Most underrated band/performer of all time

Short Bus

Short Bus

The criteria is they still produce or have produced more than 1 CD (or lp given the era) but still don't seem to get the notice you feel they deserve.

I'm going with Shriekback -jazz musicians don't count or shouldn't ...since they all seem to drive cab during the day and female singers should be shelved since most are excellent waitresses Monday through Thursday.
(Kudos to Jane Siberry-more over rated than under)

Bands that imploded due to YOKOcaineguityrannic conditions should not count but may make an interesting new thread-call that one Megadeath
 
hoochmonkey9

hoochmonkey9

Art should be its own hammer.
Moderator
Founding member
Townes Van Zandt. one of the best (country-flavoured?) songwriters of the 20th century.
 
Fatal Muse

Fatal Muse

I agree.

Steve Earle: "Townes van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that."

Townes: ""I've met Bob Dylan's bodyguards and if Steve Earle thinks he can stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table, he's sadly mistaken."
 
number6horse

number6horse

okyoutwopixiesoutyougo
Gotta disagree with the Townes Van Zandt choice. Ask any songwriter around to name the greatest songwriters ever and chances are very good that TVZ's name will be mentioned.
 
nervas

nervas

more crickets than friends
Though he gets some acclaim now, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes is underrated in my opinion and he is a big fan of TVZ. Not that it means anything. But Conor is definitely one of the best lyricists, singer/songwriters I believe we'll ever encounter. Not the best voice, not the best guitar player, but still knows how to craft a song like no other.
 
hoochmonkey9

hoochmonkey9

Art should be its own hammer.
Moderator
Founding member
well, that's people in the songwriting business. if you ask 10 people on the street who TVZ is, they won't have a clue.

ask a songwriter who Richard P. Feynman is? they won't have a clue. ask 10 people on the street about Feynman? no clue. ask a physicist? they know all about Feynman.

I love the poet Stephen Dobyns. I'm a sometimes poet. I still think Dobyns is underrated.

more people should know about TVZ, Feynman and Dobyns, despite what people in their respective fields know about them. that's underrated for me.
 
number6horse

number6horse

okyoutwopixiesoutyougo
Jimmy Snerp said:
The criteria is...(snip) but still don't seem to get the notice you feel they deserve....
Click to expand...

hooch - I was zeroing in on the "notice you feel they deserve" part of the question. So, I guess I reveal myself to be a snob of sorts because I think recognition by one's peers is good enough. Because the masses are asses, man...!

But, of course, if we're talking about wider popularity in general - hell yeah. Townes ought to be known by everyone.

Quick Steve Earle anecdote: A few years back, I treated my nephews to a Steve Dawson (of Dolly Varden)/Allison Moorer concert at Old Town School of Folk Music here in Chicago. For Moorer's encore, her husband Steve Earle made a surprise appearance to duet with her on a few Woody Guthrie tunes. My nephews were thrilled and sang along with Uncle Dave and the whole crowd. FLASH FORWARD TO TODAY: Neither would be caught dead in such an "uncool" place. Heh... adolescence... But someday they will realize Steve Earle really WAS cool and they got hip to that at age 9.
 
hoochmonkey9

hoochmonkey9

Art should be its own hammer.
Moderator
Founding member
well, everyone here knows who TVZ is, so you may have a point. ;)

so, I'm switching my vote to Guy Clark! heh.
 
mjp

mjp

Founding member
number6horse said:
But someday they will realize Steve Earle really WAS cool and they got hip to that at age 9.
Click to expand...
They will! My dad took me to see people like Roy Clark and Johnny Cash when I was 9, 10 years old, and I naturally rejected everything he embraced as "hillbilly flashy show crap" when I was a teenager. But good music is good music, and once it penetrates your consciousness it remains there forever.


Is anyone really underrated anymore? It seems like there is an audience for everyone now. It's becoming more difficult to say who is successful - or known - and who isn't now that we are scientifically fragmented into autonomous merch pools.
 
nervas

nervas

more crickets than friends
my dad took me to see Stevie Ray Vaughn, twice, when I was about 12 and I still thank him to this day!
 
nervas

nervas

more crickets than friends
Never listened to Warren Zevon, until I heard keep me in your heart, when Stern played that as his final piece to the end of his terrestrial(as he calls it) radio broadcast. After that, looked up some other stuff. Always enjoyed what I heard.
 
Short Bus

Short Bus

hoochmonkey9 said:
well, that's people in the songwriting business. if you ask 10 people on the street who TVZ is, they won't have a clue.
ask a songwriter who Richard P. Feynman is? they won't have a clue. ask 10 people on the street about Feynman? no clue. ask a physicist? they know all about Feynman.
I love the poet Stephen Dobyns. I'm a sometimes poet. I still think Dobyns is underrated.
more people should know about TVZ, Feynman and Dobyns, despite what people in their respective fields know about them. that's underrated for me.
Click to expand...
Gaus it's all about the fan base??
By the way TV Ontario has a great documentary on the history of maths

Funny how the thread morphed toward the country song writer lone wolf crowd. I blame or credit Hooch. I am still amazed that guys still play in shitty bars slipping their own songs between covers knowing that most of the people their are waiting for that amazing soulmate de force to walk through the door. I'm equally amazed that bar owners still have the balls and it is balls to pay these guys to play cause they like live music. Maybe the next thread should be most under rated bar owner?
 
S

Stavrogin


Guided by Voices I've always considered underrated. Robert Pollard is a unique songwriter but little fanfare.


The Birthday Party ,too, most certainly underrated. In my punk/post-punk days I couldn't get anyone else to like 'em like I did.
 
bospress.net

bospress.net

www.bospress.net
The Birthday Party was an amazing band. I even love "The Boys Next Door".

These bands are certainly not for most people.

Deep on the woods is a great BD Party song. Really a precursor to the dark, death songs on the Bad Seeds and certainly a hint of what would become his first novel, "and The Ass Saw The Angel".


Then there the amazing, disturbing heroin song "Mutiny"



Bill

p.s. You gotta love Tracy Pew fucking his bass...
 
Bukfan

Bukfan

"The law is wrong; I am right"
Canned Heat. - Still going strong since 1965 (although only one or two of the classical line-up are still alive).
 
Mark73

Mark73

Did CAN gain the attention and success they deserved? I don't think so. They should be a basic topic in German school classes, at least.
 
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