Is there anything more depressing as a music fan than stumbling across the obligatory, every 5 years or so, 'BEST 100 ALBUMS EVER MADE' lists that the UK press (NME, Q etc) foists upon the general public? In this world we have The Fabs (obvs), Stones, Dylan, Zep, Radiohead, Pet Sounds and whoever is deemed to be good generally that week (so 10 years ago The Strokes, 5 years ago The Arctic Monkeys, these days probably Adele) and THAT'S IT. Barely any woman, very few innovators, hardly anyone not from the UK or the States and almost hardly anybody not white, skinny and holding a guitar. Yes, i know, these lists are merely here to promote debate and ultimately drive people to the website advertising (by 'press' i obviously meant 'web') but as a father, i'm aware that there are young minds out there, who really DO think that (What's The Story)Morning Glory? is a better, more satisfying record than, say, Joni Mitchell's Herjira or Miles Davis' On The Corner.
This revisionism will possibly also mean that my teenage daughter is more likely to stumble across The (horrible, pointless) Libertines, than The (wonderful) Only Ones.
(Ok, so this is basically a long winded and ranting way of writing that i think The Only Ones are much better than the one hit wonder they are credited for and people should check out some of their other songs as they are pretty bloody special and seemed to have disappeared down the back of rock history's sofa. I have also put this last bit in brackets, so i'm not tempted to bore you all with a short bio of who The Only Ones were and go on for a while about heroin addiction and how they were dismissed by the punk press cos their guitarist had been in a prog band and could "actually play" and all the boring stuff that usually gets mentioned when, actually, this is the internet and i don't need to do that kind of thing, and could be posting lots of clips from youtube instead, which is what i will now do.)
This revisionism will possibly also mean that my teenage daughter is more likely to stumble across The (horrible, pointless) Libertines, than The (wonderful) Only Ones.
(Ok, so this is basically a long winded and ranting way of writing that i think The Only Ones are much better than the one hit wonder they are credited for and people should check out some of their other songs as they are pretty bloody special and seemed to have disappeared down the back of rock history's sofa. I have also put this last bit in brackets, so i'm not tempted to bore you all with a short bio of who The Only Ones were and go on for a while about heroin addiction and how they were dismissed by the punk press cos their guitarist had been in a prog band and could "actually play" and all the boring stuff that usually gets mentioned when, actually, this is the internet and i don't need to do that kind of thing, and could be posting lots of clips from youtube instead, which is what i will now do.)
