# Underrated - the overshadowed... the often overlooked... and the frequently forgotten



## Guest (Jul 22, 2018)

This thread is intended to be one that encompasses the entire spectrum of recorded music with every artist within every genre eligible for representation...

But there needs to be a rule in place to help actually further dialogue amongst us rather than this being yet another thread in which we create a post with 20 names on it - (I know that at this point you're thinking how ironic it is that here we have "the kettle calling the pot black" but my last post only had 18 names on it so there) - and so I'm politely requesting that your reply be limited to two selections and that you also include either a tune or an album (with an actual link if possible) to represent an expression of that which you would personally like to bring to the attention of the forum because this is an artist that you want the rest of us to appreciate as much as you do.

You can return and post as many selections as you wish but try to keep them in separate posts with two selections within each post to avoid the dreaded "here we have yet another thread composed entirely of an apparently endless list of names" phenomenon.

It's entirely your call as to who or what may be "Underrated, overshadowed, overlooked, or frequently forgotten". I don't want to provide examples that may be selections that others may wish to make but I would personally claim for example that The Rolling Stones were overshadowed by The Beatles. That was just an example - anyone who wants to make that case can.

It's a broad request with a definition so open that you can stretch it completely out of shape should you wish to do so. If an artist was a "god in mortal form" in the UK but virtually unknown everywhere else in the world - name them if you wish... Even if they were successful if you think that they should have been more acclaimed than they were - name them if you wish...

I'm going to kick things off by selecting Ian Hunter with both Mott the Hoople and as a solo artist. I genuinely don't believe that he's ever gotten the acclamation that he deserves -

I think that this tune by Mott the Hoople is the one that I would select as one that everyone should hear at least once -






And for an album I would select "All American Alien Boy" his second solo release from 1976 and the tune "You Nearly Did Me In" as one that I would recommend as a tune which should be more widely known -






Due to bandwidth issues that affect a great many users further posts should provide links rather than embedding the video within. I did it as an example of what you _shouldn't do_ - I'm very thoughtful that way...


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

The English alternative band Eat released their wonderful album _Sell Me a God_ in 1989. It is brimming with great songs, all marked with Eat's immediately identifiable idiosyncratic sound (staccato percussion especially) and smile-inducing lyrics. I fell in love with the album instantly, yet it never caught hold here in the US, and generally disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived. YouTube has only a few selections; here is _Walking Man_....






I regard Eat and _Sell Me a God_ as one of the great forgotten treasures of rock and roll. Its continuing obscurity is one of life's great mysteries .


----------



## Guest (Jul 22, 2018)

Strange Magic said:


> The English alternative band Eat released their wonderful album _Sell Me a God_ in 1989. It is brimming with great songs, all marked with Eat's immediately identifiable idiosyncratic sound (staccato percussion especially) and smile-inducing lyrics. I fell in love with the album instantly, yet it never caught hold here in the US, and generally disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived. YouTube has only a few selections; here is _Walking Man_....
> 
> I regard Eat and _Sell Me a God_ as one of the great forgotten treasures of rock and roll. Its continuing obscurity is one of life's great mysteries .


Excellent selection - my thanks for providing it and for your ready grasp of the concept.

I had never heard of Eat and so I looked up their bio on Wikipedia and came across this -

"The band started out playing a distinctive mixture of swamp blues, hip hop and funk, showcased on their 1989 album Sell Me A God. At this time they undertook tours of Europe with The Jesus and Mary Chain and Phillip Boa. Band tensions led to the abandonment of a second album in 1990, although they toured in October on the back of an NME single of the week, "Psycho Couch". However, a combination of internal feuds ("It got to the point where we just couldn't bear to be in the same room as each other") led to a complete split and meant that the band was effectively on hiatus from 1990 to 1992. The band returned with a different line up, a completely different sound - of pop and psychedelia - and the album Epicure in 1993. Despite positive reviews, a tour in the United States with Medicine, and extensive airplay, Eat had evidently run its course, and in 1995 Dolittle left to join members of The Wonder Stuff in Weknowwhereyoulive, whilst Howard joined The Wonder Stuff's singer Miles Hunt in his new project Vent 414."

"distinctive mixture of swamp blues, hip hop and funk" - what a combination, eh?

"It got to the point where we just couldn't bear to be in the same room as each other" - this quote can be copied and pasted into the bio of just about every group who has ever existed.... what a shame.


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Underrated. Overshadowed. These adjectives certainly applied to Hoboken, New Jersey's own idiosyncratic band _Tiny Lights_. Hard to describe their mix of "folk", funk, blues, off-center pop. Their instrumentation was a strange mix including 'cello, electric violin, saxophone, other odds and ends. For years there was literally no reference to them on the Internet--they might well have never existed. I only discovered Tiny Lights through the agency of a coworker who was completely absorbed by the then-burgeoning 1980s alternative scene and had several cassettes of their albums which she lent me. I was hooked. Here is Wikipedia's entry, so now we know Tiny Lights existed--possibly the only group co-founded by a now-Harvard Professor of Comparative Literature and German. Their albums have recently been uploaded onto YouTube. I can recommend strongly three of them: _Prayer for the Halcyon Fear, Hot Chocolate Massage_, and _Milky Juicy_. A very quirky oeuvre indeed, as the Wikipedia entry affirms....

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Lights

Listen to the bluesy song Evil on _Hot Chocolate Massage_; simple but chilling.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Kayak is a Dutch progressive rock/pop band, who started in the early seventies and is still going strong. Internationally they are hardly known (Americans may have heard the single _Want you to be mine_), but I count them among my favourites. Their masterpiece is the concept album _Merlin - Bard of the unseen_, about the Arthurian legend.

Two of the best songs from that album:

Merlin
The king's enchanter


----------



## Guest (Jul 23, 2018)

Underrated and overshadowed... *The Kinks* -

The list always reads - "The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks...

Fourth... They're always fourth... except for those times when they're fifth i.e. "The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Any other band that is not in fact "The Kinks", The Kinks...

With me, depending on my mood, they're either first or second but they're never third and they're most certainly not fourth...

Three tunes that deserve being heard -

"*A Rock and Roll Fantasy*" from the 1978 release of "Misfits" -

"_Hello you, hello me
Hello people we used to be
Isn't it strange, we never changed
We've been through it all, yet we're still the same"_"






"*State of Confusion*" from the 1983 release "State of Confusion" which also contained the hit single "Come Dancing" -

"_Woke up in a panic, 
Like somebody fired a gun 
I wish I could be dreaming, 
But the nightmare's just begun_."






"*Summer's Gone*" from the 1984 release "Word of Mouth" -

"_When I think about what we wasted, makes me sad, 
We never appreciated what we had. 
Now I'm standing in a doorway with my overcoat on, 
It really feels like Summer's gone._"






View attachment 105914


----------



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

The Irish band, Horslips, were massively underrated and produced one of the greatest celtic folk/prog/rock concept albums ever. Quite why 'Book of Invasions' didn't top the album charts I'll never know. Superb album.


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

The 1980s band Zebra's first album and only really successful one was the eponymous _Zebra_. It had loads of distinctive-sounding killer songs, many penned by chief Zebra Randy Jackson. While the album did rapidly peak at 29th position, it and the band just as rapidly disappeared from public view. I, however, continue to remember and treasure..... Here is quintessential Zebra, the evocative, somewhat backward-looking (sounding) _The La La Song_. A return to the womb of 1960s Sunshine Pop?


----------



## Guest (Jul 23, 2018)

Merl said:


> The Irish band, Horslips, were massively underrated and produced one of the greatest celtic folk/prog/rock concept albums ever. Quite why 'Book of Invasions' didn't top the album charts I'll never know. Superb album.


Allow me to second Merl with an enthusiasm that borders on the verge of being almost unhinged -

Horslips - the founding fathers of "Celtic rock" - the group followed up "The Book of Invasions" with "Aliens" and "The Man Who Built America" -

"Aliens" - 1977 - 




"The Man Who Built America" - 1978 - 




Here's my favourite tune from TMWBA - "Loneliness" -


----------



## RogerExcellent (Jun 11, 2018)

I always thought that the Beatles were underrated


----------

