Dec 14

Thomas Anderson

Under Appreciated

THOMAS ANDERSON
  
 

 

 

(Third album by the UARB for November 2012, Thomas Anderson, released on October 30, 1995 on Marilyn Records) 

 

(May 2013)

 

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Past UARB Thomas Anderson once perversely said that his favorite singer-songwriter is Iggy Pop; and there seems to be no other category in which to place Polly Jean Harvey either.  

 

(January 2014)

 

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I play the albums by the UARA’s and UARB’s frequently and am always struck by how great they sound.  With few if any exceptions, they aren’t just another hard rock band or garage rock band or folk/rock artist – they have a distinct sound that I simply love.  For many – such as Beast (whose first album is playing now), the Not Quite, the Ugly, the Unknowns, Chimera, and Thomas Anderson, to name a few – they don’t sound like anyone else that I am familiar with.  

 

(Year 5 Review)

 

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But the best find of all, without question, is locating a copy of past UARA Thomas Anderson’s second album, Blues for the Flying Dutchman (1992). I had previously noted that the Village Voice said of him: “Thomas Anderson is clearly the greatest unknown songwriter on the planet.” This album knocks it out of the park and shows that their writer wasn’t just whistling “Dixie” with that remark. That, er, memorable time that I was drunk Facebooking for most of a night and woke up on the floor under my desk at 3:30 a.m. that I have written about previously? Early in my latest round of neurological problems that I still have no answers for? I had been playing Blues for the Flying Dutchman nonstop and full blast for most of that time (poor Peggy!).
 
I have previously posted the opening track, “Bill Haley in Mexico”, which I just have to hear again (sorry, Phil Gammage!). As almost everyone knows, Bill Haley and His Comets had the first big rock and roll hit with “Rock Around the Clock” (1954, though it did not become a hit until 1955). I am not sure what the chorus is talking about when it goes: “I wanted to know / I wanted to know / What happened to Bill Haley down in Mexico”. But I cannot recall a more insistent chorus with a better instrumental follow-up than this one. I am reminded of the first time that I played the American album by the Dutch band Shocking Blue, The Shocking Blue, which naturally includes their big hit “Venus”. I simply could not believe how good the opening song, “Long and Lonesome Road” was, and I actually got up from my chair and restarted the album.
 
I also recently picked up Thomas Anderson’s The Moon in Transit, another amazing album. Only heard that one once so far. The name is similar to that of the first album of his that I got, the Marilyn Records album Moon Going Down. When I put up the “Flashback” on Thomas Anderson five years ago, I could not find any songs at all on YouTube; I had to settle for listing lyrics instead. There are lots of his songs on YouTube now. Also, Thomas Anderson is one of the few UARB’s and UARA’s that has a Wikipedia article currently. (Another time, I ordered two more albums by a Thomas Anderson, not knowing whether it was the right guy or not. One of them, Is This Love? turned out to be a different Thomas Anderson, and I assumed that was true of the other CD as well. However, I discovered last month that the other one, Heaven is another great record by the right Thomas Anderson, so that’s four albums of his that I have now!)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021