Happy birthday to Greg Dulli, born 11th May 1965.
I wasn't immediately struck by The Afghan Whigs - or Dulli's voice - when I first heard them, but it's fair to say that a combination of great tunes, incisive lyrics and sheer swagger won me over.
Here are a couple of personal favourites, Somethin' Hot from 1998 and Debonair from 1993, sandwiching two songs from Dulli's many diversions from the Whigs. The Gutter Twins was a sadly finite collaboration with Mark Lanegan that produced one (brilliant) album in 2008. The Twilight Singers roughly existed when The Afghan Whigs didn't, between 2000 and 2011. This performance, from the Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands circa 2006, is a rather fine cover of Too Tough To Die by Martina Topley-Bird.
Have a good one, Greg!
Your second sentence totally sums up my own feelings, I was just the same on first hearing them and couldn't get past Greg's voice at first but the same thing happened. Mr SDS had bought 'Congregation' and I really didn't warm to it at first, but then something changed and I think it was hearing their cover of 'Come See About Me' on the Uptown Avondale EP (had to just go and remind myself what it was on, seems so long ago!) I then fell in love with them and bought 'Gentlemen' - what an album, and was lucky enough to catch them live ('94 I think) - a great night, and I remember being very excited to spot him very close by in the crowd while the support band were playing!
ReplyDeleteReally interesting to see these clips here as I hadn't seen them before, that Gutter Twins track is mighty and I love the Twilight Singers one, funnily enough it sounds to me as if it really could have been an AW original and fitted on 'Gentlemen'.
Thanks, C. Quite a few examples in my musical education of artists who made an unfavourable first impression but eventually went on to become much loved. Seeing a live performance can be a game changer in that respect: Lamb, Inspiral Carpets and The Wedding Present all examples in my experience. I think I'd already got The Gutter Twins' album by the time of their appearance on Jools Holland's show and it's remained a favourite. I need to listen more to The Twilight Singers (I'm a big fan of Martina Topley-Bird so it was their cover that drew me in) and I've been slack in catching up with the revived Afghan Whigs. Greg's been pretty active over the years, hasn't he?
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