![]() ![]() While "Follow Me" or "Wayside" seem like the strongest tunes on the band's self-titled debutrock music that lived midway on the spectrum between metal and pop rockthe label or the band or both chose the meandering, overly sweet power ballad, "Silver and Gold" for that important single. The trouble with Artful Dodger may have been a common music-biz misstep: they chose the wrong single. Even bands like these guys, who never made it big and eventually abandoned music because of a lack of success, had a basic level of quality in their songwriting and playing. Listening to these albums in succession, they remain an astonishing document as to how important music once was, how creative types who now write apps and code, were once songwriters and aspiring rock stars. They also had that most essential element to all '70s rock actsa live-wire, boyishly handsome frontman/singer Billy Paliselli, whose raspy voice, and fondness for wearing long scarves à la Steven Tyler became the band's aural and visual signatures. ![]() Having seen them oncedo I wanna say opening for Kiss in '76?I can attest that they were a high-energy, well-rehearsed, riff-rock quintet with fairly compelling original material. All three have now been reissued in budget-priced double-CD set by Real Gone Music. Originally named Brat, the band signed a deal in 1974 with the same management firm that looked after Aerosmith and in 1975, after a name change to Artful Dodger, released a debut record on Columbia, Aerosmith's label. One band that was caught in that music-biz inertia was Artful Dodger from Northern Virginia. The mid to late 1970s, when LPs were selling and the music business was awash in cash and excess, was the era not of one-hit wonders but one- (or maybe two) album wonders. Think of the Raspberries: a big hit single, "Go All the Way" a couple of mediocre albums and they were effectively doneall in the space of three years. A few bands, mostly those who could produce hit singles in a Beatles-centric subgenre that would soon come to be known as power pop, made it. Of course that cycle also produced a lot of heartbreak and shattered dreams. The path was clear, get signed, make a record, become rock stars, or so the fairy tale went. Back when electric-guitar rock music was still the biggest game in town, when boys were still gathering in garages and basements to emulate heroes like The Stones, The Beatles, and in some cases, The Faces, hope sprung eternal. ![]()
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