One of the greatest performers, ever. Period.
Category: hit singles
Some high-water moments from Steely Dan, Albert Hammond, Sr., King Harvest, Hurricane Smith, Brownsville Station, Sly Stone, Billy Paul, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, Stealers Wheel, The Sweet, Edgar Winter, The Isley Brothers, Dobie Gray, Stories, and Skylark.
Immortal music from The Carpenters, Lee Michaels, Daddy Dewdrop {Richard Monda}, Ocean, Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose, Brewer and Shipley, Tommy James, Paul Revere and the Raiders {featuring Mark Lindsay}, and The Stampeders.
Memorable moments from Melanie Safka, Don McLean, Argent, Todd Rundgren, The Stylistics, The Main Ingredient, The Hollies, a youthful Michael Jackson, Looking Glass, and Climax, featuring Sonny Geraci.
Led Zeppelin, with eight scintillating live performances. Page, Plant, Bonham and Jones are all in top form. JPJ has some fine moments, esp. No Quarter and Trampled.. Plant, as always, is as powerful, beguiling, and inventive a lead vocalist as any that exists on this planet, and both Page and Bonham demonstrate why they are legends.
A few comments on our selections {NOT all of them!!}: Cities {1983, 1982, *and* 1980 versions} *might* be David Byrne’s high-water mark as an “umm, what???” (followed by audible hysteria, in my case…) vocalist. The Impossible writ upon a landscape. Pulled Up and Mind, at the very least, are looking uneasily over their shoulders. The “He’s come undone” staggerings/lurchings in Psycho Killer {1983} are also enough to keep one alive for several epochs; the 1979 Mudd Club version is electrifying, mystique-laden; ridiculously brilliant. Both versions of Drugs have an eerie, haunting element all of their own; Dollette McDonald and Adrian B contribute mightily. Crosseyed is simply a collective singe-fest.
Titanic moments of ecstasy, pathos, and catharsis are the norm for this great man, in his legendary live performances.
The Buzzcocks, founded in 1976 by Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto {who departed to pastures new in ’77}, are one of the preeminent punk bands to emerge from the UK. Extremely lyrical as well as hard-edged, they strung together many brilliant tunes, due mainly to the genius of composer and lead vocalist Shelley. Included here are a few from Pete’s solo career, as well as some particularly rewarding live group efforts.
{Revised: 7/6/2019}
“Bowing, and squawking, Running after tidbits; Bopping and squinting, Just like a nitwit…”
Mr. Elvis Costello: One of the very greatest, most idiosyncratic performers and composers. Of this, or any, century/epoch. We will not see his likes again.
