# Before They Were Famous: Early Musical Gems **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 5, 2020, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227 "2020-05-05T20:53:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227/41 "2020-05-09T14:52:40Z")
Funny I see this thread as in my Facebook feed I just saw [Flip City](https://youtu.be/NotOtWbwwaE) featuring a young Elvis Costello. Amongst other things, it has a lot of early versions of what would become songs on This Years Model but played more in the style of My Aim is True. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227/42 "2020-05-09T15:27:18Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Funny I see this thread as in my Facebook feed I just saw [Flip City](https://youtu.be/NotOtWbwwaE) featuring a young Elvis Costello. Amongst other things, it has a lot of early versions of what would become songs on This Years Model but played more in the style of My Aim is True. Well, there goes my Saturday evening - I shall be self-isolating with this. I know some of the songs - **Imagination** isn’t just an early gem, it’s one of his best songs. Thank you, **Ludovic**. [Here’s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UPscj1ao30) another that he used to play back in the day - there’s a studio version somewhere, but I can’t find it just now. Decades ago I knew this as “I Wrote This Song” - it was only in the last months that a chance listening to a **Kilburn And The Highroads** album (now there’s another potential gem mine) wised me up: it’s an Ian Dury song called [The Roadette Song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZUDV64z7c4). j ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227/43 "2020-05-09T18:27:39Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > This is the shortened version, but you can find the 16 minute version of Frank Zappa playing the bicycle on the Steve Allen Show on YouTube also. > > [https://youtu.be/izDvYokFU7U](https://youtu.be/izDvYokFU7U) > > ETA: this is a great thread. I’ve always enjoyed the 16 minute version of this clip. You can watch as Steve Allen, an intelligent and accomplished musician himself, gradually realizes that Frank was a serious musician behind the comedy/novelty facade. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227/44 "2020-05-09T21:11:15Z")
Nick Cave pre-Birthday Party. [Shivers](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsIPoRTBV44) ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227/45 "2020-05-09T21:32:40Z")
Robert Vaughn introduces the Goldberg [Steve] Miller Blues Band in 1965: [The Mother Song](https://youtu.be/s8vOgHz5Kyk) ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2020, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227/46 "2020-05-09T23:32:36Z")
Nowadays, Sweeney Todd is a mostly-forgotten Canadian band, but they did have a 1975 Canadian hit with [Roxy Roller](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10_QxxDT2KQ). That’s Nick Gilder on lead vocal, by the way, before he left the band and went on to a solo career, where he became best known for “Hot Child in the City,” and “Here Comes the Night.” But Sweeney Todd didn’t stop there. Gilder’s replacement was a 16-year-old named Bryan Adams, who sang lead on the band’s second album, released in 1977. Here he is doing lead vocal on [If Wishes Were Horses](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGia8YRW7M8), which was a single from that album (the music actually starts at 0:20). But the album (and the single) were unsuccessful, and Adams left the band. The band tried to keep going, but couldn’t, and eventually broke up by 1978 or 1979. Adams, of course, went on to have an extremely successful solo career, with hits such as “Summer of '69,” “Cuts Like a Knife,” and “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You,” among many others. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227/47 "2020-05-10T00:05:14Z")
Fleetwood Mac went through two incarnations before Buckingham and Nicks joined and they became world-devouring superstars. The Peter Green years included dreamy instrumentals like “Albatross” and the slammin’ pop single “Oh Well, part 1.” (Part 2 was a slow, near-orchestral soundscape which is worth listening to.) Green also wrote “Black Magic Woman,” later a huge hit for Santana. Christine Perfect joined and then Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch while Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer went bonkers and version 2.0 started with _Kiln House_. Welch wrote some fantastic songs like “Future Games” and Hypnotized" and the classic “Sentimental Lady.” Kirwan did “Bare Trees” and one of my all-time favorite instrumentals, “Sunny Side of Heaven.” For most groups, this would be a legacy of greatness, but it’s next to forgotten because of their later success. I’ve been to a couple of their recent tours and they play virtually nothing from this period. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227/48 "2020-05-10T00:12:25Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The Peter Green years included dreamy instrumentals like “Albatross” and the slammin’ pop single “Oh Well, part 1.” (Part 2 was a slow, near-orchestral soundscape which is worth listening to.) Green also wrote “Black Magic Woman,” later a huge hit for Santana. Well, this is all true, but leaves out the fact that the Green/Kirwan/Spencer/Fleetwood/McVie outfit was one of the very finest British blues bands of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227/49 "2020-05-10T05:57:54Z")
I guess this isn’t the time to mention _Y Kant Tori Read_, huh. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227/50 "2020-05-10T13:31:00Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > One that slipped my mind. Don’t know how well this is known in the US. There was quite a kefuffle when this was a hit in the UK - an old session recording released after the session singer became famous. I remember the singer resolving matters by saying in the music press that he had no problem with the release, as he had been paid “handsomely” for the session. For a bit of fun, you can, if you wish, take a listen before checking out who it is. [The record](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcLlq_DXpY8). > > The artist: > > Python Lee Jackson feat Rod Stewart - In A Broken Dream > > [The wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_Broken_Dream). > > j Great song, and one if Stewart’s best. But he had already become a star with the Jeff Beck Group, which hit #15 on the US charts. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227/51 "2020-05-10T16:13:45Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Well, this is all true, but leaves out the fact that the Green/Kirwan/Spencer/Fleetwood/McVie outfit was one of the very finest British blues bands of the time. Yeah, I stuck to individual songs that got played in America and you still hear on oldies channels. Their whole history requires a book. Heck, I left out that Christine Perfect was named "top female vocalist of the year’’ for a song she did with Chicken Shack before she joined the Mac. Or that Kirwan and McVie played on her first solo album. Or that McVie and Fleetwood were one of Britain’s top rhythm sections for years prior to Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. The group and its history is underrated and ignored because of its huge 70s pop success, IMO, when they were seized upon as if brand new and the older cool kidz barfed on them. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2020, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227/52 "2020-05-10T16:29:26Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Great song, and one if Stewart’s best. But he had already become a star with the Jeff Beck Group, which hit #15 on the US charts. Thanks for that, Chuck - you took me by surprise because Rod as part of the Jeff Beck Group had [precious little success in the UK](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Beck_discography) up to that time. It was a surprise to me that they had had considerable success in the US. And this does explain something that had been puzzling me. Until I put some background together for the post, I had never looked at the wiki for [In A Broken Dream](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_Broken_Dream), which says: > [@](#): > > …Re-released in 1972 following the rise to stardom by Stewart, the song reached number 56 in the US charts before greater success in the UK later that year… I had been idly wondering why, seemingly, it was released in the US before the UK - perhaps we now have the explanation. j ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2020, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227/53 "2020-05-11T06:22:39Z")
Try [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n97wSNIrHpw), don’t read the comments and see if you can work out who the bearded hippie soulfully playing the recorder is. Bon Scott [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous-early-musical-gems/853227.md?page=2)