Pre-fame/pre-hits Favorite Albums/Artists

[jamestkirk]

I still have my favorite albums and artists whose per-hit days will always be the albums I pull out over their later big hit daze...


...so let's share the artists and their albums that we grew to love, long before the bands were bit hit-machines...not necessarily any less quality with the hit LPS, but somehow when they were unknown, they were our special secret artists that only a select lucky few knew about.

By the way, our favorite the DOORS don't fit here...they were a hit from day one and never were anyone's secret band! Unless you were lucky enough to have seen them before Arthur Lee forced Holzman to go see them in a dark dive on Sunset Strip.


Jethro Tull

I never discovered their really rare first bluesy LP until decades later, but their second LP "STAND UP" was and is my all time favorite by Tull. It was really different to my ears, something special. I love tracks from their third LP, Benefit, but it somehow was a bit more commercial and just not as special. I do love Benefit, but STAND UP is the one!

STAND UP--full album listen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWt1YBhkc4Y

And it is also one of the coolest gatefold album covers of all time! I have the first press REPRISE/Chrysalis vinyl. Actually with a REPRISE label on the vinyl, before it was released on a Chrysalis label. (the UK Island release is pictured)

Very cool!

So share yours....I have many more coming...

[morrisonhendrix]

Neat. I'll have to give that a listen. I was turned off by the flute when I was younger, but learned to like their material more, the older I got.

[jamestkirk]

Springsteen before he was born to run. Don't get me wrong, I thing Bruce is one of the greatest songwriters of our era..our own modern day Pete Seeger or Woody Guthrie.

We loved Bruce in Phoenix in the early 70's when most of the ret f the country hadn't heard of him outside Asbury Park NJ.

So I actually have two Springsteen treasured LPs before his massive hit Born To Run.

Bruce always played 3+ hours shows back then, still does. He never forgets who loves him, who put him there. The fans.

Greeetings From Asbury Park, NJ

Growin' Up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3Cs-bZ2YX0

Early early Bruce form Asbury Park outtakes...full listen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwayJnjc5Fk


Springsteen signed a record deal with Columbia Records in 1972 with the help of John Hammond, who had signed Bob Dylan to the same label a decade earlier. Springsteen brought many of his New Jersey–based colleagues into the studio with him, thus forming the E Street Band (although it would not be formally named as such for several more years). His debut album Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., released in January 1973, established him as a critical favorite though sales were slow.

Because of Springsteen's lyrical poeticism and folk rock–rooted music exemplified on tracks like "Blinded by the Light" and "For You", as well as the Columbia and Hammond connections, critics initially compared Springsteen to Bob Dylan. "He sings with a freshness and urgency I haven't heard since I was rocked by 'Like a Rolling Stone'" wrote Crawdaddy magazine editor Peter Knobler in Springsteen's first interview/profile in March 1973. Photographs for that original profile were taken by photographer Ed Gallucci. Crawdaddy discovered Springsteen in the rock press and was his earliest champion. Knobler profiled him in Crawdaddy three times, in 1973, 1975 and 1978.(Springsteen and the E Street Band acknowledged by giving a private performance at the Crawdaddy 10th Anniversary Party in New York City in June 1976.)

Springsteen once said that he heard Like A rolling Stone in 1966 [or 1965 I forget-lk) and from that opening rim shot, it was like an explosion of the new electric rock that inspired Bruce to become a rock and roll musician.


One of those cool Unipak album jackets...only the center color art folds open...



And what I consider a masterpiece of the early 70's rock scene...and my all time favorite Springsteen album. And I saw Bruce live during this album's time...at the end of the show Bruce played a new song, as yet unreleased-Jungleland.



Sandy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgFHM8HMbWQ

New York City Serenade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EooiBaW1BA

In September 1973 his second album The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle was released, again to critical acclaim but no commercial success. Springsteen's songs became grander in form and scope, with the E Street Band providing a less folky, more R&B vibe, and the lyrics often romanticized teenage street life. "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" and "Incident on 57th Street" would become fan favorites, and the long, rousing "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" continues to rank among Springsteen's most beloved concert numbers.