Some of the biggest rock artists and bands ever were heavily inspired by underground legends. Many of those legends are virtually unknown among mainstream listeners. Let’s take a look at a few obscure musicians and bands who inspired some of the biggest rock legends through the years! Most of these might just surprise you.
Videos by American Songwriter
1. The Gun Club
Post-punk outfit The Gun Club produced some pretty influential tunes from 1979 to 1996. In particular, the band’s frontman Jeffrey Lee Pierce influenced the likes of Jack White, Pixies, and Circle Jerks. The former has spoken fondly about Pierce in interviews.
“The songwriting of Kid Congo Powers and Jeffrey Lee Pierce has the freshest white take on the blues of its time,” said Jack White of The White Stripes. “Why are these songs not taught in schools?”
2. Lois Moffeo
Feminist-leaning rock music definitely did not originate in the riot grrrl era of the 1990s. Women have been making groundbreaking music for decades, and a few underground musicians from before that time inspired the likes of Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, and Snail Mail.
One such artist was Lois Maffeo, who is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of the underground music movement in Olympia, Washington in the late 1980s and early 1990s that birthed some of the biggest American bands of that era.
3. Link Wray
Even the biggest fans of Bob Dylan and The Who might have no clue who Link Wray is. We all should, though. Wray was a pioneer of disruptive music, and he created the very first instrumental song to be banned from radio stations in 1958.
Wray’s hit “Rumble” sent a ripple of influence down to present-day legends like Dylan, The Who, and even Led Zeppelin. Many years before pedals were a thing, Wray picked holes in his amplifier to give his guitar a notably fuzzy sound. This was entirely too much for mainstream audiences at the time, and the song was promptly banned. John Lennon even called him one of the “great unknowns” of rock music.
4. Silver Apples
Jimi Hendrix, along with newer bands Beastie Boys and Portishead, have said in the past that they were inspired by Silver Apples. This 1960s electronic music outfit mastered the art of blending psychedelic rock with electronica, notably in their self-titled 1968 album. (We highly recommend listening to that album, by the way.)
They’re definitely inspirational and influential, to say the least. Before they hit the scene, no one else had really made music like that before. Unfortunately, they were a little bit ahead of their time, and many everyday rock fans today have never heard of them.
5. Suicide
Suicide is probably more well-known than many of the obscure rock legends on this list, but they definitely didn’t get as much attention as their more famous punk rock contemporaries. The band opened for Elvis Costello on his 1978 tour, prompting outrage among crowds who were not happy about their rough, punk, abrasive music.
The above audio depicts one famous set in which the band, in good ol’ punk rock fashion, continues to play to an angry crowd in Brussels for 23 minutes. Daft Punk, Bruce Springsteen, and Nick Cave have all cited Suicide as influences.
Photo by Mediapunch/Shutterstock
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