This Week's Forgotten Gem of the '80s - Tommy Conwell & the Young Rumblers' "I'm Not Your Man"

Throughout the half-century or so of rock music history, styles have shifted and trends have waxed and waned, but good old raunchy, ragged rock and roll has never once gone out of style. Oh, there have been periods when such music was rather hard to find: portions of the '60s when hippie psychedelia ruled, the late-'70s disco explosion, and, I'm sorry to say, a good bit of the '80s. Thankfully, that's where the criminally overlooked bar band Tommy Conwell & the Young Rumblers comes in.

The band's delightful, greasy blues-rock masterpiece "I'm Not Your Man" was a big hit on rock radio in 1988, but somehow its fate wasn't nearly as favorable on the pop charts. Maybe that's because the tune is plenty odd, complete with a Tom Waits-ish spoken-word intro and some wonderfully loopy lyrics throughout. In addition, the group's bar-band roots lack the smooth edges most pop radio programmers have always demanded. But that's what makes this song such a timeless relic, as it didn't fit in the '80s but its singularity makes it hard to decide in which era it would exactly fit. Conwell's gravelly voice takes a chameleonic path to musical transcendence, spitting out witty and playful lyrics at a time when music could have used the breath of fresh air it supplied. Oh well, at least it's never too late to revisit or discover a lost classic.

• Compare prices on Tommy Conwell CDs here.

Album Cover Image Courtesy of American Beat