40 Years Ago This Month: Brinsley Schwarz and Others I Missed

Brinsley Schwarz Silver Pistol


[Buy It]

Four English guys (including bass player Nick Lowe) find the sweet spot between The Band and The Byrds and invent "pub rock". This is Brinsley Schwarz's third album, and the first to feature a fifth member,  guitarist and songwriter Ian Gomm. "Merry Go Round" is a good example of the band's blue collar pop sensibilities. Makes you want to quaff a beer just listening to it.





Eric Andersen Blue River

[Buy It]

As beautiful and well crafted an album as Blue River is said to be, I have to admit I haven't listened to it all that much. Let's call it a "grower". After all The Rolling Stone Record Guide called Blue River "the best example of the 70's singer/songwriter movement" and Andersen did get Joni Mitchell to contribute some ethereal vocals on the title cut ( which I could listen to all day). Somehow the record company lost all the tapes to Andersen's 1973 follow-up album so any momentum Andersen created with Blue River was lost by the time 1975's Be True To You came out.


Fanny Fanny Hill

[Buy The Box Set]

Before the Runaways, The Go Go's or Bangles, there was Fanny, an all chick rock band made up of the two Millington sisters, Nickey Barclay on keyboards and Alice de Buhr on drums.  Richard Perry ( who would later oversee albums by Carly Simon and Ringo Starr) produced the first three Fanny albums, including Fanny Hill from which we're showcasing "Sound And The Fury", a rock n roll road song as told from a woman's point of view. The Go Go's played this live every so often.