Monday, May 16, 2011

Pete Wylie - part time rock star, full time legend

There are plenty of song writers and musicians who have written a good crop of good songs. Not many write great songs. Those that do tend to enjoy careers and riches. Where then does that leave Pete Wylie of Wah!? I can place Sinful, Come Back and Story of the Blues in any list above the efforts of latter day pretenders. Ahead of anything by plenty of bands I really like. There's plenty more he's been involved in that's ropey, but I subscribe to the flawed genius theory of Wylie. These three songs have majesty, ambition and that overblown Scouse sense of epic entitlement.

Anyway, there was a long and thoughtful profile on him I remember reading about 20 years ago. It was by James Brown in the Guardian, one of his better efforts since Attack on Bzag (look it up). It's now slightly updated and on the excellent Sabotage Times. 

Wylie's own site has gone.

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