THE BLOG TO COMM INTERVIEW: COLEMAN SPRINGER!

Dunno if the name Cole(man) Springer means anything to you, but since the name Ethan Fromme doesn't mean anything to me I guess we're even! All kidding aside, you may remember Cole as a fairly prolific rockscreeder during the seventies, a man whose writings were featured not only in the pages of Greg Prevost's tres-hotcha FUTURE but in John Holmstrom's PUNK and Ira Robbins' TROUSER PRESS among others which never did get their chance to make their way to my door. And, as you would obviously have guessed by now, Cole's a guy who is just jam-packed fulla stories dealing with alla the greats of the seventies that are just waiting to make themselves known to mental midgets like yourself, so w/o any further ado I present this interview which I know is bound to shed light on a few interesting things that I don't think anyone who doesn't read this blog would care about, but then again at this point in time should any of us really care??? 

BLOG TO COMM-To start things off, how did you and Greg Prevost meet up? Do you have any hot information on him that nobody else in the world knows about???

COLE SPRINGER-My last year in college I worked in a record store, so when I returned to Rochester I got a job at Midtown Records, which was fairly big chain based in Buffalo. I worked downtown in their flagship store in Midtown Plaza. In the fall of 1973, Greg Prevost was a college freshman at St. John Fisher, which was in a suburb south of the city. Since he lived in Charlotte, the northernmost part of Roch (any further north would put you in Lake Ontario), he had to go thru downtown to get home and he would stop into the store.  We just hit it off, both of us being really into music, and became good friends pretty quickly.

Greg is a super-nice guy, really down to earth, just a regular guy, and yet at the same time he is the most unusual guy I've ever known.  It's hard to explain it further...he knows everything about every kind of music, as well as TV. He's funny as hell, and has a great sense of humor. When I lived in NYC, I would go backstage at the Chesterfield Kings' gigs and Greg was always the same good guy...he's never changed in all the years I've known him.

He was working at the House of Guitars in 73, and he got me a job there, so I left Midtown in 74 and worked at HOG for a few months...it was too chaotic for me.  They used to shoot TV commercials in the store, that were terribly shot and edited, but they did stand out on TV because they were so bad. The camera would be flying around the store, and the employees would be jumping around. Greg did appear in some of the early ones but then he refused to appear in any more and he never did again. He knew they were lame.

BTC-Tell us about those experimental recordings you and Greg made in his basement.

CS-I went over to Greg's house on several occasions...usually we'd just stay in his room, which was jam-packed with records, books and magazines, and listen to music.  I remember one visit because we went down in the basement, where he had a brand-new Roland Space Echo...I figured this to be in mid-1974, after I had quit the House of Guitars.  The RE-201 (aka the Space Echo)  was introduced in '74, so this checks out.......I don't think Greg had bought his; I'm pretty sure he just borrowed one from the House Of Guitars as it was the latest cool gear.

I had brought my bass ( which actually belonged to Gary Frenay; he had lent it to me. This was years before he moved back to Syracuse and formed the Flashcubes). Greg ran his guitar and my bass thru the Roland and we just jammed free-form.  My bass chops were rudimentary then but Greg didn't mind, and our musical madness was captured on tape. When we finished Greg said he wanted to send the tape to  Brian Eno. This stuck in my mind because up till then I only knew Eno by his last name, that's how he was credited on the two Roxy albums.   Greg was in the vanguard, as usual! 

BTC-So, when did you start writing about rock music...was FUTURE your first published endeavor?

CS-No, Future was not where I was first published. I started to write about music in 1968, as a freshman in college. This was at MCC in Rochester, and I reviewed record albums for the student newspaper. When I went to U of Miami for my junior year, I wrote on music and on films.

Funny thing about FUTURE, I honestly can't remember writing anything for Greg!  I asked him about it recently, and all he can remember is that I reviewed the first Dwight Twilley album.  My vague memory of that LP is only liking one or two songs,  so I'm not sure why I reviewed it, unless he asked me to.

BTC-Yeah, I remember reading your name in the first issue which is probably where it registered in my mind after seeing it elsewhere. Were you inspired by the new rock journalism at this time or the gonzo rock critics, or both for that matter?

CS-Honestly, when I started in '68 my main inspiration was just the music itself. My parents dug Sinatra, so I heard all the Capitol albums he did with Nelson Riddle when I was growing up. At the same time, I would watch ROUTE 66 every Friday night with my parents, and Riddle did the music for that. It's still my all-time fave TV show, closely followed by NAKED CITY (both created by Stirling Silliphant, the greatest writer to ever work in television).

Then I got into the Beach Boys, followed by Dylan, the Byrds, the Beatles and the Stones. I bought "Freak Out" when it came out in '66 because I had read about Zappa somewhere. In the days before ROLLING STONE started, national magazines would cover subjects like Zappa and the San Francisco bands BEFORE they even had record deals.......amazing!

There was just so much good music throughout the Sixties and I was so tuned into it, that it just seemed natural to start writing about it. By the early Seventies I was quite aware of rock writers like Meltzer and Bangs. I sent some stuff to Lester, and later to Billy Altman, both at CREEM, but I could never crack that mag. It was way cool to meet Bangs in Dec of  '76 at the PUNK offices; he was a low-key guy.  About 5 years later, I saw him when I was working at King Karol on 42nd St...he came in, looking for some record. I recall that he said, "I always thought that it would be fun to work in a record shop, but then I realized that people would come in and ask for something like Crosby Stills and Nash, and that would not be fun at all!

BTC-Wow! So like, what acts were you reviewing during your early journalistic days?

CS-At first I just reviewed current albums that I liked, by the beatles, Stones...I think I wrote a piece in early 1970 on the Beatles breaking up.  Hard to remember that far back, and I don't have any of my college work saved. In the mid-Seventies, I did review Petrus, an electric piano jazz trio that formed at the Eastman School of Music.Saw them a few times around town, and wrote them up for some small indie paper. Soon after it was published, I heard from a keyboardist named Marshall Styler who asked me to check out his new band.  They were named Duke Jupiter, and I saw them at the Coronet Theatre on Thurston Rd, which was an old neighborhood movie house. They played on the floor in front of the screen. I remember the second set was just a long jam on a bass riff from Miles Davis' great album In A Silent Way. This was in 1974, most likely. Duke Jupiter later signed with Mercury and put out their first LP in '78.  I guess they did alright, they did release a few albums...just MOR rock, nothing like the spacier, slightly jazzy band I saw that night. 

Things definitely got a lot more interesting when I moved to NYC in December 1976.

BTC-Were you writing for any professional magazines before your big move to New York?

CS-No, I never wrote for any pro publications prior to living in NYC.  The most professional mag I ever wrote for was TROUSER PRESS; the layout, typesetting and offset printing were all pro-caliber.  I'm not sure how well they were distributed on the newsstands...I really can't recall.  I do know they sold it at the House Of Guitars when I still lived in Rochester, and you could get it in record shops in NYC, and around the country.

BTC-Well, TROUSER PRESS did become a well-distributed pro magazine. Were you writing for 'em during their early days when they were pretty much solely concentrating on British rock acts? And what pieces did you contribute to them anyway?

CS-I did not write for TROUSER PRESS in their early day, but I was certainly aware of their British rock slant, and  I was able to play into that slant with my first piece for them. It was a review of the debut album of Foreigner in 1977.  I wasn't wild about this new band, but the woman at Atlantic Records who sent me the promo was really pushing them, and I DID know about Lou Gramm, who is a Rochesterian. So at least half of my review was about Gramm's previous band Black Sheep. They sounded like Free, since Gramm sounded like Paul Rodgers, and they had one album on Chrysalis. It pretty much sank without a trace, but the fact that I knew his history as an Angliophile rocker really added to my review, and the editors seemed to like it.

I later reviewed the first DEVO album, since nobody else on the TROUSER PRESS staff liked them!  I thought they were the hottest new band on the scene, and loved their deconstruction of "Satisfaction" which I had on their first self-produced 45.  The first album was great, with punkish guitars and cool synths, funny lyrics; actually their de-evolution theory, while clearly satirical,  did make sense in a way and it was just wild that they had this outlook, a philosophy, and they really rocked!! Their originality inspired me to write my review in a different way:  I used bullet points, one-line descriptions, and short paragraphs to describe the band and their music.  A couple of months later I interviewed co-leader Gerald Casale for a TP cover story, and he told me he really liked my review. He said, "You're one of the only people I've read that actually understands what we're trying to do."   Hearing that from an artist I admired was a true high point for me.

The other high point was meeting and interviewing Don Van Vliet, whom I've always regarded as the premiere genius of rock music.

BTC-Going back a bit, I was reading the first issue of FUTURE last night and I spotted a review you did of the Beckies album. Kinda thought your comment about Michael Brown attempting to win over the Kiss Army was funny! You also reviewed Judas Priest and Widowmaker. Does any of this ring a bell?

CS-It is a bit mind-blowing to hear about these reviews. The only one I remember is the Beckies, which was on Sire, I think (ed. note-yes it was). The Kiss Army comment I do not recall but I'm glad you liked it. Judas Priest I vaguely recall. What I'm realizing is that these were promo albums I had gotten from a college friend in Miami. I went to UM, and a good pal there was Lee Zimmerman, who also reviewed records. He still does free-lance pro reviewing, but in the mid-70s, when I was back in Roch, he worked for an independent distributor and he used to mail me batches of promo LPs so that's how I got JP and Widowmaker.  One of the labels he handled was Sire (this was years before they were connected with WEA), and he sent me the first Ramones, which I was glad to get!!!

I mentioned that Lee Zimmerman, better known to all as Train, did promotion for small independent labels and he sent me Ramones soon after its release in April '76.  But I had already heard it at Greg's house....he was the first to play it for me. I had recently returned from CA, and went over to visit him, still at his folks' house. I knew about the band, but had yet to hear them. Of course Greg had it, he was probably the first guy in town to get it!  I dug it immediately and was struck by how they had stripped down rock to something really new. The arrangements were minimal, the songs super-short and the lyrics crazy funny.  I've always remembered what Greg said : "The kids won't really understand how important this record is."

I guess he was talking about the great unwashed masses out there, and I think he was mostly right. Which brings me to what Train told me on the phone after I had gotten the promo he sent:  "I've taken that record to every rock station in town, and nobody will touch it. They take one listen and look at me like I'm insane. They think it's some kind of put-on."

BTC-I didn't mention Lydia Lunch yet. I hear you were a friend of hers.

CS-We were friendly, I used to see her around NY...even bumped into her on a city bus once!
I first used to see her at Midtown Records when I worked there. She was a teen who came in looking for the latest by Bowie or Sparks. Then it turned out that I knew her cousins. Tony and Jim Furfferi were identical twins who owned Empire Comics, the first comic book store in Rochester. I had known them since the early 70s.

The first time I ever went to CBGB, in July of '76, Lydia happened to be there. Talking Heads were topping the bill; they were still a trio and had no records out yet. Russell Mael, the singer from Sparks, was there and he was trying to hit on Tina Weymouth.  I remember at some point Lydia said in a loud, sarcastic voice, "Ooooooooooooo, Sparks is here!" After the show, we were hanging on the sidewalk in front of the club. There was a guy sitting with an acoustic guitar, in the back of an empty truck......he was probably a roadie. Lydia told him to start playing his guitar, so he banged out a few chords and she started improvising poetry......it was instant art from a future No Wave star!

Cole preparing to enter the CBGB restroom.

In early 77, after I'd been living in NY a few weeks, I walked into CBGB and Lydia was sitting at the bar with a guy I'd never seen before.  I said hello and she said, "This is James, my new sax player."  It was, of course, James Chance...he played in Teenage Jesus for a while, but it wasn't long before he started the Contortions. (What an amazing band...saw them live a few times and they were phenomenal.) Funny, but that night he was real quiet, he said hello and that was about it.  I was telling Lydia that my job at PUNK Magazine was not proving to be too lucrative, and that I needed to find a more solid gig. She told me to go to Colony Records, on Broadway in Times Square. She said a couple of her pals worked there and she was sure I could get hired.  So I went there the next day, and she was right. I ended up working there full-time for 4 years. Good old Lydia !!!!!

BTC-Do you have any recollections of any really interesting New York groups that never did get the fame 'n fortune they deserved, perhaps because they didn't fit into anybody's idea of what "New York Rock" was supposed to be?

CS- don't think any of the really great bands had much success, at least in a "fame and fortune" sense. It took decades for the Ramones to be recognized and appreciated, but were they ever really hugely successful?

The finest band was Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and I base that almost solely on their Blank Generation album. He was a great songwriter and the band was just killer: Marc Bell on drums and the guitar genius of Bob Quine and Ivan Julian. Just brilliant, break-neck stuff.

There is one band that never recorded, and only played a few gigs...Jack Ruby.  If I hadn't worked with Chris Gray and George Scott at Colony Records, I most likely would never have known about their trio. Chris was the guitarist and mastermind; he actually taught George how to play bass. Chris's songs were just a framework for the real meat of Jack Ruby: the whirlwind sonic assaults of his guitar. It was the the most astounding free-form rock I had ever heard up to that time. This was before the No Wave bands hit. Chris told me once, "Most rock bands play it safe...everything is in time and in tune. I want to play as out of time and as out of tune as I possibly can."  But it wasn't just noise; he was an excellent player. Lydia knew Chris and George, and mentions Jack Ruby in Byron Coley's book on No Wave.

George Scott played in 8-Eyed Spy, and later with John Cale.  Chris Gray just kinda disappeared...

(Cole was unaware that there was a Jack Ruby CD [now download] available and flipped out when I told him about not only that but a planned album featuring even more material. He's in the process of tracking it down and seems like a very happy camper over the knowledge that the band is not forgotten.)

BTC-Anyway, what was it like working for the guys at PUNK mag?

CS-To tell you how I came to work at Punk Magazine, I need to back up a bit. In November 1975 I was living in San Diego. I got the 1st Patti Smith album when it came out that month, and I really got into it. In January or Feb of '76, the PS Group played 2 nights at the student union of USD...I went both nights, and they were incredibly good. It was a small room with no stage, and I was right up front. Lenny Kaye and the band just knocked me out. John Cale was there, and played bass on the encore, which was "My Generation."

I went back to Rochester a month or so later, and in July '76 I went to the big comic collectors convention in Manhattan. I was helping a dealer pal of mine, Dave Belmont, who was set up there. Lydia was there with her cousins Jim and Tony of Empire Comics (I had met them through Dave a few years earlier).  I met Lenny Kaye there, and he was a super-nice guy. We talked for several minutes, and I told him I thought the PSG played with a jazz-like flow. He said, "Well, we do play jazz-rock. Not that fusion crap that they call jazz-rock......"

And I met John Holmstrom and Legs McNeil at that con. I was already a subscriber to PUNK, so I knew who they were. We hung out a bit, and two or three months later I got a letter from Holmstrom offering me a job as a production assistant. So at the very beginning of Dec '76 I moved to NY and started working there. The Punk Dump (that's what they called it) was on 10th Ave in a really shaky, desolate area. I did everything from running errands, to inking the penciled pages. I also contributed some short record reviews.  It was a really loose, sometimes chaotic atmosphere, but fun. A lot of people came by; within my first month I met Lester Bangs there, Danny Fields, Marc Bell, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, among others.

The first issue I worked on was the Sex Pistols cover. Mary Harron had interviewed Rotten over in England. We were the first American publication to run an interview with him.  Holmstrom was trying to come up with a title for the piece, I said "How about....Johnny Rotten - To the Core"  as it was the first thing that popped into my mind. To my surprise, he liked it and that's how he ran it.

BTC-Hey, you have any interesting stories regarding Danny Fields?

CS-Sorry, but I really can't think of anything. Fields was around the Dump and CBGB a lot but I can't remember anything specific other than he was, at that time, an editor at 16 Magazine which seemed really odd to me, that this guy who managed the Stooges, and then Ramones, would have a day job at a mag aimed at teenage girls. He was pretty friendly, but mainly with Holmstrom and Legs.

BTC-Well then, how about Marc Bell?

CS-Sorry, but all I recall about Marc Bell was meeting him at the Punk Christmas party in 76.  Met a lot of people there but no real details I can give you.

The coolest thing that happened then involved Stein and Debbie Harry. It took place over New Years Eve, 76/77......and I can only give it to you in sections that live in my memory because it was a long and wild night!  It started around 6 or 7 PM...I was in the Dump with John and Legs, finishing work. Guess none of us  had any plans for that night, so we left and maybe got some dinner. I then recall we ran into Debbie and Chris on the street. Don't remember exactly where, except that it wasn't near the Dump. They reminded us that they were playing that night in Central Park, and they were gonna get us in for free, but the show was still three or four hours away so we arranged to see them there later.

Then at some point we landed at a loft party that John or Legs knew about...the thing that sticks in my mind is that John didn't like whatever LP was on the turntable. He sees the first Ramones (album) and puts that on the turntable instead. Don't forget, on Dec 31, 1976 that was the only Ramones LP that existed. Well, we're digging the sounds when all of a sudden this woman, who looked like a throwback to the Fifties, like a fifties JD with a beehive hairdo, this woman starts freaking out. "Who put this shit on???? I'm not listening to this shit in my house !!!!!!"  She was really mad and yelling, and she took it off the turntable. So we left. Now a few months later I'm working at Colony when this same woman walks in with Willy DeVille. His band Mink DeVille had an LP on Capitol, and it was 50ish, pre-Beatles rock & roll.  The woman, whose name I forgot, was his wife !!! So then I understood why she hated the Ramones so much.

Around 11 PM we got to Central Park and there was a stage, and like a trailer where the sound guys were. I recall being in there.  Then we got let up on the stage, and we sat off to the left of the band so the audience couldn't see us but we had the greatest view of Blondie. There were these machines like cannons that were blasting heat onto the stage because it was New Years Eve and it was cold out !! The only thing I remember about the show is that they did the theme song from Goldfinger, and Debbie sounded great on it! And at one point, she asked Legs to come out onto the stage. Now he was smashed drunk, and he grabbed me in a headlock and pulled me out like that in front of the band, then ran back without saying anything, leaving me there, so I grabbed the mic and said something like,  "Come on folks, let's hear it for Legs, let's get him back out here."

And that's all I can recall of how I rang in 1977!!!

BTC-Haw! Were you writing for any other publications at this time?

CS-To answer your question,  no, I was not. I'd only been in NYC one month at that point.

BTC-But eventually you were contributing to TROUSER PRESS and a few others, weren't you?

CS-Yes, I started contributing to TROUSER PRESS in mid-1977 and that was my main mag, except for a couple of film-related features for a New Jersey paper, THE AQUARIAN and an interview with Greg Prevost (done backstage at a Kings gig in NYC) that saw print in JD King's STOP! Magazine.

Cole in a pensive mood.

BTC-Any interesting behind-the-scenes tidbits of information you can tell us about TROUSER PRESS that won't get you sued or anything?

CS-Not really. It was a really cool office, just two rooms, and a very relaxed atmosphere. Ira Robbins and Dave Schulps were both really good guys, and it was a pleasure to work with them.

BTC-I gotta admit that I'm not too familiar with your work for TROUSER PRESS, so what articles and reviews for that mag were credited to you?

CS-I've already mentioned some of them: the reviews of Foreigner and the first Devo album. I also reviewed BUY THE CONTORTIONS, their great first LP.  Did two features that I can recall: an interview with Captain Beefheart, and one with Gerald V Casale, for their Devo cover issue.  Some of the lesser stuff I have forgotten, and my TROUSER PRESS issues are buried away now.

BTC-How long did the TROUSER PRESS gig last anyway?

CS-Well, without going to their website and checking for sure, I'd say I wrote for them two to three years......and it was all free-lance, of course.

BTC-Were you still writing in to the eighties by any chance?

CS-Maybe into the very early eighties, but I'd say by 1982 I had stopped. Not sure why, really.

Oh, the interview I did with Greg Prevost for STOP! was done in '83, I'm almost positive. That was the last thing I had published in New York.   In the late eighties or early nineties I had two features on jazz published in THE ROCHESTER TIMES-UNION, a Gannett newspaper. One was an interview with McCoy Tyner!  I got that because I knew a T-U writer named Steve Dollar, he passed it to me because he said he didn't know anything about jazz.  Now he's writing for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

BTC-So like, what have you been doing in the past thirty or so years anyway???

CS-The past 30 years?  Whew...starting in '85, I worked at the Record Archive for twelve years. Worked alongside Vic Tabinsky, who was the Chesterfield Kings road manager.  Edited two issues of the RAG (Rec Arc Gleaner) with crack art direction by Beth Brown.

For the past fourteen years, I have been a "doorman"  in a hi-rise apartment building.........forty hours in 3.5 days, a pretty good gig and not as easy as it sounds. I'm the only worker there on the weekends, and a lotta  crazy stuff happens that I gotta handle.

Basically, I try to relax when I get the chance. Rochester is low-key but is a nice, friendly town. The coolest thing here is the George Eastman House, which has one of the world's greatest film archives. I have been going there since the early Sixties, when I was kid. Have seen a ton of rare films there,Lon Chaney silents, obscure film noirs... Just hundreds, in the decades before cable and DVDs, when it was hard to see old movies!  But if you live here, it's just a short drive!

Also have been a longtime collector, and occasional dealer, of vintage comics and paperbacks (pre-1960, man!) and pulp magazines. Have a killer collection of authentic Hollywood star portraits and scene stills, many of them on the rare side.

So I manage to stay quite busy, and even have some fun now and then.........like doing this interview, which has been a real blast!  Thanks, Chris.

BTC-Gawrsh!

Remember when Von Lmo sang "imitations never last"? Well the guy was right as usual, though I must admit that sometimes those imitations he was warning us about are just as interesting in their own right as the real fanabla. Whether it be Toyota copping the Studebaker Lark style for one of their early sixties entries or the Knickerbockers riding their way to the top with a blatant Beatles soundalike, the cheap copy sometimes comes off as stylistically and aesthetically important as the original. And not only that but cheaper too meaning you can save yourself a bundle of kopecks if you get the knockoff rather than the bonafeed item as my mother learned buying that 99-cent not-the-original-cast MARY POPPINS album back when we wuz kids.

When it comes to cheap cash-in imitations the comics world was just fulla 'em. Even in the beginning unscrupulous competitors were out and about copping ideas from the likes of THE KATAZENJAMMER KIDS either slyly (take THE FINEHEIMER TWINS which oddly enough was drawn by future KATZENJAMMER artist H. H. Knerr, not forgetting the infamous KIN DER KIDS) or just plain outright like the Cleveland PLAIN DEALER did. Ditto for comic books cuz y'all know that when SUPERMAN hit it big the market was flooded with superstrength guys who hadda learn a specialty or get the heck out. When other comic titles started dominating the stands you can bet that carbon copies would be popping up, perhaps in an attempt to fool the unwary kid (or ignorant parent) into picking up a SUPER DUCK or HOMER THE HAPPY GHOST 'stead of the real deal. I guess the odds were with 'em that the cheap-o variant would get snatched up enough to warrant publication, so why not?

A mega-comic stand hit like ARCHIE was bound to "influence" a whole number of comic book publishers to produce their own swipes, and throughout the years these books have cluttered up loads of old comic collections that had been wasting away in attics just waiting for antiques dealers and comic-mad kids to pour through. Stan Lee's own GEORGIE comes to mind, especially the last issue with the outright ARCHIE-ripoff title as well as a sidekick named Happy who looked like a cross between Jughead and Archie if you can fathom that! There was another ARCHIE swipe at Marvel in the early-seventies whose name I forget, though I remember one story where the kid and his pal actually accompanied President Nixon on his trip to China leading to loads of hijinx, esp. when the two went off with a coupla Red Guard uniformed gals leading to an even bigger international crisis than the time the first George Bush puked all over the Japanese prime minister. And, safe to say, nothing like that ever happened to Archie other'n the time he inadvertently flew the Wright Brothers' plane at the Smithsonian.

Of course Marvel also hit it bonanza-like with MILLIE THE MODEL which was at one time a "girl's" comic that by the late-sixties had become a verifiable ARCHIE knockoff complete with a female Reggie (Chili Storm) as well as this Jughead-alike who worked for the modeling agency and always got off the quickie comebacks and asides. I remember copping one at a flea market and reading it in the car while my dad razzed me for reading a girl's comic...didn't have the time or energy to explain that the title wasn't exactly the mooshy gal 'n romance 'un he somehow thought it to be, so I just groveled and tried not to let any of his razzing get to me. What we suburban slobs won't do for some light-headed comic book enjoyment...

As far as ARCHIE swipes do go none really could beat DC's BINKY. After all, it was more'n obvious that some of the same ARCHIE staff artists (as I later found out Henry Scarpelli and Stan Goldberg) were moonlighting not only on BINKY but the Marvel swipes, and with the similarities in cover layouts and high school craziness these comics seemed the perfect prescription for kids who had read all of the Archie Comic Group titles and wanted more. And perhaps because the once-boffo DC released it there was that imprimatur of quality...like the same company that was giving us all of those top-notch superhero comics also put this out and it was somehow special to me and my own skewered ideals regarding what is quality and what isn't. And even when it came to comics as JUNK I was looking for a certain (anti) aesthetic attribute, and naturally a cheap grind out like BINKY somehow satisfied me just as much as the real ARCHIE deal would. And if you can follow that you deserve an upper echelon ranking in the BINKY FAN CLUB, had one been created for us second-rate comic book fans that is!

When we're talking BINKY, we ain't talkin' the 1948-58 version which was more or less a standard teenage cartoon drawn in the DC house style...naw, we're talkin' the 1968-71 variety which, along with sister publications SCOOTER and DATE WITH DEBBI looked as if the artists were working straight from Dan DeCarlo's personal sketchbook. Sometimes I wonder why the overtly litigious Archie Comics Publications didn't sue DC over this (especially when the "Debbi" logo was so close to the standard Archie lettering) but then again they were probably having too many problems on their hands at the times what with their own MAD HOUSE MADS getting sued by EC in an interesting switch o' circumstances!

But just how do these Binkies and Scooters and Debbis hold up in the face of the real deal? Well, I decided to buy a bunch of eighties-era "DC Blue Ribbon Digests" to refresh myself after a good four decades of steering clear of the things and all I gotta say is that I certainly am not appreciated for the heights and lengths I go to in order to educate you readers about such gulcherally significant occurrences as BINKY comics! Because, in the name of BLOG TO COMM and dishing out to you some of the more obscure corners of what we call suburban adolescent pimplefarm civilization, I hadda endure some of the cheapest ARCHIE imitations extant, two-dimensional ripoffs of the real deal that I'm sure existed only because DC thought they could con a few IQ 80's with these magazines and run off with the profits before anyone really caught on. The bare fact that DC decided to reprint these comics a good ten years after the fact only goes to prove that they were masters at milking a cheap property for all it was worth, especially when you consider that the next crop of doofuses who picked these comics up were undoubtedly thinking these were part of the Archie digest series.

It'd take about twenty installments to detail everything wrong with these stories, so a condensed varsion'll have to do. But where to start...maybe the fact that there are too many characters in the Binky universe to keep tabs on would be one place, and the fact that as far as correlating BINKY/ARCHIE characters go there just ain't enough to go around. I can see Binky's father being the Mr. Weatherbee of the crew while Debbi is Josie and Debbi's father Mr. Lodge while the devil-may-care Sherwood is most certainly Reggie, but after that everything seems to be more or less a huge mish-most of various Archie-isms twisted enough perhaps in an attempt to avoid a lawsuit. The closest thing we have to a Jughead here is the nearsighted Kenny which makes me wonder just where the likes of Scooter, Buzzy, Malibu and Sylvester fit in, other'n Sylvester being the chubboid guy who just doesn't have a doppelganger in the Archie Universe. He has one in the Our Gang Universe, but that's something else entirely.

(Of course the question as to whether the Binky Universe is part of the Scooter or Debbi or Penny and her cross-eyed pussycat ones is up in the air, but there's nothing here suggesting other wise meaning...when it comes to continuity of any sorts the entire DC teenage series was one big hunkerin' mess!)

As far as the females go, there ain't any clear indication of who plays the Betty and Veronica roles, though the rich and raven-haired Mona comes close to the latter. There are so many gals to choose from in the Binky Universe that the standard B/V rivalry is all but impossible...with Penny, Peggy, Cynthia and who knows who else also being tossed into the fray making for more gals for the guys to go out with and little of the rivalry seen in the original. I guess with all of 'em being drawn straight outta the De Carlo sketchbook Binky and his buddies sure had a lotta gash to choose from, but then again the tension between the two main ARCHIE temptresses is all but gone in these pages!

The stories are rather one-dimensional, making most of the many seventies ARCHIE ones which tackled current events and various mooshy-feely subjects look deep in comparison. No interesting plot developments or humor for that matter are to be found here, making me wish whoever wrote these took a few night school classes in creative writing or at least swiped directly from the source which as we know is a time-honored practice in the comic book world.

Take "Binky Sets a New Record" which was reprinted in BINKY'S SUMMER FUN (Blue Ribbon Digest #28)...in this one shifty Sherwood convinces Binky that Peggy's birthday is just around the corner when it's actually a few months off and so Binky decides to give Peggy a card as well as a "Make Your Own Record" recording of an original love poem (with pre-recorded backing) for her own personal pleasure. When Peggy informs him that it ain't her birthday and slams the door in his face the dejected soul dumps his record in the trash, which Sherwood then retrieves if only to play for the gathered study hall in the auditorium in order to twist the knife a few more times in the already writhing form of the good 'n gracious Bink.

Well, it turns out that while the record is spinning some record moguls just happen to be at the school trying to convince the music teacher to get into their biz, and they hear Binky's poem. Meanwhile Binky's being humiliated by it all, but that all changes when he gets a recording contract and the respect of his gal while Sherwood grovels in the background remarking on how his plan failed!

And that's the story...no funny asides, interesting twists or attempts at pathos or any real emotional tugs or jolts. Just a straight story with a bizarre faux deus ex machina ending that leaves this reader more stymied than entertained. At least with an Archie saga you get the weird if funny badgags and slapschtick, but these BINKY sagas are merely pale copies without any of the surprise or wit of even the wankiest thing MLJ coulda come up with. If it weren't for the Stan Goldberg and Henry Scarpelli art these sagas wouldn't even be worth that 1972 second hand flea market pickup amidst the Marvel reprints and DC socio-conscious pieces cluttering up the tables!

Not that there ain't any value to be found, at least with the digests I snatched up. After all if it's mindless duh you're looking for these comics can't be beat. And not only that, but the filler (!) is worth a look-see as well, including some neat Sugar 'n Spike cartoons that at least had a few wits about 'em not to mention an infamous Doodles Duck saga about the worthiness of comic book at least when compared to Hans Christian Andersen and Grimm Fairy Tales. And even longtime gag cartoonist and DC reg Henry Boltinoff contributes his own comic entitled "Binky's Buddy Sonny," a black character situated in an all-black setting custom made for the new integration in kiddie comicdom. For a minute I was hoping that Sonny would be a free jazz player in the Sonny Sharrock/Simmons/S(u)nny Murray mode and maybe he is, but as far as I can tell he works in a restaurant for a black boss and has a black galpal in another story but he's gotta do something when not playing atonal solos now, don't he? But this thing about Sonny being "Binky's buddy"??? Can't believe that for a minute...after all Binky's world is so white I couldn't fathom him being anywhere more'n fifty miles away from the nearest black person so what's this thing about 'em being buddies anyway??? Maybe they're pen pals, though given Binky's thorough whiteness even that 'un's kinda hard to swallow!

Sorry, no Michael Douglas jokes are on tap this post, though I will admit that I tried to get a few good licks in. I guess maybe I should just dive into the post and dig deep into the main thrust of today's excursion which you don't have to be a member of Menses to understand (ow!).

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Hope this week's survey of all I rule or something like that suits you finer'n the usual caga I dish out. Gotta say that I thought the selection being presented to me thanks to the likes of Bill Shute and P.D. Fadensonnen was rather invigorating, and I really can't complain about the sounds that had graced my ears during the past week or so of late-night free time try to forget the woes and cares of real life wind down. Big heap hunkin' thanks to the two because if it weren't for them I'd be trying to fill these posts up with nothing but lame double entendre badgags like the kind found in the paragraph above.

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Perhaps I, being the fan and follower of true boob tubeism from the fifties until the seventies, should mention the recent passing of none other than Edith Bunker herself Jean Stapleton. Yes,  the famed actress of stage screen 'n whatever is gone from this world at the ripe old age of 90 unlike her tee-vee character who snuffed it between seasons on ALL IN THE FAMILY certainly bringing that series down a notch or two inna process. Gotta say that I liked the Edith Bunker character...after all she reminded me of a few of my aunts in so many ways, and even if you thought Edith was a little ding-batty there was a whole lot more realism to her character than there were to either Mike, Gloria or even Archie himself who once you get down to it was nothing more than yet another working class straw man right outta the Enlightened New York Cocktail Party Schmoozer playbook. Although I found Archie high-larious I never felt him more than some progressive's idea of a New York hardhat hippie hater...at least I've known ladies like Edith for ages and find nothing outta the ordinary about 'em even if a few unshackled womyn out there might have thought otherwise.

Yeah Stapleton was no Edith in real life (I remember when she was doing some PSA in the seventies and my mother was angered that she was not wearing a bra, and her being surrounded by children only made the situation even worse!) but at least most of her non-Edith credentials were pretty good, with a NAKED CITY appearance where she played a bar owner who's peed at the police for not finding the killer of Paul Hartman sticking out in my mind (Dick York was also in this one). If any of you saw that DEFENDERS where she (now get this!) played the galpal of Carroll O'Connor's character you get extra tee-vee brownie points, but then again if anyone saw that series within the past forty-five years they deserve all the stars in the world, ifyaknowaddamean...

Speaking of a bra-less Stapleton, I am reminded of an ALL IN THE FAMILY episode I conjured up right outta my early teenage brain long ago...and given how that series strived for controversy and all I'm more than positive that my particular episode would top 'em all. Y'see, in this one Gloria is walking around the house topless because it's warm out, and naturally Archie is in a rage about his daughter showing off her "dairies" as he used to call the human mams. Gloria, through and through the armchair feminist, tells her dad straight off that "If a man can walk around without a shirt on so can a woman!" while Michael feels it the righteous thing  to sit down with Archie and explain to him that there are many cultures where women walk around topless, and that in France they have topless beaches. Of course that doesn't convince Archie of anything because he thinks they're either dummies or pinkos in those places and that ladies are supposed to cover themselves up properly lest the entire area look like an article outta NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.

Well after all this it turns out that, after some thought,  EDITH wants to walk around topless as well, and when she does boy does Archie start going into conniptions like he's about to die! All the while Mike and Gloria look at Edith and plead "Mom...please put on your blouse!!! Hurry mom...right now!!!!" Which only goes to show you that horny adolescent boys sure don't mind gazing at the young mounds, but when they get saggy and droop down to the knees ewwwwww....

And on that low note, here be the reviews.

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PAPER GARDEN CD-R burn (originally on Musicor)

Not exactly the type of late-sixties esoteric glop it all together and see if it's artistic enough endeavor that I particularly care for, but it does have a certain charm. Sitar pop with the usual nods to then-contemp. Beatles...classical influences up the wazoo with a slight New York attitude and of course a budget more suited towards the Harmonicats. And it all comes courtesy of the same label that didn't know what to do with Gene Pitney let alone these art rockers who probably headed their way to your local discount bin with quite an alarming regularity.

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Various Artists-LAVENDER DIXIE MADISON WHEELS CD-R burn (compiled by Bill Shute)

Theme-less as usual, but with some interesting inclusions that makes this (like all of 'em) a keepie. Some of it is late-sixties glissando psych, some German pop-jazz for the Nazi in your life, and there are even some solo tracks by Miguel Sergides who used to be in Arcadium in case you're a fan and follower of that cult group. Nothing here really pushes the pleasure button of my mind, but at least Bill thought it smart enough to close out the entire deal with the Del-Vetts' infamous (yet oft ignored) garage band classic "I Call My Baby STP".

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FIVE MINUTE MYSTERIES CD-R burn (compiled by Bill Shute)

It's Golden Age o' Radio time here at BLOG TO COMM central, thanks to Bill Shute who sent these old Armed Forces radio transcriptions for the guys overseas who probably couldn't care one whit considerin' all the fun they were having raping French gals. The mysteries are actually funny and about as simple minded as the ones they used to use for filler in Timely comics. No wonder they were so ripe for ribbing on the early SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE as well as other satirical outposts of the fifties on. The GARRY MOORE/JIMMY DURANTE COMEDY CARAVAN SHOW was a dudster for me...now I think that Jimmy Durante was one great everyday kinda guy performer who reminded me of a grandfather or somethin' (still remember my dad watchin' Durante's late-sixties tee-vee appearances in his own connect to the old days sorta way) but Garry Moore was always a doof to me...sheesh, Durward Kirby was the cool guy in comparison even though everybody thought he was a prime asshole! Somehow some boss early-sixties single sides by Jimmy Fautheree get stuck on (nice change of pace from forties ambiance to 1962 inna wink of an earlobe) before it's back to radio with Lowell Thomas on an episode of AMERICA'S FAMOUS FATHERS, brought to you by the stage production of LIFE WITH FATHER if you can believe that!  Fine enough, but these old sounds just don't cut it for me w/o visuals which is why I can really relate to what these people were doing in  the fifties and sixties but back then well...I guess my imagination just don't run that wild.

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The Pink Fairies-LIVE AT ACID DAZE FINSBURY PARK, LONDON, UK 8/23/1987 CD-R burn (courtesy of PD Fadensonnen)

The first of three Fadensonnen burns received, this 'un's of a Pink Fairies gig from their late-eighties reunion days playing for the hipper remnants of late-sixties/early-seventies hazitude who at least had good enough taste to read the NME 'stead of MELODY MAKER.  Sound ain't quite up to par (typical cassette inna audience job) but the performance is swift enough with the reformed band not only doing mostly new material from their upcoming album but wowing the rubes with faithful versions of "Snake" and "Police Car" t'boot. I've heard better reunion gigs, but this one will fill the bill in the meanwhile.

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Chrome-HALF MACHINE FROM THE SUN CD-R burn (courtesy of PD Fadensonnen)

The second the PD's burns, this one purports to be "the lost tracks from '77-'80" which I assume are also available on the Chrome site just like the live debut disque reviewed last week. Surprisingly uniform and bearing little of the atonal screech of HALF MACHINE LIP MOVES let alone ALIEN SOUNDTRACKS,  these tracks mostly conjure up memories of Chrome's debut album, the oft-dismissed THE VISITATION which isn't that bad unless you're in the mood for total annihilation. Many bright spots here which conjure up images of all the promise the seventies (esp. the latter portion) held for us from Hawkwind/kraut electronics up through Pere Ubu nightmare visions. Not only that but it's sure stands as a testimonial to the power and energy these guys could whip out especially on those early Siren-era recordings which really bowled this unaware fanabla over back when music like this was living and vibrant 'stead of angst-riddled thirty-plus-year memories. If you used to pop the pimples on your face to Chrome, now count the age spots.

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Jim Sauter/Kid Millions Duo-LIVE AT THE KNOCKDOWN CENTER MASPETH, QUEENS, NYC 5/1/2013 CD-R burn (courtesy of PD Fadensonnen)

> The third of the Fadensonnen finds, this 'un's a recent and very explosive set featuring Borbetomagus saxophonist Sauter and drummer Kid Millions, someone I must admit I never heard of but get the feeling I will be hearing a whole lot more of in the coming days. FANTASTIC performance with Sauter sounding more like Sonny Sharrock shearing his guitar than a saxophonist while Millions takes the between-the-beat styles of Murray/Harris etc. and proceeds into uncharted territory with his above the call of duty stylings. Makes alla 'em other sax/drums duos from INTERSTELLAR SPACE to  DUO EXCHANGE sound mighty tame in comparison!  Hope this one gets out a little more'n it has because it's a real killer that proves that there still is entertaining, beyond-the-ken-of-human-comprehension music being made even if it ain't exactly being shoved right in front of you like so much "light jazz" y'know?

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Next weekend I may have a li'l surprise for ya, but I'm not committing myself as of yet. Otherwise see ya midweek...

It's always a gas watching television programs that were produced before the Great Emasculation of the seventies, and BOURBON STREET BEAT's no exception. Part of the ABC prime time lineup from back when the perennial third-rate network was trying to climb outta the gutters with the help of Warner Brothers, BOURBON STREET BEAT didn't help 'em out too much being but a one-season wonder but the shows they left (at least evidenced by the ones appearing on a disque sent courtesy Bill Shute) were certainly top notch settle down entertainment for the era.

Basically part of the same WB formula as their other detective seriess such as HAWAIIAN EYE, 77 SUNSET STRIP, THE ROARING TWENTIES and of course that hunka hunk winner SURFSIDE SIX, BOURBON STREET BEAT took place in the typically exotic (but kinda rundown-looking if you ask me) locale of New Orleans and basically featured a carbon-copy patented Warner Brothers detective show cast with Andrew Duggan as the older and perhaps more wizened Cal Calhoun and Richard Long as his good looking and younger partner Rex Randolph. Van Williams as Kenny Madison was clearly the Kookie of this batch while Arlene Howell as secretary Melody Lee Mercer was basically Jacqueline Beer without the French accent or switchboard for that matter.

However while the other WB private eye series were comparatively light and cookie-cutter fluffy in comparison with the competition BOURBON STREET BEAT was noticeably heavy. Maybe Warners was trying to cop a Deep South grit to the show without too much of a humorous and lighthearted outlook. Maybe these earlier shows were just tough by nature and, after becoming successful, Warners decided on a more teenybop approach to their dramas. But whatever, this series really lives up to its reputation amongst "real" GOLDEN AGE tee-vee freaks (1958 to 1967 and don't let anybody tell you different!) even though very few tried and true aficionados of the form have had the opportunity to cop this 'un the way ANDY GRIFFITH or I LOVE LUCY have been drilled into our skulls for years on end.

In all, a straightforward and even violent enough series that probably would have gone the teen idol route had it stayed on. At least stars Long and Williams (yeah, the future Green Hornet as I've repeatedly tried pummeling into your brains!) were able to cop roles on STRIP and SURFSIDE respectively (playing their original BOURBON STREET characters too!) once this 'un got the ax.

Tee-vee fanatics will want to eyeball this for a glimpse or two of their favorite once and future stars, including Mary Tyler Moore (as "Mary Moore") in her pre-lift days back when her terminal cutsiness wasn't quite evident. Another big surprise will be the presence of black people in the series which I guess was something that hadda've been dealt with considering the locale. One of 'em who briefly appears happened to be none other than Spencer "Andy Brown" Williams himself as a butler, a mighty comedown for a guy who only seven years earlier was front and center with his own series but was reduced to minuscule roles such as this. Well, at least he was working, but as a butler? Too bad they couldn't have him driving a cab like in the old days which really would have brought a whole lotta old-timey tee-vee memories closer to our hearts!

It may seem strange to you (and it certainly does to me), but I have becomr a little bit too obsessive in my free-time thoughts regarding the recent suicide of French intellectual (now, don't jump to any undue conclusions!) Dominique Vetter a week or so back. And the fact that this self-snuff` took place on the altar on none other than Notre Dame cathedral of all places holy or not only drives the symbolic point of his death protest home further than a Situationist could toss a petrol bomb! Now, it isn't like I was exactly a fan and follower of Vetter's (although the man's credentials, including the ransacking of the French Communist Party headquarters after the invasion of Hungary, certainly boosts him up a few notches in my book!), but the reasons for his self-obliteration as well as the weightiness of where he staged it is quite eye-opening, especially in a world where the pillars of what used to be Western Civilization are tumbling down around us while our "benefactors" cheer on the destruction in the name of whatever chic cause may dare enter their university-educated mindsets on any given week.

I'm talking symbolic to the point where my head's been doing topsy turveys just thinkin' 'bout a French rightist killing himself in one of the holiest places in France at least outside Lourdes where I recommend all of you criticizers of this blog go and SOAK YOUR HEADS as soon as possible! Really, I haven't felt so strange about a "current event" story like this since I found out that Susan Atkins was blowing her own progeny in front of The Family to show everyone just how much she loved li'l Zadfrack, and when you're thirteen and stuck in seventies Mercer County stuff like that is really creepy (but nowadays seem par for the nut course which only goes to show you how far we've degenerated if we've come to see incest as yet another value choice amongst the enlightened!).

I know its weird enough seeing what could be called right wing French intellectuals out and about especially since the ones who have been oh-so-influential with the beardier-than-thou crowd these past few decades have been overtly Marxist in their theories if not practices. And I know that anyone on campus who's taken a  few philosophy courses can tell you all about Derrida and Foucault not to mention the Golden Agers like Sartre and others who never did get that well-deserved universal condemnation despite their cheerleading efforts for a few of the more restrictive regimes this past century or so. So yeah, Vetter was quite different, and although if I dig harder into his entire oeuvre I might find something I disagree with him on I ain't gonna mention it if only out of respect (remember that word?). Leave that to all of those haughty big city writers and sycophantic wannabes re-living the communist revolutions of the past to the point where you just can't wait to see 'em all executed for being the useless idiots they most certainly will become once all of their hopes and dreams reach their logical conclusions.

Y'know, I never thought I would have said it, but France is one country that has people with lots of balls. I'm not only talking about their proud past (not counting the political-religious party known as the Huguenots or the proto-communist French Revolution) but their bravery in both World Wars and extreme intelligence regarding not getting involved in Bush's/Obama's overseas follies. The common hoi polloi out on les rues protesting the latest haute causes being crammed down their throats, not to mention the youth of Generation Identitaire give me hope knowing that there are more'n a few people over there showing extreme bravery getting off their hineys and attempting to take control of their destinies no matter how futile their actions may be. And while I'm at it, I don't mind saying that I certainly would take Marine Le Pen over any politician up and operating in Ameriga or any other nation for that matter! Even Brigette Bardot has become one celeb I don't mind hearing spout off at the mouth because from hers come some of the more intelligent musings on the fate of not only France but the entire used to be Western World!

Yeah the fact that Vetter's attention-grabbing suicide was held in a place of worship (which ain't something that's meant to be desecrated even though THE VILLAGE VOICE may tend to disagree) does weigh heavily against him as it should. But then again Vetter certainly was aware of what Notre Dame means as a symbol of the heart and soul of his country, a place which is being defiled even more by a rampant influx of hostile immigrants that Enoch Powell could have only imagined in his most feverish nightmares.  Not to mention a government that's so patronizing in the "we know what's best for you peons" fashion to the point that one certainly would long for the reintroduction of the guillotine. Like the rest of the West France is in the middle of a soul-tearing moral crisis that might seem oh so nice and la-de-da to all of those libertine kiddies out there but will only lead to a ruin akin to the past liberal fancies and their present-day ultimate outcomes, as if history hasn't repeated itself ad nauseum already.

But from all accounts I've come across at this late date, I'm definitely sure that Vetter's sociopolitical views were definitely more in a pagan-right mode, not quite pagan-fascist in an Italian fashion but one that was still leery of the Christian ideal even if Vetter undoubtedly found it admirable on some levels. This might also be the reason as to why he didn't see the spiritual vacuity of his actions, but who knows. I do get the impression that Vetter was a man who ultimately saw Christianity, while the backbone of European Civilization and thus to be admired, as an ineffectual scold against a dam of disaster that's bursting all over. In many ways he and his fellow "pagans" are right. After all I can't see any of the shallow, vacuous and self-absorbed Christians of today acting as a potent force against any breed of evil unlike those who stood up to greater forces over the past few millennium. And if they did these modern effetes would probably come off like Perry Como trying to quell a panzer division getting rolled right over in the process. What else could you expect from a faith that went from militant to feely good within the span of a generation?

Maybe the real reason I ain't exactly feeling so chipper over these current events is because, with the situation in Europe and the British Isles the way they are (immigrant riots in Sweden and a decapitated soldier in England), can these things be coming to an Amerigan city near me or perhaps even you in the near future?  Frankly I don't think the tri-county area is going to be bursting into outright violence at the hands of any foreign (or native born for that matter) hoards any day soon, but then again I believe I was wrong judging human nature quite a few times in my life so who knows. All I gotta say is that maybe William Shakespeare was right when, after people of his faith were being burned alive in London during the reign of Elizabeth I, he did the logical thing and split for the woods where he partook of early psychedelic drugs and wrote about colors swirling in the air. After all, living in squalor in the boondocks is a whole lot more satisfying than being attacked on metropolitan streets by crazies who think they are acting on the moral authority of Allah, or perhaps even their genitals for that matter. Find a small burgh of your own, and while you're at it stocking up on all the 'shrooms you can find wouldn't hurt either because I somehow get the suspicion it's gonna be a loooooong haul.

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Well, on that chipper note welcome to this weekend's post. Nothing spectacular here true, but some of the items up for scrutiny (like the Hawkwind double set) are definitely in the running for top spins of the year so maybe this 'un is one for the history books. In other words, I wouldn't poo-poo this 'un just yet even though I'm sure a few of you just might be teed off by my opening edi-too-real (although you could never refute it w/o resorting to using the most tired and worn-out arguments straight out of the 1971 edition of the UP AGAINST THE WALL handbook), so after your moral indignation calms down a bit read on, and learn for once that there's more to life than orgasms if you can believe that!

Hawkwind-LEAVE NO STAR UNTURNED: CAMBRIDGE JANUARY, 1972 2-LP set (Dirter Promotions, England)

Ever since BRING ME THE HEAD OF YURI GAGARAN inna early-eighties there've been a spate of double-disc Hawkwind live wares comin' out of England, mostly on small labels like Flicknife or Thunderbolt or a variety of minuscule companies that have sprouted up in order to cash in on seventies leftovers such as these. Most of the ones I've heard are pretty good while others were...well, nothing but cheap audience tapes consisting of halfway-there performances that were good for the archives but who knows what else. Music that had little to offer to the entire Hawkwind credo which a good portion of us reg'lar BLOG TO COMM readers have been in on ever since United Artists began promoting the group as the true sonic survivors of the addled psychedelic sixties. Well yeah, they can't all be SPACE RITUAL but then again some of the recordings that have been up for sale clearly ain't worth the hefty import prices most of us are usually happy to plunk down for what we hope would be a total sonic-induced space-rock excursion!

Thankfully LEAVE NO STAR UNTURNED is different, not only because it's a snazzily-packaged affair with a gatefold sleeve cover, solid blue vinyl and detailed liner notes courtesy of Hawkwind maniac Ian Abrahams, but because the performance is top-notch high energy rock 'n roll that doesn't let up one bit. Heavy metal in the old, pre-money go 'round sense with a hard-driving drone to it that'll give you the impression of interstellar travel w/o the use of extracurricular activities. The sound is also good enough (not that it ever mattered!) that this coulda passed as either an official release or top-notch bootleg had it gotten around back then, and I really can't find any fault with the thing on any level and you know how nit-picky I can get about such things!

Of special interest is the appearance of a rare "Pinkwind" set featuring both Hawkwind and "brother band" the Pink Fairies doing one of their no-holds-barred closing jams, this time on the Hawkwind "chestnut" "Born to Go." Considering how none of the Pinkwind sets have been released until now this truly is a landmark set that should satisfy fans of both acts considering their historical importance. Maybe Dirter or many of the other smaller labels out there will now start prowling in their attics to see just what exactly they can unleash on us hungry seventies rock fanatics who just "might" be getting tired of spinning the same Deep Purple albums over and over again trying to convince themselves that they were just as good as the MC5, and the sooner the better I always say!

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RONNIE BOYKINS CD-R burn (originally on ESP-Disk')

Bill Shute ought to be ashamed of himself sending me this. I mean, wouldn't he have known that I've actually OWNED a copy of this at least since the first big ESP reissue frenzy of 1980??? Well, at least the guy prodded me into listening to this 'un again since frankly I haven't played the thing in ages...but I was PLANNING on it, cross my heart and hope to spit!

A pretty good sesh here too from former Sun Ra associate Boykins, heard here not only on string bass but sousaphone leading a buncha names both familiar and not through some tuneage that not surprisingly sounds a whole lot like late-fifties Ra without the piano. Lotsa small percussion and a general mood that comes off a bit South Amerigan rhumba at first before switching into middle Eastern gear. Not only that but this was engineered by Marzette Watts, a guy who never did get out there in the free jazz world like he shoulda but boy did he leave us with a couple wowzers including the one on Savoy that always seems to be out of print! Overall, this kinda reminds me of Ra's THIS IS THE FUTURE which was a neat eighties bargain bin stuffer, so if you're in the mood for avant garde jazz at the point just before it went nova this 'un'll undoubtedly fill the bill.

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Siloah-SUKRAM GURK CD (Garden of Delights, Germany)

A disque so bizzaroid that I have not one, but two variations in my vast and expanding collection. Touted by many (along with the Ainigma album) as being the logical krautrock successor to the mid-sixties Amerigan garage band explosion, SUKRAM GURK comes off total acid casualty flip with the heavy organ/bass guitar/drums sound that'll remind you of those creeps who used to play down the street back when you were a kid. Only those creeps sorta fizzled out into nothingness while Siloah ended up making this album. Bonus track is total gush from yet another variation of the group (the first being some hippie free-for-all jam) complete with a guitarist and some rather proggy moves that just don't mesh well with my already well-worn digestive system.

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Various Artists-SNOWFLAKES ON PLUM BEACH CR-R burn (courtesy Bill Shute)

Another one of 'dem Bill throwtogethers, this time one that starts out pretty mid-sixties weepy in an Ernie Douglas fashion (with the Revelles and Plum Beach Incident) before going countrybilly and then back to weepy. Nothing here really wrangles the ol' stirrups (though the inclusion of Lucky Wray's "Teenage Baby," while old newz, got me jumpin'), but I will admit that I was knocked for a loop by the appearance of Harold Zahner, Johnny Smith & the Missouri Two's "Shake Baby Shake" which is one of those rockabilly records that come off so sub-basement primitive that even Carl Perkins sounds like Mantovani in comparison! Nothing but heavy gut-bucket rattle and throb here which is so appetizin' that you know a whole buncha self-appointed rockscribe types, were they to hear this clatter, would undoubtedly proudly/oneupmanly tag this as being "proto-punk." And naturally, stoopid enough me would fall for the come-on hook like and online credit card payment! Hope an album by Zahner and crew's forthcoming, but at this stage in the game I sincerely doubt it (and maybe hope not...I mean, I get the feeling these guys were probably making a pathetic attempt to sound "up to date" once 1965, let alone 1980 rolled around).

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Chris Wilson-RANDOM CENTURIES CD-R burn (originally on Marilyn)

Had this 'un inna collection ever since it was released, but I guess ol' Bill's sending of a copy sorta inadvertently shamed me into listening to it again after all these years. Actually not bad...the former Flamin' Groovie does the folk singing bit here sounding rather powerful (read: no early-seventies emote and mewl) whether he be doing "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" or even the Civil War chestnut "Rally 'Round the Flag." Tough and blues-y kinda like the way Peter Laughner was doin' it in his bedroom all those years ago, and if this weren't just custom-made for the Groovies/Loose Gravel kinda maniac in all of us I don't know what is!

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Various Artists-BALLAD OF A LITTLE RED BUCKET CD-R burn (courtesy of Bill Shute)

Last on the list is yet another Bill Shute send, one with some goodies and a few baddies, but nothing that made me up-the-chuck the way Bill did when he sent me that horrid Eyetalian Western with Lionel Stander as "Stinky Manure". The disque begins with a nameless act covering Lennon and Thunderclap Newman (probably some industry giveaway thing, and they do a good hippoid enough job at it) and zooms through some interesting pop-psych and downright good Amerigan garage (the post-Beacon Street Union Eagle's "Come In It's All For Free") before includng some cheezoid toy piano instrumentals as well as rarities and not-so's from the likes of the Leaves, Raiders and Seeds. Bill also tossed some country twang in here and there, and while he was at it he threw in three tracks from Marcy Tigner, this lady who used to sing like a li'l girl and used a doll called Little Marcy to sing through if you get my drift! Kinda feel sorry for her because from what I've read the lady seemed like such a nice person and all, and the people who listen to her these days are nothing but those RE-SEARCH "Incredibly Strange Music" decadent occult types who go for her records on a strictly yock-like level. Sheesh, imagine the late Mrs. Tigner going through eternity with that thought on her mind!

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That's it for now. And although you won't admit it, you will be seeing me midweek!

BOOK REVIEW! PINK FLOYD; LEARNING TO FLY by Chris Welch (Castle Communications, 1994)

I dunno if you're in the market for a good history of Pink Floyd, but if you are this book just might fill the bill. But in all honesty it won't because PINK FLOYD; LEARNING TO FLY just ain't as jambus packtus with the newspaper clippings and tons of  ephemera as a book such as this should be. And besides, the entire fanabla reads as if stodgy prog rock promoting old turd author Chris Welch wrote it after gathering together all of his ancient MELODY MAKER Floyd articles before pasting them together chronologically end to end with little bridges and explanations added in order to keep the entire shebang from falling apart. THAT hack-y, ifyaknowaddamean. But if you have nothing else on hand and you want to read a book about Pink Floyd I guess it'll do.

And it certainly will do if you're looking for a light history of one of pop's most pungent progeny that doesn't probe too deep into the core of the being and just presents everything in a nice, easy to gulp fashion for the "Classic Rock" fan who doesn't want to be bothered by things like beneath the veneer meaning and intensity. And it has a whole lotta color photos too that you can tear outta the book and paste on your wall, just like you usedta do when you wuz a kid!

Yeah we all know what a douche Welch has been and shall remain until he hits that eternal deadline in the sky. As any MELODY MAKER reader could tell you, Welch was one scribe who was eternally stuck in a progressive rock mode throughout his entire career and his writings and opines have been a major embarrassment compared to his British Weekly compats from Alan Jones to Nick Kent/Charles Shaar Murray/Mick Farren and the rest of the NME brood. Not forgetting Jonh Ingham and Giovanni Dadomo and...well, I shant go on but you get the message. Total stuck up classic rock mudstick stodginess, written for the pasty face who still holds his copy of TARKUS close to ever-puffy nipple.

It's clear even from the text in this particular tome that Welch never had a taste for the rawer aspects of music (otherwise known as "rock & roll") and continues to harbor a grudge against not only pub and punk rock but the people who had encouraged it in the first place. Fine, that's his phobia, but when Welch's preconceived notions seep too deep into this history of the Floyd, a band that you kinda get the feeling Welch only loved after their climb into the realm of superstardom via DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, the book tells us way more about Welch than it does Floyd. And although that might be more'n OK if it's any of the above-mentioned English gonzoids or some choice US under-the counterculture scribe's doing the self-adulatory schtick, but Welch? Sheesh, the resultant spew is kinda like being told about rock music by your spinster Sunday School teacher.

At least Welch delivers on the early days of the group without too much pious pontificating. He captures, even in his own stodgy fashion, just what it was that made the original Pink Floyd such an enticing group that was talked about in hallowed tones long after leader Syd Barrett was unceremoniously jettisoned from their ranks thus setting the group's controls on a quite different trajectory than originally envisioned. But still you get the feeling that there's much about Floyd he doesn't cozy up to...classic albums like A SAUCERFULL OF SECRETS and MORE seem to be brushed away if mentioned at all, while even UMMAGUMMA, a set which one arguably could call one of the major watermarks of Pink Floyd's career, is rushed through as if only a footnote with nada being mentioned of the second disc where each of the band's members perform their out-there avant garde compositions! I know that for a good number of people Floyd petered out after Barrett left only to renew themselves after MOON hit, but you kinda get the impression that Welch thought this entire period was not worthy of much if any mention and that more precious space could be spent on Floyd during their seventies/eighties megastardom period which at least would give Castle Communications more opportunities to show off those bitchin' color live photos.

Ya get what ya pays for (at least sometimes), and I kinda get the idea that having Welch tackling the subject of Pink Floyd is definitely an entirely different hoo hah than say, the long-awaited Mick Farren book on Hawkwind which has yet to see the light of day and promises to top this churn out on all levels. LEARNING TO FLY's for the one-dimensional "rock" fan, written up by one of the more one-dimensional rock critics to ever get as far as he did if only because he managed to tap into the massive dud/classic rock audience out there and did mighty well doing so. Try to seek out the other Floyd books that were hitting the shopping mall book racks in the eighties before traipsing upon this, though if by chance you do come across this 'un be sure to read it with plenty of caution, and maybe a reminder that yeah, most of the people who claim an undying adherence to "rock music" are nothing but closet stereo freak hi-fi nuts who are the 197X equivalent of Dennis the Menace's father in sideburns and fancy hippie jeans. Only Dennis' dad had better taste in music, dontcha think?