The Kevin Rowland thread got me thinking about bands or artists who achieve legendary status with very little music of merit.
I quite like Dexys and just bought the Too Rye At reissue. It’s good but nothing earth shattering.
Kev hasn’t released much else. Is it just that 1 album Don’t Stand me Down bestowing his legendary status? Or is it more because he’s good copy and a character?
Stone Roses were the other one I thought of. 2 fairly good albums and nothing else
Which other artists have the biggest gap between credibility, acclaim and the lack of decent music they released?
The Las
@Thegp are you dismissing Searching for the Young Soul rebels and Too Rye Aye? They are both very good additions to Don’t Stand me down. One day I am going to soar also very good. The poncey covers album with him in a dress (The Wanderer?) is pretty lame but the later Irish one is good.
The covers album is ‘My Beauty’, which I think is really good. ‘The Wanderer’ I could never get on with.
The Wanderer was The Cocaine Album. I don’t think even Kevin can remember it.
@stevet
Not dismissing particularly, I listened to them and enjoyed them but they are not earth shattering IMO
I own My Beauty as well, again it’s ok but seems a gap between massive legendary status of the artist and the quite good albums
For a record that apparently sold absolutely hee-haw, it’s amazing how many folk seem to own a copy of My Beauty.
(I don’t…in fact, I’ve never heard it…)
Are you sure Fitter? I mean, really sure? What about down the side of the sofa?
I’ve looked down the side of the sofa, I’ve checked behind the fridge. I can confirm that I don’t own a copy of My Beauty: and, not owning a hard copy notwithstanding; I can also confirm that I’ve never heard it by more ephemeral means.
More copies sold out of morbid curiosity after release than before
I think I might have it, but I’m not sure. Perhaps if I saw the cover it might jog my memory..
I’d have to go to the bookshelf to check, but didn’t Creation only press 1000 CDs and sell only 400 in the first week?
It took me years to buy a copy as I saw his Reading Festival performance, and that put me off.
My Beauty may be Schrodinger’s CD: we can’t be sure if it’s on the shelf or not, and we don’t want to check as we’d end up seeing that cover again.
I keep mine with the sleeve turned inside-out, just in case.
Love
How bloody dare you @myoldman.
Granted the band only existed as a band for 4 albums after it was Arthur Lee and musicians.
However a band that recorded the majestic `Forever Changes` the greatest rock album ever to be released simply cannot be dismissed. Aside from `Forever Changes` the S/T first and `Da Capo` are works of wonder. The album after `Forever Changes`, `Four Sail`, had it not followed FC it would also be hailed as a great album.
You are of course entitled to your opinion but you IMHO are wrong.
Edit: Having just seen @hedgepig`s post I see others are capable of `breathless overwrought bollocks`, what an idiot.
Steady!
The initial post is about legends built on little amounts of good music.
Agreed Forever Changes is a classic and a favourite album of mine but the debut is so-so and Da Capo is half an OK album.
I’d argue there’s very little if anything of merit after FC.
So there you go, a legend based on one great album and half an ok album
I think one album can be enough, if it’s a classic that has had sufficient impact. Perhaps the term legendary fits things other than music acts better though. Something like CBGBs, the legenday New York venue where many great new wave and punk bands started out. That kind of thing. The stuff of myth and legend.
But I don’t think many think Love are one of the greatest bands of all time, but a band that recorded one of the greatest albums of all time
Although I consider Forever Changes to be the greatest album of all time @dai I don’t think they were the greatest band, although their star shined brightly for 3 years. As a fan I did find enjoyment in Arthur Lees output following Four Sail.
The thing is @myoldman I bought LoVe’s S/T 1st album as soon as it was released and played it many times and grew to love (no pun intended) it’s 14 tracks of folk, pop, blues and protest songs. Then came Da Capo which many feel was let down by the 18minute instrumental track Revelation and they may have a point. However I got into the track and learned to appreciate it. Now side A of Da Capo IMHO is sublime, from the psychedelic Stephanie Knows Who, the jazzy pop of Orange Skies & Que Vida thru the proto-punk and simply great 7&7 Is we could call Da Capo a great album. BUT side A ain’t done with yet because the exquisite The Castle is up next finishing with another psychedelic gem She Comes In Colours. Everyone of those 6 tracks on Side A is a masterpiece making Da Capo, as I stated earlier a work of wonder. Then came Forever Changes, I don’t think I need say any more. You can argue that they’re very little of merit after Forever Changes but that just shows you have very little knowledge of Arthur Lee and LoVe. Of course following Forever Changes was going to be impossible but describing Four Sail lacking merit proves my opinion of your knowledge of LoVe. The thing is you are entitled to your opinion and I to mine. However you are wrong and I of course am right.
I was listening to Da Capo again last night and it struck me how Arthur Lee sounds like a cross between a psychedelic Johnny Mathis and Vic Reeves on Orange Skies.
In case anyone is interested, Johnny Echols is touring the UK with Baby Lemonade (the band that backed Arthur Lee on his last tours) for one last time later this year.
I agree with the general consensus here that they made 3 very good albums, with one being a classic. I personally think FC is great enough to anoint Love, and Arthur Lee in particular, as legendary, also almost because their imperial period was so short, if that makes any sense.
I saw them last year in Leeds and it was special. Baby Lemonade are a superb 21st Century rebrand of Love.
I also saw them supporting Arthur Lee many times earlier this century.
Unfortunately I won’t be going this time due to tinnitus which has worsened.
The Beatles. Because literally no music *could* live up to the breathless overwrought bollocks talked about the supposed transcendent mindblowing wonder of them. The biggest groupthink experiment in the history of culture, and proof that lots of guys whose personality is music really have no frame of reference before about 1950 in which to place their daft sonic cathedralism.
There you go. Have that one on me.
The Beatles are and always will be underrated.
Have that one on me.
In that case, you’re in the wrong thread! 🙂
Need a Beatles section on this site…
It’s religion, really. Who was the Fifth Walrus? Many say it was Magic Alex, but as Lewisohn tells us, he didn’t become a disciple until ’68, long after MMT, so these worshippers are false prophets; the one true Fifth Walrus was Peter Brown. The note nailed to the door of Abbey Road by John Himself (“Another clue for you all”) was very clear on this, but the schism runs deep to this day.
As The Fab Ones taught us, “You can count me out / in” (Revolutions, Take 6, 1.23)
God, this is really true. I’ve just finished reading Tom Holland’s “In The Shadow of the Sword”, which is mainly (but not exclusively) about the rise of Islam, and complements his “Dominion” perfectly. You get to see how totally religious thinking dominates human activity, even – perhaps particularly? – among the most vociferous atheists. The grief unbelievers get from fabdolators is essentially a heresy reaction, but then, those of us who nail our “meh” to their cathedral door are essentially Protestants – raging against graven images, demanding a return to the text as written, all that jazz 😉
The True Unbelievers tend to be even more fundamentalist about their beliefs than the True Believers.
Threads I skip past unread on this blog:
Beatles
Kate Bush
Bowie
Floyd
Brooce
Kevin Rowland
Wordle
Anything mentioning Steven Wilson or containing the words Superdeluxe Edition or Half-Speed Mastering.
I don’t actively dislike any of the above, I just can’t be arsed about them.
Awww, Mike – that means that you always read my VdGG threads – (gets emotional…)
The Beatles are definitely NOT the type of band I had in mind here!
I really enjoy his podcast with Sandbrook.
Are the books worth the price?
Yep. Dominion in particular, though they’re all very good.
Guess you had to be there to be a true adherent. I missed the arrival of the Messiahs by a decade. Loved them as a kid but then my parents forced me to go to church as a kid, and I don’t do that as an adult either. They’re OK, but I love a lot of music more.
Loads of hyped then subculture / gaslighted bands: music journalism defined the phenomena when inkies ruled.
Longest AW t-shirt slogan yet. Or a Fall lyric.
Might I be the first to say “grateful dead”?
Re: Might I be the first to say “grateful dead”?
Hah – I knew that was coming!
Menswe@r
Even better, Mozzer’s MM front cover star pals, Raymonde – did they even release a record?
Yes. They did an album. The only thing I remember by Raymonde was No one can hold a candle to you, which Moz later covered
To be fair to Menswe@r, they did write Being Brave, which is brilliant bah bah bah bah.
I really like Daydreamer (D@ydre@mer?) too, even if it is ‘influenced’ by Wire.
You could see their album clogging up every pound bin for years.
wasn`t that the monkees?
There was a good article about Menswe@r in the Guardian a while ago – it summed up the music industry madness of those days:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/23/how-britpop-stars-menswear-came-apart-at-the-seams
Menswear are not legendary or critically feted by anyone though are they?
They were mildly appealing for 5 minutes in 1995
“Mensware: the band Flowered Up COULD have been”.
“Mensware: the band Menswear very nearly were”
Brinsley Schwarz – fine band whose credibility was destroyed by their
record company’s hubristic act in flying journos from every early-70s
Inkie across the Atlantic to see them in NY
Yep having never seen them I relied on a double best of. Double? An EP would have done. Thankfully the players went on to better things.
Virgin Records did the same thing with Mano Negra in the early 90s – flew all the journos in first class to the Brixton Academy gig, plied them all with free booze, but they were all too ratarsed to remember/write anything about the show. Band dropped by label shortly after.
Clapton. As well as being a nasty piece of work, it’s all a bit rubbish isn’t it?
I think his reputation was for playing with John Mayall and Cream, when guitar heroes were beginning to be a thing. He did have a fierce, fluid, if highly derivative style. I’d rate the Layla album and a couple of his early solo efforts, but the rest is pretty awful – Glyn Johns said he is the laziest musician he’s ever worked with. And yes, he sounds like he has always been a shit – Covid only confirmed it.
Clapton? Was a twat and still is. His albums are shyte also. He should have stayed in The Barron Knights.
In one. Beck n Page are miles better, too.
Laughable how this has become accepted, barely challenged doctrine on here. Largely I suspect due to his personal failings and that drunken racist outburst. Clapton totally different to Beck and Page and for those who like the traditional blues oeuvre of Freddie King , Otis Rush and Buddy Guy he was a fine musician. Derivative sure but highly influential in his own right. From the Beano album, the Cream catalogue, the Derek and the Dominoes pair,461 and EC was here Clapton delivered big time. Revisionism pah.
461 Ocean Boulevard is an amazing album and I think the Baron hasn’t taken his meds.
I agree Junior. The Clapton haters are very predictable. I think he evolved what Freddie King did into something new and higher voltage and was a country mile ahead of Jimmy Page in that genre though Beck swiftly went his own way.
Not sure Page or Beck were ever actually in the Freddie King genre, @Twang – or a meringue? I don’t think either of them were trying (or claiming) to be blues purists…unlike Clapton.
Page maybe but Beck was a huge fan and played “Goin’ down” throughout his career. In fact I saw the two of them jam on it and Jeff ran rings around poor Pagey whilst using a miniature Telecaster!
Fair enough: although, to give some credit to Page, he readily acknowledged that Beck was the better guitarist, on the record (arf!) and not just after Beck’s death.
I stand by my comment, though – neither Page nor Beck claimed to blues purists, whereas Clapton left the Yardbirds to preserve his almost painful sincerity/authenticity (after they started having the odd hit). So of course he was a “country mile” ahead of them in that genre.
Junior speaks the truth, and should be listened to. EC’s later output is frequently half-hearted/assed (losing your 4-yr-old son out of a 53rd-floor window might have that effect), but at his best he’s a great guitar player and pretty good singer. I’m not interested in whether he’s any better than Beck, Page, or Howlin’ Mudbelly for that matter.
Have to agree that comparisons of an instrumentalist’s “worth” are of no real consequence.
And “authenticity” is almost the definition of a bourgeois concept.
With the Stone Roses I’d say one great album and one pretty ropy one, which tainted their reputation. I had a mate who in 1992 said they should be like the La’s – do one mighty album, then call it a day. He had a point – if Television had split up after Marquee Moon, or the Ramones had split after their first LP, or… name any great debut album. There’s something admirable about one great artistic statement, followed by silence. Burnishes the legend no end.
Funny thing that first album though, I remember the reviews being a bit tepid when it came out with a 7 in the NME and a 3 star in Q
Don’t agree with your theory when applied to Television – we’d have missed out on the brilliance that was Adventure – less hyped, less burnished with hindsight, fewer “life-changing” anecdotes – but (whisper it!) maybe a better album…
I agree with fitterstoke. I love Adventure. Also, discovering the third album (and the pre-MM songs and the live album) after Tom Verlaine’s death has been rewarding.
The Strokes and Lloyd Cole & The Commotions have some similar elements to Television. Much like them they had lauded debuts and panned second albums
I blame the inkies – “build ‘em up, knock ‘em down” culture…
Ditto The Cars, who were Television for civilians.
“The Cars (…) Television for civilians”
Seriously? I mean – seriously?? I think we need to see your working on that one…
Not my theory, I’m afriad – cribbed from some Classic Albums or radio doco. Taking College Rock to the masses.
First album is a cracker and, much as I like Heartbeat City, they never bettered it.
“The Cars (…) Television for civilians”
An Afterword T- shirt, Shirley?
In Richard Lloyd’s (excellent) autobiography, Everything is Combustible, he describes it as follows –
Well…ain’t that a kick in the head…
Makes some kind of sense, as it is Heartbeat City which is my favourite The Cars album – pop perfection, every song (apart from Drive, of course).
The Stone Roses are a brilliant band, you just had to be the right age (probably a tiny bit older than me, although I just about fall in catchment).
The first album is an absolute classic; at least half of it is pure gold. The second album is up and down but has Love Spread on it, which is enough for me. In between they put out a bunch of singles and B-sides that are as good as anything on the albums (Fools Gold, Elephant Stone, Going Down).
They were also blessed with arguably the best rhythm section of their generation, and a lead singer who (while he transparently couldn’t actually sing) more or less wrote the book on what a frontman should look/act like for a good decade or more.
I kind of like that they flamed out early. They weren’t a band who needed to get old, and more bands should quite while they’re ahead.
Whoops – “Love Spreads” and “quit”, obviously.
Love Spread is a butter substitute I don’t even want to contemplate
I can imagine the back of the pack:
“Hey there. Here at Love Spread we believe there’s nothing more important than people. That’s why we and the Love Spread moo cows make sure we squeeze as much uddery goodness into each pack as we possibly can. And by “uddery goodness” we of course mean semen.”
“High in protein; low in fat”
Funnily enough, The Fat Seamen were my nomination for a band with unwarranted legend status.
Ok, maybe they had a big impact on the big & tall sea shanties scene, but did they actually have more than one good record? And did they really need to keep tossing off into the butter?
@fitterstoke
“No added salt”
Who needs Anchor butter, when you can have…?
I Can’t Believe It’s Knob Butter?
This thread has taken a very odd turn…
I Can’t Believe It’s Knob Butter?
Most definitely not an Afterword T – shirt Shirley?
I think Bingo needs to go and relook at his old biology textbooks…
Tbh basing all my cow knowledge on this;
She didn’t scream
She didn’t make a sound
I forgive you boy
But don’t leave the top off, it’ll congeal
Jobriath
Sigue Sigue Sputnik
Both classic example of all fur coat and no knickers rawk’k’n’roll
Joy Division. There I’ve said it.
I’ve always thought Joy Division’s work was – albeit in horrendous circumstances – a model of economy. One album in. 1979 (black cover) for the “best of the 70s” lists, one in 1980 (white cover) for the “best of the 80s” lists …and you’re done.
In a similar vein, many gave Massive Attack the “best band of the 90s” accolade despite their only recording about 25 original songs over the entire decade.
And they get credit for all those Banksies when they probably didn’t do those either..
Is this where I cram in my obligatory mention of New Order?
I don’t think there’s any mystery about why JD are legendary, which is essentially because IC topped himself. The music retains a kind of doomy & demented power that is enhanced by the knowledge of his demise & coupled with the mawkish & rather juvenile relish that some rock fans reserve for dead heroes, their status is guaranteed.
It has to be said also that Factory ensured that JD were a very strong brand early on – the Peter Saville designs, the band not being pictured, the Fac ident on the records, the tasteless name etc. all of which has proved very enduring.
I was a fan but never listen to them now (OK, maybe ‘Transmission’ once a year) but I reckon they will always be ‘discovered’ by a new crop of youngsters drawn in at least partly by the allure of IC’s death, however tasteless that seems.
I hauled the 2 records in my collection ( my ex’s ) gave them a clean and a listen to decide should they stay or should they go.
Substance and Still are the albums.
I found them incredibly monotonous.
Then elsewhere on the thread I defend traditional blues which is very repetitive and, I expect , monotonous for many.
Nick Drake has a similar appeal to each new generation.
The fact that neither he nor IC stuck around long enough to make
Shitty records obviously helps secure their legendary status
IC was also an incredible performer when the band played live
I don’t think you can presume that the appeal has some tasteless connection to the death of the singer. I liked them before he died based almost entirely on the music. I should think new listeners wouldn’t necessarily know about Curtis’s early demise. There’s a charisma and power to those albums that draws you in if you are responsive. Closer is the most complete of the two records. Even Heppo is a fan.
Probably won’t be the thing that initially appeals, but I suspect a young person hearing Joy Division for the first time and asking “Who’s that?” will get two pieces of information straight away. Firstly the name of the band and secondly that their singer Ian Curtis topped himself.
Of course the enduring appeal/status of artists like IC and ND isn’t all down to their Byronic doomed romantic early demises. Both left behind impressive musical heritages that justify their immortality
Sid Vicious, on the other hand, is a classic example of someone (one hesitates to call him an artist) whose early death imbued him with an iconic status his negligible talent and nugatory contribution to popular music in no way justifies.
Compare Saint Sid to the rather more creatively promising Pete Doherty who grew old and fat rather than up and became an embarrassing irrelevance.
Like James Dean said, “live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse….” (The last bit may admittedly be stretching it with Sid)
“nugatory”. 👏
Excellen t word.
Up there with “priapic” in my all time faves
Thread Venn diagram overlap.
Can I be the first to say The Smiths? There: I’ve said it…
All the life-changing, life-saving hype in the press at the time…and still perpetuated on this very site, occasionally.
See the “bands you don’t get” thread.
Been there, done that…
Anyway, are you suggesting that they’re NOT legends and don’t belong in this thread?
I think the likelihood is that any band which was huge or hyped when you were over 25 (or not born yet) will strike you as overhyped. People talk bollocks about pop music; always have, always will.
“People talk bollocks about pop music”
– AW masthead.
Well said.
Janis Joplin
Horrible shrieky stuff. If I want soulful bluesy female singers, there are plenty out there. Might I venture she was hired for selling this sort of thing for record companies that, er, … didn’t want to work with, um, … “race artists”? Quite a bit of that in the 60s.
A very poor clodhopping imitation of Etta James.
Arctic Monkeys.
Mods, can we merge this thread with the “bands you don’t get” thread, please?
“Legend”, like “national treasure”, is a meaningless term. You can use them to describe anyone, regardless of how well known or liked they are. I certainly wouldn’t describe many of the acts mentioned so far as legends.
Little Feat could arguably (audibly) be described as Leg ends.
Have an up, Sal.
Yep, @salwarpe…that’s excellent!
@Alias : within your own definition, is there an act or individual that you WOULD be prepared to describe as a “legend”?
Elvis, Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
To be fair, that one wasn’t a hit..
Arf!
Let’s hear it for the one, the only, the inimitable @Alias …
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Bob Dylan. Maybe you had to be there.
Quite right Dave, complete lightweight. 39 studio albums, 95 singles, 18 notable extended plays, 54 music videos, 15 live albums, 17 volumes comprising The Bootleg Series.
All tosh
All with the same whiny voice.
I admit I didn’t read the OP with regards to output though.
Regardless of what you think of BD’s voice, he’s written several of the finest songs of the post-WW2 era.
Like a Rolling Stone and Just Like a Woman being just two examples of songs that are modern American classics
Plus he has loads of whiny voices.
Are they sufficiently different?
Alex Petridis agrees with you on Like a Rolling Stone but Just Like a Woman doesn’t feature on his Best 50 Dylan songs. I could only recognise 10 of that list so we’ll have to agree to disagree.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/09/bob-dylans-50-greatest-songs-ranked
Can I suggest The Band? I was persuaded to buy one of their albums after reading a eulogy by Peter Doggett, but I was massively underwhelmed. Like its cover it was just ‘brown’ – plodding, brown pub rock with a bit of mandolin. In the context of the time, I get the ‘back to the roots’ thing. But beyond that context is it any good? Not really.
And I agree wholeheartedly about the Grateful Dead – a quasi-religion of wobbly country-rock tedium.
Although you`re responsible for some very good even great musical output @ColinH, IMHO your taste in music is non-existent apart from Horslips.
😀 Very good! Smashed in the face by a velvet-gloved fist… Pummelled with compliments… Knee-ed in the groin with lavish encomia…
Get Mr Roget and his barrage of US$50 words!
Wasn’t meant to hurt Colin, more tongue in cheek.
“Brown” acts. Captures it perfectly.
I don’t think “Music from Big Pink” is as great as many think but “The Band” is utterly magnificent. Beautiful, moving songs, beautifully played and sung, takes you into another world
Another hate thread. Yawn.
You might have a point…
Yeah kinda. But I can see the distinction in the OP. I think part of the appeal of the “did a bit, but yonks ago” artist is – like Seymour the dog in the Jurassic Bark ep of Futurama, who waited every day expectantly, hoping his friend would return – us pop kids have some small place inside us where we believe Lee Mavers or whoever will somehow re-animate their muse (It’s not like it’s never happened) and that’s a big part of how they can maintain a presence alongside the diligent chuggers who produce their homework on time like clockwork…
There’s probably an interesting tangent to the ‘Legends but…’ area if one were to think about people who genuinely are/were legends in their field but who patently ‘can’t do it any more’. In the musical world, it can be a bit painful for the fan/ticket buyer if an aggressive manager comes along and promotes a comeback for someone who can no longer deliver the ‘thing’ on which their legendariness is based. I suppose Brian Wilson is the ultimate example – though in his case he can be propped up on stage with an excellent band, so fans can pay homage and still hear some music in the form they expect. Rather trickier for the solo artist…
The Blue Nile. Much as I love ’em – and I’m going to be generous and say three great albums in 12 years, and one which was alright (and is nearly 20 years old) – they sparked a whole musical shorthand.
I’m still not sure what “Blue Nile-esque” means, though. Slow? Downbeat? Takes years to arrive? Ask the man in the street and he’d probably just say “miserable”.
And, I repeat, I love them.
This wasn’t meant to be another bands you don’t get thread, but maybe I positioned it wrongly
More the legendary bands with hardly any material to back it up
Hence The Beatles are disqualified as are Bob Dylan
The La’s are a great call here. One fairly good jangly album. But Lee Mavers is supposedly a genius…
Well, he is in my house. He’s the only person likely to appear on this list with whom I have shared a stage.
Not bands, but people whose legend far exceeds their recorded legacy – Robert Johnson and Syd Barrett. I like what I’ve heard by Barrett, but his story and reclusiveness, or refusal to talk to the media anyway, seem to be the main reasons for the continuing interest in him. If he had done the occasional interview about his past, I don’t think the legend would exist, as he would be seen as just a man with a difficult life and not as almost a metaphor for the sixties.
Robert Johnson has come to embody a certain view of the blues, created by white journalists and academics, that it was the most authentic black music created by lone singers and guitarists, when it’s most popular performers were often women in the twenties and thirties, and it was only one style Johnson and others played. I suppose the early death helped, and the scratchy quality of the recordings, making them seem much older than they were. If he had lived on, he would only have been in his early fifties when the Rolling Stones and others discovered him. They probably would have had him on the bill, with an electric band, and there would be no legend.
The number of blues standards from those 2 albums is remarkable.
I think Barret-era Floyd and the solo records he made appealed to post punk and indie bands, as an influence and a way to make guitar music that isn’t the dreaded blues rock. Mike Mills of REM cites The Madcap Laughs as an all-time favourite album. Psychedelia was definitely important to those bands, a hip reference. It was about the type of music as much as any cult of personality.
I think the myth around Barrett was fuelled not so much by his music as by his looks and by the WYWH album, especially Shine On, him turning up to the recording, and then The Wall. He wasn’t allowed to disappear properly like Lee Mavers or Chris Dean were.
The revelation that he’d turned up at the recording came a long time after either WYWH and Barrett’s own albums were released.
There was a modicum of prurience, I feel, in the initial interest towards The Madcap Laughs. It was well known he’d had / was having mental problems. It was a factor that piqued people’s interest in those less-enlightened times.
Once of this parish Mojo Concheroo has done a nice piece on his blog about Syd:
https://andnowitsallthis.blogspot.com/2023/04/syd-barrett-madcap-mystery-solved.html
Do Visage count? Very little output. Very central to a huge movement and dare I say legendary status?
Midge Ure invented the 80s
This means nothing to me…
Arf!
The Ramones. Just one album is enough. Wait. Scratch that. Just one track is enough. And I’ve gone to the trouble of going to see them live.
Dear Mr Tigger,
You are wrong. You need the first 4 albums.
Something happened when they went into a studio with Phil Spector. It was never quite the same again.
On reflection, I think you just need the T shirt.
(insert smiley face icon thingy)
If you have the first Clash album and the first Undertones album you don’t NEED any Ramones at all. They’re both “inspired” by the Brothers’ sound but, importantly, they both do it better…
Vashti Bunyan.
This is not a hate post. I love Just Another Diamond Day album and the assorted 60s singles. She has an interesting story to tell. But in the 2000s, a whole legend of the “lost acid folk generation” and a genre of British hippy 70s music was built around her ( and initially without her consent). She has , for better or worse, become iconic if not legendary.
Good call. Vashti is a sincere, gentle soul who inadvertently had a legend created around her by virtue of her unavailability. This has happened to a number of people – not being around increases their myth and arguably inflates the heft of their artistry (see the examples of Robert Johnson, Syd B, Ian C and Nick D, already referred to.)
From the Vashti era, I’d suggest that Sheelagh MacDonald is perhaps less legendary but certainly a significant talent – who (similar to Vash) made a couple of recordings and then disappeared. Literally – nobody knew where she was for years. She very briefly reappeared for a gig or two in 2013, but is clearly happy enough not to be in music any more.
“Video unavailable”, Colin – what did you post?
I came across Sheelagh by accident, on a cheap “acid-folk” kind of compilation. I bought the “Let no Man Steal your Thyme” double shortly afterward…highly recommended if you haven’t already heard her, @Pessoa
I posted one of her versions of ‘Yarrow’, Fitz (on the comp you have) 🙂
Then you get those who disappeared before they’d even released anything (and very nearly hadn’t recorded anything)…
Yes, I love that Connie Converse … I was going to say “album”, but as you rightly point out, Sniffity, it isn’t even an album. It’s just some home recordings on reel-to-reel tape that lay dormant for ages. But what songs they are! Decades ahead of their time. The story of Elizabeth “Connie” Converse is an incredible one … and just think what she could’ve gone on to do …
Thanks Colin and fitterstoke: she is indeed another very talented artist and I also have the (now out of print) Sanctuary CD of her albums after first hearing her on a Bob Stanley compilation (was it “Gather in the Mushrooms”?) I believe she had a very bad experience with acid that led her to leave the music scene entirely.
That’s the one! Gather in the Mushrooms was the comp where I first heard Sheelagh! Clearly, You are Me and I am You…
Henry Cow
Because they’re a nice knitted bedsock.
In the words of Basil Fawlty when instructing the Indian surgeon about the location of Sybil’s ingrowing toenail “you’ll find it on the end of the leg”
I’m very fond of Henry Cow. I would wager that they are basically unknown in the ‘real’ world. They never sought popularity, being deliberately and obtusely avant garde, which is part of the reason I like them.
The Soft Machine fit the OP better in my view. Not Robert Wyatt whose solo work is superb.
As one of the (very) few Henry Cow appreciators on the board, I confess I thought the post was a pun on Leg End…
Even so…
Clearly the Cow are only considered legends by a highly selective group, Tiggs…
That’ll be me and you, then.
I wanted to give the Cow a listen but when I looked on Spotty there wasn’t much there. Haven’t looked recently mind.
Ooh, inneee bold!
I just looked – five albums and a Peel session. Also, if you search under Slapp Happy, you’ll find Desperate Straights – the collaborative album (and an absolute cracker, in my view). Mind you, when they separated again Dagmar stayed with the Cow – so I guess it was a Pyrrhic victory for Slapp Happy…
This is peak Afterword.
Their collaboration resulted in the bands understanding their differences better. Dagmar realised she was a better fit in Henry Cow.
True enough.
I must admit, though: I always enjoyed Slapp Happy (obviously not in the same wheelhouse as the Cow). Desperate Straights is one of my favourite albums of all time – best of both, contributing to a different thing altogether?
Compare and contrast, music and movement…
A school friend of mine, one Ray Smith, created those Henry Cow socks out of acrylic paint.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Smith_(artist)
I doubt they would keep your feet warm.
The Doors – don’t think they bettered the debut album. Good stuff can be found later, but I don’t think it consistent.
Best album? The Best Of The Doors
Also in the “Best Of Will Do” category
Steely Dan
Elvis Presley
Steely Dan..!? No way, sorry. A best of is fine, but their albums are peerless.
Bollox! L.A. Woman. My most favourite album in 1971 and still in my top 5 now.
The recording of the drums on Riders On The Storm, from L.A. Woman, is just superb.
I think The Best of The Doors can be narrowed down to an EP
I think this is wrong.
I’m beginning to think that @dai is a controversialist, posting provocative statements to goad a reaction…🤔
No wrong or right, just opinions
I know, dai – I’m just joshing you…
@fitterstoke
He’s probably just being a knob
Question: music legend or music icon? Icons tend more to live and die in abject penury, legends struggle more with tax demands beyond their expectations.