Nils Lofgren - one of the critics's pet artists of the 1970s. On both sides of the Atlantic.
Tasty licks. Rockin' - but not heavy. A guitar hero - without all the phallic strut and willy-symbol wand-waving. Intelligent - but not overtly prog or sophisto.
Praised to the heavens by Greil here in Creem - compared to Buddy Holly - but oddly absent from the 'greatest records of all time' at the end of Stranded - only five years later
One of the worst names for a group ever, I think - Grin.
A thematic of "toughness" belied by the rabbit-punch palatability of the music.
Richard Hell style tears in the T-shirt - in 1981!
Transitioning to New Wave
Richard Hell style tears in the T-shirt - in 1981!
Perhaps analogous to Tom Petty as an Old Wave / New Wave alloy of undecidable composition.
(Or maybe Mink Deville?)
But unlike Petty, never made it and then became subsumed into Springsteen's E Street Band.
I mean, he's a good guitar player 'n' all - but the total package don't add up to anything really essential, do it? Splits the difference between Crazy Horse and Rick Derringer and I don't know what. Determinedly nondescript if impassioned "honeyed rasp" vocals, songs that don't quite make the grade, lyrics that miss the mark...
The Let's Active of the 1970s?
Another of those late-70's critics darlings that you almost never heard on the radio (Garland Jeffreys, Graham Parker, etc.) I do recall a modicum of airplay for "No Mercy", a song about a boxer (to be added your recent list.)
ReplyDeleteAnd yet Johnny Marr has always cited him as an early influence, which you can kind of hear on Lost a Number. But, yes, it is hard to see what the fuss was about.
ReplyDeleteA lot of artists who fall into the Old Wave/New Wave void would have found a home in '80s heartland rock or present-day Americana. Tom Petty's been adopted as an honorary country singer. Graham Parker recorded for Bloodshoot Records, which specializes in alt-country. No wonder Elvis Costello went in that direction with ALMOST BLUE and KING OF AMERICA.
ReplyDeleteAlso, didn't John Cougar Mellencamp basically begin as a glam-rock singer?
Well, when Elvis did Almost Blue it wasn't because he'd given up on the idea of being a pop presence (that LP was followed by Imperial Bedroom, Punch the Clock, Goodbye Cruel World - big hit with 'Everyday I Write the Book', attempted team up for a big hit with Daryl Hall on that godawful song whose name I can't remember). So it was more like a gesture of a/ I can do anything I set my brilliant hands and voice to and b/ 'country is white soul'. Actually he had one of his biggest hits in the UK ever off that album with 'A Good Year for the Roses'.
DeleteEven after King of America and Blood and Chocolate, he still was desperately trying to be in the pop conversation - 'Veronica', with Paul McCartney, his last real hit and a glutinous one too. I heard it in the supermarket only the other day.
Then he did all kinds of misbegotten things - team up with Burt Bacharach, all that Brodsky Quartet pop-meets-classical, reforming the Attractions. I don't think American heartland rock could really be a home or a direction for such a restless, omnivorous musical intelligence. Costello couldn't do that kind of simple-hearted lyrics that someone like Mellencamp can so effectively.
That is funny you should mention Johnny Cougar cos I was planning to do a post on "Jack and Diane". I believe Mick Ronson was quite involved on the production / arrangement side of things - it is a very produced sounding record, very different from the barefoot folky-rootsy stuff that came later.
Yes he originally came to NYC looking to join the New Dolls action, if I recall right, and he was signed to Mainman but Tony De Fries never did anything much with him except give him the name Johnny Cougar.