Unclassic Rock - vastly underrated music?

I've been listening to such things as Kilburn and the High Roads (feat. Ian Dury), ELO's 2nd album, and the Go-Betweens' "Tallulah" recently - all more or less seen as disappointments by critics and fans over the years. How 'bout a thread devoted to albums deserving of some revisionism? (If there's been such a thread, my apologies - haven't found it yet.) Your candidates??

 

Tiny Town s/t................Played it to death when it came out. Just pulled it out again recently and it's great! Not a bad cut. Just a great rock record.

 

Hi Don, not sure if this fits but I've always felt that "A Salty Dog" by Procol Harum was a vastly under-rated lp. You never heard any cuts on the radio from what IMO is their finest lp.

mud-

 

Indigenous, Live at Pachyderm....or Circle...either album....stinging, brutal, insane guitar playing!!!! Mato Nanji is the best blues guitar player since Stevie Ray!But no one knows him.

 

THE FUGS FIRST ALBUM (1965) -- The Fugs: Essential 60's listening if only for "Supergirl", "I Couldn't Get High", "Nothing", and "CIA Man". Surprisingly musical for a bunch of New York East Side freak poets.

IF I COULD ONLY REMEMBER MY NAME (1971) -- David Crosby: You may even prefer this album to CROSBY STILLS & NASH and DEJA VU.

 

I'm going to stand up for my buddies here and argue for The Smithereens 1994 album A Date With The Smithereens. This one gets slagged off either by folks who wanted more pop friendly singles like "Too Much Passion" from them, or for "going grunge" like everyone else at the time. Hell, The Smithereens were the guys Nirvana were listening to while they recorded Nevermind. They were "grunge" before there was such a thing.

As it is, A Date With The Smithereens is the band's most angry, agressive and bold sounding album ever. Angry at being dropped by the fine folks at Capitol Records, discouraged at not really being able to make that big breakthrough, and really just wanting to turn up the guitars to 11. Date boasts some of Pat DiNizio's finest songwriting, including "Long Way Back Again", "Life Is So Beautiful" and "Can't Go Home Anymore." Jim Babjak finally comes into his own as a songwriter with "Love Is Gone", and "Point Of No Return." DiNizio's "Miles From Nowhere" may be one of the best songs the band ever recorded.

For all that, A Date With The Smithereens pretty much hit the cutout bins ten minutes after being released. They haven't recovered since, though still together with the original line-up to this day. Their only album since, 1999's God Save The Smithereens, didn't even create a blip, and they're relegated to playing 80's nostalgia shows, chili cookoffs and tiny clubs.

While I'm bitching about The Smithereens here, I can't figure out why 1988's Green Thoughts gets cheated so much. I rate it at least as high as the debut Especially For You, and much better than the subsequent Smithereens 11. The thing HAD to have technically "gone gold", yet it's been out of print for years, and Capitol isn't interested in it enough to do a new audit to prove it.

 

Yes! Already we've got GBV and Smithereens in the mix.

Rich, maybe I'm part of the problem. I'm not a big fan of A Date With..., but I completely agree with you about Green Thoughts, and Especially For You & 11 for that matter. Love all three.

My 'vastly underrated' nod would have to go to The Posies. This is THE quintessential power pop band for the '90s. Absolutely flawless in digesting influences such as Big Star, The Beatles, The Hollies, and The Raspberries and turning it into their own sound and style (not just aping sounds of the past). See "Dear 23" and "Frosting on the Beater" for proof.

Mark

 

My three favorite underrated albums:

1. Rolling Stones-Goat's Head Soup. Much inferior to Exile, but sounds more real than a lot of what followed, especially when the band tried to follow teens. Wish they recorded real reggae in Jamaica when they had the chance.

2. Wings-Wild Life: Yeah, I know the lyrics in many of the songs are nonsense, but I like the organic nature of the music.

3. Neil Young-Re-Ac-Tor: Just heard this recently for the first time. Again, not great lyrically, but the music kicks. Neil really sounds out there on some tracks. I like the album better than something like There's A World and Alabama on Harvest, and the horrid '80s synthesized sound on Landing on Water, which I'm convinced NY recorded as a joke on the suits at Geffen who wanted Rust Never Sleeps: The Sequel. and Harvest: The Next Generation.

 

That should be "trends" not "teens".

 

I am a huge fan of South Side Johnny, any of his stuff is under rated IMO.

 

Absolutely! I'll admit to a bias on this one, having met T.Towner Pat McLaughlin a few times (and played some cards w/him one night after a club closed).

I've always thought "I'm Sorry," the opening track, was one of the great lost r&b-tinged rock tracks of the late 90's.

I heard them live twice before breaking up. They warmed up for Keb Mo at Variety Playhouse in Atl, then played a shed-type deal here with horrid acoustics (asphalt--small crowd).

Proof positive how much difference room size and surfaces make. Sounded great in Atl, horrible in the shed!

There were 25,000 copies of their debut sitting in a warehouse being wrangled over after the Pioneer label folded.

Anyway, nice pick.

doug