Had he not passed away last June at the age of 67, Doc Neeson would have celebrated his birthday today. Neeson was co-lyricist and frontman for the Aussie band, The Angels. Since that name was already taken in the United States, if you know of this band at all you probably know of them as Angel City. Neesons vocal timbre is, to say the least, unusual. Alice Cooper gargled with some Bob Dylan, maybe a bit of Rob Halford on the side ... dash or two of Bob Geldof. I dunno? I suspect its either a love it or hate it proposition for most listeners. Im in the former camp. As a person now doddering past middle age, it strikes me as I listen to this song in real time that this will be perceived by many, in a way I cant quite explain, as decidedly not music for grownups. I wasnt a grownup when I first discovered and fell in love with Angel Citys music. But having just listened to the song, Im meditating on why growing up for many seems to mean letting good things go. In the year 1980 (when Dark Room, the album that featured this track, was released) AOR formatted commercial FM radio stations did not completely suck ass (the way they do almost without exception in the scope of my experience today--classic rock radio stations are a travesty to any except the most soulless listeners, the classic rock format is a cultural vapor lock thats about reducing options, dumbing down artistic expression and in a way tacitly insulting any decent musical artists who make it to those stations pitifully anemic, repetitious and unimaginative playlists . . . Im sorry, I seem to have gotten carried away. Where was I? Oh, yes: In the year 1980 (when Dark Room, the album that featured this track, was released) AOR formatted commercial FM radio stations were different than they are today. I heard this song played as a self described DJ prerogative on 92.7 FM Starview in Central Pennsylvania back then and went out the next day and bought all the Angel City LPs I could find, which at the time was precisely two. Where did the time go?
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 19:32:27 +0000
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