So like, maybe it is a little too soon between these "megaposts" as I like to call 'em but eh, I want to keep this blog "somewhat" up to date and for that matter don't want all three of you reg'lar tuner inners left waiting any long than you really have to! Really, I know how some of you actually hold it in twixt posts just like I used to while waiting for the next issue of KICKS to come out, and boy could that hurt given that mag's "irregular" output! Not that there's anything of real interest to peck the keyboard about this go 'round (after all, it is January, one of the more doldrumesque months to have ever been invented), but I do want to let it all hang out in typical Hombres fashion before the news becomes even more stale than that slice of bread that somehow slipped in between the refrigerator and stationary drawers.
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Well, it looks as if Paul Stookey really is a solo act now that onetime collaborator Peter Yarrow has joined former partner in marching Mary Travers in hootenanny heaven, a place where I guess all good folksingers go even if they really weren't that good. Yarrow managed to live to the ripe old age of 86 which you must admit is a pretty long lifespan for a folk singer who you think would have been laid low by one of those down-home diseases like TB or Huntington's Disease. Now I am admittedly not that well versed with the Peter Paul &Mary catalog...I mean I will say that the singles of theirs that I can remember rate a two outta five stars (nothing special but not worth the energy switching the station), but other'n that when I think of them three all that comes to mind are black and white photos of people standing on some outdoor stage singing songs about hammers surrounded by other folksingers looking somewhat smug and proud given their service to humanity.
Given Yarrow's penchant for the underage stuff (getting a 14-year-old gal to jack him off into her face) it seems as if his private inclinations have bested his public image as a wholesome altruistic man who thought Eugene McCarthy was the greatest. Being a big famous name and all it'd figure that Yarrow would be bestowed a get out of jail free card after serving a mere three months out of a three year sentence, and the fact that Jimmy Carter pardoned the guy during the final days of his presidency is definitely another big strike against the recently 86'd world leader. Sheesh, now I mentioned Carter in THREE straight posts!
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Time to slip into that brainy and above-you-all rock critic mode once again so give your undivided attention to my definitely not rockcrit opinions regarding a number of items that were sent to me by Paul McGarry and no one else this time! Got some doozies in here today, but then again aren't they ALL doozies in one way or another, only in varying stages of expressiveness or decay? Whatever. here's what's on the plate this go 'round:
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I sure as shootin' can remember back when I was a not-so wee sprout and a whole lotta hoopla was goin' on 'bout the Bob Dylan/Band tour which was bein' touted like the second coming of Eddie Haskell 'r sump'thin'. The weirdest thing is, when I was a kid I didn't know Dylan from Adam to be cliched about it and wondered what all the hoopla that I had heard about his was all about. Like it wasn't like the guy was exactly lighting up the charts during the early-seventies (as if the local stations would have played "George Jackson" in the first place!), and although I used to see his records in the bins I had nary an idea as to who he was or his importance in any musical scene that I was aware of!
In fact I used to espy Woody Guthrie albums 'round the same time and, given the similarity in looks between Dylan '63 and Guthrie I thought that the two, along with girly-looking Arlo, were all somehow related! But then again when I was a child I believed Bob's last name was pronounced "DIE-lan" since Ronnie Tyson's surname was "TIE-son" and not "Tiss-on" which definitely would confuse a kid still in the single-digits. But then then again as you all know I thought it was "JI-MI" Hendrix with two long "i"'s and people who gab with me will know that I still pronounce it the way I did way back when if only to be disrespectful.
In order to commemorate the original hype surrounding the Dylan/Band reunion there's a fiftieth anniversary box set detailing most (if not) all of it and y'know what---#9 of the set has been burned especially for me! Why Mr. McGarry copied this particular disque and not any of the others I do not know, but for a guy who passed on BEFORE THE FLOOD not only because it cost more than my depression-era wages could stand but because it seemed like "older kid music", this 'un's like a totally new adventure. Kinda makes me feel like those college types with long hair and mustaches I used to see all over the place when I was a way younger turdburger than I am now, hoping to Heaven that in NO WAY would I ever end up like any of these WHOLE EARTH CATALOG/PSYCHOLOGY TODAY-reading world saving yammerers.
Kinda sounds throwaway in more'n just a few spots. I never heard LIVE AT BUDOKAN so I just don't know how throwaway this would be next to that infamous tossout, but in part this is almost as sleepwalk as a number of eighties-on live shows that I've unfortunately managed to hear. Dunno about you, but for the most part the majority of these numbers sound as if they were rattled off by a jaded-beyond-belief bigger'n life (in the words of Li'l Abner) "ideel" who really is sick of singing the same ol' same ol' repeatedly but is wowed by alla 'em $$$'s dangling in front of his eyes.
There are flashes of the ol' brilliance to be discerned here and there, some which might even reach a ROYAL ALBERT HALL height of Dylan at his bestest of best. "Hollis Brown" and "Like a Rolling Stone" growl on at a gnarling pace and the acoustic segment's got some sense of mid-sixties spark for a mid-seventies world of decadence so it can't be all bad!
You'll think it totally strange to hear that I actually prefer the Rolling Thunder-era Dylan to this flick your bic and stick it in the air period in Dylanology, but Dylan '74 still has quite a bit of post-revolution sway that appeals to me in a strange neo-Reedian way. You rich 'uns'll wanna splurge for the entire box but eh, this'll suit me just fine.
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Back when Wilco first popped up on the scene I thought Wilco Johnson of Dr. Feelgood/Solid Senders fame dropped his last name so he'd be easier recognized with just the first 'un it a la "Elvis" or "Gamera". Truth was this was an offshoot of the ol' Uncle Tupelo group doing more of that alt-country rock that really must've appealed to someone, but not to me!
Getting all of my preconceived notions regarding this music (which always irritated like an undigested peanut wigglin' in the sphincter) out of the way and trying to be honest and up front sans prejudice, I will say that Wilco, at least judging from this early effort, were "OK", non-offensive folk rock with the expected country twang done up in a way that I'll bet Peter Laughner would have appreciated. In fact, if I twist my ears a little I kinda/sorta could have seen him writing a neo-Stonesy country blues track like "It's Just as Simple", even performing it at one of his acoustic shows. Otherwise I wasn't exactly zoomed by these sounds. Face it, Wilco were yet another entry into the legion of dumbed down musical acts who took the better ideas of the past and diluted 'em like my aunt used to water down the Kool-Aid in order to stretch it out a bit.
Another one of those records I will not be listening to again, but some of you more eclectic snoots out there'll probably go for it bigtime!
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What else can one say about a Savoy Brown album? It's a Savoy Brown album! For white toughies who want to absorb the black toughie experience but are too chicken to act like black toughies. Best track to transcend what you would expect to show up on this platter..."Mr. Downchild".
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These demos didn't even pop up on that Stranglers collection of early turdbits I reviewed quite some time back, but as far as these sorta things go they're pretty snazz in the way that they capture that early pre-spiky hair-era styled punk rock sound that these guys were best known for at the time. The '77 live portion and Capitol seshes have a good pump that recalls the Seeds and Velvets more than it does Doors, so fooey on all you anti-Stranglers snobs!
Neeto, though I really would like to hear that Stranglers show where Burnel's amp blew so he sang the bass parts!
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I'm so ancient that I remember when Bomp! was selling this 12-inch EP and of course I passed on it because...well, you already know why.
Finally get to hear the thing and you know, it really is a nice piece of pre-gutpuke pop-psych revival that can get somewhat "twee" (like on the record closer "As Real as Real), but otherwise it sounds sorta OK given the competition at the time.
Back then I probably would have thought it all just too sweety-puss in light of what was capturing my fancy, but in the here and now all I can think of is just how brilliant this stuff sounded next to all that funny-hair MTV quap that was capturing the imaginations of youth who shoulda been herded into the re-education camp that was closest to their video arcade.
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Gawrsh, how many times did this platter pop up on set sale and auction lists throughout the eighties! Not that I particularly WANTED to give this 'un a spin but eh, I got a burn of it so what choice do I got?
These guys, despite their proggy sounding name, are a fairly/middling good '67 vintage psychedelic pop group with touches of the Left Banke and SoCal sunshine pop tossed in for good measure. Of COURSE they're nowhere as good as the Banke but they do convey that aerie feeling that was custom made for chubby girls who got pimples on their thighs from them rubbing together too much. The best way I could describe it is "pleasant". Don't miss their cover of Eden Ahbez's "Nature Boy" which ain't as good as the Great Society's let alone Nat "King" Cole's but is still fine '67 pop zone-out that's probably not gonna make you crawl up the wall.
Good 'nuff for some of you snoots, but for the most part this just doesn't reach them heights of true zone-out that the records of this strata were best known for. Maybe if I had only met up with that shady looking guy who always used to show up at the playground after school...
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Can't tell you just how much I was irritated by MEAT IS MURDER to the point where I wrote off Morrissey and his crew even until this very day. But you will be surprised to hear that I really enjoyed their early BBC sessions which had the kinda zip and pop that "underground" music tended to lack during those days when the seventies concepts that punk rock presented for us seemed to go off in all directions just like the Challenger.
These tracks are a roller coaster ride from intriguing to snoozerino with some of 'em good and others half 'n half. "Hand in Glove" still packs a somethingorother that's as powerful as it was when I first gave these a listen still oh so long ago...maybe it is because back when I first heard this numbuh my mind was swirling in directions akin to a spinning top on a table just bound and ready to fly off, but I find this way more digestible than what was all to be in only a few short years.
BTW, the title sure brought back the memories, not of the music but of a famous gag by Johnny Carson on the old TONIGHT SHOW. The one where he held up the photograph of an English streaker who was captured by bobbies at a football match, with one of them covering the guy's privates with his cap. Carson entitled this picture "A Hatful of Ralph" and boy for some reason did it get the laughs!
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Once again the A-Bones spread out on this homage to the long-forgotten (then long-remembered) Benny Joy. Sometimes these 'bones remind this fanabla of the rock 'n roll that came out of the early-sixties Minneapolis area while at others they're pre-teenbo idols Paul Revere and the Raiders. And at others they're that kind of rockabilly that made most all of the other '80s practitioners of the form sound like YOUNG AMERICANS outtakes.
The entire swerve and swivel of this effort encapsulates the gamut of rock 'n roll during its pre-mudslide days and is perhaps even more sink-into-your-psyche because of it. Did I mention the Dictators and Fleshtones? A mighty good one that reminds me of just why groups like this 'un sounded so great, especially after being inundated with tons of nth-rate 80s/90s freebees (ya really think that the editors of them mags'd send me any of the good stuff???!??) trying to make sense of the spaz I just heard then laying it all onto print as to why you should avoid it at all cost!
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This is the oft-bootlegged My Father's Place show, presumably in its entirety and in boff SQ while we're at it. I never bothered to get the original (even though tapes of this were cluttering up a whole passel of trading lists way back when) because...well, you know.
Good to hear it so late in the twilight of my life...the mix of old and new is fine and the newer'n before Magic Band who you would think was all slicked up (ex-Mother Bruce Fowler on trombone) suite Beefheart's vocalese and general play perfectly. Every second, from the twixt-song chatter to the old faves re-done and brand new tuneage is nothing but pure pleasure for these hammers and stirrups.
Really, what more can be said about a guy who gave us music crazed miscreants so much happiness over the years without a single drop (even counting them Mercury albums!) in quality and pure addled energy.
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Roky live and alone for a small and as you'd kinda expect appreciative bunch, poppin' on all cylinders with a passion that's bound to bring a tear to even the more stone hearted amongst you above-it-all readers. The strums are simple but effective in the way they compliment Roky's vocalese, and a setting such as this really does bring out a side of the guy that seemed to have been hidden from everyone but his most rabid following...that of a passionate singer/songwriter (in the truest sense) who is a whole lot more cognitive than he ever seemed to let on given all of the stories, let alone interviews, we've been inundated with for quite some time.
The song selection features trackage not exactly part of the guy's regular song list including a downright religious effort with lyrics taken from the man's legendary yet obscure beyond-belief 1972 book OPENERS. If you want yet another break from the high-decibel jackhammer rhythms you've been accustomed to all you life well, this unplugged as they say effort's obviously much better this than listening to Whole Grain Harry yammering about whatever haute cause there may be, right before scarfing down some Ben 'n Jerry's that is!
Of course, if you do miss Roky's more demonic side, there's an acoustic take of "Cold Night For Alligators" recorded the previous year which'll probably affect you way more than that lobotomy did Roky!
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Quite a few people think I should be more than just "embarrassed" by most all of the scribings that I have done not only for BLACK TO COMM but a variety of publications of an under-the-wire garden variety. You might be surprised to read that I am not. I figure that yeah, most of the time the opinions expressed were atrocious along with whatever it was that passed for a "writing style", but then again the views sputtered out in these efforts were just a reflection of what I was feeling and thinking about at the time. I may feel quite differently in the here and now regarding a few of the things I once thought and thus writ, but there's no reason why I should have my old writings, as run on sentence and stream of unconsciousness as they were, suppressed or even poo-poo'd by myself for that matter. You will probably feel differently and if you're not familiar with these older efforts of mine well, you can always click on the above link and discover for yourself either the heights of fandom expression or depths of rock journalism depending on the very own winds blowing in the tastelessness of your own cranial capacities.
Overseas readers...beware the hefty postage and duty costs and ask about purchasing only if you are serious and rich for that matter. And don't be rude...I go to the post office with every made-up parcel to get the honest low down on how much it all will cost you (that involves time and gasoline!) and I absolutely hate 1) people who act all serious and then fail to notify me that they can't afford their order and 2) people who won't even respond after expressing interest leaving me in the lurch! Seen way too many of you types these past few years and well, the less of you that I have to put up with the better I say!
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