My Rant of the Day

[miko2]

So I decided a few weeks ago that I needed to get a "Greatest Hits" cd of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Sounds simple, no? I mean, songs like "I Love Rock And Roll" and "I Hate Myself For Loving You" are the sort of smash hits that will be played on rock radio stations every day in every major city for the rest of our lives, and she had other hits that I can't recall as easily. So how can there not be a greatest hits cd of Joan Jett's songs?

Well, I looked, and apparently there isn't one, at least not in circulation at present. Grrr. And I know the band has a reputation for weak albumns, so I don't really want to start collecting everything she's ever released. Hmmm, what to do, what to do.

So yesterday I finally gave in and decided that the one song that I really wanted was "I Hate Myself For Loving You", which is on "Up Your Alley", one of their more recent cds that every Silver Platters had multiple copies of. But I didn't have time to stop at Silver Platters yesterday, so I drove over to Fred Meyers on my lunch break. Surely I can pick up one of Joan Jett's most popular cds at a place like Fred Meyers, right? I mean, this is an artist that everyone my age is familiar with.

No, I can't. The Fred Meyers in Auburn didn't have anything by Joan Jett. They didn't even have a slot for where her cds might go, which indicates that they're not just out, but they never stock her cds at all.

Mind you, I can buy cds by Head East, a nobody rock band from the 70's that has never had any hit that I'm aware of. Why is that? Why can I buy cds by some has-been nobody band, but not a band as well known as Joan Jett and the Blackhearts?

So I hit my comic shop on the way to work today, and since Fred Meyers in Greenwood is right across the street, I decided to try there. Maybe the Auburn store was an abberation.

No. Greenwood also had nothing, nor an empty slot where a Joan Jett cd might go.

What kind of a world do we live in where an artist that gets played daily on the radio and is still relatively contemporary (ie probably still touring, for all I know) is not carried in a store like Fred Meyers?

And Head East is?

Let me tell you what I know about Head East. 1) My cousin had some of their albumns. 2) One of them had an amazingly clever cover involving directional street signs. Wow, who would have ever thought of THAT idea? 3) They've never had a hit or significant radio airplay that I know of, nor have I heard any of their music to my knowledge. 4) Their lead singer (I think his name was John Schlitt or something) quit in the early eighties and joined Petra, a Christian rock group of even less talent, although it should be noted that the lead singer he replaced was a better singer, and Petra probably has had more radio airplay than Head East, albeit on Christian music stations.

That's everything I know about Head East.

As far as I'm concerned, they're one of those bands like Uriah Heep that put out albumns forever and ever but were never what you'd call popular. They were just this 70's rock band, you know? Not as successful as, say, The Doobie Brothers, or Bread, or Golden Earring, or The Outlaws, or Molly Hatchett, or Black Oak Arkansas, or Foghat, or Diesel, or Sniff 'n' the Tears, or Chilliwack, or name any band that ever had even a minor hit.

And why can't I buy the greatest hits of Diesel, or Sniff 'n' the Tears, or Chilliwack, anyway?

So... to recap:

Joan Jett: good
Fred Meyers: bad
Joan Jett's Label: very bad
Head East: irrelevant
Uriah Heep: also irrelevant
Petra: Even more irrelevant

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In other news, I got a second Toilet Boys cd in the mail. I actually ordered this one first, but then I couldn't wait 2 weeks and bought one of their others, which it turned out I wasn't all that enamoured with, there was too much shouting and rocking and not enough melody or interesting music for me. But the one I got today is a more recent cd, and they're a more polished band with more meolody and more complex music arrangements (ie more than 2 chords per song). I like it a lot better.

It seems to me to be that way with a lot of alt rock groups. They start off interesting but too raw, then they get better and polish off the rough edges and you get some of their best music, and after that they often move to all polish, no edginess, and are no longer interesting to listen to. It seems to me that only the really great musicians/groups manage to mature and still write music with an edge to it.