Later'n usual true, but at this point in blogdom does it really matter? And although it lacks a whole lotta polish and is just brimmin' with rough edges I sure put a lot of heart and soul and gosh-darnedness into it so you BETTER like it! Actually, just tell me that you like it even if you don't --- personally I find my writing extremely wonky and off kilter here and downright awkward at spots. I do get the idea that some of you out there might find at least a scintilla of something worthwhile within these words, but then again I get the idea that some of you out there think a good time consists of shoving knitting needs up and around your rectum a la Albert Fish so wha'd I know?

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Here's one they don't show on Boomerang or any streaming service or off-channel that I know of for some obscure reason or another so I thought I'd shove it here. One of my mother's favorites because it was promoting classical music to us stoopid suburban slobs, but despite all that (entertainment that's supposed to be educational and all that hokum) I like it anyway. Sure beats the slop out of FANTASIA...

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For those of you who can't get hold of Cheerwine, Dr. Pepper with Cherry just might fit the bill. Not quite Cheerwine-y but good enough for a change from the usual. Avoid the Dr. Pepper Cream Soda and Strawberry flavors, both of which taste like a reverse high colonic.

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This week's AI surprise! A pic of Mister Rogers
back when he was a US Marines sharpshooter
in Vietnam.

***

'n after all that piddle it's time for the writeups, and some good writeups they are I'll tell ya. If you don't think that the following reviews are the best thing that you will read ANYWHERE these days regarding that once-potent but then easily co-opted thing called rock 'n roll screeding then you might want to check in with your own personal guru, but anyway thanks to Faddensonnen and Paul McGarry, the latter who sent me some rather familiar seventies-vintage offerings that passed me by during my depression-era wages days.

The Bolan piece is one that I've worked on for quite some time. I've been spurred on into catching up on the various Tyrannosaurus Rex efforts that have passed me by (and given the way the Bolan catalog has exploded since his own passing boy is there a ton of it out there!) and I must say that it was a big joy for me to listen (and re-listen) to a whole load of the guy's efforts and lay down to type my various opines which might get'cha a cup of coffee if you also have a dime. And remember, you read it here last.

Tyrannosaurus Rex/T. Rex- UNICORN CD (Castle Communications, England); A BEARD OF STARS (Expanded Edition) CD (A&M Records, Japan); A BBC HISTORY CD (Strange Fruit Records, England); THE SLIDER CD (Demon Records, England); THERE WAS A TIME CD (TAG/Alan Walls Records, England), Steve Peregrine Took THE MISSING LINK TO TYRANNOSAURUS REX CD (Cleopatra Records)

The Marc Bolan story's probably the biggest if not one of the biggestbiggestBIGGEST tales of too much too soon, or better yet "wha' 'HAPP'D???" Up from the underground with a slew of albums one could easily say were some of the better rock 'n roll spinners to grace the early-seventies, soon it all tumbled like Harlan Ellison's ROCKABILLY come to life to the point where Bolan became a bloated image of his former self doing coke lines in fleabag hippie hangouts while his old fans were doing the har-de-har-hars behind his back and don't tell me Marc didn't know it!. And in typical fickle finger of fate fashion right when the guy's on the verge of a comeback complete with his own tee-vee series he gets himself killed! And of course we can speculate as to what might have been but at least we've got what happened, and diligent me in trying to keep up with all that I don't have and have otherwise missed out on decided not only to settle down with the platters I already have but fill in some of those gaps and other bits I somehow missed out on because like, well life is short and it ain't like I want to fill up the rest of what I have of it listening to J. Neo Marvin.

Wouldja believe that I've had a love/hate/love affair with Bolan for a longer time than I'm sure most of you fans and followers would have ever thought? There was a time when I dismissed a whole load of the Tyrannosaurus Rex catalog ('r at least what I've heard given my limited financial situation) as more hippie mewls before coming to my head and realizing the utter genius of Bolan's straightforward pop inclinations and the fact that English hippie was a whole lot more palatable than what passed for Amerigan early-seventies "right on" sloganeering and "look how full of virtue I am" pose.  As you can guess Bolan is to me here in 2025 what Syd Barrett was in '24, and as of these past few months I've been solidly in tune with Bolan's acoustic phase figuring that the guy put his own electricity into the Tyrannosaurus Rex catalog. When the guy eventually did switch back electric guitars well, you could say that it was the next logical step.

Wouldja believe that I never ever heard UNICORN until the here and now? The thing just slipped by my penny-pinching fingers for years on end and like eh, there always seemed to be more important things to do with my kopeks than pick up an album with as boring a cover as this 'un sports. Too bad on my own frugal part, for UNICORN's what I would call a bridge between the acoustic rock 'n roll of the first two Tyrannosaurus Rex platters and future rock 'n roll glories what with the use of chord organ and phonofiddle adding some interesting "color" to the proceedings. 

Not only that but "Cat Black" features a full rock 'n roll group concept with heavy duty grand piano courtesy producer Tony Visconti. It wouldn't have been out of place on ELECTRIC WARRIOR or at least a non-LP flipster from the same strata, and the track proves that Marc knew exactly where he was going and how to do it right. Really, anyone who would have been startled over the change in direction must've been a stoop given these early signs of the glory that was about to be!

In retrospect I think I shoulda splurged on the expanded edition with the bonus tracks but I can't have everything I want. In fact it wasn't until recently that I could have ANYTHING that I wanted!

I still can't get over my teenbo-era STUPIDITY with regards to dismissing A BEARD OF STARS as just more Donovan folkie fizz because well, once I entered into my twenties I surely regretted my decision to dump my copy and since then this album has become one that really makes me sit up and listen whenever I slap it on the ol' Victrola. Bolan's foray into electric guitar wasn't as premature as the guy would have led you to believe...sheesh, but wasn't "King of the Rumbling Spires" one hotcha slap of late-sixties downright English punk pop that would have rivalled if not surpassed all of the music comin' outta the place had it only got a li'l nudge? 'n hey, as far as elpee closer "Elemental Child" goes well, I'll rank it up there with the Stooges and a whole load of that sixties/seventies cusp cataclysm music that continues to mystify and astound this particular peon long after everyone else on the planet seemed (hoped?) to think it was long dead and buried!

This Japanese expanded edition's got a load of goodies tacked on at the end from songs that didn't make the cut to alternate takes guaranteed to sate the lusts of even the more iffy Bolan buddy. Believe it or not but this 'un has become a frequent spinner during those scant few minutes when I just don't feel like reviewing some of the offal that gets tossed my way.

The first two T. Rex proper albums I've mentioned many-a-time (or at least I have ELECTRIC WARRIOR which was definitely the best rock 'n roll platter to make it bigtime during the singer/songwriter saturated year of 1971) and since I haven't any recent new and updated editions to write about I'll just skip over to THE SLIDER which is yet another masterpiece from a time when the concept of rock 'n roll was definitely sliding into areas that seemed sticker than the La Brea Tar Pits. This might be considered the end/beginning of the end/beginning for Marc 'n company what with some of those later platters like TANX reportedly coming off so self-parody that all of the naysays have scared me away for seemingly ages. 

Maybe someday I'll tackle those efforts but at least for me THE SLIDER comes off like the even further next logical step into a phenomenon that by this time was going into supernova mode. The numbers that pop up here lack the intensity and overall mood of those on ELECTRIC WARRIOR, and although its packed with plenty of single material potential and Flo and Eddie t'boot there just ain't anything here that can live up to "Get It On" or "Rip Off". "Buick MacKane" does make it with its heavy metal barrage and the songs that did make it big o'er there shoulda been hittin' in the US of Whoa but well, I guess Ameriga wasn't quite ready (or mature enough) for the big onslaught. 

But when stacked up against a whole slew of them records that were filling up not only the album bins but the bedrooms of teenage pimple-thighed gals o'er here THE SLIDER was a definite winner which shoulda gotten Bolan the Sky Saxon award for best self-plagiarism by a rock band for the year of 1972. Shoulda held out for some deluxe edition with a whole string of outtakes (I mean, I've owned the original for ages) but hey, at this stage in my life its like I can't read the fine print no' mo'.

And if it is in fact true that "Baby Boomerang" was written about Patti Smith as Paul Morley once conjectured, maybe that guy wasn't the jerk too many wonks were making him out to be once he hit the heights he was soon to drastically fall from.

Anyone who made it through the previous barrage and found it all enthralling should OBVIOUSLY want to check out the Tyrannosaurus/T. Rex BBC collection gathering what someone out there at Strange Fruit Records considers the "cream" of the groups' various BBC sessions. Yeah, these sure sounded better in their raw 1967 taped off the radio state with John Peel's intro/outros left intact but for alternative versions as well as new to my virgin ears material this Cee-Dee is probably the best place to find a good portion of the group's appearances on that thing some call "the beeb". I'd take a 1979 bootleg Japanese two-LP collection of the same over this but until that 'un passes these parts I'm sticking with this.

You might also want to make yer way through THERE WAS A TIME, the first ever Tyrannosaurs Rex gig --- well, not the six-piece group who got booed off the stage a few months prior to this September 23 1967 show but the first two-piece 'un showing the early loose ends 'n all before they got a nice trimmin'. Some old Johns Children tracks pop up as well as first elpee efforts, and although the sound is rougher'n a cat's tongue you history buffs'll sure wanna eat this 'un up. As a bonus for everyone who made it through the show there are some early John Peel efforts for being such nice boys and girls.

While I'm at it why shouldn't I give Steve Peregrine Took some space here as well? Given the guy's erratic behavior which was so outre even a free spirit like Marc Bolan hadda fire him perhaps he should have been a strong contender along with Iggy and Lou for the punk of the year award! Although his post-T. Rex time seemed to be one big fall into drug addled numbness the guy sure was the perfect fit for the Pink Fairies crowd that he would eventually worm his way into, and whaddaya know but this spinner's got the fruits of that wonderous mishmosh!.

This Cleopatra release ain't anything that's gonna light any fires under some if not any of you reg'lar readers, but as far as a "document" of historical rockist value it does its duty and does it well. The Fairies make for the ideal backing band to Took's astrolysergical meanderings, and if you were one of the many who thought that Shagrat was a hearty enough backing group for Took you should be eating this up like psylocibin. The presence of some "Crazy Diamond" does churn up in the mind that the (apocryphal?) real deal Syd Barrett did pop up here somewhere, and considering the state of mind Took must have been in during these sessions the company you could say that they were pretty much peas in the ol' hackneyed pod. Yeah it meanders, but its like a meander one can really sink his psyche into!

I might as well mention this nifty collection of rare Tyrannosaurus Rex snaps that their Appreciation Society released way back in the early nineties. It's nothing but pix of either Marc on his own or with Took taken during the early days, but as you'd guess it's sure cool lookin' at the two acting a whole lot snattier than most bands have since. Its arity and you might be able to find some of these photos on-line for free, but if you're in the middle of an OCD Bolan binge like I am you'll probably want to settle back with these pics and glom on while your turntable's spinnin' some rarity or another by the man. There are also more Bolan fanzines and books out there than anyone can imagine in case you have an equally-rabid fasciation, and deep pockets for that matter.

Two different sources (who in no way know who each other are or who each other may be for that matter) have compared Tyrannosaurus /T. Rex with the Troggs as far as Anglo punkoid thrust and general attitude go. That never did occur to stoopid me who couldn't see the similarities in each group's abilities to sashay between the pop and hard rock contingents and produce what I would call downright classic single sides that were timeless in their own punkitude. What else can I say but we should be grateful that this planet was blessed with Marc without whom the early-seventies might just have been totally bombarded with pathetic introspection and Jesus Christ Superstar snooze all aimed to numb teenbo minds that were flatlining enough to being with. Some might have found this glam slam a total embarrassment to the entire concept of rock 'n roll but the above spinners sure prove to the contrary. Listen in and for once realize that T Rextacy was definitely the saving force for teenbo brain-popping music at a time when it very well might have all tumbled into peace 'n love shucksterisms supposedly speaking for (and to) the kids of the day. And, thankfully, some youth did know better. If only they slaughtered the stupider ones...

And now for a brief musical interlude:

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Curtis Mayfield-SUPERFLY CD-r burn (originally on RCA Records)

Like with the ROOTS album reviewed last autumn there's a whole turdload of early-seventies AM radio trackage here that does more'n just remind me of how fun it was listening to the transistor while reading comic books during them pre-pubesprout days of discovery. SUPERFLY also reminds me of just how mighty the AM band was after a few years of somewhat staid playlists, only to be followed by what seems like an eternity of horrid slop that the genre never did recover from. Pretty hotcha soul that's well-crafted, tasteful and dareIsay "mature", only in a way that woulda appealed to a slew of suburban slob comic books and candy on a summer day sorta kids. I believe that I wasn't the only one and that here were many more like myself way back in those better'n it coulda been worse days. Any of you out there care to prove me right?

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Cheap Trick-HEAVEN TONIGHT CD-r burn (originally on Epic Records)

You KNEW that the late-seventies were repressed beyond belief if the kidz thought music like this was either born of the devil or (worse yet) an insidious attempt to betray the true spirit of rock 'n roll (Bee Gees, Frampton, Warrant and the usual Chuck Eddy fodder). Those are the kind of SFB's I hadda put up with for more'n just a few years and I still hope that each and every one of 'em have died long, agonizing deaths!

Good thing that I don't believe in karma, and good thing that McGarry sent a copy of the third Cheap Trick platter my way, Yes, Cheap Trick were just what the youth of them days really needed what with their high energy pop rock sounds that took up the slack left by the demise of such Third Generation stalwarts as T. Rex and the Sweet. Obvious refs. include the Move (as you woulda guessed given the spiffy cover of "California Man"), pre-it all went to his head Todd, Sparks, the Raspberries and, considering the somewhat close proximity twixt the two acts locale-wise, Pezband. And sheesh, given the quality of the teenbos I hadda encounter during those days of aural suppression all I gotta say is it sure was a miracle this slab of pure hard pop would make ANY impact on the Kiss Army rejects I hadda put up with!

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Doctor Feelgood-BE SEEING YOU CD-r burn (originally on Parlophone Records England, reissued as SHM Remaster in 2014)

Not as raw and as under-the-underground 1975 fanzine writer desirable as DOWN BY THE JETTY, but I sure can dig the dickens outta these retro-scrunged up English rhythm and blues efforts as I can similar soundscapades from everyone from the Count Bishops to Little Bob Story. As with the Cheap Trick platter this is more of that power-punched sound of pure energy that the doofs I've mentioned used to poo-poo in favor of some of the worst music to hit the airwaves, at least until the eighties, nineties...

(Continuing with my reminiscences of horrible music days gone by...) Y'know, it kinda bothers me that there were way too many evil spirits throughout history who were never brought to justice and it burns me up no end that the idiot AM/FM deejays and their fans who made living in the tri-county area so dismal never did get their what fors either. Fortunately most all of those responsible are still alive and unfortunately breathing which is something that really frosts my babymaking machine. If any of you out there are willing to revenge rock 'n roll in the face of all the ruination these arbiters of taste have bestowed upon us names and addresses can be furnished. As for the beyond retarded fans of that spew well...maybe it would just be easier to carpet bomb the area, as long as you tell me when yer gonna do it so I can do a quick skedaddlin'! Whatever, THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT FIT TO GO ON LIVING UNPUNISHED!!!!!

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John Blum Quartet featuring Marshall Allen-DEEP SPACE CD-r burn (originally on Astral Spirits Records)

Allen's gonna be hittin' the 101 mark pretty soon if not already so why not celebrate in your own fart-encrusted bedroom way by giving this particular sesh a go 'round? Dunno who this Blum guy is (I fear he is no relation to Handsome Dick Manitoba) but he's a good piano tinkler. Not as good as former Allen boss Ra but I would say decent enough in a neo-Cecil Taylor fashion. And I don't know who Elliot Levin on tenor and flute is (well, that name sounds somewhat familiar) or drummer Chad Taylor for that matter but they also do swell. Allen's the real star of this session what with his "Electronic Valve Instrument" creating a whole load of Ra-esque interstellar sounds and his alto's very good, especially for what I woulda expected from any 98-year-old (the age Allen was when he recorded this) still able to pick one up. Sounds just as exciting as I would have expected any random pick from the old NMDS jazz catalog back in the late-seventies to have been.

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Vibracathedral Orchestra-BLAST MOTORCYCLE LP (VHF Records)

Nothing that I'm liable to toss the confetti over, but still a fine stream of free rock that doesn't sound like hippoid excess down on the front porch chooglin'. Comes close to a wide variety of one-LP soundflow that's been released since the wild-eyed days of the late-sixties (even though this does consist of a variety of tracks, but YOU tell me when each one begins and ends), making for good settle back 'n kick up your heels after a hard day at the salt mines listening.  I won't be spinning this with the same frequency that I do Syd or Marc, but deny it's a spinner of value and worth? No way!

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Camper Van Beethoven-LA COSTA PERDIDA CD-r burn (originally on 429 Records)

Not as pallid as I remember their earlier efforts to have been (of course it's been about thirtysome years since I heard any of 'em), but I still find Camper's brand of Amerindie stylings (with some "hip" references to earlier accomplishment) not quite the way I would like to spend my life-support days listening to set on "repeat". Somewhat smart mid-seventies rock formations "updated" for the 21st century rockist sophisticates out there, and nothing I would care to toss in the trash even if I doubt I'll ever spin this again.

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The Del-Lords-ELVIS CLUB CD-r burn (originally on Megaforce Records)

Sure the Dictators were one of the boffest rock 'n roll bands to make their way outta the best/worst of time days that was otherwise known as the seventies. But sheesh, some of the groups these ex-members eventually made their way into just don't live up to the ideals that the Dics were known to promulgate amongst a whole load of people who sure did need being promulgated! This Del-Lords spinner sounds like just about any random "mersh" AOR FM album that I had the misfortune of hearing whether I wanted to or not (more likely the latter) what with its ballad-y downer groove and patented chord changes that were overused even forty years back! Sheesh, I kinda wish that none other than Handsome Dick Manitoba were around to knock some sense into Top Ten's head before this thing ever made it to light.

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Its once again time to do my usual begging and PLEAD for you to buy some (or more hopefully all) of the BLACK TO COMM back issues that have been available ever since the Days of Diluvium only you tighwads were too cheap to snatch any up. Believe you me, I've tried to eat these and although they do provide the proper fiber I'd rather have 'em turned into hard cash so I can buy something more nutritious at the supermarket. So if you're concerned with my dietary intake do me a huge favor and please take a whole load of these out of my cellar and out of my life for that matter. 

COMIC BOOK DIGEST REVIEW! THE VERY BEST OF DENNIS THE MENACE (Marvel Digest Group, 1982)

You can betcher booties that I was front and center when comic book digests began hitting the newsstands (talkin' the USA ones since these books were crawling all over Europe long before!) way back during my just pre-pubesprout Obsessive Comics Disorder days. Didn't go anywhere near the Gold Key Disney ones (tho I wanted to get this anniversary Mickey Mouse edition which contained ancient reprints but wasn't lent the money necessary to latch it up because...well, you already know why!), but when ARCHIE COMICS DIGEST #1 popped up at a local drugstore I snapped it up like potrzebie. This kinda pub was something just custom made for a diehard fan of comics both old and new (I rightfully feared the future) with then-(somewhat) current sagas intermingled with fifties-vintage Archie in bow tie and sweater efforts that harkened back to an older, more interesting time as far as the "quaint" art and typically teenage stories went.

So this early-eighties DENNIS THE MENACE book is something that I must say really caught my eye and dragged it at least twenty feet as Emo Phillips woulda said. Dennis' tenure at Marvel Comics has been discussed on this blog o'er the years, but I never knew that they also published a digest containing those old Pines and Fawcett-era stories re-packaged for a new generation of comic book kiddos. Of course by that time I was too immersed in the under-the-underground music that was sneaking about so this 'un went right past me, but all these years later (and with a renewed interest in such suburban slob time-wasting) I must say that I was more'n just "somewhat" curious about this 'un.

Judging from the artwork these stories were taken from across the Dennis comic book span of malicious funnies. There are a lot of early 'un's here which have that quite fancy upper-and lower-case lettering (the earlier the story the wilder) as well as more contemporary efforts like one from the mid-seventies where Dennis pisses off a load of truck drivers via. Mr. Wilson's C.B. and just guess who's in for a beating! Now, although there's nothing in this 'un that comes close to Dennis walking into the house with Mr. Wilson's skull at least you get a fairly good share of senseless mayhem for one to enjoy. Stuff like Dennis smashing a parking meter for cash and out-fishing his father and Mr. Wilson, turning a square-dancing class into a brawl, things like that. Fun enough reading that'll remind you of a time when there were actually things like kids and not just small adults waiting to enlarge. 

There are a few li'l surprises here/there. Gina makes an early appearance back when she wore a sailor suit dress and talk-a like this. And believe it or leave it, but Dennis even does right such as when he thwarts some cattle rustlers while vacationing at an actual cowboy ranch, and exposes a variety of carnival scams resulting in a few armfulls of free food given in order to hush things up (all of it was eventually handed over as a bribe to an angry cop which is something I'm actually amazed passed the Comics Code! Frankly I doubt they even scrutinized these 'un's. Fawcett didn't adhere to the Comics Code anyway and besides, if Casper, Wendy and Hot Stuff could make it why not Dennis?)

One bad thing 'bout this digest...print can get too tiny for mine eyes causing some definite headaches. Tried a magnifying glass which helped some but otherwise you might want to buy one of those large-sized monstrosities they sell on tee-vee to the old fanabla types watching ADAM 12. You'll feel like Mr. Wilson with one of these hanging around your abode, but then again have you realized that by now you're just as OLD as Mr. Wilson? 

Well, here I go once again rereRE-hashing the same old 'n tired beyond belief diatribes and daggers complete with the usual hagiographical droolathons (or cruel and meaningless dismissals depending on what's playin' at the time) that I have been tossin' at'cha for the last XXXXsome years. Shee-yucks (or "it" if you prefer), but I'm also rereRE-hashing my rereRE-hashing opening line which might go to show you just how much this blong has been runnin' on bowel gas fumes! Whadja expect anyway given that I've milked myself dry and it ain't like I can be Ogden Nash witty all the time!

And to alla that I have nothing to say but GOOD THING because like, despite my seemingly terminal rut-ness who ELSE is out there in notice-me-land who is even slightly attempting to revive the Golden Age of Fanzine Snark and General CREEM (really!)-inspired seething that has been sadly missing from not only rock screeding but rock 'n roll (and a whole load of other musical styles that have gone from mayhem to moosh) for way too long? Be thankful that I am up and about in the here and now, for if it weren't for me and this very blog all that you'd read'll be...well, I don't want to traipse into the personal destruction of those I happen to loathe the way they would successfully destroy whatever I tried to build up lo these many years.

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Of course there's nothing totally new 'n refreshing to talk about (remember, this is the year 2025). In fact the only reason that I'm unleashing this post on you today is to not only clue you in on a number of items that I got and you don't (nyaah!) but to print the timely AI creation you can see directly below. But don't worry true believers (all three of you), for I'm working up some real doozies that I know you will be most anxious to ignore just you do everything else that I've been dishing out for years on end.

I tried to get AI to make me a pic of the Easter Bunny murdering children with an axe at an egg roll, but this is the best they could come up with. Yet another contribution of mine to the FUNZIE New World that suburban slobs like myself have been hoping for lo these many years!

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A bit of interesting if mostly ignorable happenstance---while looking through the folks' pile of albums containing a slew of WEST SIDE STORY soundtracks, operas, scratchy Voice of Firestone Christmas efforts and budget re-dos of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, I found a cover-less copy of MEATY BEATY BIG AND BOUNCY (VG+ condition stored in a flat stationary store styled paper bag with the title of the album printed in pencil) if you can believe that! I don't recall ever buying this (well, maybe I do have some extremely faint recollection of picking it up at a flea market during my teenbo days but I'm not 100% certain) but in fact if this record was part of their album collection I gotta say they were a whole lot hipper 'n I ever gave 'em credit for being!

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And now for the female (and back door boy) portion of our audience:

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Once again I try to take up the baton that was dropped by way too many a rock scribbler long ago and lay down some opinions I would say are really not worthwhile considering what has gone down back when the giants roamed the earth. I still think you'll get a kick outta what's in store. Paul McGarry and Robert Forward...well, you know what their place is in the BLOG TO COMM universe is already so I'll dispense with the usual golly gush thank you's at least this time.
 

The Pink Fairies-AT THE BBC 1970-1972 LP (1960s Records, England)

You don't care 'n hey, even I will admit that there are more pressing things to worry about in this life other than that the entirety of the Pink Fairies' BBC seshs have finally been slapped together onto one beaut of a longplayer. But since we're talking BLOG TO COMM and you know the shallowness that is oft associated with the things that I write about so why shouldn't I come out and say that this is one mighty fine package.

The cover is of a thick 'n sturdy high quality (if you care about that stuff but then again I don't mind at least a little CLASS in my life once in a blue moon), sporting a snap of the band I never saw before and boy is it a doozy what with them smack dab in front of some church as some old crone walks by! And hey, there are even some liner notes on the back (you won't learn anything new but eh!) and if you're into such things the sound quality has been boosted from all of those other Pink Fairies sesh sources that have been flying around for quite a long time. That early 'un with their version of the Jefferson Airplane's "3/5th of a Mile in Ten Seconds" (and a better one than those hippoids did) still sounds somewhat muddy what with the middle part all distorted but eh, that distortion sounds clear so if you like your garbledness Hi-Fi 'n all boy are you in luck!

Heck, there are even some new entries I've never heard like a particularly driving "Walk, Don't Run" which even outdoes the one on WHAT A BUNCH OF SWEETIES as far as somewhat keeping the spirit of the psychedelic era alive. If you're a Pink Fairies fan well, I suggest that you engage in a quick and immediate snatch-up from the on-line dealer of your very own choice! 

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Golem-ORION AWAKES CD (Lion Productions Records)

OK,  I fell for it. Not the first time I thought some recently released effort was an archival dig up from the sainted sixties or savage seventies but sheesh, for being fakes ya just gotta give Genesis P. Orridge and the rest of 'em all a whole load of credit for putting out something that is as authentic sounding as this 'un.  What it is, is definitely Teutonic space rock jamz that sound like one of them Connie Plank (or was it Dieter Dierks?) things that came out as the Cosmic Jokers without anyone who participated knowing that they were ever gonna be released --- if I had only heard those albums in the first place that is! Sometime funky, sometimes orbiting Jupiter, sometimes meandering. But whatever it is this is one of those platters that's good for a once in a lifetime spin and if you think I'm never gonna dig this out for future reference well --- you just might be right.

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Steve Reich-OCTET/MUSIC FOR A LARGE ENSEMBLE/VIOLIN PHASE CD-r burn (originally on ECM Records) 

A good hunk of this sounds like Philip Glass before the accolades and hanging out with the Dalai Lama and various other chi-chi cause types went to his head (and composing abilities), while some of it even gets close to a Mother Mallard/krautrock electronic growl you paid heavily inflated prices for back in the late-seventies (when this 'un came out!). A better than even I would have thought effort from one of those avgarde classical composers who, had he only grown his hair real long and got signed to some hip "progressive" label like Harvest or Vertigo, coulda passed his sounds off as "rock" and made a whole pile of money in the process. Eh, that didn't work for Karlheinz Stockhausen and it probably wouldn't have worked for Reich either so what'm I say'n anyway.

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Big Sandy and his Flyrite Boys-WHAT A DREAM IT'S BEEN CD-r burn (originally on Cow Island Records)

Remember when Big Sandy was first thrust upon the retro-fifties rock (as in real exciting music and not nostalgic moosh) scene such as it was way back inna eighties? Like, who knew the guy would have such lasting power and make it big at least in the rockabilly consciousness --- not me, but it ain't like I'm up on what you young'uns think is hotcha or not these days. 

Not being a front line aficionado of his music like I believe many of you readers would be, I ain't gonna be spinning this with the same frequency I do various 60/70s cusp cataclysm sounds that seem to be occupying my time. But boy, is this downright entertaining and real life flesh and blood music that sounds authentic and inspirational at a time in man's destiny when the concept of being inspired in the first place seems quite verboten. For those of you who (like me) loathe that seventies HAPPY DAYS concept of the fifties as some whitebread ginchy gooey time this'll snuggle up to you pretty snat-like.

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ARTFUL DODGER CD-r burn (originally on Columbia Records)

Way back when, in fact on this very blog, I reviewed the Dodgers' then-recent live collection thinking it was just too much commercial (in a way that woulda gotten your average AOR fan all moist in the BVD's) pop slop. Funny, but this '75 debut sounds closer to the hard pop AM hitmaker matter of it all than that other 'un did. 

Practically downright enjoyable for those of you who loved the Raspberries and their various pop brethren of the day and, sadly enough, a sound that we sure coulda used a whole lot more of way back when considering how AM pop was dying a slow death with the better aspects of the form being replaced by disco and singer/songwriter snoozerama. 

OK, it does get somewhat over-testosteroned in spots (sorta echoing various eighties AM atrocities like "Eye of the Tiger" even!) but otherwise I give these guys all the huzzahs that a whole load of AM pop purveyors at the time sure 'nuff did a good fifty years back.

Guess I'll have to dig up that live disque for another eval. Sheesh, I mean I should have loved the dickens outta stuff like this but given the horrible time I was having in life when I heard that 'un it's no wonder why I tossed it off in favor of some soothing industrial music! Gotta stop letting reality get in the way of enjoying life.

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Sun Ra-THE CYMBALS CD-r burn (originally on Modern Harmonics Records)

Catch up I must, and THE CYMBALS is at least one good and once rare Sun Ra album of which there are so many that only the millionarest of you readers could enjoy 'em all.  In order to save a li'l space just re-ponder the past dozen or so Ra reviews that have appeared on this blog because well, I don't want to get TOO redundant which is something I've been guilty of while spewing considerable froth re. various musical legacies which have affected me for ages.  

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Various Artists-VOLCANIC TONGUE - A TIME TRAVELLING EVANGELIST'S GUIDE TO LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY UNDERGROUND MUSIC CD-r burn (originally on VT Records, Scotland)

Anyone who tuned into the early days of this blog knows just how much the Volcanic Tongue m.o. biz was essential in filling in a whole load of gaps not only in my music collection but the musical knowledge in my mind. And keeping the stories about ripoffs and other bad business practices out of the equation its sure nice to hear that they're still in some sorta existence as the presence of this compilation would attest to. 

This actually is a nice batch of wide-ranging tracks that feature music that was once part and parcel to the VT catalog, ranging from "post-punk" gunk (but fun gunk --- Scrotum Poles) followed by the late-sixties psychedelic folk rock of the Bachs which in turn's followed by Fil Que Mousse's abstract whatchamacallit and well, this ain't no NUGGETS but it sure makes for a swell listening experience as it shifts from one mode to another catching your lobes by surprise. 

I for one wish they woulda programmed the music played on my local FM station way back when this way. Pretty good, even if that Simon Finn track sounds like warmed over Donovan and the original guy was bad enough. Anyway, I now know what alla that music that VT were sellin' that I passed on sounds like!

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PAPER JAYS CD-r burn (originally on ESP-disk Records)

The revived ESP's still up and runnin' and not only that but they've supplied us with this new act. Paper Jays is a duo who play their acoustic guitars like John Fahey and Robbie Basho fighting each other for steel string supremacy, and doing a good job of it with some added percussives here/there giving the proceedings an additional air of Eastern Spells. You may call it World Music but this music's too good for a term that has been used to describe a whole load of fluff that I imagine only some timid soul trying to stretch out beyond "Mairzy Doats" would like. Sheesh, a whole lot of this even reminds me of Sonny Sharrock's "Blind Willie" which is one thing that definitely keeps this 'un out of the don't scoot it off to Brad Kohler pile.  Who knew that listenable music could have been made in the mid-twenties? Not I!

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XTC-ORANGES AND LEMONS CD-r burn (originally on Virgin Records)

If Paul McGarry were to have sent this to me back when in came out '89 way I'd probably bop the guy inna beezer. Nowadays I'd just write him a nasty letter. Not offensive tho...if I can make my way through some of the other late-seventies new unto gnu wave efforts that have passed my turntable I can make my way through this somewhat interesting rehash of late-sixties English pop. Another one of those (maybe only) one-spin items to occupy whatever's left of my measly existence.

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If you missed out on the salad bar days of BLACK TO COMM you should be getting your just desserts! However, these available back issues should make for a quite appetizing change of course from the usual sub zero rock writing you've had to put up with ever since the great switch from gonz to hypesheet cut and paste occurred way back in the eighties. C'mon, you could do worse and if you've read any of the competition you have!

BOOK(S) REVIEW! MUTT & JEFF GIANT-SIZE STANDARD COLOR EDITION, VOLS. ONE AND THREE (Retro Comic Reprints)

Hardly a man is now alive who can remember when MUTT & JEFF was hotcha potatoes in the world of newspaper comic stripdom. Beginning in 1907, this once-all over the place cartoon had the distinction of being the first (or at least one of 'em) to appear on weekdays, and at one time you just couldn't escape the thing what with animated films and products based on the strip permeating just about every aspect of one's life the way PEANUTS would forty years later. This comic even affected various other realms of life---f'r example "Mutt and Jeff" became a common police term to describe a pair of suspects with drastically opposite features. Creator Bud Fisher was also one of the first celebrity comic strip artists even if, for the most part, the guy hired out all his work as time went on but eh, he sure coulda afforded it given the dinero being raked in!

As anyone would prob'ly expect MUTT & JEFF eventually fizzed out as time went on, and during its final days it became a daily groaner for many a comic strip hound on the search for a good badgag. In no way could the thing survive in today's comic strip world --- had it somehow lived on it would have gone through, like NANCY, some heavy "updates" that would have made it agonizingly unrecognizable from the original form. But then again, had it lasted into the present day perhaps the public would have protested loudly to any slight change in style in the same fashion that fans got into an uproar when the news that the BLONDIE strip was gonna creep into the present day what with new decor, hairstyles and even a spiffy new suit for Dagwood --- now THAT was something for one to grab the pitchforks and get riled up about if you ask me!

One interesting thing about MUTT & JEFF was that for quite a spell the two were part of Max Gaines' All American branch of the DC publishing empire. Yes, before they headed out for the somewhat less green pastures of Harvey Comics the duo's old newspaper strips were being recycled for perhaps thee premier comics line of the day and sheesh, at times you could see the two of 'em on some comic book cover appearing right next to such luminaries as the Flash and Green Lantern which I gotta admit does give 'em some class, at least by association. Unfortunately they had about as much of a chance to join up with the Justice Society of America the same way that Dennis the Menace had joining the Avengers during his brief stint at Marvel, But sheesh, the thought of it does make for a kinda/sorta funny brief moment in this agony we call life now, doesn't it?

And yet another comic book publisher of past triumphs, namely, Retro Comic Reprints, have gathered these now PD titles for present day consumption, volumes one and three which were graciously zoomed my way by none other than Bill Shute.

Not being too familiar with MUTT & JEFF other'n when I would pour through old comic histories, out of town newspapers or especially MAD spoofs, I will admit that this pair of books were a refreshing high dive to the strip. And after all of these comics presented to me in overdose fashion I will admit that MUTT & JEFF was a groaner true, but a groaner in a good way when a bad gag is needed in one's life just to give it a break from the mundaneness of sophistication and class. Like I said over and over again, bad gags can be done up right as they often were in the Bob Montana-era ARCHIE strips or they could flop about as a cursory look into any cheap comedy-oriented title of the fifties will attest to. 

The jokes you see in MUTT & JEFF work out like --- OK. Some of them hit you right in the funnybone while others miss by a mile, but that don't always matter because the artwork is grand in that old style where it seemed as if the artists had some sort of craft about themselves and bothered to add things like detail and style into their work. Things that are in quite short supply if my recent glances at the comics page are any indication. Not only that but the characters are well formed, what with Mutt being more of the stupid yet in charge Bud Abbot of the two and Jeff a naive simp worth the punchline you know that he's eventually gonna deliver on.

Also included in these comic books were other efforts related to MUTT & JEFF or not for that matter. Strip "topper" CICERO'S CAT (Cicero just happens to be Mutt's son and rarely even appeared in these strips) rates well with all of the other pussy comics that were appearing at the time and heck, sometimes even Mutt or Jeff show up in these in supporting roles. However, I thought SIMP O'DILL didn't have a thing going for it, coming off like the kind of har har filler you say in more'n just a few Golden Age titles of the forties. Funny thing is, this strip must have been somewhat popular since there was at least one Tijuana Bible featuring the guy.

With all of the original ads and text kept in place, these are a nice bunch of book that are gosh awful handy to have around when the cravings for an antique joke just needs to hit'cha. And hey, MUTT & JEFF was even educational for me because, even after years of reading and collecting 'em, I never knew that for a spell Gaines's All American line had its own logo, a slug with "AA" in the center almost identical to the long-running DC one I'm sure some of you remember from your early comic book scarfing days! When Gaines sold out and started EC the familiar DC logo was finally used on the covers but for the life of me I never did come across an "AA" in my born days! And given how this logo features curved letters aligning themselves to the edge of the inner circle I was reminded that, when I first discovered 'em, I once actually thought that EC comics were part of the DC empire because of the similarity in their ID! (Don Fellman thought I was a stoop for thinking this and given the people he's had to encounter in his life he should know!) Not only that but the inside front covers of the AA and EC books, what with their listing of available titles and "Editorial Advisory" list, are nearly identical (even the print!) which does make for a big "now how about that!" at least in my life!

Of course given the difference 'tween DC/AA and EC regarding content not to mention their cover schemes etc., these companies just weren't alike one iota. But sheesh, given how Gaines manned both AA and EC and the stark similarities in their circle within a circle slug logo perhaps the truth was a heck of a lot whole lot closer to what I had originally thought in my not quite formed twelve-year-old brain! In the "you learn something new every day" department this one really was a biggie!

WHAT DO ALL THESE CREATURES HAVE IN COMMON?

Well, besides taking what was totally freaked out and exciting in the seventies and making it boring in the twenties it should be obvious. NONE of 'em have ever read an issue of BLACK TO COMM in their entire bloomin' lives! That and the fact that they look like they might be closely  related to Dave Lang but that's another story...anyway, if they did read it do you think they would be stupid enough to look like this considering just how much shock has turned to flop these past fortysome years? 

Anyway, if you don't wanna end up like any of these woof-woofs howzbout buyin' one (or three, or ten, or a millyun for all I care!) old copies of this essential (to my bank account) fanzine before they're all gobbled up by the landfill! Prices are up due to inflation, and if you're outside of the USA forget it because the postage will kill you! (But if you're a rich kinda guy well...open up your bank account!) Two ways you can get 'em. One is to leave a message in the comments section (I will not publish it!) with your email and I will get back to you with more detailed information. Or you can send me the cash (check or money order suggested because some doofs have claimed to have sent me moolah in their orders though I have no record of 'em having done so!) to Christopher Stigliano (checks payable to him!) at 701 North Hermitage Road, Suite 23, Hermitage PA 16148 USA; just like you used to do in the old days.

 

PHFUDD! #11-Still have a few copies of this once-gone and forgotten issue featuring Mirrors (complete with the usual rare photos and flyers and ads and esoterica like that), Von Lmo photos taken at Max's Kansas City with Lou Rone mugging it up for the camera (plus a Rudolph Grey chronology!), Sonny Sharrock, Jeff Dahl and Powertrip, a live Styrenes photo taken by ME (which accounts for its fuzziness!), Birdhouse (remember them?), the Standells and some live Rocket From the Tombs snaps with lyrics that should cause your heart to be racing by now. Also included is the enticing article entitled "Is There No End To Those Pesky Chuck Eddy Rumors?" which, as we know, is still as relevant today as it was in April/May 1988 when this issue originally came out. Since this is a rarity, I'm asking $25.00 each, and no frowning! 

BLACK TO COMM #14-Early 1989. Featuring part one of the Ron Asheton interview, a nice though could be much better given all the information discovered since piece on the Deviants, an article on Peter Laughner's Cinderella Backstreet, the Seeds and Charlemagne Palestine. $15.00 and if that's too expensive just try getting hold of one on ebay at that price!

BLACK TO COMM #16-From summer 1989. This one has the Rudolph Grey interview, some reprints of various Peter Laughner things I copped out of old issues of ZEPPELIN and elsewhere, more Electric Eels lyrics with a pic that's been reprinted all to heck, Laughing Hyenas and of course tributes to the recently departed Lucille Ball and Jim Backus. The first, cruddy version can be had for $7.00, the other for $8.00 or maybe I'll just send you whatever I come upon first! 

BLACK TO COMM #17-Early '90. The first of the "big" issues has a cover story/interview with Scott Morgan and Gary Rasmussen from the old Scott Morgan band, also inside's an interview with Borbetomagus' Donald Miller as well as one with Maureen Tucker, not to mention pieces on Fish Karma (who I liked until hearing his overly-preachy kiss kiss moosh anti-gun song entitled "God Bless The NRA" which blew Fish's snot-nosed toss off attitude to sanctimonious heck), the Dogs (from Detroit, not the French ones or the Flamin' Groovies for that matter!), Rocket From the Tombs (with loads of old photos and the like, some never seen before or since!), the top 25 of heavy metal, METAL MACHINE MUSIC, a piece on the then-new proto-punk reissues and archival digs of the day and the usual reviews and news. $12.00. 

BLACK TO COMM #19-Just found a few of these niceties with my Miriam Linna interview plus one done with Jeff Clayton of Antiseen, not to mention the Pink Fairies, Czech Underground Rock (Plastic People of the Universe, Umela Hmota...), Lester Bangs (unpublished photos too!), NUGGETS, the Shangs, a history of proto/early punk fanzines, lotsa old TV stuff and of course the regular departments. This is the first ish to really dig into a lotta the anti-youth fascism mentality so popular in rock circles these days, so sissies beware!!! Since this is getting rare you can have one of these soon-to-be collector's items for $15 each if you can believe it! A real steal deal!!! 

BLACK TO COMM #20-Found a few of these featuring tasty articles on the Seeds, MX-80 Sound, Lenny Kaye, Richard Meltzer, the Bowery Boys, DENIM DELINQUENT magazine and a smattering of praise regarding old television programs. Also featured are interviews  with Mick Farren, Roky Erickson, Adny Shernoff and Craig Moore (Gonn), $15 

BLACK TO COMM #21-From November '94. A VON LMO cover story and interview grace this ish, as do interviews with Metal Mike Saunders, Brian McMahon (Electric Eels) and rockabilly star Ronnie Dawson, plus you can read much-desired items on the Trashmen, Velvet Underground and Hawkwind like I knew you would! Not to mention a piece on the infamous TEENAGE WASTELAND GAZETTE fanzine! $15 

BLACK TO COMM #24- From spring 2001. This issue's cover feature's a nice interview with Doug Snyder of DAILY DANCE/Sick Dick and the Volkswagens fame, plus there are interviews with the Dogs (Detroit) and Greg Shaw, a piece on the old CAN'T BUY A THRILL fanzine and the usual feature-length reviews and the like. $15

BLACK TO COMM #25-The latest (December 2003), 162 pages brimming with such goodies as a New York City Scene history (featuring interviews with Max's Kansas City's Peter Crowley and Ruby Lynn Reyner from Ruby and the Rednecks plus pieces on coverboys the New York Dolls and VARIETY scene-booster Fred Kirby), an interview with J. D. King (Coachmen, comix) plus one with guitarist Lou Rone, who would probably be best known to you as leader of the early CBGB-era band Cross as well as one-time guitarist for both Kongress and VON LMO, the Screamin' Mee-Mees, CRETINOUS CONTENTIONS, Simply Saucer rare photos, family tree and gigography, rare fanzines of the Golden Age (and more), tons of book and record reviews (which make up the bulk of this ish!), plus a CD with live Simply Saucer 1975, the Coachmen, The Battleship, Ethel with David Nelson Byers and Ruby and the Rednecks. $20 

If you would like, I can slip in a Cee-Dee that came with the now dead and buried #22 for free with your order. Also, I am sorry to say that my previous offer to photocopy long-gone issues has been rescinded if only because the masters are so old they are deteriorating right before my very eyes. Well, ya shoulda bought 'em back when they were up and about, sweetheart!

Got more'n just a little bit to blab about this time and I better warn you that it might be rather mind boggling for some, so if I were you I'd take a little bit of this now and save the rest for some other time, all in nice little pieces that you can digest and enjoy at your own pace. I've been writing up this post o'er the past month or so adding little thingies here and removing big hunks there (you should see the stuff I remove---really caustic and scabrous material which sometimes remains much to the dismay of some of you more weak-stomached readers) which is why this entry into the canon pretty much tops the blowhard-y meter. Of course if you're one of the true blue dyed in the wool BLOG TO COMM lovers out there (of which there are two) I think you'll wanna swallow it all in one big Linda Lovelace gulp and like, who's stopping you anyway other'n your conscience which I thought you tossed out the window ages ago?

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You know how much I like to talk about myself not to mention spew out my various deep thoughts and opines which is but one of a gorillion reasons why this blog is in existence. Well, if you're the kind of guy who gets his jollies living vicariously through me like I've lived vicariously through the actions of various musicians and even writers over the years here's yet another bit of autobiographical goo that I'm sure will sate your utmost desires. That is, if you truly are into Chris Worship and who in their right mind wouldn't be? 

So here it is, Sunshine...as to what has been goin' on 'round here well, believe it or leave it but I actually got called for jury doody, like for the fourth time in this existence of mine which I gotta say really burns the britches off my thighs considering that there are way too many of you yahoos out there who never got called even once! Eh, that's what I get for registering to vote so maybe I shouldn't complain though given the way I vote YOU would. 

Anyway, I was really miffed because frankly I had much better things to be doing (like making a living, honest or not) and in no way did I wanna be pulled away from my livelihood in order to sit around and pass judgement on someone I probably couldn't give two hoots about! But then again as far as passing judgement goes you all know just how much I like sticking it to people I just don't like and who knows, the guy that's up for trial just might be the one who's perfect for a little wrath on my part!

But as far as for getting out of it I had it all planned, like taking a rope and practicing my noose knots and carrying around a biography of George Lincoln Rockwell, but then I thought I might get myself in some trouble that I just don't need during this time in whatever's left of my life. Thankfully the judge sent about 150 of us seething and downright throbbing potential jurors home because all of the cases on the dock were settled out of court behind closed doors and in a fashion I'm sure Charlie Rich wouldn't have cared for. Fine enough with me, but why couldn't they've done all that before we peons hadda be called in just sittin' around doing nothing just waiting for somethingorother to happen without anything to keep us otherwise occupied! Sheesh, they coulda at least shown us some THREE STOOGES shorts!!!

Besides the indignity of jury duty I have been keeping myself occupied considering that idle hands are the devil's rec room or something like that. Basically with this thing they call "work" as well as with this other thing called "lumping in front of the television set during the evening hours because you're exhausted and depressed by that other thing taking up your life". When I have the chance I pour through my old books, usually during turd time when I have to get my mind off of this disgusting necessity in my life. When I have an entire afternoon to kill maybe I'll crack open a box of old fanzines or whatnot, the whatnot usually being the reams of articles I copies off of Rocksbackpages back when I decided to splurge on a month's subscription and gobble up everything I deemed necessary that they had up for my approval. A nice endeavor true, but they seem to be lacking in a whole lot, like more articles by the likes of the late-seventies SOUNDS crowd (Goldman, Dadomo, Suck, Ingham...) and other oft forgotten or downright neglected English scribes whose writings hardly made their way over to my neck (or more accurately, asshole) of the woods. Even some Amerigan ones too! As if I had money and various other earthly goods handed to me on a silver platter just like all you rich kids reading this thing sneering at me for my abject poverty.

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Like clockwork or at least tax time, an issue of FAUX WOOD PANELING has once again made its way to our doors. Or at least mine but anyway what else can I say about perhaps the bestest of best fanzines being produced today, at least as far as I know of considering that I'm not exactly raking in the mags these days. Custom made for the Meltzer type of aesthetic, FAUX WOOD PANELING's latest has an interview with Gregg Turner, a quite interesting piece on Dion (with a Meltzer twist!), Pittsburgh's I think they're supposed to be legendary the Puke, Cecil Taylor (!), Lisa "Suckdog" Carver (?), River Trash Records and even reviews of a couple of Japanese anime things that might be hentai but I'm not askin'! There's loadsa stuff in this thick issue that'll satisfy the hidden brat that lingers within all of us, and I don't hafta tell you how to get it now, do I? (Hint hint hint---look at the column on the left under "Faux Wood Paneling" and who knows, the answers to at least some of your prayers just might come true!).

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No posts on the DENIM DELINQUENT facebook page lately. I hope that Jymn Parrett isn't sick if not worse!

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Another AI exclusive! A true-to-life photographic rendition of Andy Warhol shooting
Valerie Solanis in retaliation for all of the grief she's given him (yeah, the one on the right looks nada like the real Solanis, but ya gotta admit that AI is still in its infancy and these rather amusing misfires and downright gaffes are just as fun as had something more realistic been conjured up!).

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THINGS WATCHED ON TEE-VEE AS OF LATE: As hinted at a few paragraphs above, I've been eyeballing a whole lot more tee-vee these days than I have these past two or three decades, and if you must know or really care for that matter I am PROUD of the fact. Strange but true, I've actually discovered that there is some television out there that is finally worth my time and satellite dish money, and none of it is any of them Lifetime For Women tee-vee mooms or flashy updates on the old Ted Mack Amateur Hour talent shows either. Naw, the programming that I'm front and center for speaks to the raw core of my eternal being, transcending a whole load of barriers and searches inside whatever it is that's left of my soul appealing to me on a multi-dimension level I doubt any of you readers will ever fathom. Television that speaks to me as a throbbing, living individual 'stead of as the wimpass follower of hognose ring-yanking trends and fancies. Entertainment that, once again, proves that I am a better man than most all of you will ever be. Here is some important cathode crashing that I have done or am doing as of late, and of course you would be wise to seek out these various programs and episodes in order to better your somewhat kukkied up life:

GUNSMOKE : "ISLAND IN THE DESERT PART ONE AND CONCLUSION" (originally airing on CBS December 2 and December 9, 1974) - I've written enough about this program these past few yeas but anyway, here's my overall opinion regarding the twenty-year run of this by-now infamous, legendary and other accolades that mean nada to you western tee-vee series. The first three or so seasons are the best, the rest of the half hour episodes are very good, the hour long black and white-era ones can at times get somewhat spotty and the color ones ain't worth the time. At least I thought that the color ones were snoozerinos for a longer period than I can imagine, probably due to me actually trying to watch some of those later ones back during my pre-pubesprout days and finding them too lacking in a whole load of the bared-wire intensity and general hard-edged power that I thought was exactly what drove all of my uncles to their tee-vee sets in the first place. 

Throwing caution to the gutwinds I tuned into this last-season (1974-1975) two-parter if only for the presence of Strother Martin making his last (and only color-era) GUNSMOKE appearance and gotta say that I'm sure glad I decided to stay up past my usual eight o'clock bedtime. Repeato-riff me has also gotta say that most all of the guy's other appearances in this series were what made those particular episodes highlights of the show's history...his second pop up as some retarded guy named Cooter who is goaded by a gambler into trying to kill Marshal Dillon rates in my top ten of GUNSMOKEs, while his role a few seasons later as the equally addled Dooley who thinks he killed a fellow buffalo skinner is equally powerful, especially in the final scene which might even make you want to do a little throat lumping yourself. Another favorite of mine is this mid-sixties hour-long one where Martin's the brutal victim of not only an amoral and ultra-violent clan (led by Denver Pyle playing it extremely and uncharacteristically sadistic) but some Slim Jims that pack a particularly potent punch.

However this last-season two-parter's an equally power-pumping piece of television viewing and undoubtedly a couple of THE BEST COLOR ERA GUNSMOKES THAT I EVER LAID EYES UPON. Starts out with Marshal Dillon and his grubbier than you would have liked deputy Festus delivering a vicious murderer to a sheriff's office where a hanging is in the immediate offering and Festus is sticking around just for the festivities so-to-speak. After Dillon skedaddles the bad boy grabs a letter opener, kills the sheriff and escapes with Dillon's deputy in hot pursuit, at least until the ol' skudder gets grazed by the escapee's close enough rifle shot smack dab in the middle of the desert and left for "crow's bait" in the killer's own taunting words. Miraculously enough Festus is saved by Martin playing desert hermit Ben Snow, a guy who has been lost for what must've seemed like ages and is so whacked from the loneliness that he even has a pet rattlesnake to keep him company. Snow's got his own ideas as far as getting out of the place in order to exact some well-deserved revenge on the guy who not only shot him in the leg and abandoned him but ran off with his gold, and after swiping Festus' gun the coot's actually got the deputy by the prairie oysters as he forces him to take a ten mile hike through the desert. Destination: the town of Ten Strike where justice is gonna be rendered in a way only that Snow could really appreciate --- mainly humiliation!

Once again Martin plays it so believable that you'll undoubtedly be rooting for and against him at the same time. It's that old "he's s'posed to be the bad guy but you kinda wonder if he really is that bad" (maybe good-bad but not evil) scenario. You can't blame him for his built-up hostilities considering his mental screwedupness and the well-deserved poetic justice he has been longing for lo them many years. Ain't gonna tell you any more but the story gets weirder and more intense as it goes on, with the last ten minutes or so turning into one big gnarl on your very own spirit as you see things coming to the conclusion you kinda/sorta thought would happen but hoped wouldn't. But hey, even real life turns out in sad and sorry ways and I should know.

This 'un shoulda won some awards and if it were packaged as a feature length moom pitcher I'd rush to see it. I really can't get it through my chromebus domebus just how believable and gosh darn pity inducing Martin is as he was in his other GUNSMOKE appearances, while William Watson as the escaped murderer's so irritating and downright evil that you just can't wait for him to get his just desserts (and boy does he get 'em!). Even Ken Curtis plays the best Festus I've ever seen, somewhat different than his usual inbred sorta self and in fact quite wiry. I used to be of the same mind as my mother that Festus was nothing but a walking turdburger and that Chester was the perfect character to play the deputy role, but Curtis should have gotten some sorta huzzahs for his performance, or at least a raise. It's that good and I gotta say that even one day after viewing I am still somewhat razzled by the whole thing. If you ain't of the same mind as me well, you can always go back to your Vanessa Del Rio films 'n I won't tell anyone.

WARNER BROTHERS CARTOONS - Boomerang really is bugging me what with their re- and rereREpeating the same rather limited set of Warner Brothers 'toons during their evening hours. I don't mind the Depatie-Freling mid/late-sixties ones most people seem to loathe (even though most of those featured the Daffy Duck/Speedy Gonzales team-ups of which only one seems to be in circulation given the kibosh that has been placed on Speedy these past few years) but the "revival" 'toons made in the eighties and beyond are so self-referential they make me wanna puke. The best've always been the classic forties-era efforts with the detailed animation, vivid color that for once makes me glad that color tee-vee was invented, and the general World War II-era feeling that sure brings back memories of just how long that debacle stuck in the minds of the people who surrounded me...they just couldn't stop talking about the thing until their dying days! 's funny, but I remember my cyster saying how much she liked those early forties Warners cartoons that would start off our Saturday tee-vee viewing when compared with the ABC BUGS BUNNY SHOW ones which appeared at noon, and contrarily enough I was of the opposite opinion. It took a few years, but I eventually had to admit how right the ol' mule was.

The best of the current 'toons circulating on tee-vee include the late-thirties Porky Pigs that were done up back when an actual stutterer did Porky's voice (I vividly remember watching the Warner Brothers-Seven Arts prints of these on THE BARNEY BEAN SHOW when I was still in the single-digits) and of course the World War II era ones which still churn up those early Saturday AM get outta bed while the folks were still sleeping memories. And sheesh but I gotta tell you that when I watch those early Bugs Bunny 'toons that were made back when Bugs had that rounded-out skull and Elmer Fudd still looked like Arthur Q. Bryan that a smile, a small one but a smile nonetheless, pops up on this old shit's face! I mean, how often have I cracked one of those these past XXXXXXXX years anyway other'n when I'm thinking up thalidomide jokes?

Other faves include Bob Clampett's THE GREAT PIGGY BANK ROBBERY with Daffy Duck as Duck Twacy (I wonder who the gal with the big suckems seen falling outta the closet with the rest of the Dick Tracy-esque villains is s'posed to be----personally I think 'tis one of the animators' ex-wives, the delineator clandestinely letting his feeling be known given the rapid progression of the falling corpses) and the Bugs Bunny/Cecil Turtle races which stand the test of alla them reruns. The Roadrunner ones not so much given how many times those have been aired but I do enjoy the Fred and Ralph sheepdog and wolf "series" of which only two of 'em seem to be circulating these days, a burning shame as Eno would have put it.

I can only hope that Boomerang breaks into their vaults because there are more'n just a few of those olde tymey classics that I'd love to see again while I still have eyeballs in my head, like the ones with the little talkative mouse Sniffles (remember "Mutiny in the Nursery"?) and of course there's that intense nerve-grinder TOM THUMB IN TROUBLE which you can betcher booties really got me all worked up back when I was a sensitive thirty-year-old. I'd especially like to once again view the once-legendary HORTON THE ELEPHANT HATCHES THE EGG (NOT the one narrated by Billy Crystal) which surprised me since when I first saw it I didn't even know that Dr. Seuss was up and about that early in the game! And considering just how legendary it is howzbout "The Dover Boys" even though that's been PD for ages and you can espy it just about anywhere, like once again on this very blog:

And since the wraparounds for the original BUGS BUNNY SHOW have finally been located and from what I've heard "restored", how about runnin' those again??? We portable holes need them portable hole 'toons back in our lives I'll tell ya!

THE RIFLEMAN-Chuck Connors always delivered on the ultraviolence that there should be much more of on television, but sheesh those scenes where he rescues son Mark and they start hugging each other really do irritate me! I wouldn't make such a fuss out of it, but there are those stories about Connors that have been going around like that movie with Rock Hudson not to mention some incidents in a New Orleans hotel and a certain haberdashery, and since these tales were told me by three people who have no connection to each other well...when I was a kid I was good at playing "connect the dots" and still am come to think of it! A highlight television series anyway with that Sam Peckinpaugh edge added to it, without the nude Mexican women that is.

And of course I'm front and center for WAGON TRAIN whenever I have a day off or decide to play hooky. They're all good (well, a few clunkers here/there) though I prefer Ward Bond's get up and do it! Major Adams over John McIntyre's subdued Chris Hale (too bad Bond had to be a huge imbiber in alcohol and tobacco [and let co-star Robert Horton's liberal leanings and alleged queer tendencies get the best of him!] or else he may have made his way through the entire series) while ex-stuntmen Terry Wilson as Bill Hawks and Frank McGrath as Charlie Wooster were the glue that kept the show together what with their own breed of not only sly comic relief but underlying intensity that gave this series a unique flavor way better'n the grub that Charlie seemed to dishing up that's for sure!

What really gets to me is the way these immigrants on the train can retain their sense of dignity what with the grueling travel, lack of decent sanitary conditions and rampant disease. Sheesh, every evening they seem to be eating outside on checker cloth-draped tables with fine chinaware keeping up the decorum even under the worst conditions possible. It's also amazing just how much seemingly extraneous items these people can cram into their wagons (pianos, furniture...) not to mention just how roomy they were what with beds and a single lamp lighting up the entire place with lumens galore! Sorta like Snoopy's doghouse with the Picasso and loads of un-cashed soda pop bottles.

The hairstyles always impress me as well. Didn't know that men cut their hair in early-sixties styles way back when, but the fact that women were using hairspray before it was even invented really knocks me for a loop! And keeping it so nice and clean under such circumstances...shows you that when there's a will there's a way!

Eh, why should I be doing the anal-retentive nitpicking anyway? WAGON TRAIN was a top notch series that delivered on action, intriguing stories and well-acted roles from people who had more than just a scrap of talent, and now I can see why everyone from my grandfather (who unfortunately died during the series' first season) to my mother watching the afternoon reruns to a whole load of people I grew up with were front and center for this 'un for more than just a few measly years.

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ANOTHER IN A LONG LINE OF "DON'T SAY I DON'T DO ANYTHING FOR YOU"'S: An Amon Duul II (sounding closer to Amon Duul I!) rarity from '69:

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Hey, got an inordinate amt. of these reviews set up and although it may take you some time to wade through 'em all I'm sure you'll find the wading mighty good. The donations were sent by Paul McGarry and Wade Oberlin, and maybe someday I will pay them back for all their hard work but given how things stand that's gonna be a long long time from now. If I write out a will, I'll remember you'ins.

Dred Scott-AN INSTRUMENTAL ACCIDENT BY... LP (D.S. Records)

I heard this way back in the Pre-Cambrian Era and thought it was nothing but stoned guy jagoffs trying to be hot stuff in the rec room, but in the here and now it sounds just like the kinda racket I woulda hoped that noisy group from down the street (the one mom always wondered why Mrs. Fafoofnik didn't march her son down to the barber shop and like RIGHT NOW!!!) woulda cooked up 'stead of their rehashing of Bloodrock riffs. 

Starts off with a jam which meanders at times true, but right when you're ready to head out for some Dr. Pepper it all coalesces in ways where you don't even need mental stimulants to appreciate the thing. Best of all, it all ends with a great version of "Waiting For My Man" which for some odd reason reminds me of that one the Riot Squad recorded even before the first Velvet Underground album came out! Maybe if I had heard some group playing this in their rec room when I was six my life would have changed all for the better. And if it's anything that'll make you wanna jump for joy Dred Scott's drummer was Stan Moore, who I have been told is the same Stan Moore who used to be in the Texas psychedelic band Zachary Thaks!  A reissue with the usual bonuses (like a 1983 single recorded after Moore left the group) would most certainly be appreciated.    

Oh, 'n by the way I read one on-line review of this where the writer-upper said that he was surprised that no one in the group was names Dred Scott, which only goes to show you just how vapid the educational system is in these here United States! And considering the concentration on dredging up all of the nasty things that happened at the expense of the nation's better attributes you'd think that Scott's name would be on the lips and tongues of every student who has to go through twelve-plus years of shame and guilt if only because of a dearth of melanin!                                                                            

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Brinsley Schwarz-IT'S ALL OVER NOW CD-r burn (originally on Mega Dodo Records)

I guess this is the final and long-unreleased until 2017 Brinsley Schwarz album, one that was thankfully recorded with commercial success in mind thus lacking in some of the more hippified moments of the group's earlier pump-outs. Too bad this remained hidden for so long because any number of tracks here just might have made good mid-seventies summertime AM transistor radio little boys watching neighborhood girls sunbathe in skimp swim suits hit material. 

I could envision not only Greg Shaw yelling "it's all coming back" over and over after giving this a spin but the fluttering of hearts of all of those pimple thighed gals who usually bought Bo Donaldson singles. Sheesh, but the title track coulda been one of those hit seventies re-dos like the kind Donny Osmond and David Cassidy usedta rake in the bucks with! 

Only a few clunkers here...overall a platter that brightened my day only now I just gotta slip on some Throbbing Gristle to DARKEN it!

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The Queers-GROW UP CD-r burn (originally on Lookout Records)

I usedta believe that the whole neo-Ramonesian influence on punk pre-punque fizzled out with the advent of hardcore, but I've made a few slight misjudgments in this vein some time in my long and unstoried life. Then again, maybe I wasn't thinking given the heaps of local singles coming out well into the mid-eighties that still bore the melodic hard pop of the Ramones if any cursory listen to some of my old Max R/R radio show tapes are any indication. If these guys weren't part and parcel to any of those shows then I guess Tim Yohannon had worse tastes in music than any of his naysays would have ever believed.  Whaddava, it's sure grand listening to some punk rock recorded in the eighties that wasn't all rebranded hippie politix. I should have paid more attention, really. I should have had an unlimited amount of money, reallyreallyREALLY...

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Maria Minerva-TALLIAN AT DAWN CD-r burn (originally a cassette on what I assume is on the artiste's own label and of Estonian extraction)

One of the many sent me by Mr. Oberlin and I gotta say that this is one electronic dance whatever effort that I really couldn't wrap around that thing they used to call a psyche. Heard enough (if you put it all end-to-end about a good ten year's hunk outta my life) electronic mix stuff to give me a good idea of what detention woulda been like in Estonia, where this recording emanated from. Some nice swirl here/there but mostly snoozeroonie if you ask me.

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Mike Shank-SONGS I KNOW CD-r burn (originally on the artist's label, meaning none in particular)

Know nada about this guy other than he was in some indie moom pitcher entitled AN AMERICAN FILM which I hope wasn't this nation's answer to A SERBIAN FILM! But whatever the case may be, Shank put out a pretty good album before croaking awhile back. Starts off with some pretty nice acoustic thingies sounding like John Fahey before he got it all down pat, then the vocals come in and you get to hear the guy's gruff groan with a primitive romp to it considering the guy's singing and playing and well, it is hard to do both at the same time. The vocals are somewhat guttural and semi squonked which I guess only adds to the overall gunchiness of it all. The final track which sows a hard rock group romping through some instrumental might not be part of the original program, but only Shank and dubber Wade Oberlin will be able to tell me. And one's dead and the other prob'ly mum's da woid so I'll have to go to my shallow grave never knowing the truth!

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T. Rex-BOLAN BOOGIE CD (Castle Classics Records, England)

Every so often I dig out my Tyrannosaurus/T. Rex platters and reintro-ooze myself to the genius that was this group. Here's one (of many) T. Rex items that I missed out on the first time 'round, this one being a once-familiar import bin stuffer featuring the best of Marc 'n the rest during their Fly Records period. It was released right around the time when T. Rextasy was getting into full swing even though over here in the US of Duh it seemed as if I was the only one in the area who cared, and who'd listen to a pre-pubesprout tub like me inna first place? 

It has them tracks whitcha'd expect would've appeared like "Bang a Gong" and "Ride a White Swan" as well as the usual rarities and b-sides they use to pad these things out with. Thankfully there are even a few morsels here that never managed to pass my ears so I'm all the better for it. Each 'n every one of these tunes is a beaut and gathering 'em all in one place really does make for yet another long-playing T. Rex effort that holds up even more'n John Holmes' truss. 

Y'know, after all these years I still wonder how these guys ever did make it big...I mean, they're too good to have had 14-year-old girls with pimples on their inner thighs screamin' their lungs out over music as hard-edged as these 55-year-old winners remain long after the fact!

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Mohammed "Jimmy" Mohammed-TAKKABEL CD-r burn (originally on Terp Records, Holland)

Those of you who miss the heyday of blind black singers will definitely go for this guy. Hokay, Mohammed ain't exactly of the Negro persuasion since he's Ethiopian but I guess he's close enough for us dumb Amerigans. The guy plays what sounds like an electric clavinet while his band strum along on an Ethiopian harp and percussive things making for one of those world music hotcha items that got phony intellectuals all excited ever since the days ot the MUSIC OF BULGARIA album. Kinda jive jazzy music that might fit in with your own assuring of your One World Brotherliness 'n all, but I'll take Group Inerane over this guy anyway.

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Various Somethingorothers-NOW MIX 1, 2, and 3 CD-r burns

A Wade Oberlin collection containing a buncha Joe Carducci-approved trackage of kraut origin that ranges from somewhat good to what was THAT??? Oberlin gives the lowdown between tracks just like they do on college radio stations only the guy's voice is sped up to chipmunkese making it about as hard for me to understand as I'm sure it was for David Seville. It's a jumble of things that are somewhat listenable even if I doubt I'll be playing any of this again. Sheesh, Germany used to be known for some nerve-grating and bared-wire music---wha' app'd?

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Amon Duul I and II-VARIOUS THINGIES CD-r burn

Speaking of krauts, maybe they shoulda won the war if only so's that the USA woulda been INUNDATED with this kind of music! Here're a few Amon Duul thingies copped off Youtube including the clip seen above not to mention "Eye Shaking King" and "Surrounded by the Stars" taken from Kraut tee-vee. I'd say that all of these tracks are pretty snat even if the later one from '75 shows plenty (not so good) signs of the group's punk rock loose ends tightening up. Topping it off is a brief yet potent excerpt from the 1968 Essen gig that I embedded on this blog sometime back. It has some (well, at least me) begging for more, at least to the point where I actually played this track on "repeat" for a good sixty minutes straight its that repeato riff good. A Youtube comment on that 'un simply reads "German Velvet" and I'm not gonna argue with the man one bit! Another quipped "the poor man's Velvet Underground" which might come in for a little tete a tete...

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The Rolling Stones-BRIDGES TO  BABYLON CD-r burn (originally on Virgin Records)

Yeah I know, why do people still care. But there are some respected souls whose opinions I cherish who say that the Rolling Degenerates still cranked it out years after most braincell-packed people like myself dismissed them so like, why not give this the ol' go anyway. Frankly it's not bad, but it's not good either what with Mick sounding nothing like his old spiritually blackface self and the musical backing being smooth to the point where you can appreciate those early BBC sides in their raw state all the more. I thought the bonus jam echoed the old and bluesy Stones somewhat but eh, these guys shoulda scrambooched to the old folks home long ago!

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Dusty Springfield-"DUSTY" THE SILVER COLLECTION CD-r burn (originally on Philips Records)

She's one of them singers that I grew up thinking was for the older kids (I was but a zygote at the time) so I never paid her no mind. I will admit that the big 'uns of hers (the hits that is) were OK enough to the point where it wasn't worth the time and effort to get up and change the station. I still have that "grown up music" attitude towards her but only a dyed in the wool former rock critic would deny that each and every track here beats any of that slutty gal singer stuff that's been crammed down more'n a few throats for so long I've stopped counting. 

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The Clash-THE CLASH ; GIVE 'EM ENOUGH ROPE CD-r burns (originally on Epic Records)

Wouldja believe that I never reviewed a Clash album in lo my born days (Big Audio Dynamite don't count)? Well, to make up for it here are not just one but two of 'em, mainly the group's first coupla longplaying efforts done back when music like this was considered downright evil next to the usual swill that was overcoming the teenbo minds of this here nation (and given how them kids turned out it's no wonder that the various Generations X, Y and Z think the Boomers are nothing but a buncha self-centered myopic turds! And y'know what...I feel that way too).

THE CLASH just don't cut it with me. Well, the singles work because I get them brief spurt of Clashdom which quickly sate but when it's gathered all in one place I'm bogged down by it all. Anyway when you compare this spinner next to a good portion of the music falling under the "vague rubric of new wave" (copyright 1986 Robert Christgau) around the same time this just doesn't rate next to the likes of the things that various other acts on either a big label, a self-produced single or even nothing at all to document 'em were able to crank out. 

GIVE 'EM ENOUGH ROPE fares much better, perhaps because Sandy Pearlman's presence makes me think Dictators 'r something. Harder and fuller than the first, although knowing that Greil Marcus went whole hog for this does damper any enthusiasm I might have quite a bit. Anyway, when you boil everything down to the bones does this music really mean that much when (once again) compared with a good hunk of the competition? I'll take the 101ers over this any day of the week.

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Y'know, sometimes I get these sad and downright curl up 'n die feelings knowing that my fanzine, something which at one point of my life was my pride, joy and sole reason for existing, has never gotten its well-deserved dues. Nor has it been praised (either at the time or in retrospect) for the fine work it was with all of the diligence and scrutiny (despite the primitive equipment at hand to rely on, the lack of funds making me resort to some extreme penny-pinching and scrap selling, and lack of facts having to rely on the fuzzy memories of the subjects at hand and even downright lying and rumors). Then there were the general hassles regarding distribution and "the conspiracy of silence" while lesser efforts unfortunately got the bigtime huzzahs. Then I take some medication and, thankfully enough, the feeling goes away. You might want to see what all of the fuss really was about way back when things like home-produced (on the kitchen table!) efforts were like in those pre-technowhiz days, and if you are the kind of person who really does want to find out you know what to do now, eh? Outside the USA, ferget it since if you're reading this you certainly cannot be rich.