So we bleat again. Got a nice packed (and not with fudge you thilly thing!) post this week, one which I hope'll inspire at least ONE  of you readers to empty out your wallet so's you can absorb some of the sonic musings that I'm touting as true saviors of a rather staid lifestyle. Had fun listening to the entire mess too so it wasn't like I was groveling through it all as if I were doing a high stool termpaper on the presidency of Thomas Dewey...it might read like one but eh, I can't hit on all of the spark plugs all of the time!

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PUBLIK CERVIX ANNOUNCEMENT-I know how many of you readers  long for rare long-gone issues of my crudzine. Well, here's an opportunity that don't come up too often, so hurry up before it's way too late!

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Naturally I've been pouring through the relevant Rock's Back Pages printouts I mentioned last week with a voracity that would put most seventies rockread fans to shame. (And why not considerin' alla the money I hadda spend to get a three month subscription which pales next to the money I woulda hadda spend then for subscriptions but eh!)  Having fun at it too. The Charles Shaar Murray pieces are of course boff even if ya don't give a hoot about a lot of his subject matter...he writes so good that you actually will find yourself enjoying his David Crosby history despite the fact that the guy for all intent purposes was useless even when he was finishing up his days in the Byrds writing gunk like "Triad". However, you'll LAUGH when he tries to interview Paul Kantner, Grace Slick and David Frieberg in an Eyetalian restaurant and all Gracie cares about is eating her lasagna with Paul and David only slightly more comatose! His infamous mention of the Clash as a garage band that should have been practicing while the engine was running is not to be found but still, Murray does have that patented neo-Bangsian ability to find punk rock in places where you never thought it would have existed which I find a gift only a few people have ever been blessed with. And if that makes you wanna search out those old Edgar Winter's White Trash albums for yet another dimension to a sound you thought Iggy and the Stooges had a monopoly on well then go ahead...I am (once I get some moolah back by selling loads of back issues of my failed crudzine...see come-on at end of post)!

Jane Suck's writings are also of a great value that I'm sure very few were putting on her SOUNDS contributions at the time, though even at this stage you kinda get the impression that this rather innocent yet streetsavvy dame is slowly but surely morphing into your standard flannel shirt bulldyke right before your very eyes. And as far as Paul Morley goes well, for some STUPID reason I stapled his efforts on the wrong side of the page so it reads backwards, something which I do hope is not an OMEN! Will give you a report after I remove the staples and do the job right.

The big surprise just has to be the various Chrissie Hynd(e) reviews---I've already mentioned how much I enjoyed her previous from the brain and heart rock rantings, and even though I have already read her reviews of acts such as Magma and Eno a few years back and thought them tops I gotta say that her other contributions to the mag, her Tim Buckley, Velvet Underground, Gram Parsons and David Cassidy pieces, were so pleasing to the rock psyche that I wish she had stuck with writing and used music as a sideline like her former boyfriend Nick Kent did. Unfortunately her Mose Allison article has yet to be archived, but maybe someday soon.

BIG SURPRISE...her more-recent (2004) ode to the sixties and why they were the top teen times (even during the later years when things got a little rancid) was something that had me wishing I was old enough to absorb all of the great negative energy of those days, a time when I was more concerned with KRAZY KAT than I was anything passing for music on the radio. If you can believe it, Hynde was actually listening to "Sister Ray" and Captain Beefheart on WMMS which really stymies me considering what turdburgers that station turned out to be when the $$$ were dangled in front of Kid Leo's eyes! And she, like most of us regular readers, understood to her heart of hearts that those shaggy groups on WERE THE ACTION IS might as well have been heralds from another dimension or zone for that matter presenting us suburban slobs with THE TRUE SECRET OF LIFE. Well, it is a whole lot better that people like her and me (of course!) bestow special tantric powers upon the likes of the Seeds than Charles Manson discerning occult messages in THE WHITE ALBUM!

Yeah, some of that piece might get slightly into hippydippy loveydove hate your parents they were so evil and be a slut regardless of the consequences prattle, but overall it packed a pretty strong punch to this paunch. Tune in next week for more rockscreeding revelations.

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Just heard about the passing of Skydog label head and Open Market manager Marc Zermati, a surprise in that I thought he woulda died years earlier if all of those drug exploit stories I heard were true. Somehow I get the impression that Marc read my recent bootleg article which mentioned some of his old wares and that set him into motion for his meeting with destiny, but I do get that way sometimes as if my mere thoughts no matter how offhand can actually affect reality. Well, not all the time because if that was so there'd be a few extra corpses layin' around in California and Melbourne, ifyaknowaddamean... Still, another biggie in the BLOG TO COMM annals has passed on and I get the feelin' a whole lot more'll be headin' out to the roarin' flames as time lingers on so whatever you do, BE GOOD!

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Anyway/Anyhow/Anywhere, here's another batter down the hatches set of reviews I think you'll like, and if you can get as much spiritual fulfillment out of these as I am reading those old Murray and Hynde pieces you must be even more starry-eyed than I am! Thanks to Bill, Paul and Bob too for the gibs---you will be rewarded for your kindness, though I do get the feeling that it will be in a not-so-positive way...

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I'll betcha're won'drin' just what has gotten me on this Steve Lacy kick as of late. I mean, although I have sung the praises of his myriad assortment of spinners it was never like I was one to rabidly champion his various efforts spanning an assortment of jazz styles over the course of fiftysome years. If you wanna know, what happened to me was that I was triggered...not triggered like that chimp who tore off some woman's face and chomped her hand off after she picked up his Tickle Me Elmo doll, but something mighty darn close!

What got me goin' was the very same CBGB handbill from January 1990 that you see directly to your left (click ir to enlarge, dummy!), one which besides listing a myriad assortment as they say of interesting acts obscure and obscurer, features the listings for the next door CB's 313 Gallery which was known to host music that was somewhat quieter than the air raid that was goin' on at the more familiar club. Anyway, if you look at the bottom of the bill hard enough you'll see a gig listing for Sunday February the second which features an interesting line-up for a satellite multi-platform gig celebrating the poetic work of one Janos Gat. Dunno who this guy is even after I googled his name but I thought that the idea of a multimedia show from various worldwide hotspots seemed like a fine idea to me, especially when the CB's portion of the bill featured not only the infamous Defunkt but Arkestra regs John Gilmore and Marshall Allen plus "Setev" Lacy proving that whoever hired the typesetter should be commended for hiring a dyslexic person thus giving him a decent living wage.

Dunno how this particular event turned out---I kinda get the feeling it flopped with not only technical but personal glitches---but the mention of Lacy sure echoed something loud in my cavernous cranium and next thing you knew I was on the search of whatever recordings of his I thought would sate my atonal cravings for the free stuff. Plus that recent batch of CODAs I procured sure helped out what with their heavy duty coverage of the man at a time I'm sure he coulda used more'n just a little help!

Bought a few items in the interim, the first a ten-Cee-Dee collection of all the Black Saint/Soul Note Lacy albums as latched onto a few items of some notoriety. And in case you can't guess, I'm gonna give you my impressions regarding each and every one of these new items thrust into my otherwise snoozeville life.

The first of the Black Saint box is TRICKLES, which I'm sure is something many of you old Lacy fans will find rollin' down your leg once you remember just how difficult it was to get hold of these Black Saint albums when they were first up and about and now you can get hold of the entire set for a relatively cheap price! Trombonist Roswell Rudd, a guy whose FLEXIBLE FLYER album on Arista/Freedom is the only rec on that label I deemed to pawn off, actually plays swell enough that I perhaps regret that earlier trade-in (for a post-punk loser I'll bet!) even if he ain't as expressive and angular as he is here. Bassist Kent Carter and drummer Beaver Harris round out the quartet and "compliment" (yeeesh!) the horns without getting all over the sesh. I'm not Gary Giddins so I ain't gonna comment on any of that intricate jazz brouhaha about timbre and interplay and other gunk that sorta masks the fact that the music drives and scrapes at your nervous system like the best music could. Well, do you want me to compare music like this to "flamingos" 'r somethin'? Maybe long-extinct prehistoric birds of Herculean size and strength fighting for the last egg in some dinosaur nest.

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REVENUE came out on Soul Note and, unlike the first entry into the Black Saint canon features a recording done in Lacy's long time home Italy albeit none of the players seem to be of local heritage. In fact, I must admit that I'm not familiar with most of his sidemen here (other'n fellow soprano player Steve Potts who turns up on quite a few Lacy efforts)  but they sure do sound swell and are in-groove with Lacy's general free play nature which can take ya on some really inspiring (and inspired) tangents  A pretty good encapsulation of one of the final remnants of the early new thing that sure must have seemed "antiquated" (to some but not quite to me) when this 1993 sesh was laid down.

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TROUBLES is the second album on Black Saint proper and it sure is a pretty nervy album that appeals to the inner turmoil that's been raging in my body since I was at least two. Good band backing him up as well including wife Irene Aebi who sings on the interestingly-enough titled "Wasted". The entire group does some fine chanting themselves on the title track, and that twisted angular feeling I love hearing in the best jazz of the sixties/seventies is sure in full bloom on this '79 release that like I said earlier was not only a rarity but pretty pricey if one happened to makes its way into some high quality record shop. Kinda makes me glad that I was too cheap to even attempt to buy a lotta these efforts way back when not that a whole lotta stuff is not only inexpensive, but free if you can get it offa Youtube or Soundcloud!

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REGENERATION ain't exactly a Steve Lacy album per se, but a collaboration twixt he and Rudd, pianist Misha Mengelberg, bassist Kent Carter and drummer Han Bennink where the whole bunch of 'em play tribute to Herbie Nichols and Thelonius Monk a side apiece. And yeah, although both of these jazz legends ain't exactly whatcha'd call part of the sixties free explosion the way Lacy etc. were, their honorers handle their material certainly with a rather avgarde approach reminding me of various mid-fifties early branching outs from the hard bop idiom. The original cover is reproduced to a "t" here, though the printing on the reverse is so small I can't make out very much of what Nat Hentoff wrote about this particular effort! On Soul Note this time for those of you who are keeping track.

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Haw! Another joint effort tribute, this time to Herbie Nichols on his lonesome! Joining Lacy once again is Mengelberg and Bennink, along with Arjen Gortner on the bass violin and sprouting new jazz up 'n comer George Lewis who at this was being touted heavily even in the pages of the normally staid DOWN BEAT. Yet another Soul Note release, this one doesn't differ too much from the recordings presented on the previous offering, though I could wax eloquent about Lewis' trombone playing as well as the general freshness of the ensemble who branch well into the early avgarde feeling when the stretchin' out is worked on. Nice cover repro too, but again the liner notes are way too small to make out, so small that they even make some of the efforts re my own crudzine come off like the READER'S DIGEST large print version!!!

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Sheesh! I was hopin' that the cover of the Soul Note DUTCH MASTERS release woulda had the entire ensemble (besides Lacy, Mengelberg, Lewis and Bennink Cellist Ernst Reyseger) posed like the pic one would see on a box of cigars but no such luck. Still its what one would have expected from Lacy after the previous five albums for these labels, what with its strong Monk influence coupled with the same free approach that Lacy picked up on when part of the Cecil Taylor Unit (dunno if they were called that so early inna game, but...), all done up in that angular way that recalls not only seventies free jazz approaches but with that feeling ya got when listening to those Eric Dolphy albums where he seemed to be right on the brink of a tenser-than-ever breakthrough. Special commendation goes to Mengelberg's playing which doesn't seem to know whether or not to veer towards Taylor or Burton Greene but heads toward Mengelberg which I guess is suitable enough.

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Lacy seems to be the solid set leader of THE CONDOR (again, on Soul Note), a mid-eighties effort once again featuring wife Aebi and vocals and violin (good but not as tangent-bound as Leroy Jenkins or Billy Bang) and some hot playing that thankfully once again dredges up all of those great mid-seventies new thing experiments. This even kinda makes ya remember why you liked the jazz avgarde back when you were a teenbo takin' a BIG CHANCE buyin' some jazz album on the recommendation of R. Meltzer with those depression wages forever eatin' at your NEED to KNOW MORE about the gaping wide universe. Aebi sings swell too adding to the underlying bared-wire intensity of it all. Noted pianist Bobby Few even appears raising the property value many times over and as far as these Eyetalian releases go this might be the best of the batch---so far, that is.

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THE CRY is a double Cee-Dee set taken from a live jazzfest show in '88 with a rather different line-up of instruments that you would usually associate with a Lacy ensemble (accordion, harpsichord) as well as wife Aebi's vocals which are taken from the writings of some Bangladeshi feminist type who has a hefty price on her head. Heck, I do need the money and if she happens to wander into my neighborhood I might be tempted to off her, but chances are that she won't and anyway her real contribution to this album is small because frankly I can't understand a word Aebi is singing.

Despite occasional lapses into staidness (much like this post---yawn) THE CRY does hit upon some moments that approach avgarde total eruption. Even a few sidesteps into Sun Ra (thanks to the harpsichord?) cum downright funkitude show up making this one of those tantric excursions into a sound beyond music. Might be worth a try if you are feeling rather experimental yourself. This one came out on Soul Note, again if your anus happens to get really tight about such things.

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Also on Soul note is Lacy's final effort for that label credited to the Steve Lacy Octet and entitled VESPERS, something which doesn't exactly come to mind when listening to this rather good flashback into the mid/late-sixties late-Coltrane period New Jazz feel that is more representative of the work that Archie Shepp was beginning to make his mark with at the time. The playing seems even more expressive than on some of the other Black Saint/Soul Note efforts and the sound has a nice gloss to it that reminds me of those early-sixties Impluse and Blue Note efforts which really does stir a li'l somethin' in me, like making me wanna kick myself for passin' up alla those used jazz records I used to come across in shops because finances were so limited! In all a rather pleasing to the avgarde spirit of Lacy effort to end his tenure at this label which, like I probably have mentioned before, was all but obtainable unless you were a rabid Italian record buyer or knew which shops to go to (complete with a Trust Fund to match).

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After all that you might want to latch onto STAMPS on HatHut, a particularly high-charged live '77/'78 double set featuring the standard late-seventies quintet more/less (Aebi, Potts, Kent Carter, Oliver Johnson) playing particularly ferocious approaching previous Shepp/Coltrane/Coleman levels of high pressure music that really will affect you especially if your main musical forte is high energy rock. Sound is great, playing is perfect and this really compliments the above Black Saint/Soul Note efforts which I also get the feeling will not be leaving your laser launching pad any time soon.

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Lacy's SAXOPHONE SPECIAL (on Emanem but get yers offa Youtube because a real life copy is EXPENSIVE) is more or less what I wished the mostly-eighties vintage Lacy albums reviewed in the box set section were like. Gnarly and nerve-shredding, these live shows present Lacy and band THE WAY I LIKE 'EM TO BE HEARD, with a lotta free play and grit with added dimension (and downright gnarly-ness) added to the session thanks to the likes of some of the more advanced minds in seventies like Derek Bailey sitting in. The saxophone quartet (all sopranos!) should perk the lobes of those of ya who were part and parcel for the BIG ANTHONY BRAXTON PUSH AS THE NEWER-THAN-NEW-JAZZ-THING-OF-THE-MID/LATE-SEVENTIES movement, while Michel Waisvisz's synthesizer playing tops Richard Teitelbaum's if you ask me.

lotslotslotslotslots more Lacy out there for any serious fan of the new thing to peruse, and even I have a few vinyl examples inna collection that are due for a reappraisal one of these days when I get some extraextra time on my hands. An expansive catalog the man has, and quite a bit is readily available if you too wanna take the plunge into some way more expansive than your standard tux 'n bowtie impression of the music that, when in the right hands, is as tantric and as SHOCKING as that cold frozen moment look at the end of the fork as any of your rock 'n roll favorites. Pretty heady and cathartic even, and once I get it all digested into my brain and fully comprehend the sounds at hand all I gotta say is...I still wonder how that gig with Gilmore and Allen at the CB's 313 Gallery turned out, tho I get the maybe not-so-strange feeling that if the event actually did take place it wasn't grade-z turdsville after all!

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Peter Green-THE END OF THE GAME CD-r burn (originally on Reprise Records)

Sheesh, I mention an old Fleetwood Mac bootleg ONCE and wouldn't you know it but that would spur Bob Forward into sending me a dub of the thing. To which I say good choice of burns ya got there, Bob!

Of course it ain't like I was never aware of this particular spinner, as Lou Rone was once raving on and on about how great the thing was. Of course he seemed to be equally excited about the photo on the back cover which I don't consider anything to be arousal-like, but to each his own I say!

But even if blooze chooze ain't your brand of moccasins THE END OF THE GAME is a spiffy platter, a strange rambling amorphous jam (or sets of jams) edited down to FM-radio length for that laid back dee-jay to play when number one starts a'callin'. It might even SURPRISE a few of you adamantly anti-Fleetwood Mac listeners with its decidedly free rock approach which borders on a free jazz tempo and even some cacophony that might get some wag out there to call this a punk rock masterpiece. Go ahead, makes more sense'n some of those patented crybaby rants bein' called exactly that!

For late-night head-straightening out or just an average good listen, and if you walk away wanting to search out those old Mac platters don't blame me if they sound nothin' like this.

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The Cosmic Dropouts-GROOVY THINGS CD-r burn (originally on Skyclad Records)

Y'all know exactly how much I've come to tire of these rote-a-garage bands that had been comin' out o'er the past thirtysome years or so, but the Cosmic Dropouts deliver on some hotcha hard-riff beats to the point where I gotta separate these guys from the hoards that have been making themselves a name despite their relatively light-fluff style. Closer to the DMZ/Lyres style of sixties revision with none of that phony op art go go stuff to mess things up. Pretty nice listening to without having to adjust your listening parameters, really.

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The Barracudas-WAIT FOR EVERYTHING CD-r burn (originally on Shake Records)

Sounds like the Barracudas grow up and get professional album. But that's grow up in the right way. These are the guys who had those fluke English hits a good twelve or so years earlier and those singles were a surprise...total teenage NUGGETS fun in an era where everything hadda be cut and shaped to a conformity that still makes me uneasy to think of. By 1992 their sound had become way more polished and dare-I-say "commercial", yet it still has enough of a rock 'n roll backbone so that you won't puke listening to it. You may even tap toe or wave an index finger like the big kids usedta do when I was a mere first-grader. Not bad a-tall.

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Red Dark Sweet-JB'S 5/24/85 (PT. 2)/JB'S DOWN 6/28/85 CD-r burn

Somehow Red Dark Sweet sounds like the only early-eighties-bred under-the-underground NYC post no wave art rock/Loisada (if I spelled that right) band that...sounds rock 'n roll to me! Sheesh, at certain parts it's like they coulda been of the late-sixties/early-seventies local Hackamore Brick teenage combo stoked on the fumes of a truly freeform FM radio (see Chrissie Hynde blurb above) and cheap wine kinda act I sure wish were playin' down my block! Again the specter of "Kandy Korn" pops up as well as some funny asides like Charlotte Pressler hawking various records to audience members for prices that we'd all kill for these days. Only we had it all then so it didn't seem like that much of a bargain. If alla this was edited down and sharpened up I think it'd make one of those boffo albums that woulda adorned my collection for years on end...and even get fondly played when it happens to turn up in the stack.

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Various Artists-AMBITION SANDALWOOD CLEO RIDER CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Bill starts out moody and gets funky with Syl Johnson and down home with some digestible folk and even a batch of radio ads (Byrds, Four Wheels, Tokens, Tiny Tim, Canned Heat) tossed into the mix! Since I haven't played any Jesus and Marychain in a good few decades Bill put some on here to remind me, and while he was at it he decided to also remind me about the Flaming Lips, another act that sorta got bushwhacked over time. Blues, schmooze (from New Castle's own Four Friends) and I even dug the Companions' novelty rocker "I Want a Yul Brynner Haircut" which goes to show you what kind of flippant mood I'm in today!

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BACK ISSUES DEPARTMENT! I know that some of you are getting tired of me consistently hawking these old BLACK TO COMMs that are popping up around the ol' abode whether I want to find a copy or not. Maybe if some of you actually BOUGHT some I wouldn't have to keep badgering you. Take a hint, willya?

BOOK REVIEW! FRED KIDA'S VALKYRIE! (Ken Pierce Books, 1982)

No this ain't the Marvel Valkyrie, it's the one who appeared at Hillman, also the home of such now PD figures as Airboy and the Heap! And as far as heroines go who woulda thunk, especially during World War II, that an actual Kraut could become a good gal along with her fraulein followers fighting the very same Axis that they were once allied with! Sheesh, back then you woulda thunk that one Heine was the same as the other, but since these specimens of the female persuasion are so hotcha, how on earth could they be badskis anyway???

Valkyrie got her start in AIR FIGHTERS as the leader of the Air Maidens, an all gal crack squadron who made their grand appearance into comics by wiping out an entire RAF airfield with relative ease! You'd think that Airboy, an Amerigan teenbo attached to the British air command, would be rather angry about it and well,  he is, and when Valkyrie herself is assigned to whip some sense into Our Captured Hero while the Maidens watch you're in store for a pretty kinky session that might have even tingled Eric Stanton a bit! But don't worry because the Maidens have a change of heart while watching this rather sexually charged scene as does Valkyrie herself, who ends up shooting her commanding officer right when Airboy himself is about to be executed and the Maidens are all tied up ready to be flogged themselves as they watch his death! And to prove what Bad Germans these gals are they escape in Airboy's very own flapping jet (named Birdy) and join up with The Allies! Dunno how this woulda gone over with alla those boys reading comic books at the time but sheesh, them Teutonic Tarts are really something! Not a Nico in sight I'll tell ya!

With all of the cleavage that Valkyrie shows when she's ready to either seduce someone or give Airboy the lash you can see why someone like Fred Wertham could have been flustered by a title like this. Naturally the gals are all examples of Nordic beauty and purity proving that maybe those KdF camp outings were of some benefit! Heck, with wimmen like Valkyrie in the Third Reich it's a wonder why the Master Race wasn't the Master-BATE race!

Fans of pre-Code fun and decrepitude should really enjoy these and I sure do, especially the tale featuring Airboy's arch enemy Misery. Not just any sorta Golden Age evildoer, Misery was a stench-spewing walking corpse who flew the Airtomb, a mold-covered airplane that contains the remains of fliers who lost their tangle with this particularly creepy and supernatural being. The story that appears here (Misery uses his occult energies to turn Valkyrie against Airboy who almost joins his flying comrades in the Airtomb for good!) is so disturbingly absorbing like a good horror comic...you get the feeling that in order to sink into the entire makeup of this saga ya gotta huff some old gym clothes with a few post-due date items retrieved from the fridge to get the effect of the rot and decay that the Airtomb obviously exuded! Great stuff, even to the point where the denouement of postwar Golden Age comicdom doesn't affect these stories which pack a whole lotta the paunch they did during The Big One. Unfortunately the Air Maidens are long gone and forgotten (heck, they didn't really contribute that much to these sagas!) but with Valkyrie around I'm sure more'n a few adolescent boys were still front and center for these tales!

The art is fantastic in that Milton Caniff style that everyone with a brain was mimicking at the time, and the comparisons between AIRBOY and TERRY AND THE PIRATES is so obvious as the inner text keeps reminding us (with Airboy the obvious Terry and Valkyrie a sweet European take on the Dragon Lady) that you kinda wonder why no lawsuits were in order! And being German, I'm sure that Valkyrie knew that orders had to be obeyed!!!

However in lieu of over seventy years of virtuous hindsight I must object to the clearly racist portrayal of Germans as sniveling order-takers shown with graphically exaggerated and distorted pointed noses, double chins, bulky builds, monocles, close-cropped or bald heads and grotesque facial features. Oh how the Germans who were living in the United States during the war must have suffered because of such blatant and shameful reflections upon their very being! These racist representations do ruin VALKYRIE! for the modern reader which is quite a disappointment as these stories are rather entertaining. Oh poo, why couldn't people have been as virtuous and altruistic as we higher ups on the evolutionary ladder are in these enlightened days!

MOOM PITCHER REVIEW BY BILL SHUTE! SHARP-SHOOTING TWIN SISTERS, (Spain, 1966), STARRING PILI Y MILI AND SEAN FLYNN!

PILI Y MILI were twin blonde sisters (Pilar and Emilia Bayona) from Zaragoza, Spain, who appeared together in a number of film vehicles in their native Spain, and later Mexico, in the 1960’s. Pilar worked in film and TV until 2011 and is still alive as of this writing; Emilia (also still alive in early 2020) retired from the screen after the final duo film with her sister, a 1970 feature from Mexico, co-starring well-known Mexican actor and pop singer Enrique Guzman (I have one of his albums, featuring teen rock and roll!). These ladies could seemingly do it all….comedy, dance, singing, trick horse-riding, vaudeville-style routines. They also fake the sharp-shooting mentioned in the film’s title convincingly. They have a lot of charm and a dynamic physical presence, and this film is very much their vehicle.

Things start as they ride into a western town (probably used in other Spanish westerns too), hanging dangerously off the side of their horses in the manner of Bob Steele or Yakima Canutt. As they get the attention of the people on the street, they set up a kind of medicine show where they sell an “elixir” made by their grandfather, who’s also part of the act, from syrup and tea, and which claims to cure whatever ails you. In the first few minutes, the girls encounter two young men, the son of a local rancher (played by lanky and charismatic Sean Flynn, son of Errol) and a railroad engineer. The girls are initially put off and offended by the men, but you know as soon as the guys are shown to be basically honest people, they will eventually become the romantic interests for the ladies.

Don’t expect any extreme violence or bleak nihilism as you find so often in Euro-westerns. This one could get a “G” rating in that on the whole, it’s got an “Apple Dumpling Gang Goes West” kind of feel to it. The sheriff may be corrupt and there are cartoonish villains, but you’ll see no one shot ten times, no one spitting on a corpse, none of the usual things you’d expect from a Spanish western. However, it moves well, the sets (surely erected for some other Spanish western and given a modest re-dressing) are convincing, in convincing you that you’re in a European “movie western town” version of Corriganville with names painted on signs in front of businesses, etc., and the ladies get a lot of chances do show you their various vaudeville-style dance routines, card tricks, acrobatic skills, and comic set-pieces. After seeing the film, I’d love to have caught their act at some swank nightclub in Barcelona or Mazatlán, circa 1967.…if I could afford it and they’d let me in!

The feel of the film is a lot like a Spanish version of a Judy Canova comedy (I reviewed one of her films a few months back), and the soundtrack is the light-hearted “western” music you’d get in a Canova vehicle, except for when the girls are in the midst of their comic pratfalls and acrobatics, where the score offers a Spanish version of circus music, including slide whistles, cymbal crashes, and the like.

Sean Flynn does exactly what he needs to do, which is act as straight man to the ladies (it’s THEIR film, not his), show his derring-do every ten minutes or so to extricate the ladies from a dangerous situation, and provide a red herring for the cattle rustling and attacks on the ranch until we found out who is REALLY responsible. He looks great in jeans and a western shirt, he’s fit, his face and body communicate whatever emotion he’s supposed to be showing (I don’t think there is an English language version of this—I’ve never seen one offered in 35 years of collecting, but I’d be happy to be proved wrong on that point—mine is in Spanish) since he’ll be dubbed into various languages, and he radiates boyish charm. What more could you want from him?

There is an English title online for the film of A WOMAN FOR RINGO, but Flynn is not playing Ringo, he’s playing Jimmy Trevor, so that makes no sense, but certainly sounds great! Perhaps in another dub he’s named Ringo, but certainly not in the Spanish version.

I saw this film at the end of a long workday, and it was just what I needed. I could check my brain at the door and then let the magical PILI Y MILI do a western-themed nightclub act shot in a movie-western town in Almeria, Spain, with an authentic American who’d been in Western films, Sean Flynn, for a little authenticity (authenticity that would pass in Spain, that is). The version I saw did have English “fan-dub” subtitles that were more than adequate, but if you were told the plot, you probably wouldn’t even need subtitles because things are played so broadly. I did not take a bathroom break or go to the kitchen for a snack for the film’s 88 minute running time, so in terms of entertainment value, I must credit director Rafael Romero Marchent (a reliable director—this was the second of 32 films for him--I’ve seen 6 or 7 of his other films and enjoyed every one….DEAD MEN DON’T COUNT, with Anthony Steffen and Mark Damon, PREY OF VULTURES with Peter Lee Lawrence, HANDS OF A GUNFIGHTER with Craig Hill, etc.) with delivering the goods. And for a 54-year-old throwaway vehicle for a nightclub sister-act, that’s impressive. NO on the Netflix—SI  on the PILI Y MILI CON SEAN FLYNN!

H. L. Mencken was wrong. Politics isn't the worship of jackals by jackasses, rock 'n roll is. And on that note once again let us head on into more of that jackal-worshiping which I gotta say has kept me from going totally bonkers these past few decades.

But before we get into alla that music review stuff you tune into this blog for, maybe a li'l personal chat is in order, everyday stuff in order to humanize me in the eyes of people who wouldn't know what humanity is even if it bit 'em on their naturally oversized consciousnesses. First off I DID IT, not what you think I did but actually broke down and bought myself an expensive three months subscription to ROCK'S BACKPAGES. Yes, I'm talkin' about that site for sore eyes which has collected and categorized a whole load of rock scribblings from o'er the years, mostly feh stuff but a few good things in-between which I am most interested in. I'm talkin' a lotta the better British Weaklies stuff that I never could afford way back when yet was all but dead by the time I could...writings by the better minds that England hadda offer and you can just BET that I will be spending the next entire three months copying and collecting the best of the batch for my own personal enjoyment, and to rip off ideas from 'em while I'm at it as well!

So far I collected (and mis-collated making reading a real jumble) the Giovanni Dadomo articles that I was very anxious to read considering how I find his Velvet Underground history in SOUNDS as good as the better NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS items of the same strata. I was a really busy beaver this past Tuesday copying almost all of the available Dadomo pieces on Rock's Back Pages, even the stuff I thought would be comparatively grade-z turdsville like his piece on Orleans as well as some items on Jesse Winchester, a surprise on my part considering just how much I loathe not only gruffy singer-songwriters but draft dodgers to boot! (Not that I have an animus towards draft dodgers considering that maybe the body that's gonna be put on the front lines should have a say about being there inna first place, but I sure hated 'em back when Winchester was getting all this Sick White Liberal press about being one and how ashamed we should be because he was one boo-hoo cry-cry...and people who pride themselves on how they were "Conscientious Objectors" should also fit in somewhere, not for objecting, but for being so SANCTIMONIOUS about it!)

Next go 'round'll probably be Charles Shaar Murray and then who knows, either Nick Kent or Jane Suck depending on my own particular disposition towards ex-junkies or wannabe feminists that particular day.

***

(Now that the all-clear has been sounded...) MY "CHINESE GONGO" QUARANTINE PLAYLIST (beginning April 5, 2020---seven-inchers excluded because most if not all will eventually be reviewed in an upcoming "Singles Going Stroonad".)

Sun Ra-CALLING PLANET EARTH 3-CD set
Hawkwind-SPACE RITUAL 2-CD reissue with extra tracks.
Les Rallizes Denudes-LIVE MAY 25 1975 YANEURA CD
Tim Buckley-STARSAILOR CD
Musica Orbis-TO THE LISTENERS LP
Kim Fowley-THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL LP
The Velvet Underground-PEEL SLOWLY AND SEE CD box set (disc one only)
Nico-THE MARBLE INDEX CD
Rashied Ali Leroy Jenkins Duo-SWIFT ARE THE WINDS OF TIME CD
Moon Pool-ECLIPSE CD
Max Neuhaus/John Cage-FONTANA MIX-FEED LP
Eno-ANOTHER GREEN WORLD LP
James White and the Blacks-SAX MANIAC LP
Mahogany Brain-SOME COCKTAIL SUGGESTIONS LP
Chrome-HALF MACHINE LIP MOVES CD
Suicide-THE SECOND ALBUM + THE FIRST REHEARSAL TAPES CD (disc two only)
John Coltrane-THE AFRICA BRASS SESSIONS VOLUME TWO LP
SUISHOU NO FUNE CD
The Who-WHO THE FUCK?! LP
Mahogany Brain-SMOOTH SICK LIGHTS CD
Dr. Mix and the Remix-(1979-1982) CD
Amina Claudine Myers-SONGS FOR MOTHER E LP
Jimi Hendrix-SMASHING AMPS LP
Jango Edwards and the Friends Roadshow-LIVE IN EUROPE LP (side one only)
SUICIDE CD
The Grateful Dead-MASON'S CHILDREN CD
FUGS FOUR, ROUNDERS SCORE LP
Soft White Underbelly-UNRELEASED ELEKTRA ALBUM CD-r burn
Mahogany Brain-WITH (JUNK-SAUCEPAN) WHEN (SPOON-TRIGGER) CD
JACK RUBY CD
The Astronauts-PETER PAN HITS THE SUBURBS LP
Various Artists-LES PLUS GRANDS SUCCES DU PUNK CD
David Bowie-CHANGES, RECORDED LIVE AT THE SANTA MONICA CIVIC AUDITORIUM OCTOBER 20, 1972 CD
SOFT MACHINE VOLUMES ONE AND TWO CD
The Red Krayola-COCONUT HOTEL CD
BLACK PEARL CD
The Velvet Underground-disc one of 45TH ANNIVERSARY SUPER DELUXE EDITION SET 4-CD set
Steve Reich-FOUR ORGANS/PHASE PATTERNS CD
Erica Pomerance-YOU USED TO THINK CD
CREATIVE CONSTRUCTION COMPANY VOLUME TWO LP
The Pretty Things-DEFECTING GREY 10-inch EP
Art Ensemble of Chicago-BAP-TIZUM LP
Various Artists-LES PLUS GRANDS SUCCES DU PUNK II CD
Alice Cooper-PRETTIES FOR YOU/EASY ACTION CD
The Flamin' Groovies-SNEAKERS 10-inch LP
Cabaret Voltaire-THREE MANTRAS CD
Joe McPhee-NATION TIME CD
The Deviants-PTOOFF! CD
Les Rallizes Denudes-ELECTRIC PURE LAND 1974 CD
Pink Floyd-THE MIDAS TOUCH LP
The Sniveling Shits-I CAN'T COME CD
Roscoe Mitchell Sextet-SOUND LP
Magma-KOHNTARKOSZ CD
ROXY MUSIC CD
THE GOOD RATS CD
Various Artists-PUNKS FROM THE UNDERGROUND CD
BERLIN AIRLIFT LP
The Gizmos-RAW FIRST TAKES 1977 CD-r burn
Syd Barrett-MY HEAD KISSED THE GROUND CD
Tim Buckley and the Starsailor Band-VARIOUS LIVE 1970 CD-r burn
Red Noise-SARCELLES - LOCHERES CD
E. Power Biggs-FESTIVAL OF FRENCH ORGAN MUSIC LP
Black Pearl-LIVE LP
Kim Fowley-LIVING IN THE STREETS LP
Magma-INEDITS LP
Air-AIR RAID CD-r burn
Sun Ra-THE COMPLETE REMASTERED RECORDINGS ON BLACK SAINT & SOUL NOTE 4-CD set
Bruce Gilbert/Ron West-FREQUENCY VARIATION LP
Mary Lou Williams-THE HISTORY OF JAZZ LP
The Flesheaters-GREATEST HITS - DESTROYED BY FIRE LP
The Soft Machine-BUNDLES LP
Mary Lou Williams-MARY LOU'S MASS LP
The Trashmen-SURFIN' BIRD LP
Art Ensemble of Chicago-CERTAIN BLACKS CD-r burn
The Frenchies-LOLA COLA CD
John Cale and Terry Riley-CHURCH OF ANTHRAX CD
Various Artists-ATLANTIC JAZZ - THE AVANT GARDE CD
Various Artists-HIGHS IN THE MID-SIXTIES VOLUME 3 - LOS ANGELES 1967 LP
Siouxsie and the Banshees-LIVE AND RARE 1977-1978 cassette

And here you were making masks outta old sweaters for da fambly!

***

Anyhoo, here are them rekkids ya wan-ned to knows abouts. Bill, Paul, Bob, you did your doody and now you must have to lay in it...

Francoeur-AUT'CHOSE CD (Unidisc Records, Canada)

The ever omnipresent "they" have called Lucien Francoeur the Canadian Lou Reed. Well, it does make way more sense than handin' the title over to Lewis Furey. Anyway, this '78 reish does have that by-then fading decadent air to it not only with the VELVET UNDERGROUND 1969 LIVE ripoff cover but Francoeur's devil-may-care swagger permeating this effort. And to add to the ultra swank chic of it all not only does a Serge Gainsbourg toon but a Gallic "Be Bop a Lula" done Roxy Music style pops up. I guess with tracks like those the guy has more of a claim to the Slag Heap title than anyone else north of the border.  AUT'CHOSE is definitely one of those albums that naturally would get lost in the big upheaval of the day, but it does have a certain bossy sway about it that would appeal to those of you who were busy trolling the new release racks of the day trying to find something to ease them disco doldrums.

***

Bagatelle-11 PM SATURDAY LP (ABC Records)

Well, it was worth what I paid for it, 'n I got it for FREE!!! The Bosstown hype obviously went way beyond its MGM origins with this ABC release featuring a soul/funk/rock conglomeration that just ain't able to get it up the way that James Brown and even some second-string r 'n b shouters could, what with the overall orchestrated goo and general pop slurp gettin' all inna way. Thing is that this group coulda amounted to something had none of the usual post-production technoglitz been used in order to make it palatable enough for your Unca Eb to like, an' ya know he wouldn't like it anyway them bein' long-haired creeps 'n all! Features the talents of noted Boston scenester Willie Alexander on piano, and from what I am told this is not a record to be mentioned in his presence.

***

Various Artists-NUGGETS : ANTIPODEAN INTERPOLATIONS OF THE FIRST PSYCHEDELIC ERA CD-r burn (originally on Warner Brothers Records)

You'd think that "they" woulda learned their lesson what with all those horrid late-eighties tributes to the Velvet Underground. But noooooooo...here's even more trampling on all our musical faves of the past done up in a "present" (in this case 2012) where all of the feral majesty and total abandon that made the originals sound so fab inna first place has been long lost. This ain't the death of garage band transistor AM radio teenage thrills, it's the aroma.

***

THE TIFFANY SHADE CD-r burn (originally on Mainstream Records)

Massively enjoyable late-sixties psychedelic pop that I'm sure some doof would wanna compare to the Doors. Much better'n 'em...think a less streamlined Association mixed with Montage and the Soft White Underbelly and you'll be there farther than you'd expect. Fits in perfectly with all of those 1969 smart sounds that were too commercial for the burgeoning hippie market yet rather sophisticated for the AM dial, plus it sure doesn't sound as bogged down as LEFT BANKE TOO.

***

Tin Huey-KENT RATHSKELLER 2/23/79 (reburn)/INDUSTRIAL WASTELAND POST-LP INTERVIEW WKSU-FM CD-r burn

Shee-yucks Bob, you didn't hafta reburn that live bit of Huey for me. But it helps. The Industrial Wasteland show where they blab about their experiences recording the album was interesting especially since I don't even recall this particular program having been aired inna first place! And although it was sure hard making out what was bein' said most of the time what with all of the band members seemingly talking all at once I got enough good information outta it to make me happy! A nice li'l slab of rock history right around the time that new wave was transmorgrifying into gnu wave (copyright 1982 Bill Shute) and things sure looked different then than they had for manic rock fans only a good six years earlier.

***

Chi-Pig/15-60-75-OHIO HOMEGROWN RADIO BROADCASTS, WMMS-FM 1980

A big soo-prise from the bigwigs at WMMS-FM since they dropped all pretense of high-energy musical catering loooong before these radio shows hit the airwaves back '80's way. Chi-Pig actually sound a whole lot better in this live setting (even if any audience reaction is edited out to the point where it might as well been a studio sesh). None of the more new-unto-gnu wave (see review above complete with Bill Shute copyright) that really ruined things for us can be discerned...a downright nice blend of sixties-germinated pop with late-seventies rock 'n roll structure that doesn't make ya wanna puke at the crass commercialization that followed.

It was sure great that WMMS finally gave 15-60-75 some broadcast time and this particular live slab captures all of that hard-edged pow'r that set this bunch apart from the rest of those white blues guys who really couldn't capture anything that the Numbers delivered in droves. BUT WAIT!---this sounds like a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SET than the 'MMS Numbers Band show I already have on tape---could those FM radio hippies have been astute enough to give these guys two "Ohio Homegrown" broadcasts? I thought that honors like that were only given to the more $$$-minded acts in the tri-city area!

***

Red Dark Sweet-JB's Kent 4/12/85 + 5/24/85 PART ONE CD-r burn

Another great example of just why Red Dark Sweet were perhaps thee only Cleveland survivors of the First Wave who successfully made do in the Third Wave when a lotta the other members of that strata got wooshed around in the cesspool of success deprivation. Charlotte Pressler does a pretty good if nice-natured Patti Smith here while Andrew Klimek fills in the sound with his guitar playing and once again the best artistic moments of the sixties live on a good twenty years after you thought everybody on earth forgot. Heck, were my ears deceiving me or did I catch 'em doin' "Kandy Korn"??? Kinda makes me proud that I spent a good portion of my life searchin' out and listenin' to records 'stead of devoting myself to hard work and academics.

***

Various Artists-EVERYBODY'S PSYCHEDELIC DECISION CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

Lots to talk about on this 'un  Beginning with a mishmosh of sound clips from various old Sci-Fi films, Bill really prepared me for a nice get away from the usual turdsville way of living with this fine collection.

Devota Clemmon's "Danger Undertow" sounds like a Ted Mack reject complete with a guitarist who strums with all the hesitation and confusion of someone with my musical abilities! No need to tell you how much I prefer a song like this to yer typical fodder. The home disc featuring someone's aunt circa 1955 also gives EVERYBODY'S PSYCHEDELIC DECISION a real homebody sorta feeling, though I kinda feel like I'm intruding on someone else's old time memories by listening to "I Hear Music" done up by people I never met and who have probably been dead for years on end.

For you Beach Boys fans, father Murry's "Colonel's March" KFC jingle might just get you goin' out for your own bucket, or taking out your glass eye so you can show the socket to your kids in order to freak them out. And those Psychedelic Guitars sound about as psych as Ding Dong School, but you fans of the Duane Eddy/European instro vein might just get a kick outta 'em.

Neighborhood Watch...more of that eighties faster'n fast hardcore punk that the goofs at MRR seemed to enjoy, and maybe they were right for once! Love how "Oh Susanna!" was worked into "Urban Fashion Punk"!

Johnny Sea's "Day For Decision" is a surprise, the surprise being that it came out on Warner Brothers who had also put out platters by the Grateful Dead and Peter Paul and Mary around the very same time. A spoken word speech regarding the mire of the late-sixties, its a wonder the whole world didn't just collapse shortly after this was recorded. Considering the depths we have sunk to, maybe it shoulda. It all ends with a chorus of "America the Beautiful" which once again reminds me of when we sung this 'un as kids in grade stool and some jokers thought the lyrics went "God shit his grace on thee!"

Johnny and the Jumper Cables...sheesh, where have I heard this one before? Amazing how these tracks get around!

The Bucks seem to borrow more from the late-seventies punk rock groups of England, after those acts started to get the feel of their instruments thus ruining the overall gist of the thing.

Oh no...not ANOTHER sound collage! Smegma did this stuff much better. At least the Holy Spirit School Choir doin' the MIDNIGHT COWBOY track was a nice suburban slob hoot, even tho I get the idea that nobody in that choir knew what that particular moom pitcher was about. Maybe they saw a few James Bond ones, and if they did I'm sure they would really appreciate Ed Kearney's accordion-addled medley of various themes from those mooms that I used to sneak peak when nobody was around when they were on tee-vee back when I was an adolescent suburban slob curious about what "that thing" looked like!

Well, in these times of shortages I can relate to that old spoof of GOLDFINGER that I recounted a while back. Y'know---"BROWN-finger, he's the man, who ran out of toilet paper!"

And what is that closing out this platter but...yeah, the mom from GOOD TIMES! I never cared for Esther Rolle the way she used to push JJ around (I never cared for the cyster who was too much like my own nor that phony radical kid brother) so maybe all this track did was bring back a whole lotta not-that-hot seventies tee-vee viewing memories. Heck, it's nothing special---just one of those talk-through things where Rolle recites some obscure poem to a pre-packaged rhumba beat an' if that's the way Bill thinks he can end a Cee-Dee burn well then, that's the way he can end it! I ain't gonna argue one bit!

***

I know you haven't gotten enough of your high energy daily supplement with this mere post, so why don't you do what many health-conscious rock 'n roll types do and latch onto one (or maybe even more!) old issues of BLACK TO COMM! Patti Smith once said that it was rock 'n roll magazines that made her happy during her New Jersey youth, and if you wanna feel good in that old, pre-stodgy way that permeated the sixties and seventies why not get a dose of rock screeding that should fit it swell with your nervous system! Merely click on the link, and (best of all!) have enough money to buy whatever you want and I GUARANTEE you'll be happy! Not as happy as ME but happy enough. Remember, if you need a copy of an out-of-print issue I would me more than happy to make one for you, given that you have the big bucks to support the printing of some of those later on biggies featuring well up to (and over) 100-plus pages!

A LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK REVIEW - DICK TRACY by Carl Memling, pictures by Hawley Pratt and Al White (Golden Press, 1962)

Sheesh, I really must be craving for the next volume of THE COMPLETE DICK TRACY if I'm "reduced" to reading this Little Golden Book (which I recall my mother buying for me at a local laundromat which just happened to have a rotating rack of Little Golden Books for sale). But 'eh, I'll take my Dick Tracy any way I can as long as it's of the Chester Gould strata and its something that really fits into my own suburban slob memories of being a happy turdler whose only worries hadda do with hiding from the mailman and trying to avoid the dreaded enema (ow!).

I dunno about you, but my first memories of DICK TRACY were via the UPA cartoons that were hitting the cathode with an alarming frequency back in the sixties. You probably saw some of those when the 1990 Warren Beatty feature film came out and alla the old serials/movies/TV series/cartoons were suddenly dug outta the mothballs. Maybe you can conjure up past viewings of the Filmation TRACY segments on ARCHIE'S TV FUNNIES that appeared in '71...those were somewhat closer to the reality of the strip while the UPA ones were of quite a different nature being "dumbed down" for a pretty young viewing audience. But I guess TRACY creator Chester Gould liked 'em enough since he was photographed laughing during a screening, or perhaps he was overjoyed thinking about all of the royalties and additional tie-ins that were gonna be pourin' in!

But ah, I still remember those UPA cartoons fondly and have reviewed a DVD of some episodes almost two decades back within these "pages". They were quite suited for the late-turdler and sophisticado kindergarten types and I sure liked watching 'em given their particularly humorous nature. Of course I asked my dad (back when I was still light enough to sit on his lap) to read the newspaper TRACY for me thinking it was gonna be like those cartoons I was watching almost daily. When I discovered that it wasn't exactly the rather innocent comedic romp that the TV cartoons were I asked dad to put some funny dialog in himself! Of course that didn't work out exactly to plan, but from those days on I was a big TRACY fan in the same solemn yet frivolous way that NANCY remains a fond fave reminding me of a childhood where things like comic strips definitely meant way more than mean teachers and nasty classmates.

The story in this book is in many ways similar to the UPA toons in that Tracy only appears at the beginning and end of the tale. However, the three comic cops who did the bulk of actual crimefighting on this early-sixties series---Joe Jitsu, Go Go Gomez and Hemlock Holmes (the bulldog who speaks like Cary Grant...Heap O'Calorie is missing for some strange reason)---don't intermingle with any of the classic TRACY badguys who were put to long-deserved deaths and/or mutilations many years back. Nor do they get time out to call Tracy right when they're about to be hit on the head with an anvil. And most interesting of all is that in this tale all three work together to solve a mystery as to what exactly happened to a li'l girl's missing cat while getting into various mayhem, kiddie suitable that is, as they do everything but the OBVIOUS to get to the root matter of it all. Sorta like the way real life people try to alleviate everything they see wrong only to exacerbate the situation while they all congratulate themselves for their selfless efforts in combating one evil or another. Who sez these Golden Books weren't educational?

This must be where all those telemarketers got my
last name from!

And yeah, you tough guy TRACY fans may sneer and spew over the way those animated cartoons were cheaply produced with typical television-budget movement et. al. Go ahead in you want to, but I don't think it's fair to trudge down on THIS forever proud ranch house kiddie's memories of a past that was way more exciting and adventurous than anything being offered in these prissy school marm gone Margaret Sanger days. At least when I think of DICK TRACY I think not only of heroism and violence used to put down violence but a rather amusing syndicated television cartoon that I'm sure thrilled more kids in a real life-affirming way than all of the pus PBS has pushed in front of progressive households these past thirtysome years (I hope alla them kids go "Unite The Right"---'d serve their parents GOOD!). And this book brings back some happy memories of days I wish I could live over, as long as I have enough dexterity to wipe my ass and toss things into the supermarket shopping cart while nobody's lookin' that is!

Well hey, wasn't that quite a week we had there, just jam packed with a whole lotta action you just couldn't get outta Parcheesi? Y'know, I was gonna make a whole lotta wizecracks about the recent riots that a few Precious Prunellas out there would find EXTREMELY offensive, so I won't (personally, """""I""""" don't think my jokes are  that out-of-bounds but what's my opinion worth anyway?). However, if you want I'll tell ya a few on request---y'see, I am one guy who thinks along the same lines as Saul Alinsky in that I "Never let a good crisis go without some bad taste jibes" I ALWAYS say!

Anyway I do hope you readers had a fun time with all that violence and looting that was goin' on, and I sure do get the idea that a few of you were out showin' the world just how much you care and are more virtuous than the next bozo by smashing in windows and liberating all those flat screen tee-vees from their capitalistic bondage. I'll bet even MoeLarryandJesus was out and about doing what comes naturally to him when his social conscience starts a' stirrin', though I do get the sneakin' suspicion that he just might have sat this one out. After all, I didn't read about any Fredericks of Hollywood being emptied of their valuable wares.  'n besides, MLJ would look pretty silly going back asking for alterations anyway.

***

You might wonder what I have been up to this past week. Well, not rioting I'll tell ya. Actually, between slopping the cyster and screamin' my lungs out at the hogs I have been spending some time at THE NEXT BIG THING catching up on my reading by downloading some of those old, long out-of-print issues which you can retrieve here if you're smart enough to hunger for these mags. I unfortunately missed on many of these the first go 'round, and although at one time NBT editor Lindsay Hutton was rather reticent or some other fancy word about running off copies for me (which I would have gladly paid for...I mean what kind of Scotsman is he?) he obviously relented and decided to make the entire run of his legendary fanzine available for all to read for (that all important word ) FREE!!! I for one am sure glad of this, especially since original issues of NBT can set you back inna wallet, it's that important of a magazine as far as the annals of rockism most surely go. I do hope that Hutton's actions will inspire some old type fanzine editors to make their seventies efforts equally available to the public since hey, I sure could use some issues of PANACHE (especially the first one with Iggy and Linda Ronstadt and Pink Floyd bootleg reviews hyped onna cover!) and JUNGLELAND in my abode! You more-anti-capitalist-than-thou guys always talk about stickin' it to the man and people over profits...well, why dontcha PROVE IT sometimes and make your now expensive wares a li'l less costly to us peon rock fans!

 ***

AND SPEAKING OF OLDE TYMEY FANZINES, BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THIS! Yes, the entire run of the English fanzine PENETRATION has been collected in book form for all you mid-late seventies followers of the big beat and related sputum. You may remember PENETRATION not only for their in-depth coverage of the under-the-underground British scene (Hawkwind, Pink Fairies, Steve Took...) but for the way they threw themselves into the burgeoning punk rock groups there long before many imbecilic pre-teens knew what a safety pin was supposed to be used for! It's definitely a must to have if you're into the pre-schmooze style of writing that came to prominence in the eighties annals of rock journalism, though as you would have guessed GOOD LUCK FINDING IT! My attempts so far have been futile, but like the trooper that I am I am still attempting to latch my paws upon this undoubtedly NECESSARY addition to any tru blu BLOG TO COMM reader's library! Any reader out there willing to help me? I can pay you back in all the BLACK TO COMM back issues you better need!

***

Pardon moi, but I just gotta say that my writing really sucks more than usual this week...I hope if's only a short phase, one that will hopefully last shorter than the last twenty-year writer's block I suffered. I blame it on the excessive gas building up in my colon, and that too shall pass.

***

Not that much to brag about this week, but I think the tasty items presented will sate your musical palate rather well. Paul McGarry will be mad that I didn't include any of his freebees this go 'round, but maybe next time. Bill Shute and Bob Forward might be glad that I used some of theirs, but I doubt it.

Spontaneous Music Ensemble & Orchestra-TRIO & TRIANGLE CD (Emanem)

More free play from John Stevens and whoever the Ensemble happened to be this time. Not as sparse sounding as that duo version of the act reviewed a few weeks back, but lacking the fullness of slow-motion gnarl that the classic ONE, TWO, ALBERT AYLER exuded through both of its sides (looking for that 'un in my massive record collection if only for a deserved re-play). Good selection of players here from Lol Coxhill to Paul Rutherford make sure that most would find no semblance of structure or form anywhere within these vibrations.

***

Chico Hamilton-EL EXIGENTE (THE DEMANDING ONE) CD-r burn (originally on Flying Dutchman Records)

In what has gotta be the downright surprise of the week (frankly I wasn't expecting that much!), Bob Thiele and his Flying Dutchman label present a really hot live side from noted drummer Chico Hamilton and band. Playing in between free and fusion, EL EXITENTE rocks out when necessary and has that bared-wire nerve-scrape that always ups the intensity levels on a whole buncha jazz disques that might not matter to you that much if it weren't for the rawness of it all. Incredible stuff especially when you realize that guitarist Bob Mann has lent his strings to many a musical downer (James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt...) throughout his checkered career. Kudos also go to altoist Arnie Lawrence, bassist Steve Swallow and of course drummer/leader Hamilton who sure was a whole lot more faceted in the realm of jazz than all of the "light jazz" stars present in the here and now.

***

Pere Ubu-PARIS 12/13/78 Cd-r burn

Ubu were still at the top of whatever form they were at the top of on this live disque recorded in front of a really wild Parisian audience, proving once again that the French were more rock 'n roll than a whole lotta Anglo types woulda given 'em credit for. Sound's typical late-seventies portable cassette which adds to the excitement even if you can't quite make out Crocus Behemoth's wailing sing-song patter, and the band rocks out surprisingly well considering just how much they lost in sound after going the single guitar route. Contains selections from the first two longplayers and even a version of "Final Solution" done before Crocus disowned that song, at least until the Rocket From The Tombs reunion that is. A good time seemed to be had by all.

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Various Artists-SPIRITUAL JAZZ VOLUME TEN : PRESTIGE RECORDS CD-r burn (originally of Jazzman Records, England)

I dunno what you think nor do I care, but I find these sixties-era "spiritual jazz" recordings as down-to-earth moving as those soaring cathedrals of sonic styling that the likes of Coltrane and Coleman were recording around the same time. Big names and not-so's appear on this sampler taken from the Prestige catalog including Roy Haynes, Yusef Lateef, Mal Waldron and Moondog (with a rather neo-baroque yet Sun Ra-esque organ/percussion entry). Hokay, perhaps it really ain't as spiritual as I would have been led to believe (esp. after reading the piece on said subject via the Forced Exposure website) but I am moved enough.

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Various Artists-THE HIP WALK - JAZZ UNDERCURRENTS IN 60's NEW YORK CD-r burn (originally on BGP Records, England)

As you can tell, I'm really immersed in a sixties jazz of a non-"atonal energy" (not to be demeaning 'r anything) between-the-notes splash this week! This additional sampler courtesy who else but Bill Shute really drives home the sixties/seventies hard bop neo-r/b bent that didn't quite go over the edge but drives hard just the same to the point where you KNOW why this music was just as important to the Stooges as Archie Shepp. Lotsa big names here, mostly of people who I never really paid much attention to because...well, there were things like Rough Trade catalogs to pour through 'n all. But now that I'm older and have some time to sink into this universe I find these efforts to be---well, quite cathartic if you want me to get all brainy about it.

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Bill Anderson-WHERE HAVE ALL OUR HEROES GONE? LP (Decca Records)

Bill tells it like it not only was but is on this 1970 effort, the title track deservedly becoming a boffo C/W hit at a time where country hadn't yet traversed that dark road to the decadence factory like way too many other musical genres. True "Where Have All Our Heroes Gone?" gets into play-it-safe "Dawn of Correction" mode and tries to cover all sorts of bases (I don't get the feelin' that mentioning the Kennedys and Martin Luther King would have gone over with Anderson's audience the way bringing up Gene Autry and Douglas MacArthur did!), but it sure comes off fine as a talk/sing clarion call as to all of the wrong moves that have happened in Ameriga that we never really could nip in the bud even when the nippin' was good. An' lookin' at the miasma they call today I sure wish they did---sheesh, why didn't we listen to Spiro Agnew and Anita Bryant when we had the chance?!?! Lotsa great old time steel guitar and Anderson's soft voice that woulda guaranteed any South of the Mason/Dixon Line gal to lose all inhibition!

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Various Artists-VAULTAGE '79 - ANOTHER TWO SIDES OF BRIGHTON CD-r burn (originally on Attrix Records, England)

I was hoping for more. Like perhaps some hard-gnash 70s/80s cusp neo-Rough Trade experimental angular sounds, the sort of rock 'n roll that was captivating more'n a few hard-edged types during those rather crucial years. All I got on this 'un was some rather dippy neo-power pop (without the power or pop) and various lame stabs at some sort of rock expression that doesn't even have that much of a spark to begin with in order for it to fizzle out. If I ever go to England, remind me not to go to Brighton.

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Red Dark Sweet-JB's Down Under 4/26/85; JUNGLE CLE 8/10/86 CD-r burn

Oh man is this something that really brings back the memories of what was RIGHT with eighties under-the-underground rock 'n roll modes, music that we could still listen to and ENJOY TO ITS FULLEST years after much of the other stuff still seems stuck inna world of outdated hippie youth manifesto.

First track's a live medley starting off with that familiar Red Dark Sweet warmup "Reuben's Train" which merges into "What Goes On" complete with some amazing modal guitar lines before ending up somehow as "Sister Ray" or a neat variation thereof. The long spoken tracks from (I assume) Andrew Klimek and Charlotte Pressler might seem like denouement, and given how hard it was to follow what they (or at least Andrew) were saying maybe it was. But eh, I really like that World War II song Pressler sings to a pre-recorded backing, sorta a spirit-depressing number for a change!

The Pressler/Klimek back and forth goes on for quite awhile as that music tape plays in the background, Pressler channeling Patti Smith at her streetsiest while Klimek even gets into a big to-do with some heckler and does some rather caustic spoken threats cum prose himself! And it all ends with a long piece of musique concrete that Klimek mutters over leaving one with the strange impression that he's just waking up from one of those dreams ya get after taking too much Ny Quil the evening prior.

An' in case you don't get the drift---this is a rather neato change from the usual hard grind.

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Various Artists-ON THE BUMMER SIDE OF THE STREET CD-r burn (Bill Shute)

A needed surprise in my otherwise fanabla'd up life not only because of the return of the "Death Killers" (who do an ode to Homer Simpson tho whether they mean the cartoon character or the tragic doof of DAY OF THE LOCUST fame I dunno) but because of the needed surprises including a "Raunchy"-fied instrumental called "Switchblade" to some soul food gone Mejican entitled "Chitlins Con Carne". Sure ya get some guys doing their best to turn "She's Not There" into a sludge even worse than Santana did while the Rod Keith "song poem" ain't anything for you sophisticated urban snobs to snicker over, but things like the instrumentals "Prayer Meetin'" and"Blue Organ" not forgetting Lois Lee's nth grade Connie Francisisms and the downer garage of the Newcomers will have you doing cartwheels across the floor more than Procol Harum would have dreamed of! And considering how cooped up you muse be throwin' out your sacroiliac to this just might be the thing the doc did order!

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Yes, back issues of BLACK TO COMM can still be obtained with the mere flick of a keystroke! Bet you never knew that before! Do what dozens have done and illuminate yourself with long-forbidden rockism knowledge that has been SUPPRESSED for as long as this mag has fearlessly been striving to get the TRUTH out despite the well-funded efforts of those who have been trying to TEAR IT DOWN for the last sixtysome years. Get them, before they come to get you!

FANZINE REVIEW! PUNK #1 (reissue of 1976 magazine)

If you were too poor, too fetal, or in my case too stoopid (hey Jay, I can be "self deprecating" too!) to get this 'un way back 1976 way well, you've finally got that SECOND CHANCE that you've always wanted in life. And I sure did when John Holmstrom decided to once again put out the first issue of his own PUNK magazine, a rag that really started a whole lotta balls rolling and helped escalate a whole lotta local movement at a time when everything seemed just about right for rock 'n roll to move into its next phase. A phase which in many ways was for it to go back a few phases and sorta look things over...see what exactly WENT WRONG inna first place to the point where the Captain and Tennille were considered rock 'n roll while the Troggs probably hadda pay for cab fare after one of their concerts.

Hey, this is supposed to be a 40th ANNIVERSARY REPRINT but it's actually a good 45 years after the fact...you mean I really was too stoopid to get this thing when it was first unleashed a good half-decade back? Chalk up another case of terminal retarditis, but hey I finally got the thing and maybe I should gib myself some credit for being at least astute enough. I mean, I have no doubt that I WAS THE FIRST ONE ON MY BLOCK TO EVEN READ PUNK ANYWAY, so at least I have that little bit to console me in my old age.

Small ish, but packed with lotsa fun goodies some of which don't quite seem punkish enough to fit in. The Marlon Brando article is too downright intellectual/serioso to appear in these pages unless Pauline Kael wrote the thing under an alias and paid PUNK to print it. The METAL MACHINE MUSIC appraisal also had this style to it that would have been more fitting in some "journal of aesthetic new music" publication you used to see ads in OP for. Nice enough and even informative, but it is suitable for PUNK?

More up my expansive alley are the things that PUNK was best known for, like the Lou Reed interview with the fumetti and cartoons intermingling with the printed word, not to mention the interview with Sluggo of NANCY fame where Our Hero gets to spill his guts as to what really goes on once the ink dries and our favorite funny page characters go out and live lives of their own. The turd comic was good as well proving that I ain't the only person on the face of this earth that can be called "crude" (which Don Fellman believes is a rather pale description of some of my more sewer-level dives into the cesspool of life).

Its things like this that made PUNK such a great publication. Remember back inna seventies when things like NATIONAL LAMPOON could get away with some pretty risky humor mocking all sorts of sacred bovine that you just can't touch these days? Not to mention the likes of the original SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE which played loose with the rules as to what can or can't be satirized? Sure nowadays it's the everyday dude who arouses the ire of the better than thou crowd and has to pay for it repeatedly, but at least fortysome years back he could bask in the solace that while he was being razzed if only because he went to work and didn't attend cocktail parties so were the minorities and socially aware uplifters who now go out of their way to loathe the same people they claimed to have loved lo these many years. At least back then you knew that although you were getting berated incessantly via the television and newspapers, so were the Nelson Rockefellers and Betty Fords. That was back before political correctness and snowflakes began to metastasize themselves into modern living, but at least I once coulda licked my chops really good knowing that there were targets painted on the backs of the same Big City columnists who revel in our misery!

Anyway allow me to get off my soapy box... Not only was PUNK #1 a good beginning but it stands as a watermark in rock history as far as its coverage of rock as a hard-edged force in the lives of many went. Or at least rock as I always liked it---that wild, hypnotizing and feral sound that could even piss off the aforementioned twits who for once got a chance to prove just how tolerant they weren't. Fans of seventies rock fanzines should not be without this hi-quality reprint...for a copy why not write 219 E. 10th St., Apt. 4D, New York City 10003 and see what awaits.

RADIO SHOW REVIEW BY BILL SHUTE! BLACKSTONE, THE MAGIC DETECTIVE (Mutual Broadcasting System, 1948-1950)

Harry Blackstone (1885-1965) was for many years the most successful magician in North America, extending his stage magic success into movies, books, a comic book series, and this radio show, which is an adaptation of the comic book. It ran on Mutual for two seasons, and there are a number of shows (35+) floating around online, taken from surface-noise filled transcription discs.

As with western film star Tom Mix’s radio shows, we have a real person (Mix/Blackstone) played on radio by an actor. This Blackstone, like his comic book version, is not just a magician, but also a crime-solver, using his magic skills to trick and capture various con artists, thieves, phony spiritualists, and the like. He is teamed on the show with his assistant, Rhoda, who accompanies him on his detective cases on this show as well as in his magic act at theaters and nightclubs, as well as an announcer, Don, who feeds Blackstone questions and acts surprised and impressed at his brilliant tricks and deduction, while handling the traditional announcer chores.

Being a 15-minute show, things move quickly…in fact, the crime case featured in each show must only run about 11 minutes or so, since after a break when the case is closed, Blackstone offers to do a trick for his assistant and the announcer, and that takes up a few minutes until the show’s close.

Blackstone is played by Edwin Jerome, a florid old-school thespian in the vein of John Carradine or Les Tremayne, who does a great job in helping us to imagine a classy Blackstone in tophat and tails at some swanky nightclub doing his act.

On some level, doing magic on the radio is absurd, but so is doing ventriloquism on the radio, and Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy made that work. The magic element of the show, as well as the magic trick done at the show’s end, is described in a lot of visual detail, so you can easily “see” it in your mind’s eye.

It also helps that most of the shows were written by Walter B. Gibson, an acclaimed magician himself, author of a number of books on magic and occult phenomena, as well as ghostwriter of Blackstone’s own books. He also, as Maxwell Grant, wrote 300+ novel-length Shadow stories, many of which have been republished two-to-a-book (and are highly recommended….I’ve read a few dozen). The combination of his magic expertise and his skill at quickly-paced atmospheric mysteries as the Shadow author makes this show quite exciting and each episode packs a lot into it.

BLACKSTONE, THE MAGIC DETECTIVE radio episodes are available online from a few different sources, and they are a great way to kill time when you are stuck somewhere working, making dinner, folding laundry, whatever. The comic books are also highly recommended, and scans of those can be found online at Comic Book Plus. Three issues were published circa 1946, and their Blackstone-as-detective format inspired the radio show.

Speaking of Les Tremayne (see pic), you can experience him playing a top hat and tuxedo-clad magician (Dr. Basso) in Larry Buchanan’s 1967 film CREATURE OF DESTRUCTION, shot at a lodge on the shore of Lake Texoma in North Texas. Tremayne undoubtedly based some aspects of his Basso performance on Blackstone. That film is in the public domain, and thus available online, and it too is not to be missed.