794

I missed yesterday’s because I was making some music…

Rolling Stone Magazine has been a part of the musical landscape since 1967. I figured there was a pretty good chance that in over 4 decades of music talk, someone would use the phrase “ahead of their time” and I was right. In fact, I’m overwhelmed by my choices. It’s thrown around so much that I think that I found the place where the phrase lost its meaning. Music called ahead of its time by Rolling Stone magazine includes music by Dinosaur Jr., The Stooges, DJ Shadow, Isley Brothers, Res, Eurythemics and Todd Rundgren. There are many many more to that list but I will refrain.

One of the most interesting bands given the tag by Rolling Stone Magazine is Big Audio Dynamite. I just happened to have had their song “Rush” in my head. They were Mick Jones’ experimental band after the Clash had ended. RS says: With Big Audio Dynamite, Mick Jones took the mixing of styles he had experimented with in the Clash to adventurous extremes, creating a rock-reggae-house-hip-hop fusion ahead of its time. Was it really ahead of its time. Mixing rock and reggae wasn’t something new. In fact, the Clash had done that. Rap and Rock was already breaking out. The real question is was BAD’s mix of it all groundbreaking? I know back in the day when I listened to BAD II on WDRE back in the 90’s, their songs like “The Globe” really did stand out but they felt like a product of the time. This is a mistake that I think many people do when talking about music that’s ahead of its time. BAD’s music was an evolution of the time period. It wasn’t something that sounds like the future. It’s the result of the music that was being made. Music that’s ahead of its time should sound like nothing else around. It should be an anachronism that stands out in its music landscape and perhaps would fit better in a future landscape.

Tomorrow, a band that I feel was ahead of their time.

Song 794- “The Globe” by Big Audio Dynamite II