 | Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:Top 100 Snubs |
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Showing posts with label New York Dolls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York Dolls. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
Monday, September 2, 2024
Glam: Top 25 Albums
 | Glam:The Top 25 Albums |
Glam rock was a genre which emerged in the early 1970s that was characterized as much by fashion as the music itself. Performers wore flamboyant costumes (which often included glitter and platform shoes), makeup, and hairstyles. The look often flirted with andryogyny and fluid gender roles and a camp style. Musically, the genre drew largely from rock and roll, but incorporated cabaret, bubblegum pop, and throwaway pop culture. The movement was largely British. David Bowie, T-Rex, Mott the Hoople, Sweet, and Slade were among the genre’s most popular artists. Some American artists such as Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, and the New York Dolls also incorporated glam into their music in the 1970s. There were also British artists such as Elton John and Queen who adopted some elements of glam in their ‘70s music. The genre influenced punk rock, goth, new wave, and hair bands. This list was created by aggregating 14 lists focused on the best glam rock albums of all time. Check out other best-of-genre/category lists here. 
1. David Bowie The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972)
6. Roxy Music Roxy Music (1972)
11. Roxy Music Country Music (1974)
16. Roxy Music Siren (1975)
21. David Bowie Diamond Dogs (1974)
Resources and Related Links:
First posted 9/2/2024. |
Saturday, July 23, 2022
Glam Rock: Top 50 Songs
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| Glam Rock:Top 50 Songs |
Glam rock was a genre which emerged in the early 1970s which was characterized as much by fashion as the music itself. Performers wore flamboyant costumes (which often included glitter and platform shoes), makeup, and hairstyles. The look often flirted with andryogyny and fluid gender roles and a camp style. Musically, the genre drew largely from rock and roll, but incorporated cabaret, bubblegum pop, and throwaway pop culture. The movement was largely British. David Bowie, T-Rex, Mott the Hoople, Sweet, and Slade were among the genre’s most popular artists. Some American artists such as Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, and the New York Dolls also incorporated glam into their music in the 1970s. There were also British artists such as Elton John and Queen who adopted some elements of glam in their ‘70s music. The genre influenced punk rock, goth, new wave, and hair bands. This list was created by aggregating 18 lists (see sources at bottom of page) focused on the best glam rock songs of all time. Those songs appearing on 3 or more lists were then ranked based on overall Dave’s Music Database status. Then the top 50 of those songs were reranked based on their status specifically on the glam-rock lists. Click here to see other genre-specific song lists.
1. Mott the Hoople “All the Young Dudes” (1972)
11. David Bowie “Starman” (1972)
21. T-Rex “Hot Love” (1971)
31. Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)” (1975)
41. Elton John “Rocket Man (I Think It’s Gonna Be a Long Time)” (1972) Resources/Related Links:
First posted 7/22/2022; last updated 7/23/2022. |
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Some of the Longest Waits Between Albums
Albums:Some of the Longest Waits |
This list was originally posted on my Dave’s Music Database Facebook page (Some of the Longest Waits Between Albums) on 2/5/2012 and has been updated several times since. Here’s a little history about this list. In March 2012, I penned an article for PopMatters.com (“I Heard You Missed Us – We’re Back!”) on bands who’d had long breaks between albums. At the time, I’d waited five years for a new album from Fish, one of my favorite acts. That month Van Halen ended a 14-year silence and in recent years Guns N’ Roses received a lot of press for its 15-year delay between albums. I ended up with an extensive list of acts who have tried the patience of their fans to the max. Note: I’m only looking at album’s worth of new studio material. That includes “specialty” releases of new material for that act such as covers collections or Christmas recordings, but does not include live albums, compilations, remixes, or other reissues of previously released material. Thanks to DMDB fans who contributed to this list! I also recommend checking out the list by camara_azteca at Rate Your Music: “Longest Gaps Between Albums: Artists Who Waited Over 35 Years to Release a Follow-Up” since I have not integrated that list here. There’s a lot of artists there with whom I’m unfamiliar.
Still Waiting…
Resources and Related Links:
First posted 2/5/2012; last updated 5/18/2021. |
Monday, March 5, 2012
I Heard You Missed Us - We're Back!
Originally published in my "Aural Fixation" column on PopMatters.com on March 5, 2012. See original post here.
All those who strolled their school halls in the late ‘70s or first half of the ‘80s clinging to a spiral notebook with a “VH” logo scrawled across the front knows that line from Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher”. Yes, boys. We did miss you and we’re glad you’re back.
image from popmatters.com
The David Lee Roth-fronted Van Halen returns after a 28-year absence. Who else has made fans wait that long? Quite a few, it turns out.
All those who strolled their school halls in the late ‘70s or first half of the ‘80s clinging to a spiral notebook with a “VH” logo scrawled across the front knows that line from Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher”. Yes, boys. We did miss you and we’re glad you’re back.
New bassist Wolfgang Van Halen was walking the schools and crushing on high school educators just a few years ago. When Wolfie was born in 1991, his father and uncle were seven years removed from the classic 1984 album, the last to feature David Lee Roth.
With made-for-video Diamond Dave at the helm, Van Halen used that album to expand their hard rock audience to the MTV generation. The same kids who plopped down allowance money for Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual, and Madonna’s first album also bought 1984 by the boatloads. The album took Van Halen to its greatest commercial heights with US #1 single “Jump” as well as hits “Panama”, “I’ll Wait”, and the aforementioned “Hot for Teacher”.
Then Roth took his hairy chest and spandex out for a solo spin and never returned. Guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alex Van Halen, and then-bassist Michael Anthony recruited Sammy Hagar, one of the era’s few rockers with bigger hair than Roth. Although the faithful whined, somebody was still buying Van Hagar product, since they churned out four #1 studio efforts over the next decade. In the post-Red Rocker era, an ill-fated 1998 endeavor with Extreme’s Gary Cherone as the next dip into the whose-turn-is-it-now-to-front-our-group pool put a nail in the VH coffin.
Now, 14 years later, the lid has been pried off. With the release of A Different Kind of Truth, Wolfie experiences a studio album by Roth-era Van Halen for the first time in his life.
In his lifetime, Wolfie has also witnessed some of Pop’s contemporaries resurrect themselves. After The Long Run (1979) the Eagles let 28 long years fly by before reuniting for Long Road Out of Eden (2007). The Who went missing for 24 years between It’s Hard (1982) and Endless Wire (2006). The Cars shut the door after Door to Door (1987), finally revving up their engines again with Move Like This (2011). Steely Dan had gone incognito for two decades when Two Against Nature (2000) thrust them back into the limelight with a Grammy win for Album of the Year.
Guns N’ Roses have been showered with hype and scorn for most of Wolfie’s lifetime, thanks to constant postponements for the infamous Chinese Democracy. After the one-two punch of a pair of Use Your Illusion albums in 1991, a collection of covers for (1993’s The Spaghetti Incident?) was assumed to be a stopgap while the group readied its true follow-up. As the years and band members disappeared, frontman Axl Rose watched his image transform to that of an obsessive, egomaniacal micro-manager. When Chinese Democracy (2008) finally arrived, the votes opposed outweighed the votes in favor.
Rose isn’t the first agonizingly meticulous leader to unravel his band in the pursuit of perfection. Tom Scholz has traversed a similar “I’m committing career suicide” path. With Boston, he has released a scant five albums over a 36-year career. Scholz and Co. quickly followed the once best-selling debut in history (1976’s Boston) with Don’t Look Back (1978), but have done nothing timely since. An eight-year gap built demand for Third Stage (1986), sending the album and its lead single, “Amanda”, soaring to the tops of the US charts, but then the boys who gifted us with “More Than a Feeling” didn’t feel up to trotting out another release until Walk On (1994).
Fans walked away in droves and Corporate America (2002) made a paltry dent in the public’s wallets. Album #6 is supposed to come out this year. Scholz is the only remaining original member.
There have been other rock titans who never really went away, they just went solo while their bands went on holiday. Iggy Pop and David Johansen have regularly thrust product on the market, just not with their original groups. As such, their band’s reunions were perceived more as publicity stunts. Some 32 years separated Johansen’s New York Dolls’ Too Much Too Soon (1974) and One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006). The Stooges, led by Iggy Pop, topped that with 34 years between Raw Power (1973) and The Weirdness (2007). In both cases, the long overdue returns went unnoticed by the general public considering neither the bands nor their anchors were ever mainstream.
There are superstars who’ve likely boosted their careers with short-term vacations. In 1983, Def Leppard exploded with Pyromania. Fans went manic in anticipation during the four-year wait for Hysteria (1987). However, it proved an even bigger blockbuster than its predecessor. The group went dormant another five years before Adrenalize (1992), which left fans a little less than juiced.
Maybe Def Leppard needed all that time off to do some wardrobe shopping;
image from toptenz.net
Similarly, Michael Jackson took five years between Thriller (1982) and Bad (1987). For the rest of his career, at least four years transpired between albums. Considering his constant tabloid presence, his occasional chart absence probably helped make the arrival of new product a welcome event.
In 1975, Bruce Springsteen was eager to get a new album back on the shelves in the wake of Born to Run’s success. However, contract disputes led to a three-year work stoppage in what seemed like an eternity then. Bruce had other idle periods, taking five years off between Tunnel of Love (1987) and the double whammy of Human Touch and Lucky Town (1992) and seven years between The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995) and The Rising (2002). He’s been on fire ever since, seemingly rejuvenated by his time away. The upcoming Wrecking Ball will be his sixth studio effort this century.
Speaking of Springsteen’s newest, a few other classic rockers are slated to return to the scene in 2012. Kiss is due to release Monster, their first project since Sonic Boom (2009). The latter album was 11 years in the making. It became the group’s highest charter, peaking at #2 in the US, but it was also their first non-gold seller.
Rush returns this year with Clockwork Angels, their first album since Snakes & Arrows (2007). Their longest layoff, however, was between Test for Echo (1996) and Vapor Trails (2002). The delay had an effect on Rush similar to what Sonic Boom did to Kiss; Trails was Rush’s fourth consecutive top ten album, but first in their career to miss the gold mark.
Classic rockers aren’t the only ones to disappear for long stretches. Sade and Kate Bush have each retreated from the spotlight for at least decade-long absences. Country fans pray that Shania Twain and Garth Brooks end their decade-long sabbaticals. Of course, English folk singer/songwriter Vashti Bunyan makes them all look prolific. Frustrated with the poor reception of her 1970 album Just Another Diamond Day, she abandoned the music industry. What fan base she had acquired waited 35 years for her next effort, 2005’s Lookingafter.
My original concept for this article was an open request to one of my favorites to get back in the studio. I wouldn’t expect most readers to be familiar with Fish. No, I’m not talking about the jam-band Phish, led by Trey Anastasio. Fish is a Scottish singer who got his start with the British-based Marillion in the early ‘80s. That neo-prog outfit became my favorite band after Misplaced Childhood (1985), but Fish only stuck around for one more album, Clutching at Straws (1987), before embarking on a solo career. From 1990 to 2007, he never went more than three years between releases, unleashing nine studio undertakings.
However, nothing has happened since. Wikipedia indicates a working title of A Feast of Consequences for a 2012 release, but twitter and Facebook posts from Fish mention only current gigs, not any time spent in the studio.
Fish ponders asking Wolfie to work on his next album;
image from yerburystudio.com
I can wait a little longer. Long gaps in a treasured artist’s discography are painful, but endurable. An eventual return is better than a complete disappearance. VH and GNR fans survived. The Rush and Kiss armies have soldiered on. Even if The Stooges and New York Dolls could hardly capture the raw power of their initial work, there’s something cool about them treating their fans to long-awaited comebacks. Fish, just promise me Wolfgang Van Halen won’t be starting a band with his son before you’ve put out new product. I’ve missed you and I’ll be glad when you’re back.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
And This Year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees Should Be...
image from abcnewsradioonline.com
September 27, 2011: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its nominees for the 2012 class. See the DMDB blog entry And This Year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees Are… for details on who was nominated and who looks to be the best bets to get in. Of course, the new roster of nominees stirs a long-standing frustration over who keeps getting passed over. Heck, this subject served as the first DMDB blog entry, How to Get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in January 2009.
So who has been unfairly overlooked? If the DMDB was in charge of the 2012 inductees, these would be the five to get in. Note: click on acts’ names to see their entries in the DMDB music makers’ encyclopedia.
Kiss
In February, I wrote a blog entry entitled Why Kiss Belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I’m actually not a Kiss fan, but my argument is that it is impossible to overlook a band that is the embodiment of rock and roll. The popular criticism is that the band uses elaborate stage shows to mask an absence of substance. They may appeal to the crotch, but not the head. Any self-respecting adult would have long ago purged their collections of any traces of the group. Uh, note to the Rock Hall – apparently you’ve forgotten how much of rock and roll is about music which appeals to young adults because it is all about sex and over-the-top showmanship. By the way, once Kiss gets in, make way for the New York Dolls, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden. That also opens the door to hair bands. Most worthy of induction are Bon Jovi and Def Leppard.
image from omg.yahoo.com
Gram Parsons
Earlier this month, I wrote a blog entry about Parsons (Country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons died: September 19, 1973). That offers a brief overview of Parsons’ contributions. To sum it up here, writer Radley Balko argues that “Parsons may be the most influential artist yet to be inducted in either the Rock and Roll or Country Music Hall(s) of Fame”. The man who has been called “The Father of Country Rock” has four DMDB top 1000 albums – his own G.P. and Grievous Angel as well as The Byrds’ Sweetheart of the Rodeo and The Flying Burrito Brothers’ Gilded Palace of Sin. Groups like the Eagles and Poco owe their very existence to the foundation he helped build.
image from aquariumdrunkard.com
Rush
Rufus over Rush? The Hall has rightly acknowledged many R&B acts who have significantly shaped rock and roll. In its first two years, the Hall inducted Ray Charles, James Brown, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and Louis Jordan. However, years after the R&B base has been more than acknowledged, the Hall continues to hail R&B acts (the 2012 nominees include Rufus, The Spinners, War, and Donna Summer) at the expense of acts which have been rock first and foremost. This is glaringly apparent when it comes to progressive rock. The Hall has an obvious bias against it, having only inducted Genesis from the genre. Still failing to receive acknowledgement are Rush; Yes; King Crimson; Jethro Tull; The Moody Blues; and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. All of these acts are worthy, but if I could only pick one, I’d go with Rush as the act who best transcended the genre to appeal to hard rock and heavy metal audiences as well.
image from photobucket.com
Joy Division
The Cure gets a nod this year and I think they are worthy of Hall induction – but not before Joy Division. These two groups most define the genre of goth rock, but Joy Division got there first. In a previous blog entry, I called them “one of the most important post-punk bands for creating the template for goth music” (Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart charts: June 28, 1980). They only released two studio albums and gained a much wider audience in their re-incarnated-as-New Order form, but in launching goth rock, Joy Division also laid the platform on which much of ‘80s alternative rock – including The Cure – was formed. While we’re focused on groups who laid the foundation for the alt scene, The Smiths and Sonic Youth belong on the short list of acts which should be ushered in right after Joy Division.
image from sillything.altervista.org
Deep Purple
There’s still plenty of others worthy of Hall attention. I seriously considered giving this fifth spot to an artier, influential band like Kraftwerk, Roxy Music, Big Star, or Captain Beefheart. There’s also a serious case to be made for Stevie Ray Vaughan, that rare artist who moved an entire genre (the blues) forward while paying homage to its roots. However, the biggest and baddest act left deserving of enshrinement is Deep Purple. This would give the 2012 class a real dose of something the Hall has too long neglected – ROCK AND ROLL. What rock fan wouldn’t salivate at the idea that Deep Purple, Kiss, and Rush could all share a stage that night? The idea of a post-jam celebration including “Hush”, “Rock and Roll All Nite”, and “Tom Sawyer” just boggles the mind.
image from sonicabuse.com
Resources and Related Links:
- Notinhalloffame.com
- FutureRockLegends.com
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees
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