Another Deep Dive
NOTE: I could swear I posted this last week but it looks like I didn’t. I know Substack is free but their technology leaves a lot to be desired. Or maybe I am just dumb.
The thing about writing a column like this is that at some point you struggle to find things to write about. Business or politics can be fairly easy. They both change almost on a daily basis. Stupidity never goes away, it just has a different leader.
Music, however for me, is a little different. Since I totally abhor anything that has been released in the last 20 or 30 years, I have dig into my archives for interesting songs or great albums to write about. Picking a direction is the hardest part especially after having written 50 or so of these columns. Yet, I still do it .
Today i want to once again try to find some music that you may have never heard of or was buried on an album that you completely forgot about. Once again, it is just a list. I am no music expert and all I want to do is shine a light on some enjoyable or interesting music.
A rarity, for me anyway, is discovering a song by an immensely popular group. Think about it. Groups like the Beatles and The Rolling Stones have had a fair amount of airplay. You would be hard-pressed to find many great songs buried in their catalogs. Yet, I found a song in The Eagles catalog that I liked the first time I heard it and have been playing it almost every mix I have. “Bitter Creek” from Desperado is one of those songs. It is a typical Eagles song, simple lyrics, simple arrangement and yet it draws you in. It was written by Bernie Leadon before he left for greener pastures and the song fits in with the theme of the album perfectly.
A similar type song but from a totally different band, “Crystal River” by Mudcrutch is a kind of southern rock type of thing but it is more than that. Mudcrutch as you should know by now was a Tom Petty vehicle before the Heartbreakers. Several members of Mudcrutch helped form the Heartbreakers and that part is history. However, these young Gainesville Florida (yuck) kids played some pretty good country rock. They only released two studio albums and an extended play live album but you could see that the core member, Petty, Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench were going to be stars. “Crystal River” was about a place on the west coast of Florida that Petty used to visit. It’s one of the least populated places on the west coast and I imagine that was the draw. Anyway, the live version is much better and at 15 minutes, it fits into my “longer is better” requirement.
Going back to the idea of finding great songs buried in great artist’s catalog, give a listen to “The Ballad of Curtis Lowe” by Lynyrd Skynyrd on the Second Helping album. Supposedly a true story by Ronnie Van Zant about his time following Curtis Lowe around the swamps in Florida. Guitar picker and a drunk, Lowe was a perfect father figure for Van Zant and this song is a tribute to that relationship. Skynyrd is one of those bands that once you get past all the popular overplayed songs, there is a plethora of great music buried into almost every album. To be fair though, there is a lot of filler as well.
Time for truly obscure music. The first obscure song is by Tito and Tarantula, “After Dark”. I couldn’t tell you one thing about the song or the group but find it and play it. It’s mesmerizing. The other obscure song is one I may have mentioned before, “Super Bon Bon” by Soul Coughing. This song makes no sense but I love it and the video is equally as bizarre.
Now let’s go back a few years. “Welcome Back Home” by The Byrds is another long playing song that is one of those rare songs of that era that doesn’t make the soldiers that fought in Vietnam out to be war criminals. It is a song of understanding and just welcoming those soldiers back with the understanding that what they have seen may just be too hard to explain. It is a protest song without pointing any fingers.
Two relatively unknown songs by T-Rex are next on my list. “Thunderwing” and “Telegram Sam” were barely played on FM radio and yet they both are perfect examples of T-Rex’s style and the sexiness of Marc Bolen’s singing. They were at the forefront of Glam rock in the early 70’s but they were more than that. The band was incredibly talented and Bolan was that lead singer that all other lead singers wished they could be. Watch any of their videos and you can see it. Forget the lousy quality, you can see exactly what I am talking about.
My last song for this week is a repeat but since I had mentioned Tom Petty earlier, it came to me that “Spike” from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers would be a perfect fit. It’s the story of Spike, in Gainesville Florida,(Yuck twice)on a typical day in the Cypress Lounge. While the version on the Souther Accents album was decent, the live version is much better. Which brings me to something else, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers Live Anthology is possibly one of the best live albums ever. You could throw a dart at the song list and have a great song. It is that good.