The Last Bass Outpost

I never closely observed what was going on with the Cher situation.  Cher can sometimes get on my nerves, but I thought that Sonny and Cher TV show was actually entertaining.  In the case of Gregg and Cher together, it struck me that the public was just being cruel.  I never listened to the Gregg and Cher music enough to have an opinion.  When she was young, I thought Cher looked quite pretty.  I liked her in "Mermaids."

I've been thinking about this point since I saw an Allman Brothers documentary today.  I mentioned this on another thread.  This is just subjective and reflects how I personally feel about the issue.  Also, I might preface this by naming two bands important to me that actually seemed to get better in time.  That would be the Beatles and Golden Earring. 

But this is my personal list of bands I've listened to a lot and I like their early albums the most.  This is in no particular order. 

1.  The Jimi Hendrix Experience.  I've mentioned this before several times, but I actually once had to leave a forum just because I liked Hendrix's early albums and the majority of people did not.  Specifically, that would be Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold As Love.  You would not believe how heated this issue can become with Hendrix fans.

2.  Muse started a little slow; that is true.  But quickly they came out with some outstanding albums.  They reached a peak with Absolution and Black Holes and Revelations. their third and fourth albums. Their last two albums especially are so bad, I hardly even know what to say. 
Creatively, they now seem to be a band disintegrating, IMO. 

4. ZZ Top.  In the early years, I considered ZZ Top to be pretty interesting.  I guess the 80s might have killed them.  But the 80s killed a number of bands, including the next band on the list. 

5.  The Allman Brothers.  I've discussed some of this already on the other thread. I loved their first few albums.  But by the late 70s and especially early 80s their music had turned into a wasteland for a while.  As the years progressed, they regained their composure, more or less.  I've got most of their CDs.  But I'll always like their early albums the best. 

6.  Grand Funk Railroad.  I know a lot of people probably disagree.  But by the time of We're An American Band I probably couldn't even call myself a fan anymore.  And what about the album several albums later?  Born To Die.  Can't a band think of a better album cover than to put themselves in caskets on the cover?  That's just outright macabre.  It might have been better if more songs could have been like track 3 "Sally."  That was written about Mark Farner's involvement with the actress Sally Kellerman.  From what I've read, I think they must have had some wild times.

7.  Rolling Stones.  My attitude toward the Stones is just based on my own peculiar taste.  I realize that.  Objectively, I know this can't even be proven.  But I began to lose interest in the Stones after Let It Bleed.  For a while there, they were definitely one of my favorite bands.  But their earliest albums had really gotten through to me in a special way which could never be equaled.

This really is just a partial list.  But there are the bands which come to mind now.  My own theory is that people tend to be more creative when they're younger.  Their best music may end up being their earliest music.  Plus, sometimes you can simply just start running out of good songs.  But I'm sure some people would be able to list many bands Whose best music came later on.  In fact, logically it seems that might be what would be expected to happen.  But for me personally with the bands that I really liked, it often seems that they kind of sputtered out--to put it bluntly.  Once again, the Beatles are the most striking exception to my point of bands having their best albums early.  In their case, they just got progressively better, except for Let It Be which did a great job of displaying just how human the Beatles could actually be.  "

Now that I've got this off my chest, I can focus on the Runaways.  Because I don't even have any of their music.  But today I got "The Runaways:  Neon Angels On the Road to Ruin 1976-1978."  5 CD box set. 

Yes, it was Dickey's idea to do the dual stuff.  By coincidence an Allman Brothers documentary came on earlier in the day which flooded me with info.  It made me realize that at least some of what I posted even on this thread was based on my subjective view of it all.  If you look at it objectively, there may be a different way to put things. 

It got me to thinking how I tend to focus on the earliest albums of a band.  My perception of them is often based on that.  Often it seems to me a band's best albums are the early ones.  Of course there are many exceptions.  But for me personally, it turns out that way a lot.  Certainly for me I liked the early Allman Brothers the best.  And it wasn't just because Duane Allman was there.  It had more to do with the songs themselves.  Those were just killer songs to me.  The band itself ended pretty impressively with a virtuoso like Derek Trucks on guitar.  But it ended that way only after going through many ups and downs, mostly downs it seems.  Among many other things, for instance, who would have dreamed that Gregg Allman at one point would become a laughingstock due to his marriage with Cher.  I think everyone on earth regretted that that happened.  The documentary did a good job in presenting the ugliness of that. 

My recurring dreams are variations on the same theme.  I'm in a foreign country, not easily identifiable in the dream.  It's nearing dusk.  I'm lost.  Often the language spoken isn't English.  But sometimes it can be.  Each city I find myself in is very different from all the others.  I'm on foot and trying to find a hotel.  Everyone is a stranger. 

I'm pretty sure psychoanalysts would say fear of being a lost is fairly common with someone who is growing older.  But I think at least part of this may be drawn from real life experiences.  Being very lost in Germany, the Netherlands, and Ireland.  In the case of Ireland, I was so lost there that if people hadn't been speaking English, I might still be there trying to find my way.  In Germany, I got lost almost immediately in the airport, although it really wasn't my fault.  Customs took a long time with me.  By the time I got out the group of strangers I was with had left me.  Getting lost in Rottenburg was almost fun, though.  It was December.  Although I wasn't around many people, the atmosphere was turning a little festive for Christmas which was approaching.  Nevertheless, I barely found my way that night.  And in the late 1980s, in Germany not many people spoke English.  But my German was beyond horrible.  One time, for instance, I was in a store with some Americans.  A German sales clerk came up to them and started politely speaking to them.  Finally, I said "she is trying to ask if she can help you!"  They were just standing there ignoring her like she didn't exist.  Actually, I was a little embarrassed.  Ignorance of a language doesn't mean you shouldn't even try.   

Dickey never quite received the attention he deserved while in the Allman Brothers or after, IMO.

Huh  He basically hijacked the band after Duane's untimely death and kept it going while Gregg was sinking into his heroin and whatever-induced stupor.his

Rest in peace. Excellent guitarist in a band that had an embarrassment of riches as great guitarists go.I was under the assumption that his health had suffered under decades of substance abuse too.

It depends on your perspective.  The people I was around a lot, some of which even had some contact with the Allman Brothers before they got famous, tended to put Dickey in the shadows and elevated Duane.  I'm sure I have told this story before.  But I went to high school with an amazing guitarist who once got the chance to jam with Duane Allman.  His name was Edwin and he had long red hair.  He said after playing with Duane, he put down his guitar for two weeks, thinking there was no need to attempt trying to be a guitarist after that experience.  In all the years I've known him, that was the only time I ever saw true humility in Edwin.  Because the fact is he was a great guitarist.  Certainly the best local guitarist.  But trying to compare himself to Duane Allman was another matter. 

Once again, I have to say that I speak more as a commoner and definitely nothing else.  I grew up all around people who liked country music.  But even as a youth the only country artist I liked very much was Hank Williams.  This was all personal.  No one told me to do it.  But even when I was very young his music affected me.  It's kind of like to me Hank Williams is the Beatles of country music.  Then several years ago, I heard Amber Digby for the first time.  She is no Hank Williams, either.  But her music affects me on an emotional level in a similar way.  Amber and Hank are the real deal.  Many others are, too.  But those are the only two country singers I can actually say I'm a fan of.  As noted before, I'm mostly just a rock fan. 

I do this with a straight face when I mention existentialism.  But if you've read people like Kierkegaard and Sartre, this line of thinking can apply.  The real country singers are functioning in an authenticity.  They're very much real.  They sing from the heart.  But the bro-country and some of the other more modern artists are not authentic.  They're fake and definitely unappealing to me.  They are operating in what Sartre would call "bad faith."  I care nothing for their feeble attempts to try to pass themselves off as real country artists.  That's why I find the Maddie and Tae video making fun of them so amusing. 

I suspected someone would try to bring in metal, the purity of metal, and that sort of thing.  What I'm trying to say has absolutely nothing to do with that line of reasoning.  That's from the perspective of metal fans who think they have some kind of mission to preserve metal and they don't want it diluted.  I don't care about that.  I'm not a metal fan.  And when it gets down to it, I'm not really a country fan, either.  Just more of a casual country music listener.  But I don't have to have a deep country music knowledge to know that bro-country is outright rubbish.  I find it impossible to take it seriously. But to me this is like someone trying to compare lightweight pop/rock bands to real rock bands like Cream.  No one would be able to do a comparison like that.  And no one would be able to make a comparison between bro-country/fake country to real country.  It's literally a joke if you've been brought up listening to real country music all your life.

That's a good point, though, about the role country music (real country music) has played in the development of rock.  Bob Dylan had something to say in a speech somewhere.  I wrote it down I thought it was so important and here it is.

'The other half of rock 'n roll has got to be hillbilly.  And that's a derogatory term, but it ought not be.  That's a term that includes the Delmore Bros, Stanley Bros, Roscoe Holcomb, Gid Turner and the Skillet Lickers--groups like that.  Moonshine gone berserk.  Fast cars on dirt roads.  That's the kind of combination that makes up rock 'n roll, and it can't be cooked up in a science laboratory or studio."