Bright Spots In A Dark Decade →[More:] The 1980's were a difficult time for popular music. There was an underground, sure, but the mainstream was at it's most tepid, dominated by synthpop and hairmetal. There were some who kept the flame of good pop-rock burning. Bands, who in a just world would've been stars, bands who were commercial in the best sense of the word, but due to bad timing, mishandling or whatever, never managed to make the final leap to superstardom.

First, The Smithereens. A bunch of Jersey boys, they combined a Who-Kinks style guitar attack with zippy melodies, intelligent lyrics and vulnerable vocals. They had a strong cult following on the East Coast but never truly hit the big time. But they left us gems like "Behind The Wall Of Sleep" and "Top Of The Pops."

From Nashville came a band of country boys known as Jason & The Scorchers. Jason Ringenbergs warbling 100% country vocals were in beautiful contrast to Warner Hodges' hell-bent guitar and the rythm section roared along like a brakeless rollercoaster. And they had the tunes to back it up. They brought the house down wherever they played but the 'are you country or are you rock?' dunderheadedness of the industry led to confusion and mismanagement. But 'Last Time Around' and 'Broken Whiskey Glass' helped birth the genre known as cowpunk.

Then there was The Brandos. They combined the musical tightness and sharp songwriting of the best of Creedence with even tougher guitar and more ominous vocals. But in a musical landscape of artsy pretension on one hand and lowest-common-denominator banality on the other, the industry couldn't find a place for them and it was the public's loss since songs like "Honor Among Thieves" and their unhinged cover of the Sonics "Strychnine" deserved to be heard.

Finally, there's Lone Justice. Combining Maria McKee's sweet but powerful country-style vocals with the Let It Bleed era Stonesy punch of the band, this crew actually got some industry support: opening slots for U2, big names giving them songs, but it never panned out. "Ways To Be Wicked" (written for them by Tom Petty), "Pass It On," and "You Are The Light," all sounded like hits but it was not to be.

All of the bands above have devoted followings of various sizes and many of the people involved are still making music, but when a group seems to have all the ingredients to scale the heights of stardom (as these did, IMHO) one can't help but wonder what might have been. Hope you like 'em.