Song Of the Day: February 25, 2005
It's really sort of appalling how little respect Ward Dotson receives. He started off as the guitarist on that one Gun Club album that everybody likes, wrote a bunch of great songs and played guitar on several Pontiac Brothers LPs, and then moved on to front his own band, the Liquor Giants. Unmoved by the fact that my mildly disparaging remarks regarding some of the Our Band Could Be Your Life units didn't result in the flood of comments I was hoping for, I'll try again. The Liquor Giants are what might happen if Paul Westerberg was as effective at channeling Alex Chilton as he's often given credit for. Imagine if the first two Replacements LPs on Sire were packed with songs as good as "Left Of the Dial" and "Can't Hardly Wait," and you get a pretty good idea of the quality of the LGs 3rd and 4th albums. (Matador Records. I imagine they're still being used around the office as coasters and doorstops.) Dotson is unfailingly smart and tuneful, and possesses a great knack for everyloser lyrics and knockout choruses. It could be argued, I suppose, that Dotson is never quite so anthemic as Westerberg is on songs like "Here Comes a Regular" or one of the four great songs from Let It Be, but on stuff like "Riverdale High" and "Just Might Cry" he's at least in the ballpark.
2 Comments:
one could have lived without such an "eh" book such as our band could be your life. azerrad's book is one that if found on your bookshelf instantly makes you look cool. or like a wannabe. hipsters...
as usual, agree completely - best gun club cd, pontiac brothers (possibly not the most exciting band name - maybe that hurt) liquor giants (better band name). the guy wrote great songs - the one you posted actually has a beatles melody feel and a stones guitar and sound - how many bands do you know that could pull THAT off?
why wasnt he more popular - I think the usual poor distribution (I always had to hunt so hard for his stuff) as well as a sort of straight-forward dull production on a lot of his material that unfortunatly hid his great songs and made them seem less special - too bad - underappreciated genius
Post a Comment
<< Home