Weekend Listomania (Special Baby With the Bathwater Audio/Video Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental erectile funfest consultant Fah Lo Suee and I will be off to the basement of the Washington Post, where along with Dean of the Washington Press Corps David Broder we'll be watching home movies of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin [R-Morals-Free Harriadan] writing excerpts from The Story of O on her right palm.

That being the case, further posting by moi will have to be sporadic for a day or two.

In the meantime, then, here's a hopefully fun little project for us all:

Best or Worst Post-Elvis Pop/Rock Band Featuring an Artist Who Became Better Known in a Subsequent Band!!!

One arbitrary rule: Nobody who was a member of Crosby, Still, Nash and Young is eligible, with the exception of the sidemen. Also: Those who nominate folkie acts will be mercilessly mocked by me on a case by case basis.

And my totally top of my head Top Six is:

6. The Great Society (Grace Slick)




Every couple of years, I pull out Grace's pre-Airplane records and see if they sound any better to me than they did back in the day, but they never do. Seriously -- an A/B comparison of this and the Airplane hit does not, shall we say, do the Great Society's original any favors.

5. The Sutherland Brothers and Quiver (Bruce Thomas)



This is actually a very nice record, and the Sutherlands also made one absolutely classic single, "I Don't Want to Love You." But jeebus, what a bunch of dorks. Hard to believe that the geeky bass player on the left went on to be Mr. Cool as a member of Elvis Costello and the Attractions.

4. Trip Shakespeare (Dan Wilson)




Wilson, of course, went on to the far more commercially successful Semisonic and the Grammy-winning hit annoyance "Closing Time." This earlier outfit was much better, I think, and the song above, "Bachelorette," from their 1991 Lulu album, is a long time fave. A monster groove, and my gosh -- the drummer was a girl!!!!

3. The Bloodless Pharaohs (Brian Setzer)




Listening to this crap in retrospect, it's obvious that Setzer was a cool guitarist even before the Stray Cats. But this lot was hands down the dullest of the 80s post-punk downtown NYC art-rock bands. Lousy name, too.

2. The Paramounts (Gary Brooker, Robin Trower, B.J. Wilson)




The Paramounts were apparently a great live club act -- The Rolling Stones publically proclaimed them their favorite r&b band on a least one occasion -- but their records, including the above cover of Allen Toussaint's classic "A Certain Girl," don't quite seem to capture whatever it was they had onstage. In any case, a couple of years after this stuff was recorded, three of them found deserved fame and fortune as part of the classic lineup of Procol Harum.

And the numero uno pre-celebrity band featuring somebody who is much better known for a much bigger group is, quite obviously...

1. The Move (Jeff Lynne)




The Move weren't even Lynne's first band, of course. But the fact that they were all but unknown in the US and that their version of this song was not only not a hit but in fact necessitated the almost identical ELO remake, is probably proof of the non-existence of God. Or something.

Alrighty then -- what would your choices be?

[Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel Cinema Listomania -- theme: the movie (good, bad or embarrassing) that always makes you cry! -- is now up over at Box Office. As always, I'd take it as a personal favorite if you could go over there and leave a comment, thus reassuring management that my exorbitant freelance fee wouldn't be better spent on hookers and blow for the staff. Thanks!]