The goal is simple: name three acts of this era you think are criminally underrated or unknown.
I’ll start.
1.) Rory Gallagher: The fact that this man is not world renowned is beyond me. Highlights include “In Your Town”, “What in the World”, “I Could’ve Had Religion” and “Pistol Slapper Blues” from Live in Europe and “Walk on Hot Coals”, “I Wonder Who” and “As the Crow Flies” from Irish Tour. “Garbage Man/Roberta” from BBC Sessions is also an incredible track.
2.) Peter Green: Before Fleetwood Mac was an AOR darling with songs like “Dreams” they were the most exhilarating, authentic Blues band to come out of the second wave of British blues. At the helm was likely the most gifted blues guitarist of his generation (all post war generations in fact): Peter Green. Highlights of the PG era, if you must pick a few, are all live tracks and contained on the Live at the Boston Tea Party and Shrine 69 albums. Notable ones are: “Jumping at Shadows”, “Need Your Love So Bad”, “Rollin Man”, “If You Be My Baby” and, in the only performance of a blues song where an artist out-BB Kings the master himself, “Let Me Love You”, where Green churns out the most tantalizing slow blues of the entire decade. These tracks are not to be missed. In fact, the entire Green era Fleetwood Mac catalog is essential listening.
3.) Cactus: This is the band that embodies the “Boogie” rock moniker of the early 70s better than anyone else. Jim McCarty is a freaking genius on the guitar and there is no one who represents the Motor City style of rock and roll better than him. The best recommendation I can muster is an out of print Rhino collection called Fully Unleashed: The Live Tracks, which contains some of the best hard/boogie rock of the entire 70s decade. Standouts are “Alaska”, “Oleo”, “Heebies Jeebie Medley” and “Bad Mother Boogie”. Also their first two studio albums are phenomenal, with “Parchman Farm” from their eponymous debut and “Long Tall Sally” from One Way or Another as particular standouts.
Feel free to PM me for any of these tracks listed and I will do my best to hook you up.
Sorry, a bit younger on my end. I know the recognized greats of this Era as I was a huge classic rock fan in my younger days. Bit of a sheltered life back then. I had no idea how to find anything that did not get radio play or get passed down from my friends’ older brothers. Going to keep my eyes on this one to check them all out. Thanks for posting Derek
+1 to Rik Emmett. Amazing, crazy underrated guitarist. I saw Triumph twice and was blown away.
As for the 60s, I’d add The Band. They had some popularity but not nearly like they deserved IMO. No great guitarists (though they were Dylan’s band at one point). Just some great classic songs. They brought roots/Americana music to the forefront and still sound great.
Definitely the Band. Robbie Robertson is a great guitarist who specialized in a style of understated playing that has few parallels. Notable tracks from The Band, IMHO, are “King Harvest Has Surely Come”, “Chest Fever”, “Ophelia” and “Up on Cripple Creek”.
You have to think about it this way though Keith: they were very popular in their era but have drastically dropped off in notoriety in the modern era.
I’m actually astonished by how few people recognize just how popular The Band was in the 70s. So, by some twisted cosmic anomaly, The Band actually IS underrated! Go figure!
Yeah that’s what I meant. They were big at the time but they’re almost forgotten nowadays. I hear ‘The Weight’ occasionally on the radio but not much else.
A band that I saw at the Band Shell in Golden Gate Park circa 1771, Country Weather. Never saw or heard of them again, but they were truly amazing musicians.
In the wee hours of new years day morning, at an Off Broadway(SF) hole in the wall called Coffee and Confusion, in the same era, this guy had 88 bongos tuned and set up as a piano and played a most memorable and amazing rendition of the William Tell Overture.
Having been about 20 and living in and around the Haight/Ashbury back in the day left many amazing memories. Unfortunately, some of the memories can be best described as, “More than a little fuzzy”.
Most weekends were spent at the Filmore, Filmore West, Winterland Auditorium and the Avalon Ballroom. Sometimes we were brave enough to venture across the gate to the Ark in Sausalito, or woke up early enough to go to Speedway Meadows in the park, for a free afternoon concert. Wherever you were, you were bound to be on a contact high.
I have been a Country and Western music fan since I was a kid, but the culture of the Haight/Ashbury, along with the obscure talents that thrived within it, are a very dear part of my life.
Triumph was, I believe, my second concert, the first being Deep Purple.
I would definitely add Eric Burden. Most know him as singer for the Animals and can name two or three hits but his solo stuff and War is amazing as is some deeper Animals tracks.
I really like The Zombies from that era too.
The biggest, most criminal, oversight of that era are the scores of great black musicians who invented the music and in many cases had it stolen by record companies and other musicians. While Led Zep, the Stones etc.were doing these mega tours these great artists were toiling away playing hundreds of shows a year, staying in crappy hotels, often segregated, and often working day jobs. Thankfully some white artists did come around and try to make things right by using their fame to highlight their heroes but only a few were able to really get the attention they deserve.
Check out a bemused Muddy Waters calling the Stones one by one onto the stage: muddy waters rolling stones - Google Search
I have to respectfully challenge you here Pete. This is an oft-repeated and generally mis-informed interpretation of what actually went on in that era.
1.) What you say first is true: Blues musicians did have terrible contracts, terrible royalty arrangements, terrible management and did have their music outright stolen from them. What people often fail to recognize though is that this was occurring as early as the late 20s, well before the Rock and roll era. Also, music was typically reworked and appropriated by other black artists in this era. Essentially ALL of the delta blues musicians were stealing from one another.
2.) I’m not sure of what artists you’re speaking of but its worth mentioning that, discounting big names like Big Bill Broonzy, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy and others from the 60s Folk Blues revival, who did very well in their era and the rock era that followed, most of the guys were in relative obscurity with a litany of interpersonal problems and alcohol issues way before the 50s/60s era. Lightning Hopkins famously was coaxed from obscurity, reluctantly I may add, by the promise of a bottle of Gin.
3.) I’ve said this before in conversations on the topic: I am always shocked by how overblown the claims against Zeppelin are. If people can seriously listen to “Lemon Song” and claim that they straight up copped from Wolf and the like, then they aren’t listening. Stealing music is one thing. Reinterpreting it is another. Should they have paid proper homage? Yes. This may be their most egregious mistake. Claiming the songs were traditional was a dick move. Should they have to compensate these guys financially for providing them inspiration? Maybe, but they shouldn’t be required too. Hell, every Delta, Piedmont, etc musician from the 20s through the 40s lifted music from one another with no change or reinterpretation and never thought twice about it.
Led Zep brought the blues into a whole new dimension. It was not stealing it was borrowing, enhancing and vastly improving. The “reengineered” blues in a way that had never been done before. I have a friend who is a wonky music snob who looks down his nose at Led Zep because they “stole” their music and, frankly, while he is my friend I think he’s an idiot for thinking that.
