The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

You are here: Home / Blog / Lighting struck my Fender – nominations please

Lighting struck my Fender – nominations please

by 84 Comments

There are artists where greatness comes out like a torrent, and their greatest work will be entirely a matter of individual choice – from Bowie to Abba and The Clash. There are those who have one great album in them – from the Stone Roses to Leftfield. And then there are those where lightning strikes. Just once, but boy what a strike. There are four Mazzy Star albums, all full of their very palatable Velvets meets the Mary Chain schtick. And there’s Fade Into You – when for the only time they pulled all their mood and vibe into an Absolute Killer Tune. There are three Only Ones albums. But only one Another Girl, Another Planet. With some apologies to @freddy-steady whose thread does tread on this . If you can assist, nominations please for otherwise competent, even good artists, with a respectable body of work, who once, just once, are struck by lightning.

0

Comments

  2. Gerry Rafferty, who has been a bit quiet of late, can command 2 potential inclusions.
    There is some exceedingly fine stuff in his catalogue, but only one Stuck In The Middle With You and only one Baker Street

  4. David Essex – Rock On
    Finlet Quaye – Even After All
    Speech – Ask Somebody Who Ain’t
    Steve Forbert – Romeo’s Tune
    John Mellencamp – Jack & Diane
    Blue Öyster Cult – Don’t Fear The Reaper
    Golden Earring – Radar Love

  5. Great idea for a thread and absolutely no treadage. Your Mazzy Star choice is spot on. I have that album (and no more) and Fade into You is really all you need.

    How about the Icicle Works? We bellow the chorus of this song out at their gigs ( looking forward to the Chameleons double header at the Ritz, Manchester.) … “We’ll be as we are, when all the fool who doubt us fade away…”

  9. I met a punkish girl at a wedding in 1997. She said she liked Chumbawumba in that “you won’t have heard of them” kind of way. She wasn’t aware that Tubthumping was roaring up the charts. She thought I was joking.

    Anyway, a thirty year career – halfway through you bash out yet another shouty song. And for some reason that one song goes global.

  15. Aussie band The Sports….Who Listens To The Radio.
    Originally recorded in Australia, the band came to Britain and were pushed into a re-record.
    The first version….available on YouTube is ok if slightly ploddy.
    The new version…beefed up and slightly faster rocks.

    To my ears it sounds very early Cars, and he very definition of Power Pop.

  16. I feel that Britpop could be a fertile area for lightning strikes. Virtually the last time a hot gig in a N London pub and a killer 4-track demo could lead to a 3-album deal overnight. Case in point: Marion somehow got two albums on the back of this absolute screamer.

  18. AOR is another area where frankly Journey/journeyman bands come up with something that becomes way way bigger than the band. There’s Don’t Stop Believing and this – from a group with six studio albums to their name.

  19. The Blue Oyster Cult case is also interesting as actually they are a pretty big band, with some other very good songs, yet…

    So, secondary challenge. Is there a bigger band than the Reaper-makers for whom we can all agree on a lightning strike track.

      • 24 million albums for the Reapermeisters, still bigger, , More Than Words is one of my least liked tracks of all time. Not so much lightning strike for me as pact with the devil.

        HOWEVER…Extreme are the most lightening strikey band yet by miles in terms of the multiplier between their first and second most played tracks on Spotify. Most are going in at 4 x – 6 x but MTW is on 236 million, next track 6 million – a multiplier score of a whopping 40X!

  20. Might seem a bit perverse or provocative to say so but White Rabbit is the only song by Jefferson Airplane that really is sensational and truly great. There are other songs that are decent of course but this one is in another league I’d say. Grace of course brought it with her from her previous group so that doesn’t say too much for the Airplane’s oeuvre.

    You could say the same for Man Of The World by Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. That really doesn’t go down well.

    David Hepworth has talked/written about how many acts have one song that was the big hit where nearly all the money comes from like Every Breath You Take by the EBYT hitmakers. That’s about sales of course but there is overlap with this thread’s nominations. The big hit may well be the one where lightning strikes. I don’t consider EBYT to be a great record though. The guitar hook makes the difference no doubt. Also there are a number of other Police songs of note.

    • ‘The guitar hook makes the difference…’

      While recording, Andy Summers came up with a guitar part inspired by Béla Bartók that would later become a trademark lick, and played it straight through in one take. He was asked to put guitar onto a simple backing track of bass, drums, and a single vocal, with Sting offering no directive beyond “make it your own.”

      The song is credited to Sting and Sting alone. He’s made almost all the money. Still, as you say, ‘the guitar hook makes the difference’.

  21. Herb Alpert was hugely successful and did his thing very well but there was one time when there was a massive strike of lightning like no other and he got to make one of the greatest pop records of all time, namely This Guy’s In Love With You. Thanks to Bacharach and David of course.

    • A bit yes, but:
      1. Cover versions not allowed (so no Love Is All Around).
      2. Must be both their biggest and best song – so I’m sure Bryan Adams does encore with Everything I Do but there are many votes for other BA songs, not so many for other Boston songs than More TAF.
      3. No one hit wonders.
      4. And a general air of ‘wow where did that come from’ – Reaper definitely has this, with acknowledgement to @freddy-steady

      I definitely think Whiter Shade of Pale is in there, but it’s the mid-range bands with one stonker that I think are the best examples: yer Las, Only Ones or Primitives.

    • You know what? Nearly 40 years later I can’t get past the way she sings “clerk”, even though I’ve always liked the rest of the record.

      PS. “Muffins”? Damn straight, right ladies?

    • Ah, but remember their cover of The Day Before You Came, which presented us with the deathless mental image of the debonair Neil Arthur tucked up in his bed reading Barbara Cartland.

      Not only made wayyy before it was acceptable to like Abba, but they persuaded Agnetha to appear int’ video…. looking, it has to be said, particularly delicious. Respect!

    • I think this one joins my initial trio as a perfect example. Not even journeymen, Flowered Up were me-too baggie scene-jumpers as famous for drug-taking, chaotic live shows and Barry Mooncult as any actual music. Their debut album failed to set the world alight, dropped by their major label….then they come up with Weekender. My fav new fact is that the ‘radio edit’ was still 12 minutes long.

Leave a Reply