I just now scrolled through the whole thread, and found inspiration. A lotta great suggestions, some I had forgotten making myself. After subjecting ya’ll to my rant directly above, I thought the least I could do is make a constructive contribution to this excellent conversation.
But there are SO many what I think would be considered obscure albums in my music library, how to choose a few? I decided to go with the lesser known albums by some of my all-time favorite bands, groups, or artists, whether or not they themselves are obscure names.
- Old Enough by Lou Ann Barton. Her debut album, produced by the great Jerry Wexler (Aretha, Dylan, hundreds of others) and the not-so-great Glenn Frey. Though her debut solo album, she first gained notoriety in 1977 as the singer in Austin Texas band Triple Threat Revue, whose guitarist was the brother of Jimmie Vaughan of The Fabulous Thunderbirds. You may have heard of him: Stevie Ray. The album didn’t sell many copies (I bought mine on release day), nor did follow ups. Lou Ann sometimes goes on the road with Jimmie, and remains one of my favorite white chick singers.
- Speaking of The Fab T-Birds, their Tuff Enough album was produced by Dave Edmunds, relatively well known for his string of fantastic albums on Swan Song Records (personally signed by Robert Plant, a big fan) and his group with Nick Lowe, Rockpile (one great album), along with the albums he produced for The Stray Cats, The Everly Brothers, numerous others. Less well known are his first two albums: Rockpile (album title) on Regal Zonophone, and Subtle As A Flying Mallet on Rockfield Records. Not being a songwriter, both albums are comprised of covers of old songs, done as only Edmunds could. On both albums Dave sings all the parts, and plays most of the instruments. Rockpile contains his insanely great reinvention of the Smiley Lewis Blues, "I Hear You Knocking" (which features one of my three or four favorite guitar solos of all time), and on the last track of each LP side of SAAFM is a Chuck Berry song recorded live at the Top Rank pub in Cardiff, Wales (Edmunds is Welsh), his backing band being the UK band Brinsley Schwarz, whose bassist/singer/songwriter was Nick Lowe.
- Speaking of Rockpile (;-), when they played The Country Club in Reseda, CA in 1980, their opening act was Moon Martin. I was already aware of Moon (my ex-wife ran his fan club), whose debut solo album (he had previously been in the band Southwind, who had two albums released on Blue Thumb Records. Obscure enough for ya? ;-) Shots From A Cold Nightmare on Capitol Records is pure American Rock ’n’ Roll. Produced by Craig Leon, the album contains all killer/no filler songs, including "Bad Case Of Loving You" (later lamely covered by Robert Palmer) and "Cadillac Walk" (with a cool cover version by Mink DeVille). Musicians on the album include Phil Seymour (The Dwight Twilley Band) on drums and Gary Valentine (Blondie) on bass. The LP was mastered by Bob Ludwig. Buy it!
- Signed to Columbia Records in the wake of the success of the debut by The Knack, The Beat made one great s/t album. I saw them playing live around L.A. a number of times, and they were one of the most dynamic Power Pop bands that ever existed. Play the LP loud! Singer/Songwriter/rhythm guitarist Paul Collins had earlier been in a trio with Peter Case (The Plimsouls) and Jack Lee (writer of "Hangin’ On The Telephone"), named The Nerves. Their sole release---a 7" EP---is not only obscure, but rare and worth a coupla hundred bucks. I had two copies, sold one a few years back.
- Randy Newman is very well known, but his s/t debut album is unlike all that followed. Not in the least Rock ’n’ Roll, it sounds very "old" (in a good way). Fantastic songs performed on piano with accompaniment, heavily orchestrated. A remarkable debut by a superb songwriter.
- I’ve talked about this album before, but it bears repeating. My Life by Iris DeMent makes life worth living. Very respected by her peers (Emmylou Harris, Joan Osborne, John Prine, etc.), she writes songs no one else could. Some find her unique voice an acquired taste, but I find it delicious. So did Merle Haggard, who covered her devastating song "No Time To Cry", found on this album.
- Who owns and has listened to the Smile boxset? I consider Brian Wilson one of the few genuine near-geniuses Rock ’n’ Roll has produced, and Smile was to have been his ultimate artistic achievement. Alas, it was not to be. It’s too long a tale to fully tell here, but in short Smile was intended to be the story (lyrics by another near genius, Van Dyke Parks) of Manifest Destiny set to music. Aaron Copland would have approved ;-) .
