We love lists in the media business. Readers sometimes complain about list stories but then read them voraciously.
But if you came for a list story here, you aren’t going to get one. This is more a Behind-the-List Story story.
They are very subjective, you know. Lists, rankings. Take best guitarists.
Is Eric Clapton really better than Carlos Santana? Was Jimi Hendrix really better than Stevie Ray Vaughn?
How about Nick Drake and Leo Kottke with their innovative acoustic folk, blues, rock? Is Pete Townshend on rhythm better than Keith Richards or their teacher, Chuck Berry?
I’d be hard pressed to find a better rock guitarist than Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin but there’s some old(er)-timers our there that say Alvin Lee of 10 Years After was the man. Listen to this live version of Woodchopper’s Ball.
Slow down, I’m getting to the point here. These lists usually encapsulate three things going on:
(1) Popularity of the artist and his or her songs, Clapton and Page are famous for working with some of the biggest selling bands of all time. Are they truly better guitarists than Steve Morse. Who? Steve Morse who played with the Dixie Dregs and is now with Deep Purple. He can play. Glenn Phillips, of the Atlanta area, is pretty much the best guitarist you’ve never heard of. In the same neighborhood, his student Bob Elsey of the Swimming Pool Q’s plays tasty licks without walking over anyone. How many of these guitarists can play Nancy Wilson’s intro to ‘Crazy on You.? Probably most of those in this company, with time and study, but I would venture to say Nancy’s would be the best version..
(2) Speed and long solo skills A lot of guitarists get noticed because they can shred. That is, hit X number of notes in x number of seconds, usually going up and down scales. That’s a useful skill set especially in metal, hard rock, punk and even guitar-based jazz. But it’s one tool. The best shredder may be mediocre playing folk blues, for example.
(3) Flamboyant style. Jimi Hendrix was truly innovative but it wasn’t all flamboyance in the cause of the music, it was aimed at the ‘show.’ I’m pretty sure Hendrix can play better with his fingers than his tongue. But tonguing a guitar solo will leave people with their jaws hanging.
These three factors I’m saying play a role in these ranking and probably should. But before you start talking about who is better, Eddie Van Halen or Yngwie Malmsteen, Prince or Queen’s Brian May, the Schenker brothers of Scorpions and UFO fame, let me proffer that perhaps the best guitar players are those that do what’s best for the song. Delivering a fine song with a guitar solo that lasted 5-minutes too long is not necessarily being a great guitarist.
So it comes to this: Duane Allman.
I’m not saying he’s the top guitarist of all time or anything. But he had an unusual grasp of what sound to put forth while playing a song. How loud. How soft. When to fill and when to cut loose. The story goes that Duane was doing some session work at like age 22 or so, at Muscle Shoals studios, backing the great Wilson Pickett on a cover of the Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude.’
Listen for the guitar in this as it starts. You have to concentrate because it’s in the background.
But it’s perfect, the fills. And as Pickett winds up, Allman with electric guitar is right there supporting the singer, whip snapping Pickett into his famous ‘yow’ screams.
“He stood right in front of me, as though he was playing every note I was singing,” Pickett said months later. “And he was watching me as I sang, and as I screamed, he was screaming with his guitar.”
Duane’s legend was picking up steam.
[If you secretly do like list stories and want to take a peek at the most underrated artists, albums and songs in my collection. CLICK
TODAY: The Top 7 Most underrated artists in my collection of 678-plus records
I’ll say it out front. This is a list
story.
You know how much news sites love lists.
You know why?
Because you, my readers love lists. This
time we are going 7X7X7.
That means: Three lists, with 7 spots each. I feel lucky. I am starting No. 1 of 3 today on my blog. I will smooth it all into one long story for AL.com by the weekend end.
FRIDAY/SATURDAY: All lists in one story for AL.com
The collection I have been using on my
website, www.myvinylcountdown.com
to raise awareness to my fatal brain disease, Lewy body dementia. As I count them down, I stop now and again to
write something different or pull out a story like this. The rules are simple.
I make the picks. I can’t have any one artist on more than one list. John Hiatt
does not qualify because I wrote an earlier post pretty much anointing him the
most underrated artists of the 1980s.
I will provide links, please listen to the music, especially if you haven’t heard it. When we talk about underrated we are mostly dealing with folks that have lower name recognition but deserve better. But a band of renown could have an underrated song or album, for example. Also worth noting that since these are from my vinyl records, there’s a good chance that most will be older music from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, although there are some exceptions involving cases where I bought new vinyl. So here we go.
The Top 7 Underrated Artists from MyVinylCountdown.com
Tonio K. – Those who know me well won’t be surprised at this choice. Tonio K. aka as Steve Krikorian debuted with Life in the Foodchain, a punky, intelligent tour de force in 1978. It is a legitimate classic with the title song, Funky Western Civilization and H-A-T-R-E-D, <Note language in that song that may be objectionable to some>standing out. The rest of his body of work is excellent as he followed Foodchain with an almost equally angry album “Amerika’ and later some spiritually infused albums with songs like ‘You Will Go Free’ that, with exceptions, deep-sixed the anger — but let fly intelligent, socially conscious music elevated by great writing.
Excerpt:‘ Funky Western Civilization’
They put Jesus on a cross; they put a hole in JFK; they put Hitler in the driver’s seat and looked the other way; Now we got poison in the water; and the whole world is in a trance; but just because we’re hypnotized don’t mean we can’t dance.
(Queue Dick Dale chicken scratch guitar and a river of melodic metal by Earl Slick and Albert Lee.)
(2) 10cc — A British band that walked a fine line between art school pretension and brilliant pop songs. The music is full of biting satire, irony and good playing. The album ‘100cc 10cc’ is a compilation of early songs that is top-notch from top to bottom, including Rubber Bullets and the Wall Street Shuffle. Later they had some well-known singles, ‘I’m Not in Love,’ ‘Dreadlock Holiday’and ‘’Things We Do For Love.’ But they never rose to levels expected given the talent here. They probably lost the cool crowd with the high charting bubble-gummy ‘Things We Do for Love.” They had to pay the rent you know, but some of their work such as the record ‘How Dare You’ experimented with jazzy, multi-layered sophisticated sound and sharp as a stiletto lyrics. Queen, though brasher and more theatrical, was influenced by this band.
(3) War — The band had some hits. Cisco Kid, Low Rider, Why Can’t We Be Friends. Those first two were some of the best songs on Top 40 radio at the time. ‘Friends’ was just kind of a ditty. Those who heard only the radio and didn’t get the albums were missing out on an extremely tight funk/jazz/rock band. I don’t think they ever got their due as true pioneers, perhaps overshadowed by Earth Wind and Fire, Parliament, and Sly and the Family Stone. But they could jam like the best of friends in songs like ‘Smile Happy‘ and ‘Four Cornered Room.’ BTW my two old War albums have terrific sound with a heavy bottom as this music needs.
(4) Gayle McCormick/A Group Called Smith
McCormick had the kind of voice that made you marvel where it came from, powerful as a bullhorn when she sang ballads and straight ahead blues and rock and roll. Despite her obvious break-out talent, with Smith (and a Group Called Smith after legal conflicts with another group — and, no it was not the Morissey group that came much later out of the UK.) The group and McCormick scored big with a song “Baby It’s You,” later picked by Quentin Tarantino to be used in ‘Pulp Fiction.’
She went on to record a couple of albums that are hard to find. I got a used copy of her first solo album which has some decent covers of popular songs such as ‘Superstar’ and ‘You Really Got a Hold of Me.’
The two Smith group albums, however, should be better known. There’s good hard rock and roll on these. Highlights: ‘Tell Him No,’ ‘Last Time,’ Let’s Get Together,’ ‘What Am I Gonna Do‘ and ‘Take a Look Around.‘ Oh and did I mention there’s some nasty organ and dirty horns on these, not to mention a bass player who gets under the songs and lifts..
(5) Peter Himmelman (Solo; Sussman Lawrence)
OK get the ‘newsy’ thing out of the way, his wife is Bob Dylan’s adopted daughter. On to the music which Catherine, my wife, and I would agree has been at many times the soundtrack of our lives — from Mission of my Soul to Rich Men Run the World ; from Woman With The Strength of 10,000 Men‘ to The Boat that Carries Us; From Raina (beloved Raina) to Angels Die.
When Peter learned I had Lewy body dementia, he sent me three vinyls of his music. Listening right now to ‘Fear is Our Undoing.‘ Brilliant song off of the brilliant record ‘There is no Calamity.’ )
A Minnesotan by birth now in California, Himmelman played in an indie band called Sussman Lawrence before going solo. He has been nominated for a Grammy for a children’s album and has written music for several TV shows. His songs are great and I can hear between the notes and words a search for that elusive truth that connects us.
(6) Ronnie Lane (Small Faces, Faces, solo)
Ronnie Lane was an elfin man with a lilting voice that worked to perfection when he was harmonizing, Lane embodied happy music, and yes probably happy hour music. He played his long necked electric bass like he was hugging a woman taller than he was.
The bass player was a founding member of Small Faces and Faces, two highly influential rock bands. ItchyKoo Park and All or Nothing were sizeable hits, at least overseas. And Ooh La La is a classic.
Listen to his music and try not to smile. You’d follow him out to the country side and he would lead like the pied piper to his dilapidated country farm. When Steve Marriott left Small Faces, Rod Stewart joined. Because the band’s name was based on Lane’s and other group members’ stature — they were all under 5-foot-5, they dropped the ‘Small’ when the 6-footer Stewart joined. Faces.
In addition to his fabulous singing and writing and playing with both Faces incarnations, he also had successful collaborations with Ron Wood (Mahoney’s Last Stand) and Pete Townshend solidifying his status as a top-notch collaborator and creator. The songs ‘Stone,’ ‘The Poacher’ and ‘Brother Can you Spare a Dime’ are standouts on his Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance album, which I have. (I also have Mahoney’s and Rough Mix plus lots of Small Faces and Faces, including the experimental concept album Ogden’s Gone Nut Flake.) The beautiful song ‘Annie‘ was one of the best on his Townshend project ‘Rough Mix. After battling Multiple Sclerosis for 21 years, Lane died in 1997 at 51.
(7)Joseph Arthur (Solo, Joseph Arthur and the Astronauts)
It’s hard to describe this prolific musician other than to say he’s been writing some of the best songs of the millennium. But there seems to be a million of ’em. His latest — or probably not latest at this point — but a recent one teaming up with REM’s Peter Buck. The album, ‘Arthur Buck,’ approaches ear weevil stages at about the fourth listen. It’s good and gets better the more you listen and figure out what’s going on. Arthur has a good two decades behind him. I’ve seen him in concert a couple of times in the SF Bay Area and he’s the real deal. As I said, he has so many great songs including, ‘In the Sun,’ in which he recorded several versions, one featuring REM’s Michael Stipe and the other featuring Coldplay’s Chris Martin — all for Hurricane Katrina relief. Other songs that he’s known for include ‘Honey and Moon,’ ‘Temporary People,‘ and ‘The Smile that Explodes, ‘I Miss the Zoo‘ and ‘Say Goodbye.’ Albums include. ‘Nuclear Daydreams,’ ‘Redemption Son,’ and ‘The Ballad of Boogie Christ.’ He is well worth exploring because even if you run into songs you don’t like if you keep looking you’ll find something that will change your life — or, at least, your week. And one close to my heart, a tribute to Robin Williams.
Scene: The Ocala People’s Forest in which lies Alexander Springs. Prosby tries to get to the portal in his efforts to go Underground to rescue Burneese. But dangers, such as lightning fast gators and the killer Abe Lincoln robot await.
Prosby was on high alert now. He’s was lucky to get out Boybando, even though he believed he could have killed Justy with two well placed blows. He was walking the old 441 highway under a misty dark day. It was always a dark day these days, but this one was particularly dark. He passed Zellwood. He got close enough to Lake Apopka to smell it.
And hear the gators.
The gators over the decades had adapted to the algae choked body of water full of bones and submerged cars. They were smaller than the 10-footers you used to see there. But they were twice as quick and had more endurance when running.
A good 5 or 6
-foot gator could top out at 25 mph for
about 40 yards. The old way to escape a running gator was to serpentine, run
side-to-side while continuing to go forward. The old big -300-pound-beasts beasts
couldn’t follow the cuts and wore out after about 15 yards. But over hundreds
of years there were fewer of the slower, big birds to catch and gators evolved
to catch the smaller faster ones. Also squirrels, racoons, wild dogs and the
occasional stupid human.
These new ones could catch you at about the 15 or 20-yard mark, bite off your foot so you couldn’t go anywhere, and drag you by your remaining foot to the lake . There they would submerge you in the water and let you rot for a few days in the pea-soup of a lake until the flesh fell off the bone – kind of like a cross between pulled pork and rotten sushi.
Prosby scanned the dark wooded area near the lakefront for the orange orbits that signal shiny gator eyes Seeing none, he kept walking.
The Ocala People’s Forest was no place to let your guard down as he passed by the towns of Eustis and Umatilla. On the fringes of the forest in makeshift shacks lived drug makers who constantly fought each other, the meth makers versus the psychedelics producers who had a symbiotic relationship with the forest people, the descendants of generations of Hippies, societal dropouts who have camped in the forest for hundreds of years — and always stayed one step ahead of the law, both local and federal. They lived deep in the enormous forest and at any given spot they were watching you – you couldn’t see them, but they could see you.
Prosby heard a voice, deep, forceful, robotic.
“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field …”
It was Abe Lincoln the DIzney Bot. The killer Dizney bot walked like Frankenstein out of a dense wooded area into the clearing about 20 yards from Prosby. The Lincoln bot droned on.
“We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground.‘
Prosby noticed
the bot didn’t really have hands – but at the end of one arm was an 18-inch
dagger, and on the other was a small whirling circular saw that he kept turning
off and on. WHHHRRRR WHRRRR.
The bot was
walking at quite a pace toward Prosby.
Prosby tried engaging. “Hey Abe, whassup? Nice morning to recite the Gettysburg Address, no:?’
Honest Abe didn’t
appear to be lying when he said, “I am programmed to kill you and I will kill
you.”
Prosby knew the portal – Alexander Springs — was about 100 yards into the thick wooded area where the bot had just emerged. He figured better now than ever and decided against running away. He would run, taking an arc around the bot, dive into the spring and make it to the portal. Getting inside the portal required a rather deep swim downward. You have to able to hold your breath for at least a minute to break on through to the other side.
Prosby ran.
The bot followed, stiffly but swiftly still speechifying:
“The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”
Prosby saw the still waters of the spring and heard the WHHRRR behind him. There was little pain as the circular saw sliced into Prosby’s back like an electric knife carving a Thanksgiving turkey. It was a non lethal wound Prosby thought. Defense was on his mind. He turned about 10 feet from the water to face the fake Abraham Lincoln who was running and winding up to do more carving. With the whirring buzzsaw advancing swiftly toward Prosby’s face, he dropped to the ground on his sliced-up back and placed both feet firmly in the 250-pound life-sized robot’s midsection and pushed. Using the bot’s momentum against him, he pushed his legs like a squat sending Abe catapulting through the air. The bot completed a spectacular full flip before landing feet first in the spring.
Oh yeah. Prosby
remembered with a smile, you never see Dizney bots swimming. In fact full
submersion fries the bot’s circuits. Sparks shot out like Fourth of July fireworks.
Abe thrashed around before slowly sinking like a melting witch.
The robot died
gurgling the words of a long ago president who dreamed a dream for America.
That the evil of killing, brothers and sisters, will be somehow turned to good.
’… that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, (gurgle) under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the (gurgle) people, for the people, shall not perish from ..(gurgle) …(silence) …..”
“The earth.”
Posby finished the last two words as the robot sank into the springs like just another stolen car into Lake Apopka.
Prosby drifted into unconsciousness.
This is the 11th in a series. Meant to be read in ascending order from 1 to 11 ….
Checking in to organize my thoughts. With the blog I can do these things — kind of like thinking aloud. As always appreciate help from the cheap seats. (There are no luxury boxes in my forum, sorry).
I’m working on a piece outlining my strategy to beat Lewy body dementia, based on my trial and error successes so far. I think it will be worthwhile for patients, caregivers, family and friends. This should be ready by Monday if not sooner, keep checking.
On the music front, I’m going to take a look at the most underrated albums, artists and songs in my collection (emphasis on IN MY COLLECTION). I’m still trying to figure out the format and the content. As always, I appreciate suggestions. I’m hoping to drop this over the weekend in close proximity of my regular My Vinyl Countdown column which points out that, in a way, Lewy body dementia is underrated in that it is often overlooked, misdiagnosed, misunderstood and not given credit for being the devastating disease it is.
Before the Neville Brothers were the Meters, playing New Orleans bayou roots music or whatever you may call it. I call it ‘swamp funk’ because there was some funky music going on. Art and Cyril Neville were in the Meters and the Neville Brothers.
Aaron Neville, who went on to become the best known of the four Neville brothers, as his voice, described as that of an angel singing, seeped into the public consciousness in a big way in during the 1980s. The Aaron album here is a compilation of early songs including the hit “Tell It Like It Is.” It might be the least expensive record here if you can find it. The Meters album is a collectible that will likely cost more than $25 (see MVC ratings explained) depending on condition.
Unfortunately my Meters record has a crack in it. Yet it still plays with very little surface noise right over the crack. I’ll keep it but likely will limit its playing time as I am worried it might damage my stylus. You should be able to find the Neville Brothers album for $10 to $15 in good condition (VG+).
I think I have reader in L.A. who might enjoy this Neville Brothers singing a classic ‘Brother John’ melded with Iko Iko (see video below).
I found a 31-year-old mixtape playlist made by me in the 1980s recently.
This was a list of songs on one side of the 90-minute cassette. The list below represents the other side.
I don’t have the tape but this list, tucked into the inner folds of my wallet, is eye opening because it chronicles musically a particular time in my life. I will comment briefly on the songs below but first. some background.
I was about 27 or 28 and had left the Birmingham News after five years. I went to work at the Orlando Sentinel. I was living in Leesburg, FL, for my first reporting job at the Sentinel. And that’s where I think I assembled a tape to send to my colleagues back in the Birmingham News newsroom. We had a running game to see who could find the best songs no one had heard of.
I wrote a list of the playlist to keep for myself and I’m not sure why except perhaps anticipating sometime in the future we would open this time capsule and talk about the tape, see how our tastes have changed or rediscover lost music from my past. Prescient, I think I can say in retrospect.
It’ an eclectic bunch of songs heavy on rock, alternative, New Wave, and what we call now Classic rock. I think I made the tape the old fashioned way with vinyl, turntable and cassette deck — although some of these cuts I believe came off CD’s which were starting to get a toehold in the market, and I was an early adopter. I took pride in mixtapes. I still know these songs but some I haven’t played in dozens of years. And some I’m not sure I have or where I got them.
How did it stay in my wallet all this time? I have changed wallets since then but not much. I have a rotating set of wallets and I think I went back to an older one right around the year 2000. The older one had stuff in it that I must have just let ride in wallet — business cards, receipts I think I should keep but don’t really need to.
Here’s my song-by-song thoughts:
Eleventh Dream Day“Rose of Jericho.” Underrated band alternative hard rock with female vocalist. Good band. I actually like. with its rock harmonies, the song “It’s All a Game’‘ better than Jericho.
Dreams so Real “Rough Night in Jericho” another good alt-rock song from the Athens, Ga., scene.
I see I scratched out Green on Red “Zombie for your Love.” Too bad, that’s a good one but I think i had this on CD not vinyl.
Mekons “Club Mekon” I just reviewed this one for My Vinyl Countdown. i have speculated that this was the last vinyl record I bought during this eral
Soul Asylum “Cartoon.” This band received some success on MTV with a song called “Runaway Train” about runaway teens.
Pylon “Stop It” Athens Ga., band tried to catch a ride on the attention brought to the college town by REM and the B-52’s. This one is a real screamer, cathartic for Vanessa Briscoe.
Alex Bradford “Lord Lord Lord” Some good old fashioned gospel.
Darden Smith “2000 Years” And some new fashioned gospel.
Here’s the list for the other side of the cassette:
Flaming Groovies“Shake Some Action.” A garage 1970s band that played music 1960s music. Home base was San Francisco. Camper Van Beethoven covered this great song.
Posies “Golden Slumbers” A band from the Northwest that played tuneful alternative songs with hints of a Beatles/Byrds influence.
Big Star“Ballad of El Goodo” Band that famously didn’t make the big time featuring Alex Chilton who belted out “The Letter” as lead vocalist of the Box Tops when he was only 16.
Blackgirls “Happy” I’m going to have to go back to listen to this one because I have no memory of it.
Love “Alone Again or …” Classic 1960s band and song coming from the classic album “Forever Changes.” Covered by Suzanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet in one of their covers records.
Quicksilver Messenger Service “Fresh Air” Another California Bay Area rock, a little psychedelic with kick butt guitar playing on this one.
Camper Van Beethoven “Pictures of Matchstick Men.” Cover song of a Status Quo psychedelic-era song. Well done.
Toad the Wet Sprocket “Come Back Down.” Another one I remember nothing about. What’s a wet sprocket?
Saw it, shiny and silver, and strode with my dog on a leash, right over the dime on a sidewalk. I barely thought about it until I started thinking about it.
I used to pick up pennies. I think now I would bend down to pick up a quarter. This is terrible, I began thinking. It’s money for goodness sake. I can certainly see passing over a penny, maybe even a nickel but a DIME. I’m now walking past one-tenth of a dollar. I could buy …. um, ….what can I buy with a dime? Used to be a dime to call someone from a telephone booth.
What’s a telephone booth? You ask.
Aye yi yi.
Is it inflation or aging? Or both. I sometimes let my shoes go untied rather than bending over with my aching back and tired knees and ankles.
But I say a part of it is the erosion of American values. My grandparents were Depression-era folks who knew how to save money and make things last. My now deceased father-in-law was a child of the Depression in way small town Epes (In Alabama near LIvingston).Bill Willis would take one tissue, tear it half and put it in his pocket for later use — all before blowing his nose in the one-half tissue that was left. That can save a lot of tissue over time. Toilet paper too, I suppose, but I’d rather not go there.
So what is your coin cut-off. Pictured at the top of the story are a penny, a nickel, a dime, a quarter, a Liberty dollar coin and just for fun, a $2 bill and some sort of Asian coin like thing that I was given for good luck in California. Don’t know what it is exactly but I would definitely stop and pick it up.
Which one, If you saw them lying on a sidewalk, would you stop, bend over and pick up?
I guess I learned that my threshold is not a dime.
From here on, I vow to stop and pick up dimes. I’ll assess nickels on a case-by-case basis.
Sorry pennies but for me a penny saved hurts my back more then the meager return on my investment.
But I’ll keep my eyes on the PPI. (Penny Pinching Index).
Lee Michaels had a big hit: Do you know what I mean?
“It’s been 14 days since I don’t know when, I just saw her with my best friend. Do you know what I mean?”
This is strange on several levels.
It’s better than I remember it. I knew I bought it as a teenager for the hit song ‘Do You Know what I Mean.’ It came out in 1971 and I remember turning up the car radio when I was about 12 and living in Indiana. No, I wasn’t driving. (It was in my corning cars heyday.)
As years rolled by I didn’t play this album in its entirety very much. Michaels has a half-decent soulful voice. There’s a drum and a little electric organ (Hammond?). The instrumentation is almost minimalist with the organ shouldering most of the music. And Michaels can play that organ.
Interesting because it doesn’t really feature or sound like most rock bands at the time. There’s a gospel choir on several tracks as Michaels may be showing us where his roots lie. Merry Clayton, the soul belter who made the Rolling Stones’ ‘Gimme Shelter’ send tingles down your spine (in a scary way) makes an appearance on ‘Keep the Circle Turning.’
