Invariably, these artists, and many others are fully etched in the history of rock n' roll, and with the genre winding down (at least where radio and mainstream pop culture is concerned---I know otherwise), we often look back at the artists that shaped our lifetime in that genre. However, there are many acts that probably belong there that for some reason aren't, becoming just footnotes in the grand scheme of things. Many of them have a negative reputation in one sense or another. Perhaps they were too "bubblegummy", or passed off a "teen idols" where the music isn't taken that seriously, or perhaps they were simply "too commercial" musically, and were unable to make a transition successfully. I present to you some artists that for some reason don't fit in with the magical rock and roll timeline. Please keep in mind that there are many, many more, but here are a select few:
Paul Revere & the Raiders
The rock timeline seems to have a few paradoxes in it. We know about the pioneers of rock, and the "day the music died" in 1959 (the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper). But until the Beach Boys made it big in 1963 (and the British invasion the following year), it's hard to come up with any "names" from the early 60's. Enter Paul Revere & the Raiders.
The Raiders were a rock'n'roll band and could have been described as "Frat Rock", a moniker aided by their version of the frat classic "Louie Louie" (a bonafide hit for The Kingsmen, another unsung act). But rock was still struggling in 1961 when the Northwest band released their first single "Like Long Hair", which reached #38 that year. In fact, their label, the renowned Columbia Records, at the time, headed by the legendary Mitch Miller (of "Sing Along With Mitch" fame), didn't promote them, as Miller despised rock 'n' roll. But by the mid-60's they finally broke through. The success of the British bands influenced many U.S. "Garage rock" bands, and the Raiders' music fit right in. They had their biggest success from 1966-67 with gems like "Kicks", "Good Thing", and "Hungry". It also didn't hurt that they were the house band on the Dick Clark show Where The Action Is.
But, when the psychedelic era came, Sgt. Pepper and all, the band was rudderless: "What do we do now?", they asked. Well, they just stayed the course for a couple of years, with pop/rock like "Mr. Sun Mr Moon" and the awesome "Let Me". But with hard rock and bands like Led Zeppelin dominating they changed their sound to a harder approached. "Just Seventeen" sounded like "Whole Lotta Love", and they shortened their name to "The Raiders" (even though Paul Revere was still in the band). It bombed. They did manage a #1 song in 1971 with "Indian Reservation" but after a few more minor hits they were done. Perhaps it was the overexposure from being on TV's every weekday afternoon, but the band never got any respect. Similarly, you could add bands like Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, or Johnny Rivers, which seem to be absent when discussing mid sixties rock.
Tommy James & The Shondells
Here's a band that deserved much better. Sure, they had their big hits. "Hanky Panky" was a #1 hit in the summer of 1966; "I Think We're Alone Now" and "Mirage"top tens the following year. "Mony Mony" the year after that. "Alone" and "Mony" were oft-covered---in fact covers of those songs were back to back hits in 1987 by Tiffany and Billy Idol. And many minor hits in between. But, by the end of 1968, they were labeled as a "bubblegum" band. It couldn't have been further from the truth---they should have been right there with The Turtles, Association, The Grass Roots and a few others.
James was on tour in the latter half of 1968 and noticed a change in music. It went from singles-oriented to album-oriented. The bands to watch were no longer the ones mentioned above, but instead it was Led Zeppelin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead. James changed his style and embraced psychedelia, and the result was "Crimson & Clover", their biggest hit, but also the name of an awesome album that embraced the psychedelic style.
James didn't stop there. He went on to produce Cellophane Symphony, of which the spaced-out nine minute title track could have been a lost Pink Floyd cut. Their final album, 1970's Travelin' was another gem....check out the bluesy "Bloody Water", heck the whole album. Those last three albums alone should have put the band in the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. His solo career was no slouch, either, exploring many styles including folk, country, gospel, and glam, and it's a shame that he had only one "hit" from that period, 1971's "Draggin' the Line". Oh, and by the way, "Crystal Blue Persuasion", their #2 hit from the summer of 1969 is still one of my all time favorites. James is still active, touring constantly with a new line-up of Shondells (the classic lineup, by the way, is also touring as the 'Crystal Blue Band', named after the aforementioned hit). James' memoir, "Me, The Mob and the Music" is being developed into a film; and he has a radio show on weekends on Sirius XM's "60's on 6". He also performed at a recent Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, backing inductee Joan Jett (who had a hit with "Crimson & Clover"), along with David Grohl of Nirvana and the Foo Fighters; and Miley Cyrus. How's that for four generations of music?
The Raspberries
Probably just saying the same The Raspberries conjures up "bubblegum". In fact, Record World, a trade magazine wrote of their debut album that "early press information" implied that it was. Okay, their music was commercial and no doubt would have been at home in the 1960's. After all, their lone top ten hit, "Go All the Way" had that sixties vibe to it, and not coincidentally, was one of my favorite songs of that year. Other songs like "I Wanna Be With You", "Let's Pretend", and "Tonight" were in the same vein. But if you listen closely enough, you'll know that they rocked. Through all those melodies, the guitar work was awesome, especially with the work from Side 3, their third effort. "I'm a Rocker" from that set was just that....very bluesy, too. Their final top 20 hit, "Overnight Sensation" echoed more the Beach Boys than the Beatles, but by then the band was done, and Eric Carmen went onto a nice successful solo career which made it into the late 1980's. The band has gotten more respect as the decades went by, but they should have been much bigger that they actually were.
Peter Frampton
Unlike the artists mentioned above, Frampton was indeed a respected rock artist, joining up with Steve Marriott of Small Faces to form Humble Pie, a successful rock band in the early seventies. They had opened for Grand Funk Railroad at the famed Shea Stadium concert in 1971 (which had broken records by The Beatles six years earlier) and his guitar work was lauded. He went solo shortly thereafter and put out four good albums, many of which had gotten airplay on FM progressive rock stations. And while they weren't overly successful, he did attract a good following.
Enter Frampton Comes Alive. The live album which came out in 1976 broke all sorts of sales records, and produced three hit singles, "Show Me the Way", the ballad "Baby I Love Your Way", and the all out jam "Do You Feel Like We Do". You couldn't avoid a Frampton song at all that year. But, with fame comes fashion. The media targeted Frampton's blond locks and started featuring him as a teen idol which is poison in the rock world. Unfortunately, his next studio album, 1977's "I'm In You", was so commercial, it seemed like he was trading in his rock respectability. 1979's "Where I Should Be" was a little better, but by the release of the return-to-form "Breaking All the Rules" in 1981, it was too little too late. Aside from that live album, you rarely hear about Frampton anymore, although he is still out there doing what he loves best.
Rick Springfield
If Frampton had problems dealing with his teen idol image, then this guy completely suffered from it. Not once, but twice in his career, that image took away from what was really a good rock craftsman. But, in 1972, when the Australian-born singer had his first top twenty hit, "Speak to the Sky" he was labeled a teen idol in an era when David Cassidy and Donny Osmond ruled. I remember a concert review in 1973 where the article read "those who came to hear the next David Cassidy literally had their hearing shot to hell". That was the kind of artist Rick Springfield was. But that was his image, and having an animated Saturday morning cartoon show (Mission Magic) didn't help. A couple more chart entries in the mid 1970s, and that was it as his record label went under. He took up acting and had a few bit parts, but away from music and the charts.
Fast forward to 1981. He signed with RCA records and cut a good rock album, Working Class Dog. It actually got airplay on rock stations like New York's WNEW-FM. It would eventually receive a Grammy for best rock performance. But, figuring the album wouldn't be successful, he decided to sign up for am acting gig on a soap opera. The show? None other than General Hospital as "Dr. Noah Drake". Turns out that the show was red hot (mainly because of the whole Luke & Laura storyline) and guess what? He was once again on the covers of the teen magazines! "Jessie's Girl" hit #1 that summer and he had several other hits---in fact 16 top 40 hits between '81 and '88. But, aside from "Jessie's Girl", he's pretty much known more for Noah Drake and his looks rather than his musical career. And check out his YouTube videos or posts about him on Facebook...most invariably coming from females. It's all about image.
Blues Traveler
Blues Traveler is a band from New Jersey, headed by John Popper from Princeton. Many of the successful bands in rock history, from the Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers Band, and Santana thru Stevie Ray Vaughn and onward to Phish were respected, and drew a big following. Their records were upstaged by their live performances and many would create bootlegs of their concerts. Blues Traveler were definitely one of those bands. Their 1991 debut, for example yielded an awesome nine-minute blues gem with "Mountain Cry" and were playing all the jam-oriented festivals. They even had their own: the "H.O.R.D.E" festival, standing for "Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere". You'd figure that would earn them some respect, right? Well, they broke through the mainstream in the mid 1990's, especially with their big hit "Runaround". It was my #1 song from 1996 and popular with my friends.
But, with a hit like that, how do you follow it up? You're now a top 40 band and it's difficult to get back to being a jam band. And success started to dry up with subsequent releases. They're still around, playing concerts but the respect afforded the other bands mentioned just isn't there.
Nickelback
Just kidding on that one.
TO THE PRESENT: Speaking of unsung artists, husband-and-wife duo Tennis grabs its second SNS chart-topper with "Modern Woman", six years after its first, "Origins". With a very soft top 20, it may sit there for awhile. The song hasn't gotten any airplay anywhere else which may hurt it in the long run, but it's the reason why I have this blog in the first place, to give deserving artists some sort of exposure (if you call this rarely-read blog "exposure"). "Live in the Moment", the former #1 by Portugal. The Man which was down to #9 at one point is back up to #2, more due to the weakness of the top songs although the song is still a good one with staying power. Hegazy's "Here to Stay", Bleachers' "I Miss Those Days" (last week's #1) and the third top five song from The Palms, "Don't Waste My Time", round up the top five.
Another obscure artist, Nick Waterhouse, has the top debut with "Straight Love Affair", another retro romp; it's the third track I've pulled from his awesome 2016 set "Never Twice". Sometimes, if radio and the mainstream media ignore an artist or genre, you just have to discover it for yourself. From Glen Head, New York, and part of the Brooklyn music scene comes Sunflower Bean, with "I Was a Fool", from the trio's second full-length album, Twenty-Two In Blue. The band is lead by frontwoman and lead singer Julia Cumming.
SNS Mainstays Ray LaMontagne, and Neko Case debut with new songs, and I also go pop with Camila Caballo, a Cuban-American singer formally with the girl group Fifth Harmony. "Never Be the Same" is a healthy dose of Latin-infused pop.
R.I.P: One of the musical trends of the 2010's was the dominance of the electronic music DJ and producer. While Zedd and Calvin Harris are among the prominent artists in this genre, the music world lost another: Tim Berglind, better known as Avicii. After a few years of ill health, he committed suicide. He was only 28. Avicii scored nationally and one SNS with a couple of hits: "Wake Me Up" was a #4 Billboard Hot 100 hit, and a #1 Triple-A format hit, while reaching #16 here on SNS in the fall of 2013. Its follow-up, "Hey Brother" reached #30 here. In addition, he was a mainstay on the Electric/Dance Music charts racking up hit after hit there. Avicii will be missed.
Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves 100
April 15, 2018
| This Week | Last Week | ARTIST-Title | Weeks on List |
| 1 | 6 | NUMBER ONE:
"Modern Woman"
Album: Yours Conditionally
|
6 |
| 2 | 3 | Portugal. The Man - Live In the Moment● | 16 |
| 3 | 2 | Hegazy -Here To Stay | 9 |
| 4 | 1 | Bleachers - I Miss Those Days | 8 |
| 5 | 8 | The Palms - Don't Waste My Time | 7 |
| 6 | 5 | Vance Joy - Lay It On Me | 13 |
| 7 | 13 | Jeff Rosenstock - All This Useless Energy | 6 |
| 8 | 7 | Christina Taylor - American Dreamin' | 8 |
| 9 | 12 | The Decemberists - Severed | 8 |
| 10 | 9 | Walk the Moon - One Foot | 14 |
| 11 | 17 | Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats - You Worry Me | 8 |
| 12 | 4 | Moon Taxi - Two High● | 19 |
| 13 | 20 | Amy Shark - Adore | 6 |
| 14 | 16 | The Killers - Run For Cover | 8 |
| 15 | 11 | Ed Sheeran - Perfect● | 15 |
| 16 | 10 | Alice Merton - No Roots | 16 |
| 17 | 21 | TOP 20 IMPACT OF THE WEEK:
"Sorry Is Gone"
Album: Sorry Is Gone
|
8 |
| 18 | 19 | Hegazy - Alive● | 14 |
| 19 | 14 | Foster the People - Sit Next To Me | 14 |
| 20 | 25 | Django Django - In Your Beat | 6 |
|
|
Songs
with the greatest increase in favorite points over the prior week.
● Songs
with 25 or more plays on my iPod.
▲ Songs with 50 or more
plays on my iPod.
The “Scenes ‘n’ Soundwaves
100” is a list of current and recent song playlist which I am listening to
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