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

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

The Sex Pistols are way, way behind both (rightly so, might I add).

Spinning off from the Steely Dan thread: The Osmonds. Several hit singles I never heard on Oldies radio when Oldies radio started playing '70s stuff, and 100 thou Spotify listeners a month.

late 80s/early 90s seemed like a big period for the Sex Pistols-- movie, documentary, tons of archival releases, Sid Vicious t-shirts everywhere. I think maybe Nirvana holds that niche for later generations?

Spinning off from the Steely Dan thread: The Osmonds. Several hit singles I never heard on Oldies radio when Oldies radio started playing '70s stuff, and 100 thou Spotify listeners a month.

I got wind of them in my late teens and they sounded cool on paper but the music itself did (and still does) zilch for me. Now, early PiL on the other hand…

xp

there are no retrospective Pitchfork reviews of the Sex Pistols, as there are for the Clash, Ramones, Buzzcocks, the Jam, etc. Just a 3.8 rating for "Spunk"

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

Pres. Keyes, I would be v surprised if that added up to more people in the general public knowing "Anarchy in the UK" than "Should I Stay or Should I Go" in 1991.

Yes that’s what I claimed

Idk what you were claiming; thought your point was surprise that the Pistols had fewer listeners than the Clash or Stranglers but I'm just waking up tbf. I prefer them myself tbc.

I’m talking about a general sense of importance. In the lates 80s Rolling Stone put Never Mind the Bullocks at #2 on their list of the best albums of the last 25 years. I doubt anyone rates them as highly these days.

Listening to “68 Guns” for the first time. Initial thoughts:

1. Far more a Clash ripoff than a U2 one.
2. Where’s this “minor chord” in the chorus? Is it “68 GUNS! can never die”? Urgh I don’t know jack shit about music theory.
3. This song is absolutely horrid!!!

The fact the Pistols are behind the Clash isn't surprising at all! The Clash stuck around and became a successful band and had pop hit.

Pistols are so great I think it's a testament to the fact, they still to this day, midtempo rock and all, be comfortably fit into a playlist at a coffee shop, Rotten still sounds to deranged, the guitars are to harsh...

Also saying that as far as year zero British punk bands go the Clash Seems to hold the popularity crown. Not surprised, just that they viewed as equally important as one time, and the Pistols were cooler

Never Mind is so classic, it sound huge compared to the first Clash record, so vicious

I was more surprised about them having lower numbers than the Stranglers. I think I've heard them before, but I'm not sure.

Re: "68 Guns," there are a bunch of minor chords bouncing around, but the most conspicuous ones are the Bm to Dm in the chorus. I did pick up my guitar and strum along just now, and it makes a certain sense, or at least I didn't have a big problem with it. Regardless, "68 Guns" is a total Clash rip but it's earlier in their career, early enough that maybe the U2 hadn't sunk in. But listen to this. I'm putting in the video so that you can see the "hold my beer" response to Bono's mullet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt2KymSj9TQ

Never Mind is so classic

It's a '70s rock album.

it sound huge compared to the first Clash record

See above. It took the Clash till their second album to hire Sandy Pearlman, but the Pistols had that big arena rock sound right away. You could swap Paul Stanley in for Rotten no problem.

The Clash debut is higher than NMTB on the p4k 70s list btw

Yeah, they had Elton John's producers on it iirc. xp

I thought the sex pistols were always more talked about then listened to? Anyway, they haven’t been erased from the history books!

If anything, they probably take up more space in any history book than any other act that only released one album.

yeah, as I said, they don't fit into this thread's main focus, but they are a group whose importance/profile/critical status has diminished over time. I haven't seen anything here that argues otherwise.

I would disagree, but not sure what smoking gun would dissuade you, maybe one of Jonesy’s heart attack stents would do.

You could swap Paul Stanley in for Rotten no problem.

Gene Simmons probably less skilled at bass than Sid Vicious

Eric Weisb@rd in the SPIN Alternative Guide was otm about NMTB: a lot of filler ("Liar," "Problems"), sacred singles, Important Album anyway.

lol, crüt

You could swap Paul Stanley in for Rotten no problem.
Gene Simmons probably less skilled at bass than Sid Vicious

― trapped out the barndo (crüt), Tuesday, August 18, 2020 11:03 AM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

steve jones plays most of it in the studio -- oddly, the only one sid is credited on is "bodies", the best song

undoubtedly my favorite song

The Spin Alternative Record Guide is a sacred text and cannot be questioned. I LOVE how Never Mind the Bollocks is #100

Ultimate Guitar etc. has Bm > D in the chorus for 68 guns. I can hear it both ways. I would have to listen to it again to confirm that it's Bm > Dm and... I don't care enough to check.

It is indeed a Dm. If you're too lazy to listen but care enough to post/argue, that basically sums up ILM and should be the new board description.

the vers 2 of it in Ultimate Guitar has Bm and listening it's definitely minor

never heard the song, agreed that the chords is weird in context

Yeah, (Never Mind The Bollocks) had Elton John's producers on it iirc. xp

Bill Price had produced one album by Welsh band Racing Cars, and went on to produce The Cost Of Living EP and record & engineer London Calling and Sandinista (and, eventually, do all the Clash's various remasters with Mick); Chris Thomas had produced for Procul Harum and Badfinger, mixed Dark Side Of The Moon, played keyboards & ghost-produced on The White Album, and programmed Moog for Elton on his second album.

and went on to produce The Cost Of Living EP

While I never entirely understood the complaints against Pearlman's production on Give 'Em Enough Rope, Price gets a far larger, and much more immediate, sound on "I Fought The Law."

Ah, thanks. I had known the details at one time.xp

Chris Thomas had produced for Procul Harum and Badfinger

And the peak Roxy Music albums, For Your Pleasure through Siren!

Wondered how Elton’s name got in there.

Meant to include Roxy Music as one of Thomas' repeat production clients, too.

xp!

Barack Obama has War’s “All Day Music” on his 2020 Summer Playlist. Case closed, I guess.

All this talk about The Alarm, and no mention of The Poppy Fields? Thought it was a pretty good stunt...

In an interview with BBC News Online, Mike Peters said "The Alarm, most famous for their 1983 hit '68 Guns', were not always taken seriously by DJs" because of a combination of the age of the band's members and a perception that their image was outdated. Peters said, "The Alarm as an entity have been going for 20-odd years and history can go against you – we wanted to break the barrier down." He continued by saying that "The Alarm members wanted to stir up the water a little bit, break the mould" and have the song judged on its own merits and musical value, instead of judgement being based on the perception of the band. Peters told The Guardian: "We noticed that a lot of bands suffer when they attempt comebacks because people generally don't believe they can ever be as good as they once were. We wanted to make sure we are judged purely on the strength of the music, and not by our old hairstyles."

With The Alarm's decision to perpetrate the hoax, Mike Peters gained the cooperation of a group of young musicians from Chester called the Wayriders to lip-sync The Alarm's material and pass it off as their own. The first release by the fictitious band was promoted as a cover of The Alarm's 1983 hit, "68 Guns". In fact it was The Alarm all along, and instead of a cover, it was a re-released version. The demo enticed executives in music production to record an album from the band called In The Poppy Fields which saw its advance release of the single, "45 RPM" entering Britain's top 30 chart. Critical reviews of the band echoed the promoters' official introduction of the band as a tribute to bands like Sex Pistols, and The Clash, with even more modern acts like Rancid being compared. The truth of the song's origin was not revealed until after the song entered the charts at number 24, a credit originally earned by The Poppy Fields from unsuspecting patrons who had accepted the act as fresh and new

True story: so I heard "Rain in the Summertime" a few times on the radio around 1987 and was mildly surprised when I got The Joshua Tree and it wasn't on there. Then I found out.

Meant to include Roxy Music as one of Thomas' repeat production clients, too.

And INXS!!

Not until a decade later, though.

Later on, The Alarm dude did this with a pop punk song no better or worse than his glory-ish days output.

In February 2004, Peters' new line-up of Alarm MM++ carried out a hoax on the British music industry by issuing "45 RPM" under the fictitious name The Poppy Fields. Peters, having garnered positive feedback for the song, decided to disassociate it from his veteran band to have it judged on its own merits, and recruited a young Welsh group called the Wayriders to lip-sync the song in the video.[4] The so-called Poppy Fields took "45 RPM" into the UK Top 30 before the hoax was revealed, setting the stage for the album In the Poppy Fields.

How many times did he successfully pull off this "45 RPM" by The Poppy Fields as played by The Wayriders hoax?!

you tell me...

Hearing good things about this new band on Yellow Kid Records tbh