I do hope you added my favorite American band of all time to that playlist, I'm sure you know who I'm talking about.
In honor of the music mecca that is West Texas, my current playlist focuses on artists from Lubbock and the West Texas region: Joe Ely- "She Never Spoke Spanish to Me" Buddy Holly- "I'm Gonna Love You, Too" The Rolling Stones- "Brown Sugar" (Bobby Keys from LBK on sax) Delbert McClinton- "Giving It Up For Your Love" Waylon Jennings- "Theme from Dukes of Hazzard" Roy Orbison- "You Got It" John Lennon- "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night" (Bobby Keys) Mac Davis- "Texas in my Rearview Mirror" Joe Ely- "Musta Gotta Lotta Notta" George Harrison- "What Is Life" (Bobby Keys) Buddy Holly- "Rock Around with Ollie Vee" Roy Orbison- "Running Scared"
God, I know. Reading about Love's history as a band is really so sad. '67 was probably the worst year that album, or any album for that matter, could've come out.
Umm...yes. Although, to me, they're way beyond corporate rock, except for that 1982-1988 period (and they didn't have their lead bassist for most of those 6 years, so it really wasn't them in their full incarnation). At its heart, CT's music really transcends a lot of boundaries- people that liked heavy metal liked them, but they weren't visually like Kiss or Black Sabbath or any of those heavy bands. They were right there in the forefront of the punk music (yes, when you have The Ramones copying your sound, you deserve to be called one of the members of the punk movement) and influenced Nirvana, Guns N' Roses, etc. And they were revered by the pop fans over I Want You To Want Me (one of my least favorite of their songs, although it's good) and stuff like that. But, like a lot of bands, it's about their hits: "IWYTWM," Surrender, Dream Police, and The Flame- apparently, they've only put out 4 songs in their entire existence, according to many. For a lot of those "corporate" bands, it's the same- Toto gets labeled as a fluff pop band when they a lot of songs that are borderline jazz (e.g. "99"). So, yes, I'm constantly on the CT soapbox because they are THE most underrated band in rock history, with the exception of maybe The Kinks or Buffalo Springfield.
Sorry dando, I like Cheap Trick but I don't really feel they fit into that playlist. The 27 artists that are on that playlist (with each having 4 songs apiece) are as follows: Asia Bad Company Blue Oyster Cult Boston Bryan Adams Deep Purple (questionable to be here but I have included them, nonetheless) Eddie Money ELO Fleetwood Mac (another questionable one) Foreigner Genesis (post Peter Gabriel version) Heart Journey Kansas KISS (also questionable but what the hell...) Loverboy Pat Benatar Peter Frampton Queen (far superior than most of these other groups, by the way) Rainbow (possibly questionable) REO Speedwagon Rush (also questionable) Steve Miller Band Styx Supertramp (like Queen a cut above the rest of these groups) Survivor Toto The funny thing about Toto is that although they are slagged on a lot by the public and critics, all of their guys are outstanding musicians. Jeff Porcaro, their original drummer, has drummed on hundreds of sessions for other artists and was one of the most highly respected drummers of all-time. One of those sessions was "Mother" by Pink Floyd off "The Wall" album as Nick Mason could not play what Waters wanted. Porcaro was brought in and that was how that song was able to be completed.
Listening to clips from the Avalance EP by Photek due to be released soon. One of the best producers on Earth, no doubt.
Hey, your musical tastes are your own, no one can criticize anyone else on that, but Cheap Trick doesn't fit with that group and Rush/Deep Purple does? Cool. My personal "thing" I'm into is what I call the Great 8 of Power Pop. My theory is that each decade- 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s (I don't go beyond that- wish I could)- has produced 2 great power pop bands: 60s- The Who and The Kinks (at least that's how both those bands started) 70s- The Ramones and Cheap Trick (the Ramones, to me, were almost more pop than punk- their sound owes as much to the Beach Boys and the Ronettes as it does to the Kinks and the MC5) 80s- The Smithereens and The Replacements (again, the Replacements are a stretch, but when you have them doing cover versions of The Monkees and The Knack in concert, yes, they can be called P.P. 90s- Green Day and Weezer Corporate rock? That would be Journey, REO Speedwagon, and Styx- those are the top 3. I wouldn't put CT in there, either, especially with my current playlist: He's A w****, Tonight It's You, Gonna Raise Hell, Cry Baby, and Closer - punk, corporate rock, heavy metal, 12-bar blues, and psychedelia- can't get more diverse than that. And I will of course respectfully disagree with you on one thing- and always respectfully- that not in this universe nor in any other universe is Queen and Supertramp head-and-shoulders above Blue Oyster or Rush. Maybe a little better, maybe even, but by no means way better. BOC, in particular, goes under the radar of many- I'd put Fire of Unknown Origin, Agents of Fortune, and especially Spectres against any album from Queen or Supertramp, my like for them notwithstanding. Very few wail as good as Buck Dharma, and they're just such an interesting band. They really deserve more accolades than they receive, but like The Kinks, Cheap Trick, and a few others, they're quirky enough so that many simply don't get them.
Led Zeppelin - Presence The Allman Brothers Band - Enlightened Rogues Presence is probably my favorite Zeppelin album ever even though it has 3 average songs on it (Royal Orleans, Candy Store Rock, Hots on for Nowhere). That is because the remaining 4 are easily some of the best stuff they have ever done.
Past few days, I've been listening to the Vivian Girls. Specific scene, I suppose, for this band...but I like them.
i just heard them a couple weeks ago too - i like all these california stoner-kids doing this noisy-shoegaze stuff - vivian girls would have fit in nicely in the early 90's velocity girl/unrest/tsunami (vivian girls really remind me of tsunami) scene, which i was very much into. wavves, best coast, vivian girls, dum dum girls, no age - theres definitely a common thread around all these l.a. bands.
