Bruce Joyner and the Plantations

BRUCE JOYNER AND THE PLANTATIONS

Bruce Joyner left the Unknowns in 1983; when he began recording the full-length album Swimming with Friends with his new band the Plantations in 1986, Ray Manzarek and X guitarist John Doe both lent a hand.

Bruce Joyner is still active in music and has started several more bands over the years; I picked up a great album last year called Way Down South (1983) by Bruce Joyner and the Plantations in his inimitable style – his first album after leaving the Unknowns.

(June 2011)

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There are several YouTube songs by the Unknowns (also known as Bruce Joyner and the Unknowns); here is a striking performance taken from New Wave Theatre of their song “The Streets” (also known as “Shadows Stalk the Night”) that also shows off the other wacky stuff on that channel besides punk rock: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqRQcWJVnbk . This is another live performance (from 1990) of another great song, “Dream Sequence”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfg0sS8nhAY . If you need any other proof that the Unknowns are not like anybody else, check out this demo performance (audio only) of “Common Man”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO4_5A5pwEE . There are other Unknowns songs on YouTube, plus additional Bruce Joyner music from his bands the Plantations and Reconstruction.

(June 2013/2)