Missing Out On Music You Would Love

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I must confess, my guilty pleasure is music. I’m an avid collector. Even better than listening to my established favourites is discovering new bands whose music I absolutely love. I recently discovered a couple of bands whose music I find quite exceptional. Black Swan Lane (album – Hide In View) and Desperate Journalist (album – Maximum Sorrow!). I also love the thrill of the chase, so to speak. Allow me to explain.

Back in the day, I’d spend hours in every record shop in town. Going through the racks looking for new interesting releases, bargains and ways to fill gaps in my collection. I miss those days. Our Price Records, HMV, Virgin Megastore, Tower Records plus WH Smiths, Boots, Woolworths and any number of local independent record shops. Happy days, but the internet age does have some compensations when it comes to making connections. For example, I love the late ’70s/early 80’s art pop/synth band Japan. Remember them? Well, their keyboard player was Richard Barbieri. I was wondering what he’d been up to since Japan broke up in ’82. Seems he played keys for a prog rock band called Porcupine Tree. I’d never heard of them, so I picked up their best of, Stars Die: The Delerium Years 1991–1997. It wasn’t bad, but the singer interested me. Steven Wilson. Porcupine Tree disbanded in 2010 (they reformed in 2021), so I wondered what else Steven Wilson had done since then. Quite a lot as it turned out. He’s made a number of solo albums, so I bought the cheapest one I could find. To The Bone. OMG!!! It is stunning. One particular track stands out because it is just so beautiful and moving. Pariah. Here’s a link:

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

The female vocalist is amazing. Ninet Tayeb. Her solo material is a cunt to get hold of, but I’m working on it. 🙂 My point is, a bit of random day dreaming led me to make a connection, which lead to something else which lead me to an album which I now adore. What if I hadn’t been day dreaming that day? What other bands and albums will I never hear because I didn’t make a connection? Or didn’t know the guitarist in one band collaborated with the bassist from another band who put out an album together in the ’90s that I will never know even existed? You get the general idea. Aggghhhhh!

I hate that and it really bothers me. I just know that when my time comes, I will long to hear the albums I love and deeply regret all the wonderful albums I never heard and never will. And that’s a cunt.

Nominated by: Imitation Yank

122 thoughts on “Missing Out On Music You Would Love”

  1. You cant beat great music, however most modern music dosnt fall into this catagory, i love 60,s 70,s 80,s and even some 90,s and then now and then some newer stuff, most modern music isnt actually music at all, just noise for a computer program to try and sort out, done by talentless cockwombles for a never ending ear fucking that goes on and on for ever…….

  3. That’t the joy of serendipity – accidentally discovering something which, in its turn, leads on to other enlightening discoveries. Serendipitous discovery is sublime.

    I experienced this going through record shops when I was a kid. I experience it today in book shops or on Amazon when looking for books, or when reading books and being sent down some rabbit warren of new discoveries which spark new interests. I experience it profoundly in astronomy, where new discoveries are practically infinite.

    I know what you mean about it being a cunt but really its a joy. You can look forward to the joy of new discoveries.

  4. How about turning this around to ‘Music you would love to have missed out on’?
    I am not a violent man, however…
    ‘Top of the Paps’ for me would have to be Little Jimmy Osmond’s ‘Long Haired Lover from Liverpool’. It’s fifty years since this abomination was foisted upon us, yet to this day I can’t watch the fat little bastard miming it (appallingly) without wanting to thump him in the mush.

    • St Winnifred’s School Choir. That is before MNC defiled one of them, and a pool table at the same time.

      Perhaps that’s why he no longer likes music?

      • If it was the lead singer with the lisp she’d probably have put him off porking for life.
        Perhaps MNC would care to enlighten us.

    • That’s a fun thought experiment, GT.

      Back when I was very young, the radio was always on in the house so I heard a lot of tunes from the 60s and 70s before I formed by own musical tastes in the late ’70s. Unfortunately I heard many songs by a certain 60s beat combo which I know, but hate like poison. I wish I’d never heard any of that drivel.

      I could live quite happily never having heard any country, rap, jazz or blues. But then again, you only know what you like in part because of what you don’t like.

  5. I dont like music.
    Its frivolous.
    Its ok in written form but thats it.

    I like silence
    So I can listen to the voices arguing in my head.

  7. Life is too short to find and enjoy all that this world has to offer unfortunately. I wish I had time to mine for good music beyond the main stream. I would love to just drive and stop at tiny Texas towns looking at old buildings, antiques, and visiting with those who know the history.
    Sigh! Gotta get back to work.

    • I clicked on the link IY and thats obviously documentary maker Louis Theroux in a hippy wig.

      Probably to infiltrate the music business then dish the dirt.

      Heres a tune CS the Barrista clued me up to

      https://youtu.be/v_rp55TU7es

      She does something to my winky, although not particularly fit,
      But I was sweating that hard I took my balaclava off.

      • You have very strange tastes, MNC.
        And the balaclava?
        Bit old hat!

        I’ll get my coat.

    • Old buildings in Texas MC? Didn’t know there were any. Oldest I know of is the Alamo which is 19th century. Where I live I am a short walk from a 14th century building and a 13th century building and there are plenty of others nearby which are dated by the historians as “Norman”.
      Seriously though, I’m not taking the piss. I’m reminded of a statement, I can’t remember by whom, that the difference between the Yanks and the Brits is that the Yanks think a hundred years is a long time and the Brits think a hundred miles is a long way.
      A very good afternoon to you.

      • The farmhouse I lived in in Cumbria, as a teen, predated the founding fathers. Actually, it predates the European colonisation.
        👍

    • No Cardi B for you then?
      Maybe some Saweetie?
      Yes the music is shit today but my parents thought my beloved music was too.
      Funny that.

  9. Love Japan one of my favourite bands. Saw them play Hammersmith Odeon on their farewell tour 1982. Also Porcupine Tree saw them play the Royal Albert Hall in 2010. Have you listened to any of David Sylvians solo albums? Brilliant Trees, Secrets of the Beehive & Gone to Earth are fantastic. Sadly great pop music is just another casualty of this soulless foul age. It is full of talentless jabbering morons.

    • Oh John, John, John….please don’t tell me you got to see Japan!!! I never did. I think I had Quiet Life in ’82, but didn’t really get into them full on until I met my first girlfriend in ’83. She was crazy about Japan. Just when the world was coming around to Japan’s vision, Sylvian pulled the plug. A great pity. I have most of Sylvian’s solo stuff. Brilliant Trees is a wonderful listen and Gone To Earth ranks high simply for Taking The Veil.

      I hope you have checked out the Japan ‘reunion’ project, Rain Tree Crow. The song, Every Colour You Are, is simply stunning.

      You’re right about the demise of pop music. Let’s be honest, there was a lot of crap around in the ’80s & ’90s, but the good stuff (and plenty of it) was high quality.

      Seriously jealous about you seeing Japan, especially at the Hammy Odeon. I love that venue. Seen Numan there countless times. Cheers – IY.

      • Yeah, I love the Rain Tree Crow album. Saw Sylvian perform in 2002 at The Hammersmith Odeon. He looked a bit lost on stage and he really is a cold fish. He did not or would not interact with the audience. I still love the guy. But in truth he is a bit of a pretentious nob.

  10. i loved Talking Heads because i was going to college at that time and i was uber cool and smart so like the cunt i am i ditched my love for Thin Lizzy and Moterhead and others as i couldn’t be caught dead with those tapes lying around the place as i was now in the cool to be seen zone, so cool and yah man cool
    I returned to my senses when i realised that most most of the best music is rock even though i still like Talking Heads and others but most of what was music in the arty house was shite and pretentious.
    Im still a cool cunt when i have a few as long as no mirrors are in sight.

      • And The Doors too MMCM ? i have a long play version of Riders on the Storm, old i think and its mesmeric and never bores it just flows in and out softly or should i say
        “snug in the cottonwool brains of infancy”
        at least i think that’s one of his lines from An American prayer

      • And The Doors MMCM? i have a long play version of Riders on the Storm. old, i think EP single sometime later and its just mesmeric, it just flows in and out softly, or should i say
        “snug in the cottonwool brains of infancy” at least i think that was one of his lines in An American Prayer.

      • The Doors Live in Detroit 1970 is a treat.

        I regret not being old enough to see them at the Isle of Wight Festival.

        Time travel please.

    • Aye Dick, after years of driving about the village in your Kubelwagen with some WW2 German marching music at top volume is not the time to have many regrets.

  12. A post about John Miles by Miles Plastic.

    I always hated ‘Music’.

    🎶Music was my first love and it will be my last🎶

    🎶Music of the future and music of the past🎶

    Oh shut the fuck up.

    • Yuck. that song gets almost daily play on ‘Gold’, along with the funeral adverts.

    • Poor John Miles. Did he do anything else? I actually have a best of but can’t name another track on it other than Music. Which was epic sounding at the time to be fair.

  14. A very thought provoking nom, which I suppose one could apply to other aspects of life. If I hadn’t married the missus, what other delightful (or more likely neurotic) ladies could I have had carnal knowledge of and what have i missed? Or if I hadn’t had kids so late, what cars could I have owned at an age when I should have been able to afford them? Life is full of missed opportunities or undiscovered gems, be it music or otherwise. Probably best not to dwell on it too long, and enjoy what you have discovered in the time you have I guess.

    • Couldn’t have put it better FMC, there’s no point dwelling on what might have been. You can’t do it all in one lifetime. If you think you can you’re deluded. If you say you have then you’re a liar. Enjoy what you have discovered or forever be at a loss.

    • That’s a great point, FMC. That might have to be another cunting for another day.

  15. I did like early years Japan – Adolescent Sex, Obscure Alternatives. Raw and fast.

    Quiet life was a good halfway house with a bit of disco thrown in.

    • Ps Sadly, I thought the later stuff of Japan’s was too similar to Roxy Music, including Sylvian’s singing voice transformation to one of Mini Ferry.

      • That’s a fair critique, Paul.

        I do like both Sylvian and Ferry. My fave Japan album is Gentlemen Take Polaroids. Just. Quiet life is ace though.

      • Cheers Paul.

        Wow, demos they most certainly are. Early Japan is an acquired taste. When I worked at it, I got it. Difficult to believe these demos were the same band (minus Rob Dean) who made Tin Drum.

        Obscure Alternatives is bonkers though. They open with Automatic Gun which is…..erm…..different, but then close with Tenant which is hauntingly beautiful and sad. I absolutely adore that song. One of their best IMO.

  16. I brought one of them Country and Western records and played it backwards.
    — I got my house back, my wife back, my dog back, my truck back…

    Two deaf guys walk into a pub in Burnley.

    One gives his mate a twenty pound note and says:

    “You get the drinks in. I’ll find us a seat.”

    So the guy goes to the bar and orders two pints of lager. The barman serves him and gives him two pounds change.

    “What’s this?” the deaf guy asks, looking at his change. “You charge nine pounds a pint in here these days?”

    “Nah,” the barman says. “We’ve got a live band in tonight. There’s a £5 cover charge. You and your mate, that’s a tenner.”

    “Live band?”

    “Live band,” the bartender confirms.

    “What, rock and roll, Indie, hip-hop, grunge…?”

    “Country and Western,” the barman replies.

    “Ri-ight…” the deaf guy says as he takes the drinks.

    He rejoins his mate. Puts the drinks on the table.

    “Where’s me change?” the friend asks.

    He gets handed the two quid.

    “What? They charge nine quid a fuggin pint in here now do they? What’s the crack?”

    “They’ve got a band on. £5 cover charge.”

    “A band?”

    “Oh yes.”

    “What? Rock n roll, Indie, hip hop, grunge?”

    “Nah,”

    “What then?”

    “Some cunt from Preston”.

  17. Phil Oakes
    David McWilliams
    Friday on my Mind, the Easybeats.
    Agadoo.

    • 🎵 A tenament, a dirty street, walked along by shoeless feet🎵

      The days of Pearly Spencer (1967)

      David McWilliams was excellent!
      Mark Almond not so much!

      • That Almond cunt has just teamed up with those arse bandits Pet Shop Boys. Purple Zone or something. My mate sent me a link to it the other day. I wished he hadn’t. Truly awful.

        PSB – first album, decent. Everything else – oh dear. And to think Neil Tennant used to slag off Gary Numan in Smash Hits. Cunt.

  18. There is known music and there is music we know we know. We also know there is known unknown music; that is to say we know there is some music we do not know.

    Doncha know?

    Two pints and I’m pissed already.

  19. Pixies
    Jane’s addiction
    Faith no more
    NIN
    Psyched up Janis
    Silversun pickups
    Modest mouse
    Placebo

    Over 1000 CDs and I always seem to end up returning to these.

    Happier times with much better music.

    • NIN is a tricky one for me. I liked Pretty Hate Machine, but thought The Downward Spiral is dogshit. I have a few others of their and rarely play them.

      Placebo – interesting band. They’ve done some powerful and catchy stuff. Pure Morning is a favourite. New album out too. Haven’t got it yet.

      • IY@

        You mentioned horror genre books?

        Theres a Texan writer called Joe R Lansdale who did some western horror stories,
        And some pulp action books,
        Heard hes pretty good.

        Obviously I dont read books
        And haven’t read these,
        And no one can proove otherwise.
        But someone did and really liked them😁👍

    • I am the same. It does not matter how much music I acquire. I am drawn back to the same albums again and again. Echo & The Bunnymen’s early stuff plus Joy Division & Japan.

  20. Not really had this anxiety with music but I have had it with books. Wondering what the best books to read next would be, what i’m missing out on.

    The problem is the more you read, you more you realise just how much more there is.

    • The cunt is missing out on something which you’d love if you’d known about it. Too many albums – not enough time. 🙁

    • A school kid in my class was infatuated with Queen so much so ,that he tattooed it QUEEN on his forearm (solo job , needle wrapped in thread and indian ink) . nice large capitals too as he was the best at painting in the class by a mile.
      We were 13 years of age at the time and he kinda regretted it as he was anything but.
      He should have just tattooed Freddie and always would have had the option of changing his story

    • Always thought Here I Am was probably their best effort.
      I heard someone once describe Queen as pantomime Led Zeppelin.

      Good Evening JP

      • Thought I must’ve missed Here I Am somewhere!

        Queen were great in their prime. I used to like them around the Rock in Montreal era when Feeddie used to spend half his time at the piano instead of mincing around. Apparently he decided he wasn’t a good enough pianist to play live in later years.

        It was also the era before Brian May turned into a total cunt (did he get cunted yet)?

      • Update on Brian May cuntings, I ran a search, you bet he has, several times over!

  23. How do you find music these days?
    There’s so much of it out there I don’t know where to start. Or are you supposed to sign up to Spotify and listen all day?

    • No need So Long,

      In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, everyone knows rock achieved perfection in 1972.

      There’s just no need to listen to anything since.

    • That’s a great question, So Long. I’m sure I’ll get some flak for this, but hey here goes…

      There are two types of people when it comes to consuming music. Those that hear music and those that listen to it. Music is meant to be experienced. It’s supposed to affect you, speak to you, move you. You’re only open to that if you listen to it. Hearing it is not enough. Hearing ultra compressed MP3 shite on music streaming services does not lend itself to experiencing the full range of sonic enjoyment the artist intended. It just doesn’t. Easy to say when you’re a music snob with a fuck off hi-fi. Guilty.

      Good music is such a subjective thing, but I would say you’re not going to find a plethora of it in the popular charts. Those days are over. The charts are chock full of manufactured mass appeal garbage, which is a pity.

      Sources of music which you’d like can be very diverse. Radio. TV. Streaming services (ugh!), music related websites (e.g. pitchfork.com, thequietus.com, discogs.com, bandcamp.com, etc.). Many websites let you sample album tracks to see if you’d like it (Amazon, importcds, deepdiscount, etc.). Whole albums are available on YT.

      Then there’s weird serendipitous moments. I’ll give you a couple of examples of how that’s worked for me recently.

      1) I was watching a YT video of some cunt talking about his favourite vinyl albums of 2021. I thought I’d give each a quick listen on YT to see what I thought. It was mostly stuff I didn’t like until he mentioned Desperate Journalist. I listened to about a minute of their song “Everything You Wanted”. I was BLOWN AWAY. I stopped listening to it because I knew I wanted the album and didn’t want to spoil listening to the whole thing on decent equipment. I now have all 4 of their albums.

      2) I was listening to The Crossing by Big Country a few months ago. I was wondering if there were any reviews online since it’s such a classic album. No internet of course when it was released in 1983. I found a review of the 2012 expanded re-issue. On the same web page was a small picture of an album cover with some blurb about it being your “new favourite band”. I thought that was a bit ‘ballsie’, but the cover art really grabbed me.

      https://blackswanlane.com/store-2/HIDE-IN-VIEW-p402215601

      I sampled a couple of songs on YT and thought I’d like the album. I headed on over to the band’s website and saw they were having a bit of a promotion/sale. Their entire back catalog for a very decent price. You already know what I did next!

      From there, you can find out who influenced bands you like and then check them out. Who played on what. Who produced it. Who else they’ve worked with. It’s endless.

      Seek and thee shall find.!

  24. As a matter of interest IY have you ever listened to any of my albums? I’d value an honest opinion even if you think it’s crap.

    It’s on all the major streaming sites. Spotify is free.

    Look under Chas Crane.

    Actually I know this probably asking for trouble, but any of the people’s opinions on here would be welcomed either publically or by email to chascranemusic@gmail.com.

    • I have not Chas, but I’d be happy to. Anyone who’s got off their arse and actually done something with their musical talent deserves credit.

      I have a modest amount of music gear myself, some of it professional grade. A head full of ideas, aspirations beyond my meagre talent and a streak of laziness a mile wide. My problem is I don’t know how to use my equipment and I’ve never knuckled down to learn. When I hear something which is so technically proficient, beautifully performed and just oozes atmosphere and emotion, I think to myself – why bother? I toyed with the idea of learning bass a few years ago. Then I listen to Mick Karn play and think someone should cut my hands off for even thinking about it.

      Anyway, enough about my problems – I will seek out your back catalogue Chas and report back in due course. Cheers – IY.

  26. IY: have you listened to a fine 90’s band, “The Meatpuppets”?

    I recently helped er’ indoors rearrange her record & CD collection, (which has adsorbed my own collection).

    It reignited my own passion for music-so much so, I have turned one of my reception rooms into a “listening room”-much like in the nomination photo👍

    Turn of the news
    Turn up your music
    =happiness
    😀👍

    • CG – I have not. I’m not sure I know the name of the band either. Care to recommend an album by them?

      So glad to read about your rekindled love for music. That’s awesome. Not sure about combining collections though. My Mrs claims to love quality (that I introduced her to) like Gary Numan and Killing Joke, but then she also likes New Kids On The Block. That shite is not allowed anywhere near my collection.

      • Just listened to Backwater by Meat Puppets. I’ve heard that a zillion times, but didn’t know it was by them. Not a bad effort. A ‘best of’ CD might be worth the spend. Cheers – IY.

  27. The days of the greats in music are gone☹️

    Your giants of rock,
    Your David van Days
    Joe Longthornes
    Chesney Hawkes

    All gone.
    But the spirit of rock n roll still beats strong in some hearts

    Take a bow Jim
    https://youtu.be/syyxZdNK4vE

    • A pissed up Mrs Hawkes (Chesney’s Mum), liked to show the “boys” a tattoo on a certain part of her anatomy, when she had drunk had overdone the sherry, at her local.

      Very nice it was too😉

  28. Back in the late 70s and still at comprehensive school (6th form), a friend brought an album into the common room and played it on the knackered turntable.

    Turns out the first song was “Doctor Doctor” and then “Only you can rock me”. Great songs and I enquired who the band was
    “UFO” said the mate.

    I borrowed the album and played it to death at home. Saw them in concert not soon afterwards. And then in 1983/4 I’m sitting in a boozer in Harborne, Birmingham, and who should walk in but lead singer Phil Mogg, who was living in Harborne at the time.

    And even better he walks over to my table and points at my UFO t-shirt I was wearing from their last gig.

    He asks me what I thought of their last album.

    Stuck for words due to my surprise I said it was pretty shit without Schenker.

    To my amazement he agreed and then rejoined his own mates upstairs in the restaurant.

    Top bloke for a great band that faded far too quickly after “Strangers in the Night”

    • I saw UFO play the Roundhouse in 1976. I stood a few feet away from axe hero Michael Schenker. Watching his fingers play on his Flying V guitar. From that day to this nothing has come near. My ears kept ringing for 2 days after from the loud volume. God does move in mysterious ways.

  29. That’s a great story, Techno. And kudos for having the balls to say what you thought.

    I spent a whole day working with Gary Numan in his studio many years ago. I was a bit star struck, I must admit. He was so nice though and completely down to earth.

    Met 3 of the 4 members of Killing Joke a couple of years ago. Now THAT was a treat. Jaz Coleman, perhaps the scariest man in rock, could not have been friendlier or more engaging to everyone there. He started talking to me about the next mass extinction event and how it’s overdue. Ha! Big Paul was just class and Youth was a trip. I’d taken along my copies of their album, Brighter Than A Thousand Suns (which is epic and one of the best albums ever made). He asked me what’s so great about it, so I started to name the tracks! He was all “meh” and “pppsst” etc. So I said, “you’re only sore because you didn’t play on it”. Haha. We had a laugh like we’d known each other for years. It was surreal. Geordie, the guitarist, went off in a strop after the soundcheck and couldn’t be bothered to come out and meet the VIP fans. I’ll stop short of calling him a cunt, but FFS! I really wanted to shake the hand of the man who makes those amazing sounds. Wasn’t to be.

    • KJ are fucking ace. Millennium for me but it’s a hard call. Got them all on cd.

      • They’re a brutal listen, MF but so worth it. What a band. Jaz, the ultimate scary, crazy, intimidating front man. Big Paul, solid, tribal and intense. Youth, world class producer and decent bassist. Geordie, no solos but THAT guitar sound. And Raven of course. Excellent bass player and sadly missed. RIP.

        Brighter Than A Thousand Suns cannot be touched, IMO. But how do you choose between masterpieces like Extremities, Pandemonium, Democracy, Pylon…..

        Fingers crossed for one more album before they hang it up.

  30. Regarding horror books, “In the mountains of madness” is a good start IY.
    HPL is a master, like a more visceral Poe.
    I get you regarding old vinyl, going to the independents in Soho was always a treat, when Soho still had the ‘village’ vibe to it. A hardware shop next door to a peep show and amusement arcade,unique.
    Some Lovecraft stories were put into film, The Dunwich Horror,Re-animator 1-3 (great fun) and From Beyond which had a saucy minx dressed up in all the flying tackle in one scene of horror madness.
    Triffic stuff 🧐 .
    Sadly, an overseas move meant all my original vinyl is now gone. Stones,Velvets,Small Faces et al.

    • Sorry to hear about your vinyl demise, MF. My vinyl collection is pretty modest. I upgraded most of it to CD and sold the vinyls many years ago. It has crossed the Atlantic though, twice. The freaking flight cases were spendy, but what can you do? Breaks my heart to think about my limited editions, picture discs, coloured vinyls, etc. will all be in a land fill one day.

      Thanks for the horror book tips. Much appreciated. Off to bed now to read my latest Richard Laymon. Some tart thought she was going to have a midnight moonlit tryst with her fancy man. Little did she know, he was going to drown her then cut her head off with a hacksaw. Can’t wait to find out what the cunt does next. Haha.

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