Several of you gave me a bit of a hard time for not digging hard enough to find the lesser known songs recorded by the Classics. So....I will take that as an offer on your part to help me discover some good stuff :)
I think you pretty much know my tastes. Obviously I have everything by Bruce, U2, Zeppelin, Bowie, Heart and the Stones.....but if you can suggest any other songs of good classic rock bands, I would love to try them out.
Thanks!
13 comments:
You might enjoy listening to "Photograph - Double exposier"by Melanie. It was recorded in 1976 and is Melanes masterpiece. Do you remember the group Toto? They got thier band name while working on this album with Melanie. Melanie had a dog named Toto.
Toto was great on this LP.
You can download this LP on Melanies web site store.
http://MelaniesMusic.com
It is also avalible as a CD in Europe.
I'm enjoying reading your blog. Thank you.
Jim
http://tarbabyjim.tripod.com/sitebuildercontent/letherin.jpg
Ok, Barbara, I actually mentioned a few before, but I'll be a bit more specific this time. (And I hope you don't think I was giving you a hard time; I just took issue with you saying there is only so much you can listen to. ;)
Budgie is a great band from the 70s; many people say they're a cross between Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Squawk and Never Turn Your Back On A Friend are their best albums. The singer sounds similar to Rush.
Night Sun is a German prog band that only made one album, Mournin', and they could be said to sound like Zeppelin and Deep Purple, but they're unique, I think.
The Creation are a 60s outfit that did some very strange things; some say they sound like the Who; others like the Beatles on crack. Their only album, We Are Paintermen, is very good, and they're a bunch of anthologies for lost tracks as well. Eddie Phillips, who I mentioned as the first to use a violin bow, was asked by Pete Townshend to join the Who, but declined.
The Move is a band made up of some former ELO members before they became ELO. They're not as spacey as ELO, but they have some very good and interesting music.
I could go on, but those are the ones that I think are closer to your tastes, from what I can tell. Some others if you're interested: Joseph, Josefus, The Zombies, Focus, Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Nice.
THANKS! Jim and Hatter I appreciate these suggestions and can't wait to go looking around online tonight to find some of these songs!
"Standing in My Light" - Ian Hunter
"April Fool" - Pete Townshend and Ronnie Laine
"A Day Without Me" - U2
"Savoy Truffle" - The Beatles
Ah, Focus.. I absolutely love Thijs Van Lier. He's a true musical genius, IMO; in a Frank Zappa kind of way. "Hocus Pocus" is a good, fun song to listen to, and it has a great guitar in it.
You should also check out some of Rush's "non-hits", like "Nobody's Hero"(my personal favorite), Red Barchetta, and anything off Moving Pictures.
Bruce,
I agree. Rush has some fantastic stuff on Moving Pictures as well as A Farewell To Kings, Permanent Waves, like Cygnus X-1 and YYZ. Focus, as well, even beyond "Hocus Pocus," has some great stuff, like "Sylvia" and "House Of The King."
Bryan
(The Mad Hatter, Mad and Hatter sound weird)
The Rush choices are good ones, and I like the diversity in the suggestions overall.
I'll give some progressive classic rock suggestions:
-- The less-explored but excellent Genesis album "Selling England by the Pound"
-- King Crimson's debut "In the Court of the Crimson King"
-- Dreeam Theater's "Train of Thought" or "Octavarium"
-- Steve Hackett's "Spectral Mornings"
-- david
"Glad" and "Paper Sun" by Traffic.
Don't know if you have it, but Blind Faith's one album is worth listening to, IMO(anything that Steve Winwood has been involved in, actually). The original had only eight songs, but seven more were added to the 2000 remaster. And I go along with David on "In the Court of the Crimson King". Very good album.
There is plenty of Classic Rock out there and I discover "new", old bands every week.
This years discovery for me has been the Welsh band "Man" - try to find the tracks C'mon, Ride And The View, Spunk Rock or from the last album (on their myspace page I think) "All Alone".
Budgie is another great suggestion from the country I now call home!
Good call from Bob on Ian Hunter - there are a few great songs on the You're Never Alone With A Schizophrenic album and on his self titled album.
George Harrison's solo catalogue is worth exploring for some obscure gems too. This Guitar Can't Keep From Crying and the released version of the Beatles outtake Not Guilty spring to mind.
You might also like Uriah Heep, Trapeze, UFO, Badfinger... there's loads of great music out there... enjoy finding it!
Bill
One of my favourite songs is by an old Australian band, The Triffids. Another Aussie musician once said if Bruce Springsteen had written it it would have been a classic. I personally can't see it as a Bruce song. It's very Australian, but you may like it. It's called Wide Open Road.
I also prefer the less popular Bob Dylan songs to his hits. I love Meet Me in the Morning, The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest, Boots of Spanish Leather, Obviously Five Believers ...
I could go on but I'm too lazy to think. My fvourite Led Zeppelin song is In My Time of Dying. I don't think that was a big hit was it? Oh, and I love Jimmy's Easy Rider from the Easy Rider soundtrack.
I like haring about the lesser known bands. I really have no idea. I get lazy and usually just listen to my own personal stockpile. Maybe it's time to broaden the horizons. I'm taking notes.
Here are some other classics worth checking out:
Focus - Hocus Pocus (one of the most unusual rock songs ever, featuring a.... yodeler?!)
New Riders of the Purple Sage - Henry (a Grateful Dead influenced band, this is a story song about a drug dealer)
Harry Chapin - A Better Place to Be and Mercenaries (Chapin is best known for Cats In the Cradle but A Better Place to Be is a bit more heart-wrenching and Mercenaries is one of the BEST anti-war songs I've ever heard)
Chicago - Goodbye and Now That You've Gone (Chicago's 5th album is known mostly for Saturday in the Park and Dialogue Pts. 1 & 2 but 2 of their best album tracks are also on this album)
Queen - Spread Your Wings (News of the World was a hit because of We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions but I've always enjoyed Spread Your Wings a bit more)
Boston - Magdalene (Despite Brad Delp's absence on Boston's 4th album, Walk On there's some great stuff on this CD, Magdalene is a highlight featuring kick ass vocal harmonies)
Little River Band - Statue of Liberty (On their 1975 debut album Little River Band somehow managed to perfectly capture the post-Watergate/post-Vietnam malaise many Americans were feeling with this great song) and I Dream Alone (there's something distinctly Aussie about I Dream Alone, but there's also something about the song that makes it very easy to relate to)
Player - This Time I'm In It For Love (known for Baby Come Back, Player also had a minor hit with This Time I'm In It For Love)
Cold Chisel - Khe Sanh (the definitive Aussie pub band and their definitive song about the Aussie Vietnam vet experience. The song was written by keyboardist Don Walker for vocalist Jimmy Barnes who had served in Vietnam)
Jimmy Barnes - Working Class Man (Lyrically this hits somewhere between Springsteen and Mellencamp, incidentally it was written by Jonathan Cain of Journey).
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