Yesterday I set up a playlist of favourite tunes by under-appreciated artists - typical rock snob elitism. I did this after hearing a documentary on radio 4 which featured a few clips of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. I borrowed an Alex Harvey LP from the library years ago, and loved it, but saw hardly any mention of the man until Tommy Vance announced his death on the Friday Rock Show. I was galled to learn yesterday that this was in 1982 - 25 years ago. Anyway, before I drift into 'where did it all go and where will it all end', here's a few of my 'they should be massive!' choices:
Spring Rain - The Go-Betweens. I first heard this on the soundtrack to Something Wild, then years later when I was living with Clive and he had the LP. Lovely guitars.
'Cause I Said So - The Godfathers. Saw them at Rock City a long time ago, they have long since split. They came on like a cross between boom chicka Johnny Cash and Dr Feelgood hard edged r'n'b. They were incredible live, but their LPs often sounded thin in comparison. Dunno what happened to them...
Take Stuff From Work - King Missile. OK, there's no kind of universe where King Missile could ever have been noticed beyond a few plays on Peel, which is where Jim and I heard them 20 years ago. This tune is basically a list of items which can be easily removed from the workplace, thus saving the listener the expense of buying eg desks, pens, pencils, even 'a case of white out'. Silly but fun, and ending with the rousing finale:
It's your duty as an oppressed worker to steal from your exploiters.
It's gonna be an outstanding day.
Take stuff from work.
And goof off on the company time.
I wrote this at work.
They're paying me to write about stuff I steal from them.
Life is good.
how can you resist?
Rude Bwoy - LLoyd Hemmings. No idea who this guy was, but I taped the track from Kershaw in the 80's and have loved it ever since. A King Tubby production. Having googled Hemmings it appears that the tune is avaible on 7" Jamican import for £2.99 - bargain!
Where Were You? - The Mekons. From Leeds, and still going strong in some form or another. Main Mekon Jon Langford, is one of the less celebrated customers of Cynthia Plastercaster. I think these days they are more of a country / Americana outfit, rather than the DIY punk of this track.
Sorry You're Sick - Ted Hawkins. For Andy Kershaw listeners in the 1980s, Ted Hawkins was the bees knees, such a terrific voice. A shame that it all ended so depressingly.
Our Town - Iris Dement. A voice which may well be an acquired taste, and sounds straight out of The Old Weird America. Mentioned in a few entries earlier, Graham and Jim and I saw her at Cambridge, memorably duetting with John Prine. Even Clive enjoyed Our Town, and he is not given to esoteric sounding female country singers.
I Live For Buzz - The Swingin' Neckbreakers. This is from an LP which Clive brought back from a trip to the US, a tremendous rock and roll album...the band turned up on The Sopranos in Season 3 or 4, playing at Adriana's nightclub.
loads more too, including The Colorblind James Experience, The Screaming Blue Messiahs, Jake Thackray, Andy Capp, Reigning Sound, The Replacements, Dory Previn, Warren Zevon - overlooked and under-appreciated all...
2 comments:
Some good memories here. I'm surprised Colorblind James Experience is in your list of also rans; I've always thought I'm Considering A Move To Memphis a quintessentially Tom track. And I've just ordered the King Tubby's compilation with Rude Bwoy from Caiman.
This is actually quite tough. We're not talking one hit wonders here; this is something totally different. Bands with a solid body of work who are non-the-less under-appreciated - presumably not even having Mojo listener cult followings.
That said, prior to being used to flog mobile phones, I would still have included Vashti Bunyan.
Do the Long Ryders count? Looking for Lewis and Clark is still a brilliant song. Byrds meet the Clash.
Pony Up! - the all-girl glam of the Pipettes, the sassyness of CSS - they should me huge. Shut Up And Kiss Me probably edges the equally smutty Let's Talk Baseball.
Diesel Park West - Shakespeare Alabama was one of the under-rated albums of the '80's. All The Myths on Sunday is a great song. Surprised to find that they're still doing the rounds, with a new album out next month.
The Long Ryders definitely count - their LPs were patchy but there some great songs in between, Looking For Lewis and Clark is a classic.
Funny you should mention Diesel Park West - they were the support to the Godfathers when I saw them at Rock City, and they were very good. From Leicester, I believe.
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