Sheesh, here we are well into the first second month of 2018 and I didn't even post my yearly writeup of albums that were maybe too obvious and conspicuous to write about on the every day blog during the previous solar rotation! But better never than late as you might think and if you do then all I gotta say is TOUGH TURDS! Some of these items were dubbed for me, some bought, and yet some were (re)discovered during one of my frequent album collection dive-ins but whatever the case may be all I gotta say is I sure had a lotta fun listening to these old platters either again or for the first time in my life and if I hadda do it all over again maybe I would do it all over you!
Sheesh, not bad even though Iggy's solo albums weren't usually the kinda swill that made up my grog ifyaknowaddamean. The return of James Williamson and Scott Thurston does give it a good El Lay cheap-o sound that was more akin to the drugged out seventies than the glitzy eighties, and the songs themselves are pretty dad-burned solid in that Hollywood decadent sorta way to the point where I kinda feel like pulling out an issue of RAW POWER while firin' this 'un up. You might wanna up your nostrils at it true, but given that it was only a few years from this to BLAH BLAH BLAH maybe you should give it a li'l more respect 'n you have been, boy!
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Nick Kent wrote that he first doobed out while listening to "Facelift", the sizzling opening side-long track from this double-platter set. Given what a hard electronic growl that is I'm surprised that he wasn't injecting a Brompton Cocktail up the base of his skull 'stead of puffing away on the Weed with Roots in Hell.
The fusion-y aspects are bound to turn off some of the less progressive rock loving members of the BLOG TO COMM community, but I find the whole caboodle a better representation of what these brainy Brits could do without resorting to pretentious lyrics and visions of damsels with mile-deep cleavage in distress. Lending ear to this with MELODY MAKER/Chris Welch aesthetics in place would be quite a disaster, but if you have your free jazz/electric Miles lobes on this just might have been the twelfth best album of 1970 (and no, don't ask me what the first eleven were!).
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Don't let the Knackalike cover fool you, the Reds are the real-deal late-seventies/early eighties hard-rock under-the-new wave-ground rock band to sink your teeth into! They're hip 'n modern true, but these Reds also have a good hunka metallic drive to 'em that sorta reminds me of what Blue Oyster Cult woulda sounded like had they stayed psychedelic and didn't cater to the burnout boxboy crowd. Heavy metal in fact, but HM in that good ol' seventies CREEM fashion that they would tag sounds like this with even after it really did seem ridiculous to peg the likes of the Sadistic Mika Band in with Van Halen. If you still have a flea market record bin in your area, this might be snuggled in between Mitch Miller and WEST SIDE STORY.
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It might seem either as heresy or me-being-my-typical-turdlike-self to you, but I never cozied up to the whole Mission of Burma cult that had formed around the group since their late-seventies inception. Not that the racket they made wasn't satisfying to this mere soul, but the underground hype coupled with the raves and huzzahs uttered by the same people I wouldn't pay to shovel the criticisms they tossed at me did make me cold to the entire concept of a seventies-bred underground act waffling in the cold waters of the eighties doldrums.
However, the comments that Burma bassist and one-time Space Negro Clint Conley made regarding none other than Wayne McGuire cozying up to Burma in his post La Peste days really gave me a personal hook to sink into the group's hide, so without any further ado I latched this particular platter up and y'know what? I thought it really fared well especially for an eighties-era underground platter from a group that I had pretty much written off as more of that BOSTON ROCK dictatorship of the maladjusted rich kid hype that was so prevalent way back when.
Live quality helps even though Martin Swope's tape mangipulations are buried in the ether, and the overall execution and creative juice behind it all points more towards late-sixties/early-seventies experimentation than it does late-seventies new unto gnu wave. In fact Mission of Burma seem like the kinda bandWayne McGuire predicted way back when he was cranking out those "Aquarian Journals" for FUSION, the near-perfect encapsulation of the Boston Sound that was conceived by the Velvet Underground at the Boston Tea Party and led to the formation of more than a few good bands even into the nineties when for all intent purposes these sounds were supposed to be dead and buried!
A good 'un which will probably lead me to get some more Mission of Burma spins down the line. It's sure good enjoying this type of music in the 'teens long after the underground buzz, for all the bad that might entail, has died down and hopefully is buried along with the rancid opinions of all those Boston-area crybaby students who used to rant and rave about every inconceivable aggression against them in a whole slew of magazines that I hope are long defunct by now.
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I have two SAUCERFULs already via A NICE PAIR, one the English version with the slightly different cover (saw it cheap inna bin and figured "wha' th' hey") and the other the Canadian version with a remixed "Jugband Blues". Never the actual single LP version though. Listening to this after a number of years of neglect I find that SAUCERFUL came off almost like a new listening experience and sure refreshing in light of just how bloated the group eventually became after years of wandering in the psychedelic mung. Syd's sad farewell to his group, and a record that I'm positive Jamie Klimek was coppiing more than a few notes from.
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At the time this 'un came out I had the Kinks pegged as "older kid music". Maybe it was all of those appearances on MIKE DOUGLAS and SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE that got my BS-a-meter clicking away, though the big push they were getting during their Arista days also soured me a bit given that me and hype aimed at all of those kids I hated never always got along swell.
In actuality this is a pretty hot live set, better than some of the live Kinks tapes heard o'er the years both legit and not. Other'n a few dips into medium energy this one cooks pretty hot making me think the Kinks and Kinks only were able to make it outta the sixties intact.
OK, perhaps it can be a little too slick for my tastes but next to the other British Invasion survivors of the day who made it into the eighties this sure ain't embarrassing as in that whole "we've grown up through peace and love together and now It's OUR turn to wreck things!" line that has been pushed by too many baby boomer types for quite a long time!
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Sheesh, how many David Bowie clones did RCA really need at the time? I guess they were trying to corner the decadent market, not an easy task back '74 way but one that was perhaps necessary. Actually not bad if you like those introspective piano playing guys who like to mewl meaningful and fraught with somethingorother lyrics that must mean something to someone. Might come in handy if you can't find your Dana Gillespie alb.
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A nice late-seventies cash-in from United Artists, who were obviously trying to peddle a new Can package to the gnu wavers who only heard about the band via various John Lydon and Siouxsie raves (whyd'ja think the lack of group photos onna sleeve...UA certainly didn't want ageist punk types to think they were buying a record by a buncha boring old farts as they used to say!). Pete Shelley's liner notes help the cause as does the selection which is about as good as the previous Can sampler (the budget release with the can of soup onna cover) yet twice the size and costlier to boot. I'm sure it was a good place to start.
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Never gave two thoughts about this band featuring ex-Jethro Tull guitarist Mick Abrahams though considering the raves these guys got from Michael Weldon not forgetting a mention in the boff 1981 CREEM heavy metal rock special I figured they just might be worth the while.
And they were even though there seems to be a massive dump in jamz once side two gets into gear. Otherwise this is a rather frenetic, high-spirited rock 'n roll affair featuring Abrahams' fluid lead guitar work and hyper vocals as well as Jack Lancaster's better'n Ian Anderson horn work which does give this a "jazz rock" feeling that won't make you puke.
And of course it's heavy metal too, but in that great 1969-1971 cusp style of the form that produced such classics of the day as THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD to PARANOID and dare-I-say FUNHOUSE????? Blodwyn Pig might have been the best metal band with a saxophone to appear until the Stooges let alone MX-80 Sound (Von Lmo?!?!?!), and that was a good six years later!
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The original LP is still wallowing away in my collection...can't seem to find it so I decided to buy a fresh Cee-Dee to reminds me of its majestic nature. And majestic it remains even after these forty-three years...Dr. Feelgood really knew how to milk all of the mid-sixties nerve ends with this update on the old British r/b, and they did it without looking like a batch of old fogies or pristine practitioners for that matter. Sorta like one of the more important points on the Downliners Sect/Stackwaddy sonic timeline with those early Stiff groups being the logical next step. Or something like that.
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These guys always were a chance-y operation to me. They sure looked rock 'n roll and they always had these dynamic album covers that really stood out at the local record emporium. However, their material always did seem hit or miss with some rather engaging rockers intermingled with stuff I wouldn't have expected even your runna the mill mid-seventies schlock rock act to tackle.
BRAIN CAPERS is like that despite what greater minds have said, with loads of Band-era Dylanesque swipes that just don't tingle the way the originals did along with some ballad-y musings that just don't pique my attention in the least. Only until the metallic crunch of "The Moon Upstairs" does BRAIN CAPERS kick in but sheesh, the platter's almost over by that time!
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I thought this was a high hoot when it came out back '81 way and I still think it's hot lo these many years later. Sure these ain't the real Sonics who briefly reformed (and sold their name to a bunch of newbies just like Andy Parypa did back '67 way) but they still lay down that Northwest Sound really fine. And Gerry Roslie still had a pretty good set of pipes which complimented those "Invaders" who were backing him rather well. Only a tad touch of modernism brings things down, but not too far. Oft hated, but for me one of the things that kept me goin' through my early-twenties which really don't seem that long of a time ago given how my tastes in music seem to be stuck in that particular era in my existence. But they do, and I will not apologize.
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Why'd I get this admittedly stellar classic recording again? For the inclusion of a rare instrumental backing track of "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout" that's why! This added bonus really captures the live Fairies experience more than the already boffo album version did so why not part with some extra change for a listening experience such as this?
Of course any version of this platter is worthy because it's not only one of the few recs that continued on the psychedelic experience long after its supposed shelf life wore off, but because its one of the few albums of the early-seventies that rocked out (yeah, I'm still in the sixth grade but if sixth graders knew more about the rock experience than cultured rock critics of questionable sexuality then so be it!). One of those great offerings from the missing link between the end of the first punk era and the beginning of the second one, and a darn fine expression of sound as energy t'boot!
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Old stuff true, but like I said a few months back this music was like soooooo hard to come by at one time that not-so-rich picauynes like myself actually dished out hard cash to Disques du Monde for overpriced pirate copies of the real thing. Of course tracks like "Making Time", "Biff Bang Pow" and "Painter Man" still hold the same immediate thrill for me that they did when I first heard 'em way back when. Some, especially the slower and moodier numbers, don't always hit the target but still this is a fine collection of tracks from a group that should have made some sort of mark on the musical landscape back during those days only to have their ideas swiped and generally be all but forgotten unless your name was Greg Shaw 'r sumpin'.
The Mothers of Invention-WE'RE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY, CRUISING WITH RUBEN AND THE JETS CD-r burns (both originally on Bizarre/Verve Records)***
Having sold both my copies of these during some rather lean times it's sure nice to hear these "crucial" (I refuse to use the word "iconic" which I consider one of those chi-chi deep-feeling Huffington Post type clickbait terms custom made for people who like to "reach out and touch someone") platters again. Well, maybe not that much...after all WE'RE ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY sure has dated, and perhaps the day after it was released for that matter. None of the youth protest numbers convey any sort of pathos or sorrow and they confuse more than they do irritate. And believe you me, they can irritate ya to the point where you're kinda glad the cops killed the kids, while songs about pooting and peeing in jars in which strange mutant tadpoles swim pales next to the kind of Burroughsian terror that the Fugs were rollin' about in at the time. And Zappa had the nerve to call them "bad taste"!!! Oddly enough the only portions I really enjoyed were the snippets of surf music (actually performed by a Dutch Indonesian instrumental band who moved to El Lay!) and about forty seconds of the closing theme to THE WORLD'S GREATEST SINNER near the end of side two.
RUBEN fares much better if only because Zappa was attempting to play "rock 'n roll" 'stead of just plain "rock" (you heard the old George Carlin routine, you know what it was all about), and he succeeds at least partially. Of course this sounds about as much late-fifties rock as HAPPY DAYS reflected the 1956-1963 pre-radical schmooze era, but a whole lotta bright moments can be sniffed out from the re-dos of various FREAK OUT faves to even the romantic "Anything" which woulda made one of those good "tit rubber" (as Billy Miller woulda said) songs had it only gotten out back '58 way. Still this one sounds differently than I remember...maybe the Cee-Dee burn I have is of that eighties version where Zappa wiped out Jimmy Carl Black's drumming and re-did it because he could do it much better (or so he said)??? Kinda thin and overall it gives me the creeps for some strange reason or another.
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Not as engrossing as WEASELS RIPPED MY FLESH but good enough in its own subdued sorta way. The oldies tracks do annoy, the classically-derived material does tingle the ears, and it all doesn't really kick in until Sugarcane Harris shows up with his violin to create a spectacularly driving sound right inna middle of "Little House I Used To Live In". After listening to various live bootlegs from this particular point in Mothers of Invention time it's sure nice re-acquainting myself with the official versions of these tracks which only prove that when Zappa fired the original Mothers he lost one of the best things that he had going for him.
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Dunno what label this came out on and dunno why "Vegetable Man" and some other rare things were left off, but this set does go to prove that the Jesus and Marychain were one of the better flashes to come outta the murk that was the eighties. Yeah I gotta admit that some of those later sides are quite candy coated, but even the sappier stuff (if you can call it that) runs rings around all of the big top forty quap that's been heard not only then but now. It's too bad these guys hadda remain obscurities on the charts because I'd sure like to have seen 'em get a whole buncha big hits o'er here 'stead of the frillies who did define the sound of youth gone herniated. I never thought I'd miss 1986!
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Sure it ain't ELECTRIC WARRIOR but then again what is? Bolan's '72 followup still cooks with hot grease as he and the guys (including Flo and Eddie) choogle through a whole slew of deca-pop masterpieces guaranteed to turn any unsuspecting twelve-year-old gal into the new Sable Starr. And maybe some twelve-year-old boys too! A nice bop-a-lop that set the stage for much of Bolan's remaining time on the planet and it's even done up with lyrics that woulda probably startled me as much as WARRIOR's did had these gotten printed on the back cover. (And you should just GUESS what I thought "The Slider" was about....not White Castle hamburgers I'll tell ya!) One interesting listening mistake I made---I thought Bolan was singing "Bacciagalupe" instead of "Metal Guru" making me suspect there might have been an ABBOTT AND COSTELLO angle to this song!
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I once got flack for sayin' that Zappa was only as good as his sidemen but this 'un does lend credence to my claim. With the likes of Beefheart and Sugar Cane Harris on board (yeah, and Jean Luc Ponty I will admit) HOT RATS cooks pretty hotcha comin' off like the kind of fusion platter you could actually sit through and enjoy w/o making any concessions to your sanity. Thankfully this was done up before the concept of total show-offy slickness really sunk into Zappa's fuzzed-out brain. One of the better of those "I am not an ignorant hippie" platters Zappa had unleashed upon the publick for close to thirty years.
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Contrary to Peter Laughner's opinion, can't say that this debut platter from Freddie and the boys is any sort of major or even minor revelation in the annals of English hard rock masterpieces. But then again Laughner (as did many other rock scribes of great ideals with bad sidetracks in taste) also liked a whole lotta that glitter goin' down that just didn't sound so good once 1977 clocked in. As for this debut by Queen well, it's just more of the same ol' glitzy hard rock with the usual heavy metal influences tossed here and there without any of the bare-wired gnarl that made those earlier metallic opuses so interesting in the first place. By the way, I decided to get the Venezuelan issue of this on on Harvest hoping that the thing might improve under the aspects of a Kevin Ayers/Syd Barrett/Move sorta English smart pop setting. It didn't.
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Various Artists-GREASY TRUCKERS PARTY 2-LP set (United Artists Records, England)As far as import album rarities go, this 'un's a marked improvement over the above. A live set from a night at Dingwall's, GREASY TRUCKERS features a nice li'l selection of some of the United Artists hotcha gotcha acts of the day (even if the United Artists logo is conspicuously missing on both the cover and labels) done up live and high energized, and for a suspicious guy like me who really is tighter than tight with the bucks when it comes to trying new forms out sound well...I got my money's worth outta the deal and a whole lot more!
Man starts it off with a whole side of "Spunk Rock" and a few shorter if still spunky tracks on the second side. Now for years I've been warned about these guys with folk tellin' me that they were nothing but neo-San Fran wannabes and you can hear that jam mentality in "Spunk" f'r sure, but when I gave that 'un a listen I was reminded more of early Quicksilver when their live shows were reportedly high energy excursions that at times drew up hefty MC5 comparisons (and various bootlegs and legit offerings have backed that up) and less of San Fran a good five years later when albums like SUNFIGHTER were coming out with a frightening regularity. If they had cut down on the more overt lysergic concerns Man coulda been a hotcha top contender in the freak rock sweepstakes, and even their shorter side two tracks don't reek too much of kozmik snarkl for me to care one whit.
Followup Brinsley Schwarz are yet another "don't buy it!" clarion call I had received from too many people out there who were trying to keep me on some sorta straight and narrow, and yeah I know about their huge following amongst the whole pub/punk rock cadre of the mid-seventies (heck, a planned reunion at the Mont de Marson punk fest was scheduled at one point) but if the Schwarz's are punks then they might be the only p-rock act influenced by the likes of Crosby Stills Nash and Taylor (that's James to you). Still I thought the numbers presented were a whole lot better'n the granola I thought would be performed, complete with a swerve and style that would later turn up on all those Stiff Records singles made by various ex-members of the band. Sorta country blues pub pop with yeah, maybe a sprinkle of punk rock 1972-vintage thrown in. Got no qualms about 'em nohow!
Ah...kill me or not but MAGIC MICHAEL was the highlight of this set for me. A man known more by his legend than by any particular recordings, the man with the nom-de-birth Michael Cousins has been once called the closest thing England had to a Wild Man Fischer. I can't exactly see that though the likes of David Roter and Bernie Joelson can also be discerned as the definitely Asperger's-riddled Michael whangs his acoustic guitar through various bloozey and entertaining moments sorta like a folk Emo Phillips or something along those vague lines! He sings, baits the audience and just rambles on at a strange enough for me pace before being joined by what sounds like a fife and drum straight outta the Spirit of '76 painting! I just love these way off-the-wall anti-geniuses, and considering how Michael not only was a founding member of Ducks Deluxe but briefly the lead singer for Can (one month not counting a few later-on guest appearances) as well as was in a band with Nick Kent that lasted perhaps the span of a flea's lifetime he's just GOTTA be the true rock 'n roll hero I've been waiting to champion for quite a long time. A "Cee-Dee Eee-Pee" release on England's "Cherry Blossom" Records came out a few years back, and you can find my review of it somewhere in the late-2017 batch of posts if you really wanna.
Closing it all out's an entire side of Hawkwind who do a heavy doody job of their early space ritual rock that I never do tire of no matter how many recordings of this particular point in Hawkwind history I happen to hear. Total eruption music that continues to resonate even if the technology's old turd by now and the Hawkwind name has been splintered and tattered beyond belief. I'll tell ya I still can't get enough, and who knows but you might just suffer from the same malady as I.
My definitely used copy of this comes courtesy of a Jackie Jeffrey who originally gave this to a friend (can't make out name) who is definitely such an INGRATE as to have gotten rid of it in the fashion that he/she/it most certainly DID! Jackie, if you're reading this I thought I'd let you know that your gift is now in safe hands, and whoever you originally gave this to is a total jerk for dumping the set in the first place. If said person comes by your door, do not invite the thing in for snacks that's for sure!
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And whaddaya know, but Magic Michael also shows up on this sampler of a decidedly different nature. Michael does well with a rock band backing him on "Little By Little" making me want to hear more of his wares from the unreleased Vertigo album to anything else that might survive. The rest, from the early Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello tracks to Graham Parker and Wreckless Eric, remind me of just why Stiff Records was such a fun label until they branched out way more than they perhaps shoulda. Also included are the infamous yet underdocumented blues group Stones Masonry who I sure wish had some sorta collection available for us interested parties who can't afford the dozen or so albums they do appear on.
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Yeah I remember the huge critical hubbub of addled joy that was cast over GHOST WRITER as well as the PBS live performance special from the late-seventies, but what can you say about a guy whose song about Lon Chaney sounds like an early-seventies Carole King reject? Has some interesting hotcha bop to it in spots but you have to strain your ears and make all sorts of concessions to your listening parameters to eke out any appreciation of them. And no, "She Didn't Lie" did NOT make me want to cry which might prove that I don't have a heart but hey, what else is new?
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Always on the lookout for a forgotten late-sixties masterpiece, I bought this particular spinner in the hopes that these mime rockers (who I always remembered from the ABC-Dunhill release THOSE HANDSOME DEVILS) would deliver some long-forgotten hard jamz that have always been tossed aside in favor of all of those sixties albums we've heard about awlready! Well guess again, because in no way does FUSION have any of the punk flash or pop smear of our fave late-sixties recording stars and other'n for the moody opening track I couldn't find much here that stimulated either my stirrups or my soul for that matter. Maybe they were put to better use backing Todd Rundgren up...anyone out there beg to tell me what the scoop really was?
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These six-oh samplers don't always capture that crazed atmosphere where just about every record one could buy could be considered a masterpiece in its own special way, but this volume in the long line of Billy Synth-compiled PSYCHEDELIC UNKNOWNS does a fairly good job of it. Ample tries at creating that perfect rock expression, usually done up in a fairly smooth psychedelic fashion with varying results that are not to be poo-poo'd or ignored for that matter. To be honest there's hardly anything spectacular and symbolic of just what those days when anyone could jump on the rock 'n roll bandwagon to be heard, though a few classics manage to make their way through. Includes the acid punk classic "Honey and Gall" done up by game show host Chuck Woolery and his old group the Avant Garde!
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Sheesh, I sure wish that I knew about these guys' Frank Zappa connection back when I was buying up all those Mothers of Invention records like potrzebie! Maybe I woulda bought this 'un which was at the time appearing on the Straight label, but since I passed on Tim Dawe maybe not. The title says it all, and surprisingly enough I wasn't bored with the lack of instrumentation one bit! While I'm at it did I ever tell you that the Persuasions were the first ever "professional" big time music act I had the pleasure of seeing age 13???
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When Iggy Pop was moiling in the boobies of early-seventies London post-Electra-era Stooges days, David Bowie had the idea of having his grand return to performing being backed up by either the Edgar Broughton Band or these infamous English lunks who I've never read a rave review about in my life! Sounds tantalizing either way, although the fact that none other than Twink did audition for the backing band also lends some stature to his eternal being!
But Third World War woulda been just as backing up Ig as they are on their lonesome. Nowadays they sound much better than I remembered from various cassette dubs and in-store plays, comin' off straight ahead and early-seventies down and dirty even if the energy never seems to rise to MC5 levels. Their Working Class lyrics don't make you wanna hate the Working Class like a lotta the early-eighties punks's did and the pace is a lot more steady than most of the Marxist rock music wannabes you used to read about back in the eighties. Even the acoustic guitar and strings number ain't gonna make you wanna puke due to the underlying tension.
Maybe I will dish out the money and send all the way to Russia for their followup album even if the chances of me receiving it might be practically nil. After all, I'm still waiting for my EASY ACTION CD I ordered in...2001???
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I actually had a flea market copy of this platter which I purchased back '79 way but I didn't keep it too long because the whole thing was just too frilly and concept-y for my rather punkoid tastes. Lo these many years later I find ONCE UPON A DREAM a whole lot better'n whatever it was about this 'un I remembered. The dago kid soul holds up better'n what a whole lotta those Eyetalian types who were coppin' black sounds back then ended up doing while the addition of an orchestra actually helps out things like they would on a classic early/mid-sixties single. There's even the obligatory bit of avant garde thrown in to show all those snooty kids that the Rascals could be real hip too! Not bad really even if I probably won't be playing this for another thirty-nine years.
And once again I prove that my year definitely beats your life, at least as far as rummaging through my decades-old (and ever-growing) collection proves.***
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