Eight Great (and Late from the Gate) Overlooked Classic Albums
Published March 13, 2007
Top Ten lists have been popular for many years, even before David Letterman made them a staple of his nightly TV show. It's easier to write a short paragraph on each of ten different items than navigate through one in-depth thesis, and it's a chance for the writer to indulge in a bit of one-upmanship along the lines of "I know something you don't" (as if writers ever do this!).
I'll try to not be too self-indulgent. I'm only doing eight (because seven seemed too short) and I'll even try to stick to some criteria. This particular Top Eight is a list of albums the average music fan likely hasn't heard or even heard of, and each has it's own reason for being on this list. Sometimes it's a major artist with an album that was (and maybe still is) critically underrated or had relatively poor sales. At other times it's lesser-known artists who just didn't get the exposure needed to make them a household name. I'm sure anyone could come up with their own list, and although this only scratches the surface, this one's mine.
8. Guadalcanal Diary - 2x4. To start, here's a bright, snappy 80's album of so-called college rock. Too bad it's almost impossible to find on CD. The band folded after their follow up, Flip Flop, disappointed many rock writers, but it's only a notch behind 2x4, which was a critics' darling. Between the two albums' 24 tracks there are at least 20 gems, but 2X4 really is the better of the two, if not by much.
7. The Guess Who - Artificial Paradise. Most people know the Guess Who as a singles band from their early mega hits like "These Eyes" and "American Woman.” Soon after guitarist Randy Bachman left, the conventional line of thinking was that an MVP like that could never be replaced, but he was. By the time Artificial Paradise came out, the band had already made one live album and three studio albums without him. Artificial Paradise was the fourth studio release post-Bachman, and it focused less on the talent of front man and main songwriter Burton Cummings and instead panned the spotlight on the whole band, particularly highlighting guitarist Kurt Winter and some of his finest performances.
6. Died Pretty - Free Dirt. This dark, Australian rock quintet makes it sound like the 60's never ended. It made you wonder if maybe your older brother and his band never found their way out of the garage. No, that's not quite accurate - Died Pretty lacked the cheesy sound of the garage bands and instead used the crashing guitars and predominant organ fills to fashion something dark, yet manic from both modern and classic influences.
- Eight Great (and Late from the Gate) Overlooked Classic Albums
- Published: March 13, 2007
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Classic Rock and Oldies, Music: Lists
- Writer: JC Mosquito
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oh boy..sooOOOooOOooo many to list
Rush -2112 ('76)
Warchild - Jethro Tull
Blind Faith - selftitled
Monster - Steppenwolf
that's some 70's stuff from the top of my head
one could easily make the argument that there are more worthy albums overlooked, than there are those who rightfully received acclaim
your mileage may vary
West Coast...nope, never heard of them.
Sodt Machine... know of them, not familiar with them.
Touch... this is hilarious - I only ever heard ONE PERSON in my life ever mention them - it was about 1972, give or take. He played some of the album for me - I was just a kid, and it sounded kinda interesting, but I never heard of them again until today. It's good to know I didn't imagine the whole thing.
jaz - interesting list. Around here both 2112 & Warchild were HUGE albums. Blind Faith gets the cold shoulder a lot, but you're right - there's some goos stuff there.
Funny - Steppenwolf 7 was cut from this list when I whittled it to eight. That's a band whose whole contribution to the 60's gooes unheralded.
"Funny - Steppenwolf 7 was cut from this list when I whittled it to eight. That's a band whose whole contribution to the 60's gooes unheralded."
Quoted for Truth
Steppenwolf were huge influences, but rarely get mentioned, due to the one or two hits, and not many knowing about the entire body of work
Steppenwolf to Sabbath to Motorhead to Anthrax to Pantera is one lineage of Music i really have always enjoyed...
the birth of Metal a classic bit....
Spot on - Steppenwolf was much more than Born to Be Wild & Magic Carpet Ride. They rocked hard, and lyrically, covered a lot of grooound, including taking socio/political stands: pro-pot (Don't Step on the Grass, Sam) and anti-Big Brother (The Ostrich) are two examples. But these stands were not always purely part of the pro-youth movement: they also had an anti-heroin song (The Pusher) and their love of their country couldn't be questioned after listening to their patriotic tribute to the spirit of their country in the song Monster/America.
I suspect their biggest selling album was 16 Greatest Hits, their regular studio albums being sometimes spotty. And like other bands of the time that were more successful in the singles market, people often don't consider them serious enough to warrant a place in rock history. I'm thinking in particular of Steppenwolf, Three Dog Night, The Guess Who & Credence Clearwater Revivial. These four groups sold a schwackload of records between them, but usually only Creedence is considered to be a serious rock'n'roll band by most rock journalists & historians.
Sk.
Sorry, been out of it for a while.
re: Touch -- Strange that it's so obscure; still one of the greatest albums ever made.
re: The Pusher -- "by Steppenwolf" -- this song was actually written by the late-great country-folky singer-songwriter Hoyt Axton Just wanna give credit where credit's due.
And rather ironic that one of the strongest 'drug' songs ever written in the 1960s was by a country singer from Oklahoma.
(...Of course, if anyone knows anything about 'drugs' and music, it's not so ironic; the country boys (ie Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard types, etc etc) knew all about 'pills' and cocaine long before the hipster hair-gods did.)
PS: Synchronicity alert: Axton also wrote a huge hit for 3 Dog Night.
xxoo
S
Forgive that sin of omission - Axton also wrote "Snowblind Friend," one of the tracks on Steppenwolf 7.
Hmmm... the allmusic guide gives Steppenwolf 7 only two stars out of five. I think it was their most consistent album - other than the instrumental novelty track "Earschplittenloudenboomer," the rest of the album is solid.
Trivia: correct me if I'm wrong, but apparently the same day they recorded the anti heroin ballad "Snowblind Friend," they also did a single - the biker anthem "Screaming Night Hog."
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Great call on Free - Heartbreaker. "Wishing Well" is a lost rock classic with a awesome vocal by Paul Rodgers.