These are all acts that MES has said he liked - even if it was only for one gig (Gary Glitter), one album (Patti Smith Horses), or one track (John Fred & The Playboys' Judy In Disguise), and a long, long time ago.
Which are the ones that you can't stick?
Me?
I don't get Captain Beefheart. I've felt I should many times. I've tried several times. I failed each time.
Sorry.
I also find Faust completely baffling.
And have you ever tried to sit through something by Herr Stockhausen?!!

PS I'm also interested to hear about the ones you love, of course...

Gary Glitter for obvious reasons, though I hated his music long before we learnt of his personal preferences! :sick:

Can't think of any act I totally reject. Ignoring his private life I soon grew tired of Gary Glitter's music after the first few singles. I also think that Zappa gets enormously overrated although admittedly I never acquainted myself intensively with his oeuvre and I partially enjoy some of his earlier recordings.

Among my faves on this list are Can, Captain Beefheart, Faust, Peter Hammill/VdGG and The Velvet Underground.

Don't know any John Fred & The Playboys song apart from Judy In Disguise, but somehow this one sticks in my mind since childhood, long before I really became interested in music.

I've never even heard of John Fred & the Playboys, let alone that song, so that's something to check out! :thumbsup:
I don't listen to Beefheart much, but some of his albums I really like (Safe As Milk, Mirror Man, *some* of TMR).
Have you heard FaustIV, elvis? Some of that is amazing! 'Krautrock', in particular and 'Lauft....', but it's all great.

Anyways, nothing on there that I *hate*, but I voted for Glitter as the easy option. The Doors would be a 2nd option, but I absolutely love some of their stuff ('The End' is ace-uh!).

The ones I love on that list are Can, The Saints, The Sonics, Patti Smith (first three LP's anyway), the Velvet Underground, Lee Perry, Bo Diddley and The Monks....it's a fucking great list all-round, though! :beer:

Others MES has also mentioned in the past are: Aqua, Big Youth, and 'I'd Rather Jack Than Fleetwood Mac' by The Reynolds Girls :lol:

I guess the ones I own no records by and dont really have any intention of changing that (at the moment) are Bo Diddley and John Lee Hooker.

I know ~ pretty stupid of me, just never felt "the urge".

... but on a brighter note, indeed hitting a high note are:

Can
Captain Beefheart
Faust
Van der Graaf Generator
The Seeds
Velvet Underground
Frank Zappa

I suppose The Captain comes out tops ~ I am one of the few people who even seems to like Blue Jeans and Moonbeams :applaud:

The only Faust record I own is Faust IV, which I thought I'd give a go when I took some CDs to a record exchange. It's in the flat somewhere, unfiled, gathering dust. I'll dig it out again.
Come to think of it, in a moment of madness when writing the above, I forgot to mention how much I hate The Doors, or more specifically Jim "King of the Shape Changing Lizard People" Morrisson. Mainly cause of his bloody awful poetry.
Though I admire the way he walked away from rock and roll and opened a chain of supermarkets.
BTW, why is everyone here so down on Gary Glitter? Did I miss something? :huh:

PS BK, you'll be pleased to know I had the worst bout of insomnia last night I can remember. No, idea why. Bizarro!

:blink:

Er, does this help?

http://www.sickipedia.org/tag/gary+glitter

Jesus Christ!!! I missed that on the news. Why do my heroes always let me down? At least I've still got Michael Jackson to look up to...

I'm with Neal: John Lee Hooker doesn't really appeal to me although his very earliest material is pretty good, imo
Bo Diddley rates just behind Captain Beefheart to me

Compare Mr Smith's list with all the other artists' list that have been put up lately and I think his is far and away superior.

What did Gary Glitter say when he met up with Michael Jackson?


"Can you swap a ten for two fives?"



Sorry! :ohdear:

Just dug out my copy of Faust IV.
Much better than I remember, especially the two tracks you mention. Thank you.
:applaud:
Think the other tracks would have made more sense if I was tripping on shrooms in Prestwich in the mid-70s...

Also, when trying to compile this list - and there are admittedly going to be many I missed, like the acts you mention - but I thought it was instructive (though not exactly surprising) how rare it is to find MES being enthusiastic about other bands or singers.

Definitely! A great idea for a poll. I sometimes wonder if there are bands/artists he really loves that we know nothing about, though. I'm sure there are. Same with writers and artists. I know I sound like a pathetic fanboy, but I WANT TO KNOW! :banghead: :D

I thought of another one MES likes: Der Plan - I haven't heard much of their stuff at all, apart from a couple of tracks off their 1988 album 'Perlen', which I absolutely hated first of all, but I really love it now.
For anyone who hasn't heard them yet, there's quite a bit of their stuff on YouTube. Here's a few:

'Gummitwist' :blink:

'Zurück in die Atmossphäre' :blink: :blink:

'Hey Baby Hop' (including Japanese-child molesting masked man!) :wacko:

Glad you liked the Faust, elvis! I didn't like it much myself when I first heard it, then I put it to one side for a few months and listened to it again. I love the last couple of minutes of those two songs, where the synth/organ comes in.
PS - Sorry to hear about your insomnia. Hope me bringing the topic up didn't trigger it off. :(

I agree 100% about The Doors. He even manages to fuck up The End near the...erm..end of the song. Pretentious twat!
Yep, all of our heroes end up down the Gary Glitter, in the end...so to speak. :(

When did he say he likes "horses"? That's my vote anyway. MES probably, like most of us (?) appreciates Mapplethorpe, but THAT pretentious load of hippy crap LP? Some good guitar here and there but it's a shite album - drippy polemics for farm workers and weak academics. I'm sceptical. Source, please.
And the Doors? I like the Doors, but Mark has always said they're too dramatic, excpt the "Soft Parade" cos it has old guys playing on brass.
Can you back those two up???

Havent heard the Playboys one. Who has?
PS Gary Glitter was a dick, but the Jamm made meat of it, pre-PC possession. I still play GG every NY eve. Just cannae help maeself.

PS
RE:
Faust

Deep
breath

As with CAN/Tangerine Dream/Popol Vuh/Ash Ra Temple/Amon Duul 2/Kraftwerk
Get the first four LPs (and beyond, as many will attest)
plus Neu's and La Dusseldorf's debut respectively



Just
get
them
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im with duckpin on this, I dont think Ive seen a preffered artists list as good as this from anyone else, (could be a poll, but a bit hard to work).
Except for elvis this is a good list.

As a Doors bore, I can advise that, if you look hard enough (and why wouldya) there is a commercially released version of their debut that fades out "the End" before he "fucks it up".
In fact millions of people worldwide have that version of the album, unwittingly and available at a garage sale conducted by a google-eyed bloke with a "Ghost World" TShirt and no longer with a pony tail anymore near you.

Garage sales again: find a Music World interview with Elvis with intermittent songs (and/or The Sun Sessions) and you will know what the fuss is about. There is essential/fundamental rock stuff by Elvis to be found I shit you not.
As vital as Ornette or Beefheart I assure you!!!!!
(The Million Dollar Sessions with Johnny Cash and others - a very bootleg style but Official CD with artists wandering in and out and chatting before/during sessions can be picked up on CD for just a couple of quid).

In the book MES did with Mick Middles, page 69.
"Patti Smith was hugely important and continued to be so. It seemed perfectly natural for us to tune in with much of the New York thing..."
It's foregrounded by a paragraph from Middles saying how Horses was of "more influence" than The Buzzcocks in making MES want to play live...

That answers my question. THanks for that EC!
But does that really sound like MES talking? I'm not arguing. I just guess they might have been paraphrasing.
He seems about as likely to be a PJ Harvey fan, if you get my drift........
Who was good in NY back then though? Think about it: Devo, Blondie, Ramones, Talking Heads, Television, blah blah blah. Good POP bands, but not exactly the VU reincarnate are they?
My guess is he hadnt even heard Patti Smith, just about her.
Having a John Cale production can't have hurt.......ask Happy Mondays.......

The bloody Doors. Can't stick them at any price.

There are several references to MES and The Doors in Simon Ford's book, Hip Priest.
Mainly Baines, Bramah etc saying they were always on MES' stereo in the mid 70s.
Have to say I find it baffling meself, but them were rotten days for music..

I thought the same, ackchewerlee.
It don't sound like a direct quote from MES.
"Hugely important... perfectly natural..."
Eh?
I'm sure MES did go on about Patti Smith in one of the lengthy pub sessions that make up that book, but probably not in those exact words.
But then that's why Mick Middles is known as "Mick Muddles".
Or maybe MES just meant his Aunt Patti?
Like in The Simpsons... :)

You cannot petition Jim Morrison with prayer!!!!

Mike Bradshaw on the other hand.........

I'd like to think they were playing The Doors on one of those radiograms that looked liked a coffin on four legs. The Blue Orchids were pretty Doorsy, esp live do ya reckon?
Ah, the fickle rock fans...........

"but I've never been so broke that I couldnt leave town" Doors lyric is up there with "my friends live in kitchens and halls" for me.......

:D

"I am the Warrior BANG BANG..."
- Patti Smyth

:o

Mick Middles posts on here sometimes!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I read an interview with MES where he was asked about Patti Smith's come-back/return, and he said something like he couldn't see the point because "she couldn't really improve on what she did in the 70's", obviously that's not a direct quote, so it means fuck all, but I remembers it.
He may also have been taking the piss.... :unsure:

I am merely quoting one Steven Patrick Morrissey from Stretford...

:o

Steven Patrick Morrissey from Stretford posts on here sometimes!

not heard john fred and the playboys

like the rest to a greater or lesser extent

That John Fred and Playboys song is excrutiatingly bad.

Oh, you haven't lived!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtUng2PxaAY

Hey hey hey hey, the Gary Glitter crimes are unforgiveable, but unless someone can set me straight on this, MES once attacked a certain Brix backstage with her guitar.
Not exactly paedophilia I know, but unless you can convince me that never happened, 10 years ago or not, MES the person will never be a cool human being to me.
A cool group though, to be judged by their music and not their (sometimes fuckwit) behaviour.

Don't forget he has listed Jethro Tull, The Groundhogs, Abba, Snap and Dollar ("they represent the British people") among his faves in interviews.
Taking the piss, who can say?

Aqua.

Frank Zappa , on the whole..... he's too much of a smug smartarse. So I don't get on with his music. Suicide Chump still saves me from suicidal thoughts though.

I like that one, I even like Observatory Crest.


regarding the list/poll, I don't actually dislike any of those, musically, so haven't voted. Gary Glitter did some good records, shame the way he turned out.

You and me and this women are all in agreement then...

Blue Jeans and Moonbeens?

He's also a fan of Dusty Springfield, of this I am quite certain. -_-

Very tough choice. Zappa just tops the Doors.