So I was a kid in California when Tower of Power came out with the album that gave us “What is Hip”. Tower of Power was from Oakland, and back in those days I’d listen to AM radio from San Francisco and they played this song quite a bit.
“Other Side” should be a hit at any time. This version has so many enjoyable artists participating (Illenium & Said The Sky & Vera Blue).
In 1987, Jennifer Warnes released an album of Leonard Cohen songs entitled Famous Blue Raincoat. At the time, I remembered Warnes from a 1977 hit, but I was just starting to get into Leonard Cohen.
You can find music all sorts of different ways. Sometimes you find them as background music of commercials. I *think* that’s how I tuned into “Cissy Strut” by The Meters.
Bad Company can bring me back to the summer after high school graduation very easily. “The Cruise” on First Street in Livermore was big, and everyone had their car stereos blaring music, and Bad Company was very often on ours.
Have you ever heard the song “Let’s Have A War” by Fear? (I wish it didn’t fit as part of a soundtrack of our time’s news cycle, but it does.)
Well then, you probably aren’t a giant fan of the cult classic movie “Repo Man” in the mid 1980s.
If you had asked me in 1999 who was new and going to be a big star, I might have said Taja Seville. She’s had a good music career but I don’t think she’d claim she was a big star.
I lived in Sacramento in the late 1980s and I don’t ever remember hearing of Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers back then. In 1991 we moved to Pennsylvania and all of a sudden they were on the radio. I know they were from Pennsylvania but they deserved better exposure than that.
Elvis Presley is not a performer from my generation. Sure, I was alive during some of his hits, but I have always considered him to be of my parents’ generation. As such, most of his recordings don’t really capture my attention.
Suspicious Minds is the exception.
How can you not love Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) by Sly & The Family Stone? Funk riffs, plenty of horns delicately placed in the background, and that fantastic slap of the bass.