Sunday, April 19, 2009

Another favorite that walked the line...

...between country and rock, on Classic Vinyl, Sirius Ch. 14: "I can see why you think you belong to me...I never tried to make you think or let you see one thing for yourself...but now you're off with someone else and I'm alone...you see, I thought that I might keep you for my own..."
I say that song sort of blurred the line between the genres, but honestly it seems to me that "Amie" was one of those songs that was a rock song just because the industry said it was. Maybe rock in name only, sort of like an act like Rascal Flatts is country just because the industry says it is. That's not to imply that Pure Prairie League sucks as hard as Rascal Flatts does and certainly not to imply that PPL was nothing more than a marginally talented boy-band aimed at the wrong demographic for its supposed genre, though; they were always one of my favorite bands and I don't think they sucked at all. I think several bands from that period could have made damn good honky-tonk country records if they'd sat down and made a go of it, particularly the Southern rock bands like the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. I know Skynyrd covered Haggard at least once. And really, was it that far from the Allmans to Waylon and Willie? (Slightly different styles than Haggard and Jones, I know, but in my experience, those who like any of the artists from that time like most if not all of them.) So much of that subgenre, in fact, sounds more country than a too-big chunk of Nashville product that's being peddled as such these days. Which is probably why I find myself going back to it so often.