Most musical artists are overrated and underrated at the same time. They might get ridiculous praise for a handful of decent songs and little-to-no attention for their other good (maybe better) songs; or, they won’t get any middle-ground opinions, just extreme love and hate from fans and haters, respectively. I’d like to address this by offering a list of underrated songs by overrated artists, lesser-known tunes that haven’t benefited from the popularity or acclaim of the people who wrote them. This is entirely subjective.
Rod Stewart, “Mandolin Wind”
How Rod Stewart managed to keep any kind of fanbase for the past 35 years is beyond me. He’s a textbook example of an artist who starts out with a great deal of talent and promise and then systematically squanders it until he’s completely destroyed himself. I can enjoy some of his bad music ironically (“Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” comes to mind), but it really makes me wish he hadn’t gone the way he did. If you listen to “Mandolin Wind,” Stewart’s sole solo writing effort on Every Picture Tells A Story, you see that he could write a pretty damn good song when he tried to. A story-song about a poor farmer and his wife trying to survive the winter, “Mandolin Wind” isn’t spectacular melody- or lyrics-wise, but it’s got such a nice rootsy sound that it’s hard to dislike. Stewart’s voice is much better suited to this kind of folk than to the pop crap he’d later do, and the production is very tasteful as well. What really sets this one apart for me is the mandolin solo that comes midway. It sounds like beautiful playing, and it’s entirely welcome to the song. Overall, I give this one a good mark. Go Rod.
Black Sabbath, “Planet Caravan”
To be honest, I never bought into Black Sabbath. Yes, Ozzy and Tony Iommi are great performers, and the band itself has done an incredible amount for metal. Even so, most of their songs really don’t do anything for me. I don’t hate them, though, and I’ll admit that they’re more versatile than most people think. Take a look at a song like “Planet Caravan.” It’s easy to lose sight of this track, seeing as 1) it’s the required “quiet song” on a loud album, 2) it’s wedged between the title track and IRON MAN, and 3) judging by the Youtube comments, no one listens to it sober. It’s still worth a few listens, though, even while high. I listen for the Eastern-style guitar pattern, the congas, and Ozzy’s vocals, which were put through a Leslie speaker and have a weird vibrato sound. The song’s mystical, almost psychedelic feel make it a lot more atmospheric than most of Black Sabbath’s songs. To be fair, though, no one listens to Black Sabbath for the atmosphere.THEY GO FOR FOOD
The Beach Boys, “A Day in the Life of a Tree”
The Beach Boys justly deserve all of the praise for their harmonies and songwriting genius (mostly courtesy of Brian Wilson); for one, I wouldn’t call Pet Sounds overrated in the slightest. For a classic band, though, the Beach Boys don’t have too many classic albums. Most of the pre-1966 and post-1973 albums are bogged down in filler and bad taste, especially where Mike Love is involved. The band really only thrived when Brian could control himself. Still, the records made from 1967 to 1973 deserve some amount of praise; the band members managed to make good, sometimes great music on their own – especially Dennis Wilson, who would’ve been a worthy companion to Brian if he had lived longer. (If you haven’t heard Pacific Ocean Blue, I highly recommend it. It’s hands down the best solo album by any Beach Boy.) This track from Surf’s Up – written by Brian – is one of the band’s weirder and sadder songs, with lyrics about a dying tree sung by the band’s manager and backed up by a slightly Disney-sounding harmonium. This is one of the few songs that manages to be both really weird and incredibly depressing; the song’s a lot sadder if you interpret the words as autobiographical. It all ends with a great vocal cascade; hell, everything about this song is great. It needs more love, along with “All I Wanna Do,” “The Trader,” “Slip on Through,” “Feel Flows”….
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Joni Mitchell, “Down to You”
Not everything Joni Mitchell made was good, but when she succeeded, she really succeeded. Court and Spark is her most commercially successful album – and my favorite of hers – so you’d think that its centerpiece would be more well known. However, no one seems to talk about “Down to You”; it’s only received attention in a few critical reviews and Sean Nelson’s book on the album. That’s a shame to me, because I think it’s brilliant. Beginning with solo piano, the song progresses through multiple verses, bridges, instrumental breaks, and key and time signature changes, all sounding effortless. The performance rules, with Joni singing in peak form and a tastefully employed orchestra adding depth to the song’s middle part. Plus, the lyrics are true – there’s really no other way to describe them. “You brush up against a stranger and you both apologize.” How many times has that happened to you? If you’re not into singer-songwriter music, jazz, or folk, you might not see what’s so special about this, but I love it. It’s one of the most complex and effective songs Joni has written, and for that it deserves more attention.
Peter Gabriel, “Down the Dolce Vita”
I wouldn’t exactly call Peter Gabriel “overrated”; he’s one of my favorite solo artists, and he’s far less popular than his frenemy Phil Collins. Sometimes, though, it feels like people praise him for the wrong reasons, i.e. for being artsy and weird and not, you know, a great songwriter. Thus critics and fans will be more tolerant of Gabriel’s artsy stuff, even when it overreaches. “Down the Dolce Vita” definitely overreaches, but it makes up for that with another quality: it’s AWESOME. Combining funk, hard rock, and progressive into a blood-pumping whole, “Down the Dolce Vita” rocks hard and often, building on a great groove with Gabriel’s theatrical vocals and one of the most bombastically awesome uses of a symphony in a rock song. (Listen to it. Just listen to it!) It might be too cheesy for some, but I can’t get enough of it. “Down the Dolce Vita” is a great bombast of a rock song as only Bob Ezrin can produce.
Led Zeppelin, “Going to California”
Led Zeppelin are well known – and overpraised – for being one of the quintessential “rock out with your cock out” bands, so it’s easy to forget that they could make pretty music too. I could’ve put “Thank You,” “Bron-Yr-Aur,” “The Rain Song,” or any of the tracks from III’s second side on this list. “Going to California” isn’t obscure, but I include it because it’s on the same album with “Black Dog,” “Rock and Roll,” “When the Levee Breaks,” and fucking “Stairway to Heaven” (denied!). Those are all great songs, but “Going to California” is still one of my personal favorites from Zep. The acoustic guitar and mandolin make a great combination, and Robert Plant manages to contain himself, for the most part. A little bit of trivia: the inspiration for the “queen…who plays guitar and cries and sings” apparently came from Joni Mitchell. Quelle coincidence!
The Beatles, “Long, Long, Long”
I don’t want to fall into a pattern, but it’s easy to notice that any artist’s most underrated songs tend to be their quieter, more subdued ones. “Long, Long, Long” is no exception. It’s probably the quietest Beatles song, and it has the gall to come right after “Helter Skelter,” the loudest Beatles song. Even though it’s been covered a few times, I’d still place it as one of the Beatles’ most overlooked tracks, and one of George Harrison’s most overlooked as well. There’s something funny about this song that’s difficult to place, from the barely audible vocals to the creepy organ to the spooky ending. The song sounds like longing, even though the words could just as well be about God and not a lover. That’s part of its charm, really; I can’t think of many songs with the same tone as this one. It might sound a little under-produced and it’s not too exciting, but it’s still a very fitting end to the 3rd LP side of The Beatles (White Album).
More trivia: the ending was improvised. Someone left a bottle of Blue Nun on top of the organ, and one of the notes made it rattle. To complement this, Ringo played a fast drum part and Harrison sang another note before the rattling stopped (that’s the swipe sound you hear at the end). Even if the Beatles didn’t make the best music ever, the stories behind the music never fail to be interesting, and that always helps.
Rod Stewart, “Mandolin Wind”
How Rod Stewart managed to keep any kind of fanbase for the past 35 years is beyond me. He’s a textbook example of an artist who starts out with a great deal of talent and promise and then systematically squanders it until he’s completely destroyed himself. I can enjoy some of his bad music ironically (“Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” comes to mind), but it really makes me wish he hadn’t gone the way he did. If you listen to “Mandolin Wind,” Stewart’s sole solo writing effort on Every Picture Tells A Story, you see that he could write a pretty damn good song when he tried to. A story-song about a poor farmer and his wife trying to survive the winter, “Mandolin Wind” isn’t spectacular melody- or lyrics-wise, but it’s got such a nice rootsy sound that it’s hard to dislike. Stewart’s voice is much better suited to this kind of folk than to the pop crap he’d later do, and the production is very tasteful as well. What really sets this one apart for me is the mandolin solo that comes midway. It sounds like beautiful playing, and it’s entirely welcome to the song. Overall, I give this one a good mark. Go Rod.
Black Sabbath, “Planet Caravan”
To be honest, I never bought into Black Sabbath. Yes, Ozzy and Tony Iommi are great performers, and the band itself has done an incredible amount for metal. Even so, most of their songs really don’t do anything for me. I don’t hate them, though, and I’ll admit that they’re more versatile than most people think. Take a look at a song like “Planet Caravan.” It’s easy to lose sight of this track, seeing as 1) it’s the required “quiet song” on a loud album, 2) it’s wedged between the title track and IRON MAN, and 3) judging by the Youtube comments, no one listens to it sober. It’s still worth a few listens, though, even while high. I listen for the Eastern-style guitar pattern, the congas, and Ozzy’s vocals, which were put through a Leslie speaker and have a weird vibrato sound. The song’s mystical, almost psychedelic feel make it a lot more atmospheric than most of Black Sabbath’s songs. To be fair, though, no one listens to Black Sabbath for the atmosphere.
The Beach Boys, “A Day in the Life of a Tree”
The Beach Boys justly deserve all of the praise for their harmonies and songwriting genius (mostly courtesy of Brian Wilson); for one, I wouldn’t call Pet Sounds overrated in the slightest. For a classic band, though, the Beach Boys don’t have too many classic albums. Most of the pre-1966 and post-1973 albums are bogged down in filler and bad taste, especially where Mike Love is involved. The band really only thrived when Brian could control himself. Still, the records made from 1967 to 1973 deserve some amount of praise; the band members managed to make good, sometimes great music on their own – especially Dennis Wilson, who would’ve been a worthy companion to Brian if he had lived longer. (If you haven’t heard Pacific Ocean Blue, I highly recommend it. It’s hands down the best solo album by any Beach Boy.) This track from Surf’s Up – written by Brian – is one of the band’s weirder and sadder songs, with lyrics about a dying tree sung by the band’s manager and backed up by a slightly Disney-sounding harmonium. This is one of the few songs that manages to be both really weird and incredibly depressing; the song’s a lot sadder if you interpret the words as autobiographical. It all ends with a great vocal cascade; hell, everything about this song is great. It needs more love, along with “All I Wanna Do,” “The Trader,” “Slip on Through,” “Feel Flows”….
Joni Mitchell, “Down to You”
Not everything Joni Mitchell made was good, but when she succeeded, she really succeeded. Court and Spark is her most commercially successful album – and my favorite of hers – so you’d think that its centerpiece would be more well known. However, no one seems to talk about “Down to You”; it’s only received attention in a few critical reviews and Sean Nelson’s book on the album. That’s a shame to me, because I think it’s brilliant. Beginning with solo piano, the song progresses through multiple verses, bridges, instrumental breaks, and key and time signature changes, all sounding effortless. The performance rules, with Joni singing in peak form and a tastefully employed orchestra adding depth to the song’s middle part. Plus, the lyrics are true – there’s really no other way to describe them. “You brush up against a stranger and you both apologize.” How many times has that happened to you? If you’re not into singer-songwriter music, jazz, or folk, you might not see what’s so special about this, but I love it. It’s one of the most complex and effective songs Joni has written, and for that it deserves more attention.
Peter Gabriel, “Down the Dolce Vita”
I wouldn’t exactly call Peter Gabriel “overrated”; he’s one of my favorite solo artists, and he’s far less popular than his frenemy Phil Collins. Sometimes, though, it feels like people praise him for the wrong reasons, i.e. for being artsy and weird and not, you know, a great songwriter. Thus critics and fans will be more tolerant of Gabriel’s artsy stuff, even when it overreaches. “Down the Dolce Vita” definitely overreaches, but it makes up for that with another quality: it’s AWESOME. Combining funk, hard rock, and progressive into a blood-pumping whole, “Down the Dolce Vita” rocks hard and often, building on a great groove with Gabriel’s theatrical vocals and one of the most bombastically awesome uses of a symphony in a rock song. (Listen to it. Just listen to it!) It might be too cheesy for some, but I can’t get enough of it. “Down the Dolce Vita” is a great bombast of a rock song as only Bob Ezrin can produce.
Led Zeppelin, “Going to California”
Led Zeppelin are well known – and overpraised – for being one of the quintessential “rock out with your cock out” bands, so it’s easy to forget that they could make pretty music too. I could’ve put “Thank You,” “Bron-Yr-Aur,” “The Rain Song,” or any of the tracks from III’s second side on this list. “Going to California” isn’t obscure, but I include it because it’s on the same album with “Black Dog,” “Rock and Roll,” “When the Levee Breaks,” and fucking “Stairway to Heaven” (denied!). Those are all great songs, but “Going to California” is still one of my personal favorites from Zep. The acoustic guitar and mandolin make a great combination, and Robert Plant manages to contain himself, for the most part. A little bit of trivia: the inspiration for the “queen…who plays guitar and cries and sings” apparently came from Joni Mitchell. Quelle coincidence!
The Beatles, “Long, Long, Long”
I don’t want to fall into a pattern, but it’s easy to notice that any artist’s most underrated songs tend to be their quieter, more subdued ones. “Long, Long, Long” is no exception. It’s probably the quietest Beatles song, and it has the gall to come right after “Helter Skelter,” the loudest Beatles song. Even though it’s been covered a few times, I’d still place it as one of the Beatles’ most overlooked tracks, and one of George Harrison’s most overlooked as well. There’s something funny about this song that’s difficult to place, from the barely audible vocals to the creepy organ to the spooky ending. The song sounds like longing, even though the words could just as well be about God and not a lover. That’s part of its charm, really; I can’t think of many songs with the same tone as this one. It might sound a little under-produced and it’s not too exciting, but it’s still a very fitting end to the 3rd LP side of The Beatles (White Album).
More trivia: the ending was improvised. Someone left a bottle of Blue Nun on top of the organ, and one of the notes made it rattle. To complement this, Ringo played a fast drum part and Harrison sang another note before the rattling stopped (that’s the swipe sound you hear at the end). Even if the Beatles didn’t make the best music ever, the stories behind the music never fail to be interesting, and that always helps.