Acts whose debut album is an afterthought in their overall discography

The three songs from Bazooka on your comp are three of my favorites - best sound of the Shoes discography based on my limited listening

How the albums that kicked off apocalyptic screaming Beatlemania could be afterthoughts in the career, come on.

and scott, i'd love to hear those jennifer warnes albums!

the first one i know well is the third album, which is a very nice kind of arty (john cale produced) singer-songwriter cover album. and even that album is pretty well forgotten, i'm pretty sure it's out of print and was maybe released on CD only in japan or something. but it's a really pretty record. it has this on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqk7gorwWAo

(xpost) I mean afterthoughts now, not then. Quick example: my guess is that every Beatles album past a certain point (Help!?) has been polled on here. I did a quick check on the first two and found nothing--that kind of thing. If they have been polled, call me Emily Litella.

Fair enough, one of the problems with polling is the huge differences between the British & US versions of all their albums before Sgt. Pepper.

I'm pretty comfortable saying "Please Please Me" and "She Loves You" and probably some early others still rank with my favorite Beatles songs anyway.

it wasn't released until years after the fact, though (unless it was out there as a bootleg)

According to wikipedia it was self-released on cassette in 1976. No idea if that's true or not though.

The one I was really wondering about was One In Versailles, which as I say above I remember reading about in one of those old Trouser Press new wave guides from the '80s (which I believe mentioned at least one of the other two, too.)

wasn't one in versailles an EP... or something? man, i do not have a good grasp on the Shoes discography.

for a long time i just assumed "black vinyl shoes" was the debut, b/c it was the first to make a splash (such as it was), and it would certainly be a good story to come out of the gate with something so formally perfect.

Absolutely, individual songs are still loved and talked about and the rest. I meant only the albums--which is partly a function of pop albums just generally not being taken as seriously till '65 or '66. (I do see Please Please Me was #39 on Rolling Stone's Top 500, so that may or may not disprove my point.)

According to wikipedia it was self-released on cassette in 1976.

Didn't know that. Guessing very, very few copies--maybe mostly a rumour until it was officially released? Don't have Versailles, no.

it's just silly to bring up please please me when we're talking about Randy Newman and Writer

"Acts whose debut album is an afterthought in their overall discography." You disagree. Wonderful.

No hits. Nothing played live. Hated/discounted by the general listening public. Even better if most fans don't even know its existence.

1. Ride The Tiger - Yo La Tengo

― kornrulez6969, Sunday, May 10, 2015 2:34 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

first post

the hitless, unrevisited, hated, almost entirely unknown album with "i saw her standing there" on it

I didn't read the first post, just the thread title. Pointed such things out without the "silly" attached works too.

"Pointing..." But then you wouldn't be you, would you?

I get hung up more on the "nothing played live" part because I know it's not absolute and nothing is disqualified cos Jimmy Marvin and the Cleveland Steamer Five decided to pull out some rarities 47 years into their career...

but I find some bands I don't know enough about what songs survived in their setlist years later to know for sure did the album outright vanish or is there still a crowd favorite that gets played from it. though setlist.fm is kinda helpful with that.

(not a criticism, it's actually made the thread more interesting)

i do think calling Please Please Me/Meet The Beatles an "afterthought" is silly, especially considering where the bar's been generally set on this thread, but i'm sorry if it really upset you to hear that - that wasn't my intent

I'm always open to being corrected if I've missed something like an opening post--just hate when there's derision attached, in the form of an "um" or theatrical disbelief or anything like that. It serves no purpose whatsoever.

i will say if you hate people mocking your addition to a thread - especially if the word "silly" used to describe the addition (not you, the addition) is enough to get you mad, you might want to read the thread

Jeez, I don't want to be part of this now, somebody jump on me instead relative to my Rolling Stones debut statement - or do you agree?

Maybe. I'd instead say that's the difference between the two of us on here. I'd simply point out to the person that they'd missed some clarification earlier in the thread. "Silly" isn't the first word I start throwing around.

i will concede you're nicer than me on ilx if you will let it go

ha i almost put that up but then saw it was big on the Uk chart as was "not fade away"

the "ha" being re: stones first album

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0002/083/MI0002083889.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

did anyone mention this one yet?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanted_Dead_or_Alive_%28Warren_Zevon_album%29

7 full years before the self-titled album everyone knows, released to almost total non-reception.

per wikipedia:

Once Zevon reached stardom, Wanted Dead or Alive ended up as an all-but-forgotten relic of his early career.

i always think that first my bloody valentine album is kind of the perfect example. something even some fans pretend doesn't exist. does anyone listen to the first primal scream album? underworld another good example given what they became.

Anyway, everybody but me seems to be way past this by now, but discogs says One In Versailles had 12 songs (so, probably a full album) and the even earlier Heads Or Tails had 10, albeit on 10-inch vinyl in the latter's case.

Do you mean "You Made Me Realize", the EP?

i kind of like the early primal scream better than the stuff that made them famous

matthew sweet columbia and a&m albums another good example. girlfriend is ground zero for most of the world.

wait never mind I looked at wikipedia, "this is your bloody valentine" 1985, never heard of it before

Hey, how about the first Aretha Franklin records? Except that gospel album probably has some traction, right?

no, this MBV thing. though i guess it's more of an EP.

http://www.discogs.com/My-Bloody-Valentine-This-Is-Your-Bloody-Valentine/master/5969

x-post...

xpost

in terms of currently radio play, etc. aretha franklin's entire tenure on columbia records is kind of forgotten/an afterthought. but it's nowhere near as obscure as some of the other examples on this thread.

the band's definitely revisited it live (they just did "box full of letters" at their last show!), and it's not a total embarrassment by any means, but kinda surprised Wilco's AM hasn't come up just for being so gestative, especially considering it's in grissos screen name.

I've got one - Giles Giles & Fripp for Robert Fripp.

woah i'd honestly never even heard of that

she's not really that famous or anything, but i don't know how many people have listened to the first lisa germano album. she didn't really have her thing down at that time. still decompressing from the mellencamp years...

http://www.discogs.com/Lisa-Germano-On-The-Way-Down-From-The-Moon-Palace/master/268055

ok, here's another one:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wailing_Wailers

the first wailers album, five years (i think) before "soul rebels." jamaican music at that time was very /not/ album-oriented, and most people probably don't even know that the wailers put out a LP this early.

of course, it's more of a compilation of previously-released singles than an LP, so this might need an asterisk.

I've got one - Giles Giles & Fripp for Robert Fripp.

― Vic Perry, Tuesday, May 12, 2015 8:11 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good one! that said, i've been fucking w/ that album since the mid 90s.

re: germano i read about that album in rolling stone and lived in bloomington, indiana at the time, but even the progressive station in town didn't get on board until album two (the capitol mix)

and speaking of cougar..

http://www.discogs.com/Johnny-Cougar-Chestnut-Street-Incident/master/210401

i bought that capitol version of happiness back then just because i loved the album so much. the 4ad version anyway. played it once or twice. and i never played the first album much either.

David Bowie's David Bowie has to be the most notorious example of this, right? With "The Laughing Gnome" going top ten years later and Bowie having to cancel the interactive part of his Sound + Vision because of a prank campaign to make him include it? Are there other cases where the awkward debut was used to beat them with later?

MBV's definitely comes up as a "lol" for sure

but still, that pales to the gnome's fame

does john mellencamp still play any songs live from the first two johnny cougar albums? THAT is the question.

The second has "I Need A Lover" - though it got big in the US on the third, I think