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Post by bamajohn1 on Sept 29, 2010 16:02:00 GMT -5
Sleepwalker, it seems their esteem is going up and I think exposure on the internet is helping. They just finished #39 on Vh1's 100 Greatest Artists. The Vh1 survey is actually a poll of artists, but I think it's skewed toward younger artists. I extrapolate somewhat from this that The Kinks stature is growing at least with younger artists.
Honestly, because so many people are not aware of the vastness of the Kink's katalogue, I'm a little surprised the Kinks placed that high (above the Police and Van Halen, for instance). Of course, the list is suspect (Johnny Cash #35, no Sinatra, Supremes,Temptations, Miles Davis or any jazz for that matter, no Hank Williams Sr.) as it is obvious roots rock, country, jazz, 50s rock (Chuck Berry #26 for heavens sake), and the blues where outside the realm of the artists that were polled. I'm still glad the Kinks got somewhat of their due in this instance!
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Post by HollyH on Sept 29, 2010 23:14:30 GMT -5
I've been thinking about starting a thread about underrated performers whose music I've come to collect over the years. The Kinks have always been identified as the most underrated band who was actually popular, whilst The Velvet Underground is mentioned at the most underrated who was never popular except to those who formed their own bands as a result of being inspired by VU. Nick Lowe is underrated for his solo work (hence, still not in the Rock Hall of Fame), and many others come to mind such as Charlie Rich (not just a countrypolitan, but an amazing soul & rockabilly singer & jazz pianist I tell you; Dylan's fav singer in fact), Marshall Crenshaw (is he the perfect power pop artist or what), Michael Nesmith (more a father of country rock than Gram Parsons in my book), and Embrace (the most uplifting espouser of the 90s Britpop sound) amongst others. Extraordinary albums by Tugboat Annie (Jimmy Eat World at it's best) and Plastiscene (Oasis, Bowie, Stone Roses, and John Lennon shot off in space) are records I could never listen to enough. I just need to carve out some time to post some of my finds here. Let's start that thread -- it would be fun! For starters, I'll add Graham Parker to that list -- except for a couple hot albums around 1979-80, he more or less vanished from the spotlight, but I can tell you, his albums in the 90s and 00s are some of the best records I've EVER heard. And (probably no surprise) I am also a MAJOR Marshall Crenshaw fan.
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Post by bamajohn1 on Sept 30, 2010 0:02:44 GMT -5
Aw yea, I saw Graham will be opening for some of Lowe's US shows. I've always loved The Smithereens live version 'of a Graham Parker song' 'Behind The Wall of Sleep' sung by Graham Parker. I always thought he was the most soulful of the so called 'angry young man contingent' (ie Costello, Joe Jackson); hence, the song Soul Shoes.
Interesting note is that his band The Rumour was the backing band for Carlene Carter's solo record in 1977; she'd go on to be Mrs. Lowe as highlighted by the classic 'Cruel...' video. I think Rockpile's best record was actually cut with Carlene called 'Musical Shapes'. It has a groovy duet with her and Dave Edmunds.
In a related note, Mrs. Lowe cut Blue Nun (often packaged on cd with Musical Shapes) with Paul Carrack. Is anyone more faceless who had over 10 top Top 40 Hits with different bands and solo than Carrack? He was the voice of Squeeze's 'Tempted', Ace's 'How Long', and Mike and the Mechanics classic 'The Living Years'. Carrack worked with The Basher too; their duet on 'Wish You Were Here' from Abominable Showman was about the only thing that kept that overproduced album from being 'abominable'. Sorry, but that was a weak, weak record.
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Post by bamajohn1 on Sept 30, 2010 0:16:46 GMT -5
'I've always loved The Smithereens live version 'of a Graham Parker song' 'Behind The Wall of Sleep' '
Now that I think of it, I think they say on stage that it is a Smithereens song. The Smithereens are way underrated as far as their influence on and place in the alternative rock movement. They do a fantastic version of 'The World Keeps Goind Round' that made me go back and listen to the Kinks original and realize how far ahead of it's time it was. The Replacements (Mats) are another of the 80s alternative groups that are underrated (although not in the press of the their time).
I've been listening to 3 Best of cds of Rick(y) Nelson that covers his career from 57' to 75' and I must say he was indeed a legit rockabilly cat and he did a nice job of transitioning into the folk rock country realm in the late 60s that the Byrds and Nesmith set a template for. He covered a Dylan song 'She Belongs To Me', in fact. I think I literally find a song every week by some artist that I didn't know was written by Misseur Dylan.
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Post by bamajohn1 on Sept 30, 2010 12:27:46 GMT -5
I'm listening to the third volume of Ricky Nelson's best of's right now (63-75') and 'Rock & Roll Lady' just came on. It's instantly jumped to my Top 5 Rick Nelson songs. It sounds like a smoother version of Papa Nez solo stuff from the early 70s with a soaring chorus like the stuff Nesmith was cutting when he helped develop the concept of what became MTV in the late 70s/early 80s. I'm scratching my head how this wasn't a smash single during the era of emerging California country rock?!
Hollyh, I checked out your blog again for a sec and I'm not surprised at your John Hiatt affection. I've heard his work and know of his songs done by other great artists, but sadly I've never owned a Hiatt album proper besides the Little Village group project. Well, I just discovered that one of my old rollingstone mix tape partners sent me a bunch of stuff about 8 or 9 years ago that I didn't get around to going through. There are several Hiatt cdrs here; I just hope they play!!! I tried some others recently that I got from the early 00s that were a distorted mess. I really hope I can find the room in the budget to spring for the Hiatt anthology in the near future; I've been eyeing it for awhile.
Oh by the way, one of my big Nick Lowe discoveries was when I first got the Basher best of and heard his version of the Hiatt tune 'She Don't Love Nobody'. It led off side B of the first cassette best of I made of ole Nickster.
The first time I became aware of Hiatt was in the early 90s when Suzy Boguss had a giant country hit with 'Drive South'. Suzy was a solid singer but came and went quickly in the country realm and became a jazz singer of late.
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Post by HollyH on Oct 1, 2010 20:47:45 GMT -5
Let me know if you'd like a list of Hiatt tracks for a comp. I find the anthologies of his stuff tend too much to the obvious commercial stuff. OTOH, that Best of Basher comp really dug up some offbeat stuff -- that cemented my Nick Lowe obsession! (And for obvious reasons, I cannot listen to any of Carlene Carter's albums ;D). I totally agree about Paul Carrack; I have a bootleg of a concert he and Nick did that is just priceless. All of my favorite Squeeze tracks are the ones with Paul singing lead vocals.
I'm so glad you brought up Ricky Nelson. What an enormous talent, and always underrated because of his good looks and TV connections. He had a fluid grace about him that Elvis P never could equal.
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Post by bamajohn1 on Oct 1, 2010 21:54:44 GMT -5
Hollyh, I was just listening to the Memories: 68 Comeback Special that I bought online and came in today. Yes, Rick had the fluid grace of which you speak, but I gotta give it up to the Pelvised one. The 'in the round' set is amazing; I find it much better than the actual tv variety performace he did. Just basic guitars and Elvis' energy carries the show. He's smoking hot as a performer, and even as a somewhat jealous male, I recognize when a guy has got it going on. Dude was the sexiest singer ever!
I mentioned that I had a stack of old cdrs someone sent me 8 or 9 years ago. Turns out, the Elvis set was in there. I tried them out and they play well, but cutoff at the end of each song. I noticed that live shows on cdrs always did that until a couple of years ago; I guess they figured out how to get the cdrs to reproduce the original live cds completely. Thus, I'm glad I ordered this Elvis set. I have all three out his boxsets, the Amazing Grace Gospel collection, the 60s movie collection, and now this live show; so I feel I have a definitive collection of the Pelvis one.
For opposite reasons, I have to listen to 'everything' Carlene does because she was always smoking hot. Seriously though, she's actually my favorite female singer because she has that unique rockabilly swing in her music and her singing style; just really energetic; when she does the real country stuff; there's still a lot of energy. I felt like she was bringing back the Janis Martin (female Elvis) and Wanda Jackson sound from the 50s (more of a rockabilly filly than Rosie Flores, for instance). She worked with the most incredible musicians; even when she went Nashville and had big hits she was playing with the likes of Albert Lee, Al Anderson (NRBQ), Howie Epstein and Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers), and Sheila E. Last year, she opened for Elvis Costello in the Ryman in Nashville and I so wish I could have driven up there to see it!
As far as Rick, I wasn't familiar with this later Decca stuff beside Garden Party. I'm really impressed and he definitely was one of the people who helped develop the 'country rock' style. I picked up all three of his best of's for a total of $12.50 online; $9 of it was for shipping, for heavens sake. I would recommend getting all three of those, and maybe the Ricky Rocks cd later because it has all his more rocking numbers; it's a little more costly, but I plan to get it later. I think this would be a better 'boxset' than the actual boxset I see is out for him, and cheaper too. Of course, you quite probably have already done this; so it's just an fyi for the interesed!
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Post by bamajohn1 on Oct 1, 2010 22:01:37 GMT -5
Oh yea, there are several John Hiatt cdrs in my stack so I'm going to try to get to them a little this weekend (between all the college football games; ROLL TIDE!). I'm crossing my fingers that they'll also play good. What do you think of the John Hiatt Anthology, hollyh? It's a 2cd set and seems to get good reviews. I'd really like to own one cd/album proper that's fairly definitive. Any track list of essentials by Hiatt that you can provide me would be much appreciated!
This old pal sent me some other cool stuff like The Derailers (which I already had) and a similar group called the Backsliders which I haven't heard. I have mostly old cassette tapes stashed away that I never got to, but I dug out these cool cdrs that so far, are playing good!
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loren
New Member
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Post by loren on Nov 1, 2011 17:57:06 GMT -5
with "One Of The Suvivors" fabulous choice in (hard-rock) Attachments:
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loren
New Member
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Post by loren on Nov 1, 2011 18:02:44 GMT -5
excellent choice bamajohn1!Attachments:
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Post by bamajohn1 on Jun 25, 2015 14:10:24 GMT -5
I'm bumping this thread and combining the posts I made on it that refer to my personal boxset I made in the cd burning era for myself!
Here is my personal 5 CD boxset that I made for myself especially for road trips. I go a little lighter on the early hard rock stuff than I used to as I have come to realize the Britpop stuff from the late 60s era is so loaded in great songs that a 60s compilation should be weighted toward it.
Essential KINKS Vol. 1
PROTO-Metal/Punk/Hard Rock 1964-1970
1. You Really Got Me 8-64 2. All Day And All of the Night 10-64 3. I Need You 1-65 4. Where Have All The Good Times Gone 10-65 5. Till The End of The Day 10-65 6. Sitting On My Sofa 2-66 7. I'm Not Like Everybody Else 6-66 8. Who'll Be the Next In Line 12-64 9. So Mystifying 8-64 10. I Gotta Move 8-64 11. Come On Noew 11-64 12. Revenge 8-64 13. She's Got Everything 68' 14. Love Me Till The Sun Shines Live BBC 7-68 15. Victoria 1969 16. Mindless Child of Motherhood 1969 17. King Kong 5-69 18. Top of the Pops 1970
Britpop 1964-1970
19. Tired of Waiting For You 2-65 20. A Well Respected Man 2-65 21. Sunny Afternoon 1966 22. Set Me Free 2-65 23. Waterloo Sunset 1967 24. Dedicated Follower of Fashion 10-65 25. Everybody's Gonna Be Haopy 2-65 26. Dandy 1966 27. Apeman 1970 28. LOLA (Coca-Cola version)
Essential KINKS Vol. 2
More Britpop 1964-1970
1. See My Friends 2-65 2. David Watts 1967 3. Death of A Clown 1967 4. Dead End Street 11-66 5. Days 6-68 6. Animal Farm 11-68 7. Picture Book 11-68 8. Stop Your Sobbin' 8-64 9. Nothin' In This World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl 1965 10. The World Keeps Goin' Round 10-65 11. I'm On An Island 10-65 12. Something Better Beginning 2-65 13. It's Too Late 10-65 14. Ring The Bells 10-65 15. I Go To Sleep 1965 16. Too Much On My Mind 10-66 17. Little Miss Queen of Darkness 10-66 18. Rosie Won't You Please Come Home 10-66 19. Harry Rag Live BBC 1967 20. Plastic Man 1969 21. Last of the Steam Powered Engines 11-68 22. The Village Green Preservation Society 11-68 23. Sitting By The Riverside 11-68 24. Mr. Songbird 1968 25. Autumn Almanac 10-67 26. Susannah's Still Alive 11-67 27. This Is Where I Belong 4-67 28. Big Black Smoke 10-66 29. Mr. Pleasant 4-67
Essential Kinks Vol. 3
Britpop 1969-1976
1. Shangri La 1969 2. Strangers 1970 3. Celluloid Heroes (originally 1972) 1980 Live 4. Muswell Hillbilly (originally 1971) 1995 Live 5. 20th Century Man 1971 6. Skin & Bone 1971 7. Holloway Jail 1971 8. Mountain Woman 1971 9. Willesden Green 1971 10. God's Children 1971 11. You Don't Know My Name 1972 12. Supersonic Rocket Ship 1972 13. Sweet Lady Genevieve 1973 14. Sitting In the Midday Sun 15. Scrapheap City 1973 (w/ Belle and the Floosies) 16. Money Talks BBC 1974 17. You Can't Stop the Music 1975 18. I'm In Disgrace 1975 19. The First Time We Fall In Love 20. Schooldays 1976 21. The Last Assembly 1976
Essential Kinks Vol. 4
Hard Rock 1975 to Present
1. Everybody's In Showbiz 1975 2. The Hard Way 1986 3. Sleepwalker 1977 4. Juke Box Music 1977 5. Father Christmas 1977 6. Live Life 1978 7. (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman 1979 8. Low Budget 1979 9. Destroyer 1981 10. Around the Dial 1981 11. A Little Bit of Abuse 1981 12. Labour of Love 1983 13. State of Confusion 1983 14. Do It Again 1984 15. Word of Mouth 1984 16. Sold Me Out 1984 17. Rock N' Roll Cities 1986 18. It's Alright 1993 19. Phobia 1993 20. Things Are Gonna Change (The Morning After)- Ray Davies 06'
Essential Kinks Vol. 5
(Brit) Pop Rock 1977 to present
1. Life Goes On 1977 2. A Rock N' Roll Fantasy 1978 3. Misfits 1978 4. A Little Bit of Emotion 1979 5. Better Things 1981 6. Come Dancing 1983 7. Don't Forget To Dance 1983 8. Heart of Gold 1983 9. Living On A Thin Line 1984 10. When You Were A Child 1986 11. How Do I Get Close 1989 12. Hatred (A Duet) 1993 13. Still Searching 1993 14. Scattered 1993 15. The Informer 1993 16. To The Bone 1995 17. Animal 1993 18. Run Away From Time (Ray solo) 2006
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Post by HollyH on Jun 25, 2015 17:56:56 GMT -5
That's a really good way to separate it out, John. And I like the flow you've got from song to song. I may steal some of this for my own "drivin'" comp CD.
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Post by bamajohn1 on Jun 25, 2015 18:18:11 GMT -5
Thanks Holly! I have no proprietary rights as I did not write any of those songs; so borrow away! I actually did try to balance the songs sequentially as best as possible (at least songs more than a few years apart are not lumped together LOL) while maintaining a good flow so I'm glad you feel I did that for the most part! I really think that 2nd disc (Essential Vol 2) is an amazing listen and would put it up against a similar one compiled by a Beatleholic (ie leaving off their major US hits - the Kinks one does have some major UK hits)! I purposely tried to put the US pop hits from 64-70 on the end of the first disc (a stray UK hit, a song that was a US hit as a cover, and Waterloo Sunset non-withstanding) thinking that someone who just listened to this one Kinks' disc would get the best feel for their 60s music and the fact I felt it would be a good one to listen to in the car for a short trip! I was surprised pleasantly by your inclusion of Property in your Top 10! But, if I redid Vol. 5, I'd probably drop the Ray solo song off and add Stormy Sky!
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Post by martin53 on Jul 11, 2015 0:42:31 GMT -5
Still waiting for the release of a Kinks « Picture Book » Box Set Volume 2…!
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