UNDERRATED MUSICIANS

[jetswin]

Originally Posted by Peebag

Tommy Bolin - Private Eyes is a heck of an album

check out Tomy's work on Spectrum, Billy Cobham's masterpiece (speaking of underrated!)

[AFCEastFan]

Originally Posted by Beerfish

Not an underrated group but an underrated song of theirs in my opinion. The background vibe of this song (king harvest) is just awesome.

My favorite song by the Band. Not as popular or well known as, say, The Weight, but I think it is better and definitely underrated.

[Borgoguy]

Originally Posted by jetswin

check out Tomy's work on Spectrum, Billy Cobham's masterpiece (speaking of underrated!)

Great addition, JW. One of my favorite drummers. Master technician IMO. Check who's in the band in vid below.


(Solo starts at approx. 1:00)

[2milehighJet]

Always thought Tesla was underated, and got lumped into the 80's hair metal scene, but they were just a good straight forward rock band.

[32green]

Originally Posted by jetswin

check out Tomy's work on Spectrum, Billy Cobham's masterpiece (speaking of underrated!)

Wow. Great stuff, you wonder if Eddie Van Halen was referencing that intro in Hot for teacher.....

[Borgoguy]

Originally Posted by 2milehighJet

Always thought Tesla was underated, and got lumped into the 80's hair metal scene, but they were just a good straight forward rock band.

Totally agree. I also think Jeff keith is an underrated vocalist.

[jetswin]

Originally Posted by 32green

Wow. Great stuff, you wonder if Eddie Van Halen was referencing that intro in Hot for teacher.....

nice version of Stratus from that Cobham album

[WestCoastOffensive]

Originally Posted by jetswin

check out Tomy's work on Spectrum, Billy Cobham's masterpiece (speaking of underrated!)

LOL, that's not underrated! It's that fans of progressive music are small in number. That is one of the most revered fusion records of all time; all the prog players bring up Spectrum because a relatively untrained guitarist held his own with Cobham and Jan Hammer.

He held his own, and then rubbed it in their faces!

[jetswin]

Originally Posted by WestCoastOffensive

LOL, that's not underrated! It's that fans of progressive music are small in number. That is one of the most revered fusion records of all time; all the prog players bring up Spectrum because a relatively untrained guitarist held his own with Cobham and Jan Hammer.

He held his own, and then rubbed it in their faces!

ok...you're right

Cobham at My Father's Place, one of my favorite concerts ever.

[WestCoastOffensive]

Originally Posted by jetswin

ok...you're right

Cobham at My Father's Place, one of my favorite concerts ever.

How can you remember?

[southside]

Originally Posted by ubrnostrum

You seem to know a lot about guitar players, and that kind of proves my point about Jack White. I'm not necessarily talking about skill and virtuosity. Obviously the White Stripes or the Raconteurs are not built to be the Allman brothers. What White does with a guitar is pure angst and emotion. Is he a great guitar player? Hell no. Is he underrated as a guitar player? Yes.

Duane Allman. Great guitar player. A creative guy who played very well, tastefully and originally. Underrated? No. I think people properly rate him as being a great guitar player.

Chet Atkins, Joe Pass, Wes montgomery, Django... these names should never have even shown up in this thread. They are among the best players of the past 100 years and are rated as such. (I don't much like Pass but I can't deny he's a tremendous player)

Boz Boorer from Morrisey's band is underrated. The way he played with Morrissey was unique, but over shadowed.

If you want to talk about Chet Atkins, then you have to mention his rhythm player, Paul Yandell. Just about the only guy I've ever heard who could play with Chet, and keep his job year after year. Prety amazing if you think about it.

Steven Hunter is another session guy who you've heard, but never heard of.

All great points.

Personally, you're right and I was kind of trying to make the same point simultaneously that most all of those players I mentioned are rated properly by the people that know them. Really, I hate when people say Stevie Ray Vaughn or Jimmy Page are the best guitar players ever. It's a peeve. But you're right, some of those guys are legends but really in todays music scene these guys are dead and forgotten which is kind of a shame but that's life, things change and people move on. I was trying to use them as examples of excellence and mastery of their instrument more than just saying they are under rated/appreciated, thus when someone says Jack White, Eric Clapton, blahblahblah, I'm merely pointing to all these greats who were far superior in skill and creativity. I guess that was what I was trying to say originally, whether or not it came out that way is another story all together.

A song writer that I think is extremely under rated is Bon Iver. He wrote one of the most impressive albums I've ever heard called For Emma, Forever Ago. Another extremely under rated song writer would be Nick Drake [don't know if I mentioned him already if so I apologize]. Although if you're in the know you'd say, well my contemporaries and I think that he's great. But he's really just now getting some credit because of his music being used in commercials. Still has a style that I think is completely original and not been redone. Josh Rouse is horribly under rated. Everything he writes is great. So many songs that are just catchy and good pop songs and yet no body knows this guy.

Since we're talking about under rated artists and the golden age of music (70s) why not talk about a few guys that played with everybody at the time... Chuck Leavell. Dude played with the Brothers, the Stones, Aretha, Chuck Berry, Charlie Daniels, he was all over the place. Not only that but he's such a great piano player.

[Apache 51]

Took my wife to a Hall and Oates, in HS 1982/3 strictly, strictly with the purpose to see Big Country as warm up, well, Big Country cancelled, and this new band Till Tuesday filled in ha,ha they were pretty good. Point is we stayed and listened to H&O. Sounded fantastic, one of the best shows I've seen.

[Beerfish]

A couple of songs well out of the genre of this thread (yeah I'm going off in a tangent) The artists were probably not underrated for their time but the production on these songs considering the time they were recorded and the technology available is impressive.

[Beerfish]

Originally Posted by Apache 51

Took my wife to a Hall and Oates, in HS 1982/3 strictly, strictly with the purpose to see Big Country as warm up, well, Big Country cancelled, and this new band Till Tuesday filled in ha,ha they were pretty good. Point is we stayed and listened to H&O. Sounded fantastic, one of the best shows I've seen.

They had some kind of pbs show or hdnet show a while back showing these guys doing some of their songs and it was just excellent.

[Hitman Harris]

Ian McLagan may be one of the top 10 most underrated musicians of all time...
He's played with all of the greats and was a founding member of The Faces.

[Borgoguy]

Originally Posted by Hitman Harris

Ian McLagan may be one of the top 10 most underrated musicians of all time...
He's played with all of the greats and was a founding member of The Faces.

If you're going to name one truly underrated musician in The Faces, it's the late Ronnie Lane. He was a great rock bass player. And let's not forget Woodsy.

[GetaLife]

Originally Posted by Borgoguy

I was going to list Alice, but wasn't sure if someone as iconic could be thought of as truly underrated. (Back in the 70s, he was a monster act who everyone knew and was talking about, good or bad.) After your post--and thinking about it--he probably doesn't get the credit he deserves in terms of starting the shock rock genre and Grand-Guignol stage persona, which was adopted by performers such as Kiss, Marilyn Manson, Gwar, Rob Zombie, among numerous others.

I also don't think most people appreciate Alice's strong songwriting and performing skills, or what a tight band he had in the beginning.

Songs like "School's Out" "18" and "No More Mr. Nice Guy" are ANTHEMS that have survived the test of time...

Now we are putting pop artists in the HOF. Really??

I am skewed because I am a huge fan....But maybe he overexposes himself too much because he is on tour ALL the time...

But all that says to me is he just LOVES TO ROCK..Because he is obviously a millionaire a hundred times over..

Alice Cooper is a cult hero.

[Borgoguy]

Flipping through some older music this morning and stumbled upon these guys. What a revolutionary sound for 1968. Drummer Louie Farrell is at the top of the list of underrated drummers, as is Adrian Curtis' for fuzz guitar noodling.

[FF2®]

[Borgoguy]

Originally Posted by FF2®

How do you figure Chicago is an underrated band? Back in the 70s, they were huge.

FTR, hated them almost as much as Steely Dan. Decent musicians, but sappy songs and sound. Enough with the f**king horn solos.