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Criminally commercially unsuccessful bands
- Thread starter Jason42
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- record sales success
"Brother" is in my mind one of the greatest debut albums ever recorded..Cry Of Love, were the real deal.
In the UK, 'It Bites' were a band that should have been big, but one dodgy single (Calling All The Heroes) seemed to put paid to their rise....it was the weakest song on, The Big Lad In The Windmill...but the most commercial.....even now i can hear the RecExs trying to make a quick buck on their investment.
Check out there first three albums released over a 14 month period from 88-89
The Big Lad In The Windmill
One Around The World
Eat me In St. Louis.
Afghan Whigs. So good, but when the grunge craze took shape it didn’t leave a lot of room for well-dressed, short haired bands with heavy soul influences.
I was just listening to their 1st album yesterday. Great album. I was always surprised they weren't bigger.
I always thought the Beatles would make a bigger impact. They seemed like a pretty good four piece.
I'd like to say King Crimson, but no, they never should have made it big. Almost did once or twice, almost destroyed them. Some things are best when not over shared.
During the early 80's golden age, Levin, Belew, Bruford, I read a funny quote from Bruford when asked if he was happy playing in KC? He answered, "In what other band can I play in 15/16 and still stay in a decent hotel?"
KC was never going to be an arean band. Even if culturally possible, I don't believe Fripp would have stood for it.
I think he has quite explicitly said as much on a few occasions. Definitely not into the whole arena rock star thing, kind of the antithesis of that approach.
There are so many but I'll throw Little Feat out there, they were a band that influenced so many musicans but never made any cash.
I kind of love this thread even though generally I'm MEH about polls. XTC, such a great band. One, inconsistent and the refusals to travel to tour didn't help. Two, making people think with provocotive and intelligent lyrics is NOT the path to filling stadiums. Here's the thoughtful lyrics that makes superstars:
"If there's a bustle in you hedgrow, don't be alarmed now; it's just a spring clean for the May Queen."
Not quite "No Thugs in our house, or Melt the Guns, is it?
Elbow & Black Rebel Motorcycle Club come to mind.
And of course Savatage begat Trans-Siberian Orchestra, who were certainly pretty big in their own way--perhaps more as a touring extravaganza than as recording artists, though they made some pretty good records and sold a lot of them, too.
Going back to early prog - Happy The Man should've been bigger than they were...
“Respectable Street” is right up there with any Ray Davies social critique.
I don't know if they "should" have made it to arenas but I thought Icicle Works was criminally under appreciated. All the good parts of XTC and Tears for Fears mixed together but buried in a sea of similar sounding quirky, 80's synth pop. Wang Chung was another execellent synth-pop band but they had their few moments of being "big".
