Late evening listening – greater than the sum of its parts
If a band has a singer with a distinctive, powerful voice, it can be a double-edged sword. Odds are he’s going to move on and the band members never really reach those heights again that the band itself did. It’s understandable that Steve Winwood, for example, wanted to explore new directions but that band was really something as it was.
Blondie was similar. She dominated it but without the band, she was only fair. Eric Burdon did much later [Monterrey etc.] but it was the Animals which are remembered with great affection and Alan Price was a huge factor in that.
It goes the other way too. Rod Stewart did a lot after The Faces but it was only after he regularized his musos and brought in J’Anna Jacoby and the others that he reinvented himself. I wonder if Ian Curtis would have been so great by himself? I for one was drawn in by the chemistry in that group and the inventiveness.
Steve Winwood comes across as a young man out for himself in the clip above but this interview below shows a different man:
Filed under: Music
Wish you’d included Runaround Sue.