Slipped through the cracks?

Is there a band (from your lifetime as a fan) that you would have really enjoyed, but just happened to never get exposed to for some reason until much later?
For me it's Budgie. I would have been a huge Budgie fan in the 70's, but I never heard them, and I really regret missing the experience. I relied a lot on a book "The Illlustrated Encyclopedia of Rock" for picking up on things in those days. They did have an entry for Budgie, only it only called them "A Welsh Band"; they gave me absolutely no clue that they were a heavy band. And of course the broadcast media was a hopeless source, as they were then in the process of chiseling in stone the Classic Rock format that has hardly changed to this day. No Budgie there, then or now. I never heard Budgie until Metallica's homage to them in the Garage Days.
I know it's unfair, but I tend to take out my frustrations about missing out on Budgie on 70's Rush. But the comparison is inevitable IMO. Both were Zeppelin influenced 3 pieces, with very, very high pitched singers. And both were somewhat ideosyncratic (although in different ways).However unlike Budgie, Rush was ubiquitous in my world. First of all, I'll admit that the 2112 album was better than any single Budgie album. That being said though, other than 2112, I never found much that I could sink my teeth into with Rush. There was always about one kickin' song on each early album (Working Man, Fly By Night, Bastille Day, Cygnus x-1); but as a whole the Rush albums just didn't do it for me, and I tried hard to like them! What I'm saying is that Budgie in 70's was the band that I wanted Rush to be, only I didn't know about Budgie so I was stuck with Rush. And Budgie came first! I know you'll disagree with me here, but to my ears Budgie had about 25 really hefty rockers during the 70's, and Rush only about 10. I do really like the album "Signals", but by then Rush had diverged, and the Budgie comparison was no longer valid.
Anyway, that's just my subjective experience. If you wanna trash me for being luke warm about Rush, go ahead. But what I really want to know is if you ever happened to miss out on a band that you would have really liked at the time, but just happened to never discover until later? Who were they and when?

Saxon, hands down. I had never heard one Saxon song, until about 3 years ago, when these clowns here got me to check them out.

Then I bought Lionheart and Denim and Leather. When I heard Sailing To America on Crusader I was hooked. Now I own a bunch of their stuff.

I'm lucky in having grown up in the 00's that alot of the rock media is directed to nostalgia these days, and alot of revisionist history has been taken out on bands that in their day never achieved mainstream success but are deemed seminal and important. I mean i knew of bands like the MC5, The Stooges, New York Dolls, Big Star etc. before i even heard their music. So i was 'hipped' to these bands when alot of people growing up in the 70's and a lesser extent 80's may never heard of them.
But i guess that the advent of the internet has helped, you can find out anything its really opened up everything (although it takes away from the mystery). But still theirs some great bands from the 00's that i have just discovered that released an album or 2 in the early 00's and then faded into obscurity, Sugarbomb and Tsar being examples.
With Budgie i guess you have to know them cause three of the biggest hard rock/metal bands of the last 20 odd years Soundgarden, Iron Maiden, Metallica have covered their songs. Their no longer a secret.
And i know what your talking about with Budgie and the comparison with Rush. Budgie's music is stunning going from beautiful lush ballads to absolute heavy galloping monster rockers. While Rush's music is middling, never really leaving the ground in achieving brilliance.

Crowbar.. i cannot say why i never heard them until Broken Glass came out. i certainly knew they existed. i just never listened. i'm glad i finally did though, because i love that freakin band.

AC/DC. As posted in the other thread I started, I didn't buy an album by them until 2007. I liked the radio songs I'd heard (except "Big Balls"), but always assumed a full album by them would get old. I mainly thought this because they have such a unique sound; I figured every song would sound the same.

I was wrong. They're instantly identifiable, of course, but the songs don't bleed together like I expected. I'm loving them, actually! Pretty funny considering that the most logical time for me to begin listening to them would have been around 1987 when I first started getting into rock music. I should be a 20-year fan right now, but I've not even been a fan for a full year yet. Haha.

I think the internet and boards like this keep these kind of tragedies (Saxon, Crowbar, AC/DC...yes missing these are tragedies indeed!) from happening so much.
I got lucky finding Crowbar early on. I just pulled it out of a used bin and took it to the listening station and bingo! But it was a shot in the dark, the could just as easily have passed me by until recently.
AC/DC I didn't really find until Back in Black, but I very quickly became a Bon Scott partisan.
Honestly Garage Days helped clue me into bands like Saxon too. I hadn't really explored the NWOBHM very far beyond Motorhead and Maiden, and a couple of samplers before that. So I gotta give Metallica credit for that at least!
Sugarbomb and Tsar I have to look into.

Quote :

I think the internet and boards like this keep these kind of tragedies (Saxon, Crowbar, AC/DC...yes missing these are tragedies indeed!) from happening so much.

I don't believe I would've liked Saxon 20 years ago. I sure wouldn't have given them much of a chance.

Saxon - good call! I love their new one loads and I'm interested in the back catalogue...

A very recent one for me is Tyketto. Why or how I never heard of them is beyond me but just about a month ago I stumbled upon Don't Come Easy at the Goodwill for $1.99 and it's one of the best albums regardless of genre that I've ever heard!

I still haven't acquired an AC/DC album as I've harbored the same opinion Eyesore had. I'm SO saturated by them - and growing up in a small farming community where if one listened to ONE heavy metal band AC/DC was that ONE - I don't know if I can ever shake my prejudice of them.

This is a good thread/question!

ac/dc = REDNECK metal. rednecks love it.

SoldierUnderCommand wrote:

ac/dc = REDNECK metal. rednecks love it.

yes we do

What is Crowbar like? I've seen them around for ages but they are also one I just never pulled the trigger on. For some reason the name suggested to me that they were yelling hardcore type and I went through that phase and out of it long ago..

mc666 wrote:

SoldierUnderCommand wrote:

ac/dc = REDNECK metal. rednecks love it.

yes we do

darn skippy bro!
Somehow...I've never heard Believer, need to fix that.

Every redneck down here:

"i love metal! AC/DC man! Hellllsssssss Bellssssssss."

They alone are the reason I own zero ac/dc records.

I've only recently begun to discover the Blue Oyster Cult catalog. I only have two CDs thus far (a cheapie best-of that started it all, and the FIRE OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN album) but I plan on getting more.

My knowledge of Rush is severely limited -- basically their radio singles and little, if anything, else. I had a used copy of their CHRONICLES best-of in my hand a while ago, thinking it would probably make an excellent starting point for me, but I ended up putting it back in favor of something else, now I kinda wish I'd picked it up.

Chronicles is a good start. It let me know that I loved their 70's work but all but about 2-3 songs fromt the 80's forward are dead to me!

I still don't know if I've heard ONE Budgie song. Lots of folks around here seem to like them so that may need to be remedied. They'll be fresh and new to me as they haven't been beaten to death on the radio.

scottmitchell74 wrote:

What is Crowbar like? I've seen them around for ages but they are also one I just never pulled the trigger on. For some reason the name suggested to me that they were yelling hardcore type and I went through that phase and out of it long ago..

vocally they do have some of that. they are basicly a mixture of hardcore & doom. it's not for everyone, but i sure like it.

Galactic Cowboys, I became a fan of theirs right after they called it quits.

For me it would be Stryper. I'm sure I had heard some along the way but for some reason never got into them. They just flew below my music radar, which is funny because they were very popular. Anyway, this Thanksgiving at the Black Friday Hastings sale I picked up To Hell With The Devil. I love this album. I mean really love it. And boy did the teenage me miss out because this would have probably been one of his all time favorites.

I was lucky with Saxon because a friend's older brother somehow got into them and it became the cool thing at school to like them. It went something like "yeah Judas Priest is great but you know who also is great...". We also drew that Saxon logo on everything.

jstate wrote:

For me it would be Stryper. I'm sure I had heard some along the way but for some reason never got into them. They just flew below my music radar, which is funny because they were very popular. Anyway, this Thanksgiving at the Black Friday Hastings sale I picked up To Hell With The Devil. I love this album. I mean really love it. And boy did the teenage me miss out because this would have probably been one of his all time favorites.

I was lucky with Saxon because a friend's older brother somehow got into them and it became the cool thing at school to like them. It went something like "yeah Judas Priest is great but you know who also is great...". We also drew that Saxon logo on everything.

Stryper for me too. I never listened to their music until after I became a Christian in late 2000. I will see how it is with Saxon once I get around to getting one of their albums. I'm just now recently getting into old Megadeth (pre-Countdown), old Judas Priest (non-hits pre-Painkiller), old Dio (also non-hits pre-Lock Up The Wolves), and Mototrhead (also also non-hits) if that counts [seeing as I've been a fan of them for over a decade now].

That reminds me....

Judas Priest and Motorhead are two more I've NEVER owned.

JP - I think it's because I despise their radio friendly songs....

Motorhead - I have no idea...just one of those things.

scottmitchell74 wrote:

That reminds me....

Judas Priest and Motorhead are two more I've NEVER owned.

JP - I think it's because I despise their radio friendly songs....

Motorhead - I have no idea...just one of those things.

I've never listened to JP either, because their music tells you to kill yourself.....so, you know.....

I own one JP disc-Jugulator.I dont have anything against Priest at all.I enjoy their music,just never have started collecting their stuff.I guess while everyone else was listening to Priest I was off listening to Saint

I WAS COMPLETELY BEING SARCASTIC, btw!! you know like, HAHAHAHAHA, TROY MADE A FUNNY....okay, nevermind.

For me it was Overkill.

For years, the only release I had was Horroscope and even that one didn't get much attention. I don't know why, but I just never played it. Then one day I decided to give it a spin and it was like I'd never heard it before in my life. I soon began to wonder what I was missing, knowing that they had a huge catalog of music by that point. I went on a wild tear, trying to find any and all Overkill cd's till my collection was complete.

BTW, I just got their latest over the holidays and while it didn't grab me the 1st time through, I'm enjoying it more and more with every spin it gets.

SoldierUnderCommand wrote:

Every redneck down here:

"i love metal! AC/DC man! Hellllsssssss Bellssssssss."

They alone are the reason I own zero ac/dc records.

Every arena show I go to...when they play music between bands...AC/DC is the only band where, when the CD is played over PA, the crowd will stop talking and all raise their beers and go "WHOOOOOOOOO!!!!" like the band just walked on stage or something...