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

Why is no one talking about Father of All Motherfuckers?

I could've sworn the Alarm had one US top 40 hit, and I thought it was "Rain In The Summertime," but nope, none of their records got higher than #50 (for "Sold Me Down The River," which I don't think I've ever heard).

They were essentially a low-rent U2 tribute act; that said, they did the "authentic/rootsy/acoustic/WE JUST DISCOVERED AMERICA" thing before U2...in fact, I think U2 got most of the, um, "ideas" for /Rattle & Hum/ from this Alarm footage:

📹

every bad hair idea endorsed by U2 the Alarm got there first

They did try to warn us.

The alarm were always more of a rootsy rabble-rousing Bob Dylan meets the clash thing than the rest of those UK /Irish arena rock bands like U2/big country/simple minds/the waterboys, in hindsight they were a bit more akin to someone like spear of destiny or maybe the men they couldn't hang without the Irish folk influence

I do remember a Bands Reunited segment on the Alarm.

lol @ Simon

U2/big country/simple minds/the waterboys

Tears for Fears would like a word with you NickB

I remember some kind of segment on Big Country, but perhaps that was during the first (and only?) phase of their union.

I get The Call and The Alarm mixed up too. Did one of them have a song called "68 Guns", and the other a song called "When The Walls Come Down?" Or was it the other way around?

The Alarm's hit that I'm remembering is "68 Guns" which had a really irritatingly shitty chord in the chorus, let me go take a listen and figure out why that chord sucked...

xpost

"68 Guns" has a totally unnecessary (and subtle as a room clearing fart) D-minor in the chorus while the entire song is in G-major.

Yeah, "68 Guns" sounds like a bar band cover of Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" replete with the Spector/"Be My Baby"-drumming that U2 definitely mined for fodder for an album or two. I, like Tarfumes, would have assumed this song was more popular than the charts would indicate.

Remember that one too, Wikipedia said it reach #39 on some kind of chart. Never knew they were Welsh.

I sampled a couple of Alarm tracks. As expected, none of them rang a bell…

The Alarm's "Sold Me Down the River" could absolutely be a hit for many a mainstream country act. I think "68 Guns" was a bigger hit in the UK. The Alarm were Welch, iirc.

The Call had "When The Walls Come Down," which I always misremember as Mellencamp's "Crumblin' Down." The Call song definitely fits the alt-AOR mode.

Remember that one too, Wikipedia said it reach #39 on some kind of chart. Never knew they were Welsh.

The Call song I remember is "Let the Day Begin."

They did a college tour that was sponsored by AT&T (get it?)

Or maybe not that chart. Original link had the word “Hot” in the front.

The Alarm ones I know from memory: "The Stand" (based on the book, kinda like the Clash), "68 Guns," "Strength" (very U2 crossed with, yeah, the Cult, worse hair), "The Spirit of '76" (kinda like Springsteen roots rock crossed by way of, yeah, U2), "Rain in the Summertime" (kinda a cool song, very U2/Simple Minds), "Rescue Me" (very U2 by way of Bryan Adams AORy), "Sold Me Down the River" (yeah, very Rattle & Hum). That's a lot for a band I don't listen to!

Jeezus folks, The Alarm were Clash ripoffs! They had tons of hits in the UK and are not at all forgotten by people who were into them during the 80s. I know guys from school who still follow the ex-members' solo careers!

Perhaps only Bananafish readers might know this bit of trivia, but the bassist of The Call (Greg Freeman) went on to engineer (and play on) records from Pell Mell/Steve Fisk, Virginia Dare, World of Pooh, Barbara Manning/SF Seals, TFUL282, Royal Trux (TWIN INFINITIVES!), Icky Boyfriends, Vomit Launch, etc.

He talked mad shit about the main guy in The Call in one of the early Bananafish (#2?) zines, oh and he has a thread on here of course:
the PELL MELL/Steve Fisk/Greg Freeman/etc. thread

xpost Their highest charting "hit" in the UK was 17!

xp Interesting, I have always sort of wondered who Greg Freeman was.

there's some crossover with this thread

that stage where you think they aren't popular anymore but are actually way more popular than they were when they had "buzz"

i've seen large quantities of alarm records in used bins for DECADES and have never heard a note. i had to go listen to '68 guns' because of al's colorful description and this is freaking hilarious! that's easily the worst clash song i've ever heard. man what a horrible, horrible thing.

also, idk, early u2 (like up to and including unforgettable fire) always seems to hold some serious hipster cred. i'm guilty myself; i love those records and play them semi-regularly.

I listened to “68 Guns” just now for the first time since its heyday. Was enjoying it until the false ending and reboot in the middle (presumably the album version). Now listening to “In a Big Country,” which sounds like Motörhead in comparison.

U2's another massive rock band where I just don't connect with them like so many people do. I listened to Zooropa a lot at the time and still like it OK; they have a few songs I like a lot.

Frickin MONSTER rhythm section on "In a Big Country." The bagpipey guitar thing was a novelty that grated really quickly but the drums and bass on that track are killer.

I heard "In A Big Country" at the dentist last week, sandwiched between Phil Collins and I think Laura Branigan, and was amazed that it is considered easy listening dentist's office music now. But then a few songs later heard Bowie's "Let's Dance," which was really weird.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMRoRcy0yz4

they have a few songs I like a lot

I'm not a U2 fan by any stretch of the imagination but I'll never tire of 'New Year's Day' and 'Mysterious Ways'.

Drummer from big country also played on the second album by the Cult after the original guy got jailed for armed robbery

'In a Big Country', on the other hand, is among the worst songs ever devised by human hands.

xp

"New Year's Day" is my OPO, yeah.

Thanks for that bass track, ymp. It's cool that I can't hear in my head how it fits with song at all.

Yeah, Mark Brzezicki (and Tony Butler) also did some good stuff with Pete Townshend. I went down a rabbit hole some months back and found this guy, who has done a whole bunch of Big Country drum covers, which are among the clearest examples of what Brzezicki is up to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kREc3HZWm_M

Do you guys know the Rogue Wave cover of "In a Big Country" or any of the other covers from that project?

Yeah, Mark Brzezicki (and Tony Butler) also did some good stuff with Pete Townshend.

“My City Was Gone” too, apparently.

I could go for a Japanese Breakfast cover of “in a big country”

a totally unnecessary (and subtle as a room clearing fart) D-minor in the chorus while the entire song is in G-major

are you putting down just this particular instance ?

xpost: maybe i'm outting my own lameness here, but i honestly believe big country's steeltown is one of the more underrated records of the 80s. i generally prefer their first album, but steeltown rules.

You're not the only one. There was even a POLL, with a lucky number of voters! Big Country - Steeltown POLL

beatles also did "Words Of Love"

― Piven After Midnight (The Yellow Kid), Sunday, August 16, 2020 12:54 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Not really an official release, but the Quarrymen recorded "That'll Be the Day" in July 1958 (in a terraced house in Liverpool that I once lived a few doors down from). They recorded it while Buddy Holly was still alive, which seems incredible to me. I wonder what the earliest-released Buddy Holly cover was.

Not that they won’t ever not be canonical but when i was young the Sex Pistols were pretty much the iconic punk rock band. Now they get half the monthly listeners on Spotify that the Stranglers get, and the Clash are way ahead.

Sex Pistols are, again, a band I knew about BECAUSE of history books. If anything, they probably have more exposure in North America than they did in the 80s and early 90s. "Rock the Casbah" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go" were actual hit songs. In terms of critical respect, too, London Calling was RS's #1 album of the 80s in 1990. ("London Calling" and the cover of "I Fought the Law" are the ones the classic rock station here plays in regular rotation now.) I also totally heard actual music by the Stranglers before the Pistols. They weren't in heavy rotation but a local rock station played a couple of their songs. They fit in OK with other new wave guitar bands.

Not really an official release, but the Quarrymen recorded "That'll Be the Day" in July 1958

It was, um, pretty hard to hear to The Pistols on the radio in the US at the time, to say the least.

If you told me the Clash had more plays than the Police, I'd be surprised.