Later'n usual true, but at this point in blogdom does it really matter? And although it lacks a whole lotta polish and is just brimmin' with rough edges I sure put a lot of heart and soul and gosh-darnedness into it so you BETTER like it! Actually, just tell me that you like it even if you don't --- personally I find my writing extremely wonky and off kilter here and downright awkward at spots. I do get the idea that some of you out there might find at least a scintilla of something worthwhile within these words, but then again I get the idea that some of you out there think a good time consists of shoving knitting needs up and around your rectum a la Albert Fish so wha'd I know?
***
Here's one they don't show on Boomerang or any streaming service or off-channel that I know of for some obscure reason or another so I thought I'd shove it here. One of my mother's favorites because it was promoting classical music to us stoopid suburban slobs, but despite all that (entertainment that's supposed to be educational and all that hokum) I like it anyway. Sure beats the slop out of FANTASIA...
***
For those of you who can't get hold of Cheerwine, Dr. Pepper with Cherry just
might fit the bill. Not quite Cheerwine-y but good enough for a change from
the usual. Avoid the Dr. Pepper Cream Soda and Strawberry flavors, both of
which taste like a reverse high colonic.
***
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This week's AI surprise! A pic of Mister Rogers back when he was a US Marines sharpshooter in Vietnam. *** |
'n after all
that piddle it's
time for the writeups, and some good writeups they are I'll tell ya. If you
don't think that the following reviews are the best thing that you will read
ANYWHERE these days
regarding that once-potent but then easily co-opted thing called rock 'n roll
screeding then you might want to check in with your own personal guru, but
anyway thanks to Faddensonnen and Paul McGarry, the latter who sent me some
rather familiar seventies-vintage offerings that passed me by during my
depression-era wages days.
The Bolan piece is one that I've worked on for quite some time. I've been
spurred on into catching up on the various Tyrannosaurus Rex efforts that have
passed me by (and given the way the Bolan catalog has exploded since his own
passing boy is there a ton of it out there!) and I must say that it was a big
joy for me to listen (and re-listen) to a whole load of the guy's efforts and
lay down to type my various opines which might get'cha a cup of coffee if you
also have a dime. And remember, you read it here last.
Tyrannosaurus Rex/T. Rex- UNICORN CD (Castle Communications, England); A
BEARD OF STARS (Expanded Edition) CD (A&M Records, Japan); A BBC HISTORY
CD (Strange Fruit Records, England); THE SLIDER CD (Demon Records, England);
THERE WAS A TIME CD (TAG/Alan Walls Records, England), Steve Peregrine Took
THE MISSING LINK TO TYRANNOSAURUS REX CD (Cleopatra Records)
The Marc Bolan story's probably the biggest if not one of the biggestbiggestBIGGEST
tales of too much too soon, or better yet "wha' 'HAPP'D???" Up
from the underground with a slew of albums one could easily say were some of
the better rock 'n roll spinners to grace the early-seventies, soon it all
tumbled like Harlan Ellison's ROCKABILLY come to life to the point
where Bolan became a bloated image of his former self doing coke lines in
fleabag hippie hangouts while his old fans were doing the har-de-har-hars
behind his back and don't tell me Marc didn't know it!. And in typical fickle
finger of fate fashion right when the guy's on the verge of a comeback
complete with his own tee-vee series he gets himself killed! And of course we
can speculate as to what might have been but at least we've got what happened,
and diligent me in trying to keep up with all that I don't have and have
otherwise missed out on decided not only to settle down with the platters I
already have but fill in some of those gaps and other bits I somehow missed
out on because like, well life is short and it ain't like I want to fill up
the rest of what I have of it listening to J. Neo Marvin.
Wouldja believe that I've had a love/hate/love affair with Bolan for a longer
time than I'm sure most of you fans and followers would have ever thought?
There was a time when I dismissed a whole load of the Tyrannosaurus Rex
catalog ('r at least what I've heard given my limited financial situation) as
more hippie mewls before coming to my head and realizing the utter genius of
Bolan's straightforward pop inclinations and the fact that English hippie was
a whole lot more palatable than what passed for Amerigan early-seventies
"right on" sloganeering and "look how full of virtue I am" pose. As you
can guess Bolan is to me here in 2025 what Syd Barrett was in '24, and as of
these past few months I've been solidly in tune with Bolan's acoustic phase
figuring that the guy put his own electricity into the Tyrannosaurus Rex
catalog. When the guy eventually
did switch back
electric guitars well, you could say that it was the next
logical step.
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Not only that but "Cat Black" features a full rock 'n roll group concept with
heavy duty grand piano courtesy producer Tony Visconti. It wouldn't have been
out of place on ELECTRIC WARRIOR or at least a non-LP flipster
from the same strata, and the track proves that Marc knew exactly where he was
going and how to do it right. Really, anyone who would have been
startled over the change in direction must've been a stoop given these early
signs of the glory that was about to be!
In retrospect I think I shoulda splurged on the expanded edition with the
bonus tracks but I can't have everything I want. In fact it wasn't until
recently that I could have
ANYTHING that I
wanted!
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This Japanese expanded edition's got a load of goodies tacked on at the end
from songs that didn't make the cut to alternate takes guaranteed to sate the
lusts of even the more iffy Bolan buddy. Believe it or not but this 'un has
become a frequent spinner during those scant few minutes when I just don't
feel like reviewing some of the offal that gets tossed my way.
The first two T. Rex proper albums I've mentioned many-a-time (or at least I
have ELECTRIC WARRIOR which was definitely the best rock 'n roll
platter to make it bigtime during the singer/songwriter saturated year of
1971) and since I haven't any recent new and updated editions to write about
I'll just skip over to THE SLIDER which is yet another masterpiece
from a time when the concept of rock 'n roll was definitely sliding into areas
that seemed stickier than the La Brea Tar Pits. This might be considered the
end/beginning of the end/beginning for Marc 'n company what with some of those
later platters like TANX reportedly coming off so self-parody that
all of the naysays have scared me away for seemingly ages.
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But when stacked up against a whole slew of them records that were filling up
not only the album bins but the bedrooms of teenage pimple-thighed gals o'er
here THE SLIDER was a definite winner which shoulda gotten Bolan
the Sky Saxon award for best self-plagiarism by a rock band for the year of
1972. Shoulda held out for some deluxe edition with a whole string of outtakes
(I mean, I've owned the original for ages) but hey, at this stage in my life
its like I can't read the fine print no' mo'.
And if it is in fact true that "Baby Boomerang" was written about Patti Smith
as Paul Morley once conjectured, maybe that guy wasn't the jerk too many wonks
were making him out to be once he hit the heights he was soon to drastically
fall from.
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You might also want to make yer way through THERE WAS A TIME, the first ever Tyrannosaurs Rex gig --- well, not the six-piece group who got booed off the stage a few months prior to this September 23 1967 show but the first two-piece 'un showing the early loose ends 'n all before they got a nice trimmin'. Some old Johns Children tracks pop up as well as first elpee efforts, and although the sound is rougher'n a cat's tongue you history buffs'll sure wanna eat this 'un up. As a bonus for everyone who made it through the show there are some early John Peel efforts for being such nice boys and girls.
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This Cleopatra release ain't anything that's gonna light any fires under some
if not any of you reg'lar readers, but as far as a "document" of historical
rockist value it does its duty and does it well. The Fairies make for the
ideal backing band to Took's astrolysergical meanderings, and if you were one
of the many who thought that Shagrat was a hearty enough backing group for
Took you should be eating this up like psylocibin. The presence of some "Crazy
Diamond" does churn up in the mind that the (apocryphal?) real deal Syd
Barrett did pop up here somewhere, and considering the state of mind Took must
have been in during these sessions the company you could say that they were
pretty much peas in the ol' hackneyed pod. Yeah it meanders, but its like a
meander one can really sink his psyche into!
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Two different sources (who in no way know who each other are or who each other
may be for that matter) have compared Tyrannosaurus /T. Rex with the Troggs as
far as Anglo punkoid thrust and general attitude go. That never did occur to
stoopid me who couldn't see the similarities in each group's abilities to
sashay between the pop and hard rock contingents and produce what I would call
downright classic single sides that were timeless in their own punkitude. What
else can I say but we should be grateful that this planet was blessed with
Marc without whom the early-seventies might just have been totally bombarded
with pathetic introspection and Jesus Christ Superstar snooze all aimed to
numb teenbo minds that were flatlining enough to being with. Some might have
found this glam slam a total embarrassment to the entire concept of rock 'n
roll but the above spinners sure prove to the contrary. Listen in and for once
realize that T Rextacy was definitely the saving force for teenbo
brain-popping music at a time when it very well might have all tumbled into
peace 'n love shucksterisms supposedly speaking for (and to) the kids of the
day. And, thankfully, some youth did know better. If only they slaughtered the
stupider ones...
***
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Like with the ROOTS album reviewed last autumn there's a
whole turdload of early-seventies AM radio trackage here that does more'n
just remind me of how fun it was listening to the transistor while reading
comic books during them pre-pubesprout days of discovery.
SUPERFLY also reminds me of just how mighty the AM band was after a
few years of somewhat staid playlists, only to be followed by what seems
like an eternity of horrid slop that the genre never did recover from.
Pretty hotcha soul that's well-crafted, tasteful and
dareIsay "mature", only in a way that woulda appealed to a slew of suburban
slob comic books and candy on a summer day sorta kids. I believe that I
wasn't the only one and that here were many more like myself way back in
those better'n it coulda been worse days. Any of you out there care to prove
me right?
***
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You KNEW that the
late-seventies were repressed beyond belief if the kidz thought music like
this was either born of the devil or (worse yet) an insidious attempt to
betray the true spirit of rock 'n roll (Bee Gees, Frampton, Warrant and the
usual Chuck Eddy fodder). Those are the kind of SFB's I hadda put up with
for more'n just a few years and I still hope that each and every one of 'em
have died long, agonizing deaths!
Good thing that I don't believe in karma, and good thing that McGarry sent a
copy of the third Cheap Trick platter my way, Yes, Cheap Trick were just
what the youth of them days really needed what with their high energy pop
rock sounds that took up the slack left by the demise of such Third
Generation stalwarts as T. Rex and the Sweet. Obvious refs. include the Move
(as you woulda guessed given the spiffy cover of "California Man"), pre-it
all went to his head Todd, Sparks, the Raspberries and, considering the
somewhat close proximity twixt the two acts locale-wise, Pezband. And
sheesh, given the quality of the teenbos I hadda encounter during those days
of aural suppression all I gotta say is it sure was a
miracle this slab of pure hard pop would make
ANY impact on the
Kiss Army rejects I hadda put up with!
***
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Not as raw and as under-the-underground 1975 fanzine writer desirable as
DOWN BY THE JETTY, but I sure can dig the dickens outta these
retro-scrunged up English rhythm and blues efforts as I can similar
soundscapades from everyone from the Count Bishops to Little Bob Story. As
with the Cheap Trick platter this is more of that power-punched sound of
pure energy that the doofs I've mentioned used to poo-poo in favor of some
of the worst music to hit the airwaves, at least until the eighties,
nineties...
(Continuing with my reminiscences of horrible music days gone by...) Y'know,
it kinda bothers me that there were way too many evil spirits throughout
history who were never brought to justice and it burns me up no end that the
idiot AM/FM deejays and their fans who made living in the tri-county area so
dismal never did get their what fors either. Fortunately most all of those
responsible are still alive and unfortunately breathing which is something
that really frosts my babymaking machine. If any of you out there are
willing to revenge rock 'n roll in the face of all the ruination these
arbiters of taste have bestowed upon us names and addresses can be
furnished. As for the beyond retarded fans of that spew well...maybe it
would just be easier to carpet bomb the area, as long as you tell me when
yer gonna do it so I can do a quick skedaddlin'! Whatever,
THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT FIT TO GO ON LIVING UNPUNISHED!!!!!
***
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Allen's gonna be hittin' the 101 mark pretty soon if not already so why not
celebrate in your own fart-encrusted bedroom way by giving this particular
sesh a go 'round? Dunno who this Blum guy is (I fear he is no relation to
Handsome Dick Manitoba) but he's a good piano tinkler. Not as good as former
Allen boss Ra but I would say decent enough in a neo-Cecil Taylor fashion.
And I don't know who Elliot Levin on tenor and flute is (well, that name
sounds somewhat familiar) or drummer Chad Taylor for that matter but they
also do swell. Allen's the real star of this session what with his
"Electronic Valve Instrument" creating a whole load of Ra-esque interstellar
sounds and his alto's very good, especially for what I woulda expected from
any 98-year-old (the age Allen was when he recorded this) still able to pick
one up. Sounds just as exciting as I would have expected any random pick
from the old NMDS jazz catalog back in the late-seventies to have been.
***
Nothing that I'm liable to toss the confetti over, but still a fine stream
of free rock that doesn't sound like hippoid excess down on the front
porch chooglin'. Comes close to a wide variety of one-LP soundflow that's
been released since the wild-eyed days of the late-sixties (even though
this does consist of a variety of tracks, but
YOU tell me
when each one begins and ends), making for good settle back 'n kick up
your heels after a hard day at the salt mines listening. I won't be
spinning this with the same frequency that I do Syd or Marc, but deny it's
a spinner of value and worth? No way!
***
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Not as pallid as I remember their earlier efforts to have been (of course
it's been about thirtysome years since I heard any of 'em), but I still
find Camper's brand of Amerindie stylings (with some "hip" references to
earlier accomplishment) not quite the way I would like to spend my
life-support days listening to set on "repeat". Somewhat smart
mid-seventies rock formations "updated" for the 21st century rockist
sophisticates out there, and nothing I would care to toss in the trash
even if I doubt I'll ever spin this again.
***
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Sure the Dictators were one of the boffest rock 'n roll bands to make their
way outta the best/worst of time days that was otherwise known as the
seventies. But sheesh, some of the groups these ex-members eventually made
their way into just don't live up to the ideals that the Dics were known to
promulgate amongst a whole load of people who sure did need being
promulgated! This Del-Lords spinner sounds like just about any random
"mersh" AOR FM album that I had the misfortune of hearing whether I wanted
to or not (more likely the latter) what with its ballad-y downer groove and
patented chord changes that were overused even forty years back! Sheesh, I
kinda wish that none other than Handsome Dick Manitoba were around to knock
some sense into Top Ten's head before this thing ever made it to light.
***
Its once again time to do my usual begging and
PLEAD for you to
buy some (or more hopefully all) of the BLACK TO COMM back issues that have been available ever since the Days of Diluvium only you
tighwads were too cheap to snatch any up. Believe you me, I've tried to eat
these and although they do provide the proper fiber I'd rather have 'em
turned into hard cash so I can buy something more nutritious at the
supermarket. So if you're concerned with my dietary intake do me a huge
favor and please take a whole load of these out of my cellar and out of my
life for that matter.
2 comments:
Spot on, completely agree on the Top Ten and other Dictators output. Wha Happen?? Should’ve been real hot-dang good stuff- the now defunct (I think) HDM podcast “You Don’t Know Dick” might contain the last flagrant utterances worth much from that cluster.
Mayfield may have been lucky to have checked out around the fin de siècle …if only so he wouldn’t be raked over some coals for $ like Smokey Robinson today, or Cosby.
If there’s a hell below… it’s a sub-level.
"Fist Hart Mighty Dawn Dart" off of A Beard of Stars is so cool. It was analyzed by the "This I Heard" blogger, who you would have on your masthead. That was a great blog. Yours is too, cheers!
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