Lost/Forgotten Album #193

This week's pick is 1981's "Great American Music" from what Rolling Stone labels as "the world's most famous unknown band".

Who are the Good Rats? Let's have allmusic explain:

"While countless rockers started their careers in the New York suburb of Long Island before going on to worldwide success (Billy Joel, Twisted Sister, Steve Vai, Brian Setzer, Blue Öyster Cult, etc.), there have been countless acts that appeared poised for a breakthrough, but for whatever reason, fell short. Many longtime followers of Long Island-based rock would probably agree that tops on the "woulda/coulda/shoulda" list were the Good Rats, a group who played at some of the East Coast's best-known/biggest venues (Madison Square Garden, Nassau Coliseum, the Philadelphia Spectrum) during the '70s, while opening for such big names as Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, the Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, Journey, Heart, Styx, Meat Loaf, and Rush, among others. Specializing in a tough form of bar band/hard rock (comparable to Led Zeppelin early on, before getting more commercial), quite a few bandmembers waltzed through the Good Rats' ranks after their formation during the late '60s, but through it all, lead vocalist Peppi Marchello was present.

Originally consisting of Marchello, drummer Joe Franco (later briefly a member of Twisted Sister), bassist/vocalist Lenny Kotke, plus a pair of guitarists/singers, John "The Cat" Gatto and Mickey Marchello, the band debuted in 1969 with The Good Rats. A frustrating trend would soon follow for the group -- their albums would be well received by their large, local fan base and regional radio, but would fail to connect to other parts of the continent. It was the group's sophomore effort, 1974's Tasty, that would spawn one of the Good Rats' best-known songs: the jazzy title track, which remains a staple on Long Island-based classic rock radio. It was also around this time that the Good Rats caught the attention of guitarist Tommy Bolin (through a mutual friend), who was earning raves at the time due to his flashy guitar work for the likes of Billy Cobham and Deep Purple. Bolin was so impressed with the group that he had the management of one of his favorite clubs, Denver's Ebbets Field, hire the group, which resulted in a jam session with Bolin and drummer Carmine Appice on a rousing cover of Cobham's "Stratus," which would appear years later on the Bolin compilation Bottom Shelf (Bolin sadly died from a heroin overdose two years later).

Although some groups would have quickly given up because of all the turbulence the Good Rats experienced, Marchello and company admirably continued to soldier ahead -- continuing to issue strong yet overlooked albums (1978's Rats to Riches and Birth Comes to Us All, 1979's Rat City in Blue, and 1981's Great American Music). After laying low for a few years, Peppi put together a whole new version of the Good Rats in the early '90s, featuring his son, guitarist Gene Marchello, who was a member of the short-lived-'80s pop-metal outfit Marchello. After their rebirth, the Good Rats began issuing all-new studio albums, including 1996's Tasty Seconds and 2002's Play Dum. The original lineup of the Good Rats was also known to sporadically reunite for gigs, such as a pair of shows in Rochester, New York, in October of 1998, which saw the "new" Good Rats open for the original Good Rats. However, after experiencing heart problems, Peppi Marchello underwent open-heart surgery in June 2013, and although the singer appeared to be recovering, he died from cardiac arrest the following month at the age of 68."*

For more information, you can visit the band's website HERE.

Great American Music

1. New York Survivor
2. Julie
3. Audience
4. Hollywood Ending
5. Great American Music Halls
6. Yes Or No
7. Icy Cold
8. On My Way To School
9. Oh So Good
10. Rock And Roll Point Of View

Availability: Single CD is OOP and but can be found for around $19 or you can go to the band's website and pick up "Birth Comes To Us All"/"Great American Music" for around $25.

*bio was edited due to nefarious means

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Scott on May 18, 2014 at 8:35pm

Catching up....

The saga of the band as you reported it sounds the saddest story in rock and roll, a real life tear jerker.
RJ is right about the vocals not being up to par...
RJ is wrong about there being any stellar guitar. Its pretty average, maybe even a bit below but I do like the tone they use in the solos
The bass playing is pretty solid!
Songwriting is an issue. I'd like to say its a period piece but then I here a disco beat, and some bass lines that would work in the Gap Band. The tunes seem quite nice in places but are uneven and I don't think these guys could write a catchy chorus if their life depended on it
Yes or No is definitely a No!
His voice is getting annoying... A full album of him singing may be a huge part of the reason they never caught on outside of Long Island
On My Way to School.... uh he sounds way way too old to be singing about school, this is a creeper tune.
Interesting piece of Long Island history, but that's about it...

Where do you find this stuff? (And don't say Long Island)