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

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.

What is this humble pie you speak of.

Oh wow they even have an album called Eat It.

Somewhat 'yawnsomely literal' here:

https://img.discogs.com/LpUFVfzIKrsKoB7LdrVmPdWodFw=/fit-in/600x596/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-4533339-1576526276-3655.jpeg.jpg

Huh, so 'to eat humble pie' is an actual idiom. I'd never heard it before. Is it more common in Britain?

I tried to like Humble Pie. Some of their studio albums are almost good in a generic early '70s English blooze-rawk way, but I always just wound up thinking that they're "not as"... not as weird as the Groundhogs, not as noisy/raunchy as Black Cat Bones, not as stark and minimal as Free, not as rhythmically tight as Foghat. And when I try listening to the live stuff (I actually bought the 4CD box with the complete Fillmore recordings, which is basically the exact same set four times in a row), I fucking cringe to hear Marriott. He's so over-the-top with his blooze-man mannerisms, I wouldn't have been surprised if I saw a photo of him wearing blackface onstage.

This BBC Sessions disc is really good / worth checking out... I think it was how I got into the band.

(Also, as mentioned above, the first two Immediate albums are great - As Safe as Yesterday Is and Town and Country. You can get them on a double disc.)

^^^ seconded. I used to own that vinyl twofer Lost and Found, it's really nice. I worked my way through the next three albums today, never heard the s/t or Rock On, and it's been ages since I heard Smokin'. In general, the less they feature acoustic guitars and the more they turn up the rawk, the less I like them.

I skimmed thru a low-budget Amazon Prime documentary on Steve Marriott recently (the doc’s title promised a complete Humble Pie concert in addition to interviews, but there was little concert footage).

I caught a good anecdote about how Marriott insulted or pissed off a label exec when their final album, Go for the Throat, was released — and so someone wrote “DO NOT WORK THIS RECORD!” on the bulletin board at the label’s offices, and it was effectively buried.

Huh, so 'to eat humble pie' is an actual idiom. I'd never heard it before. Is it more common in Britain?

Moxy Fruvous

Had to google that!

Town and Country — along with Jack Bruce’s “Theme From An Imaginary Western” — is my favorite of the UK responses to Music From Big Pink (and there were many). They knew how to channel their heaviness on that record, though I dig the Fillmore stuff for its borderline (and not-so-borderline) absurdity. To his credit, as over-the-top as he was, Marriott never flirted with the nadir of human vocalizing that is Robert Plant attempting to scat-sing.

You lucked out in the 90s, evidently. But yeah, "King of Spain" ("now I eat humble pie") was a #1 in the true north.

xp

If that means you've never heard of Jian Ghomeishi, you really lucked out.

Haha, no, my luck ran out around the time Serial Joe's 'Mistake' hit the airwaves and it's been downhill ever since. I was only aware of Ghomeshi via his CBC gig before the allegations exploded, and for whatever reason none of the articles I read on the topic referred to his time in Moxy Früvous (although 'King of Spain' does in fact ring a distant bell).

I never thought about HP's relationship with Big Pink, that's an interesting observation. I always think of Town & Country as being in the same realm as Fleetwood Mac's Kiln House, that intersection of folk, country, blues, and rock that signified you were being "progressive" at the time, without being prog rock. Maybe it's the Buddy Holly covers that make that connection for me. It's my fave Pie record of the ones I've heard, by far.

xps "humble pie" comes from "umble pie" which was a pie made with entrails, all the poor could afford. For those of you who've just eaten.

It’s definitely my favorite of theirs. I don’t know of any explicit connection to Big Pink — that is, I haven’t read any interviews where they mention the Band or anything — but the cover and predominantly acoustic and/or relatively muted instrumentation for me evoke the UK “back to the land”/“let’s all live in a thatched-roof cottage!” aesthetic that a bunch of bands (Traffic especially) embraced around the emergence of Big Pink. Town and Country also has a kind of introspective spookiness/spooky introspection that I dig, and that Zep edged towards on things like “Tangerine.”

If I had to pick a favorite Humble Pie song, it’d be this:

https://youtu.be/WvD0wmdLT68

xp

Seem to recall a character from literature who always talked about being 'umble, maybe there was even a band named after him...

xp- yes, love “Shakey Jake” (in its rockin’ versions, as well).

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.

Lol at James Redd.

I've never heard Bread!

My favorite reason for exploring old Pazz & Jop polls was to find albums I've never heard of or never thought to listen to, sometimes by artists who were familiar, and it ties into this thread because it's generally a good way of finding critically lauded albums that I rarely hear about it now. They still have their fans - a quick google search to learn more proves that fact easily - but otherwise I've never come across them.

Last one I dug up was Michelle Shocked's Short Sharp Shocked which placed in the top 5 of 1988. It was the year of a new singer-songwriter boom that some say recalled the folk revival of the 1960s. I actually don't find much of that work all that compelling - for example, "Fast Car" and "Luka" are great singles, and I absolutely love those songs, but their respective, well-meaning albums don't do much for me. Shocked got lumped in with them, but she could make the others look pretty innocuous in comparison. I liked Short Sharp Shocked instantly, I think it's a great album, but it's disappointing to read what's happened with her in the years since, the low point being her homophonic remarks (and at a show in San Francisco, of all places). Also surprising was how she shut down (unintentionally perhaps) third-party sellers who were trying to sell used copies of her music on Amazon. Maybe it was a meant to protest Amazon, but she even got an account shut down that was run by Goodwill in Tacoma, Seattle.

I'm Shocked she would do such a thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgttPt_1IG0

The Turtles? I don't know if they're quite popular enough or ignored enough to qualify. They had a #1 hit, five Top 10s, nine in the Top 40--that's pretty popular. Do they get mentioned much today? I'd be surprised if they do.

https://i.imgflip.com/1xdxip.jpg