At the time of writing, much hoo-ha surrounds the 20th anniversary of the release of Nirvana’s Nevermind. Media commentators are crawling out of the woodwork to heap praise on what’s regarded as possibly the finest album of a generation, what might surprise some readers is, I’ve never even heard the album in its entirety.

I have thousands of albums, from vinyl and CDs to MP3s, across all genres but, for a true music fan, there are some significant gaps in my collection. There are seminal works by some of the all-time greats that have yet to make it onto my hi-fi, whether they be purposefully avoided or ignorantly overlooked.

Dave McGuire on the classic albums that passed him by including Nevermind...

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Growing up in the pre-internet saturated, social networking days, apart from singles in the charts, the only way you’d get to hear about an album would be through peer recommendation or from hearing it playing at home. Not surprisingly, who you hear something from influences your thinking on it. In primary school an older cousin influenced my taste considerably, first getting me into Motown then funk, both of which have stayed with me till this day.
In my late teens I had my first long term girlfriend, and for the first time I had someone who challenged my musical taste, and I responded like a typical 17 year old by dismissing her taste as inferior to mine (she did like early INXS after all). This would bring me to dismissing Nirvana as angst ridden noise, (I still struggle with angst, think it’s a waste of time), and have stubbornly refused to hear anything to the contrary.

Pretend Bass player
Around the same time I was a regular visitor to Stereo One in Paisley, they stocked an impressive range of LPs, CDs and tapes, but the noticeable gap on their shelves was Pink Floyd. When a band has a sign saying that all stock is kept behind the counter due to theft by spliff-heads, it could bias your opinion of that band, especially when the only Floyd fans I ever met were exactly of that ilk. I did finally listen to Wish You Were Here and Dark Side of the Moon; both were okay if hardly an aural revelation.

I briefly pretended I could play bass in a band and my singer had a much more mature musical taste than I had at the time. He was a massive Scott Walker fan, but he tried to sell it to me based on Walker’s obsessions with Jacques Brel and lyrics about gonorrhea. I’d never heard of Jacques Brel and wasn’t entirely sure what gonorrhea was, so I duly dismissed it as pretentious nonsense. I recently checked out Scott Walker Sings Jacques Brel and not only loved the dramatic tension but, even in translation, the lyrics are great.

David Bowie’s classic singles are an intrinsic part of popular culture, and I’m as familiar with them as anyone, but when people I knew started saying how influential and revolutionary Bowie was, I didn’t get it. The tunes I heard were good but the impact of his gender bending and chameleon like changes were too removed to have a real impact on me. I finally downloaded some Bowie albums; I’m still not beyond Greatest Hits status.

The Clash were biased by my first taste of punk being The Sex Pistols, who aside from Holiday in the Sun just don’t do it for me. I do keep meaning to try London Calling but I fear that the hype will mean that it badly disappoints, I guess that’s what the Internet is for…
Led Zeppelin were a band loads of my mates discovered whilst learning guitar, as a faux bassist, they didn’t hold the same attraction. Colleagues I worked with at a record label got tickets for their reunion gig and started talking about their albums and I realised that I only know Stairway to Heaven is on their fourth, and while I wish I’d gone to the gig, could I manage Houses of the Holy or Physical Graffiti? I’m not convinced.

The Grateful Dead and Frank Zappa have vast back catalogues, obsessive fans, and reputations to match. I’ve always been very curious about both, but slightly intimidated by the sheer volume, and not knowing where to start. I’ve always associated The Dead with ageing, balding hippies wearing dodgy tie-dye – a look I managed to escape from before it, lately, came back to find me. Zappa remains an enigma, I have heard bits of Mothers of Invention stuff I liked but I feel that I should approach him with due respect and consideration, almost like studying the classics.

All in all, this goes against what I’m about, as a person I’m generally open minded, and I love to hear something great for the first time. I should make a point of listening to all the classics – that’s the beauty of Spotify or second hand record shops – and I may finally see what all the fuss is about. As for Nirvana, well Nevermind…