Whatcha Listening To?

Eric Patterson said:
In high school I don't remember a single friend of mine listening to Blue Oyster Cult. They knew who they were but nobody was in to them. I thought they were better than most of the metal bands getting played at the time. Maybe their lyrics were a bit too disparate.


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Long ago my friends and I bought their albums and saw them in arenas at least twice. We never took the lyrics to serious and the music was good. Especially Live. Very few bands are as good live as the album, and some are better.
 
Saw in the paper today that it's the 40th anniversary of the release of Paul Simon's Graceland Album. This was not one of the big radio hits, but I was already a Los Lobos fan so I paid more attention to it because they played as the back-up band on it. It's grown on me over the years. And I cannot hear "the Mississippi Delta was shining like a National guitar" line from Graceland--which was a huge radio hit--without thinking about ducks.
 
Matthew Sweet is one of those guys that had some big time success but also spent years unrecognized. The thing that got me respecting his music is he never chased trends nor made music his label wanted him to make. Rather he was an honest musician that wrote according to what he felt the need to write. When glam metal crashed his music took off and he got to be a recognized act. It wasn't because he jumped on the alternative train as started rolling. He had been there for years writing stripped down honest rock. When alternative was the thing and he was at his highest he didn't give us more of the same, he pivoted to more mature material. A few years ago he suffered a major stroke and is no longer able to write and perform. Regardless, his work, influence, and legacy is undeniable.

 
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