Colorado Rockies
You Wild Colorado – Johnny Cash (1965, Columbia Records)
I might have mentioned this before, but a friend of mine was once in a band where the singer, a kind of fat ginger Frodo lookalike, changed his surname to Cash in what looked like an attempt to make his bands alt country leaning more authentic. It didn’t – he still looked a fat version of Ed Sheeran. He could at the very least sing though.
Down the Road – Riley and the Restless (2019, Self Released)
Anyway, I digress, lets talk about the Colorado Rockies.
The Rockies are one of the newest teams in Major League, having been established in 1993. They are based in Denver and play their home games at the fabulous Coors Field. For the first seven years or so they were the best supported team in the Major League. They are not anymore (fickle baseball fans).
Since their arrival the team have fared ok, but they have never won the World Series. They came very close in 2007, when they won 21 out of 22 games to qualify and they probably should have won the World Series. However, there they met the Boston Red Sox (More of them later) who beat them in four straight games.
The last time they qualified for the post season was 2018 but were beaten in the first play off by the Milwaukee Brewers (more of them later too). This season, the Rockies have stunk the place out, not quite as bad as the Royals, but getting there, they currently sit bottom of their league.
Musically Denver doesn’t quite have the pedigree that some of the other cities in the US has, but it in the sixties it had a bit of boom, with folk and country becoming huge in the city. However, the Internet tells me that the greatest and most successful act to have come out of Denver is bizarrely one that by and large formed and lived in Chicago.
Saturday Nite – Earth, Wind & Fire (1976, Columbia Records)
It appears that Philip Bailey, joint singer of the feminist classic ‘Easy Lover’ was born in Denver and he was for a while one of the singers in Earth, Wind & Fire. This is like me claiming that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club were from Devon, because drummer Nick Jago lived in Torquay until he was 16. Still….
One of the most influential alternative rock bands from Denver are Neutral Milk Hotel. Bands such as Arcade Fire, The National and The Decemberists are all massive fans of Jeff Magnum’s lofi psychedelic indie.
Holland, 1945 – Neutral Milk Hotel (1998, Blue Rose Records)
And this weeks new band plucked from the foxlike ,drooling jaws of the chicken field of obscurity and placed into the relatively safety of the large coop of destiny is Pink Fuzz. A band who according to a local Denver website are all about “Sludgy riffs and ripping guitar solos that sound like the best bits of the Smashing Pumpkins having a fight with the Queen of the Stone Age”. Hmm, we’ll be the judge of that folks.
Get A Grip – Pink Fuzz (2021, Unknown Label)
Next Week Arizona.
No Badger Required 