Artists/bands that were once quite popular, yet nowadays are mostly ignored in canonical history books

I know, right? And Andy Summers! They're half a new wave band now.

i know that andy summers started off in zoot moneys band, and then they were both in the animals together. would be kind of into seeing them but, not really a graham bonnet fan tbh

Someone mentioned Mr. Big's Be With You song, I think it was in this thread. This morning I looked up the lyrics because I thought there was a phrase that I was misunderstanding because it was either really stupid or just incomprehensible. Nope. I understood the lyrics perfectly; they're just dumb.

Should Bread be classified with Yacht Rock? Or are they a little ahead of that curve, like America was?

neither are yachty, imho - just soft-rock/smooth southern California AM gold. they're too dialed in to a basic guitar-band format, and way too far removed from jazz.

Bread and America (who probably don't count cause Horse with No Name and Ventura Highway still pop up on the radio) make me think of Poco, whose records I always see it used bins and who are famous for having members go on to more successful bands, but I don't think I have ever knowingly heard a second of Poco music.

Too bad the Wikipedia entry on Humble Pie does not seem to have a membership Timeline, (even) Poco has one.

I still sometimes get Poco and Pure Prairie League mixed up in my head, because both are so omnipresent in used bins. In fact, I almost answered, surely you've heard "Amie" before I remembered, nope, that Pure Prairie League.

> "bar band" vibe have really faded out in terms of the pop culture

Yeah! Bruce, Huey and Mellencamp survive, but it was a much bigger component of what constituted mainstream rock.

Bar bandish stuff was funneled scenes that were specifically alt-country or actual country, Wilco vs Garth Brooks. Hard rock polarized towards metal, power poppy punk, post SRV guitarmag blues. Prog demanded Rush-like chops, none of this heartland Kansas fluff. Bands that don't fit into those subsequent streams, like J Giles or The Who or Styx just kinda fade, though the original fans still come out to the sheds.

Some of that bar band vibe became Michelob Rock, classic rock returning to the blues, which deserves its own thread but I never seem to have the time to do it

I really really love In Search of the Lost Chord. Bunch of acid novices let loose in a studio with raga and chamber instruments, making the most empty-headed glitter-eyed psych. A deeply silly record.

I still sometimes get Poco and Pure Prairie League mixed up in my head, because both are so omnipresent in used bins. In fact, I almost answered, surely you've heard "Amie" before I remembered, nope, that Pure Prairie League.

I still sometimes get Poco and Pure Prairie League mixed up in my head, because both are so omnipresent in used bins. In fact, I almost answered, surely you've heard "Amie" before I remembered, nope, that Pure Prairie League.

― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, August 14, 2020 10:48 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

that makes three of us

so weird

Bread is at least popular enough today for there to be a Bread tribute band.

And it’s called Toast:
https://youtu.be/QVVf9MSxBiI

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, August 14, 2020 5:52 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

someone needs the roll of keeping the music alive

― Defund the indefensible (NickB), Friday, August 14, 2020 6:07 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

where are the crust punks when you really need them

― Doctor Casino, Friday, August 14, 2020 6:10 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

they all like lizzo now

― Paul Ponzi, Friday, August 14, 2020 6:15 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

The puns are really baked into this discourse, huh?

jesus, what was the "big" Poco song?!

I also can't think of that band without thinking of Cheap Trick's Live at Budokan. Anyone else? "ALRIGHT, POCO!!"

"Amie" is one of those songs that sounds like a 100-year old standard.

You want forgotten? Eddie Rabbit! I knew the hit but for some reason didn't know there were lots of hits for lots of people, like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tvEvBUG8mY

"Songs that reference Subterranean Homesick Blues" should be its own category. This, "Wild, Wild, West," "Pump It Up" ... Oh, wait: songs which are or sound like pastiches of 'subterranean homesick blues'

Prog demanded Rush-like chops, none of this heartland Kansas fluff. Bands that don't fit into those subsequent streams, like J Giles or The Who or Styx just kinda fade, though the original fans still come out to the sheds.

Wait, Kansas totally had prog chops? So did Styx?

I remember Eddie Rabbitt, if only for writing “Kentucky Rain.”

"I Love a Rainy Night" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Eddie Rabbitt. It was released in November 1980 as the second single from his album Horizon. It reached number one on the Hot Country Singles, Billboard Hot 100, and Adult Contemporary Singles charts in 1981. The song succeeded Dolly Parton's song "9 to 5" at the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart—the last time, to date, that the pop chart featured back-to-back country singles in the number-one position.

jesus, what was the "big" Poco song?!

There wasn't one really? Back when my local AOR was more freeform and laid back their cover of JJ Cale's "Magnolia" got some play.

Idk, do you really think Kansas and Styx were at the level of Yes or Rush or KC, chops-wise? I never thought that. "Dust in the Wind" violin solo mostly sounds like some scalar exercises.xp

when I was big into Cake I had a friend who kept calling them "Bread" so it was amusing that they did in fact wind up covering a Bread song

Oh, Poco had "Crazy Love." That was actually a charting hit. xp

Poco belong to that wing of post-Byrds/Burritos/Buffalo country-rock that spawned a surprising number of "supergroups" where the uninitiated haven't heard of most of the people involved. In this case the key figures are two ex-Springfielders, Richie Furay and Jim Messina. I'm not sure, but my vague sense (someone please correct me!) is that a lot of these bands were sort of Dead-adjacent, in being the turn-of-the-70s equivalent of later jam bands: fandom was focused on instrumental interplay, live shows in college towns, and a kind of loose hangout/jammy vibe that comes through on record without the sense of Importance and Things To Say About Americana that critics found in The Band. Messina followed the same circuit in producing and mentoring songwriter Kenny Loggins, and it was to that same basic audience that Loggins & Messina first broke out (with the incredibly hooky "Vahevala"). The best, and/or most hit-like Poco song I know is "Hurry Up"; their debut single "You Better Think Twice" is also pretty good and probably sketches out their strengths and limitations most clearly.

Basically, my theory here is that Poco sold a lot of albums, explaining their used-bin presence, without actually breaking through in a Top 40, pop-culture way. You'd think that would be enough for them to be grandfathered in when AOR turned into Classic Rock, but like the Dead (apart from "Casey Jones"), they've been supplanted by bands that are related sonically but more often mustered hook-oriented, punchy, three-minute singles. Or, as I posted a few days back on another thread: If any reasonably competent 70s rock band with a cracking rhythm section and stronger hitmaking instincts than Richie Furay had recorded "Fallin' In Love" instead of The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, it would have been among their best songs and greatest achievements. The Eagles, of course --- including ex-Poco player Randy Meisner - took the sound in a different direction and made untold millions.

In conclusion, the Pure Prairie League mixups make total sense to me - "Amie" took Poco's token slot in the rotation!

I always get Poco and Lobo mixed up. Lobo I think were the ones with "Me and You and a Dog named Boo."

I also confuse Poco and Orleans, mainly because "Heart of the Night", a top-20 hit for Poco, is about New Orleans.

Man I don't remember "Heart of the Night" at all, and I used to love Poco, have to go give it a listen. They gradually turned into soft pop by the late 70s though, maybe I just thought it was by Randy Vanwarmer or something.

Oh, THAT one! Yeah.

Very much in Vanwarmer vein, but I did kinda like it...

Great write-up, Dr. Casino!

Speaking of The Eagles, thought I remembered and saw out of the corner of my eye Timothy B. Schmit in the Wikipedia Poco membership timeline.

Speaking of Deadspace, think it's time to play the Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen card.

There are a number of groups who seem like they'd fit in perfectly with Classic Rock radio, like Poco, Humble Pie, Rory Gallagher, Gabriel-era Genesis, but who didn't have US hit singles so they are forever ignored. The only exception to this I see is the Ramones, who get played on CR radio despite not really having hit singles.

"The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" gets some rotation but it's the only Gabriel-era Genesis song I ever hear on the radio.

I'm pretty sure I never heard a Humble Pie song on American radio.

Sax solo on "Heart of the Night" is the same guy as "Year of the Cat!"

xp did they even have any radio singles back then? maybe "I Know What I Like"?

I see your Commander Cody, and I raise you one New Riders of the Purple Sage.

I've heard "Lamb" on the radio fairly regularly, and also "Watcher of the Skies," weirdly.

Humble Pie was a pretty ubiquitous presence on rock radio, at least in Detroit, where I grew up. "30 Days", "I Don't Need No Doctor" and "C'mon Everybody" were pretty much staples, and Marriott's solo single "Fool for a Pretty Face" got decent airplay too.

New Riders, Pure Prairie League, Commander Cody, which band had that logo of the guy getting thrown through the saloon doors? All of them?

I'm not sure, but my vague sense (someone please correct me!) is that a lot of these bands were sort of Dead-adjacent, in being the turn-of-the-70s equivalent of later jam bands: fandom was focused on instrumental interplay, live shows in college towns, and a kind of loose hangout/jammy vibe that comes through on record without the sense of Importance and Things To Say About Americana that critics found in The Band.

This is otm, Doctor.

I see your Commander Cody, and I raise you one New Riders of the Purple Sage.

― Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Friday, August 14, 2020 12:56 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I believe both of these bands -- not sure about Cody, but definitely New Riders -- were longtime Dead opening acts.

I see your Commander Cody, and I raise you one New Riders of the Purple Sage.

― Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Friday, 14 August 2020 16:56

I always get New Riders mixed up with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

Folks, think it is safe to say that the circle is now unbroken.

Marriott's solo single "Fool for a Pretty Face" got decent airplay too.

Didn't even know about this. Just looked it up, and apparently Marriott tried to reform Humble Pie after the debacle of the Small Faces reunion, who he reformed after leaving Humble Pie. It's all a rich tapestry. Poor guy had so many close calls with the mega-big time: he was Page's first choice for a vocalist in Zep, and Keith Richards wanted him to replace Mick Taylor (upstaging Jagger at the audition put an end to that).

Only Marriott I've ever heard on the radio was one or two Pie songs, and "Itchycoo Park" surprisingly often -- like, four or five times a week -- on a northeast US oldies station.

And I didn't know about the Zip and Stones possibilities! He would have been a natural alongside Keef, but you can't silence those pipes...

Totally forgot that "Fool for a Pretty Face" was actually a Humble Pie single. I guess it was a Marriott solo release in all but name...

My local classic rock station, which I never listen to anymore, did a 70's A-Z weekend, and Pie's "I Don't Need No Doctor" is indeed on the playlist. I just don't remember ever hearing it.

https://www.92kqrs.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/199/2019/03/70s-A-to-Z.pdf

I do remember Savoy Brown's "Tell Mama," and even "Hellbound Train" on the overnight shift back in the day, but no Savoy Brown at all on that retro weekend list now.

Not that it was ever a big radio song, but couldn't they have thrown in "Xanadu" by Rush to cover the letter of X?

3 War songs on there

New Riders, Pure Prairie League, Commander Cody, which band had that logo of the guy getting thrown through the saloon doors? All of them?

― henry s, Friday, August 14, 2020 1:01 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I LOLd

isn't New Riders a Grateful Dead side project?

Started out as one, sort of, but after the first two records the Dead guys faded away and it mutated into its own thing when Buddy Cage took over for Garcia on pedal steel.

this goddamn thread is moving so fast that no one has really stepped back and noted with incredulity that the guitarist in one of the biggest rock and roll bands to have ever existed now plays in Humble Pie with Jerry Shirley (I think he is playing the drums in this incarnation, although there appear to have been tours in which he has not), the third most famous Rainbow singer (although "Since you been Gone" is probly better known than any other Rainbow tune), a journeyman bass player who did more interesting things than I knew of until about 5 minutes ago, and Zoot Money.