Back in the 80’s, I had several ‘punk’ and ‘college radio’ bands that helped me get through the “hair metal” [though I had albums by a lot of those bands, too: Motley’s Girls Girls Girls, Whitesnake, Ratt and promo’s by lesser known bands; most of these have gone to Half Price. And I reiterate that I never heard the Sex Pistols or the Ramones until 1988]. Chief among these were R.E.M. [Reckoning through Document, the I.R.S. years, one of the best bands on the planet], the Replacements, the Long Ryders, Lone Justice, the Smithereens, and a band so vital to me my senior year in high school I almost formed a band with a girl who couldn’t sing. I was nowhere near as cool, but [in my first ever fit of Do It Yourself Punk] I thought I could be like John Doe, cause I sure wasn’t turning out to be Jimmy Page of Mick Jagger. Ultimately I never have written A song, let alone some as cool as John and Exene have graced us with over the years. The band is, of course, Los Angeles’ X.
In X, I find the same two or three elements everybody mentions: John Doe’s Americana influenced music writing. Billy Zoom’s speeded up Chuck Berry and Eddie Cochrane riffs and Exene’s “non traditional” approach to singing. [Thanks to Kristine McKenna, who wrote the liners to the new Los Angeles reissue for clearing that up. Doe offered “…Exene had never been in bands and didn’t have that traditional harmony in her head. So she just sang until something sounded right…” She also pointed out an influence I missed: Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers.] Always lost, I think, is DJ Bonebrake’s fantastic drumming. Powerful, yet never overplaying, DJ keeps everything right on.
My first encounter with X was on one of those after school video shows that popped up after MTV finally debuted. Only this one would have live bands on, too, to play a few songs. I can’t say for sure if that’s where those photos in More Fun In the New World come from, but that’s about what I remember. Unfortunately I couldn’t remember [or never did catch] their NAME; all I could remember was the song: “Blue Spark.” Also unfortunately, some band had a song called “Cool Sparks” which I knew as soon as I heard it was NOT the song I was looking for. The next time I found out about X when we were hanging out with guys a couple years below us when we were going into out senior year of high school. The guy who turned me on was Sanford Nowlin. Sanford was the original anarchist [pretty odd for a debater] and Sanford turned us on to bands we had never heard of like the Dead Kennedys [he had a great bootleg called A Skater Party or some such], Butthole Surfers, Fear [ah, Have Another Beer with Fear], the Cramps [Bad Music for Bad People] and X. [He had the Minutemen and Husker Du, too, bands I NOW wish I had asked about and started listening to then.] Sanford had More Fun in the New World, and I loved that record. I borrowed it so often, I probably wore his copy out.
Then, when I was working in the record store, I heard their new album: See How We Are, the first without Billy Zoom. Now I liked [and I STILL like] that record a lot. IT still had John and Exene and their great vocals and songs. I also picked up the disappointing Ain’t Love Grand about this time. Grand just didn’t have the energy I found on More Fun and See How We Are. The songs were merely okay and it never became a favorite, though I liked Burning House of Love. Next came the great Live at the Whiskey A Go-Go on the Fabulous Sunset Strip. I got a promotional cassette of that which I played until it was so dirty it was almost unlistenable. I finally bought the double LP in a cut out bin [when all the major record companies were dumping all of their vinyl stock] for $ 3.99. Last version of the CD I saw still cut off three songs.
Speaking of CDs, the cool thing about CDs 1986-oh, 1990, the record companies were not skittish about giving value for the money to get people to buy these new things. MCA and Motown in particular had aggressive “Two-fer” discs early on. Some of the great “two-fers” were having Joe Walsh’s The Smoker You Drink the Player You Get/ You Can’t Argue with Sick Mind on one CD, and Marvin Gaye’s great What’s Going On/ Let’s Get It On on one CD. {And I am sure the Parrotheads liked the Jimmy Buffet tow-fers.] Well whoever came up with the idea to put X’s Los Angeles and Wild Gift on the same CD deserved a raise. Since I had heard so much for so long about Los Angeles being the be all-end all of LA Punk, I bought the CD. LA is GREAT album; Wild Gift was a little more off the wall, but it has their second great almost pop song, White Girl. And while they were both good albums, I didn’t appreciate them as much until I got the remasters this week and really listened to them again about four times each in three days. Funny how a little “I haven’t heard that for a while, guess I’ll pop it in” can change your perspective. The whole first side of Wild Gift: Once Over Twice, We’re Desperate, Adult Books, Universal Corner and I’m Coming Over… wow, what a side.
Anyway, the last X I got was the one I looked and looked and looked for years to find. Why I never just spent 12 bucks for the damned CD just to get Under the Big Black Sun, I don’t know. But when I got it and put it on the turntable [read: not only is Chaz a music snob, he likes the dinosaur medium of vinyl.] I liked it almost as much as More Fun. Almost. Love The Hungry Wolf, Motel Room in My Bed, Riding with Mary and the closer The Have Nots. Great stuff.
Solo projects, other bands [well, I did like the Knitters album, but that was…1986?] and records since the end of the 80s I have not kept up with much. I had Meet John Doe for a while, but it wasn’t the same without Exene. I do get a kick out of seeing John in bit roles in movies, notably the drummer in the forgettable George Strait movie Pure Country. I have seen the band twice now, once with Tony Gilkyson [Nate, you were right, he did come from Lone Justice, though I did not see him listed on the two LJ albums] in 1993, and the re-foremed band with Zoom about six months ago [returning to Dallas first week of June 2003!]. The reformed band played at Trees and they played so loud that my eardrums were clipping [Note to self: Take ear plugs next time.]. But the show was great, 90 minutes of loud, sweaty, no bullshit rock and roll. And though I did not want to pogo around like I did at Superchunk [I blame it on the tequila shots] it was definitely a fun time. Zoom all shiny, a golden boy with that never fading smile. Doe beating the shit out of a beat up Fender bass and crooning. John and Exene going through the roof with those vocals and DJ driving it all like John Henry driving railroad steel. We even got to see a rare mistake by Zoom, to which Doe quipped “He does that once every fifty shows or so to see if we’re paying attention.” And I admit, I always thought Exene was a pretty girl in the same non traditional way as she’s a great singer. Seeing her closer up in a club didn’t change that for me at all.
And so I was driving around with my tape of Live at the Whiskey this week and I got a wild hair and went and bought the first four X remastered CDs.[I have not seen Ain’t Love Grand, which I will skip anyway, and they had See How We Are, but I am keeping the LP for sentimental reasons.] The remasters sound great and there are a lot of bonus live cuts or demo/ rehearsal cuts that make the Beyond and Back collection expendable [though that’s an ok overview of the band and it does have a version of Wild Thing, but nothing stacks up to the 12” single version of Wild Thing that my friend Marty had and lost at a party, though he still has the sleeve. Like finding the Cars' Hello Again on 12”, I keep searching.]. The new liner notes are well written and give a little insight, and all contain lyric sheets. I like to just sit and read the words sometimes and figure out how one comes up with a melody for words like “What about the Minutemen, Flesh Eaters, DOA, Big Boys and Black Flag?”, “Washing his feet with her tears, she’d dry them with her hair, among the undefiled, she’s gone wild” and “Dawn comes soon enough for the working class, it keeps getting sooner or later, this is the game that moves as you play.”
Unlike the Clash though, X has no hit singles to their credit and they are truly one of the great underground bands that may be lost to time, unless old farts like me keep pushing them on people [like me giving my LA/Wild Gift CD to a kid I know hoping he will listen and find something there like I did.]. I have found precious little written on the LA punk scene they came out of [We Got the Neutron Bomb by Marc Spitz and Brendan Mullen is about it.] compared to London and New York [Please Kill Me by Legs McNeil [et al] is a great read about the New York scene, Legs just letting the people tell the story through quotes; Neutron Bomb plays out the same way, though a little more haphazardly.] The LA scene is about to be written out of history. People need to know that something important happened in LA between the Eagles Hotel California and Steely Dan Aja and Fleetwood Mac Rumours albums and the rise of glam-metal [Crue, Guns N’ Roses]. It is doubtful there will ever be such a unique blend of musical styles crossroading in one band ever again.
Saturday, May 17, 2003
Stax v. Motown
Part of being a music snob is having the best collection of music ever in the history of the planet and “hating/envying” anyone who has a “better” collection than you. And getting together with other music snobs to trade notes, rolling your eyes and clicking your tongue at things they don’t have and making notes of things they tell you to keep your eyes peeled for.
So it should come as no surprise that I thought I scored big when I filled a bunch of holes in my collection a couple years ago when I found Elvis’ Gold Records [the original from 1957 or so, the only one you really need] some Eddie Cochrane and a Little Richard [which turned out to be “reprocessed for stereo for the first time”, so soaked in reverb that it was utterly unlistenable, since traded for a nice collection or Richard’s original Specialty sides]. But the major coup that day was filling holes in my Motown. I found best of records by the Four Tops and the Temptations, Jr. Walker and the All Stars and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Granted, I still have a hole with the early [pre Heard It Through the Grapevine] Marvin Gaye, but that just about filled my Motown need. Or so I thought.
I recently swapped the Blue Note Jazz box to acquire [don’t ask, don’t tell] both The Stax Box [1960-1974] and Hitsville USA: Motown 1959-1971. And friends, let me tell you, I have been LIVING 60’s soul for the last three or four weeks.
Now I hear the casual music fan asking “Why do you need eight hours of these songs when you can turn on the oldie goldie station and hear any one of about 3/5 of the Motown at any given time?” The first part of the answer is the Stax Box. Sure you hear SOME Booker T and the MGs and a couple Otis Redding songs and Sam and Dave’s big hits and Shaft and occasionally the Staple Singers, but about 85% of the Stax box is almost lost to the casual music fan. And while I find the Motown box dreadfully short on Marvin Gaye [and thankfully skips a lot of the Supremes], there are the things that don’t get played like Shorty Long’s Function at the Junction and The Bells by the Originals and Mary Wells’ Two Lovers.
But over the last few weeks, I have been really comparing the two side by side and really contrasting the two styles of two of the four biggest soul labels of the 60s. [The other two being Stax’s sister label Atlantic, who had Wilson Pickett record at Stax Studios in Memphis and Aretha Franklin at Muscle Shoals; and Cincinnati based King who distributed James Brown all through the 60s].
Let me start by saying I am SO GLAD that the house band at Motown, the self proclaimed Funk Brothers [most of who Berry Gordy knew from playing jazz] are finally getting some recognition for their contributions to the history of music. Not to take anything away from the great songwriters and producers, but the Funk Brothers lent a sound that came to define Motown. [Word has it they found the sound they liked and NAILED EVERYTHING IN THE STUDIO DOWN. Sadly, this point is not addressed in Berry Gordy’s very good autobiography To Be Loved. Perhaps somewhere else it is.] Unfortunately, the Mar-Kays and Bar-Kays [Stax’s house band] and the Muscle Shoals rhythm section do not get the same reverence, except by musicians and music snobs “in the know.” Well, except Duck Dunn and Steve Cropper, who also played with Booker T and the MGs.
Second, having heard these songs for 35 years myself, I can attest to the timelessness of these songs. Not having a lot of politics [CSNY Ohio “Tim soldiers and Nixon coming…” or a lot of Jefferson Airplane’s Volunteers. You think that newspaper looking cover was an accident?] or weird "flavor of the week" instruments like sitars and mellotrons helps a lot. [Are the Stones still trying to live down Their Satanic Majesties?] The songs are usually pretty simple "I need you, I can't have you, I love you, I miss you, why are we breaking up, why did you do me so wrong when I just wanted to love you, you better stay away from my man" kind of songs. Of course, there's William Bell's tribute to Otis Redding A Tribute to a King and the Staple Singers' gospel inspired songs. They are still songs you can relate to, which was what Berry Gordy was going for in the first place. You can still "have sunshine on a rainy day" [My Girl] and that same old song still has a "different meaning since you've been gone." Some of the songs, like most of Rufus Thomas' Stax sides [like Do the Funky Chicken and Walking the Dog and Can Your Monkey Do the Dog] and the Contours [First I Look at the Purse and the bane of Dirty Dancing Do You Love Me] are just pure fun in the great tradition of the Coasters [Charlie Brown, I'm A Hog for You, Poison Ivy]. But most are just great songs that you can snap your fingers and sing along to.
On the surface, the Motown is the easier of the two to digest. The instruments hang nicely and the vocals rise out like angels singing. Everything in its place. Everything just so darn perfect. Think back to The Big Chill when Harold [Kevin Kline] put on the Temps Ain’t Too Proud to Beg. Drums kick up boom ba dap dap dap, ride cybal and a tambourine [soul’s great secret weapon, the tambourine] holding the beat, then David Ruffin’s throaty vocals jump out: “I KNOW YOU WANT TO LEAVE ME” piano trill “BUT I REFUSE TO LET YOU GO” [trill, background whooooos, snare falling in] “IF I HAVE TO BEG AND PLEAD FOR YOUR SYMAPTHY, I DON’T MIND ‘CAUSE YOU MEAN THAT MUCH TO ME” then the bass and EVERYTHING falls in “AIN’T TOO PROUD TO BEG, SWEET DARLIN…’” Fifteen seconds into the song and the hook is set and they are realing you in like a five pound bass. There will be a few vocal tricks and some horns emphasizing beats after the first chorus, but you know everything you are going to need to know in that first 15 seconds. I used to read where Steven Tyler of Aerosmith used to tell his band “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus.” Well, this is where he learned that. Set it up and hit them over the head quick.
Take any song in the Motown catalog. I hit random on this disc. Jimmy Mack by Martha and the Vandellas [under-rated, by the way in the imporatnce of Motown, lost behind the Supremes, but held Motown on the charts before Diana Ross. Nowhere to Run, Dancing in the Street, [Love Is Like A] Heatwave, classics!] drum roll, hand claps “Jimmy mack, Jimmy, Jimmy Mack, when are you coming back?” dun dun DUN DUN. That’s it. 16 seconds in, and you know it all because they lead off with the chorus. That’s another Motown trick, opening with the chorus. "Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide"… "Baby, everything’s alright, uptight, clean out of sight"…. The Beatles only used that ONCE [Can’t Buy Me Love].
Random: Another lead with the chorus; not even a warm up drum roll here, you just put the needle down: “Standing in the shadows of love” bass thumping like a pony riding [Larry Graham of Sly and the Family Stone gets credit for inventing bass popping [think Thank You (falettinme be mice elf agin)], but I think James Jamerson knew about it, but couldn’t fit it into Motown’s sound.] “waiting for the heartaches to come…” drums and guitars kick in at 17 seconds. Now this song has an instrumental break between the verses and the chorus, where they just leave the tambourine and some conga drums going… boo boo pap boo do boo pap “Didn’t I treat you right now baby, didn’t I? Didn’t I do the best I could now didn’t I? Don’t leave me standing in the shadows of love…” Great subtle things that you can over analyize if you think too much about them.
Now Stax has a different feel. Motown pretty well equalizes the instruments and lets the vocals ride over top of everything. Stax emphasizes everything equally, so that the vocals are a little above, but fairly equal to the instruments. Stax empasized beats [or back beats, playing just behind the beat to emphasize it even further. Stax keesp a real Southern feel to things, leaning a bit more toward gospel and the blues than is evident in Motown The basic Stax style was set by Otis Redding’s Mr. Pitiful. Try this example: Tramp by Carla Thomas and Otis Redding. Kick drum, snare, set the beat. Carla: “Tramp.” kick smack; Otis:”What you call me?” “Tramp””You didn’t…”kick smak”You don’t wear continental clothes or a stetson hat” kick smak ”well I know one thing and I know I’M A LOVAAAHHH” and the horns, bass and guitar kick in, hitting that back beat, right behind the one, if y’all are countin’. 14 seconds to set that all up, too.
RANDOM: Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs. Starts off with the world’s most dangerous riff, played by an organ none the less, laying in just behind the the beat four times through, then the bass falls in then Steve Cropper falls in, not riffing along like Jimmy Page would, but hitting the one: chenk, two three four, chenk two three four, chenk… and it just bubbles along for two and a half more minutes with nice organ solos and Cropper hitting two and three note trills, forerunning all of Neil Youg’s guitar work. Takes a bit longer to set up than most others, but the payoff… sweet Jesus!
RANDOM: Do the Funky Chicken by Rufus Thomas. 8 seconds of Rufus clucking like a chicken and finally crowing like a big ol’ soulful rooster, then the band suddenly explodes for ten seconds then vamps behind Rufus as he works you like a good carnival barker [“Come on in, I got something to show ya…”], explaining the current dances then tells you how to do the funky chicken. Good simple fun.
RANDOM: Respect Yourself by the Staple Singers. Starting with a high bass and a sock cymbal [high hat] and then the keyboard and horn falls in behind Pops Staples; “If you disrespect…” then the sock lets up to just a snare and kick to hold the beat, then the rest of the singers kick in at 20 seconds… they weave you into this one instead of hooking you like a fish, but it’s just as effective.
Best records you never heard on the Stax Box: I Got A Good Thing by Ollie and the Nightengales [with Sam and Dave on backing vocals?] which set the basis for the whole Philly sound of the 70s. Big Bird by Eddie [Knock On Wood] Floyd. Built around a guitar riff and combination of horns almost as dangerous as Green Onions, Floyd with a nice reverb on his vocals: “Open up the sky… I’m comin’ up to you… so send down your wings…let them bring me to you…You know I’m standing in the station ready to go, big ol’ aeroplane, I’m trusting you so GET ON UP BIG BIRD…TO MY BABY’S LOVE…” It’s hypnotizing. And William Bell’s mournful Tribute to A Kiing, which chronicles Otis Reddings rise and tragic tragic loss. It’s every bit as heart wrenching as Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves A Woman.
Best records you never heard on Motown: My Smile Is Just A Frown [Turned Upside Down] by Carolyn Crawford. Could be a long lost Supremes track, but Crawford sings with a silky tremloed voice [think Chrissie Hyde, but not as nasal]. Has a vibraphone solo. Function at the Junction by Shorty Long. Beat driven, name calling paty song [“Got long tea Tom from China, long tall Sally from Carolina…”], could be a Marvin Gaye song if Marvin wasn’t so serious. Does Your Mama Know About Me by Bobby and the Vancouvers and Baby I’m for Real by the Originals. Two more tracks that set the tomne for the Philly sound of the 70s. Your Mama is a stringy syrupy ballad, equal parts Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You by Franki Valli and I Wish It Would Rain by the Temptations. I’m for Real is what Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes based their sound on. It’s a Shame by the Spinners. The Spinners would move to Atlantic and become big stars later in the 70s, but this is just a great cut, complete with the prominent Motown tambourine.
That’s it, I’m done raving on this for now. Picked up a book at Half Price tonight, The Stax Story, so I may have something to add later.
Part of being a music snob is having the best collection of music ever in the history of the planet and “hating/envying” anyone who has a “better” collection than you. And getting together with other music snobs to trade notes, rolling your eyes and clicking your tongue at things they don’t have and making notes of things they tell you to keep your eyes peeled for.
So it should come as no surprise that I thought I scored big when I filled a bunch of holes in my collection a couple years ago when I found Elvis’ Gold Records [the original from 1957 or so, the only one you really need] some Eddie Cochrane and a Little Richard [which turned out to be “reprocessed for stereo for the first time”, so soaked in reverb that it was utterly unlistenable, since traded for a nice collection or Richard’s original Specialty sides]. But the major coup that day was filling holes in my Motown. I found best of records by the Four Tops and the Temptations, Jr. Walker and the All Stars and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Granted, I still have a hole with the early [pre Heard It Through the Grapevine] Marvin Gaye, but that just about filled my Motown need. Or so I thought.
I recently swapped the Blue Note Jazz box to acquire [don’t ask, don’t tell] both The Stax Box [1960-1974] and Hitsville USA: Motown 1959-1971. And friends, let me tell you, I have been LIVING 60’s soul for the last three or four weeks.
Now I hear the casual music fan asking “Why do you need eight hours of these songs when you can turn on the oldie goldie station and hear any one of about 3/5 of the Motown at any given time?” The first part of the answer is the Stax Box. Sure you hear SOME Booker T and the MGs and a couple Otis Redding songs and Sam and Dave’s big hits and Shaft and occasionally the Staple Singers, but about 85% of the Stax box is almost lost to the casual music fan. And while I find the Motown box dreadfully short on Marvin Gaye [and thankfully skips a lot of the Supremes], there are the things that don’t get played like Shorty Long’s Function at the Junction and The Bells by the Originals and Mary Wells’ Two Lovers.
But over the last few weeks, I have been really comparing the two side by side and really contrasting the two styles of two of the four biggest soul labels of the 60s. [The other two being Stax’s sister label Atlantic, who had Wilson Pickett record at Stax Studios in Memphis and Aretha Franklin at Muscle Shoals; and Cincinnati based King who distributed James Brown all through the 60s].
Let me start by saying I am SO GLAD that the house band at Motown, the self proclaimed Funk Brothers [most of who Berry Gordy knew from playing jazz] are finally getting some recognition for their contributions to the history of music. Not to take anything away from the great songwriters and producers, but the Funk Brothers lent a sound that came to define Motown. [Word has it they found the sound they liked and NAILED EVERYTHING IN THE STUDIO DOWN. Sadly, this point is not addressed in Berry Gordy’s very good autobiography To Be Loved. Perhaps somewhere else it is.] Unfortunately, the Mar-Kays and Bar-Kays [Stax’s house band] and the Muscle Shoals rhythm section do not get the same reverence, except by musicians and music snobs “in the know.” Well, except Duck Dunn and Steve Cropper, who also played with Booker T and the MGs.
Second, having heard these songs for 35 years myself, I can attest to the timelessness of these songs. Not having a lot of politics [CSNY Ohio “Tim soldiers and Nixon coming…” or a lot of Jefferson Airplane’s Volunteers. You think that newspaper looking cover was an accident?] or weird "flavor of the week" instruments like sitars and mellotrons helps a lot. [Are the Stones still trying to live down Their Satanic Majesties?] The songs are usually pretty simple "I need you, I can't have you, I love you, I miss you, why are we breaking up, why did you do me so wrong when I just wanted to love you, you better stay away from my man" kind of songs. Of course, there's William Bell's tribute to Otis Redding A Tribute to a King and the Staple Singers' gospel inspired songs. They are still songs you can relate to, which was what Berry Gordy was going for in the first place. You can still "have sunshine on a rainy day" [My Girl] and that same old song still has a "different meaning since you've been gone." Some of the songs, like most of Rufus Thomas' Stax sides [like Do the Funky Chicken and Walking the Dog and Can Your Monkey Do the Dog] and the Contours [First I Look at the Purse and the bane of Dirty Dancing Do You Love Me] are just pure fun in the great tradition of the Coasters [Charlie Brown, I'm A Hog for You, Poison Ivy]. But most are just great songs that you can snap your fingers and sing along to.
On the surface, the Motown is the easier of the two to digest. The instruments hang nicely and the vocals rise out like angels singing. Everything in its place. Everything just so darn perfect. Think back to The Big Chill when Harold [Kevin Kline] put on the Temps Ain’t Too Proud to Beg. Drums kick up boom ba dap dap dap, ride cybal and a tambourine [soul’s great secret weapon, the tambourine] holding the beat, then David Ruffin’s throaty vocals jump out: “I KNOW YOU WANT TO LEAVE ME” piano trill “BUT I REFUSE TO LET YOU GO” [trill, background whooooos, snare falling in] “IF I HAVE TO BEG AND PLEAD FOR YOUR SYMAPTHY, I DON’T MIND ‘CAUSE YOU MEAN THAT MUCH TO ME” then the bass and EVERYTHING falls in “AIN’T TOO PROUD TO BEG, SWEET DARLIN…’” Fifteen seconds into the song and the hook is set and they are realing you in like a five pound bass. There will be a few vocal tricks and some horns emphasizing beats after the first chorus, but you know everything you are going to need to know in that first 15 seconds. I used to read where Steven Tyler of Aerosmith used to tell his band “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus.” Well, this is where he learned that. Set it up and hit them over the head quick.
Take any song in the Motown catalog. I hit random on this disc. Jimmy Mack by Martha and the Vandellas [under-rated, by the way in the imporatnce of Motown, lost behind the Supremes, but held Motown on the charts before Diana Ross. Nowhere to Run, Dancing in the Street, [Love Is Like A] Heatwave, classics!] drum roll, hand claps “Jimmy mack, Jimmy, Jimmy Mack, when are you coming back?” dun dun DUN DUN. That’s it. 16 seconds in, and you know it all because they lead off with the chorus. That’s another Motown trick, opening with the chorus. "Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide"… "Baby, everything’s alright, uptight, clean out of sight"…. The Beatles only used that ONCE [Can’t Buy Me Love].
Random: Another lead with the chorus; not even a warm up drum roll here, you just put the needle down: “Standing in the shadows of love” bass thumping like a pony riding [Larry Graham of Sly and the Family Stone gets credit for inventing bass popping [think Thank You (falettinme be mice elf agin)], but I think James Jamerson knew about it, but couldn’t fit it into Motown’s sound.] “waiting for the heartaches to come…” drums and guitars kick in at 17 seconds. Now this song has an instrumental break between the verses and the chorus, where they just leave the tambourine and some conga drums going… boo boo pap boo do boo pap “Didn’t I treat you right now baby, didn’t I? Didn’t I do the best I could now didn’t I? Don’t leave me standing in the shadows of love…” Great subtle things that you can over analyize if you think too much about them.
Now Stax has a different feel. Motown pretty well equalizes the instruments and lets the vocals ride over top of everything. Stax emphasizes everything equally, so that the vocals are a little above, but fairly equal to the instruments. Stax empasized beats [or back beats, playing just behind the beat to emphasize it even further. Stax keesp a real Southern feel to things, leaning a bit more toward gospel and the blues than is evident in Motown The basic Stax style was set by Otis Redding’s Mr. Pitiful. Try this example: Tramp by Carla Thomas and Otis Redding. Kick drum, snare, set the beat. Carla: “Tramp.” kick smack; Otis:”What you call me?” “Tramp””You didn’t…”kick smak”You don’t wear continental clothes or a stetson hat” kick smak ”well I know one thing and I know I’M A LOVAAAHHH” and the horns, bass and guitar kick in, hitting that back beat, right behind the one, if y’all are countin’. 14 seconds to set that all up, too.
RANDOM: Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs. Starts off with the world’s most dangerous riff, played by an organ none the less, laying in just behind the the beat four times through, then the bass falls in then Steve Cropper falls in, not riffing along like Jimmy Page would, but hitting the one: chenk, two three four, chenk two three four, chenk… and it just bubbles along for two and a half more minutes with nice organ solos and Cropper hitting two and three note trills, forerunning all of Neil Youg’s guitar work. Takes a bit longer to set up than most others, but the payoff… sweet Jesus!
RANDOM: Do the Funky Chicken by Rufus Thomas. 8 seconds of Rufus clucking like a chicken and finally crowing like a big ol’ soulful rooster, then the band suddenly explodes for ten seconds then vamps behind Rufus as he works you like a good carnival barker [“Come on in, I got something to show ya…”], explaining the current dances then tells you how to do the funky chicken. Good simple fun.
RANDOM: Respect Yourself by the Staple Singers. Starting with a high bass and a sock cymbal [high hat] and then the keyboard and horn falls in behind Pops Staples; “If you disrespect…” then the sock lets up to just a snare and kick to hold the beat, then the rest of the singers kick in at 20 seconds… they weave you into this one instead of hooking you like a fish, but it’s just as effective.
Best records you never heard on the Stax Box: I Got A Good Thing by Ollie and the Nightengales [with Sam and Dave on backing vocals?] which set the basis for the whole Philly sound of the 70s. Big Bird by Eddie [Knock On Wood] Floyd. Built around a guitar riff and combination of horns almost as dangerous as Green Onions, Floyd with a nice reverb on his vocals: “Open up the sky… I’m comin’ up to you… so send down your wings…let them bring me to you…You know I’m standing in the station ready to go, big ol’ aeroplane, I’m trusting you so GET ON UP BIG BIRD…TO MY BABY’S LOVE…” It’s hypnotizing. And William Bell’s mournful Tribute to A Kiing, which chronicles Otis Reddings rise and tragic tragic loss. It’s every bit as heart wrenching as Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves A Woman.
Best records you never heard on Motown: My Smile Is Just A Frown [Turned Upside Down] by Carolyn Crawford. Could be a long lost Supremes track, but Crawford sings with a silky tremloed voice [think Chrissie Hyde, but not as nasal]. Has a vibraphone solo. Function at the Junction by Shorty Long. Beat driven, name calling paty song [“Got long tea Tom from China, long tall Sally from Carolina…”], could be a Marvin Gaye song if Marvin wasn’t so serious. Does Your Mama Know About Me by Bobby and the Vancouvers and Baby I’m for Real by the Originals. Two more tracks that set the tomne for the Philly sound of the 70s. Your Mama is a stringy syrupy ballad, equal parts Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You by Franki Valli and I Wish It Would Rain by the Temptations. I’m for Real is what Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes based their sound on. It’s a Shame by the Spinners. The Spinners would move to Atlantic and become big stars later in the 70s, but this is just a great cut, complete with the prominent Motown tambourine.
That’s it, I’m done raving on this for now. Picked up a book at Half Price tonight, The Stax Story, so I may have something to add later.
Sunday, May 11, 2003
Guilty Pleasures?
So I was watching a repeat of the old Saturday Night Live, the original five years with Belushi, Ackroyd, et al, that run on E! I watch mostly to see the musical guests, though as I say, most of the interesting musical acts come from 79-82 or so, though Patti Smith was very good and Gilda gooning her with Candy and the Slices is classic [and on is reminded that even in the old “glory days” that there were skits that didn’t work]. Anyway, I am watching and Billy Joel comes on. A fully beared Billy Joel, right after The Stranger came out and does Just the Way You Are. So I start thinking, what happened to this guy? The Stranger, 52nd Street, Glass Houses, even Songs in the Attic and about 2/3 of the Nylon Curtain [Allentown, Laura, Pressure and Goodnight Siagon, what a side!] are classic albums. Then he meets Christie Binkley, makes An Innocent Man, which as a tribute to doo-wop is okay [I LIKE the song The Longest Time ]and … I don’t know. Did I grow beyond Billy Joel? Did what he was doing not trip my trigger anymore? I prefer to think Christie Brinkley ruined the guy so I don’t have to think about it, but that was a time when my tastes shifted…I did dig out the greatest hits I burned from my brother in law and listen to it a couple times. The songs I liked then I still like. But how often does one get an overwhelming urge to dig out Billy Joel? Or ELO, another band I loved back then. Does that qualify as an occasional guilty pleasure? Sometimes I like to dig out the ELO and listen to Showdown or Turn to Stone or side 3 of Out of the Blue, the Concerto for a Rainy Day.
While I am on the subject I might as well admit I like Missing Persons first record. A lot. I even bought it on CD. And I like Faster Pussycat. We all have bands we dig that are "uncool" to the other people we know. Hell, I still like the Goo Goo Dolls. I think Johnny Reznik writes a damn good pop tune, as good as anything Rick Nielson writes for Cheap Trick. I know some people I know might consider them fightin' words. Not that the Goos are as COOL as Cheap Trick, but if you're in a mood for sonmething crunchy and in a pop-ish vein... Hell, I can apreciate ABBA for what they do, write good pop songs with great vocal harmonies. I don't really care to listen to them for more than ten minutes in a row, but I can occasionally groove to Dancing Queen or Fernando. Or something as sappy as Rhinestone Cowboy or the Bee Gees Nights on Broadway or Jive Talkin'.. Not everyday mind you, but once in a great while. [Rhinestone reminds me of my uncle Bill.]
My point is this: We ALL have bands we like that no one else appreciates. I try to turn people on to them the same way Lester Bangs tried to convert people to the Stooges. But I undertsand that certain things are beyond some people. My firend Jim like great poppy three minute songs, but never like the early Who or Creedence Clearwater. I never understood why, but I let him live. And he never understood why I like the Grateful Dead doing a 23 minute version of Dark Star. Or Queen. But we found common ground. The important thing is the music anyway. Frank Zappa said being a critic is easy. "What you like is bitchen. What you don't, sucks." Frank had a lot to say, actually. He did hit the nail on the head when he said that when the music industry became the music business, it all went to shit. When it all became 'How many did you sell this time out?' it did go to shit. Think about this: when is the last time you read a negative record review? Someone just flat out calling a record puss? Reviewers are curbed so they don't piss off advertisers. [Yeah, still going over that Bangs biography, y'all.] Does anybody read magazines anymore? Anyone read Rolling Stone's record reviews anymore? Spin? Is there a market for anyone saying this is great and this is shit anymore? There must be because the Strokes and White Stripes continue getting lots of press. I just wonder who is reading them anymore. Because I quit reading Rolling Stone about 1993 [except the occasional Hunter Thompson piece.] when I realized it wasn't for me anymore. It was about fashion and advertising space. They were talking in the Bangs book about 'New Journalism' speared by HST, Tom Wolfe and the like. Is there any music journalism anymore? Or is it all fluff pieces? Is there anyone out there besides Buddyhead.com that will call a spade a spade?
So I was watching a repeat of the old Saturday Night Live, the original five years with Belushi, Ackroyd, et al, that run on E! I watch mostly to see the musical guests, though as I say, most of the interesting musical acts come from 79-82 or so, though Patti Smith was very good and Gilda gooning her with Candy and the Slices is classic [and on is reminded that even in the old “glory days” that there were skits that didn’t work]. Anyway, I am watching and Billy Joel comes on. A fully beared Billy Joel, right after The Stranger came out and does Just the Way You Are. So I start thinking, what happened to this guy? The Stranger, 52nd Street, Glass Houses, even Songs in the Attic and about 2/3 of the Nylon Curtain [Allentown, Laura, Pressure and Goodnight Siagon, what a side!] are classic albums. Then he meets Christie Binkley, makes An Innocent Man, which as a tribute to doo-wop is okay [I LIKE the song The Longest Time ]and … I don’t know. Did I grow beyond Billy Joel? Did what he was doing not trip my trigger anymore? I prefer to think Christie Brinkley ruined the guy so I don’t have to think about it, but that was a time when my tastes shifted…I did dig out the greatest hits I burned from my brother in law and listen to it a couple times. The songs I liked then I still like. But how often does one get an overwhelming urge to dig out Billy Joel? Or ELO, another band I loved back then. Does that qualify as an occasional guilty pleasure? Sometimes I like to dig out the ELO and listen to Showdown or Turn to Stone or side 3 of Out of the Blue, the Concerto for a Rainy Day.
While I am on the subject I might as well admit I like Missing Persons first record. A lot. I even bought it on CD. And I like Faster Pussycat. We all have bands we dig that are "uncool" to the other people we know. Hell, I still like the Goo Goo Dolls. I think Johnny Reznik writes a damn good pop tune, as good as anything Rick Nielson writes for Cheap Trick. I know some people I know might consider them fightin' words. Not that the Goos are as COOL as Cheap Trick, but if you're in a mood for sonmething crunchy and in a pop-ish vein... Hell, I can apreciate ABBA for what they do, write good pop songs with great vocal harmonies. I don't really care to listen to them for more than ten minutes in a row, but I can occasionally groove to Dancing Queen or Fernando. Or something as sappy as Rhinestone Cowboy or the Bee Gees Nights on Broadway or Jive Talkin'.. Not everyday mind you, but once in a great while. [Rhinestone reminds me of my uncle Bill.]
My point is this: We ALL have bands we like that no one else appreciates. I try to turn people on to them the same way Lester Bangs tried to convert people to the Stooges. But I undertsand that certain things are beyond some people. My firend Jim like great poppy three minute songs, but never like the early Who or Creedence Clearwater. I never understood why, but I let him live. And he never understood why I like the Grateful Dead doing a 23 minute version of Dark Star. Or Queen. But we found common ground. The important thing is the music anyway. Frank Zappa said being a critic is easy. "What you like is bitchen. What you don't, sucks." Frank had a lot to say, actually. He did hit the nail on the head when he said that when the music industry became the music business, it all went to shit. When it all became 'How many did you sell this time out?' it did go to shit. Think about this: when is the last time you read a negative record review? Someone just flat out calling a record puss? Reviewers are curbed so they don't piss off advertisers. [Yeah, still going over that Bangs biography, y'all.] Does anybody read magazines anymore? Anyone read Rolling Stone's record reviews anymore? Spin? Is there a market for anyone saying this is great and this is shit anymore? There must be because the Strokes and White Stripes continue getting lots of press. I just wonder who is reading them anymore. Because I quit reading Rolling Stone about 1993 [except the occasional Hunter Thompson piece.] when I realized it wasn't for me anymore. It was about fashion and advertising space. They were talking in the Bangs book about 'New Journalism' speared by HST, Tom Wolfe and the like. Is there any music journalism anymore? Or is it all fluff pieces? Is there anyone out there besides Buddyhead.com that will call a spade a spade?
Thursday, May 08, 2003
For the newly initiated, I have a nasty habit of championing bands that no one else much likes. Lots of late 60s/early 70s blues based people that you never heard of like Hot Tuna, Fleetwood Mac [before Buckingham and Nicks turned them into a monster. I LOVE Peter Green’s tone! My tape of Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac gets in the car and stays for weeks.], Johnny Winter and Rory Gallagher. I’ll never forget the first time I heard Rory. My uncle Mike recommended him as I was borrowing a lot of Johnny Winter at the time. So I taped Blueprint and Tattoo and held off listeniong for a week as I was going to Houston the next weekend. Well down around Centerville [half way] I put the tape in and Walk on Hot Coals blasts out of my speakers Dah dah du Dan dadaum dan “Well I lost my shirt in a card game in which I never had a chance…” and that was it. That was all I needed. I was hooked into this Irish slide guitar virtuoso that no one else knew or cared about. I mean, not like Johny Winter, the American slide guitar master was a household name mind you, either. An albino dude from Texas throwing down some of the meanest blues you’d ever hear? But I enjoyed a lot of Johhny’s work up to, oh 1976 or so. Yeah, after a while the blues can get repetitve and boring. Rory fell into a rut about the same time. The music became stale and predictable. I saw Johnny in 1994 or so with a girl who I am sure wasn’t into Johnny, but we went and he was doing just staright blues that night; no Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo or Still Alive and Well or Rollin Cross the Country [ROCKERS!} and we left after about an hour. Not that it wasn’t good, but I was hoping he would mix it up a little. Same problem with George Thorogood. He writes the same three songs every time and if you’ve heard it before you know what’s coming next: sax solo, slide play, over. The Stones write the same song over and over, too but they disguise it real well!
Anyway, the only reason I mention it at all is that I am having a big Hot Tuna flashback right now. Lots of fingerpicked guitar and Jorma’s always interesting electric work and Jack’s bass thundering under him with just the right sass or pocket. Jorma’s lyrics tend to be a little spiritual, too, not just “blues cliches.” I think that comes partially from the influence of the Rev Gary Davis, both on his guitar playing and much of the Hot Tuna catalog.And a touch of the Sixties zen and idealism. "You hope the roiad you follow will lead you to the sea / And you hope the time allows you to start to live free / But when the world is busy and the way is hard to see/ When tomorrow comes, will you remember?" Sometimes I don't even mind Papa John [S]Creech, but I don't lsiten to First Pull Up, Then Pull Down much, which is where I think he is most annoying. I guess they can bury him in the mix on Burgers. Actaully I think having a fiddle on that album works very well, but as I say they bury him during the verses.
Writing like this, re-reading Lester Bangs bio and the Psychotic Reactions and Carbeurator Dung collection. Can you do Letesr Bangs without the self destructive trip? Can you just let it blurt as it were? Would Lester have dug the internet? I think he would have dug it if he could do something like Buddyhead.com where he could just blast people and write whatever he felt. The internet is not the best medium for interviews and feature pieces, I think. Maybe he could have made it work, though I think Lester and a computer would have been like Lester and MTV: Do not mix. I think Lester would have howled righteous indignation at the hairspray metal of the eighties as NY Dolls ripoffs.
Anyway, the only reason I mention it at all is that I am having a big Hot Tuna flashback right now. Lots of fingerpicked guitar and Jorma’s always interesting electric work and Jack’s bass thundering under him with just the right sass or pocket. Jorma’s lyrics tend to be a little spiritual, too, not just “blues cliches.” I think that comes partially from the influence of the Rev Gary Davis, both on his guitar playing and much of the Hot Tuna catalog.And a touch of the Sixties zen and idealism. "You hope the roiad you follow will lead you to the sea / And you hope the time allows you to start to live free / But when the world is busy and the way is hard to see/ When tomorrow comes, will you remember?" Sometimes I don't even mind Papa John [S]Creech, but I don't lsiten to First Pull Up, Then Pull Down much, which is where I think he is most annoying. I guess they can bury him in the mix on Burgers. Actaully I think having a fiddle on that album works very well, but as I say they bury him during the verses.
Writing like this, re-reading Lester Bangs bio and the Psychotic Reactions and Carbeurator Dung collection. Can you do Letesr Bangs without the self destructive trip? Can you just let it blurt as it were? Would Lester have dug the internet? I think he would have dug it if he could do something like Buddyhead.com where he could just blast people and write whatever he felt. The internet is not the best medium for interviews and feature pieces, I think. Maybe he could have made it work, though I think Lester and a computer would have been like Lester and MTV: Do not mix. I think Lester would have howled righteous indignation at the hairspray metal of the eighties as NY Dolls ripoffs.
Tuesday, May 06, 2003
Random thoughts this week:
Anyone else see the VH1 classic albums Kiss Alive! show? Anyone else think Gene Simmons has the worst rug since How-Ard Co-Sell and that he and Paul should take off the stupid make up again now that they're pushing 60? And Gene's claim that Kiss Alive "changed the way the music indusrty viewed live albums..." BULLSHIT! All right, there wen't lots of double live albums that came out before except for the Grateful Dead, but I can think of a lot of good live albums that came out before Kiss Alive: J Geils Full House, the Stones Get Yer Ya yas Out, Rory Gallagher Irish Tour 74 [a great double set] Humble Pie Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore [ditto]... the Allman's Live at the Fillmore East [though I now cannot listen to 25 minutes of Whipping Post or You Don't Love Me No More, I can still hang with the side of Elizabeth Reed and Hot' Lanta.] Sure a few great sets came out around the same time, notably Frampton Comes Alive and Bob Seger's Live Bullet. Of course the came the awful: Aerosmith Live Bootleg, Seger's Nine Tonight Kiss Alive II.
Still, Gene Simmons needs to be brought back to reality. Live albums have been a tool to help bands struggling with record sales reach the market with an energetic reworking of their work. Take Cheap Trick At Budokahn. None of the Cheap rick albums are awful, [unlike Kiss Hotter Than Hell, say?] but the live album brought the energy of the stage show into the mix, although CT never mixed the best cheers and kept them running 100% of the time under the songs like Kiss did on their own live sets. Same for Foghat Live.
Headline on Launch: Bono excited about new U2 album. Big freaking deal. When has anyone come out and said "we're totally disgusted with the new album, y'all just skip it and buy more of the back catalog and come see the show when we come around, 'cause we make our money by touring." Well, maybe the Stones with Undercover.
Booker T and the MGs and Otis Redding catalogs available on lucious heavy VINYL and the sound GREAT! Also got a few Paul Butterfield's on HV. Nice. East -West a revelation. Waiting for Magic Sam and Little Feat this year [I hope].
Anyone else see the VH1 classic albums Kiss Alive! show? Anyone else think Gene Simmons has the worst rug since How-Ard Co-Sell and that he and Paul should take off the stupid make up again now that they're pushing 60? And Gene's claim that Kiss Alive "changed the way the music indusrty viewed live albums..." BULLSHIT! All right, there wen't lots of double live albums that came out before except for the Grateful Dead, but I can think of a lot of good live albums that came out before Kiss Alive: J Geils Full House, the Stones Get Yer Ya yas Out, Rory Gallagher Irish Tour 74 [a great double set] Humble Pie Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore [ditto]... the Allman's Live at the Fillmore East [though I now cannot listen to 25 minutes of Whipping Post or You Don't Love Me No More, I can still hang with the side of Elizabeth Reed and Hot' Lanta.] Sure a few great sets came out around the same time, notably Frampton Comes Alive and Bob Seger's Live Bullet. Of course the came the awful: Aerosmith Live Bootleg, Seger's Nine Tonight Kiss Alive II.
Still, Gene Simmons needs to be brought back to reality. Live albums have been a tool to help bands struggling with record sales reach the market with an energetic reworking of their work. Take Cheap Trick At Budokahn. None of the Cheap rick albums are awful, [unlike Kiss Hotter Than Hell, say?] but the live album brought the energy of the stage show into the mix, although CT never mixed the best cheers and kept them running 100% of the time under the songs like Kiss did on their own live sets. Same for Foghat Live.
Headline on Launch: Bono excited about new U2 album. Big freaking deal. When has anyone come out and said "we're totally disgusted with the new album, y'all just skip it and buy more of the back catalog and come see the show when we come around, 'cause we make our money by touring." Well, maybe the Stones with Undercover.
Booker T and the MGs and Otis Redding catalogs available on lucious heavy VINYL and the sound GREAT! Also got a few Paul Butterfield's on HV. Nice. East -West a revelation. Waiting for Magic Sam and Little Feat this year [I hope].
It seems one of my joys in music snob life is that every couple of years you run across an album that you missed somewhere that blows your socks off and you kick yourself for having missed it and wonder why no one else clued you in. The last one of these was the Bodeans Love & hope & Sex & Dreams, which I picked up about a year and a half ago and I promptly asked everyone I knew why no one clued me in on this record. Turns out most of them hadn't heard it either. Well I heard parts of it when it came out in 1986, but never bought it, though I got the Rainmakers and Rave Ups and the Long Ryders and Lone Justice about the same time....
Anyway, my most recent find, at the same shop, was an album by a band I was famiar with, but was in “stage 2” of the career after their singer and guitar player split. Yes folks, Joe Walsh before he was an Eagle, long before Life’s Been Good to me so far…, Joe Walsh was in a BAND called the James Gang [who did the hits Walk Away” and Funk #49 that show up on every JOE WALSH hits album.[And that drives me nuts like radio stations that play three ERIC CLAPTON songs in a row and play a CREAM, song in there and never play three full Cream songs together… that’s my own nitpicking little music snob pet peeve though… I digress…] If you don’t own the best Joe Walsh era James Gang, James Gang Rides Again, go get it now.
Well I found the “oft on my Amazon recommendations listed” Tommy Bolin-era James Gang, Bang. And let me tell you folks, this is a very nice album. Okay, it’s not Joe Walsh. And I love me some Joe Walsh [if you don’t own the brilliant, under-rated So What? go get that now, too.] And I like Tommy Bolin’s solo work, Teaser more than Private Eyes. And Tommy plays a lot of “Tommy Bolin” stuff on here, a nice touch of Jeff Beck meets Joe Walsh. Bolin’s slide guitar work on the album is excellent, mostly tasteful. It’s not ballsy and brash like Duane Allman and not thin and reedy like Johnny Winter, and not overpowering like Rory Gallagher can be. It fits nicely in the pocket at all times. I know Bolin used slide on his own records, but I wonder how much he had to learn to fill Wash’s shoes and how much his own knowledge made him the guy to replace Walsh. I don’t know enough about Bolin or the JG history to comment at this point. But Bolin adds a jazzy flavor like Jeff Beck would persue later in the decade. The singer I have never heard of, Roy Kenner. He has Walsh’s high range, not a nasal as Joe. He’s not a shouter like Paul Rogers of Bad Company or Lonesome Dave Peverett of Foghat or Steve Mariott of Humble Pie. He’s not ANNOYING like Dennis De Young of Styx or the wimp from REO Speedwagon [Kevin Kronin]. Frankly, the closest thing I can compare him to is Tom Johnston of the Doobie Brothers, though Johnson sings with more power. Basically, he’s unremarkable and I’m okay with that.
But the glue to the James Gang is the great interplay between Dale Peters’ bass and Jim Fox’s drums. These two guys can lock into a groove like nobody’s business, they play perfecrtly to the song [i.e. louder and pushy when they need to be and did SO WELL under Walsh, matching him power chord for power chord, and laid back and quiet when they need to be.] They don’t step on anybody’s toes and still let the song breathe.
So what makes Bang a great album? First off, Bolin penned a nice batch of songs, even if the thrid cut Must Be Love is very unremarkable. The album kicks off with a blast of echoing notes that a rake across the stings and suddenly the band hits you full force with a nice mid tempo, built for the stage rocker, similar to Frampton leading off Comes Alive with Something’s Happening or Bolin leading off Teaser with The Grind. Now I pause for a moment to ponder opening tracks: An opening track has to grab you by the balls and pull you into an album and one of the best bands on the planet for choosing opening songs is the Black Crowes. The list: Twice As Hard, Sting Me, Gone, Go Faster, Under A Mountain and Midnight from the Inside Out. These songs all kick hard and drag you into the second tracks. Other great openers: Rolling Stones: Brown Sugar [Sticky Fingers], Rocks Off [Exile on Main Street], Start Me Up [Tattoo You] Sad Sad Sad [Steel Wheels]; Iggy and the Stooges: 1969 [first], Down on the Street [Fun House] Search and Destroy [Raw Power]; and Humble pie kicking off Rock On with Stone Cold Fever.
The next cut, Devil Singing Our Song, is a nice Bad Co. type slow grinder ala Ready for Love. Must Be Love is followed by Bolin’s one lead singing appearance on the record, Alexis. It’s a nice softer, jazzy feeling song, cousin to BTO’s Blue Collar.
The second side has a real “James Gang” feel to it. It’s hard to describe this fell but I think in producing themselves, Fox and Peters took all the learned from Miami Bill Szymczyk [no that’s not a typo, look on many Joe Walsh albums and the Eagles greats Hotel California and The Long Run.] and applied them. Ride the Wind kicks off with the chords to I Love Rock and Roll , long before that was written, and it’s a nice mid tempo piece again, has a nice chorus with “it’s a great life” chanted behind it. Kind of a cousin to Tend My Garden on Rides Again. Has a nice Walsh style slide break where feel is more important then notes. Got No Time for Trouble is up next with nice acoustic touches and Grand Funk Closer to Home outro. Rather Be Alone is a short acapella break, a great touch to break up any boredom that might have been creeping in. From Another Time is a Sanatana inspired track, complete with great conga drumming by Fox and a nice Jeff Beck metts Carolos Santana solo, even though it lacks what Zappa called “The Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression.” And the album closes with a nice quiet song called Mystery where they pull out all the stops including strings [what inspires a rock band to put a bunch of high pitched violins on a song, I’ll never know, but it works, similar to Colage or Ashes, the Rain and I on other JG albums.
That’s it, no muss no fuss; no guitars on fire or singers spitting blood or guitar players too stoned to play, no 30 minute solos and no balloons shaped like penises needed. It’s not a set the world on fire record, there’s nothing dynamic or dramatic. It’s not the Who or Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd and it’s no bullshit HYPE either. It’s a nice slab of 35 or 40 minutes of good music that you can just put on any time and enjoy. You don’t have to be happy or sad or stoned to appreciate it. It’s nice, safe and middle of the road kind of like what Todd Rundgren was doing or the Doobie would do in a couple years. Check it out.
Anyway, my most recent find, at the same shop, was an album by a band I was famiar with, but was in “stage 2” of the career after their singer and guitar player split. Yes folks, Joe Walsh before he was an Eagle, long before Life’s Been Good to me so far…, Joe Walsh was in a BAND called the James Gang [who did the hits Walk Away” and Funk #49 that show up on every JOE WALSH hits album.[And that drives me nuts like radio stations that play three ERIC CLAPTON songs in a row and play a CREAM, song in there and never play three full Cream songs together… that’s my own nitpicking little music snob pet peeve though… I digress…] If you don’t own the best Joe Walsh era James Gang, James Gang Rides Again, go get it now.
Well I found the “oft on my Amazon recommendations listed” Tommy Bolin-era James Gang, Bang. And let me tell you folks, this is a very nice album. Okay, it’s not Joe Walsh. And I love me some Joe Walsh [if you don’t own the brilliant, under-rated So What? go get that now, too.] And I like Tommy Bolin’s solo work, Teaser more than Private Eyes. And Tommy plays a lot of “Tommy Bolin” stuff on here, a nice touch of Jeff Beck meets Joe Walsh. Bolin’s slide guitar work on the album is excellent, mostly tasteful. It’s not ballsy and brash like Duane Allman and not thin and reedy like Johnny Winter, and not overpowering like Rory Gallagher can be. It fits nicely in the pocket at all times. I know Bolin used slide on his own records, but I wonder how much he had to learn to fill Wash’s shoes and how much his own knowledge made him the guy to replace Walsh. I don’t know enough about Bolin or the JG history to comment at this point. But Bolin adds a jazzy flavor like Jeff Beck would persue later in the decade. The singer I have never heard of, Roy Kenner. He has Walsh’s high range, not a nasal as Joe. He’s not a shouter like Paul Rogers of Bad Company or Lonesome Dave Peverett of Foghat or Steve Mariott of Humble Pie. He’s not ANNOYING like Dennis De Young of Styx or the wimp from REO Speedwagon [Kevin Kronin]. Frankly, the closest thing I can compare him to is Tom Johnston of the Doobie Brothers, though Johnson sings with more power. Basically, he’s unremarkable and I’m okay with that.
But the glue to the James Gang is the great interplay between Dale Peters’ bass and Jim Fox’s drums. These two guys can lock into a groove like nobody’s business, they play perfecrtly to the song [i.e. louder and pushy when they need to be and did SO WELL under Walsh, matching him power chord for power chord, and laid back and quiet when they need to be.] They don’t step on anybody’s toes and still let the song breathe.
So what makes Bang a great album? First off, Bolin penned a nice batch of songs, even if the thrid cut Must Be Love is very unremarkable. The album kicks off with a blast of echoing notes that a rake across the stings and suddenly the band hits you full force with a nice mid tempo, built for the stage rocker, similar to Frampton leading off Comes Alive with Something’s Happening or Bolin leading off Teaser with The Grind. Now I pause for a moment to ponder opening tracks: An opening track has to grab you by the balls and pull you into an album and one of the best bands on the planet for choosing opening songs is the Black Crowes. The list: Twice As Hard, Sting Me, Gone, Go Faster, Under A Mountain and Midnight from the Inside Out. These songs all kick hard and drag you into the second tracks. Other great openers: Rolling Stones: Brown Sugar [Sticky Fingers], Rocks Off [Exile on Main Street], Start Me Up [Tattoo You] Sad Sad Sad [Steel Wheels]; Iggy and the Stooges: 1969 [first], Down on the Street [Fun House] Search and Destroy [Raw Power]; and Humble pie kicking off Rock On with Stone Cold Fever.
The next cut, Devil Singing Our Song, is a nice Bad Co. type slow grinder ala Ready for Love. Must Be Love is followed by Bolin’s one lead singing appearance on the record, Alexis. It’s a nice softer, jazzy feeling song, cousin to BTO’s Blue Collar.
The second side has a real “James Gang” feel to it. It’s hard to describe this fell but I think in producing themselves, Fox and Peters took all the learned from Miami Bill Szymczyk [no that’s not a typo, look on many Joe Walsh albums and the Eagles greats Hotel California and The Long Run.] and applied them. Ride the Wind kicks off with the chords to I Love Rock and Roll , long before that was written, and it’s a nice mid tempo piece again, has a nice chorus with “it’s a great life” chanted behind it. Kind of a cousin to Tend My Garden on Rides Again. Has a nice Walsh style slide break where feel is more important then notes. Got No Time for Trouble is up next with nice acoustic touches and Grand Funk Closer to Home outro. Rather Be Alone is a short acapella break, a great touch to break up any boredom that might have been creeping in. From Another Time is a Sanatana inspired track, complete with great conga drumming by Fox and a nice Jeff Beck metts Carolos Santana solo, even though it lacks what Zappa called “The Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression.” And the album closes with a nice quiet song called Mystery where they pull out all the stops including strings [what inspires a rock band to put a bunch of high pitched violins on a song, I’ll never know, but it works, similar to Colage or Ashes, the Rain and I on other JG albums.
That’s it, no muss no fuss; no guitars on fire or singers spitting blood or guitar players too stoned to play, no 30 minute solos and no balloons shaped like penises needed. It’s not a set the world on fire record, there’s nothing dynamic or dramatic. It’s not the Who or Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd and it’s no bullshit HYPE either. It’s a nice slab of 35 or 40 minutes of good music that you can just put on any time and enjoy. You don’t have to be happy or sad or stoned to appreciate it. It’s nice, safe and middle of the road kind of like what Todd Rundgren was doing or the Doobie would do in a couple years. Check it out.
Monday, May 05, 2003
The Clash
I first saw the Clash on Saturday Night Live during the Combat Rock tour. That was when I was learning about cool bands like Squeeze and the B-52s seeing them on SNL before SNL started REALLY sucking, also known as the Tim Kazurinski and Brad Hall years, which is how I missed the Replacements immortal appearance. Anyway, I don’t remember the first song they played that night, though I’ll bet it was Should I Stay or Should I Go, but I remember them coming out on the simulated Vietnam camouflage in fatigues. Skinny assed Mick Jones and Joe Strummer sporting a wide ass Mohawk playing Straight to Hell. Hypnotizing!
So a friend of mine got Combat from Columbia House [“12 records for just a penny!” (plus shipping and handling.] and then he needed money, so I bought it from him for five bucks [along with Rush’s Moving Pictures, for historical reference]. I just remember dropping the needle on side 1 and that cheng cheng cheng cheng “This is a public service announcement…. WITH GUITAR!!!!” and that’s all I needed to hear, I was hooked. That whole first side is pretty amazing with Red Angel Dragnet, Car Jamming and Know Your Rights. I don’t remember how long it took me to get to side two, and it starts off okay with Overpowered by Funk and Atom Tan, but Sean Flynn and Inoculated City???
But no one I knew had anymore Clash, so I let them go for a few years. Somewhere I bought the brilliant first Big Audio, This Is Big Audio Dynamite in there, but I didn’t really make any connection between Mick Jones’ BAD and the Clash. I started working at Sound Warehouse in 1987, before they became Blockbuster Music and then Wherehouse Music [currently in bankruptcy, and it couldn’t happen to a nice bunch of folks considering they charged list price for CDs, 13.99 for midline and 17.99 for current titles.] Aside from hearing the second Big Audio [No. 10 Upping Street] that reunited, temporarily at least, Joe Strummer and Mick Jones [thought the significance of this reunion was unknown to me at the time], I started hanging around with Scott Downey. That silly fucker would walk around all the time; “Spanish bombs, oh my corazon!” Well, we finally found out where he lived and crashed his pad, the we got invitied to hang out and he’d play side 2 of London Calling with Spanish Bombs, Right Profile, Lost in the Supermarket…great stuff to expose to a 20 year old kid with ears wide open, I’ll tell ya. Eventually I bought a copy and found lost treasures on the other sides: Brand New Cadillac, Rudie Can’t Fail, Death or Glory and the haunting Train in Vain, which I knew as the last song played on John LaBella’s shift the day he left the morning show at KZEW, effectively driving the first nail in the death of Dallas radio.
But all good things must end and I got fired and Scott graduated college and went on active duty for Uncle Sam. When he shipped out to Fort Campbell to ranger school, left me two things: his Who/Pete Townshend collage he had made in high school and his copy of Sandinista, both of which I am still “just holding on to until he calls for them.” Sandinista, where it is good, is VERY good. But it’s too long. Still, it has great moments like Somebody Got Murdered, Police on My Back, Lightning Strikes and Charlie Don’t Surf.
Strangely, I never bought the first two Clash, though I know I had the first one in my hands several times. I never really discovered that stuff until I got the Clash on Broadway box set. That’s really about all early stuff I need like London’s Burning, White Man in Hammersmith Palais, Tommy Gun and Capital Radio One. Plus it has Bankrobber [once referenced by a record company genius as “All of David Bowie’s records played backwards,” but one of my favorite cuts none the less]and Armagideon Time and the “Cost of Living” EP with the positively cheerful Groovy Times. Positively great set and if I had to sell all my other Clash in a pinch, I could live with just that set, though it doesn’t have Know Your Rights or Car Jamming.
Fast forwarding from 1989 to 2003: I have a framed picture of Joe Strummer on my desk at work. What I had was several photos from a British punk magazine of Joe and Elvis and the Ramones I was rotating out with my Mario Lemiuex. Just to see if anyone would notice that I was changing the photographs. When I had first put Joe into the frame, I also typed up the lyrics to Death or Glory to put up there. When I read about Joe’s passing, I put him in the frame again and it’s just kind of stayed there [picture frame falling down and all, cheap cardboard stand on the back taped and re-taped] while the Elvis and Ramones got pinned up. It’s a picture from oh, 1979 I would guess, Joe just screaming into the microphone with a very thin Paul Simonon in the foreground. I look up and I read the lyrics, somehow thinking they reflect Peter Townshend’s famous “Hope I die before I get old” to the punk bands as much as it reflects the “get off the road you old farts” to the Zeppelins and Pink Floyds. And maybe, just maybe, Joe was talking to himself [and his mates as well].
“Now every gimmick hungry yob digging gold from rock and roll/ grabs the mike to tell us how he’ll die before he’s sold / But I believe in this and it’s been tested by research / That he who fucks nuns will later join the church…In every dingy basement on every dingy street / I hear every dragging handclap on every dragging beat / It’s just the beat of time, the time that must go on / If you’ve been trying hard for years, we all ready heard your song…”
I think about the Clash now and I miss the immediacy of their music. Only the Clash could put out Capital Radio One digging at the BBC for not playing the Sex Pistols [especially since God Save the Queen was a number one selling record] or really themselves or any of the punks. Elvis Costello merely sneered at the system he was so disgusted with on Radio, Radio, but listen to Joe screaming at the end of Capital Radio: “DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL! DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL! DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL!” like his life depended on you not touching that dial. Of course, Elvis did sneak in “anethistithize” into a song, but the Clash were more street smart punks anyway. Elvis’ music was dark where the Clash at least sounded like they were having fun. And they played together as a unit; four guys, one front. They weren’t going to keep talented but sometimes blowhard bands like Yes or King Crimson awake at night, but that was the point, wasn’t it? Besides, they knew enough to get their message across.
The Pistols were doomed from the start. They offered no solutions and they never grew together as a unit like the Clash did. They doomed themselves by having a high profile and swearing on television and generally being the lightning rod for anything “punk.” They turned themselves into cartoons. Plus they were Malcolm McLaren’s marionettes. Malcolm proved he could put a unit together and get it noticed, but beyond that, what did it really get him? Of course, there needed to be a galvanizing force in the movement and the Pistols were that. Like him or not, you weren’t going to ignore Johnny Rotten/Lydon spitting out “God save the Queen/ the fascist regime” like he had a mouth full of cobra venom he wanted to personally spit in the Queen’s face. Expectation killed the Pistols; they couldn’t live up to their hype. Lydon’s irony didn’t play well in Middle America, like Oklahoma, where they at least got the lowest common denominator and the “threat” ensconced in the idea of “punk,” even though most rednecks just wanted to prove their machismo by beating the shit out of someone named Sid Vicious. And it hasn’t aged very well at all. Strummer and company were lucky enough to fly under the radar or hide in the shadow that the Pistols cast. By NOT being the Pistols, they were allowed to just be another band with not many expectations [even though they were linked to the Pistols and labeled one of those “punk” bands] and no price on their heads.
The other thing so striking about the Clash, even now, is how much growth the band showed in their five year run. Like the Beatles, they grew up fast and embraced and incorporated everything they found: rap, dub, reggae, funk and good old fashioned rock and roll, and they cranked it back out with their own spin on it. If you didn’t like what the Clash were doing with one song, chances are the next would have a little different flavor to it. And the punk bands that progressed beyond three chord venom and “anti- everything” Rebel Without a Cause posing, grew to be decent middle level bands. Bands like the Jam, the Buzzcocks [who were really pretty melodic anyway], the Pretenders [who really might have been the first true “new wave” band] and Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Oh, and the Police! [Yes, their first single, Fallout, pre- Andy Summers, very punk!]
They weren’t meant to last, though. Just like the punk explosion and subsequent implosion, the Clash came in, said their peace and scattered. Topper’s arrests, Mick’s desire to move to the next level or Paul and Joe’s refusal [or desire] not to entertain Mick’s ambitions all contributed to the sudden decline in the band’s spirit. Perhaps they are one of the few bands that really did break up over “musical and philosophical differences.” Re-reading the Clash bio Last Gang in Town, we see the band realizing that they were gonna have to get more “commercial” to sell records; i.e. no more Sandinistas. Mick was very bitter that his 2 Lp mix for Combat was given to Glynn Johns to pare down and tighten up, which is kind of ironic considering how commercial Big Audio Dynamite’s records [well, first few anyway] would be. They toured with the Who after Combat with Terry Chimes on drummer after Topper was arrested in England. Strummer said on the semi-famous MTV interview that once Topper was gone, it wasn’t the same, that it “was never gonna buuuuuurrrrrn like it did before.” Maybe watching that multi-headed monster like the Who showed them that it was time to cash it in; “We’re gonna be like that in five years? Fuck that!!!” Or did they look at each other after seeing Combat climb the charts and figure that was as good as it was going to get? Or was it the dread of having to go in and create something that people would expect something equaling or better than Combat? [I point out at this moment that I conveniently delete the absolutely terrible post-Jones album Cut the Crap the same way one deletes the Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison-less Velvet Underground album from 1972 or so, or the two records the Doors made after Jim Morrison died.]
Still, what they did in their five years though stands as a musical legacy that many bands would be proud to have. From the energy of London’s Burning and Hate and War, to the maturity of London Calling with the slick and the beautiful [Lost in the Supermarket, The Card Cheat] alongside the slashing [Death or Glory, Clampdown] to the overpowering funkiness of Sandinista and the commercial pinnacle of Combat Rock. In five years they grew from young loud and snotty to leaders of a movement, musical pioneers for the new decade, and just when it seemed ready to bust open big, they shut it down. It did keep the name [mostly] from becoming tarnished by decay and ever changing members and shattered expectations from trying to follow up their most successful work. Still, sometimes it feels like it’s incomplete, still a work in progress, though now the chance to complete the legacy, to bring it full circle, is now obviously gone.
The sad part of the Clash legacy is that it is almost lost. Sure, radio will play Should I Stay or Should I Go and Rock the Casbah once in a while, [mostly on your 80s Saturday night flashback show] but the Clash could be lost in the grand history of rock and roll as a “one hit wonder.” Yes, there will also be the occasional kid curious about the “original punks,” but that kid will more likely be sent to get Sex Pistols or Ramones record than the Clash. The Clash “hits” don’t sound like “punk” to todays Green Day/ Rancid / Nirvana / Offspring “punk” kids, and they will not hear the really edgy early stuff [Tommy Gun, Safe European Home, Capital Radio One, White Riot, London’s Burning] on the radio. Strummer and company will be nothing more than one more record collecting dust in their parents closets until they move the folks into the retirement community and take the records to the dupmster or over to Half Price for a couple of bucks. Yes, the Clash also got a bit of a name boost when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which CBS/ Sony took advantage of to repackage the Clash YET AGAIN, this time in The Essential Clash. Unfortunately the Clash weren’t big enough and they didn’t make enough of a cultural impact on their own so that they will always be in the musical / rock and roll consciousness they way the Beatles or the Rolling Stones or Nirvana will. Or even in the infamous way the Sex Pistols always will. Sad to think that a great band can be just a musical footnote.
I first saw the Clash on Saturday Night Live during the Combat Rock tour. That was when I was learning about cool bands like Squeeze and the B-52s seeing them on SNL before SNL started REALLY sucking, also known as the Tim Kazurinski and Brad Hall years, which is how I missed the Replacements immortal appearance. Anyway, I don’t remember the first song they played that night, though I’ll bet it was Should I Stay or Should I Go, but I remember them coming out on the simulated Vietnam camouflage in fatigues. Skinny assed Mick Jones and Joe Strummer sporting a wide ass Mohawk playing Straight to Hell. Hypnotizing!
So a friend of mine got Combat from Columbia House [“12 records for just a penny!” (plus shipping and handling.] and then he needed money, so I bought it from him for five bucks [along with Rush’s Moving Pictures, for historical reference]. I just remember dropping the needle on side 1 and that cheng cheng cheng cheng “This is a public service announcement…. WITH GUITAR!!!!” and that’s all I needed to hear, I was hooked. That whole first side is pretty amazing with Red Angel Dragnet, Car Jamming and Know Your Rights. I don’t remember how long it took me to get to side two, and it starts off okay with Overpowered by Funk and Atom Tan, but Sean Flynn and Inoculated City???
But no one I knew had anymore Clash, so I let them go for a few years. Somewhere I bought the brilliant first Big Audio, This Is Big Audio Dynamite in there, but I didn’t really make any connection between Mick Jones’ BAD and the Clash. I started working at Sound Warehouse in 1987, before they became Blockbuster Music and then Wherehouse Music [currently in bankruptcy, and it couldn’t happen to a nice bunch of folks considering they charged list price for CDs, 13.99 for midline and 17.99 for current titles.] Aside from hearing the second Big Audio [No. 10 Upping Street] that reunited, temporarily at least, Joe Strummer and Mick Jones [thought the significance of this reunion was unknown to me at the time], I started hanging around with Scott Downey. That silly fucker would walk around all the time; “Spanish bombs, oh my corazon!” Well, we finally found out where he lived and crashed his pad, the we got invitied to hang out and he’d play side 2 of London Calling with Spanish Bombs, Right Profile, Lost in the Supermarket…great stuff to expose to a 20 year old kid with ears wide open, I’ll tell ya. Eventually I bought a copy and found lost treasures on the other sides: Brand New Cadillac, Rudie Can’t Fail, Death or Glory and the haunting Train in Vain, which I knew as the last song played on John LaBella’s shift the day he left the morning show at KZEW, effectively driving the first nail in the death of Dallas radio.
But all good things must end and I got fired and Scott graduated college and went on active duty for Uncle Sam. When he shipped out to Fort Campbell to ranger school, left me two things: his Who/Pete Townshend collage he had made in high school and his copy of Sandinista, both of which I am still “just holding on to until he calls for them.” Sandinista, where it is good, is VERY good. But it’s too long. Still, it has great moments like Somebody Got Murdered, Police on My Back, Lightning Strikes and Charlie Don’t Surf.
Strangely, I never bought the first two Clash, though I know I had the first one in my hands several times. I never really discovered that stuff until I got the Clash on Broadway box set. That’s really about all early stuff I need like London’s Burning, White Man in Hammersmith Palais, Tommy Gun and Capital Radio One. Plus it has Bankrobber [once referenced by a record company genius as “All of David Bowie’s records played backwards,” but one of my favorite cuts none the less]and Armagideon Time and the “Cost of Living” EP with the positively cheerful Groovy Times. Positively great set and if I had to sell all my other Clash in a pinch, I could live with just that set, though it doesn’t have Know Your Rights or Car Jamming.
Fast forwarding from 1989 to 2003: I have a framed picture of Joe Strummer on my desk at work. What I had was several photos from a British punk magazine of Joe and Elvis and the Ramones I was rotating out with my Mario Lemiuex. Just to see if anyone would notice that I was changing the photographs. When I had first put Joe into the frame, I also typed up the lyrics to Death or Glory to put up there. When I read about Joe’s passing, I put him in the frame again and it’s just kind of stayed there [picture frame falling down and all, cheap cardboard stand on the back taped and re-taped] while the Elvis and Ramones got pinned up. It’s a picture from oh, 1979 I would guess, Joe just screaming into the microphone with a very thin Paul Simonon in the foreground. I look up and I read the lyrics, somehow thinking they reflect Peter Townshend’s famous “Hope I die before I get old” to the punk bands as much as it reflects the “get off the road you old farts” to the Zeppelins and Pink Floyds. And maybe, just maybe, Joe was talking to himself [and his mates as well].
“Now every gimmick hungry yob digging gold from rock and roll/ grabs the mike to tell us how he’ll die before he’s sold / But I believe in this and it’s been tested by research / That he who fucks nuns will later join the church…In every dingy basement on every dingy street / I hear every dragging handclap on every dragging beat / It’s just the beat of time, the time that must go on / If you’ve been trying hard for years, we all ready heard your song…”
I think about the Clash now and I miss the immediacy of their music. Only the Clash could put out Capital Radio One digging at the BBC for not playing the Sex Pistols [especially since God Save the Queen was a number one selling record] or really themselves or any of the punks. Elvis Costello merely sneered at the system he was so disgusted with on Radio, Radio, but listen to Joe screaming at the end of Capital Radio: “DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL! DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL! DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL!” like his life depended on you not touching that dial. Of course, Elvis did sneak in “anethistithize” into a song, but the Clash were more street smart punks anyway. Elvis’ music was dark where the Clash at least sounded like they were having fun. And they played together as a unit; four guys, one front. They weren’t going to keep talented but sometimes blowhard bands like Yes or King Crimson awake at night, but that was the point, wasn’t it? Besides, they knew enough to get their message across.
The Pistols were doomed from the start. They offered no solutions and they never grew together as a unit like the Clash did. They doomed themselves by having a high profile and swearing on television and generally being the lightning rod for anything “punk.” They turned themselves into cartoons. Plus they were Malcolm McLaren’s marionettes. Malcolm proved he could put a unit together and get it noticed, but beyond that, what did it really get him? Of course, there needed to be a galvanizing force in the movement and the Pistols were that. Like him or not, you weren’t going to ignore Johnny Rotten/Lydon spitting out “God save the Queen/ the fascist regime” like he had a mouth full of cobra venom he wanted to personally spit in the Queen’s face. Expectation killed the Pistols; they couldn’t live up to their hype. Lydon’s irony didn’t play well in Middle America, like Oklahoma, where they at least got the lowest common denominator and the “threat” ensconced in the idea of “punk,” even though most rednecks just wanted to prove their machismo by beating the shit out of someone named Sid Vicious. And it hasn’t aged very well at all. Strummer and company were lucky enough to fly under the radar or hide in the shadow that the Pistols cast. By NOT being the Pistols, they were allowed to just be another band with not many expectations [even though they were linked to the Pistols and labeled one of those “punk” bands] and no price on their heads.
The other thing so striking about the Clash, even now, is how much growth the band showed in their five year run. Like the Beatles, they grew up fast and embraced and incorporated everything they found: rap, dub, reggae, funk and good old fashioned rock and roll, and they cranked it back out with their own spin on it. If you didn’t like what the Clash were doing with one song, chances are the next would have a little different flavor to it. And the punk bands that progressed beyond three chord venom and “anti- everything” Rebel Without a Cause posing, grew to be decent middle level bands. Bands like the Jam, the Buzzcocks [who were really pretty melodic anyway], the Pretenders [who really might have been the first true “new wave” band] and Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Oh, and the Police! [Yes, their first single, Fallout, pre- Andy Summers, very punk!]
They weren’t meant to last, though. Just like the punk explosion and subsequent implosion, the Clash came in, said their peace and scattered. Topper’s arrests, Mick’s desire to move to the next level or Paul and Joe’s refusal [or desire] not to entertain Mick’s ambitions all contributed to the sudden decline in the band’s spirit. Perhaps they are one of the few bands that really did break up over “musical and philosophical differences.” Re-reading the Clash bio Last Gang in Town, we see the band realizing that they were gonna have to get more “commercial” to sell records; i.e. no more Sandinistas. Mick was very bitter that his 2 Lp mix for Combat was given to Glynn Johns to pare down and tighten up, which is kind of ironic considering how commercial Big Audio Dynamite’s records [well, first few anyway] would be. They toured with the Who after Combat with Terry Chimes on drummer after Topper was arrested in England. Strummer said on the semi-famous MTV interview that once Topper was gone, it wasn’t the same, that it “was never gonna buuuuuurrrrrn like it did before.” Maybe watching that multi-headed monster like the Who showed them that it was time to cash it in; “We’re gonna be like that in five years? Fuck that!!!” Or did they look at each other after seeing Combat climb the charts and figure that was as good as it was going to get? Or was it the dread of having to go in and create something that people would expect something equaling or better than Combat? [I point out at this moment that I conveniently delete the absolutely terrible post-Jones album Cut the Crap the same way one deletes the Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison-less Velvet Underground album from 1972 or so, or the two records the Doors made after Jim Morrison died.]
Still, what they did in their five years though stands as a musical legacy that many bands would be proud to have. From the energy of London’s Burning and Hate and War, to the maturity of London Calling with the slick and the beautiful [Lost in the Supermarket, The Card Cheat] alongside the slashing [Death or Glory, Clampdown] to the overpowering funkiness of Sandinista and the commercial pinnacle of Combat Rock. In five years they grew from young loud and snotty to leaders of a movement, musical pioneers for the new decade, and just when it seemed ready to bust open big, they shut it down. It did keep the name [mostly] from becoming tarnished by decay and ever changing members and shattered expectations from trying to follow up their most successful work. Still, sometimes it feels like it’s incomplete, still a work in progress, though now the chance to complete the legacy, to bring it full circle, is now obviously gone.
The sad part of the Clash legacy is that it is almost lost. Sure, radio will play Should I Stay or Should I Go and Rock the Casbah once in a while, [mostly on your 80s Saturday night flashback show] but the Clash could be lost in the grand history of rock and roll as a “one hit wonder.” Yes, there will also be the occasional kid curious about the “original punks,” but that kid will more likely be sent to get Sex Pistols or Ramones record than the Clash. The Clash “hits” don’t sound like “punk” to todays Green Day/ Rancid / Nirvana / Offspring “punk” kids, and they will not hear the really edgy early stuff [Tommy Gun, Safe European Home, Capital Radio One, White Riot, London’s Burning] on the radio. Strummer and company will be nothing more than one more record collecting dust in their parents closets until they move the folks into the retirement community and take the records to the dupmster or over to Half Price for a couple of bucks. Yes, the Clash also got a bit of a name boost when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which CBS/ Sony took advantage of to repackage the Clash YET AGAIN, this time in The Essential Clash. Unfortunately the Clash weren’t big enough and they didn’t make enough of a cultural impact on their own so that they will always be in the musical / rock and roll consciousness they way the Beatles or the Rolling Stones or Nirvana will. Or even in the infamous way the Sex Pistols always will. Sad to think that a great band can be just a musical footnote.
Sunday, May 04, 2003
You think this is easy? You try being the smartest smart ass and declare yourself a music guru. Answer lots of odd trivia about the Beatles White Album and who WASN'T in the Woodstock film and who was the first "punk" band. [It's probably the Stooges, but I have never heard the MC5... The Velvets were too arty. They used a VIOLA for God's sake. Try to figure out why you lost touch with rock and roll after Nirvana came out? Is it because everything sounded like everything else and the breakups or crappy records my favorites? Thought that Cobain was a dipshit being touted as the next "spokesman for his generation" and got turned off by all the losers who bought into the myth? Looked at all that flannel and thought "Not for me?"
That's not exactly true about losing touch. But my tastes changed. I still had fun bands like the Goo Goo Dolls [Superstar Car Wash was briiliant, and I still like them] Superchunk and the Foo Fighters. But I turned backwards. Working in a record store that specialized in vinyl and had an older crowd that was more into Motown and Little Feat and Humble Pie and Bootsy probably drove me back to the 70s music, where I still buy a lot of things...
Well I hope to touch more on issues like this. Debate. Discuss. But first up, my sample piece: The Clash.
That's not exactly true about losing touch. But my tastes changed. I still had fun bands like the Goo Goo Dolls [Superstar Car Wash was briiliant, and I still like them] Superchunk and the Foo Fighters. But I turned backwards. Working in a record store that specialized in vinyl and had an older crowd that was more into Motown and Little Feat and Humble Pie and Bootsy probably drove me back to the 70s music, where I still buy a lot of things...
Well I hope to touch more on issues like this. Debate. Discuss. But first up, my sample piece: The Clash.