The reason I mention this little tidbit is because I usually spend about two hours of his four hour shift just hanging around shooting the bull when I can. From time to time the GP will say things that illustrate some of the different perspectives we have about music from time to time. Of all the folks I know personally, The Giant Panther is probably the only one who loves music as much as I do. We are GIANT consumers of rock music in all its forms. Our collections are laughable because, truth be told, we could never ever listen to everything we own consistently even if we landed jobs as hit makers, as if such a job existed anymore. I just love that Tom Petty line in one of his songs called Into The Great Wide Open where he sings "their A&R man said I don't hear a single." I worked locally at a radio station called WBCN as a producer in the early 80's for four years and all seen or unseen payola legends aside I could never understand why some seemingly superior songs got never got any airplay while you could never get them to stop playing some really crappy ones. I'd like to believe I would have been great at getting a band's absolute best songs into the fore on any given record. I watched huge records like John Mellencamp's Uh-Huh, Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual and Bruce Springsteen's Born in The USA get four, five and even six of the songs from these records played for months on end. I love The Boss probably more than the next guy with my Jersey roots, but none of these records would be in my top 1000 all time. Yet there they were, ruling the day on major market radio right next to crossover artists like U2, Prince and, on other stations, Her Madgesty. Madonna though was her own genre in fairness. Still is for that matter.
Grant Lee Buffalo were indie rockers in their day. They slipped onto the scene with a CD called Fuzzy in 1993. The song Fuzzy was played on WFNX for about three months, but it would shock me to hear it on Julie Kramer's Daily Leftover Lunch show anymore. I love Julie as a DJ and I've been listening to her for decades, but the woman can't go two days without playing Depeche Mode, Duran Duran or Bob Marley (apparently he's the only reggae artist EVER. They used to play Ziggy Marley back in the day, but now? Forget it). I love those artists too, but it's amazing how this radio station just totally forgets scores of artists and doggedly hangs onto some others. One long time staple, The Pretenders, just put out a new CD called Break Up The Concrete. Julie had Chrissie Hynde on her show playing live recently. It was actually very funny; Hynde was trying to sing a song, Kid if memory serves, and could not stop laughing. She had a band member with her in the studio and the two of them were laughing so hard they had to stop playing that song and had to play another. That's very nice and all, but do you think WFNX would have one of the new Pretender's songs in their rotation? Even if just for a couple of weeks for fear of being labeled "Classic" (got forbid)? No dice. The funny thing is their songs are not seasoned enough to be played on the Classic Rock stations either. And you wonder why some records don't sell.
Where was I? Oh yeah. Grant Lee Buffalo. Let me give you ten songs to go download and love. Fuzzy, Jupiter and Teardrop, Dixie Drug Store, Stars 'n' Stripes, Lone Star Song, Mockingbirds, Homespun, Bethlehem Steel, The Hook and Truly, Truly. I'm sure I'm missing a couple, but that ought to get you started. Grant Lee Buffalo came and went inside of five years and I only got to see them live once warming up for R.E.M. around 1993. I remember Michael Stipe calling Fuzzy the best CD of the year hands down. I was already on the bandwagon, but he was preaching to the choir in my case. I was and remain a big fan. Jupiter and Teardrop, the song I'm leaving with you below, is a killer track for my money. I never get tired of listening to it. Grant Lee Phillips, the lead singer, went on to release several solo CDs, which all basically fizzled, but that doesn't challenge my affinity for these guys. I had visions of them hailing from Buffalo of course, so naturally they were from Los Angeles. I was sorry when they called it a day after Jubilee in 1998. For the uninitiated, the Storm Hymnal compilation (the artwork you see above) puts a nice bow on it for these guys, but I own all of their CDs. If you see a copy of Fuzzy in ANYONE's collection tip your hat. That person is way cool. Neil Young is thought to be one of their influences, but these guys shattered the mold when they surfaced. There really wasn't anyone like them at the time. They never hit the big time, but they hit my big time no questions asked. So there GP; a 90's artist that rocked. And I didn't even have to mention Sugar...oh shoot...
Grant Lee Buffalo - Jupiter and Teardrop.mp3
Grant Lee Buffalo - Jupiter and Teardrop.mp3 YSI
www.grantleebuffalo.com
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