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How Many Bands Do You Have Total Familiarity With?


Dan H.

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So, how many bands are you so obsessed with, that you can name every single song they've released from memory, on the spot?

The only two I am 100% confident of is Guns N' Roses and Neutral Milk Hotel. I don't consider myself an active " fan" of either of those two bands, but in the past I have had a deep obsession with both. I tend to spread my music out and listen to songs as examples of an artists work, rather than picking one or two and digging deep into their songs.

What about you guys, how deeply do you dig into the back catalogue of your favorite artists, and how many bands would comfortably say are completely familiar to you (you could name all of their songs and know all the current and former members of the group etc etc)

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My die hard bands are GNR, U2, RHCP, Zeppelin, and Elton John. That's my top tier.  I have a tier two compromised of others bands that are important to my well being, too. I think this a cool question and I'm curious what other people think. Of the bands I listed only GNR and Zeppelin do I adore thier whole catalogue. 

Edited by The Holographic Universe
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Guns N Roses. Johnny Cash, from Sun Records to the American Recordings. And I can take you through 2Pac's entire career from his days with Digital Underground before he was famous to his unreleased songs like Hit Em Up part 2, which most people don't even know exist.

There's actually quite a few more, those 3 just really jump out front and center.

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I could name every song ever released from the following:

GNR and related bands

Michael Jackson and The Jacksons/J5

Prince and related artists (I have an almost encylopedic knowledge of his entire life work, both released and unreleased)

Tori Amos

Morrissey

The Smiths

David Bowie

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Kate Bush

I have a very strong knowledge about load of other artists/bands, but may not necessarily own every single song/album. I spend A LOT of time listening to music, and if I find an artist or band I connect with, I will generally devour the majority of their back catalogue.

Edited by Towelie
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My big three will always be ACDC, GNR, Black Sabbath. I was deeply obsessed with Led Zeppelin in my teenage years, still love them. Who else? Deep Purple/Rainbow (Blackmore), Pink Floyd, The Beatles, KISS. Love them to death, interviews, bootlegs and all. I would say it's all with playing live and shows.

Overall, a guitarist and a singer with long hair do the trick but not all the time (for instance never liked Aerosmith), guitar solos are also so important. Being a guitarist, it's easier to memorize every licks and riffs once you know how they play, their style and stuff, still part of the fascination then you want to be that exact same guy, with the guitar, the sound, the long hair, the necklace with a cross.

With new bands, I like Mastodon and Ghost.

Edited by Silent Jay
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It's an imprtant fact to say, it also depends how the band resonate with you throughout the years. Once I wasn't ready for the metal, and few years later I'm oversaturated by it and I put those bands to rest forever. Other time, I will re-discover a band thinking how fantastic they are and keep pursuing my pilgrimage.

I think I'm getting ready for a full Tool immersion soon.

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I mean honestly, even Iron Maiden I'd probably miss a couple of songs if I tried to name every single one. There were a lot of forgettable songs in the 90's that are neither good, nor so bad that you explicitly remember them. But I'd say I'm qualified to put down a band I've seen 70 times as having total familiarity with :lol:

 

Other artists that fall into the same boat with me:

Guns N' Roses

AC/DC

Rush

Stone Temple Pilots

Mayer Hawthorne

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

 

i mean, here's my criteria. Yeah, I may not be able to name a few songs from each of those offhand. But if I can name off every band member there's ever been, and by looking at a list of every song they've released and not only tell you if it's been played live, but if it has tell you exactly when/what tours, that's total familiarity to me. 

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9 minutes ago, Powerage5 said:

I mean honestly, even Iron Maiden I'd probably miss a couple of songs if I tried to name every single one. There were a lot of forgettable songs in the 90's that are neither good, nor so bad that you explicitly remember them. But I'd say I'm qualified to put down a band I've seen 70 times as having total familiarity with :lol:

 

Other artists that fall into the same boat with me:

Guns N' Roses

AC/DC

Rush

Stone Temple Pilots

Mayer Hawthorne

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

 

i mean, here's my criteria. Yeah, I may not be able to name a few songs from each of those offhand. But if I can name off every band member there's ever been, and by looking at a list of every song they've released and not only tell you if it's been played live, but if it has tell you exactly when/what tours, that's total familiarity to me. 

I forgot to mention STP and Weiland career. Tier 1 for me.

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1 hour ago, Black Sabbath said:

Ozzy

Black Sabbath

Guns N' Roses

U2

Not outside the Ozzy era you don't :tongue2: 

 

If @Black Sabbath can count Sabbath, then I can count Anthrax even though I can probably only name 5 songs from the John Bush era. 

 

EDIT: I should be able to count Anthrax anyways. Who cares if I can't name hardly any Bushthrax songs, I can explain what happened. They fired their best singer, decided they didn't want to be a thrash band anymore, their popularity nose dived and they got relegated to a club band, they rehired their best singer and fired him again inexplicably after one tour, they hired a no-name whose time in the band could've been missed if you blinked and later got famous for trash-talking Anthrax, tried John Bush again before he told them to fuck off, got back Joey, and now everything is finally right again. The end.

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31 minutes ago, Black Sabbath said:

There's only 9 real Black Sabbath albums :lol:

I mean honestly I'd probably struggle with naming every title outside of GN'R, not because I wouldn't know them, just because there are so many. GN'R almost don't count due to the lack of material :lol:

 

Bro, pls. 

 

But yeah, I agree on the naming songs thing. I could name every GN'R song (6 albums), every Mayer Hawthorne song (4 albums), and (probably) every Bosstones song (9 albums), but those are easier due to the lack of material. Even though Maiden is by far my favorite band, I'd still struggle to get more than 95% of the songs across 16 albums. I very rarely listen to the 90's albums. Ask me about the other 12 albums and I'm good though :lol:

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22 hours ago, Black Sabbath said:

There's only 9 real Black Sabbath albums :lol:

I mean honestly I'd probably struggle with naming every title outside of GN'R, not because I wouldn't know them, just because there are so many. GN'R almost don't count due to the lack of material :lol:

 

Yeah I didn't count Sabbath because of the other eras but I''m 100% familiar with the Ozzy era.

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Just to put this in perspective, Neil young has thirty-six solo albums as well as three albums with Buffalo Springfield, one with Stills, and three with Crosby, Stills and Nash: forty-three core albums! There are also around fifteen live albums (including eight that are 'archival'), circa eight 'exclusive' greatest hits songs (i.e. contained on Decade/Lucky Thirteen), an assortment of guest appearances, and two gigantic boxsets, one dedicated to Springfield, the other (the first of many planned) to his solo work - and that is not even including oddities like the Dead Man score and Arc as well as his (official) films, both live (e.g. Rust Never Sleeps), rockumentary (e.g. Year of the Horse) and scripted (e.g. Human Highway).

And then there are the live boots which opens up another world altogether, a seemingly infinite number of shows containing unreleased masterpieces and concerts so sublime you will wet yourself!!

You could have fifteen of the official studio Neil Young albums, the well known ones, and only have just scratched the surface on what the guy has to offer!

But then James Brown had sixty-three studio albums; that is studio albums so it does not include his incredible live albums like the Apollo. And, (drum roll), Buckethead has - I looked this up on wikipedia - 264 studio albums!!!!

GN'R's discography is of postage stamp size in comparison. It really is quite pathetic when you put it in that context.

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