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?
