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

David Clayton Thomas plus a few hired hands probably did. The BST horn section were Premier League session guys like Lew Soloff, Dave Bargeron etc. who have never been out of work since.

Thing is, there are a load of artists who were extremely popular but never considered important, even by their contemporaries - anyone who obessively digs in charity shops will know how popular Paul Young, Yazoo, Phil Collins and going back further, Val Doonican and Jim Reeves were, but its doubtful if any critics considered them interesting or important.

What is more interesting is artists who were revered but have sunk into relative obscurity; August Darnell would certainly be one, Dexy's in their various incarnations another; I know both are remembered around here, but they're neither of them featured much in 'rock's rich tapestry' as curated by Mojo/ Uncut etc.

You're slipping, Dingbod:

http://img.tesco.com/pi/entertainment/CD/LF/503122_CD_L_F.jpg

grand funk railroad

(xxpost) You're right about August Darnell and wrong about Dexys

Yazoo were certainly taken very seriously by the music press at the time.

As was Phil Collins up to and including Face Value for that matter.

But how could I forget Garry Bushell's epiphanic five-star rave review of 30 Golden Greats by the George Mitchell Minstrels in the Xmas '77 issue of Sounds?

Graham Parker? Pub Rock in general?

Tom Robinson?

That's why I picked Yusef Lateef instead of Rahsaan Roland Kirk; they both received the same sort of promotion at Atlantic. They were both great. And Lateef appears to be more ignored these days than Kirk.

Tom now resurgent thanks to 6Music and involvement in LMHR.

Graham Parker and Pub Rock in general yes, but Nick Lowe no.

I doubt canonical history is ever much of a guide to what people were actually listening to at the time. I remember looking at a chart from 1967 thinking it would be all psychedelic rock etc and being surprised at how much Dean Martin-esque easy listening was on it. Didn't Engelbert Humperdink outsell the Beatles or something?

If you go a bit beyond the canon, Phil Collins is still played a lot on MOR radio stations.

Thing is, there are a load of artists who were extremely popular but never considered important, even by their contemporaries - anyone who obessively digs in charity shops will know how popular Paul Young, Yazoo, Phil Collins

Yeah, but Paul Young and Phil Collins are still discussed in most histories of 80s pop, even if they weren't considered that important, whereas the book I'm reading is basically the only jazz history where I've read about Charles Lloyd.

I don't know if Lloyd was so much ignored as eclipsed by Keith Jarrett, who went on to greater notoriety with ECM while Lloyd essentially got out of performance for quite awhile.

Went to Russia, didn't he?

http://www.strummernews.com/longpigs3.jpg

Yeah, but Paul Young and Phil Collins are still discussed in most histories of 80s pop, even if they weren't considered that important, whereas the book I'm reading is basically the only jazz history where I've read about Charles Lloyd.

Jazz is not pop. Thus, being popular doesn't necessarily mean anything in jazz while it is kind of impossible of ignore in pop.

Impossible TO ignore, I mean

Went to Russia, didn't he?
Well, that'd do it. The Lloyd/Jarrett dynamic is kind of like the Spencer Davis/Steve Winwood situation, where the supposed sideman turned out to be the star.

Engelbert Humperdinck is a good example of a once-popular artist who is now ignored in the canonical history books, whatever those are. Even among comparable schlagers of the day, it's Tom Jones who continues to resonate. And rightly so -- please god call me home before the Humperdinckian reappraisal takes place.

Um, "Lesbian Seagull"?

(aargh, now posting from beyond the grave)

gay dad
terris

oh wait "popular" ;)

America

James Taylor

Acker Bilk

That's Mister Acker Bilk to you.

The Seekers

Jim Reeves

Anyone hailed as "the new Hendrix" after Hendrix died, viz. Alvin Lee, Robin Trower, Frank Marino.

Ditto, sundry new Dylans

Roy Harper doesn't get spoken of a lot these days - less than Nick Drake or John Martyn, f'rinstance

Three Dog Night

Herman's Hermits for the win.

Humble Pie, Wishbone Ash, Uriah Heep, Greenslade, Curved Air, Focus, Bad Company.

I was listening to Focus just this weekend!

The Judds

Three Dog Night

-- kornrulez6969, Tuesday, May 13, 2008 8:29 AM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

^^^

first thing i thought of when i saw this thread

Lloyd Cole

The Commotions

Deacon Blue

The Judds Good one -- they're like notch-babies, slipping thru between the before and after. They weren't minor artists by any means -- I was reading some mid-80s Country Music mags recently that put their hugeness into perspective. Bet they scored high with Pazz & Jop types, too. Maybe Wynonna's inability to score equally huge solo chipped away at their retroactive cred.

Pie, Ash, Heep, et al -- those groups still get props from hard-heads. More of a cult for that than for comparable pub-rock acts, I'd say.

Paul Anka

Nazareth

Huh, I was listening to Charles Lloyd just last night!

The Kingston Trio were insanely popular from about 1958-62.

I hope the guy above was kidding about Bad Co. Just listen to NYC classic rock radio, and you'll hear them at least 5 times a day.

Mott The Hoople?

No way

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

Isn't that trick (a younger more photogenic band miming to a track by oldsters) used in the video for Blues Traveler's "Run-Around"?

also The Killers in the video for Crystal by New Order. actively pretending to be a non-existent band on the release is a different thing though

Isn't that trick (a younger more photogenic band miming to a track by oldsters) used in the video for Blues Traveler's "Run-Around"?

It's used quite often:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbrtS8E0kpY

Paul Revere and the Raiders

― Cunga, Tuesday, May 13, 2008 2:19 PM (twelve years ago)

Paul Revere & the Raiders

― dracula et son fils (morrisp), Monday, October 28, 2019 10:54 AM (ten months ago)

this too, if maybe mostly for sheer quantity

Manfred Mann

― dracula et son fils (morrisp), Monday, October 28, 2019 9:32 PM (ten months ago)