Honorable Mentions: 2 in each category.
Underrated Artists: The Kinks, Randall Bramblett: The Kinks are pioneers and will go down in history, I’m not worried about that. But they almost ended up like PJ Proby, who was kicked out of the UK; the Kinks were Kicked out of the US. Then they went through years of odd ball but deceptively good types of music and little sales. They are geniuses and geniuses sometimes do odd ball things. The Kinks were not like everybody else. Bramblett is an Athens, Ga., guy before it was cool, pre-Pylon, Love Tractor, REM, etc. He’s played with the Allmans, Widespread Panic and the Atlanta Rhythm Section. He was a co-founder of the seminal rock/jazz group Sea Level, and is known as a musician’s musician. He has a few solo albums. Check out the album ‘That Other Mile’ if you can find it.
Underrated Albums: The Cars ‘Panorama,’ Neil Young ‘Zuma,’ Panorama was panned by critics because it didn’t sound like regular Cars music. Well I was sick of regular Cars music and found that the more dissonant and experimental Panorama was excellent. Zuma sets you up thinking it’s going to be another acoustic strum-up thumbsucker, then lulls you into toe-tapping sing-songs like ‘Don’t Cry No Tears’ before slashing you to shreds with the electric guitar turned up to 10 and one-half with a slab of feedback. Cortez will never be the same.
Underrated Songs: Feargal Sharkey ‘You Little Thief’” Tom Waits’ ‘Down in the Hole’ Big-voiced Feargall Sharkey played in a New Wave punk band called the Undertones that was quite good in its genre. He broke away and knocked out a few minor hits like this one and faded away. A little over-produced maybe, but the song sticks and is sung hard by Sharkey. And it’s eminently danceable. Waits is a growly gravelly voiced bar player. He’s been trying to cough up something for 30 years. I love this song about the devil.
Underrated Locals
And now two local bands that are underrated. By that I mean they should be nationally known. The music industry like the journalism biz has changed quite a bit. Not sure the young-uns in the Brummies and Lee Bains and the Glory Fires want a 59-year-old man with dementia as their cheerleader, but I’ve seen both play, I have a vinyl record from each, Lee Bains and the Glory Fires live at the Nick and I have the Brummies ‘Eternal Reach.’
Based on my rating scale of Perry Como to the Ray Coniff singers….er, sorry wrong albums.
Actually let’s make this simple. My rating scale is the Beatles. Glory Fires are John Lennon and the Brummies Paul McCartney. Gotta love them both. (Hmmm, maybe if we put them together for a gig …..?)
Rock on …
I