My Favorite Rock Bands From Days Gone Bye
Being a musician, a music lover, and a baby boomer, I have a special passion for 60's and 70's era rock music. I'm not talking about disco, bubble gum music, or bands put together by music producers for commercial purposes. I'm talking about bands that started in garages and basements, people who wrote and played their own brand of music, and people who quietly influenced and changed the course of commercial music. Many of these musicians are now in their sixties and still out there performing and writing new stuff all the time. Many have died, retired, burned out, flipped out, or still perform but probably shouldn't be.
I'm going to purposely skip over the Beatles because everybody knows about them and they are the number one all time best rock and roll band, hands down. That being said, lets get to the best of the rest....
One morning in 1967, when I was driving to work, I was listening to the radio and this song came on that I had never heard before. The song was so powerful, so beautiful, that I remember pulling over to the side of the road and turning the volume up so that I could really listen to it. The song was "Nights in White Satin" by the Moody Blues. I had never heard such a perfect blend of rock, ballad, and classic music. And that voice....I had never heard a voice so beautiful, so perfect. That was the voice of Justin Hayward, the lead singer, guitarist, and song writer for the Moodies.The Moody Blues would go on to be the greatest innovators of classic rock music. To this day they are and have always been my favorite band. I have seen them over 30 times live in the last 40 years. Back in 1990 I got a chance to talk to Justin for a while when I called into a radio station in New York that the band was being interviewed on. His voice has not changed to this day.
The next greatest rock band of all time was the Buffalo Springfield. The singing and song writing talents of Steven Stills, Neil Young, and Richie Furay made the Buffalo Springfield a super band. They only lasted for three albums, probably because of the super ego's. My favorite talent in that band was Richie Furay. He went on to start Poco, a band that blended country and rock, but not in a commercial way like the eagles or Alabama. I always loved Poco even though they never had much commercial success. Although Richie Furay left the band in the late seventies, Poco still carries on under the tutelage of Rusty Young. Rusty and Paul Cotton (singer and guitarist) are two of the most under rated talents in rock history. If you've never investigated Poco, you don't know what your missing!
Another favorite of mine in the seventies was Fleetwood Mac. Now the Fleetwood Mac I'm talking about is before the days of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Back then there were two guys fronting the band....Danny Kirwin and Bob Welsh. Their singing, song writing, and how they blended their guitars was just phenomenal! Fleetwood Mac never had much success with these two guys, although the music was much better than the commercial sound they created later on with Buckingham and Nicks, just not as successful.
Another favorite band of mine from the sixties was Quicksilver Messenger Service. These guys has a sound like no other band. John Cippolina played this shrill quivering lead guitar that blended perfect with the smooth and yet powerful voice of David Frieberg. David Frieberg, who most people never heard of even at the time, is one of the best rock and ballad vocalist in the history of rock. Although the guy is almost 70 years old, he is now fronting the Jefferson Starship band. He joined with them in the late seventies, after Marty Balin and before Mickey Thomas.
I could go on for pages and pages about this era of music and who my personal heroes were. My favorite bands seemed to be the guys who refused to sell out, and therefore never had much commercial success. Singers like Richie Furay, Justin Hayward, David Frieberg, and Paul Cotton may never be household names, but you talk to any older musicians from my era and they'll know who they are. Any favorites you'd like to share?
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