew it existed.

I'm going to put my thoughts/emotions in parenthesis while describing this story.

Holy shit someone at my work is trying to sell seats to the upcoming Taylor Swift concert.
(Moderate Disinterest, I have no interest in Taylor Swift)
Asking 75.00 a seat because she paid 69.50 + 10.00 handling per seat
(Disbelief, scorn)
Now here's the kicker. It's in the Scott Trade Center. Row Q of section 304.
(Ridiculing hilarity)
I had season tickets in section 312 row Q, it is the last row in the building, with your backs on the wall. So I went to stubhub, and found better seats offered for 28.00 per seat.
(Resisting urge to reply to our bulletin board ad with some type of Bernie Madoff comment)

Last edited by alz (8/10/2011 1:37 pm)

Max wrote:

Beth.  I heard it, I liked it.  Thanks for reminding me.

Max, remind me how old you are. I've developed a pretty solid theory that 95 percent of Kiss fans are men currently between the ages of 47-50, which made them between 12-15 when "Alive" came out in '75. At least that's been the demographic of the audience whenever I've gone to a Kiss show. Everyone who was older when they broke hated them, and they were uncool to anyone who wasn't cognizant of them before the solo albums were released in '78 (which was basically the end of their career, as far as I'm concerned). And chicks never dug them anyway.

Now, TK ought to be saying to himself: "But Artie, what about the scene in 'Dazed and Confused' with the Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons mannequins in the back of the El Camino? That was supposed to take place on the last day of school in 1976."
Wouldn't have happened. Not among the juniors or seniors that year. I was an eighth grader in '76, and our junior high baseball team used to share a locker room with the high school team because we played on diamonds at opposite ends of the same field. My buddy Timmy Vlass brought in a tape recorder one day and started playing "Destroyer," and the guys on the high school team stuffed him and the tape recorder in a trash can.

artie_fufkin wrote:

forsberg_us wrote:

My wife and daughter will be attending that concert.  I avoided Taylor Swift this time around (although I don't find her nearly as annoying as some of the others my daughter listens to).

I heard a Lady Gaga song the other day. Mind-numbing.

My kids haven't gone in that direction. Bob likes country, the current version of rock and some rap. Madison listens to Radio Disney, so she's into justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, etc...

artie_fufkin wrote:

Max wrote:

Beth.  I heard it, I liked it.  Thanks for reminding me.

Max, remind me how old you are. I've developed a pretty solid theory that 95 percent of Kiss fans are men currently between the ages of 47-50, which made them between 12-15 when "Alive" came out in '75. At least that's been the demographic of the audience whenever I've gone to a Kiss show. Everyone who was older when they broke hated them, and they were uncool to anyone who wasn't cognizant of them before the solo albums were released in '78 (which was basically the end of their career, as far as I'm concerned). And chicks never dug them anyway.

Now, TK ought to be saying to himself: "But Artie, what about the scene in 'Dazed and Confused' with the Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons mannequins in the back of the El Camino? That was supposed to take place on the last day of school in 1976."
Wouldn't have happened. Not among the juniors or seniors that year. I was an eighth grader in '76, and our junior high baseball team used to share a locker room with the high school team because we played on diamonds at opposite ends of the same field. My buddy Timmy Vlass brought in a tape recorder one day and started playing "Destroyer," and the guys on the high school team stuffed him and the tape recorder in a trash can.

47, and I was 11 in 1975.  BUT, I am the last of five, with 10 year spread between me and the oldest, so my musical tastes trended more toward those of my older sibs and KISS was definitely uncool, in the way that Cheap Trick was a few years later.

"BUT, I am the last of five, with 10 year spread between me and the oldest"

Definitely a factor. I remember when I was still listening to Elton, and my friends with older brothers were listening to Aerosmith.

"When I was a wee lad my middle sister brought me to Joliet Jam to hear BTO when "Takin' Care of Business" was top."

I saw the Bachman-Turner Overweight version as an opening act for Van Hagar on the 5150 tour. I'm guessing Eddie and Alex were trying to pay homage to one of their influences by giving them a high-profile gig, but they were past their prime, and it was a curious performance. They were all wearing XXXL-sixed olive drab flight suits like they had gone AWOL from the Air Force and spent six months in hiding at an all-you-can-eat buffet. They played their *hit* (one of their songs is the same as all the others) for about 20 minutes and then gave way, presumably to hit the post-show spread.
The guy with whom I went to the concert, who is black (I think he may have even worn a Public Enemy t-shirt to the show), didn't really know too much about BTO going in, and our post-set conversation went something like this:
"Are those guys popular?"
"Not anymore. They had a decent run in the '70s, but it's been over for them for awhile."
"I can see their appeal to this kind of crowd. That beat was so simple even white people can dance to it."