First of all, this is the studio version of Fat Man in the Bathtub by Little Feat. I have not run into a live version I didn’t love, but it all comes back to the studio version as the introduction for reference of enhancements in live performance.
In the 1970s came a band out of England called Charlie that some folks have heard of but less remember. I bought one of their albums – Lines – and it was a bit softer than I liked, and kinda session musiciany (if that is a term) but there was a song I did like quite a bit, Out of Control.
No, it’s not that song by The Four Seasons. No, no, no… that song actually kinda annoys me. You will not find Frankie Valli on this list. But this is a song that I do not remember ever hearing until a few weeks ago, when Spotify randomly played it.
Bruce Cockburn released “If I Had A Rocket Launcher” back in 1984, and I somehow missed it for almost 40 years.
The 1970s were the heyday of the rock band double record “story” album. Few if any were better than The Who’s Quadrophenia in quality of music. And that 1973 offering is where you’ll find the gem “I’m One” at.
Yes, it’s another song in the language of Portuguese, but this is actually a Portuguese artist, not a Brazilian one. Desfado, performed by Ana Moura, is a happy sounding song that’s really about sadness.
The dB’s have always been underappreciated. They had some great songs in the 1980s but never became that well known. One of those songs is “Amplifier”.
I somehow missed this song in 1988. It wasn’t until the 2010 Keith Richards remaster of “Take It So Hard” was in the wild before I really caught it.
So the song Holding on to Yesterday might be just your regular old soft rock LA production music from the 1970s, but Ambrosia does a great performance of it.
Death Valley Nights, off of the Spectres album, is one of my favorites by BOC. It’s an eerie melody that meanders until it hits full stride, then chooses to slowly slither on until ending in a full run.