I’ll admit that this week’s two-fer is mostly just because I wanted to hear “Machine Gun” by The Commodores. It came out when I was three years old, but I didn’t discover it until I was almost thirty.
My version of The Commodores was in the 1980s, when they were doing inoffensive R&B hits and I had absolutely no idea that they were ever a funk band. (I’m not proud of it, but I admit that I always thought “Brick House” was by Parliament).
I just assumed that they were indistinguishable from Lionel Ritchie’s solo stuff, until I found out that “Machine Gun” was sampled in “Hey Ladies” by the Beastie Boys.
Which I’d always thought of as a product of the 1990s, but which I’m seeing now came out in 1989. At that point, all I knew of the Beastie Boys was Licensed to Ill, so I didn’t even bother listening to Paul’s Boutique or any of the subsequent albums, thinking they’d be more of the same. It wasn’t until Hello Nasty came out that I got hooked and went back through all of the previous albums. And basically discovered two bands that had been cool this entire time, right under my nose.1I still really don’t like “Ballroom Blitz” by Sweet, though.