Circa 1970-75 R&B-leaning classic rock, usually by singer-songwriters working with bands

Basic coordinates: St. Dominic's Preview and The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. Not quite sure what else is like that but I want to explore it some more. I imagine Little Feat (I barely know them) and earlier Doobie Brothers (neutral on McDonald era, absolutely hate "Listen to the Music") fit the bill. The Band's "Up on Cripple Creek" is an earlier example of what I mean; I'm more interested in where its funky side led (Little Feat? again, my ignorance is shameful) than where its rootsy side did. I think of this stuff as very urban in a way--the music of post-hippies settling into adulthood but still wanting to hold onto the looseness they liked in rock, if that isn't too overly romanticized.

This one of my favorite periods/styles but I've never quite pinpointed its particulars until now. It was rock keeping up with current R&B in many ways--I only know Givin' It Back very spottily but I imagine that's a candidate too, in its way. And I think the band dynamic is very important. I realize that Steely Dan is already the exception to everything else in the world, but I think Countdown to Ecstasy is close to what I'm talking about here, and it (like the debut) was made with what was more or less an intact unit, albeit made up of studio players (or folks who'd become them). I like horns, tambourines, extra percussion, openly copping Latin and Caribbean rhythms, fuzz guitar, and multiple keyboards. Song suggestions welcome.

OK right after posting that I realized I named so many parameters that anything I can add would just make things lumpier, so don't worry too much about the coordinates and go strictly by feel. Keep it '70-'75, cool? Thanks!

hey Matos does Robin Trower's "Too Rolling Stoned" and "The Fool and Me" count? (though they may be closer to James Gang-style boogie than the Band...?)

maybe not...as funky as those two cuts were, they were pretty much dominated by the power-trio format...

J. Geils Band - "Must Of Got Lost"
Wet Willie - "Keep on Smiling"

"You Too," Caroline Peyton, Intuition, c. 1975.

family - r&b influenced; interesting songs; may not like the vocals - especially "bandstand" and "it's only a movie". see also chapman whitney "streetwalkers"

Brian Auger's Oblivion Express might be right up your alley, they had a bit of the modal jazz groove to the sound. I think LIVE OBLIVION (2CD) set is excellent with some really great drumming. They were a very hot live group. Their studio albums have that nice warm early 70s production with lots of real Hammond and Rhodes piano. I've liked all of their records.

An interesting somewhat related thing from that time, 'going R&B' kind of broke up the Coverdale fronted version of Deep Purple, as Blackmore felt that on Stormbringer got them too far away from their sound.

boz scaggs. "silk degrees" you know, check his s/t debut produced in muscle shoals by some hippie dilletante

rare earth! they have a bad rep but their hit singles are totally r&B leaning classic rock

"are you ready" by Pacific Gas & Electric -- this top 40 hit from I think '72 does the faux-revival chesty-soul-man w/backing "chick" singers thing to a turn.

Little Feat would definitely apply here, although I'm not sure what their most R&B-leaning album from that period would be. Maybe Feats Don't Fail Me Now?

btw oh shit Matos you NEED some Little Feat albums

Clapton solo and all the Delaney & Bonnie axis.

Stephen Stills comes to mind too.

Rod Stewart: Every Picture Tells A Story

Yes to Stephen Stills. Especially the Manassas record. That's a great one.

It's a little past 1975, but Southside Johnny fits the bill perfectly.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61k7UIBUNaL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51S0S7nD8UL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

i always have to plug this album cuz it's so wonderful and it is all the members of steely dan + a great singer/songwriter Thomas Jefferson Kaye:

http://www.musicobsession.com/Pictures/t/h/thomasjefferson20197.jpg

(basically, steely dan go west)

everybody here already owns these albums, right?

http://991.com/newGallery/Allen-Toussaint-Southern-Nights-432295.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_W9IQWsCH_0g/RcLwMiNO17I/AAAAAAAAAYk/tGsFjEe7syM/s400/allen+toussaint.jpg

i hope so!

I have Life, Love but not Southern Nights. Ernie K-Doe's Here Come the Girls! is '70 and awesome, another Toussaint production. Seconds on the Kaye record--"American Lovers."

Speaking of Family, I just borrowed a 5-disc box, Old Songs, New Songs, which covers them quite well, altho a bit light on the early albums. But Bandstand and It's Only a Movie, both of which fit here on this thread quite well, are extensively represented. And a disc of rarities and various lo-fi artifacts.

matos have u heard "it's too late to stop now" the van live album from the era? it's gonzo van big band bongo and strings arrangements gone wild. so amazing.

This is a pretty wide space to be digging in; tons of Southern rock and boogie and early pub rock would fit right in, I would think. And pre-disco, I would say most '70s rock (or at least an extremely high percentage of it) was r&b-oriented in some way or other -- from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Aerosmith to Thin Lizzy to Graham Parker (maybe the closest of these to what you're looking for, since he's a singer songwriter with a band per se', though Phil Lynott had plenty of Van Morrison and more than a little Springsteen in him) on down. When I have time, more specific recommendations will occur to me I'm sure.

I was going to offer that Van live album; also Springsteen boots from 1975 have this vibe in places, e.g. on the cover of "Mountain of Love" that pops up occasionally.

was thinking about Thin Lizzy -- I only have some of their albums so I'm not sure, but which one(s) would be the most funky/R&B-influenced?

Spirit is too early for this, I guess...maybe not "singer songwriter-y" enought? but if they count i would maybe say them in terms of the arrangements.

Thin Lizzy' Johnny The Fox is the one that hip-hoppers sampled the most, so maybe that.

It's possible though that some of the hard rock I'm referring to isn't loose/laid back/post-hippie-rustic enough to fit into the category Matos is looking for though; I'm not sure. (I mean, there's a pretty gigantic gap between, say, Dr. Feelgood and Little Feat obviously.) Though I'm not sure Skynyrd or Aerosmith, say, are any less funky than Steely Dan or the early Doobies.

And there's also all that brassy oily macho-voiced early '70s post-Tom-Jones white-guys-getting-funky stuff I've called "minstrel rock" -- Ides of March, Looking Glass, Lighthouse, Sanford & Townsend Band (though I guess "Smoke From A Distant Fire" was actually '77), etc., at least for a single or two each. (Even Chicago and Blood Sweat and Tears and the Guess Who, if you want to go that far. Hell, Three Dog Night's "Black and White" works in some Afro-Caribbean beats.) Still, maybe not singer-songwriterly enough to fit in with your request.

Probably some stuff mentioned here would fit too, I suspect:

what is the greates yacht rock song of all-time???

Isn't one of the Rainbow records they did supposed to be kinda "funky" and rnb influenced?

ah Johnny The Fox, that's the one I'd been eyeing to pick up next, cool.

would Eric Burdon-era War fit under the criteria?

I'd think so. Maybe no-Burdon-era War, too, if they're deemed classic "rock" enough.

Redbone ("Witch Queen Of New Orleans," "Come And Get Your Love") probably worth a mention, too.

I guess "We're An American Band" and "Rock and Roll Hootchie Koo" (not to mention Uriah Heep's more "Shaft"-and-Latin-percussioned tracks) are too hard rock, though.

"Spirit In The Sky"? (Norman Greenbaum was a singer-songwriter, right?)

Joe Walsh?

hmmm can't find a blogspot posting of that Thomas Jefferson Kaye stuff... very curious to hear, esp given his production credit on No Other and the Steely Dan connection...

n intact unit, albeit made up of studio players (or folks who'd become them). I like horns, tambourines, extra percussion, openly copping Latin and Caribbean rhythms

probably too obvious but all of this makes me think of Paul Simon

was listening to Houses Of The Holy this morning, Zep was definitely funk enough that they deserve an honorable mention here.

Late in the Evening, Mother and Child Reunion, etc.

x-post

Actually, some of Dr. John's early '70s LPs would probably fit here.

And I really wish I still owned this Hirth Martinez album from '75 (which definitely fits):

http://robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=hirth+martinez

I'm listening to the s/t Crack the Sky album. And it's too heavy rock for this thread, but there are some crazy funk breakdowns on this one. super awesome.

Actually, some of Dr. John's early '70s LPs would probably fit here

the Sun, Moon and Herbs and Babylon = too weird, but I would agree Desitively Bonnaroo and Right Place, Right Time fit the bill pretty closely

It might have a little too much stomp, not enough swing, but would Mungo Jerry fit in here?

Oh man, Bob Seger's early-mid '70s albums, all the ones before the Silver Bullet Band came along have to be at least in the same ballpark. Mongrel, Back In '72, and Seven all seem like prime candidates, and if they don't exactly sound like Bruce or the Dan, they're at least pretty close to Van Morrison circa Dominic's, Tupelo, etc. but with a stronger Midwest vibe instead of a Celtic one.

this thread is making me think that this stuff is right up my alley--thanks for all the suggestions people!

Mungo Jerry is off, but the song "I Just Want to Make Love to You," off of Electronic Warrior is there. Sounds almost exactly like Funkadelic (or at least the guitar does, that's for sure).

Sorry, Electronically Tested--conflated it with T. Rex (although he's in here somewhere, but also not really).

would Ian Dury sort of fit this?

Dury's solo stuff definitely too late (and probably too music hall oriented, and just plain too British in feel in general), despite r&b bubbling beneath the surface. No idea, though, about his Kilburn and the High Roads stuff (which I've never much heard.)

Seger totally totally totally OTM though.

you could also take yer pick from any one of a dozen records on leon russell's shelter label from 1970-1975. leon (especially the shelter people records), jj cale, don nix, don preston...

also check out some cold blood records for the hell of it. some of the stuff that donny hathaway produced for them is phaaaat.

(and then grab some tower of power records from the dollar bin while yer at it.)

Hell, believe it or not, I'd say the riverboat-rock feel of early R.E.O. Speedwagon fits here, too -- especially pre-Kevin Cronin era. "Golden Country" was their greatest song, but probably too heavy for this thread; first LP and Ridin The Storm Out often feel like a harder-rocking Doobie Bros.

Possibly some early, pre-superstardom Fleetwood Mac, too, though I'll let somebody else parse the sprightlier stuff (Kiln House for one -- not exactly funky though, more like sweet updated Buddy Holly almost) from their big-boned blooze jamz.

basically, i just listen to everything that came out on capricorn back then and i get all the r&b-based rock that i need: allman brothers, wet willie, cowboy, captain beyond, marshall tucker band, duke williams & the extremes, james montgomery band, eddie henderson, elvin bishop, grinderswitch, bonnie bramlett, bobby whitlock, travis wammack...

did Clover ever record?

And, uh, there's always Santana.

And Babe Ruth! (I know you've heard plenty of samples of "The Mexican," Michaelangelo; you should check out the original sometime, if you never have.)

Speaking of Link Wray, Kaye produced his Be What You Want To around this same time, with mixed but worth-dumpster-diving results. Don't know if he produced The Link Wray Rumble (Epic, ca.'75), with Wray's creative response to Duane Allman, Van Morrison, Tony Joe White, Sly Stone and Pete Townsend (who wrote the liner notes).It's one of his best ever,in terms of vocals and songs and arrangements as well as almighty guitar(more versatile than I'd prev realized, while always LW and no other).

Crow's "Evil Woman Don't Play Your Games With Me" might fit, kind of the minstrel-rock angle in its brassiness.

Can't believe nobody (including myself) mentioned Steve Miller, who may well be really close to what Matos is looking for.

And speaking of Millers, when did Frankie Miller start recording? He didn't chart in the U.S. til '77 (and never got higher than 124 on the album chart even then), but I get the impression he had a few albums out in Scotland by then. Definite Van influence, too. I've never explored him myself, but always figured he might be somebody worth exploring, if I ever got around to it (which I probably won't.)

Speaking of U.K. guys who were also-rans in the U.S., I have a feeling Chris Rea would fit, too, if he'd debuted a few years earlier. "Hugely popular in Europe," Joel Whitburn says. One Top 40 hit in the U.S. I need to get a best-of CD one of these days.

And total longshots, but Al Kooper produced their first album and they got their percussionist from Santana, plus didn't debut until 1975, but who knows: The Tubes. I love them. Bet Matos wouldn't.

So where do the Dead fit into all this, anyway?

Frankie Miller - The Rock (1975) was the first album I thought of when I started to answer, but I decided he was more the "rootsy" side of this than "urban". Meaning he really fits the first paragraph of the OP but not the second.

It's a good album. Like Free, Joe Cocker, and Bob Seger of the era, maybe a little more gentle.

hahaha I loathe the Steve Miller Band

I am a giant Dead fan, esp. this period, but they don't fit: no horns, their looseness was of a very different sort than what I have in mind here (meaning the Dead weren't nearly as chopsy--aside from Phil and Jerry, I suppose--as the kind of stuff I'm thinking of here, folk-rooted rather than R&B-rooted). Not nearly propulsive enough, in terms of the rhythm section leading things. When I started the thread I was thinking pretty specifically of Van's "Saint Dominic's Preview" and Bruce's "Rosalita" in terms of the feel I had in mind; I can't think of much Dead that fits those parameters.

so like "sooner or later" (1971) by the grass roots?

How about Andy Fairweather Low? La Booga Rooga is one of my post-played of the 70s, Spider Jivin' too. He had horns when needed, like on "Jump Up And Turn Around."

It seems the thing for me to do right now is listen to Deep Ear and the other Warner Bros. double lp loss leaders.

so I'm going to. Deep Ear

So far, on Deep Ear, the Elvin Bishop track sound more like the Allmans than the Dickie Betts track, but it is way more funky.

DEFINITLY PAUL PENA'S FIRST TWO ALBUMS: Paul Pena and New Train. Both are soul-rock ravers. Great back up vocals and jive-talking swagger. Horns and Organ.

Bobby Whitlock self-titled solo album from '72 (He's from Delaney & Bonnie/Derek and the Dominoes.)

Elvin Bishop just broke into that Sly and the Family Stone vocal thing from "Dance to the Music"

hey Matos does Robin Trower's "Too Rolling Stoned" and "The Fool and Me" count?

No, not for most of the flavor of this thread, I'd think. These are great hard rock tunes. Trower sprinkled R&B through his records, but never for an entire album. Closest he came was in the Paramounts, pre-Procol Harum, and you'd find that recreated on the Licorice John Death record, reviewed here. What keeps it mostly R&B are the soul rock vocals and rhythm section.

The closest Deep Purple came to making an R&B album was Come Taste the Band, with Tommy Bolin playing guitar. It's jazzy at times, fairly light-footed, has Glenn Hughes doing his hairy funky soul man thing on some of the vocals. Pretty much a despised piece of the catalog by many DP fans. Oddly, was reissued this year with Stormbringer, another thing I never listen to because it's just way too long in the tooth bluesy, essentially the model for early Whitesnake, the version of the band that made a ton of albums never released in the US before the Tawny Kitaen video triumph of the will.

you might like the b.b. king album "indianola/mississippi seeds". more r&b learning than blues and it's full of those LA-session folks like Russ Kunkel, Carol King, Leon Russell, Jose Walsh... produced by Bill Syzmczyk.

Possibly some early, pre-superstardom Fleetwood Mac, too, though I'll let somebody else parse the sprightlier stuff

Not so much, mostly known for being part of the Brit blues boom. Split into two styles -- Peter Green's Chicago-style blues purism and Jeremy Spencer's dirty Elvis Presley and Elmore James homages. All the early white UK blues boom band guys came out of R&B show combo groups. However, they pretty much jettisoned it all as 'too pop' ala Clapton's departure from the Yardbirds. That said, you can find some soulful high-energy R&B sprinkled through the genre, particularly on Savoy Brown records featuring Chris Youlden on vocals. The album that has the most of that sound is Raw Sienna.

Eh I think there are Mac tracks pertinent to this thread in the Kirwain/Welch era(s) (Bare Trees come to mind as do certain tracks from Future Days) but I dunno... Christine was really the one that seemed to bolster the R&B aspect of Fleetwood Mac

also leaning wayy over into R&B/soul is the wonderful first Steve Winwood solo record (self-titled). i think it may have come out 76 or 77 though?

Now I'm thinking Bachman-Turner Overdrive definitely have at least a couple moments that might fit here -- at very least their first U.S. (not sure about Canada) hit "Blue Collar," which had a certain funky jazziness (not merely funky beefiness) to it.

(The Tubes were quite a stretch, though, admittedly.)

That Andy Fairweather Low reference upthread put me in mind of the three terrific Ronnie Lane solo records -- Anymore for Anymore, Slim Chance, and (maybe especially) One For the Road. Lived in, felt, beautifully played, totally sweet. They are a gift.

Christine was really the one that seemed to bolster the R&B aspect of Fleetwood Mac

"Hypnotized" -- which was a staple on FM radio around the time in question.

"I'd Rather Go Blind," a few years earlier in Chicken Shack.

This is such a great question because (I think, not sure) it's deceptively difficult. J. Geils band during this period seems like maybe the best example listed here of the ones I know, but they were more strictly a party vibe. Today, probably inspired by this thread, I was listening to the Springsteen *You Mean So Much to Me* bootleg, have you heard that Matos? Live recording from Jan 1974, Vini Lopez and David Sancious were in the band, half the songs are long jams ("Thundercrack", "Kitty's Back", "Rosalita") that were super loose and a times funky enough to seem like you might sample the breaks. Love to find more things in that vein.

Terry Reid's "River"album fits the bill

Tim Buckley, especially "Welcome to LA"

Mark, I've never heard any Springsteen bootlegs.

No one's mentioned Todd Rundgren yet?

I think I remember Todd Rundgren, being mentioned but I may have imagined it. I rejected him from the "has to have a band" aspect, and his best example of this in the time period is a one man show.

I thought of Hall and Oates - Abandoned Luncheonette as well.

I think I thought about this thread way more than I posted on it.

hahaha last month I was hammering Something/Anything? like a madman. and I'm a longtime, vocal Luncheonette fan round these parts. both are very in line w/my thinking.

Always wondered about Luncheontte, describe please. Also wonder about War Babies, is that another of their early serious-singer-songwriter cycles? Voices had a lot of their primo hits. It will make you grow a mustache even if you already had one. (Alas, Oates has lost his 'stache--meanwhile, Hall's goatee looks homeless.) Thinking of your original early 70s Van Morrison criterion, I wonder about Jesse Colin Young, Jess Winchester (who had the songs, but not really a band?) Boz Scaggs (before the admittedly fine and xpost Silk Degrees). Remarkably drifty phrasing on "Loan Me A Dime," yet on the money even before Duane Allman speeds it up to a shuffle, without disturbing the mood or groove, but I only know that track from the xpost Duane Anthology Volume One. I also like Garland Jeffrys' s/t and Ghost Writer.

AL is basically singer-songwriter white soul, their most ambitious early album (from what I gather; haven't heard anywhere near all of it), very well produced by Arif Mardin (of course), it has a really nice studio-bound sound and obviously they got really good players for it. Side one is excellent, with H&O on pretty equal terms; the opener, "When the Morning Comes," is H, lovely bridge, cool synths (oh yeah I should mention this on Rodney's "acoustic guitar & analog synths" thread), acoustics, great harmonies on the chorus. "Las Vegas Turnaround" is easily my all-time favorite Oates song. Douglas Wolk once said it sounded like Belle & Sebastian, and he's right, if you can imagine B&S recording with Arif Mardin in 1973. "She's Gone" is, of course, a masterwork. One of my absolute all-time headphones faves. Side two is artier: title tune is vaguely metaphoric, but it runs out of gas at the end, with all 7:14 of exhausted ideas and gawky soloing that constitute "Everytime I Look at You." (God, I just typed that from memory, then went to check against iTunes to see if I was right; they've taken it off the album on the store! So even they agree, apparently.)

"I'm Just a Kid" is another good one off of Luncheonette.

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Garland Jeffreys' "Ghost Rider," nominated by Don (albeit released '77) makes a lot of sense in the post Van/Bruce sense, urban-Latinwise notably with "Spanish Town," though "33 Millimeter Dreams" and especially "Wild In The Streets" (which I pretty much always included in DJ sets the last few years) are at least has good. The few times I've tried his other albums, I couldn't get into them, but it's been a while. Should probably try again someday.

Along very much the same lines, though no doubt derided as squaresville by hepsters for decades, would be "Spanish Stroll" off Mink Deville's '77 debut; again, I'm clueless about his other stuff.

Farther out afield, and not Van/Bruce at all, though definitely a singer-songwriter who put his backing band's funky, expansive, sometimes borderline rocking music on the same level as his words, what about Gil Scott-Heron (debut 1975, backed by "the Midnight Band.") And if he's too far from "rock," maybe Joan Armatrading -- who I guess was the female equivalent of Garland Jeffreys if anybody was (debuted in '76 apparently), though I'm not versed with hardly any of her albums. Have a feeling some of them might not be all that far from this, though.

Am sad you prefer the Dead to Steve Miller, Matos...

(Two deaces late, btw, but definitely in the same lineage as the stuff you're asking about, and due for revival several years from now, I bet: "Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows. Probably lots of jam band music, too, but that doesn't mean I'll go there.)

(Two decades late, I meant.)

abandoned luncheonette is the greatest sunday morning album ever

have the people who hate steve miller checked out his unquestionably groovier 1st four records (feat. boz scaggs)?

hey and speaking of garland jeffries upthread, how about cale's vintage violence?

(Vintage Violence is creative as hell, but seems too arty an artistic achievment for this thread.) So Abandoned Lucheonette's title proved all too descriptive? Perhaps it's self-imititave fallacy? If this is the album (tho' think it was War Babies) that a Creem reviewer described as explicitly *about* being burnt out. Which reminds me of Lester Bangs defining the early-mid-70s vibe as, "I am pathetic, therefore I have charisma." (He fucking hated Tonight's The Night, though gave it up to Berlin, "the most depressing album ever made", thus triumph of the ennuiwill.)So maybe H&O were trying to bite some of that. Thanks,I'll have to check it out (and Belle & Sebastian def. should go back to '73 and seek an audience with Arif Marden). Oh yeah, at least a couple on Ghost Writer, "Cool Down Boy" and especially "I May Not Be Your Kind", share that Van/H&0 sax connection (should we then mention Joni Mitchell? Seems so). Garland's s/t sounds like I hope Dion did, when he started over in the coffee houses: like a guy still wearing his white shirt and silk tie with that blue jean jacket.

Steve Miller Band (with Boz Scaggs and Ben Sidran, for a while) did some good mushroom waterbed music on Children Of The Future and Your Saving Grace (although you could also think of it as proto-New Age, but with vocals!) Some good tracks later, like "Macho City," which closes out Disco Not Disco, having no prob with following Yoko,Liquid Liquid, Ian Dury Material, Was (Not Was), Common Sense, and several Arthur Russell line-ups. But way too many blandos have followed Miller's mellow vocals to Top 20 radio.

"Triumph of the ennuill" more like, if it deserves a smoother tag. Oops sorry Winstonian, didn't see your mention of early Miller: what were the next groovy two, after the ones I named? (He got back into that approach later, with Recall The Past: A Journey From Eden, or something like that, but didn't have Boz and Ben then, did he?)

Oh yeah Winstonian, I belatedly glimpse how you mighta got from Garland J to Vintage Violence: maybe because it atypically ends with a no-frills cover of GJ's "Fairweather Friend"? Great track, but seems too barefoot a lope for the smoover soul we're singing here.

first four would be children of the future, sailor, brave new world, and your saving grace. all wonderful, if you ask me. i'm a fan of number 5 as well. the one entitled number 5.

The James Gang - 16 Greatest Hits (ABC-1973) -VS- Steve Miller Band - Anthology (Capitol-1972)

"I can't answer this with any degree of objectivity, since I hated the Steve Miller Band more than any other group in the world all through high school. I have cooled on this a lot since but the bitter taste remains."

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Thursday, August 18, 2005

way too many blandos have followed Miller's mellow vocals to Top 20 radio

Perplexed about this, too -- I like his early blues-stodge (especially "Living In The U.S.A.") and late DOR (especially "Macho City") okay, sometimes a lot, but I'm amazed that somebody could prefer it to, say, "Take The Money And Run" or "The Joker," which come close to pop genius, with a real playful wit attached. And are certainly no less funky for it.

Then again, I also find people who prefer '80s Hall and Oates to '70s H&O completely bizarre. (Just tried listening again to their chronologically assembled 2-CD/37-song 2004 CD comp The Ultimate again yesterday, and felt a major falloff halfway through Disc One, with only intermittent exceptions here and there after that. Need to get Abandoned Luncheonette; have always been a big Along the Red Ledge fan. But for their higher-charting '80s material, Rock N Soul Part 1 is just about all I can ever imagine needing.)

Sometimes I enjoy individual Steve Miller songs, and I've heard one of the early albums (don't recall it much), but yeah, I'm prejudiced against SMB and doubt I'll go out of my way to change that. I understand when people feel that way about the Dead, too, I just happen to really like their early stuff, esp. live.

Rock N Soul Part 1 really is all you NEED. I happen to know AL really well because it was an album everyone in my family seemed to have: my mom, my uncles Bob and James, probably one or two others. So it's a childhood staple. I still do really like side one, though; it's very worth hearing.

xxhuxx, what I meant about "many blandos" was they lifted his vocal approach out of its original context (which varied over the years), and I'm thinking of folks like the Sublime guy, Sugar Ray, Uncle Crackers, who had their good moments, except Uncle Cracker--you know, it gets into this warm, aw-shucks.smarmy vanilla puddin'sound (sometimes "ironically" or even ironically, like Alec Baldwin, but again he's only good in very supportive contexts, mainly 30 Rock or Saturday Night Live). Agree with yall about Rock N Soul Part 1.

I actually think his approach to vocals is something to emulate for a certain kind of mainstream rock music that gets on the radio. Loose and relaxed and ready to party. No angst whatsoever. But of course the songs have to be good.

My brother just turned me onto this, it fits the bill 1000 %.

Coulson, Dean, McGuinness & Flint: Lo and Behold. An album of Dylan covers, mostly Basement Tapes stuff. Here's Christgau's review:

Lo and Behold [Sire, 1973]
Comprising ten unfamiliar-to-unheard songs written (or anyway, copyrighted) by a well-known singer-songwriter between 1963 and 1971, this organizes scraps of persona the man himself couldn't handle and might as well be called Bob Dylan--"Yesterday" and Today. Dennis Coulson knows Dylan's lyrics for the lazy, flirtatious embraces of perception they are, and so never sops over into literalness--Baezesque prettifying or Bandesque uglifying. And where American folk-rockers can be counted on for the just-so flourish, the swelling rhythm, these guys (aided by producer Manfred Mann, world's most sensible Dylan nut) keep it ragged--the music rocks and rolls, but it also seems to stop short every now and then, and it's catchy, hooking with a tabla here, a build arrangement there, clownish horns that signify an entire side. Cynical ("Open the Door Homer") and idealistic ("The Death of Emmett Till"), self-pitying ("Sign on the Cross") and self-reliant ("Let Me Die in My Footsteps"), but always tough and intelligent. And let us not forget funny. A

ysi?