Underrated - C's

So all this underrated talk (to myself primarily, sometimes walls, other times wood sprites) has me wondering if underrated is the right word. Is under-appreciated the more correct concept? Many of these songs were lauded by obscurist music critics, which thus prompted me to investigate and purchase the record in the first place. However, underrated suggests a more objective standpoint, as in, "You should listen to this song not because I like it and feel it is under-appreciated, but because it is an objectively good song, but has been neglected by audiences and critics for any number of reasons."

In essence, all I'm trying to say with any of this is if you generally enjoy a wide variety of music and you haven't heard these songs, it is my belief that you will like them very much, perchance even love them. If you have heard them before, but did not find them particularly interesting or good, give them another shot.

On to the C's:



The Commitments- "Treat Her Right," The Commitments

The movie is up there in the pantheon of great independent/arthouse Irish flicks that turned into phenomena in the states: Waking Ned Devine, In the Name of the Father, Billy Elliot, The Crying Game, Darby O'Gill and the Little People....But in the case of The Commitments, the soundtrack is what we all truly remember, blue-eyed soul and impeccable covers of the best Stax and Motown songs.

"Treat Her Right" is by no means a canonical '60s song and, chances are, few people born after 1965 could tell you that Roy Head and The Traits did the song originally. And even on this record, "Treat Her Right" doesn't grab the listener as quickly as "Mustang Sally" or "In the Midnight Hour." The lyric doesn't get to the chorus for nearly ninety seconds and for the first minute you might not know what song you're listening to.

But when the chorus hits, you know exactly what song it is and, good gravy, it takes real effort not to shout right along with the song. Get a group of ten or more people together, feed them a beer or two, and everyone will be "Hey Hey Hey-ing" before they even realize what's happening. After which you can all do this

until everyone passes out or pukes.

Treat Her Right - The Commitme...

Crooked Fingers - "When U Were Mine," Resevoir Songs EP

Here's where things get tricky. There's very little chance that this song would have ever been popular, and the historical evidence bears this out on several occasions. Prince wrote the song and put it on Dirty Mind in 1980, but didn't ever release it as single. Mitch Ryder tried to make a comeback with this as his lead single (Mellencamp produced the record), circa 1983, and of course we're all still listening to Mitch, right? Later in the '83, Cyndi Lauper murdered it with extreme prejudice. From the album cover of Dirty Mind (Prince wearing only a bejeweled duster and a thong), to the content of the lyrics--a guy lamenting his relationship with a group-sex enthusiast, who wears all of his clothes and doesn't change the sheets after all of his friends come over and "meet"--this was never going to be a mainstream hit.

Why this song is underrated has everything to do with the fact that Eric Bachman and Crooked Fingers are a very good band--great live and on record-- and the fact that I own a copy of Mitch Ryder's comeback effort, because my uncle played keyboards on the supporting tour.

The Crooked Fingers Resevoir Songs EP, which contains "When U Were Mine," is a haunting little recording, made up solely of cover songs. Selections range from Springsteen's "The River" to Bowie's "Under Pressure," all performed with very peculiar arrangements--check the spooky Appalachian banjo on this track. I love this song, particularly Crooked Fingers' version, and hope that this freeky-deeky elegy to love lost grows on everybody else.

When U Were Mine - Crooked Fin...