Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi has sold a ton of records, but there's just no "there" there. Sure, this hard rocking band with lead singer/songwriter Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist/songwriter Richie Sambora made its mark with "Living on a Prayer" and "It's My Life," but Bon Jovi is rock's Julia Roberts.
J. Geils Band
J. Geils Band is a great R&B band with a blues bloodline starting way back in the early 1960s when John Geils, Danny Klein, and Richard Salwitz (known as Magic Dick) performed as Snoopy and the Sopwith Camels. Additions including Peter Wolf led to a name change to J. Geils Blues Band, eventually dropping the "blues" characterization -- but dropping it in name only.
Since the late 1960s J. Geils Band was a hot group to see live, especially if you could see their patented brand of blues rock up close and personal, like in a bar. That's what they are, a pure bar band -- a great party band -- and that's not taking anything away from them. Put on anything from The Morning After, "Live" Full House, Bloodshot, Ladies Invited, or Nightmares...And Other Tales from the Vinyl Jungle and you'll get this party started. For many early fans interest faded as the group "went commercial" with Love Stinks and Freeze Frame.
The J. Geils Band broke up in in the early 1980s, reuniting once in a while for various reasons. But Wolf still tours and records and he's worth the price of admission in the places he plays: Clubs, bars and smaller music theaters.
Dr. John
Also known as Mac Rebbenack, Dr. John started as a guitar player, switching to piano after almost losing one of his fingers to a gunshot while defending a bandmate. Probably accounts for his distinctive keyboard style. His biggest record, Gris-Gris, takes full advantage of his New Orlean's background and he played it to the hilt by developing a murky, funky voodoo persona he dubbed "The Night Tripper." It worked for years, got him a lot of attention, and made for some interesting live gigs, but he tired of it and when he released Dr. John's Gumbo in 1972 he shifted to New Orleans Mardi Gras music, hitting the charts with "Iko Iko" and "Such a Night," which The Band eventually asked him to perform with them on their Last Waltz concert event. An aficionado of just about every type of piano sound from jazz and blues to zydeco and boogie woogie, Dr. John has backed artists from Carly Simon and James Taylor to Rickie Lee Jones and Neil Diamond. He has become an Elder Statesman of New Orleans Music and often gets the call when artists need piano versatility or New Orleans authenticity on their records.
Donovan
You cannot get a more representitive folksinger of the peace-love hippie era than Donavan Leitch, who from the start went by just his first name. You want some hippy-dippy songs? Check out "Sunshine Superman," "Mellow Yellow," "Jennifer, Juniper," and the pseudo-psychodelic "The Hurdy Gurdy Man." It's enough to give you a bad trip. But while those are the songs that kept Donovan on the radio almost to the end of the 1960s, he crafted and sung some gorgeous ballads including "Colours" and "Catch the Wind," both covered by many, though few have managed to capture the longing and resignation of his Pye-label recording of "Catch the Wind." And "Atlantis," while never a hit with such a long utopian "hippie dream" intro, was a significant deep track and 45 B-side. It crops up every now and then on FM oldies playlists because it has such a catchy singalong chorus you just can't get out of your head. You were warned...Hail Atlantis!.
J. Geils Band is a great R&B band with a blues bloodline starting way back in the early 1960s when John Geils, Danny Klein, and Richard Salwitz (known as Magic Dick) performed as Snoopy and the Sopwith Camels. Additions including Peter Wolf led to a name change to J. Geils Blues Band, eventually dropping the "blues" characterization -- but dropping it in name only.
Since the late 1960s J. Geils Band was a hot group to see live, especially if you could see their patented brand of blues rock up close and personal, like in a bar. That's what they are, a pure bar band -- a great party band -- and that's not taking anything away from them. Put on anything from The Morning After, "Live" Full House, Bloodshot, Ladies Invited, or Nightmares...And Other Tales from the Vinyl Jungle and you'll get this party started. For many early fans interest faded as the group "went commercial" with Love Stinks and Freeze Frame.
The J. Geils Band broke up in in the early 1980s, reuniting once in a while for various reasons. But Wolf still tours and records and he's worth the price of admission in the places he plays: Clubs, bars and smaller music theaters.
Dr. John
Also known as Mac Rebbenack, Dr. John started as a guitar player, switching to piano after almost losing one of his fingers to a gunshot while defending a bandmate. Probably accounts for his distinctive keyboard style. His biggest record, Gris-Gris, takes full advantage of his New Orlean's background and he played it to the hilt by developing a murky, funky voodoo persona he dubbed "The Night Tripper." It worked for years, got him a lot of attention, and made for some interesting live gigs, but he tired of it and when he released Dr. John's Gumbo in 1972 he shifted to New Orleans Mardi Gras music, hitting the charts with "Iko Iko" and "Such a Night," which The Band eventually asked him to perform with them on their Last Waltz concert event. An aficionado of just about every type of piano sound from jazz and blues to zydeco and boogie woogie, Dr. John has backed artists from Carly Simon and James Taylor to Rickie Lee Jones and Neil Diamond. He has become an Elder Statesman of New Orleans Music and often gets the call when artists need piano versatility or New Orleans authenticity on their records.
Donovan
You cannot get a more representitive folksinger of the peace-love hippie era than Donavan Leitch, who from the start went by just his first name. You want some hippy-dippy songs? Check out "Sunshine Superman," "Mellow Yellow," "Jennifer, Juniper," and the pseudo-psychodelic "The Hurdy Gurdy Man." It's enough to give you a bad trip. But while those are the songs that kept Donovan on the radio almost to the end of the 1960s, he crafted and sung some gorgeous ballads including "Colours" and "Catch the Wind," both covered by many, though few have managed to capture the longing and resignation of his Pye-label recording of "Catch the Wind." And "Atlantis," while never a hit with such a long utopian "hippie dream" intro, was a significant deep track and 45 B-side. It crops up every now and then on FM oldies playlists because it has such a catchy singalong chorus you just can't get out of your head. You were warned...Hail Atlantis!.
No comments:
Post a Comment