While it may have been slim pickings in discovering new music the last couple of months, these dry spells allow me to go back in time and discover and rediscover important bands and albums that I never got around to appreciating. As much as I love contemporary music, it's nice to go back and take time to dig in to the artists that paved the way for the artists I love. So here are a handful of the influential bands that have been whetting my musical thirst the last couple of months...
1) The Beatles
This should probably be filed under "No shit Sherlock!" However, The Beatles are a band I've always respected but never really took the time to sit down and really digest. For most of my life their songs were more or less just elevator music. (Although, watching Ferris Bueller mime "Twist and Shout" was one of my favourite childhood memories.) I was lucky enough to get their boxed set for Christmas and have been listening to their discography on repeat ever since. Don't get me wrong, there are other bands that mean more to me, but I have to say that The Beatles were the BEST band that have ever existed. Their quality of songwriting and vocal harmonies are still unprecedented.
Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly may have been two of the essential pioneers of rock n' roll, but The Beatles made rock n' roll an art form. They essentially created the concept of THE ALBUM. They obviously had fantastic early singles, but they evolved into "artists" (in the truest sense of the word) by releasing such classic albums as Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. To this day, these albums remain the benchmark for which all other albums are compared.
Whether you like them or not, The Beatles are right at the top of the rock n' roll family tree. "Helter Skelter" is an early prototype for heavy metal. "Nowhere Man" and "Blackbird" are early sign posts for the 70's singer/songwriter movement. Bands like Oasis and Sloan admittedly owe their careers to the Fab Four.
So it took me long enough to finally "get" The Beatles, but I'm glad I finally did. And so should you... but I'm pretty sure you've beaten me to the punch already.
2) X
I'm a huge fan of the 70's punk explosion (Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Clash, Patti Smith, etc) but have been a little slow in getting up to speed in the second wave of punk bands during the early 80's. One such band is X. I finally picked up their debut album Los Angeles and it definitely earns it's legendary status. Led by John Doe and Exene Cervenka, X took the energy of punk and fused it with rockabilly and country, with a healthy dose of guy/girl vocal interplay for good measure. And for people who like truly useless trivia, John Doe had a role in the Patrick Swayze "classic" movie Roadhouse.
3) Joan Jett
Before I begin, I must preface this by saying how truly sick I am of "I Love Rock 'n' Roll." After hosting karaoke for the better part of four years, I have heard this song more often than "Friends in Low Places" and "Love Shack." In essence, this song has become my soundtrack to my personal hell. Most artists have a song or two that is played to death; for Joan Jett, this is that song. So I will forgive her for that. It's not her fault that ditzy, slutty blonde chicks sing Britney Spears' version of the tune. But I digress.
What piqued my interest in Joan Jett was the recent Runaways movie, based on the the band that spawned the careers of Jett and Lita Ford. (Well, I'm not sure Lita Ford had a "career" per se, but "Kiss Me Deadly" was a pretty fun hair metal tune.) During her promotion for the movie and her new Greatest Hits album, she performed a balls-to-the-wall version of "Cherry Bomb." After that I was sold. I picked up her Greatest Hits album and it's been on heavy rotation at home and on my iPod.
Building upon the foundations that Patti Smith and Debbie Harry built, Jett proved that chicks could "rawk" just as hard as dudes. Without Joan Jett there would be no Brody Dalle or Courtney Love.
Jett wrote some great tunes, including "Cherry Bomb" and "Bad Reputation," but she is generally more famous for her covers, particularly that one dreaded karaoke song. However, she has at least shown good taste in covering "Crimson and Clover," Bruce Springsteen's "Light of Day" and The Replacements' "Androgynous."
Alright, it's time to head back to 2010. See ya there!
blasphemy = the names "patti smith" and "joan jett" in the same sentence.
ReplyDeleteignorance = justin siegel's comment.
ReplyDeleteJoan Jett definitely isn't the lyricist Patti Smith is and Mike Ness isn't the lyricist Bob Dylan is but they are all great at what they do. So there. :-)
ReplyDeletejj - haha, that's pretty much the understatement of the year, saying joan jett isn't the same caliber lyricist as patti smith... however, i have to take issue with your comparison (or i guess it's more of a categorization?) at a more basic level. patti smith is a poet, an intellectual, highly political (not overtly, but still undeniable), practically androgynous, as indebted to 19th century french poets as she was to '60s rock and roll heroiones. joan jett is a rock chick who's music was all about having fun, pure and simple. her image was always one of a hard-rocking chick who puts up equal amounts sex appeal and raw power. there's nothing wrong with that, and i don't have anything against joan jett, and in fact i agree with you that she undoubtedly paved the way for the likes of courtney love and brody dalle (and i'm sure that these two and countless others count patti smith among their influences as well, but that's besides my point here). patti smith's legacy is a much deeper, more subterranean one, one that blurs and generally renders meaningless the gender boundaries that jett's legacy seems to enforce. from glenn branca to lydia lunch to will shatter to michael stipe to kim gordon and thurston moore to beth orton to ryan adams to kimya dawson, patti smith is really a stepping stone, a hub, an institution and a place in rock history where many paths begin and begin to converge. joan jett, as fun and rockin' and balls-out as she is, just isn't in that club.... that is all.
ReplyDeleteps.
sad and pathetic = people who get all personal and combative over harmless personal opinions on blogs and online message boards.
GREAT post Justin! Yeah, comparing Joan Jett and Patti Smith is kind of like comparing apples and oranges. They were both influential, but Joan Jett's influence was definitely more one dimensional. Patti Smith could take an absolutely scathing, blistering song and still make it poetic and filled with social commentary. Case in point, "Rock 'n' Roll Nigger." She combined the stream-of-consciousness of the Beat writers and Dylan with the primal energy of her punk contemporaries. As far as looks go, Patti was the other side of the coin to the glam movement. Her androgynous look inspired R.E.M.'s Peter Buck's 80's outfits (black vest, white button up shirts, long black hair etc) and obviously Annie Lennox.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm just scratching the surface here but you definitely nailed it on the head.
Cheers!
thanks, jj. i knew you understood what i meant, and i know that in your original post it was really just an offhand comment that i kinda pounced on (respectfully). but there are only a small handful of recording artists that i feel belong to be held in the same regard as patti smith...
ReplyDeleteby the way, i never realized till now that patti smith was the inspiration for peter buck's look in the 80s/90s but now it's SOOO obvious that it kinda makes me laugh.
take care