R. I. P. Dan Hicks Charlatans

[Frantic]

R. I. P. Dan Hicks

 

[beccabear67]

Very sad news.

http://www.danhicks.net/

 

[buckeyebeat]

After having listened to pretty much everything the Charlatans recorded, I don't get it. I suppose they had their place in history, but it's a history that sounds like a dull thud. I liked his stuff with the Hot Licks better, mainly because it was not carrying the baggage of the birth of SF hippie crud. He certainly deserves credit for being one of torch carriers for 'old timey' music 30 years before the bearded clowns took it on.

 

[Frantic]

I'm, kinda the opposite. I like a few Charlatans songs and pretty much hate everything the Hot Licks did.

 

[buckeyebeat]

I don't listen to either, the only Charlatans record in my collection is the Kapp 45 with P/S, doing half baked (or more likely - completely "baked") remakes of the Coasters and Robert Johnson. Back when I first started collecting 60s stuff, the Charlatans were name checked as some kind of legendary band, peers of the Airplane and Elevators, Band Zero of the San Francisco Sound, blah blah blah.....yawn. I guess I can't put all the crap out of my mind and listen to them as just another band that recorded a 45 and LP or so of demos.

 

[chas_kit]

Too much nostalgia tinge to the Charlatans music. They were trying for a lazy, off the cuff sound and achieved it. It works on "Number One", which I like very much. Their signature song "Alabama Bound" comes off as a sleepy version of the Byrds.

"I Saw Her" is an exception, and a song that Wilhelm also cut with the Flamin' Groovies.

 

[beccabear67]

That Amazing Charlatans collection of early Charlatans recordings (and thick booklet) is one of the last CDs I'd ever get rid of (Pre-Flyte Byrds, Grateful Dead Autumn demos, Great Society at the Matrix and The Rising Sons Ash Grove sets are also of as much interest, which to me says probably essential). I'm probably a bit more weird for Wilhelm and Ferguson though (got all the Groovies and Tongue & Groove stuff), but I do have all the 70s Hot Licks LPs just because they turned up in my path, but they do sit on the shelf about as much as Jim Kweskin or Commander Cody albums (which do get spun every once in a long while).

 

[axel]

I always loved the Charlatans. To me they were like characters out of a fantasy or a wild west novel, or a fusion of both. At one point in my youth we even went to school dressed up like the Charlatans!

I had the great honour to visit Mike Wilhelm a few years ago. He played a few old blues songs (on an acoustic 12-string) to us and I asked him if he would play "Alabama Bound". On an acoustic 12-string! He did and it was one of the essential musical moments of my life. It was like an old-timey blues tune, Leadbelly style, with a psychedelic vibe (the song, not my head). And that is what the Charlatans were all about- cowboys on acid! Fuck man, how cool can you get??!!!
They deserve every inch of being legendary, in my opinion.

And I certainly love Dan Hicks. Great musician. Great songwriter, with a lot of wit and refinement and personal style. A big loss. R.I.P.

Coolness defined:

 

[MopTopMike]

Guess you had / have to be wasted / blotto'd to enjoy them.

ZZZ

 

[axel]

Zzzz

 

[Frantic]

double zzzz

 

[axel]

The Charlatans brought ole-timey music into pop music, similar to the Lovin Spoonful, but more radical (and with less commercial appeal). I love ole-timey music and I guess the Charlatans introduced me to it.
Dan Hicks remained true to that type of music throughout his life and one of his last albums, "Tangled Tales", is one of his best.