When It's Not Metal...

Everyone has a favorite ice cream flavor. Mine is probably orange. If a store has orange ice cream, or especially blood orange, I will buy it, hands down. But if stores ALWAYS had that flavor, I bet I’d still eat it a lot, but there would be times where I’d want something different. For me, music is the same. My favorite type of music, hands down, is hard rock and metal. It’s the music of my youth, it’s the music that moves me most and it’s the music where I like the genre enough, that I’ll enjoy a mediocre metal band more often than not. But, sometimes I need to listen to something different. I’m guessing most people are the same.

What do I like that’s not metal? Right now I am listening to Playing for Change, a project that works to record street musicians around the world. I have several Motown and Stax box sets and I love 60s soul. I have some CDs from the swing revival of the 90s. Classic rock like Hendrix, the Who, Led Zep and even Bob Dylan is a given. I also love a lot of blues, especially Buddy Guy, BB King, Joe Bonamassa, and on the acoustic side, Son House, Lightnin Hopkins and (again) Buddy Guy. I go to a fair number of blues shows. I’ve also recently got in to a lot of southern rock, especially Lynyrd Skynyrd, but I’ve also got in to a bit of Blackfoot and Charlie Daniels...I love Sly and the Family Stone.

In the 80s, I was confused that people assumed you couldn’t like Bon Jovi and Metallica. (I saw Bon Jovi on the weekend, and wore my Metallica shirt from last month’s tour to one show and overheard someone say “He’s at the wrong show”). Nowadays, I worry even less about what people think and find I like more and more different types of music, although, out of my 2,600 CDs, I bet that 2,300 are rock and metal.

What about you? What do you listen to when you’re not listening to the bands covered here?

Comments

[Gator]

My music collection primarily consists of 80's metal and 90's rock (always hated the term grunge - it's as derivative as the phrase "hair metal", and does a disservice to the actual music itself). My ipod contains everything from Great White, Poison, and Judas Priest to Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, and Sevendust.

While I usually prefer the heavier rock music in general, I also enjoy Elton John, Billy Joel, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, early Duran Duran, cheesy 70's pop, and old school R&B such as Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye.

What's that old saying? "Variety is the spice of life"!

[Metalboy!]

Though I applaud the diversity of "tastes" displayed in the responses to Allyson's ever clever post here, I can't go there with those stating their undying love of Huey Lewis and some of the other crap they've listed.

Hu-oh-lo-oh!

However, not to be outdone...

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"Put the needle on the record and if it sounds good, leave it on!"

-- Metalboy!, 1979

That pretty much sums it up for me, when talking about my musical tastes.

It's funny, because, once again, I'm feeling a little serendipity with BBG! as I was just thinking about all of the different genres of music I enjoy (Hard to believe, I'm sure, for some of you, judging from my sometimes admittedly miopic comments on BBG!)

I'll listen to just about anything if it sounds good to me, no matter how lousy inner directed "purists" or hype herded "sheep" think it is.

About the only thing I have a short attention span for is present day Popular Country Music.

My most favorite genre besides 80's/90's Glam Metal and Classic Rock is 70's Punk Rock.

I also like pretty much what's considered to be the best in Jazz, Pop and Classical. I am particularly fond of Popular Jazz Standards from the late 50's, 60's and 70's, but not excluding all the subsequent decades to the present.

My favorite band of all time is Led Zeppelin, though I realize they couldn't have done it without the Beatles, undoubtedly the greatest band in Rock'n'Roll history.

I'm probably one of the few people who has everything from A-Z with an eccentric mix (From AC/DC to Miles Davis to Barry Manilow to Frank Zappa).

True to form, some of my favorite songs are, hands down, some of the worst recordings ever made like one-hit-wonders, "MacArthur Park (" by Richard Harris (1968), "Precious And Few" by Climax (1972) or worse still, "Indiana Wants Me" by R. Dean Taylor (1970) and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

However, even I will draw the line when it comes to one-hit-wonders. I simply cannot go there when it comes to songs like "Seasons In The Sun", Terry Jacks, or "Billy, Don't Be A Hero" by Whoever.

Forgive me if I don't bother straining my digi's to Google the gory details on that one or anything else that might come to mind. for that matter.

I also love many choice little ditties from the world of 60's Bubblegum such as "Simon Says" by 1910 Fruitgum Co. or one of my top faves of the 70's, the 1972 #1 Hit, "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl" by Looking Glass, which, interestingly, was produced by the immortal Clive Davis.

BTW, I have sung "Brandy", "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes" by Edison Lighthouse and "Precious And Few" karaoke many times, usually acapella because the songs are considered so awful, karaoke joints don't have them on their systems.

Well, maybe you can find "Brandy" once in awhile.

And, as I mentioned earlier, though not my personal absolute fave (but close), no doubt, The Beatles are right up there, as far as being the greatest thing to ever hit the face of the earth. I may not listen to 'em much anymore, but I'm not gonna die they are the unequivocal top of the heap.

I am also majorly obsessed with Cheap Trick and Burt Bacharach (and even had a mockumentary about Bacharach in development with William Morris, too!)

I've also seen so many different kinds of musical performances in my life, if I listed them all it would probably explode the site.

But my fave performances I've ever seen are Dave Brubeck Quartet in '72 (original line-up) and Led Zeppelin in '77.

I've also seen more than once, the usual suspects we usually discuss here.

The bands I have seen the most are AC/DC (11 times, 3 with Bon Scott in '78 & '79), G'n'R (6 times from '86 -'92), Cheap Trick (8 times since ''78 and as recently as this year) and Rmaones (14 times since '78)...

My biggest regrets are not seeing The Runaways, Deep Purple with Blackmore or Sabbath with the all original line-up. My ex-lead guitarist was fortunate enuff to see The Runaways (with The Ramones as the opening act!).

I missed the silver platter opportunity to see the original line up of The Grateful Dead, who actually pretty much do nothing for me, but now, in hindsight, I wish I could have seen them for the experience.

I also believe The Beach Boys were The Best American Band ever with Aerosmith close behind, followed by The Doors, Van Halen, Boston, Kiss, Cheap Trick, New York Dolls, Alice Cooper, The Ramones, The Dead Boys and The Runaways, Motley Crue, Grand Funk Railroad, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ratt, Poison, Nirvana and Steppenwolf, among others.

Feeling patriotic, here's my list of fave American Solo Artists... Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Alice Cooper, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations and Cher.

I'll skip The Greatest British Performers for now.

But my favorite Punk band is 999.