Midnight tokers of the world unite
Posted by Archie Valparaiso on 31 July 2008 - 6:11pm.
Steve Miller is one of those artists nobody has had a bad word to say about for the last 35 years or more, but who hardly ever gets a mention on anyone's lists of Good Things.
Here he is not long ago, performing "The Joker" rather fetchingly on an acoustic.
So who else is so cursed by their inoffensiveness that although nobody ever says "Oh, no, not that" when their records come on, nobody ever actively suggests putting them on either?
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ERRRM
Whenever I play any of the artists listed below the "Who's this" response is resoundingly underwhelming. Yet I love em all.
Roddy Frame-"Surf"
Boo Herwerdine "Thanksgiving"
Nick Heyward -all his solo stuff
Plainsong- cany remember album title offhand but its a recent one featuring Andy Roberts, Iain Matthews and Clive Gregson
Rab Noakes-"standing Up" stunning solo acoustic album
Peter Bruntnell (especially NFB and Ghost in a Spitfire.)
Good one
"Fly like an eagle" is without doubt one of my favourite all time albums, and doesn't seem to date at all. Great songs well played and sung.
Fantastic...
he still sounds great, doesn't he?!
Proper song, properly sung...
He's got it!
Many years since a heard Miller. He has transformed the original strut in to some thing quite effecting.
Not an expert
But what about Denny Laine and the Moody Blues?
or Tinita Tikaram
beauuuuutiful voice....rarely mentioned
Good lord!
I was posting elsewhere on the very same subject only this evening. Worst dancer til Abi out of The Zutons came along, but a lovely way to spend four minutes. Didn't Q claim she looked a bit like Elvis at the time?
I believe so
...she was also known for her hot pork sausages
Boo hoo ha!
Nice to see a shout for Mr Hewardine. Cursed by an innoffensiveness beyond compare, he is damned to crop up at festivals in a backing role, usually a special guest for Eddi Reader. Good singer, plays a bit and writes great songs. Who can recall the "other" Graceland, his "hit" single with the Bible...
But, for me, the highpoint was his immaculate collaboration with Darden Smith, another underated individual if ever. "Evidence", their LP together is great!
He is currently
Working with Irish folk singer Heidi Talbot, John McCusker's new squeeze and creator of one of the best albums of the year so far. Talbot, McCusker and Hewerdine will all be playing the club tent showcase on Sunday at the Cambridge Folk Festival.
I believe he is also recording an album with McCusker and Kris Drever and will be touring in support of it later this year.
That is the end of your Boo Hewerdine news update.
Darden Smith
Top bloke........great singer/songwriter and a good line in self depracating between song banter as well.
Saw him a few months back doing a set in my wife's school where he had spent the day working with the kids on writing songs and performing.
Can I suggest
Bill Joel. Surely nobody dislikes Billy, he produced some cracking singles in the 80s. But apart from Radio Two occaisionally cracking open Uptown Girl or Piano Man you rarely hear anything about him. I don't think I've ever seen or heard an interview with him.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
I dislike Billy Joel. No reason in particular, I just do.
South Bank Show
Billy Joel was on the South Bank Show the other week. It's the 30th anniversary of one of his records so Melvyn Bragg was despatched to the US to interview Billy and try to look vaguely interested in what he had to say..
He reckons he's given up on rock and roll altogether in favour of composing classical music. Hasn't released an album in 15 years.
Hilariously, he compared classical music to the girl next door that you liked when you were younger but never paid much attention to. Rock and Roll was the foxy girl down the pub in fishnets and high heels who seduced him for 25 years. Until he realised the girl next door was his true love all the time so he went back to her. The next clip in the show was of a bloated Joel at a recent concert trying to sing 'Still Rock n Roll to me'. I'm assuming this was a joke on the part of the producer. To extend his analogy further, he may have fallen in love with classical music again but that hasn't stopped him going back to rock n roll for some meaningless sex every now and then! And sometimes it's with Elton John!
He also claimed last year that he doesn't write pop songs any more in order to make it easier for the new singers to get airplay. As if there's any danger of Radio 1 programmers pondering whether to play Piano Man or The Ting Ting's new single.
There's nothing wrong with an artist only ever wanting to play their hits and not write any more new stuff but to pretend it's for any other reason than they've simply dried up is rather pathetic..
Still - that Vietnam song was quite good wasn't it?
The thing about Billy Joel. . .
is that he's always had a very loyal, pretty large core fan base in America, while essentially leaving people in the UK totally cold or even worse - a bit like Bob Seger except with pressed jeans. For most Brits isn't he just Barry Manilow with slightly smarter lyrics?
That's why I wouldn't really put him in the same bag as Steve Miller, who's never been officially uncool over here; he's just so taken for granted that for decades he's been passed over in all the cyclical rushes to the front of the New and Dangerous.
"Steve Miller? Oh, yes, he's quite good too" sums up the reaction his name gets, I reckon, whereas it's usually "Billy Joel? Oh, come on, do me a favour!"
Archie,
I couldn't have put it better myself. And clearly didn't.
Hmmm
I still think Billy Joel gets less credit than he deserves for his good stuff. The Stranger is a bloody good album by any standards. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant is always a delight on its not-infrequent radio two airings; the title song, she's Always A Woman and Moving out are top drawer; and Just The Way You Are is almost up in hallowed Standard territory. Good lyrics, lovely tunes and pretty nifty piano playing. Really, what's not to like?
There were other good albums and great songs, nearly all of them in the 70s. After that you have to approach with extreme caution. The songs became far too mealy-mouthed and wordy, an air of self-importance descended, and there's little to enjoy.
I'm no great fan of the man, but when he was good, he was very good. For your consideration...
No convincing required here
Hell, I even like Neil Sedaka.
Fond as I am
of a little whistling, the rest left me somewhat cold. (Not so! I enjoyed the rhythm guitar.) I dunno why, but BJ always strikes me as a bit smug. And then there's the haircut. (I never claimed not to be shallow. And I feel I should point out here that I've nothing against people with hair, honest. Some of my best friends...)
And yet
while he, too, sends the dial on my smugometer nudging into the red, I enjoy a spot of Sedaka as well, Archie. (I never claimed not to be inconsistent, either.)
Crusty old pros
I just have a lot of affection for those old Tin Pan Alley types, and Sedaka and Joel always struck me as being born out of time. I suspected they'd have been more comfortable (if not richer) in a world of Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Kahn in a poky room somewhere off Broadway with a beat-up piano and an even more beat-up typewriter, knocking another one out for Sinatra to sing for someone's birthday.
I was all about as sincere as a Neil Sedaka smile, of course, but they were damned good at their jobs. Respect.
But
Do you like Gilbert O'Sullivan???
coz I do
No.
I have delayed my response, as it is more fun when his fanbase, all 3 of whom contribute to this site, have plighted again their life long allegiance to the handsome devil below
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.netspeed.com.au/bhk/...
(No, I don't know why he is at the bottom of the page either)
Retro
I doff a large flat cap to you!!! OOOh Wacka Doo Wakka Day!!