The last few months has seen some new album releases I’ve been looking forward to for a while. One from the all-girl rock group The Beaches, the other from British singer Lola Young.
But overall, there aren’t a lot of new albums that interest me these days. Fortunately, we still have the past, which is full of buried treasure. I mean that apart from the music we already know, the past also contains artists and music we may never have heard. When we do discover it, it’s a real bonus.
For example, here are two artists from the past that I’ve recently ‘discovered.’ One is the early 70s English singer-songwriter, Nick Drake, and the other is 1980s Australian band, Mondo Rock.
Nick Drake was an English folk singer who made just three albums before dying tragically young. He never had much success in his lifetime, but has come to be celebrated in the years since. His powerful emotive songs are reminiscent of Jeff Buckley and Elliot Smith, two other singers who had short lives.
To add to the enigma of this man, there is not a single video of Nick Drake either performing or being interviewed. All we have are the three albums he made, where we get a sense of his deep nature. A poignant note from his Wikipedia page is as follows:
The grave where Drake’s ashes are buried with those of his parents. The gravestone is inscribed with the epitaph “Now we rise / And we are everywhere” taken from the lyrics of “From the Morning,” the final song on Drake’s final album, Pink Moon.
The second old band I’ve listened to is Mondo Rock, an Aussie band from the 80s. They’re much more mainstream than Nick Drake, of course, and much more mentally healthy. Not everyone has to be a ‘tortured artist,’ you know!
Mondo Rock was the brainchild of Ross Wilson, a key figure of Australian rock since the 1970s. He was in the group Daddy Cool (with the hit ‘Eagle Rock’) and also produced a couple of Skyhooks albums. Not a bad résumé. With Mondo Rock, he got to do his own songs. One of my guitar students requested to learn their song ‘No Time’ which has a shredding guitar solo, while the song ‘Chemistry’ features a good bass line.
It’s fortunate there was so much good music produced between about 1960 to 2000, the true age of classic rock. It’s not quite the same anymore, although as I said, I’m certainly liking the new albums from the Beaches and Lola Young. I suppose that just shows Rock ain’t dead! Not as long as there are talented artists like this going around.
Let’s keep it alive. Come in and book a guitar or a bass lesson, and celebrate good music, past and present.
Here’s one of Nick Drake’s best songs