Best classic rock hidden gems
 

Who do you think are some of the best bands of the 60's and 70's besides the obvious giants like Zeppelin, Cream, The Beatles, The Who, etc...? There were some great bands back then that not many people know about now. Here are some of my favorites:

Captain Beyond
Rare Bird
Spooky Tooth
Cactus
Wishbone Ash
Rainbow
Atomic Rooster
Humble Pie
Trapeze
Mott The Hoople
Uriah Heep
The Small Faces
Procol Harum

It's funny that you said Spooky Tooth. The classic rock station here in Hampton Roads was talking about how Gary Wright was the keyboardist of Spooky Tooth before becoming successful as a solo artist.

Spooky Tooth were the first band that Hendrix jammed with when he came to England to work with Animals manager, Chas Chandler - but they were called the V.I.P.s back then.

The band worked on the first album to include the term "Heavy Metal" back in 1967, and later worked with pioneering electronic composer Pierre Henry (who wrote the mega-sampled track Psyche Rock in 1967). They were called Art back then, but changed their name to Spooky Tooth when Gary Wright joined.

Greg Ridley left the Spookies to join Humble Pie.
Luther Grosvenor played with Stealer's Wheel and Mott the Hoople - and went on to found Widowmaker.

"Better By You, Better Than Me" was (in)famously covered by Judas Priest, they influenced Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath - and probably more diverse groups like Uriah Heep and even Blue Oyster Cult.

Oddly enough, they're not one of my favourite bands - just one of the most interesting.


Add to the list;

Dust
Khan
Wildfire
Buffalo
Warhorse
May Blitz
Jericho Jones
Fuzzy Duck
Pussy
Fanny

...I think 10 is enough for now - they're all good :D

I don`t buy that.........I think they`re your favourite:finger:

Another 10 - some more obscure (and a couple not quite so obscure) crazy diamonds;

Jeronimo
Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come
Necronomicon (much more Kraut than Classic - but amazing, if you can actually find it)
Focus (and Jan Akkerman's solo stuff)
The Scorpions
Bakerloo
Catapilla
Dr Z
Indian Summer
T2


and...

Harsh Reality

Where do you dig all these bands out from?

I have an obsession with "discovering" the more obscure bands, especially those whose vinyl albums sell for silly money.

They tend to sell for high prices because of their rarity - which means you almost never get to hear them on the radio or anywhere else, because so few people have actually heard of them.

I've discovered that they sell for such huge amounts because collectors like to have a complete catalogue of particular labels - e.g. Vertigo "Swirl" - like stamp collecting. These vinyls tend to grow in value over the years - e.g. both of Catapilla's albums - even a damaged copy sells for hundreds of pounds.

Such a pity to horde great potentially great music and never listen to it.

The ones I go for and recommend are the ones I actually like, and fortunately, you can find most of it on Blogspot, because they're so obscure that record companies can't be bothered with them as they make nothing out of the outrageously huge sums that these records trade for :D

For example, this copy of "Tips Zum Selbstmord" by Necronomicon ended on eBay by someone using the Buy It Now feature.

I can't remember if it's 200 or 500 copies that exist, but it's something like that. The band financed an exact re-release a couple of years ago on a different label, and all copies went within a day or two. I made sure to get mine :D

The music is rough as hell, as it was recorded live onto a 4-track - but it's simply amazing, if you can get past that and the limited production;





Here's youtubes of selected tracks of the others from my last post;

Jeronimo's 1970 hit;



Arthur Brown at Glastonbury's first festival in 1971;



Focus' first hit;



The Scorpions promo from 1973;



Nice instrumental from Bakerloo's debut in 1969;



Catapilla, from their second album (1972);



Dr Z (1971);



Indian Summer (1970);



T2 (1970);




...and Harsh Reality (1969)!;




ENJOY - there are so many more I could dig up :D

Dust (1971)


Khan (1972)


Wildfire don't seem to have any Youtubes available - but you can download their lost 1970 album here. Quicksand is my recommended track - it's long, but fan-bloody-tastic.

Of course, there's always the NWoBHM Wildfire (1983), featuring Iron Maiden's first vocalist, Paul Mario Day - they're quite a hidden gem too (***Extreme Spinal Tap moment alert***);



Buffalo (1973)


Warhorse (1970)


May Blitz (1970)


Jericho Jones (1972)


Fuzzy Duck (1971)


Pussy (1969)


Fanny Once you've got over the shock of an all-girl band who play ALL their instruments from 1970... ****SERIOUSLY AMAZING MUSIC ALERT****

Thanks man, these are some great bands. I'm always happy to find some good rock and roll I've never heard. I'll have to look more into these groups. You ever listen to Captain Beyond's first album?

Yes indeed - great album.

As a kind of aside, I recently found out that the members of Fanny played on the album "Stoney End" by Barbra Streisand of all people.

I tracked down a copy today, and was delighted to hear that it is a great sounding album - and 3 of the songs on it are written by Laura Nyro, including the rather cool title track, and one by Joni Mitchell.

Other great names appear among the credits too - it's a Barbra Streisand album I can actually recommend to people without feeling a bit silly.

Of course, I do have a soft spot for the Bee Gees penned "Guilty", and the emotional rollercoaster that is "Make it Like a Memory".