NOV SCHMOZ KA POP ROCK!

Maybe I ain't the most credible sorta rock scriber to pump out a post on power pop.

So what!

As if I'm any sorta "expert" on just about anything I blab on about here on this blog, and that goes for moom pitchers to old tee-vee shows to music itself! But since I have maybe """some""" information on a subject at hand and you don't, it's me who comes off looking like Encyclopedia Brown when it comes to such banter that anybody in his right mind woulda known or cared about long before the creation of this internet made the world so small that sometimes I feel like I'm engaging in a footsie fight with a Mongolian. And I know...I could leave the subject of power pop to a number of more talented and knowledgeable writers whom I sure could put to pixel just exactly what it was that made the "movement" so interesting way back in the seventies when any music of a rock 'n roll variety that was outside the extremely limited AM/FM sphere was looked upon with extreme suspicion.

And hey,  I for one can recall the closing days of the seventies when even such a comparatively quaint character as Nick Lowe was considered to be the most shocking, despicable and bad apple evil punkster in that otherwise wholesome world of "rock music", even to the point where a relatively pleasant chart-struggler like "Cruel to be Kind" would get the quick flick offa the car radio! To just about everybody I knew, it was just more of that pesky punk rock that shouldn't be cluttering up our precious airwaves, which is one good reason why the Youngstown/Sharon/New Castle area has remained such a rust-bowl when it comes to high energy music to the point where a group such as Sister Ray hadda struggle to make any indent while lesser acts (all covers even!) were given the red carpet treatment in an area that claimed to be so big on the rock & roll ideal but were closer to the Snooky Lanson groove once you really got down to it!

Kinda makes me wonder how some of the teenage denizens of 1979 woulda held up to a CLOCKWORK ORANGE-styled listening session consisting of some of the harsher aspects of what was passing under that "vague rubric" (copyright 1985 Robert Christgau) of new wave that was being hawked via a larger underground cabal than anybody up there on the surface would dare admit existed. Yeah I know...at least we could dream...

The funny thing is, after listening to a load of the power pop quap that was making its way out back inna late-seventies it's surprising that the music as a whole never did find a huge following on the AM band (even in this area which admittedly was basking in some of the radiation being emitted from the Cleveland scene of the Raspberries, Circus etc.). Perhaps that would have been a vision only Greg Shaw would have thought feasible, but given how the movement could have pumped out some mighty strong, hard rockage while retaining the mid-sixties British Invasion feel you woulda thought that more'n just a few "radicals"'d latched onto powerpop as the return of mid-sixties triumph. I guess the proliferation of sopors and rise of disco and AOR put the kibosh on all of that, but really, wouldn't you think that for every pilled out arena rock kid stoked to the gills on Journey (and Anastasia Pantsios) there woulda been ten wholesome and 35% less cavities kids out there who sure coulda used some power pop in their lives???

Yeah, that's all water under the bridge and rock et roll as we knew it has ceased to exist outside our own personal fart-encrusted bedrooms, but that doesn't mean we can still LOVE it the same way that all of those silent majority types who were reminiscing about the Big Bands in 1971 did while the world was hippie-ing out around them. Here are just a very few "power pop" offerings that I've been listening to as of the past few weeks, hardly enough to make up an article worthy of Greg Shaw's BOMP! issue mind you but just the right thing for a mid-week musing that's bound to send you straight to the late-seventies when a more'n a few kids were more content to look back to the mid-sixties at that.

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Of course I know why I ignored the Atlantics back when they were actually making some headway into whatever there was of a late-seventies power pop market. Given how my tastes were being drawn towards a more...how shall we say...avant garde mode being affected into a rock 'n roll frame of being (see Clevo/Ako/Kento sphere of sound) music like that of the Atlantics just didn't seem to phase me in light of whatever Roky Erickson (who you believe me was just as "new wave" to mine ears as Pere Ubu!) was apt to be doing. And hey, I gotta admit that the looks of the guys as espied on the left wasn't exactly conduit to my own sense of sartorial inelegance...talk about new wave morphed into gnu wave (copyright 1977 Don Waller) and a fashion sense that seems to have been birthed from the mind of a fellow who walked in on his parents goin' at it age three and thought dad was on top strangling mom thus twisting his own sexual identity into something I'd prefer not to get into on this family-oriented blog.

But hey, after listening to these three recent Atlantics exhumations that were released via the Something Hot Communications label (and available via CD Baby) I've gotta admit that these Bostonians were just the right mix of pop and hard rock to almost (operative word) punk (and even metal!), and the combination makes me wanna go and search out the group's own late-seventies big label release that most definitely got lost under the tide of a whole load of subpar sputum. Aural visions of weep wimp sounds got quickly flushed outta my system with these disques that prove hometown Boston certainly did have a life outside of the perennial Velvet Underground worship that it banked its rock 'n roll image on in the seventies. Not quite Raspberries or Cheap Trick, but still hotcha enough with potential AM weirdities like "Pop Shivers",  "Lonelyhearts" and "Television Girl" that, in another world, might have broken outta the local scene ghetto and onto national acceptance, but frankly the kids were too album-oriented braindead to catch on. These guys might've been the best pop group to have come outta Boston since the Sidewinders,  and they certainly were tough enough to match that hallowed act in the teenage potential top 40 outta nowhere hit department.

The two studio disques are definitely the best place to start since ATLANTICS LIVE has too much of that FM radio live sound that kinda irritates me due to the special frequencies that were aimed towards car stereos and dogs. It's a good slice of the live action the Atlantics could whip up but leave it for last. The rest, dug up from rare studio sessions and self-produced singles recorded twist '79/'81, are about as "representative" of what the power pop movement could have aspired to if only a few more spiritually-endowed teenagers out there realized it as the music speaking to their lives and bought these records up faster'n Fonzie (I know...repetitive, but I won't shut up until each and every person on this planet agrees with me, and after that it's straight to Mars all the way!)..

One interesting aside...see the guy on the far left in the first pic with the standard evocative of the mid-sixties snazz-looking suit 'n tie, the modified Moe Howard Beatle hair and the large birth control glasses? That's none other than Fred Pineau, a name that should ring bells if you were a fan and follower of the Boston fanzine scene throughout the seventies. Music-wize he was a member (along with John Horvorka) of Joe Viglione's typically Velvets-minded Astral Projections before ending up with garage band Aerosmith rockers Bonjour Aviators before becoming an Atlantic, and not only that he was a contributor to Viglione's much needed/missed fanzine VARULVEN. Smart credentials for a seventies icon of BLOG TO COMM proportions, and I gotta admit something that does add that special dimension to the music, considering that sometimes what goes on behind the stage is just as important as what's happening in front of a load of wild, screaming teenagers (or aging hipsters like ourselves pretending that this is what their image of what wild, screaming teenagers was supposed to be!)

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Took me awhile, but I finally latched onto 2010's Poppees collection entitled POP GOES THE ANTHOLOGY that Bomp! Records unleashed on a public that we all know couldn't care less. But since the folk at Bomp! knew that and released it anyway I couldn't offer them any more kudos than possible. Along with the Planets, Best, Cross, Great Mistaque and a few dozen other groups due for an exhumation, the Poppees were part of the third-string underground New York scene, though where many of these groups drew their energies from various late-sixties/early-seventies rock movements the Poppees' credo was strictly of an early/mid-sixties vintage...mainly the early/mid-sixties Beatles back when the Fabricated Four weren't into their cosmic consciousness phase and could still belt out a Little Richard number with a surprising amount of conviction. Even with this retrogarde stance the Poppees were able to make a dent on the local scene, at least enough that various local critics could point to 'em as if they had just made some sort of big discovery worthy of Columbus..."hey, look at this new rock group I discovered all on my lonesome...they're so great, and while you're at it NOTICE ME for discovering 'em as well!!!"

Gotta admit that it's a good collection with both of the Bomp! single sides sounding about as clear as a good Beatle Cee-Dee bootleg of 1963 studio outtake vintage, 'n not only that but  a coupla tracks I think were supposed to have appeared on the LIVE AT CBGB album power pop up. And (of course!) how could anybody forget some powerful in themselves demos and live throw-ins (including one from the old 82 Club, a subject matter I had been thinking of devoting an entire post to one of these days, at least when things start gettin' slow!) that present the Poppees as something more'n just a throwback nostalgia trip for girls who iron their hair and still proudly display their "George" buttons. I would have thought that the cash-in album under an assumed name they did in '76 during the Beatlemania Revival woulda found their way here, but I guess that dealing with Laurie Records ain't exactly the easiest task in the world so that'll have to wait for a future release.


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Finally for today's power pop skim over comes this 'un, an album that was hot off the presses in '77 yet a flea market find  in '82! Yes, here's none other than the first platter from the Chicago-area power poppers who were roamin' under the name Pezband! Like many of you, I remember the press this group, who were actually signed to the Passport record label, best known for importing progressive rockers like Nektar over to these shores as well as signing some of the local proggy home grown acts like Larry Fast's Synergy, had garnered back in the late-seventies. Heck, I even remember all of the stories about 'em in the pages of BOMP! and TROUSER PRESS which gave me the impression that Pezband must have had a mighty good press on their side if they could get all of the boffo print that they were sure grabbing up! And true these guys were just one of the many fine outta nowhere acts that made up the musical vocabulary of the seventies, but when this generation of music got washed away by the time of post-disco wave fluffy metal giddiness a few years later, didn't you shed a tear even though you were one of those sophistacados who thought they were nothin' but Raspberries whitewash?

The debut album is a little too slow and perhaps even maudlin for many (and whose idea was it to get Clarence Clemmons to guest on sax anyway...Little Steven?), but I like it if only for its smart seventies aura and abilities to, like the Raspberries, take the mid-sixties English rock these guys "grew up with" and beef it up for a seventies audience. Smart, sharp and quite sophisticated in its own mop topped way...too bad stuff like this failed to make an indent into the beanies of mid-Amerigan youth while Foreigner did, or maybe we wouldn't be living in the current state of duh that we most certainly are!

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For a kiddo who grew up with the sounds of music like this blarin' from teenage radios and carpool drives long before I could even  fathom the fact that someday I'd possess thousands of sound artyfacts let alone a few platter here 'n there,  these recordings positively fit into my perhaps preconceived notions of what power pop had been and should surely remain. And although the genre certainly has lived on (I recall writing about a comparatively recent act called Morgan Taylor's Rock Group in the lastest issue of my very own fanzine) it ain't like it's as prevalent as it once was a good thirty years back when we were all younger, a whole lot more innocent and certainly stupider than we are now.

Still, ya just gotta wonder about what youth has become if it would reject hotcha high energy musics such as those of the aforementioned acts for the comparatively pallid sounds of most everything which has transpired over the past thirtysome years! I mean, kids can be wild, vile murderous and all of those other cool things just as they were in the past, but the music that backs their rage is definitely some of the most hollow to reach ear in quite some time. Dunno about you, but I could see small teenage cabals surrounding free jazz, or the Velvet Underground, or even the seemingly innocent strains of power pop come to think of it, but only a starry eyed geek or VILLAGE VOICE reader would actually believe that the rap and hip hop, not to mention the sickening strains of Lady Caga (the Patti Page of the teens) has that societal force or whatever other leftover Marxist jargon you can think of to transform people. But hey, I guess that's my aging image of what youth is supposed to entail so send me to the old fogie's home and slip me a bottle of Geritol and like pronto!

So after last week's post what were you expectin',  another blabathon only this time detailing the last 5000 years of civilization complete w/footnotes? Sheesh, it's like a blogschpieler like myself can't take a li'l break once in awhile!

Some oldies, some newies, and all are guaranteed to affect you, or not affect you, in one way or another. That's for wishy-washy nonjudgmental sure!

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Mars-LIVE AT ARTISTS SPACE LP (Feeding Tube, 90 King St., Northampton, MA 01060)

From the same brains that brought you the boffo Gary Wilson album a month or so back comes this outta nowhere gem, an LP featuring the infamous no wave gang Mars live at the "legendary" Artists Space gig struttin' their atonal spew for those lucky and/or aware enough to have caught this act back when the catching was good. Each side features an entire set of typical Martian blare (the kind you've been accustomed to ever since the debut of NO NEW YORK oh so long ago) and although both of 'em are whatcha'd call "identical" in setlists there are quite a few variations that will make the more ass-tightened amongst us want to engage in some extremely close listening. It would be great if one could spin both sides in unison to discern the remarkable differences simultaneously but even after a casual listen I'm sure even a dolt like you will notice some remarkable variations twist the same numbers recorded on the very same evening!

Nice sound abounds too even if these were recorded by two different fans on two different machines (straight outta the audience!), and of course it's always fun giving this venerable group yet another listen because once you get down to it all of these seventies variations on sixties accomplishment were just as important and as crucial to the high energy listening attitude as the originals. As soon as the eighties clocked in the kicks really did get harder and harder to find until today it's all such a memory that even the smart hype regarding the latest in a long line of bared-wire intensity acts is nada but wishful if hopeless thunk.

Forced Exposure has been carrying this (still in stock!) and I'm sure even a casual perusal of the web'll turn up a few copies here/there. But whatever, along with the recent Jack Ruby platter this is living proof that maybe the true promise and potential the seventies underground possessed is still waiting to be discovered via archival digs such as these. One can only hope for more Artists Space-recorded bounty to make it's way to our ears, since acts like the Gynecologists, Daily Life, Terminal and of course the Communists (with former Kongress warbler and galpal to Von Lmo Iolsa Hatt) are just beggin' to be heard!

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Bunwinkies-MAP OF OUR CONSTELLATIONS LP (Feeding Tube)

At last, an album that answers the question "Is Folk Rock Dead???" And, judging from the debut platter from this New England-bred group, the answer is nada! A pretty good album for these first-timers who sure know how to do a highly decent approximation of the Fairport Convention sound and sway right down to the charming femme lead singer, coming off very 1969 without the stultifying airs of hippoid pretension. Not only that, but the opening track sounds just about as Velvet Underground as all of those songs that both well inbred rock critics and fanzine upstarts were just itching to compare to the Velvets back in the early-seventies long before that became the de rigeur must do thing for these knowitalls to gain underground cred by!

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THE SIAMESE STEPBROTHERS CD (Cuneiform)

Here's one that, despite the presence of MX-80er's Bruce Anderson and Dale Sophiea in the mix, I rarely play and perhaps given the company they keep (as well as the label they're on) it's not hard to see why. After all, any group that would boast not only Henry Kaiser (who never really lit any ass-fuses here even when teamed up with Anderson, whom I consider a vastly superior guitarist) but former Grateful Dead keyboadist Tom Constanten isn't exactly begging for me to give up precious pre-beddy bye time. But considering the presence of longtime faves Anderson and Sophiea I figured that this '95 obscuro'd be one worthy of the occasional drag out 'n reassess treatment, and if I didn't do just that you'd probably be reading my umpteenth review of LIVE AT CBGB's  here so quit your bellyaching!

Thankfully the results more resemble one of the better (and frankly, there have been worse!) MX-80 side projects and not a Kaiser solo album nor Dead community of living and breathing denizens of Marin County morphing from psychedelic karma to Whole Earth Mental Retardation. Although Kaiser's guitar does feature prominently it's Anderson's soaring lines that hold this one together. Even Constanten's keyboards have enough of that hipster avant garde inclination that Dead pundits used to rave about in the sixties...a little Ra here and some nice Cecil Taylor posturing there...and doesn't get in the way like anybody with two braincells to rub together might have thought. And it all goes by smoothly on these mid-nineties reworkings of various smart-rock moves of the past, the most exciting which has to be the remake of Sonny Sharrock's "Blind Willie"...a fitting tribute to the recently-deceased guitarist whose presence certainly was felt, at least by people like Anderson and undoubtedly even Kaiser who've glommed on his playing for the previous quarter-century.

Not bad at all, and I didn't even mention that the drummer on this 'un was one Lukas Ligeti, a trusted name in various jazz and rock circles to this day and his dad was even György which only goes to show you that genes don't pop that far outta the pool after all.

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THIS IS...THE SAVAGE YOUNG SONICS CD (Norton)

This bugger's over a decade old but (considering my advanced age) it sure seems like yesterday the thing was unleashed onto a public that had only then began to realize that if it weren't for the Sonics the Stooges or even Henry Rollins never would have existed. Well, nothing that obtuse, but it's sure grand listening to this noted Northwest Rock group during their oat-feeling days in the early-sixties when the Brothers Parypa were taking their cues from the Wailers and proceeding to thrust the entire local scene sound into warp drive. Naturally there are a lotsa Wailers covers not forgetting the familiar NW standards, current hits and vocals done with the addition of singers Marilyn Lodge and Bob Goldberg which make this a pretty hotcha trip back to a time which too many hippies say were dullsville, but with music like this who can believe 'em! And for fans of the "hit version" of the group the infamous SONICS HOUSE PARTY EP with Gerry Roslie handlin' the keyboard and vocal chores pops up at the end as to say goodbye to one era of rock 'n roll and hello to another! Snif!!!

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The Mystery Trend-I'M SO GLAD I FOUND YOU CD (Big Beat UK)

Frankly, if it weren't for Greg Shaw's occasional name-dropping and that article on 'em in the oft-ignored COMSTOCK LODE I doubt if I'd even know who these guys were. But given the above hip creds plus the fact that the Mystery Trend even got their own mega-feature in the first issue of the essential CREAM PUFF WAR I just hadda latch onto this collection of what I guess is their "best" material as judged by some of the brainier collectors and anal retentives in fandom extant! I'M SO GLAD I FOUND YOU is a boffo set at that, a gathering of sides that gives us a good idea of where this group was coming from back during the early days of the "San Francisco Scene" when even the likes of the Jefferson Airplane and Grateful Dead could have been mistaken for the Chocolate Watchband and Teddy and his Patches if you squinted your ears just a li'l bit.

The Trend do have the early boss San Fran ideals in place from their Lovin' Spoonful-inspired folk rockisms to just the right touch of pop, sorta like Moby Grape and the early Flamin' Groovies did even when the Spoonful became the uncoolest group after Zal Yanovsky blabbed to the cops. In fact, you can also hear a li'l Great Society and Final Solution in their sound which would figure since all three bands were minglin' about at the time and surely some aspects of the groups mighta rubbed off on each other. This is San Francisco long before the acid burnouts took charge, way back when even punks like the Groovies coulda been mistaken for hippoids because nobody but a select few could tell the difference. Pleasant top forty-bred at one time, then quite chilling as on the infamous Verve side "Johnny Was a Good Boy" not to mention the shoulda-been-controversial "Mercy Killing" and overall a fine testament to just what the Bay Area could have accomplished despite the wave of publicity and ever-swelling egos.

The package set up's good as well, complete with liner notes from CREAM PUFF WAR's own Alec Palao as well as some back cover blurb which states that "the Mystery Trend are renowned as one of the first alternative rock bands..." An interesting assessment, but if this is so what does that make ABC???

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THE MEAT PUPPETS CD (MVD Audio)

Missed out on the Pups' platters way back when for a number of reasons like the lack of money, not enough interest, and the blamed fact that by the time SST got 'round to sending me freebees for review all they felt like doling out were those fusion-y albums of varied quality, some of which were even recorded by label stars Black Flag! But what I did hear, via various live and radio sessions sent my way by Imants Krumins, was rather impressive as were the occasional tracks that would pop up on various SST samplers and the like. Plus I gotta admit that the way this group had become entangled within the nefarious web of BREAKFAST WITHOUT MEAT (perhaps thee best fanzine of any stratum to make its way outta the dungheap I refer to as the eighties) was a rather noble effort, This is especially true considering that the Puppets, like the fanzine itself, were lurching about in all directions with regards to their musical mayhem making them perhaps the biggest omni-inspired musical act to hit the rockism boards since MX-80 Sound!

This debut, reissued complete with a load of rarities the group produced on their lonesome prior to their signing, is the proverbial bee's knees as it takes the then-already decaying concept of "eighties punk" and begins to deconstruct it into terrain I'm positive a good portion of the local fashion plate underground shuddered in fear at. Taking punk rock to yet another strange level, the Puppets can mangle and tangle the best ways possible...then when you're expecting the crash through the hymen of perception they draw back on stylish instrumental forms and whacked out covers of "Everybody's Talking"! Don't ignore the inspired take on "I Got a Right" which is bound to blow every bad eighties variation outta the water! Genius untampered with and molded into its own personalist form...I like it!

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BAD NEWS I JUST HEARD, SO MAYBE YOU HAVEN'T HEARD IT YET DEPT.: r.i.p. George Kuchar.

Are me 'n Robot Hull the only doofuses on the face of this earth who remember WHEN THINGS WERE ROTTEN with any sort of seventies-inbred fondness? A product of the boffo 1975-1976 television season (perhaps the best season for television since 1962-63, although a few nebbishes will say '71-'72 had 'em beat all hollow), WHEN THINGS WERE ROTTEN sure burst out of the gate with some of the biggest network push seen on television since Sandy Duncan or at least Paul Sand's own woosh in the footrace of fame. I guess that ABC was banking plenty on this 'un along with Howard Cosell's own SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE hoping that the pair of 'em would help boost the net outta their perennial dungeon, but whereas the Cosell SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE turned more or less into a repeat of ABC's 1963 Jerry Lewis fiasco (plenty of advance hype and no audience) ROTTEN was the new JAMIE McPHEETERS...something that I'm sure most insiders thought had the oomph and pizzizz to be a definite shoe in but was either too good, too obscure or too sight-gagged for the standard television view of the day whose brain might have become too tapioca'd by repeated viewings of PETTICOAT JUNCTION coupled with a few CELEBRITY TENNISes tossed in for good measure. (And where does that put DON ADAMS' SCREEN TEST???)

Too bad about that, because after watching the entire thirteen-episode run of the series (something I could never have hoped to have done at the time considering the abnormal amts of homework thrusted upon me during my bootstrapp'd days) which were, surprisingly enough, lifted from some ancient A 'n E 'casts I gotta wonder just why this show flub-a-dubbed the way it did. Anybody with a leftover testicle for brains'd've thunk it'd be a big hit considering how it mixed standard mid-seventies sitcom fare and fast-paced whacko humor courtesy creator Mel Brooks (who surely was hoping that recent  BLAZING SADDLES/YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN box office bonanza'd translate into big time Nielsens), and given how it was about time for a return to mid-sixties weird fantasy sitcoms a la THE MUNSTERS a show like this seemed custom made for the big sitcom revival I sure was hoping for. At least it sure made a biggo imp. on me, especially the way it mixed and matched hotcha GET SMART-styled humor with pre-Bicentennial whiz custom made for a suburban pudge like myself who was just starting to get a grasp on the good 'n cheezy side of life as it manifested itself in used record bins and flea market traipses during one of the more fruitful periods in Ameriga extant.

Great choice of cast with former Hymie the Robot Dick Gautier in the starring role and future late-seventies ABC regs Dick Van Patten and Bernie Kopell (himself an ex-SMART alumni!) as Friar Tuck 'n Alan-a-Dale respectively doing their best to keep the show from becoming too snide for the more stody members of the viewing community. Richard Dimitri's so boffo in the twin role of Puerto Rican Merry Man Renaldo and his prissy twin brother Bertram that I sure wonder why the Mel Brooks and spinoff cadre of the late-seventies didn't put him to use other'n a brief role in the mockobrooksian WORLD'S GREATEST LOVER. As for Peter Sabin as Big John well...at least there would be a few years of bit parts on THE LITTLEST HOBO and maybe even a PASSWORD PLUS if yer lucky, and why the roles of Little John and Will Scarlet weren't filled I dunno, but Billy Barty and Fred Travalena mighta had some steady work if somebody had only thought about that!

Can't complain about Misty Rowe taking a brief sojourn away from HEE HAW in the role of Maid Marion even if you can tell she's trying to ape Madeline Kahn when the precise moment arises (and there's nothing wrong with that even if you couldn't stand the original). Can't argue with success and while I'm at it future MONSTER SQUAD vampire Henry Polic II (who Bill Shute was raging against with an atypical fag-hating rage back when Polic was hosting a short-lived ABC daytime game show) does a pretty good Harvey Korman as the Sheriff of Nottingham making me wonder if the guy sat through at least ten showings of BLAZING SADDLES straight while taking notes. Well, I guess if you couldn't get the real thing imitations would be good enough (after all, this was tee-vee) and the pair do rise to the occasion especially since they're doing this for Wednesday night prime time and not the silver screen.

Another tasty treat that's in store for those of you hungerin' to cop a sight of this series are the myriad asst. of great guest stars. Old timey tee-vee fans like me were (and remain) heartened that the likes of Carl Ballantine (McHALE'S NAVY) and Joe E. Ross (CAR 54) showed up briefly but impactly if you know what I mean. And, in an episode directed by none other than Marty Feldman, Dudley Moore plays a Middle-Eastern prince from an olive oil producing nation that's part of OOPEC who chooses to wed Marian as part of a trade agreement. Considering the vast array of talent on both sides of the set and the smart ability to try pleasing not only the doofuses but the snide humor lovers and the intellectual bores you woulda thought that this show'd stayed at the top of the ratings for a heap long time, but I guess it was too good to last which is why you eventually saw Gautier taking on bit sitcom roles for years on end kinda like the way Louise Lasser (whose own MARY HARTMAN MARY HARTMAN was a '75 breakout hit) was doin' the same despite being Ameriga's Sweetheart a good year or so earlier.

But at least we got these thirteen episode to glom, and I'll forever (or at least until I croak) cherish the great sitegags and snoot humor and weirdo gags and literalisms taken to their bizarrest levels every time I give these discs a spin. You might too...I think a legit version without the poor editing and "bugs" is wallowing around out there somewhere...you would do yourself a favor to snatch it up, y'know...

A SOUNDTRACK FOR THE SEVENTIES---DONE MY WAY!!!

I just happened to be thumbing through Nick Kent's boffo seventies history/memoir APATHY FOR THE DEVIL last night, and while perusing the handy-dandy list of albums scrunched in the back of the book that Kent mentioned as being the creme-de-la-best of that decade the idea struck me that """""I""""",  no bout-a-doubt-it hands down and all that, could do a much BETTER job of compiling a more accurate collection of seventies longplaying movers and shakers! Not only that, but the idea struck me as something that would be an excellent topic for a weekend post, especially considering how I really don't have any fresh material to write on about at this time down and out blogschpieler that I am. I must humbly admit that although our tastes certainly do overlap I pretty much topped Kent's choices all hollow (and on a number of levels as well)...it's non-debatable that most of his choices are "spot on" as the English say, but as I've mentioned way too many a time the guy was, and remains, bogged down into a lotta dull singer/songwriterisms for my constitution! And in a field of Iggy/Dolls/punk worship, his paens to the likes of Joni Mitchell stick out like a pretty sore Canadian-transplanted-to-Southern California thumb!

OK, I guess that's his business, and at least the man ain't no Chuck Eddy which is something we can all be thankful for!  And although I probably haven't heard all of the best records to come out of the seventies I know that I've made some rather excellent choices in these selections along with the prerequisite (and much desired) explanations/analysis, all the while of course being totally subjective to my own personal tastes and beliefs which I have no compunction but to force down your throat! (As if Kent's own choices weren't subjective, but I guess he has the right to spout off his faves considering his punk credo not to mention all of the drugs he imbibed during his creative height!) I know you'll beg to differ w/regards to some of my entries and will tell me so in the most uncomplimentary, vile way possible, eh? Anyway, I dare you to...feh!

1970

The Mothers of Invention-WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH (Bizarre/Reprise)-The seventies might have been Frank Zappa's decade, but by '69 he had already disbanded the original Mothers of Invention and was slowly but steadily getting his comparatively dull jazz fusion chops down pat. At least this final album by the original group stands as their best ever despite or perhaps because of its cornucopia of styles and downright nerve-bending appeal. My personal favorites include "The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbeque", Little Richard's "Directly From My Heart to You" (with special guest Don "Sugarcane" Harris), "Dwarf Nebula Processional March and Dwarf Nebula", the Lowell George-yelped "Didja Get Any Onya?" and of course the feedback-drenched title track even if Zappa just has to put on his typical airs of condescension towards his typical audience lapping it all up when it's all over and done with. Did I ever tell you that I (with the encouragement of my teacher) did a presentation on Zappa in high school music appreciation class (senior year) and played the "Dwarf Nebula"/"My Guitar..." pairing as well as a track from 200 MOTELS and ended up getting a "C" anyway...undeserved because the teach was mad at me for (allegedly) inadvertently knocking the knobs off of his new stereo system. Wha' th'...so he turned out to be an unmitigated jerk. What else is new?

***

Tim Buckley-STARSAILOR (Straight/Warner Brothers)-One thing you can thank Zappa for is helping along the career of this oft-neglected singer/songwriter who sure did a helluva better job at it than most of the El Lay types who cluttered up the days of Vietnam protest with their whole wheat mental breakdown we were supposed to feel sorry for them about. After filling up one side of his Elektra contractual obligation album LORCA with a heavily avant garde jazz-inspired vibe Buckley presented an entire album of his post-Coltrane visions which were just too "out" for the fans who had latched onto him during his HAPPY SAD days. True this eventually was the inspiration for a lotta Joni Mitchell jive to come but Buckley did it first, and a whole lot better.

***

The Stooges-FUNHOUSE (Elektra)-Although fans of Cat Stevens would say otherwise, this album was perhaps thee ultimate way to say WELCOME TO THE SEVENTIES to hoards of maladjusted teenage rock and roll mouth-foamers worldwide. Can't think of a better way to get anybody ready for the sleaze, decadence, degradation and utter stupidity that decade would unleash on us. Massive hard rock blare which used to get called heavy metal permeates through a primitive pulse music that owes as much to the Troggs and Seeds as it does the Velvet Underground and Who, all ending in a mass of avant garde wail thanks to the appearance of mystery saxophonist Steve Mackay. Do you think that this album has a cult following? Judging from the name dropping mentions throughout various mid-seventies issues of CREEM and DENIM DELINQUENT I would kinda think so myself.

***

Sonny Sharrock-MONKEY-POCKIE-BOO (BYG Actuel)-Between the above items and this 'un the seventies sure got off to a rollicking start, or at least these platters served as the proper counterpoint to the various embarrassments that were taking place within the once wild and woolly world of rock 'n roll. Not that MONKEY-POCKIE-BOO was a rock album, but given the atonal spree and outright sonic splatter it sure as shootin' coulda been one!

***

David Bowie-THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD (Mercury or RCA, depending on whether or not you were cheap enough to pick up the cutout version so prevalent in mid-seventies bargain bins)-By the early eighties Bowie didn't just seem like but was another industry joke, but those who could remember his pre-Ziggy persona would always point to this particular album as evidence that the guy could play rock 'n roll without anybody pouring hot lead up his hiney. Considered Bowie's heavy metal masterpiece by people who remember what that term meant before a lotta subpar swishers co-opted it, THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD's dark, depressing air certainly did fit in with the general mood of the world making me wonder why it didn't do better during its original Mercury release days. A winner from a guy who shoulda done more for stylophones than Rolf Harris ever did!

***

The Flamin' Groovies-FLAMINGO (Kama Sutra)-Amidst the rock (no "roll") scenes prevalent on both the AM and FM mindwaves this one certainly stood out amongst the utter dross that era is still known for. But then again, who was looking for a straight-ahead rock 'n roll platter with nods to the fifties and sixties all wrapped up in a neat early-seventies package? Not the kid across the street who used to parade about with Grand Funk Railroad albums in hand, savvy?

***

The Velvet Underground-LOADED (Cotillion)-Like in the case of the Stooges, was this record the death knell for the sixties or the harbinger of seventies things to come? For their final album foray the Velvets reached back to their early days for inspiration and came up with an album that in many ways set the tone for a whole lot of garage-induced efforts to come out in the following ten years. And when the likes of Blondie, the early Talking Heads and Television were making their recording debuts a good six years later this sounded all the more current!

***

Alice Cooper-EASY ACTION (Straight/Warner Brothers)-The Zappa/Herb Cohen sausage mill was really on a roll in '70 not only issuing an inordinate number of Mothers albums that were bound to sell bazillions by their covers alone but records by a whole slew of acts signed to the Bizarre/Straight family of labels that were intended as tax writeoffs but were pretty gawrsh-it-all good in their own right (well, at least some...). The second Alice Cooper album being amongst 'em, a true winner despite the hippies at ROLLING STONE relegating it to their "condemned" section. Okay, it might not be a smooth sail all the way through (esp. with the atypical SoCal-styled soft schmoozers "Shoe Salesman" and "Beautiful Flyaway") but it sure kicks the tarts outta Melanie! Along with STARSAILOR proof that Zappa at least had some musical appreciation that extended beyond his phony public persona, and given the hybrid of PRETTIES FOR YOU-era psychedelia, heavy metal and plain post-Stooges styled addledness a strange one for Zappa to have associated with, dontcha think?


1971

Hampton Grease Band-MUSIC TO EAT (Columbia)-This one sure came and went faster than you can say "death or ugha-bugha!" Not that the concept of mixing the burgeoning Southern rock stylings of the day with Frank Zappa-derived weirdness was something that was totally out of the ken of human comprehension, but this Atlanta group did just that with two platters fulla downhome RFD riffage mixed with West Coast freakdom that kinda reminded me of a mad mashup of the Allman Brothers, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Captain Beefheart. A unique experience featuring a crazed redneck vocalist with about as Deep a Southern accent as you can imagine hollering out non-sequiturs while the rest of the group keeps up in a particularly post-psychedelic manner that you think woulda got 'em a contract with Bizarre Records like snap! Columbia eventually signed these guys through future Capricorn head Phil Walden and rushed this out to a public that couldn't care less back in the spring of '71 where it stiffed and earned its reputation as the second-worst selling rock album in the label's history! That tale might be about as apocryphal a quote as the Eno one about the Velvet Underground's first album and how everybody who bought it formed a band, but that's how these legends are made, eh?

***

Hackamore Brick-ONE KISS LEADS TO ANOTHER (Kama Sutra)-Is this post just another excuse for me to re-write about musical acts that I've blabbered on about for the past thirty years awlready? It sure would seem so, but compiling a list of the most important rock 'n roll albums of the seventies and leaving this particular bargain bin wonder out would be more than criminal. If the cover shot of four New York City punks posing on a tenement fire escape wasn't enough to sucker you in then maybe a spin of the group's definitely garage-oriented music would. Imagine a mix of Crazy Horse with or without Neil Young and LOADED-period Velvet Underground, then conjure up some moves that wouldn't be heard at least until the debut of Patti Smith's HORSES a good four years later. Now let it sink into your minds that this music was being created by some of the most unassuming, down-to-earth guys who had no pretensions about being "rock stars" or big time hustlers of any kind. No wonder it went from the "New Artists" rack to the cutout bin overnight!

***

The Flamin' Groovies-TEENAGE HEAD (Kama Sutra)-Looking back from the perspective of a good four decades it's sure strange to think that the Groovies would have been allowed to record three albums to date. You'd think that a band of their sub-punk caliber would have been lucky enough to make just one before being consigned to the trash heap, but stranger things have happened and these San Franciscans fortunately were given the go ahead at the forward-thinking Kama Sutra label for this winner that jumped the guns on a lotta seventies epiphanies. You can hear everything from rockabilly revival to pre-punk on this party discs to end all party discs, and not only that but, as in the case of Hackamore Brick, Richard Robinson produced the entire shebang making me wonder when somebody is gonna give this guy his dues even though he was an industry whore (but one I could only have wished to have been!).

***

Black Sabbath-PARANOID (Warner Brothers or Vertigo if you prefer)-It's amazing just how much of the heavy metal oeuvre has oozed from the pores of this album; everything from Tony Iommi's stark guitar leads to Ozzy Osbourne's demonic-torment vocals has manifested itself in the metal to come for years on end. However, it's even more amazing how metal as a whole REJECTED a whole load of lessons to be learned from PARANOID---the slow burn jazziness of "Planet Caravan" or the spine-twist ending of "War Pigs" being just two subtle examples. Of course judging from their following albums I don't think Sabbath learned themselves either.

***

T Rex-ELECTRIC WARRIOR (Reprise)-The beginning of a legend, and one putting an end to the sixties psychedelic dream while giving birth to the seventies glitter punk stomp. I've spilled enough regarding this album but the mere thought of those days when I'd stare at the cover in the record department just dying to hear what was inside is enough to fill even longer and more boring reviews than the ones you're reading today!

***

Alice Cooper-LOVE IT TO DEATH and KILLER (Warner Brothers)-If '72 was Alice Cooper's breakout year then '71 was the Cooper band at their creative peak. After two entertaining if (perhaps) uneven albums LOVE IT TO DEATH showed the band focused and ready not only for attack, but to successfully take the Stooges formula and run to the bank with it which is more than the Stooges could do back then. KILLER was even more direct in its approach and also direct in the way that it influenced the early-seventies punk rock contingent (talking Rocket From The Tombs and the Electric Eels) the same way the Stones and Yardbirds influenced Alice and company back when they were mere Earwigs. Once Cooper made it to the top most of the magic was gone, and by the time he was hanging out with Jack Benny and George Burns we knew it was gonna be lace and whiskey from here on in. But hey, better him than Iggy, who would have just made a big fool of himself had he ever got lucky enough to get booked on HOLLYWOOD SQUARES!

***

The Pink Fairies-NEVER NEVER LAND (Polydor)-It's funny, but at a time when it seemed as if most of the record buying populace wanted to forget that psychedelia had ever happened in the first place acts like Hawkwind, Kevin Ayers and these guys were keeping the memory of '67 alive. Well, at least the Fairies were doing it with a heavy helping of Detroit-styled rock tossed in making this the album the MC5 could have made but they went with HIGH TIME instead. Okay, sometimes NEVER NEVER LAND does drag when it gets into the Floydianisms of "Heavenly Man", but when the guys cook on everything from "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout" to "Teenage Rebel" they're taking 1967 and adding it to 1971, and getting 1977 punkitiude as a result! A surprising outta-nowhere hit from a group that (thankfully) never did get outta the Ladbroke Groove of things!

***

YOKO ONO/PLASTIC ONO BAND (Apple)-Ono, like former Fug Tuli Kupferberg, was one of those innerlectual avant garde types who couldn't tell a Gene Vincent from a Joe Clay unless Lamonte Young was standin' right between 'em. But when Yoko was thrust into the rock 'n  roll world she made a number of albums that stand the test of time more than her subsequent singer/songwriter platters which were vain attempts to get people to "like" her (as if they every would!). One of the bloodiest scars passed off as music since FUNHOUSE, complete with that fantastic track done with Ornette '68 of which I would like to hear more. And if you don't believe me then believe Eddie Flowers who was ranting and raving about how it was this particular platter (or at least b-side "Touch Me") which readied him up for the big avant punk explosion of the late seventies and perhaps his own solo work!

***

David Bowie-HUNKY DORY (RCA)-A marginal choice considering how this one is less rockin' than THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD yet more engaging than the followup releases. At least "Queen Bitch" has that teenage punk drive to it and even if Bowie never did have his images down pat at least that'n a selection of the tracks he did with clear Velvet Underground influx would have made a good album, y'know? Jacques Brel meets Andy Warhol might be a good summation.

***

The Rolling Stones-STICKY FINGERS (Rolling Stone)-I don't really think so, but I don't want to earn the ire of the rabid Rolling Stone lovers who might tune into this blog. Well, if I wanted to be really jugular-aiming I coulda put JAMMING WITH EDWARD here (or was that '72? Soooo long ago...)

***

The Mothers of Invention-200 MOTELS (Bizarre/United Artists)-Again, a "controversial" inclusion, but next to the blah for blah's sake of JUST ANOTHER BAND FROM LA and the dialogue-riddled even if brilliant in spots LIVE AT THE FILLMORE EAST the mix of orchestra favorites, straight-ahead rockers and usual bizarraties made it a fun enough farewell to the second-generation Mothers. Hey, has Rhino Handmade ever reissued those Flo and Eddie albums that came out on Reprise? I remember special ordering 'em way back in 1975 and they were out of print even then!

***

Amon Duul-PARADIESWARTS DUUL (Ohr Germany)-Best of these commune thumpers' brand of totally whacked out psychedelic discs recorded around the time when psychedelic certainly seemed like a dirty word. Mike Stax (in the pages of one of his late, lamented Beathaven Records catalogs) said it sounds like a three way jam between the Jefferson Airplane, the Velvet Underground and the Manson Family which only goes to show you that he'd say just about anything to sell records! Especially if it's true...

1972

ROXY MUSIC (Island, Reprise or Atco...take you pick!)-I still find it hard to comprehend how these guys ever made it so big time. Really, with an album as good and as uncategorizable as this (owing enough to the English progressive cause with glam overtones and enough Velvet Underground Stoogianisms to confuse even the staunchest adolescent out there) you'd think Roxy would have been a one-shot wonder raved about in hushed tones a good forty years later. But I dunno, I still think that the shuffling of influences with such smoothness is an asset, and better these guys had a career than some of the also-rans who were cluttering up the import bin scene at the time!

***

Sandy Bull-DEMOLITION DERBY (Vanguard)-I usually hate folkies but this guy's mix of everything from country to blues to rock 'n  roll really has an appeal to my own sense of underground credo. Too bad this one didn't get around more or else the seventies would have been less hippydippy singalong and more varied even!

***

Yoko Ono-FLY (Apple)-Gotta say that after this 'un it was all over. True you can hear the roots of her faux singer/songwriterdom creeping in even this early in the game, but when Yoko's yelping and bellowing like a wounded hyena and the guitars are cranking up then the spirit really does move me. True it doesn't know whether it wants to be John Cage, Carole King or Iggy Pop but it's kinda fun watching the three of 'em wrassle each other!

***

Can-TAGO MAGO (United Artists)-Living inna USA this 'un totally passed us by (in fact the "mainstream" press over here didn't start mentioning these guys until 1974, and then in an offhand, sidebar sorta way) but I guess that if you were in England there was no way to escape this German onslaught of sonic fury and other teutonic delights. Get the new 40th anniversary edition complete with an additional live disque that's bound to clear up the acne on your butt!

***

THE SIDEWINDERS (RCA)-Along with the Velvet Underground, Stooges, Dolls and Magic Tramps these guys were getting touted as being the "house band" at Max's Kansas City which wasn't quite the case, but considering all of the other house bands who played that famed haunt what's wrong with creatin' a li'l mystique anyway?. Eight years later it would be Von Lmo, the Zantees and BMT's who would be getting that honor, but in '70/'71 it was the Sidewinders et. al. who were sorta laying out the battleplans as to what would transpire in the East Coast underground rock sphere at least until the likes of Madonna came about and washed it all away. But man, why these Sidewinders (as opposed to the later-on post-Giant Sand ones who surprisingly also got a contract with RCA!---not that I can pass judgment on 'em never havin' givin' 'em a spin!!!) never made it I'll never know. Some called 'em a good group in the Rolling Stones trad while Richard Nusser in the VOICE thought he heard Velvet ruminations but whatever, these guys put out a good kicker of the buttocks platter which certainly didn't deserve to go deep six the way it obviously did. Now if it came out in '77 and deep-sixed, that would be better!

***

Mott the Hoople-ALL THE YOUNG DUDES (Columbia)-Yes, there are many reasons one could hate this album, but just because a whole load of eighties-rock dolts and doofs went gaga over Ian Hunter and Mott the Hoople ain't good enough a reason for you to dump on 'em. Oh yeah, I did forget about Mick Ralphs...sorry.

***

T. Rex-THE SLIDER (Reprise)-This is one of those albums I keep meaning to pull outta the pile yet either forget to or can't find it. But whatever the case, wasn't this the one that the fans who discovered 'em when they just started to go electric thought was the last good 'un  before the big fall? Hefty points though for containing a number of bona-fide classic numbers like "Baby Strange" and "Ballrooms of Mars", not to forget one of the earliest references to Max's Kansas City (and Patti Smith) on record!

***

Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band-CLEAR SPOT (Reprise)-Nice cover concept and a pretty enticing if comparatively subdued effort from Beefheart and crew. Still has enough of that strange spider sound that bored Britishers would ape with relish on self-produced EPs a good decade later, only with a lot more taste and lack of finesse that's always made rock 'n roll that edgy music I like. After this one well...I did mention how I thought UNCONDITIONALLY GUARANTEED sounded fine in the light of the teens so maybe even a spin of THE SPOTLIGHT KID would be fitting in a seventies context? Or should I just sit 'em all out until SHINY BEAST like everyone else? As usual, your vote counts!

***

Various Artists-NUGGETS (Electra...later on Sire)-OK, this double set contains nothing but mid/late-sixties punk/psych treasures that were mostly forgotten by the general populace at the time, but oh what a set it was! Along with the Dolls, Stooges, Modern Lovers, Sidewinders etc. a huge influence on what was to transpire in the latter portion of the decade, and not only that but a platter that I'm positive helped renew interest in the likes of Sky Saxon and Roky Erickson long after most people had written 'em off as a buncha sixties hasbeens.

1973

The Stooges-RAW POWER (Columbia)-Predictable choice true, but can you think of a better if obvious inclusion when it comes to post-Vietnam/pre-disco brain muddle? It's funny,  I can remember 1973 yet I can't recall hearing  anything about the Stooges or their big comeback album and subsequent career which pretty much fell apart before everybody's eyes. I guess that's what I got for sticking my nose inside copies of SPIDEY SUPER STORIES rather than CREEM, but no matter what my excuses may be it can't hide the fact that if RAW POWER had only entered my life a lot sooner than it had maybe I wouldn't have been the miserable wretch I was during my youth. I would have been locked up in a padded cell, but at least I would have retained my dignity

***

Doug Snyder and Bob Thompson-DAILY DANCE (New Frontiers)-There always was plenty of talk going on about the similarities and perhaps even cross-influences between punk rock and the avant garde jazz scene, but this album's the first that I know of which can claim to be equal parts both yet is alien enough that neither camp would dare claim it to be part of their particular clique. Doug Snyder plays the guitar as if he's trying to imitate the sounds heard on a tour of a steel mill working beyond capacity during the height of World War II while Bob Thompson's vast array of percussives come off like a million Maureen Tuckers sending log drum messages inside your head. Reviewed by myself at least four times throughout my stellar "career" so I guess one more mention won't hurt!

***

Eno-HERE COME THE WARM JETS (Island)-Even I can still remember the huzzuh bubbling about when Eno's first solo album came out in the waning days of '73. Well, HERE COME THE WARM JETS certainly was a fresh and unique platter that you knew was gonna inspire an entire generation of morons and it did, but I won't hold that against Eno. But in retrospect, it's sure nice to know that somebody could have made an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink album like this which took ideas such as electronics and distortion to new heights, without ending up sounding like Todd Rundgren.

***

Can-EGE BAMYASI (United Artists)-Judging from the likes of everybody from Ian MacDonald to Hot Scott Fischer (and Eddie Flowers via two fanzine writeups!) EGE BAMYASI was the last real expression of early-Velvets-styled avant rock with hefty doses of Stooge mania tossed in, and judging from the majority of doofs who worship at the altar of this platter maybe they were right.

***

THE NEW YORK DOLLS (Mercury)-The first and best from the leaders of the New York glam parade. Why labels didn't take a cue and start signing the Magic Tramps, Ruby and the Rednecks and the rest of the glitterboys after the success (for wont of a better term) of this one remains one of the great mysteries of life.

***

Sparks-KIMONO MY HOUSE (Island)-By the time the seventies had clocked out the Brothers Mael and whoever they were with were being portrayed as the biggest nebbishes that ever came out of the seventies English cuteboy rock brigades, and maybe that's why even I wasn't exactly champing at the bit to pick up any of those latterday Sparks albums no matter how cheap they were and easy to find. But at least in the mid-seventies there seems to be a certain coolness to Sparks...dunno if it was their playing up to the English smart pop (T. Rex, Roxy Music...) contingent or Ron Mael's mustache. Probably was their album covers, but anyway I'll stick by these guys even if their eighties spawn was pretty disturbing to say the linn-drum least!

***

The Pink Fairies-KINGS OF OBLIVION (Polydor)-Good enough to warrant a US release! Larry Wallis takes the helm of the group and helps drag out the Deviant legacy at least another two years!!! Of course it was so good you knew it wouldn't go anywhere.

1974

Eno-TAKING TIGER MOUNTAIN BY STRATEGY (Island)-Eno's second, and last good dive into the cesspool of sound. Again many moves here reverberated in not-so-wonderful ways throughout the following eight or nine years but I can't really fault the man. I can fault him for most of his new age career misfires, but I'll leave that for another place and another time (maybe).

***

Roxy Music-COUNTRY LIFE (Island or Atco, depending)-Eno may have been doing fine on his lonesome during this time in his "career", but Roxy's output proved that his departure surely wasn't the death knell that I have the feeling a few pundits out there thought it was gonna be. Nice, slick (to its overall advantage)  and thoroughly decadent in the boffoest CREEM way imaginable. Not only that, but the gal on the right really has a nice set of juggins on her!

***

Big Star-RADIO CITY (Ardent)-Boy I've really had a hard time thinking up enough good albums to have made it outta the year of '74 intact, but this one does stand as perhaps one of the best even though that mere fact would surely slip by the usual FM-bred rock dolts. And just about every one else come to think of it. Perhaps the last great early-seventies proto-punk album before the era of quickie cutout garage masters such as this and the Sidewinders gave way to the era of punk records that were actually taken note of by the public in a good year or so's time.

***

Sparks-PROPAGANDA (Island)-OK, I never got to hear the late-seventies Sparks records, but considering what a snoozer INDISCREET turned out to be this was the Brothers Mael's last top-notcher for quite a long time. It's got enough of that gooshy mid-seventies lush deca-pop to it that I immediately want to revert to those days while hearing it, and have on numerous occasions had to be restrained from running into the bathroom with a copy of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and a jar of Vasoline upon hearing the opening strains of the title track!


1975

Lou Reed-METAL MACHINE MUSIC (RCA)-After Reed's comparatively pale post-Velvet Underground career got off the ground in the early-seventies this double LP set came off like the aural equiv. of those snuff films from South America whose legend were circulating amongst the denizens of High School USA. My mental idea of what this sounded like was quite different than what it actually was, and in some ways I think my take woulda made for a much better release! But until I become an aged faggot junkie who led a sixties cult band I guess my MMM would just be a buncha jagoff unlike Lou's effort which remains an unquestionable masterpiece

***

NEU '75 (Brain)-Saying goodbye to the early-seventies krautrock scene on one hand and hello to the late-seventies punk rock era on the other. People who thought that krautrock was just Genesis with a lotta schnitzel tossed in should listen to this one and see where all of those British fops got their own ideas in a short while!

***

THE DICTATORS GO GIRL CRAZY (Epic)-Never has an album received such a buildup in the hip press (fanzine or otherwise) yet suffered such a humiliating defeat in the marketplace. Thirty-six years later we all know who has been vindicated, but back then it was like they sure coulda used a little filthy lucre their way, y'know...

***

Patti Smith-HORSES (Arista)-Unlike the Dictators, at least the huzzuh surrounding the arrival of this platter translated into decent sales and visible teenage recognition, two important elements of any real seventies deca-chic success. Of course it helped that Patti had a great band and the music took everything that we liked about the sixties and molded it into a seventies frame of mind. And it permeated enough into the mindsets of everyday teenage psyches that I can even remember one schoolmate who just hated that loud and obnoxious punk screech (he being more of a Cat and America guy) but he loved Patti, and if she could get this guy to give her a spin who knows what she could've done with the rest of mellow teendom?

***

The Sweet-DESOLATION BOULEVARD (Capitol)- The Sweet's shelf-life didn't quite last as long as some would have hoped...after all, by the time the seventies clocked out they had lost their lead singer and were trying to survive by cranking out some mighty tiresome offal. But at least when their cylinders were clicking they were able to produce some mighty surprising high energy wail that had the folks at CREEM and BACK DOOR MAN crawling the walls as if it were the second coming of John's Children. The English writers didn't care for 'em one whit, which I guess is one of those things that doesn't translate across national boundaries or something like that.

***

Zappa/Beefheart/Mothers-BONGO FURY (Discreet)-It must've been a disgrace for Captain Beefheart to have been reduced to being a member of the Mothers of Invention, but after the poor sales of his previous albums he was lucky that he could get any job! And Zappa, then riding even higher on the FM/progressive rock scene than he had even in the sixties, was lucky enough that Beefheart was around to make this live album sound as good as it was. Even better than ROXY AND ELSEWHERE (which only made it because of the cover pic where Frank gets a hand job onstage) because of Beefheart's natural talents and the way he could make usually duff Zappa numbers sound good if he sang 'em!

1976

MAX'S KANSAS CITY 1976 (Ram)- Along with the LIVE AT CBGB set perhaps the first taste most got of the New York rock scene that was getting so much attention thanks to a buncha rock crits who were trying to be the "first" to "discover" this group or that. Notable for three Wayne County songs, Pere Ubu's "Final Solution" (and at a time when its reissue was being held up because of Max's!) and of course the dreaded Suicide.

***

Patti Smith Group-RADIO ETHIOPIA (Arista)-Boy do I remember the hoots of hate this 'un produced during the final days of 1976! I mean, finding a positive review of Patti's sophomore longplayer anywhere was akin to finding a virgin in West Middlesex but I still thought it was the best, a record that mixed everything from MC5/Velvet Underground-styled free rock to pre-suck heavy metal that typified where rock 'n roll really stood in a year where groups like Boston and Journey (or were they big in '77?) had suddenly climbed to the top of the scrap heap. The title track alone is worth the price of admission with its free-jazz like assault that was directly influenced by the MC5's room-clearer "Black to Comm" as well as that obscure group Lenny Kaye had with former Insect Trust/rock critic Robert Palmer, tapes of which Patti and Lenny would listen to for their own musical (amongst other things) inspiration. How about releasing those for us hungry rock maniacs anyway...after all, it's obvious from this blog that I sure could use a li'l inspiration myself!

***

The Flamin' Groovies-SHAKE SOME ACTION (Sire)-I'm sure that many people who had written the Groovies off as dead 'n buried in '72 were surprised to see this one come out, and not in the cutout racks either. Don't worry though, since SHAKE SOME ACTION would eventually join the Kama Sutra albums in the $1.99 bins within a short while which is of course where I picked mine up. But the Groovies' mix of mid-sixties Beatle rock done in a mid-seventies punk drive manner was something that certainly set the stage for at least one aspect of that monster which was comin' at us known as new wave, but don't blame 'em too hard.

***

THE MODERN LOVERS (Home of the Hits)-The rockpress putsch regarding this 'un still resonates within my beanie, but although I was really really really tempted to get this one so bad I hadda wait a good three years to get my copy! And do you know why? Because this one was originally distributed by PLAYBOY records and I didn't want my folks catching me with a copy thinking I supported the pornography business! I hadda wait until ABC records did the Beserkley dist. job before laying a hand on this legendary platter, but after all's said and done and I've heard this powerful and teen-honest music all I can say is...what a putz I most certainly was! Like, I coulda gotten the cassette release of it which woulda hid inna collection a lot easier, or just stuck it in the back of the stack where they were least likely to look. Of course, it wasn't until I was at least nineteen when I figured out to do stuff like that!

 ***

Elliot Murphy-NIGHT LIGHTS (RCA)-Hooo boy, was this one also hated by the rock crits of 1976 who really were tryin' to outdo each other with their snide asides and comeuppances regarding the once-laureled "singer/songwriter" Murphy, who was (I supposed) hitting the skids once this third album of his arrived on the scene. But sheesh, with a group consisting of ex-Mod Lovers Jerry Harrison and Ernie Brooks plus drummer Andy Paley backing him up on about half the tracks, not to mention special guests like Doug Yule (taking a break from his snooze-like American Flyer) giving NIGHT LIGHTS the proper underground credo, how could anything go wrong? The Patti tribute holds up loads more than critics such as James Woolcott and Georgia Christgau (I think) claimed, and the general feeling is so MAX'S KANSAS CITY 1976 (and a li'l '77 even!) that this shoulda been on the jukebox there post haste!  Sure the lyrics come straight outta pretentious city, but at least the Arp String slush helps this one out quite nicely....and I HATE Arp Strings too!

***

THE RAMONES (Sire)-More than Blondie or Talking Heads (both of whom showed their true colors as time and fame rolled on) the Ramones' debut stands as the beginning of the reconquista of rock 'n roll after a good two or so years of relative calm. Funny how I thought these kids were actually high school students (and just as nerky as me!) back then who got their chance to make a record...if only my preconceived images were true, but hey, this one is still a real killer.

***

Brian Eno-DISCREET MUSIC (Obscure)-Definitely not a rock item, but back then this was a pretty brainy choice of spin for a guy who was taking this avant garde thing in for the first time. Ambient mush turns you into Karen Quinlan on the a-side, while Baroque goes Bop on the flip.

1977

Zappa/Beefheart/Mothers-CONFIDENTIAL (Wizardo)-I was gonna leave bootlegs offa this list but only once in a lifetime does a platter such as this come about to startle and inspire, as well as throw down the gauntlet to those who say that such music should not be allowed to be heard. What this was, was that somebody got hold of a Zappa/Beefheart radio "interview" (mainly just Zappa and Beefheart reminiscing to old recordings) made during the pair's '75 tour and edited it in between various classic Magic Band/Mothers rarities and, using an offhanded comment by Zappa himself, made it look as if this were in fact an authorized bootleg. Besides getting our first taste of "Metal Man Has Hornet's Wings" from the Zappa/Beefheart group the Soots circa '63 there are tracks from the more recent jazz-oriented Mothers (who weren't bad mind you, at least compared to what Zappa would eventually become), the original group doing the first ever take of "King Kong", a TROUT MASK REPLICA track being passed off as a demo and other funzies which will appeal to fans of both the Zappa and Beefheart camps. Wouldn't mind hearing the entire tape of the first honest-to-goodniz Mothers of Invention gig! Splattered color vinyl means that you're gonna be paying a lot more than the $4.99 I laid down for the thing oh so long ago!

***

Wire-PINK FLAG (Harvest)- Wire has had more of an influence on what was to come than any of their compatriots. More than the Sex Pistols or any of the English p-rock exponents, Wire's mix of Ramones punk and Velvet Underground art rock was special enough to earn them a berth on the Harvest label at a time when they were just starting to flounder away from their joss stick roots. Even a guy who is not that crazy for a good portion of the late-seventies UK punksterisms can settle back and enjoy Colin Newman and company help nudge rock 'n roll to its next logical level.

***

SUICIDE (Red Star)- Next time anybody comes up to me and sez that Suicide were great because they gave way to the likes of Soft Cell and Human League I'm gonna bop 'em inna ol' schnozolla! Next time anybody comes up to be and sez that Suicide were great because they were one of the better exponents of late-sixties bared-wire intensity reshaped for the decadent seventies I'm gonna buy 'em a steak dinner. Unless it's Brad Kohler...found out he's a vegetarian so it's strictly Morningstar Farms for him!

***

The Stooges-METALLIC KO (Skydog, or Import Records if you're Amerigan)-The big Iggy comeback of the year is something that thirty-five-years later (!!!!) remains about as controversial as any major rockism disturbance in the atmosphere. That year saw no less that four legitimate longplayers featuring him with or without his Stooges in tow being released, and from what I can tell these records did pretty well in making a dent in the consciousnesses of the teenage record buying audience to the point where at least that gal in Calculus class knew that Iggy had something to do with Bowie, or something like that, y'know. But for my money this 'un was the tops, better'n his RCA albums as well as the infamous KILL CITY...recs which weren't bad by any measure and in fact quite aerie! Live and uncensored in Detroit making for perhaps "thee" ultimate live experience ever captured on wax until Suicide's 23 MINUTES IN/OVER/UP BRUSSELS.

***

Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers-ROCK N ROLL WITH THE MODERN LOVERS (Beserkley)-This one was hated by many of the people more attuned to the new wave uprising of the late-seventies, but I find myself liking this late-seventies Richman a lot more'n the other Beserkley releases which I thought were nice in and of themselves. Maybe that's because when I first heard it I was going through yet another one of my sickening ennui-laden bouts with existence and the acoustic melodies seemed to smooth over the rocky chasms like resin sealant on a ridge-laden tooth. It does make for nice Sunday afternoon settle-back enjoyment but sheesh, even this far down the line all it does is make me feel as insecure as I was when this album first flew in and out of the racks nationwide.

***

MX-80 Sound-HARD ATTACK (Island UK)-Notice the relative absence ('cept for the Wire LP) of English punk rock gunch in this column? Well, sticking my neck out even further on the guillotine I'll let you know that I left the usual Sex Pistols/Clash types off this list because frankly, I feel that although their efforts were fine enough they just can't measure up to what was being done elsewhere as far as suburban teenage punkisms go. In fact, I could make the argument that English punk rock's finest hours were during the early/middle portion of the seventies when groups like Spunky Spider and Stud Leather were releasing singles on small outta nowhere labels and getting little monetary or critical compensation for it. I could make the argument, but right now I'm a li'l tired and don't want to get into it for the sake of saving a li'l energy...

What does this have to do with MX-80 Sound? Well, they were about as Amerigan as you can get, and thought they seemed to fall into that "punk" category because they had short hair and played something that didn't sound like ELP you could only call 'em punks if you wanted to call Neu the same. Actually these guys were rehashing the best of early-seventies heavy metal moves filtered through an equally early-seventies punk motif (back when the metal/punk interface was mighty blurred) and added a whole lotta satire, sarcasm and influences from all over the hotcha rock boards into their sound. And this, their longplaying debut, was a mighty example of just where all of that mid-Amerigan rock was supposed to be headed, though I guess there were too many roadblocks (and not of "sound") being tossed in all of these groups' way.

Still, a brilliant debut from an act that still seems to be creeping and crawling as if 1976 never did end. You can't really understand just how much of an impact MX-80 has on my life to the point where I can recall the exact day, time, moment and spiritual haze I was in when I first heard 'em on that hot summer day way back when.

***

Television-MARQUEE MOON (Asylum)-Total surprise, especially since this group was being hyped so much at the time that you woulda thought that an album woulda come out in '75 when the news regarding these "punk flashes" was fresh. Well, I will admit that I'd take the Eno demos and related recordings of the day over the legit debut, but MARQUEE MOON still has not only the group's best-known numbers (at the time) but a pretty intense slow burn that does come off about as jazz rock or as psychedelic as it does punk. Ex-TV Richard Hell's Voidoid's BLANK GENERATION album figures along the same lines as well, and shows the perfect dichotomy that had made the original group tick so, only to tear everything apart like you knew it would.

1978

Pere Ubu-THE MODERN DANCE (Blank)-If you were the kinda guy who could afford to read every underground rock-oriented fanzine available during the late-seventies you woulda thought that Pere Ubu were the Stones to Devo's Beatles, or some other equally ridiculous analogy. But while it didn't take Devo too long to go from being underground to industry it took Pere Ubu at least two albums before going from underground to happyhappy. At least this debut platter presents the group during their early post-Laughner days before the mood swing back when David Thomas was still Crocus Behemoth and the specter of Laughner was still lurking about somewhere.

***

Various Artists-NO NEW YORK (Antilles)-Kenneth Anger once wired a Woodstock film collector asking him for money so he could make a movie about an artist whose work was consuming him to the point where it would eventually overtake him unto death and he wanted to capture it all before the grisly process had taken its toll. Maybe Brian Eno had the same thing in mind when he recorded the New York no wave before it too splintered into various other forms that would bear little semblance to the sound at its height. And Eno was right, for not too soon after no wave would evolve/distort with groups breaking up or reshaping and end up something quite different (and less enthralling), or better yet turn into something that was a pale shadow of its former self making many aficionados of the form mutter...wha? But at this point in time the sound was fierce and pretty potent, the logical end point in the previous twelve or so years of rock's evolution from the Velvets through the Stooges through Sonny Sharrock through the New York underground. Maybe after this nothing really did matter anymore.

***

Various Artists-STIFFS LIVE (Stiff)-Nick, Elvis and Ian before that whole Stiff aura began to waft into giddier new wave-y musicianship even the flacks at ROLLING STONE could appreciate. And Eric and Larry did well too, the former unfortunately not able to replicate the success of his labelmates and the latter pretty much acting as the underground connection between early-seventies thud and late-seventies smart pop. It was an exemplary live set once you get down to it from the days when even those more commercial gnu wave bands we've come to loathe sounded a whole lot sweller'n that gaggy AM/FM twaddle that Chuck Eddy built an entire writing career on.

***

The Dictators-BLOODBROTHERS (Asylum)-Like a few noteworthy fans of the day, MANIFEST DESTINY doesn't quite grab me the way I guess it should, but this 'un certainly was a return to Dictators glory past. Hard rock (or heavy metal in the classic CREEM sense) with hefty nudges to '67 Who tossed in, drenched in the tough vocal maulings of the one called Handsome Dick Manitoba. It'll even break your heart, like on the sad teenage lament "No Tomorrow" which is the big hit Alice Cooper shoulda had but by then it was too late.

1979

THE CRAMPS GRAVEST HITS (IRS)-Yeah, just a collection of early single sides rushed into the shopping mall record shop market to mingle alongside a wide array of Jackson Browne wares, but whatta collection!!! Shows the talents that they were at the beginning of their long career and gives an inkling of how that talent would grow and be nurtured blah blah snooze snooze you know the schpiel already so why read any further?

***

Chrome-HALF MACHINE LIP MOVES (Siren)-Can you think of a better way to close out the decade than with this apocalyptic piece of avant punk that still sounds as futureshock as the day it came out? Monster vocals hovering over electronic crash mixed with percussive clang sounding like the Familiar Ugly being tossed off a cliff in the back of a trailer. This was supposed to be the sound of the eighties only a buncha twee types happened to get hold of the reigns and what we ended up with was...Madonna?

***

Pere Ubu-DUBHOUSING (Chrysalis)- Ubu's last stand before the big deep-six into areas I'd prefer not to talk about. Better production and execution than the debut, and the thought of "Thriller" playing through the night during the month of April that year still reminds me of the incessant pressure and mind capsize that I hadda endure during that sorry period in my existence. Along with Swell Maps, the Raincoats (see below) and the Red Crayola (ditto) the sound of Young America (and Young Canada, Young England, Young Germany...) going belly up.

***

THE RAINCOATS (Rough Trade)- As you know I loathe the term "post-punk" with a passion, and I find it really snobbish to refer to groups such as the Raincoats with such intellectually skewered terminology that was probably invented by some brainiac rock critic whose attention was turning from punk rock to British Weekly flash-in-the-pan faster than you could say Gary Bushell. True these gals' power would eventually diminish in the light of the pale eighties but the Raincoats sure released a doozy with this debut platter that  had a stronger Velvet Underground lurch to it than many of the groups who were getting the Velvets tag hoisted upon 'em left and right. So good that even the irritating English lower class socialist wonkisms don't get me down.

***

The Red Crayola-SOLDIER TALK (Radar)- I really liked this record because it proved that the garage band rock of the mid/late-sixties was still in full force and alive under the new guise of seventies underground screech, which is something that the likes of Greg Shaw and Lenny Kaye knew already but it was grand that the news was filtering down to people on my level by this time. And hey, SOLDIER TALK was a special treat because all of the guys from Pere Ubu were aboard to help out in one way or another so it was like getting even another platter outta that crew, who obv. were becoming very busy in the midst of their new-found "success" if you wanna call it that. Along with the original C/Krayola albums which were being reissued by Radar at the time a prime example of the old saying "if you wait around long enough anything will come back in style"!

***

The Contortions-BUY and James White and the Blacks-OFF WHITE (Ze)- In this part of the country everybody thought New York was all disco and Studio 54 but the people who lived there knew better. To them it was more of the gritty underside of life, the hard scronk of the likes of Suicide and the Contortions, groups who seemed to be saying goodbye to the seventies in the harshest ways possible outside of Throbbing Gristle. The Contortions especially were very notorious in the burgh, and their two albums for Ze released towards the end of the year pretty much give you an idea of at least one side of the avant garde coin which was packing 'em in at clubs such as Max's Kansas City as well as all of those flybynight outfits trying to cash in on the new thud. BUY may take a little getting used to with its brittle sound though the herky-jerk of James Chance will overcome you upon impact. The funk punk of OFF WHITE, while sounding pretty thin and white itself, works in its own universe and doesn't care one whit about you. Frankly the music this led to (mainly the free jazz contingent on punk turf) was a whole lot more to be desired but BUY and OFF WHITE were something pretty large in their own right at least when it came to things like New York and underground rock and hypodermic needles...stuff like that.

***

Brian Sands-REHEATED CHOCOLATE TANGOES (Bizart)-OK, so like I'm perhaps the only diz on the face of this earth who waxes poetic o'er this 12-inch mini-LP/maxi-EP release on colored vinyl'n all, but maybe I won't stop yapping until everybody on the face of this earth agrees with me. Ex-Milkman Sands whipped up a nice stew here, more'n just the "juxtaposition of sound" that Anastasia Pantsios dismissed this as, and hearing him and his band (including ex-Milk/Circus/Andy Gerome guitar mauler Al Globekar) take on various Tyrannosaurus Rex, Buddy Holly, Gerry and the Pacemakers and Captain Beefheart forms sounds just as meaningful to you (as an unrepentant rock 'n roll fan) today as it would had you heard this 'un when it first hit the stores late-'79 way.  Oddly enough, a lotta future Amerigan underground stylings in the eighties seemed to echo the same retro-cum-futuristic ideals that Sands laid forth on this debut. Not surprisingly, none of 'em even came close.

***

TOM VERLAINE (Asylum)-Considering that ADVENTURE didn't quite live up to MARQUEE MOON's promise of an actual beyond-cult career for Televlsion, this Tom Verlaine solo debut sure comes off like what I woulda hoped LP #2 woulda been. Not to detract from ADVENTURE's own special approach, but TOM VERLAINE has that special spark, grace, approach and feeling that somehow made me more of a TV fan than I originally thought I could have been! Now please, somebody release that "unissued album" Television did when Peter Laughner was in the band for an entire week...that might revisionize my opinions re. this group even more!