{"id":23590,"date":"2022-08-26T05:30:07","date_gmt":"2022-08-26T09:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=23590"},"modified":"2022-08-21T15:03:57","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T19:03:57","slug":"five-underrated-classics-from-badfinger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/26\/five-underrated-classics-from-badfinger\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Underrated Classics from Badfinger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Another &#8220;Take Five&#8221;&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>June marked the 75<sup>th<\/sup> birthdays of two members of Badfinger. Bassist\/guitarist\/songwriter Tom Evans would have celebrated his birthday on June 5 (he took his life in 1983); guitarist Joey Molland \u2013 today the sole surviving member of the band\u2019s best-known lineup \u2013 celebrates on June 21. The band wrote several classic songs, including the Evans\u2019 co-composition \u201cWithout You,\u201d a hit for both Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey. But Badfinger has some superb album tracks. Here are five overlooked gems from the band\u2019s catalog.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cWe\u2019re for the Dark\u201d (from <i>No Dice<\/i>, 1970)<\/strong> \u2013 This sweeping, dramatic ballad features one of songwriter Pete Ham\u2019s strongest vocal performances; the final track on the band\u2019s third album, it was overshadowed by the hit single \u201cNo Matter What.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sQcFS64WybQ\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cName of the Game\u201d (from <i>Straight Up<\/i>, 1971)<\/strong> \u2013 Badfinger completed two very different versions of this Pete Ham gem; the George Harrison-produced recording made it onto the album, while an earlier (and more heavily orchestrated) version made with Geoff Emerick surfaced on a later CD reissue.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yDfH5j0o5hk\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cTimeless\u201d (from <i>Ass<\/i>, 1973)<\/strong> \u2013 Badfinger always seemed to bristle under the shadow of The Beatles, but this epic track from their final Apple LP draws clear inspiration from Abbey Road\u2019s \u201cI Want You (She\u2019s so Heavy).\u201d A roaring, hypnotic cyclical guitar riff disappears into gale-force winds courtesy of the Moog synthesizer.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uucFgMlm-Bk\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cSong for a Lost Friend\u201d (from <i>Badfinger<\/i>, 1974)<\/strong> \u2013 a great single-that-never-was, this Pete Ham song displays all of Badfinger\u2019s virtues \u2013 catchy melodies, soaring vocal harmonies, heartfelt lyrics \u2013 within three minutes.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TA11K7zr55I\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cMeanwhile Back at the Ranch\/Should I Smoke\u201d (from <i>Wish You Were Here<\/i>, 1974)<\/strong> \u2013 Serious fans point to the last album released by the classic lineup as their best work. And a centerpiece is this seamless medley of two songs \u2013 one by Ham, one by Joey Molland \u2013 that closes the record.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jQQLFi9OjJ8\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another &#8220;Take Five&#8221;&#8230; June marked the 75th birthdays of two members of Badfinger. Bassist\/guitarist\/songwriter Tom Evans would have celebrated his birthday on June 5 (he took his life in 1983); [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23592,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,62],"tags":[256],"class_list":["post-23590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-rawk","tag-badfinger","cat-27-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23590"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23596,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23590\/revisions\/23596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}