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7 Most underrated albums in MVC collection

Here’s the second part as promised:The Top 7 most Underrated Albums in my collection of 678. I know this is subjective but I have the insight of living with these records  a long time.

Rockpile ‘Seconds of Pleasure’ (feat./Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds) This is just easy to listen to, even easy to dance to. It sounds like fresh and rock and Roll every time you listen even though much of it harkens back to 1950s-60s rockabilly sound. This is a party record. Key songs ‘Teacher Teacher,’ ‘Play that Fast thing (One More Time),’ ‘Pet You and Hold You,’ and ‘When I Write the Book.’

The Undisputed Truth –Contemporary 70s soul music, mostly covers reinterpreted. A deconstructed ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and a blowout psychedelic ‘Ball of Confusion are highlights. Oh yeah, and the enjoyable paranoid classic ‘Smiling Faces Sometimes.’ That was their only original song on the album of covers, produced for Motown by Norman Whitfield. Another bargain bin find. They also do a funked up version of ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine.’

 Spencer Davis/Peter Jameson ‘It’s Been So Long.´  I have to say this is one of the great lost albums. You can’t find it hardly anywhere. No traces of it on YouTube. Amazon  and EBay have some copies, last one I checked was $40 bucks. I don’t need it, I have a good condition vinyl but I really wanted to link to some music just to give you, my readers a taste. It is an acoustical classic. If I, just before I die could go to a bar or any small venue and have Spencer Davis and Peter Jameson play this album from top to bottom I’d know there was a heaven and I’d be in it. I had never heard of this understated beautiful record until last year, when I found it in a bargain bin for $1. I picked it because it looked interesting and I knew Davis to be a pioneer in blues rock in the UK during the 1960s, behind such well known songs as ‘I’m a Man’ and “Gimme Some Loving.” This is the kind of find that makes bargain bin hunting so rewarding. Yes it mellow. It is soul music. I just don’t know what to tell you to do to get a listen.

Jared Mees ‘Life is Long’ This is new vinyl (2016), which I don’t have a lot of because of its expense. But my sister from Portland sent me this and said the record store clerk thought I’d like this after she told him the kind of music I liked. The clerk made an awesome pick. This is funny, poignant, tuneful and smart. Hard to put in a category but I’d call it alternative folk. (From Portland. That explains something, no?) Blue Angels is a pretty song, but makes me wonder – do they do that? The Angel pilots? Other songs of brilliance: Life is Long; and Echo Chamber.

Neutral Milk Hotel ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’ Some of my alternative universe friends would argue with me calling it underrated.  Heck it is revered by record store workers across the globe. But for every NMH worshiper there are millions who have never heard about this eccentric gut-wrenching record inspired by the Diary of Anne Frank. (And a few who just don’t get it.) Here’s the title song. When I first heard the album and picked up the powerful subtle references to Anne Frank, I wept. Just a little.

The lead singer and songwriter Jeff Magnum and band worked out of my town, Athens, Ga., for a while. Leading to the cult status of this record, Magnum made  himself super scarce after this record hit (probably all digital in 1997). ‘Found’ living in NYC, Magnum was cornered for an interview in which he said he didn’t know if he would ever record again. This is really one of those  you have to listen to the whole album as it is all  tied together. But here’s some key songs: ‘Two-headed Boy’ – The story is that Magnum recorded this song all in one take to the astonishment of those in the studio. Also ‘King of Carrot Flowers.’

Richard and Linda Thompson ‘Shoot out the Lights.’ Depression, used properly, can be helpful to artists, if they can reach deep down inside of it, wallow in it and come out like a newly born infant, soggy and screaming. The album, ‘Shoot Out the Lights,’ recorded when the couple Richard and Linda were breaking up is depressing and cathartic. The saddest great rock and folk album of all time. Just look at some of the song titles: ‘Did she Jump or was She Pushed,’ ‘Wall of Death,’ ‘Walking on a Wire,’ and ‘Don’t Renege on our Love.’ Whew. But Linda’s voice is in top form and Richard’s guitar playing is as unusual in that it has its own voice. A voice that says stop, listen, hear what I’m going to say next.

Lyric: I’m walking on a wire, I’m walking on a wire and I’m falling.

Too late, I jumped.

Here’s the title song. With Richard getting it out on guitar.

PJ Proby ‘Enigma’ This album is aptly named. The big burly Rock and Roller who looked and sounded like Elvis Presley and at one time had stage roles as Elvis and Roy Orbison. He is from Texas and his stepsister dated Elvis. He never made it big in the U.S. as a rocker or a silky voiced crooner a la some kind of Tom Jones Elvis amalgam, with a touch of Englebert Humperdink. But in Britain, they loved him. At least the people did. He kept splitting his pants – yes you read that right – he would split  his pants after some stage-hopping caterwauling and the crowd would go wild.  The country’s Committee on Moral Standards (Or something like that) ultimately kicked him out of the country. His wild career included a  stint with the Dutch progressive hard rock band called Focus,  on an album called Focus con Proby. Hocus Pocus was the mostly instrumental band known for its electrifying yodels on the earlier hit Hocus Pocus. This album, Enigma, from 1967 features his minor hit ‘Niki Hoeky,’ This song was also covered by Bobbi Gentry in a sultry performance on a TV show.

He also has a nice cover of the Rolling Stones penned song–Out of Time.’– that charted on Chris Farlowe’s version. Proby, whose voice could be Elvis, Little Richard and Wilson Pickett, chose the fat Elvis as his model with a slice of Humperdink and a dash of Tom Jones. He really never found himself. I have to say though: I am a fan. I have three records — want more.

Van Morrison wrote a song called ‘Whatever Happened to PJ Proby.” They sang it together, see here.

Here’s the second part as promised:The Top 7 most Underrated Albums in my collection of 678. I know this is subjective but I have the insight of living with these records  a long time.

Rockpile ‘Seconds of Pleasure’ (feat./Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds) This is just easy to listen to, even easy to dance to. It sounds like fresh and rock and Roll every time you listen even though much of it harkens back to 1950s-60s rockabilly sound. This is a party record. Key songs ‘Teacher Teacher,’ ‘Play that Fast thing (One More Time),’ ‘Pet You and Hold You,’ and ‘When I Write the Book.’

The Undisputed Truth –Contemporary 70s soul music, mostly covers reinterpreted. A deconstructed ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and a blowout psychedelic ‘Ball of Confusion are highlights. Oh yeah, and the enjoyable paranoid classic ‘Smiling Faces Sometimes.’ That was their only original song on the album of covers, produced for Motown by Norman Whitfield. Another bargain bin find. They also do a funked up version of ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine.’

 Spencer Davis/Peter Jameson ‘It’s Been So Long.´  I have to say this is one of the great lost albums. You can’t find it hardly anywhere. No traces of it on YouTube. Amazon  and EBay have some copies, last one I checked was $40 bucks. I don’t need it, I have a good condition vinyl but I really wanted to link to some music just to give you, my readers, a taste. It is an acoustical classic. If I, just before I die could go to a bar or any small venue and have Spencer Davis and Peter Jameson play this album from top to bottom I’d know there was a heaven and I’d be in it. I had never heard of this understated beautiful record until last year, when I found it in a bargain bin for $1. I picked it because it looked interesting and I knew Davis to be a pioneer in blues rock in the UK during the 1960s, behind such well known songs as ‘I’m a Man’ and “Gimme Some Loving.” This is the kind of find that makes bargain bin hunting so rewarding. Yes it mellow. It is soul music. I just don’t know what to tell you to do to get a listen.

Jared Mees ‘Life is Long’ This is new vinyl (2016), which I don’t have a lot of because of its expense. But my sister from Portland sent me this and said the record store clerk thought I’d like this after she told him the kind of music I liked. The clerk made an awesome pick. This is funny, poignant, tuneful and smart. Hard to put in a category but I’d call it alternative folk. (From Portland. That explains something, no?) Blue Angels is a pretty song, but makes me wonder – do they do that? The Angel pilots? Other songs of brilliance: Life is Long; and Echo Chamber.

Neutral Milk Hotel ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’ Some of my alternative universe friends would argue with me calling it underrated.  Heck it is revered by record store workers across the globe. But for every NMH worshiper there are millions who have never heard about this eccentric gut-wrenching record inspired by the Diary of Anne Frank. (And a few who just don’t get it.) Here’s the title song. When I first heard the album and picked up the powerful subtle references to Anne Frank, I wept. Just a little.

The lead singer and songwriter Jeff Magnum and band worked out of my town, Athens, Ga., for a while. Leading to the cult status of this record, Magnum made  himself super scarce after this record hit (probably all digital in 1997). ‘Found’ living in NYC, Magnum was cornered for an interview in which he said he didn’t know if he would ever record again. This is really one of those  you have to listen to the whole album as it is all  tied together. But here’s some key songs: ‘Two-headed Boy’ – The story is that Magnum recorded this song all in one take to the astonishment of those in the studio. Also ‘King of Carrot Flowers.’

Richard and Linda Thompson ‘Shoot out the Lights.’ Depression, used properly, can be helpful to artists, if they can reach deep down inside of it, wallow in it and come out like a newly born infant, soggy and screaming. The album, ‘Shoot Out the Lights,’ recorded when the couple Richard and Linda were breaking up is depressing and cathartic. The saddest great rock and folk album of all time. Just look at some of the song titles: ‘Did she Jump or was She Pushed,’ ‘Wall of Death,’ ‘Walking on a Wire,’ and ‘Don’t Renege on our Love.’ Whew. But Linda’s voice is in top form and Richard’s guitar playing is as unusual in that it has its own voice. A voice that says stop, listen, hear what I’m going to say next.

Lyric: I’m walking on a wire, I’m walking on a wire and I’m falling.

Too late, I jumped.

Here’s the title song. With Richard getting it out on guitar.

PJ Proby ‘Enigma’ This album is aptly named. The big burly Rock and Roller who looked and sounded like Elvis Presley and at one time had stage roles as Elvis and Roy Orbison. He is from Texas and his stepsister dated Elvis. He never made it big in the U.S. as a rocker or a silky voiced crooner a la some kind of Tom Jones Elvis amalgam, with a touch of Englebert Humperdink. But in Britain, they loved him. At least the people did. He kept splitting his pants – yes you read that right – he would split  his pants after some stage-hopping caterwauling and the crowd would go wild.  The country’s Committee on Moral Standards (Or something like that) ultimately kicked him out of the country. His wild career included a  stint with the Dutch progressive hard rock band called Focus,  on an album called Focus con Proby. Hocus Pocus was the mostly instrumental band known for its electrifying yodels on the earlier hit Hocus Pocus. This album, Enigma, from 1967 features his minor hit ‘Niki Hoeky,’ This song was also covered by Bobbi Gentry in a sultry performance on a TV show.

He also has a nice cover of the Rolling Stones penned song–Out of Time.’– that charted on Chris Farlowe’s version. Proby, whose voice could be Elvis, Little Richard and Wilson Pickett, chose the fat Elvis as his model with a slice of Humperdink and a dash of Tom Jones. He really never found himself. I have to say though: I am a fan. I have three records — want more.

Van Morrison wrote a song called ‘Whatever Happened to PJ Proby.” They sang it together, see here.

Top 7 most underrated songs in MyVinylCountdown.com collecti