Did either of you get to see The Beat? The American/Paul Collins Beat, of course. I saw them twice at The Whiskey in late-'79/early-'80, and they were fan-f*cking-tastic! They created as much kinetic energy as The Who, but had (imo) better songs and singing (I don't at all care for Roger Daltry's voice.).
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I love that when in France during the 1965-6 world tour with The Hawks, Dylan hung a giant American flag on the wall behind the stage. The war in Vietnam was gaining in unpopularity in the USA by then, but was already very unpopular in the rest of the western world. Dylan was letting the frogs know he was playing American music, and was proud of it. "Play Loud" (what Dylan told Hawks drummer Mickey Jones) is how Bob responded to the booing of those who disapproved of him abandoning purely solo acoustic guitar and singing.
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@larsman: "Who’s to say it was wrong"? It was Clapton! Of course many of his then peers didn’t agree with Eric, and continued down the path Clapton decided to veer off of. Jimmie Page certainly didn’t agree, and his new band after The Yardbirds ended (a band whose original guitarist was of course Clapton, followed by Jeff Beck!) pretty much set the course and created the template for the future of Rock bands. Ironically, Robert Plant is now making music much more like that of The Band than that of Led Zeppelin. He finally "grew up" ;-) .
You’re right, there was a lot of Country-Rock going on in 1968. Dylan with his John Wesley Harding album, The Byrds with their Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, and then The Flying Burritos after Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons left the former. After the breakup of Buffalo Springfield, Richie Furay started Poco. But all those bands were far more Country than Rock.
On the other hand, The Band was not at all a Country group. They were equal parts R & B, Blues, Gospel, Brill Building Pop, 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll, Hillbilly, Jazz, and just about every other strain of American music. That’s why they are credited with creating the genre now referred to as Americana.
By the way, Elton John and Bernie Taupin have stated that in their Tumbleweed Connection album they were trying to sound like The Band's brown album. Neil Young said the same about his Harvest album, and he was obviously thrilled to death to be on stage with The Band in the Last Waltz concert.
I saw The Dead live only once, on a flatbed truck in the panhandle in Golden Gate Park in the Summer Of Love (1967). Also performing that day were Jefferson Airplane (hot!) and Country Joe And The Fish (cold). At that time The Dead still sounded like their drug of choice was speed, kind of a biker band. Pig Pen was singing,and playing a Farfisa organ, so they had that Garage Band sound heard on their debut album.
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@tylermunns: One somewhat-artsy New York band I love is Television; their debut album is stunning. On the other hand, I have known a lot of musicians (and civilians) who love XTC, whom, try as I might, I just couldn’t cozy up to. Music is SO subjective and personal. Which is fine, nothing wrong with that.
I had Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica album for a while (it’s no longer in my music library), and even went to see him at The Roxy Theater in ’78. It’s hard to believe he and Ry Cooder were in a band together ;-) .
It was when I heard J.S. Bach’s Concerto For 4 Harpsichords And Orchestra that I learned the music I deeply hungered for was not the Stravinsky and Penderecki I thought it was---you know, "weird" music---but rather that composed by a deeply religious/spiritual man. And though his music sounds more "formal’" that that of S & P, it is actually more radical. Subversive on a deeper level. Authoritarians hate intelligence ;-) .
In much the same way, it was Eric Clapton hearing Music From Big Pink that made him realize he and his peers had been heading down the wrong path. As he has said, hearing that album was for him an epiphany; it’s not about you man, it’s about the song. It put the lie to Jagger & Richards "The Singer Not The Song". Just as Bach is more radical and revolutionary (on the deepest level, not the surface) than any of the 20th Century composers, The Band were more so than any of the late-60’s psychedelic bands, no matter how "out there" the latter sounded. Even The Grateful Dead temporarily wised up (if you don't think Workingman's Dead is a reaction to the first two Band albums, you aren't listening close enough). At least that’s how "good" musicians see it ;-) .
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Say, am I alone in noticing the contradiction in Mike’s argument? First he cites the decline of album-orientated artists/bands in the 1980’s as the reason for that decade being a musical wasteland, then predicts that the decade will be forgotten because of it’s lack of classic singles that will be played on the radio. Schizophrenia, anyone? ;-)
So his yardstick for determining the quality of any music made is by whether or not it gets played on the radio?! There was a lot of great music made in the 1970’s which never received any airplay (the 60’s too), music now considered classic. The same with the 1980’s (just look at all the names posted above). Geez, what a weak, weak argument. Unless of course one’s only source of music is the radio. But that would make one pathetic, right? No one here like that, right?
A lot of the "best" music made in the 70’s and 80’s (as well as other decades) was known and appreciated only by cult-sized audiences. Pet Sounds was a flop when it was released in 1966 (I didn’t buy it), and is now considered one of the greatest albums of all time (Paul McCartney cites it as his favorite). The same is true of the audiences for Jazz and Classical. Why is the popularity of only Rock bands being used to examine any question about a given decades musical quality?
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@dz13: Crowded House, good one. How about The Records? And Lene Lovich! I just found an original UK Stiff Records copy of her debut album (of which I am quite fond), which will now sit next to my U.S.A. copy.
Also active in the UK was American singer Pearl Harbour, who had three albums on Stiff Records in the 80’s (Columbia Records in the U.S.A.). She was living in England for a few years, and toured around with Elvis Costello, Rockpile, and The Clash. She ended up married to Clash bassist Paul Simonon for awhile, and I decided it would be best if I kept my opinion of his playing to myself when I was a member of her band in the early-2000’s ;-) . Another swell English gal was/is Rachel Sweet, singer of delicious 3-minute Pop morsels.
@whart: My point about taste being immaterial was said in regard to the dismissal of an entire decade of music, not whether one likes or dislikes that music. Lots of people don’t particularly care for 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll and Rockabilly, but to therefore characterize that decade as a musical wasteland would be ridiculous. So too is to do the same to the 1980’s.
Though this topic does not I’m sure include the world of Classical music, I gotta mention the albums being recorded and released in the 1980’s by the evolving group of Original Performance musicians, many of them based in the UK. Harmonia Mundi Records (both U.S.A. and French divisions) is a favorite label of mine. Fantastic performances and recorded sound quality, by period/historically-informed specialist musicians and singers. Lots of Baroque music, my favorite period.
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How anyone can dismiss a decade during which Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Paul Simon, Steve Winwood, Stevie Ray Vaughan, David Bowie, Rodney Crowell, Lyle Lovett, The Clash, and plenty of others (nice list @tylermunns! I could name a coupla dozen more if I put my mind to it.) were making music is bewildering.
In the mid-80’s I saw/heard The Blasters back Big Joe Turner, live at Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd. If you don’t like both of them, your opinion means nothing to me. I also saw Los Lobos open for The Plimsouls in a tiny punk club on Venture Blvd. Both were great, making real fine music in the 1980’s. Everybody knows that. Well, apparently not everyone. I saw Lucinda Williams and her little band a few times in tiny little L.A. joints (once in a pizza parlor) while she was recording her self-titled album that was released on Rough Trade Records in 1988 (her 3rd album, by the way.). Yeah, a real musical wasteland there in the 80’s. Baloney.
Taste has nothing to do with it. There’s lots of music from the 60’s and 70’s (and 80’s and 90’s) I don’t particularly care (or outright dislike), but that’s immaterial. Just as is whether or not Mike "likes" the music that was being made in the 80’s. It’s not his opinion (or anyone else’s, including mine or anyone else) which determines whether or not an entire decade was a musical wasteland. How narcissistic!
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Yeah, the only thing happening in the 80’s were Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, Emmylou Harris, NRBQ, Los Lobos, John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Blasters, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, Loudon Wainwright III, Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Marshall Crenshaw, Squeeze, The Ramones, The Talking Heads (not my cup of tea, but still...), The Long Ryders, Lucinda Williams’ first couple albums, Lone Justice, The Plimsouls, and a few dozen more. And that’s just in the Pop/Rock genre (apart from Emmylou). A real wasteland ;-) .
The 80’s decade was just like any and all others: there was "good", and there was "bad". I mean, unless you were listening only to Top 40 radio.
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@shtinkydog: To understand and appreciate my confusion at finding The Cure alluring, one needs to read not just the second half of the related sentence, but the first half as well. Context is everything ;-) .
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Okay @tablejockey, but "Stray Cat Blues" was recorded in the late-60’s, over 50 years ago for gawds sake! Anyone who thinks Keith Richards is a naturally gifted musician needs to watch the scene in Hail! Hail! Rock ’n’ Roll (the 1987 documentary Richards made on Chuck Berry) where the band that Richards assembled for the concert that ends the film is rehearsing. They are going over one song---I think it’s "Oh Carol"---and Chuck has to over-and-over again show Richards how he is playing it wrong. Chuck demonstrates that the offbeat accents played on guitar are done so with upstrokes (there’s no other way to do it), and try as he might, Richards just can’t play it right. Lame.
By the way, the bassist Richards chose for that band was Joey Spampinato, of the great American Rock ’n’ Roll band NRBQ. Richards offered Joey the job of replacing Bill Wyman when Bill quit The Stones, and Joey turned him down! Apparently Joey elected to stay in the world’s greatest Rock ’n’ Roll band rather than join The World’s Greatest Rock ’n’ Roll Band (self-proclaimed, of course). NRBQ themselves had a great Telecaster player as a member for a long time, the fantastic Big Al Anderson. Good songwriter, too.
I last saw The Stones in the early-2000’s, and it was a pitiful sight to behold. But not as pififull as Richards had acted at the tribute show for Keith’s pal Gram Parsons, held in 1999 at The Universal Amphitheater. He and Norah Jones closed the show, performing the Everly Brothers song lots of people attribute to Gram: "Love Hurts". Yeah, Gram recorded it with Emmylou Harris, but it’s not "his" song. Besides, their recording is not nearly as good as the Brothers’ version.
Anyway, during Richards and Jones performance of the song Keith is being such a leering, lascivious creep towards Norah (he also couldn’t keep his hands off her) that she is actually embarrassed, looking VERY uncomfortable. But that doesn’t stop him, no. He does that whole "Aren’t I so charming and amusing" shtick, constantly chortling at his own charming banter. It was truly disgraceful. What a disgusting pig.
But seeing James Burton on stage (he played on Gram’s albums, and was invited to participate in the concert. Unbelievably, Emmylou wasn't there.) made it all worthwhile. James Burton, now THERE’S a guitar player!
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@simonmoon and @edcyn: Which Moby Disc? I lived a few blocks from the one on Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks. In the mid-80’s Lucinda Williams worked there for awhile. I’d go in and there she was, standing behind the register, staring off into space. She was already playing around L.A. with her little 3-pc band: Gurf Morlix on Telecaster, David Lindley on drums, and Dr. John (a different one ;-) on bass. I saw them a few times, once in a little pizza parlor, playing to an audience of a half-dozen. The stage was so small Lindley had to play washboard instead of a drumset.
The Moby Disc store manager---a very pleasant (and cute) young fella named Kip Brown---was in the Punk band Shock. I knew the band’s bass player (he worked at Licorice Pizza Records on Topanga Canyon Blvd. in Canoga Park) , and when Kip found out I was a Brian Wilson fanatic we developed a nice little friendship. Kip eventually left MD and opened his own shop, Ear Candy, still in Sherman Oaks. He’s been working on a book about James Dean since the late-90’s!
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One 80’s group I for some reason like is The Cure. They were the antithesis of my normal taste in music, and I really don’t understand why I find them so alluring.
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@edcyn: Have you followed the bread crumbs back from the Rock of the 70’s (I agree with you about a lot of the "Rock" music of that decade, excluding the likes of NRBQ, Dave Edmunds, The Flamin’ Groovies, The Dwight Twilley Band, a few others) to its origins in the Rock ’n’ Roll of the 50’s? There you will find lots of twangy Tele’s, including that of James Burton (Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley).
In the early-70’s Burton was the guitarist in one of the best bands of the decade, Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band. When James left her employ he was replaced by fellow-Telecaster player Albert Lee, who had been in one of the U.K.’s best bands, Heads Hands & Feet. Edmunds had Albert guest on his fantastic recording of "Sweet Little Lisa", found on his Repeat When Necessary album. If you haven’t yet, give a listen to Albert’s playing on his signature song, "Country Boy". Hearing his playing will result in you either practicing and gigging more, or hanging it up ;-) .
Have you heard Danny Gatton? If not, he is a master of just about all genres, including 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll and Rockabilly, Blues, Jazz, Hillbilly, Bluegrass, and any other you can name. Vince Gill nicknamed him "The Humbler" ;-) . Guitar pickup maker Joe Barden designed his replacement pickup for the stock one Fender put in the Tele specifically for Danny. His playing is the somewhat rarely-heard combination of virtuosity and musicality, especially rare in Rock (less so in Jazz and Country/Hillbilly), where excess, lack of taste and an understanding of subtlety, and over-playing are commonplace.
Of course, for bad playing of the Tele you always have Keith Richards ;-) .
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