Time Machine 1982-2002
The Windbreakers, one of the great could-have-beens of the first wave of the American underground. They could-have-been great. They could-have-been REM. They could-have-been ... The road to pop stardom is littered with couldas. The could-have-named themselves after the jacket... please let them have named themselves after the jacket. For nearly a decade, Lee, along with songwriting foil/friend/drinking pal Bobby Sutliff crafted distinctly American music that combined punk's ragged edge with all of Merseybeat's melodicism. That ragged edge came from Lee, the sturdy heart at the center of The Windbreakers. Where Sutliff preferred classic songs along the McGuinn/Hollies line, Lee always traveled a rougher road, combining equal parts Dylan with Tom Petty's Southern accents.Naturally, they didn't sell. Naturally, the critics and fans loved them.The band reflected "more of an American than English influence with strange melodic turns and a ragged Southern vocal style, " Ira Robbins concluded for their entry in The Trouser Press record guide.