Very good thread Geoff. Lovely idea.
I mean most of us have had a 'Joe' moment in the last few years, but it is the ones that take you back to a place or event that stick.
Had a couple of those which I would gladly share.
I was in a bar in Lille, France a few years back with a then customer of mine on a factory visit. Barman stuck on a CD and the most wicked blues cut through the atmosphere. It was familiar style of playing but the great vocals had me fooled. I just had to know. Turned out to be a guy called Melvyn Taylor, who I had never heard of. Seems he had some success in France and other parts of Europe but he was out of Chicago. Just absolutely mental great playing. To this day I fail to understand how somebody that good isnt a household name.
Much earlier, in the '70's, I was at The Who's Charlton gig. Mid afternoon on comes this unknown act before Little Feat. They massacred us. An unbelievable set. That was the Florida Guitar Army aka The Outlaws. I was instantly a fan for life. How Little Feat followed them I will never know. They did a good job but man it must have been a thankless task.
So finally and even earlier my mates Aunt works at a packaging firm and starts bringing him rejected or damaged copies of albums. Like stuff we had never even heard of. We were 12 and used to hearing pop-pap the whole time on the radio.
So there's this one with a pretty extreme cover. No idea what to expect. First track and two 12 year olds reduced to frantic jibbering wrecks. This was music on a level we had never heard before. Talk about mind developing. The track was 21st Century Schizoid Man and the album of course, In the Court of the Crimson King. I hope he still has it because it would be worth a fortune now. It had some odd printing irregularities which would probably make it quite rare.
No Hits, No Hype.......................Classic Rock Jan 2012
