Rock Groups that deserved greater popularity

[Superchief]

I'm really enjoying the threads discussing great music theme songs and best decades. There is a lot of great music out there from various genres that have enhanced all of our lives. I'd like to start a thread about more obscure bands that never got the publicity that their talent deserved. These are two of my favorites.

Todd Rundgren was the guitar player for Nazz. They recorded the original 'Hello It's Me" which was a slower version with great harmonies. Todd wasn't the lead singer for most of their songs. One of my favorites is Under the Ice from their second album (actually red vinyl). This has some of the best drumming that I've ever heard.

One of my favorite bands that never made it 'big' was City Boy. They had several good albums that featured the guitar playing of Mike Slamer. They were actually produced by Mutt Lang, who later became more famous by producing Def Leapard's Pyromania and several other successful albums. This song is from 'Day the Earth Caught Fire' album. That album would have been a great soundtrack.

 

[DrQ]

During the Beatles invasion, I was not much of a fan. I was a fan of the Dave Clark Five.

Unlike the Beatles, the Five remained lifelong friends and Dave's business sense made them all rich. He set the tour schedule which allowed the group to rest and get personal stuff done like laundry.

 

[CanuckTravlr]

I was (and still am) a huge Beatles fan, but I also really liked The Dave Clark Five!! Until The Rolling Stones started to gain momentum in 1965, The Dave Clark Five was the group originally expected to be the primary competition for The Beatles. In 1964, "Glad All Over" knocked "I Want to Hold Your Hand" out of the no. 1 spot in the UK.

 

[Superchief]

During the Beatles invasion, I was not much of a fan. I was a fan of the Dave Clark Five.

Unlike the Beatles, the Five remained lifelong friends and Dave's business sense made them all rich. He set the tour schedule which allowed the group to rest and get personal stuff done like laundry.

I agree. I liked the Dave Clark Five, Paul Revere and the Raiders and The Animals better than the Beatles. One of my best friends was named Dave Clark. I also really liked Badfinger. They were shafted by their manager and two members committed suicide due to the financial pressures. It's a really sad story.

Breaking Bad fans will never forget Baby Blue by Badfinger.

 

[jont]

An apple band Badfinger.

Also liked Yes, Bruce Hornsby and the Range, Huey Lewis and the News and Chris Isaak.

 

[BingoBangoBongo]

Todd Rundgren definitely fits in the under appreciated category. I‘ll also throw in the band Ambrosia, who have a boatload of songs everyone knows, but don’t know who the artist is.

This version has some great playing by the keyboard player (in the purple shirt) Christopher North. I’ve seen them a couple times and he’s definitely into his work.

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

I was (and still am) a huge Beatles fan, but I also really liked The Dave Clark Five!! Until The Rolling Stones started to gain momentum in 1965, The Dave Clark Five was the group originally expected to be the primary competition for The Beatles. In 1964, "Glad All Over" knocked "I Want to Hold Your Hand" out of the no. 1 spot in the UK.

CanuckTravlr, my favorite obscure band hailed from the Great White North.

Success and quality don't always match. If you like '70 rock, give this a listen. . .

 

[rboesl]

I happen to like the Zombies, not to be confused the Zombie brothers. Also liked Three Dog Night. Loved their Live at the Forum album. But, the best live album, in my opinion, was put out by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band.

 

[Superchief]

Triumph is another one. They reminded me of Rush.

 

[Superchief]

I happen to like the Zombies, not to be confused the Zombie brothers. Also liked Three Dog Night. Loved their Live at the Forum album. But, the best live album, in my opinion, was put out by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band.

I actually saw the Zombies before Covid. They still sound great. Rod Argent is playing with them again and I also really liked Argent.

 

[rboesl]

I actually saw the Zombies before Covid. They still sound great. Rod Argent is playing with them again and I also really liked Argent.

Wife & I also saw the Zombies at the Erie County Fair 2 years ago. Agree they still sounded great. Argent's "Hold Your Head Up" was excellent. At that same concert there was also the Cowsills, Paul Revere (without the Raiders), and the lead singer from Three Dog Night.

One of my oddest concert moments was at the Erie County Fair 3 years ago. While waiting for the concert to start we noticed a guy walking onto the stage using a cane. He seemed to be making sure the equipment was in the right place. I took him for a senior stage hand. Just as he was finishing his checks the opening band members starting to come on stage. I expected the guy to leave the stage. Instead he set his cane down, picked up a guitar, and they started playing "Green Eyed Lady" (one of my all time favorite songs). Turned out the guy was lead singer for the band Sugarloaf. He didn't use the cane for the entire show, although he didn't move much, and picked up his cane to leave the stage when they were done.

 

[Superchief]

Wife & I also saw the Zombies at the Erie County Fair 2 years ago. Agree they still sounded great. Argent's "Hold Your Head Up" was excellent. At that same concert there was also the Cowsills, Paul Revere (without the Raiders), and the lead singer from Three Dog Night.

One of my oddest concert moments was at the Erie County Fair 3 years ago. While waiting for the concert to start we noticed a guy walking onto the stage using a cane. He seemed to be making sure the equipment was in the right place. I took him for a senior stage hand. Just as he was finishing his checks the opening band members starting to come on stage. I expected the guy to leave the stage. Instead he set his cane down, picked up a guitar, and they started playing "Green Eyed Lady" (one of my all time favorite songs). Turned out the guy was lead singer for the band Sugarloaf. He didn't use the cane for the entire show, although he didn't move much, and picked up his cane to leave the stage when they were done.

I'm amazed that many of the classic rock bands are still playing excellent music in their seventies. Phil Ehart of Kansas is at least 70 and continues to be one of the best rock drummers. I was sitting near the front for the Zombies concert and noticed the singer had severe rheumatoid arthritis in his hands, but it didn't affect his performance.

 

[CanuckTravlr]

CanuckTravlr, my favorite obscure band hailed from the Great White North.

Success and quality don't always match. If you like '70 rock, give this a listen. . .

Great choice. I am not familiar with them, but I enjoyed this piece very much. Thanks for sharing it. I have fairly eclectic music tastes, from baroque to certain heavy metal. There was certainly lots of talent here in the Great White North at the time, and still is. I have some interesting personal connections to some of it. See my comments below in my response to Superchief.

Triumph is another one. They reminded me of Rush.

Funny that you mention Triumph. While the members of Rush and Triumph knew and respected each other, Triumph tended to get overshadowed by Rush. Geddy Lee was about five years younger than Mike Levine, but they lived in adjacent neighbourhoods in N/E Toronto. While I haven't talked to him in years, I knew Mike Levine quite well. He was in my class in high school and his original band was a fixture at many of our high school dances. There was a lot of talent in that school.

Barry Keane, who was the drummer in that band, went on to become the drummer for Gordon Lightfoot, with whom he still plays. He and I also attended university together. The comedian Mike Myers and TV star Eric McCormack attended the same school. Eric's family lived on the same block as us. My best friend used to babysit him!!! LOL. And the spouse of Elton John, producer David Furnish, lived around the corner from my parents' home. We could see their backyard from ours. Sometimes it's a very small world!

By the way, I also loved The Animals, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and Badfinger (especially "Day After Day"). I'll add another one, King Crimson ("In the Court of the Crimson King" and "In the Wake of Poseidon"). There was so much good, innovative music then.

 

[DrQ]

When I was growing up in the Chicago area, I got to see bands before they made it big:

• Styx
• REO Speedwagon
• Cheap Trick
• Mason Proffit
• The Buckinghams
• The Cryan' Shames
• Steve Goodman
• And of course Chicago Transit Authority

Corky Siegel and Jim Schwall never made it big, but the Siegel-Schwall Band put out some kick-butt music on Wooden Nickel records and they played at my high school for an assembly.

When I went to NIU, there was a great little venue in DeKalb IL called Juicy John Pinks where artists from Chicago would come out and play. Good times.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

I liked the Dave Clark Five, Paul Revere and the Raiders and The Animals better than the Beatles.

Animals up to the point that they became Eric Burdon and the Animals. Animalism was their best album. But it's hard to say they were ignored.

I happen to like the Zombies,

Along with all of the others who mentioned the Zombies. Not totally ignored, but certainly deserving of much more recognition than they received. Musically, there were doing stuff that was beyond what most other bands were doing, but they also didn't forget that it needed to be catchy and accessible.

***********

But for being ignored, I don't think anyone in the history of rock and roll could have been more ignored than Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Her guitar playing and singing inspired Chuck Berry. Sister Rosetta duck-walked with a guitar before Chuck Berry. In a skirt or dress.

Rosetta was very well known in the black gospel circuit in the 1950s, but completely ignored and unknown in the white world. Chuck Berry knew. Chuck Berry took Sister Rosetta's style out of black gospel and onto Top 40 radio. Just watch her guitar work, especially her guitar solo in the first video of Up Above My Head.

Love her comment during the solo - "Pretty good for a woman, ain't it?"

 

[DrQ]

I also like Sugarloaf that wrote some great music. I love their, Don't Call Us, We'll Call You. It was a snide cut at the recording industry after they got their contract. The Easter Egg in the song is the DTMF touch tones was the actual unlisted phone number of CBS Records in Manhattan.

 

[Brett]

Wife & I also saw the Zombies at the Erie County Fair 2 years ago. Agree they still sounded great. Argent's "Hold Your Head Up" was excellent. At that same concert there was also the Cowsills, Paul Revere (without the Raiders), and the lead singer from Three Dog Night.

One of my oddest concert moments was at the Erie County Fair 3 years ago. While waiting for the concert to start we noticed a guy walking onto the stage using a cane. He seemed to be making sure the equipment was in the right place. I took him for a senior stage hand. Just as he was finishing his checks the opening band members starting to come on stage. I expected the guy to leave the stage. Instead he set his cane down, picked up a guitar, and they started playing "Green Eyed Lady" (one of my all time favorite songs). Turned out the guy was lead singer for the band Sugarloaf. He didn't use the cane for the entire show, although he didn't move much, and picked up his cane to leave the stage when they were done.

I suppose at some point that's how most classic rock bands will end up.
In ten years (20? 30?) Mick Jagger will shuffle on stage with his walker, slowly sit down and croak .... I can't get no satisfaction

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

I suppose at some point that's how most classic rock bands will end up.
In ten years (20? 30?) Mick Jagger will shuffle on stage with his walker, slowly sit down and croak .... I can't get no satisfaction

More likely he'll try to roll out in a wheelchair, fail, and start singing "Start Me Up" as a roady pushes him on-stage. . .

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

Great choice. I am not familiar with them, but I enjoyed this piece very much. Thanks for sharing it. I have fairly eclectic music tastes, from baroque to certain heavy metal. There was certainly lots of talent here in the Great White North at the time, and still is. I have some interesting personal connections to some of it. See my comments below in my response to Superchief.



Funny that you mention Triumph. While the members of Rush and Triumph knew and respected each other, Triumph tended to get overshadowed by Rush. Geddy Lee was about five years younger than Mike Levine, but they lived in adjacent neighbourhoods in N/E Toronto. While I haven't talked to him in years, I knew Mike Levine quite well. He was in my class in high school and his original band was a fixture at many of our high school dances. There was a lot of talent in that school.

Barry Keane, who was the drummer in that band, went on to become the drummer for Gordon Lightfoot, with whom he still plays. He and I also attended university together. The comedian Mike Myers and TV star Eric McCormack attended the same school at the same time. Eric's family lived on the same block as us. My best friend used to babysit him!!! LOL. And the spouse of Elton John, producer David Furnish, lived around the corner from my parents' home. We could see their backyard from ours. Sometimes it's a very small world!

By the way, I also loved The Animals, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and Badfinger (especially "Day After Day"). I'll add another one, King Crimson ("In the Court of the Crimson King" and "In the Wake of Poseidon"). There was so much good, innovative music then.

If you are interested in Garfield - here's the website.

Garfield French – Recording artist & band

garfieldfrench.com

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

More likely he'll try to roll out in a wheelchair, fail, and start singing "Start Me Up" as a roady pushes him on-stage. . .

 

[Superchief]

The Small Faces were another underrated group and were led by Steve Marriott who was a great performer. This is my favorite song from them, and our band played it,

 

[DrQ]

Animals up to the point that they became Eric Burdon and the Animals. Animalism was their best album. But it's hard to say they were ignored.

You mean when Alan Price left?

I bought The Animals Greatest Hits when "House of the Rising Sun" was popular, but I was blown away by the other tracks on the album. I discovered the "Bo Diddley beat" and R & B. Growing up in the white bread suburbs, I had no idea WHAT it was, but I liked it and it WASN'T being played on WLS or WCFL:

The Beatles just sucked all the oxygen out of the room.

 

[Dori]

An apple band Badfinger.

Also liked Yes, Bruce Hornsby and the Range, Huey Lewis and the News and Chris Isaak.

I still love Huey Lewis and the News! One one my favourites that I walk to, is Taking Care of Business.

Dori

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

You mean when Alan Price left?

They actually hung together for a while after Price left. Don't Bring Me Down, for example, was recorded without Price. But they probably didn't last for more than a year after that.

If I recall correctly, Chas Chandler ended up playing bass with Hendrix for awhile. And the other stuff was good. The first Stones albums also had a lot of great material that was never released.

Another group that blew me away was The Doors. As with the Animals, there was a lot of other great stuff that didn't get airplay. And I knew I was listening to something that was totally unlike anything else that was being done.

 

[Superchief]

CanuckTravlr, my favorite obscure band hailed from the Great White North.

Success and quality don't always match. If you like '70 rock, give this a listen. . .

This is the first time I have heard this group and really enjoyed it. I really like 'symphonic' progressive rock, probably because my dad always listened to classical music (and Irish folk singers). I consider King Crimson to one of the pioneers in progressive rock. It's a shame many of the bands were never favored by Rolling Stone or the press, but I think they demonstrated the most creativity and musical skills. I guess the main problem is that you can't dance to it (although I can't dance to anything).