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Southern rock fail ... courtesy of dear old Mom

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Football_Bat, Jan 7, 2010.

  1. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    So I'm out of town visiting the folks. Their house is so old I have to hunt down a three-phase plug-in so I can charge my laptop.

    Geez Louise, it's a wonder how some rodent didn't bite into something it shouldn't've and all the baby pictures go up in smoke. But I digress.

    Next to said three-phase is an RCA "ghetto blaster" from the early 90s (second red flag). Only reason I know its vintage is it has a CD player. In the player is some K-Tel-slash-Rhino Records-style compilation CD called "Best of Southern Rock."

    (Third red flag.)

    Only problem is, alongside the mandatory Molly Hatchet, Skynyrd and Black Oak Arkansas on this CD is "Slow Ride" by Foghat and "The Boys Are Back in Town" by Thin Lizzy.

    What's wrong with this picture?

    Foghat were formed in London in 1971 from three of four members of Savoy Brown, who were quite bluesy. And Thin Lizzy were an Irish band formed in 1969 that pioneered the two-guitar sound and were very multiracial, thanks largely to Phil Lynott. You have "The Boys Are Back In Town," which follows a lot of the same chord progressions as similar songs of the day. Then you have "Jailbreak," which is different.

    You can probably throw Humble Pie and Robin Trower into the mix. But it's NOT SOUTHERN ROCK, dammit!

    Who has the bigger fail: Me for posting on this most of obscure topics; my mom for purchasing this crap; or the record company for the pawning of British blues rock off on a populace who'd give these guys a wedgie the minute they knew where they hailed from?
     
  2. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    The record company, definitely. Moms can't always be blamed for not knowing that the crap they're purchasing isn't exactly what it's billed as.

    I don't still have the album so I can't prove it, but I swear that my family once owned a Best of the British Invasion-themed LP that contained "Rescue Me" by Fontella Bass on Side 2. Maybe the K-Tel people or whoever it was genuinely thought Fontella Bass and Cilla Black were one and the same, or perhaps had been neighbours in Liverpool.
     
  3. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    No Wet Willie or Dixie Dregs on that album?

    Those K-Tel records always trumpeted "Original Hits, Original Artists". I remember having one that had the Richie Havens verison of "Here Comes The Sun". Hardly original.

    Minor threadjack here that I am sure JJ will hit out of the park: one of the great K-Tel albums ever (and a Christmas present for me when it was released - I might still have it):

    [​IMG]

    On the back you can sort of see (to the right of the Happy Days logo) where you could pull out a kind of cardboard stand for the album so you could prop it up on your desk or whatever and stare at the Fonz all day! It even had a track where you could try and imitate all the Fonz's cool lines! Good times!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  4. cortez

    cortez Member

    The Savoy Brown Blues Band, featuring Lonesome Dave on vocals, kicked ass!
     
  5. albert77

    albert77 Well-Known Member

    Dregs weren't commercial enough to get on a K-Tel album. Which is a damn shame, because they kicked ass. On the other hand, it gets bonus points if it has Elvin Bishop's "Travelin' Shoes."
     
  6. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    Marshall Tucker?
     
  7. finishthehat

    finishthehat Active Member

    London is in the south of England....it's the northerners there who are stereotyped as hicks.

    So maybe K-Tel is just a little more geographically and culturally sophisticated than you give it credit for.

    But probably not.
     
  8. cortez

    cortez Member

    My favorite K-Tel record back in the day featured "Smokin in the Boys Room'' by Brownsville Station
     
  9. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    I had K-Tel's Starz and Music Machine as my first albums, and I think one of them came with a poster of Andy Gibb. Just what a 7-year-old boy wants.

    Probably the worst song on either one: Addrisi Brothers, "Slow Dancin' Don't Turn Me On"



    The strangest was War's "The World is a Ghetto," not because it's a strange song or it's a bad song (it's great, actually), but because the albums featured 1977 music, and this is from 1973. Did 1977 run out of songs?

     
  10. nmmetsfan

    nmmetsfan Active Member

    Do you buy a CD for a history lesson or because you like the songs?
     
  11. Captain_Kirk

    Captain_Kirk Well-Known Member

    OK, I am very intrigued. What songs made the cut as Fonzie's Favorites?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  12. Captain_Kirk

    Captain_Kirk Well-Known Member

    I can speak from experience that yes, 1977 did run out of songs.
     
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