1985 Top Ten Songs: Looking for Lewis and Clark (#8)

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Aren’t you lucky, it’s another day of people you’ve never heard of! Well, the person from 70 years ago, probably, but this recent act, no. And they were even featured in a commercial! Here’s today’s song from 1985. #8: Looking for Lewis and Clark - The Long Ryders Honestly, there are hits on this list. This ain’t one of them. I have a long list of acts from the 80s that I rank as “underrated.” The Long Ryders is one of those bands. Long gone were the 70s, when acts like Little Feat and Joan Armatrading could get airplay. No, in the 80s it was, “We can’t play that, we have to play ‘Stairway to Hotel Califreebird’ again!” Sid Griffin, the front man for The Long Ryders, is from Louisville. He’s lived in England for over 40 years, though (he was just in town not too long ago as the opening act for Peter Case). The Long Ryders were popular there, although this didn’t make the top 50. (Better than the US showing: it didn’t make anything.) They look punk in the video, but in reality they were far more influenced by Gram Parsons (“when Tim [Hardin, who died in 1980] get to Heaven hope he told Gram about The Long Ryders and just who I am”). There was a type of music called “cowpunk” in the 80s, with bands like Lone Justice and the Beat Farmers. The Long Ryders would have fit there, although very little of their music has an audible country sound. Oh, and, if you remember those “American music, American beer” commercials that Miller High Life did in the mid-80s (primarily an MTV influenced marketing idea), you may have seen these guys in one of them! I got to see The Long Ryders when they played here in 1987. It’s a cherished memory. Looking for Lewis and Clark Written by Sid Griffin Recorded by The Long Ryders From State of Our Union, 1985 That’s where you get your kickbacks from the Navy: