Random Record Revisited:

Johnny Winter And [1970]

   I’ve been on a little Johnny Winter jag, learning to play Mean Town Blues from his debut The Progressive Blues Experiment but I thought I’d reach for this one today.

   After two and half records [Second Winter is a three sided LP] of his own style of gut bucket blues and roots rock, Johnny Winter teamed up with the remains of the McCoys [yes, the Hang On Sloopy McCoys] becoming Johnny Winter And. Guitarist Rick Derringer would be a good foil for Winter for the two albums Johnny Winter And would put out and he would return to play on parts of Winter’s next three albums as well as playing in Johnny’s Brother Edgar’s bands White Trash and the Edgar Winter Group. Bassist Randy Jo Hobbs would remain with Johnny Winter through the first half of the decade. This appears to have been drummer Randy Zehringer’s last work as he does not appear on 1971’s Live Johnny Winter And.

   The album kicks of with the burning Winter original Guess I’ll Go Away. This song is the blueprint of the Johnny Winter sound for the first parts of the decade. Mark Klingman’s Ain’t That A Kindness follows, a rollicking piece of New Orleans inspired light funk that feels like Dr. John or a lot like Leon Russell. A cover of Traffic’s No Time To Live [from the 1968 self titled album] follows. Guitars are featured here [of course] replace the piano, organ and sax of the original. Since credits are not listed, one is unsure who is really singing but it sounds like Winter, although Derringer’s voice is very similar only without the gargling with a shot glass of finishing nails that Johnny has at full volume. In any case, the singer is singing not howling and growling like Winter normally does. As a piece of light psychedelia, this might be a left over arrangement from the McCoys ignored Infinite McCoys or Human Ball records as one does not associate Johnny Winter with the psychedelic 60s other than being an artist who appeared at Woodstock. The next track is the original appearance of what would be Rick Derringer’s only hit, the immortal Rock And Roll, Hoochie Koo. The arrangement here is a noticeably slower than Derringer’s hit arrangement. Winter’s solo is very by the seat of his pants and more blues based than Derringer’s as well. Randy Zehringer’s Am I Here is next, another semi psychedelic slow burner – reminds me of some of the quieter moments of the James Gang or Joe Walsh. Look Up is just a fun little rocker that predates Lynyrd Skynrd’s southern rock, complete with Honkettes [female backup singers].  

   Another Winter burner, Prodigal Son opens the second side. This is definitely not the song the Rolling Stones stole [although they finally credited Roberrt Wilkins] for Beggar’s Banquet. [Winter’s own fixation with the Stones would start with a cover of Jumpin’ Jack Flash on Live Johnny Winter And and he would cover three of their songs on his next two albums.] The arrangement on Derringer’s Out On A Limb feels like a Stones outtake. Let the Music Play shares the descending riff from Chicago’s 25 Or 6 To 4. Winter’s Nothing Left follows, nothing special, a typical Winter album track. The album closes with an only slightly funky Derringer track, Funky Music. When the song goes into the breakout at about 3:00, it does get a little funkier and Winter lays down a nice solo before he and Derringer trade off a couple more before the fade out.

  Johnny Winter And is not a great record – think of 1970: Santana’s Abraxas, Led Zeppelin III, Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, Cosmo’s Factory [CCR]… but it’s a good 1970 record. I reach more for the highlights of Guess I’ll Go Away and Prodigal Son more than the full album but this warrants an occasional full listen.

 

Random Record Revisit [2 for 1]:

Waiting For the Sun – The Doors [1968]

The Soft Parade – The Doors [1969]

   Reading the Wikipedia entry on pianist George Winston upon learning of his passing lead me back to Tracey’s hard drive to review his The Night Divides the Day: The Music Of the Doors. [Meh.] But that quick review has led me to revisit my lowest ranked of the Doors catalog.

   I like the first two Doors records as much as anyone else. Does that mean I like my Doors a little weird? Maybe. Anything wrong with that? No. I love L.A. Woman. Morrison Hotel is good. But the middle records of the Jim Morrison Doors catalog suffer terrible unevenness.

   [For the record, these are the original mixes, I don’t even want to get into remixes of the Doors catalog for the 40^th anniversary box set.]

   Starting with Waiting for the Sun: no one can deny Hello, I Love You. Representative of the typical Doors song? No. But damn it’s catchy! Love Street might also not be a typical Doors song but this lilting little ballad is one of my favorites. A touch of the weirdness returns in the spooky, paranoid Not To Touch the Earth, which every true Doors fan knows was one section of the epic Celebration Of the Lizard suite. The poem is printed on the inner side of the fold over sleeve. Summer’s Almost Gone sounds [sonically] like it was recorded during the Strange Days sessions. The slide work by guitarist Robbie Krieger is awesome. Wintertime Love feels like the Doors plagiarizing their own take of Alabama Song [Whiskey Bar] from the first album. The Unknown Soldier is okay. It’s one of the few songs in the Doors catalog that hasn’t aged well. Spanish Caravan is definitely not a typical Doors song. Great flamenco playing by Robbie Krieger at the opening half – the electric second half feels forced and unnecessary to me. According to Wikipedia, My Wild Love is one of Robbie Krieger’s least favorite songs. Chanting and handclaps? No, thank you. We Could Be So Good Together again feels like a rip of Alabama Song. [Maybe it’s something with the time signature?] Yes, the River Knows is a harmless bit of nothing. Here is some really pretty interplay between Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzerek here. And then there’s Five To One. This insistent driving marching beat under some of the more dated lyrics of The Revolution threatened by events of 1968… well, that never happened did it?

   Overall, I just find that the good songs don’t carry enough over the bad ones and I still rate this as a slightly below average album [that’s 3.0 starts on my 5 star system on Rate Your Music. Average being 3.5]

   The Soft Parade limps right out of the gate with the middle of the road schlock of Tell All the People. Could this have inspired Over At the Frankenstein Place from The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Touch Me is alright despite the strings and horns all over the place. Shaman’s Blues is one of the few highlights of this record just the four Doors riding this ¾ riff around. Do It and Easy Ride follow – these are two of the worst songs in the Doors catalog. Wild Child leads off the B side. This has been one of my favorites since I first heard it on the Doors tapes made for my back in high school. Great riffing by Robbie at the start and great slide at the back end. My winner in the category Worst Doors Song, Runnin’ Blue is next. Senseless jazz horns followed by a country hoe down? Ugh. Wishful, Sinful feels like a follow up to Love Street. Here the use of orchestration feels tasteful and natural where it feels forced and helping to cover up flaws on other tracks. The lengthy, multi-sectioned title track ends the record. If one likes this, they might say “it’s a fractured mosaic.” If one is not a fan, they might call it piecemeal and “a bunch of shit crammed together trying to make something work.”  I prefer “fractured mosaic.”

   Where the bad songs of Waiting For the Sun are merely uninteresting and forgettable, the lowlights on The Soft Parade leave a depressingly bad taste in my mouth. Neither of these records will likely find their way onto my playlist in their entirety again.

Random Record Revisited:

School’s Out – Alice Cooper [1972]

  The third of the original Alice Cooper band’s five Warner Brothers monster run [no pun intended], School’s Out seems to find the band at a bit of a crossroads.

   To be sure, the title track remains a start of summer classic and remains a mainstay in Alice’s [the man] set list even today. Wikipedia has a nice but utterly useless paragraph about how little of School’s Out’s songs have ben played live if you’re interested in that kind of thing. There is a reason School’s Out remains under-represented in the Alice Cooper cannon – it’s kind of a meh record!

   Besides School’s Out, there is really nothing that grabs the ear and demands attention the way Under My Wheels does. There’s noting as earworm worthy as I’m Eighteen -yeah, it’s a simple assed riff but it’s an undeniable simple assed riff! Nothing on the record takes off or rocks hard or even scares the listener. After Dead Babies and Killer ending the last record [Killer], this record seems positively lame. Gutter Cats Vs. the Jets quotes West Side Story for God’s sake! Street Fight is 53 seconds [really about 45] of fighting noises. The final track Grande Finale sounds like a song rolling under the opening or closing credits of a cheap Shaft rip off film. In itself that isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it’s not what one expects from the Alice Cooper band at this time! [Maybe on or after the over- the - top of Alice’s ‘solo debut’ Welcome To My Nightmare maybe. It does seem like something that would be played as a theatrical number with dancers during a set change. But not the Killer or Billion Dollar Babies Alice Cooper group.]

   To give props, bassist Dennis Dunaway is really prominent on this album and he really shines on tings like Luney Tune and Blue Turk. Lead guitarist Glen Buxton [or is it Dick Wagner?] finally gets a few satisfying moments on My Stars.

   The songs? Well besides the already mentioned tunes, Luney Tune isn’t bad. It might have fit in the b side of Killer with You Drive Me Nervous and Yeah Yeah Yeah. Blue Turk is a nice descending riff that falls into some jazzy vamping at the end. My Stars is a wall of sound sort of prog track along the lines of Jethro Tull. Public Animal # 9 is another of those Alice Cooper filler tracks – nothing great but not terrible. Alma Mater… well it sums up this record. Forgettable. And we all know it is worse to put out something forgettable than something truly awful.

   In 1972, the sight on the name Alice Cooper in one’s kids record collection might have been enough to scare some parents. But the music on the vinyl here isn’t very scary. Fortunately, the band would return to shocking, scaring and thrilling next year with Billion Dollar Babies.

Random Record Revisited: 

Hotter Than Hell – Kiss [1974]

    In 1979, my friend Mark Lederman introduced me to Kiss with the Alive! and Alive II albums. How “live” these albums are remains a point of debate but whatever. In short order, the debut, Dressed To Kill, Destroyer and Love Gun joined my own copy of Alive II. I’m not sure why Rock And Roll Over never found it’s way into the collection but I remember putting Hotter Than Hell back in the rack for either the Rolling Stones Some Girls or the Blues Brothers Briefcase Full Of Blues. And neither entered my collection until I acquired the to Oiginals collections from Tracey’s hard drive.

   The problem in trying to review this record is that the versions on Alive! are permanently burned into my brain. I consider them definitive. But I think I can be fair here.

   For example, the lead track Got To Choose is just as tasty as it is on Alive!, just a little slower. Paul Stanely’s vocals are clearer. The bass is audible and more defined. The solo? Ace plays it almost note for note on the live record – that was by design, his solos were supposed to hummable and memorable. Ace Frehley’s first track Parasite [sung by Gene Simmons] is just as fast paced as the live record, just a nice Yardbirds inspired little riff to ride on for three minutes. Gene’s Goin’ Blind is different for Kiss. Some call it a ‘ballad’ but it’s not really. A 93 year old man addressing a 16 year old girl? I don’t know what it’s about. Nice solo by Ace. If I had this when I was 12 and just listened to the album I probably just would have accepted it as one of those album filler tracks [like Love Theme From Kiss] though I doubt it would have been a favorite. It does appear to be on a lot of Kiss fan polls of best tracks so maybe I’m crazy.] The title track follows. I don’t like Paul’s voice - it’s like he’s TRYING to sing instead of just letting it fly like he normally does. Still a good song but I prefer the live album’s take. The Stanley – Simmons collaboration Let Me Go, Rock ‘N’ Roll ends side 1 with 2:15 of purely joyous rock & roll along the lines of Nothin’ To Lose from the debut.

   Simmons has the first two tracks on the second side. All the Way starts a string of Simmons songs down on women. Great solo by Ace can’t rescue this filler track. Watchin’ You might be about a stripper or a street walker but it’s an awesome riff [Simmons is said to have been inspired by Mountain’s Mississippi Queen.I can see that]. Paul Stanley’s Mainline [sung by drummer Peter Criss with his very Rod Stewart like voice] follows. A nice little basic rock and roll track, once that might become one of those deep cut favorites. A rare Stanley – Frehley collaboration follows with Comin’ Home. Paul sings this standard road song – ‘it’s been forever, I’m comin’ home to you.’  Better than my description sounds and better than All the Way. Ace’s Strange Ways [sung by Criss] end the album with a bit of heaviness and twisty oddity. Frehely’s treated solo is one of the best on the album. But I can certainly see why a lot of Kiss fans like it.

   The Kiss Army may put a price on my head but I’d say it’s an average hard rock album for the time. There was a reason none of those first three albums lit the world on fire [besides poor distribution and poor promotion]. They have their high points but they’re not front to back classics.

 

Random Record Revisted: 

Fool For the City – Foghat [1975]

   In the 70s there were various levels of bands. There were unquestioned stadium filling superstar bands such as Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Grateful Dead, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Deep Purple. [Notice a LOT of those bands paid their dues in the 60s.] Then there were bands that worked hard and rose to the top of their class: Kiss [I refuse to type it as KISS although it is that way in Ace Frehley’s book], Aerosmith, Queen, the fuckin’ Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd and depending on my mood I might even include the Doobie Brothers and / or ZZ Top. Then there was a third tier of bands who sold a lot of tickets and got played on the radio but just never quite got to the top of the heap or maybe they did for a second and then slid back down. Like Peter Frampton, the J. Geils Band, Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick, Robin Trower and … Foghat.

   Despite a track record of 6 gold and 2 platinum selling albums [1974’s Energized is anothere one I like a lot], Foghat is mainly remembered for a handful of songs, two of which we’ll talk about in a second. Their best selling record was the single LP Foghat Live from 1977 [listed as double platinum or 2,000,000 copies sold]. For my money, it ranks as one of the great live albums from the 70s – right alongside Frampton’s, Kiss Alive!, Cheap Trick At Budokan and the J. Geils  Band’s Full House. That single album format means high energy, no bullshit, all killer, no filler. [Kiss Alive! is great despite the presence of 100,000 Years… drum solos, YECH!]

   So today I found myself with Fool For the City on the brain so I popped in Foghat’s platinum selling 1975 classic. The opening and title track still sounds as fresh as it ever did, a song to sit on the radio right beside Aerosmith, Grand Funk and Sweet. The next cut a rockin’ take of the Righteous Brothers [NOT! the Little Walter blues classic] My Babe. Rod “the Bottle” Price absolutely smokes on the slide on this cut! Next up is the other of those songs Foghat will be remembered for, immortalized in the stoner classic Dazed And Confused: Slow Ride. It’s such a good song that Classic Rock Radio will play both the original album version AND the live version! But a word to the wise when finding this on compilation records – a lot of them use the 3:56 single mix instead of the full 8:14 version. Sadly this includes The Best Of Foghat!  Rhino is usually a lot smarter or more careful than that!

   Side 2 kicks off with a cover of Robert Johnson’s Terraplane Blues. Of course this version has a lot more in common with something Johnny Winter might lay down or the Rolling Stones cover of Johnson’s Stop Breaking Down. Save Your Loving [For Me] is a nice shuffle, slowing the pace just a little bit. It really isn’t far off of Aerosmith’s Same Old Song And Dance minus the horns but adding a few well placed harmony vocals from Price and bassist Nick Jameson. It’s back to the boogie with another masterful Dave Peverett road song [ala Road Fever and Home In My Hand] with Drive Me Home. The final song is a keyboard based or song called Take It Or Leave It. It – especially that Fender Rhodes electric piano - reminds me of something that is right there on the tip of my brain but I just can’t come up with. It’s not a bad song but it seems totally out of step with the rest of the album being totally guitar driven. But having been assaulted and sated by six really nice rocking numbers it’s totally okay. It might actually have worked better between Terraplane Blues and Save Your Loving [For Me].

   Fool For the City is good record to fill a niche for some good time blues based rockin’ party tunes when you’re tired of the usual suspects. Knock it back!

 

Random Record Revisited:

Don’t Say No - Billy Squier [1981]

   The corpse of Led Zeppelin was barely in the ground when this slab of Zeppelinesque rock hit the radio.

   I say Zeppelinesque because of the style of Squier’s rocking but sound wise a better comparison would be Queen’s The Game. Queen guitarist Brian May suggested producer Reinhold Mack to Squier when May was unable to produce Squier’s record. Since I recently respun The Game [it’s still a really good record!], I can immediately hear the similarity in the sound. Anyway, The Stroke is listed as the first single but it seems I may have heard Lonely Is the Night first. Or maybe it just made a deeper impression. Probably because Mack made [the late] Bobby Chouinard drums sound like John Bonham’s cannon fire. Especially that thundering kick drum.

   Of course, The Stroke is Squier’s big hit, the song most likely to be heard on the ever-shrinking 80s cannon of Classic Rock radio. It seems be about how [Frank Zappa’s words] “record company pricks” operate ala Heart’s Barracuda but of course the “stroke’ has that nudge-wink double entendre of Fleetwood Mac’s Rattlesnake Shake. [The Peter Green led first edition of Fleetwood Mac] The album opening In the Dark was the second single and had a lot of airplay and a video made for it. Third track My Kinda Lover was also the third single but stalled just outside the Top 40. But the rest of the album holds up just as well as those singles. You Know What I Like rides Chouinard’s galloping thunder along with a nice mix of just enough keyboards to make it 80’s but enough guitars to harken back to The Mothership.Too Daze Gone is a favorite of mine, a tale of the morning after or “forgetting the night before.” It’s just a simple little shuffle but damn it sounds good. Whadda You Want From Me also rides Chouinard’s drums but with a throbbing insistent keyboard and bass part also pushing along. The layers of slide guitar [unclear whether they are Squier or lead guitarist Cary Sharaf but hats off to whoever it is] again keep it in the realm of Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Queen. The there’s the acoustic ballad Nobody Knows. I mean it’s not awful. It harkens back to Queen’s Love Of My Life or Sail Away Sweet Sister but it just doesn’t quite get there. I Need You is one of those album filling songs that will never get played live but it’s not bad. It sounds like something off the Fast Times At Ridgemont High soundtrack. The title track closes the album.

   Don’t Say No fits the period very well. It’s got enough keyboard to be modern ala the Cars but just enough of the old school to please the ears of those brough up on Zeppelin, Aerosmith, et al. It’s almost exactly the type of  contemporary / 8o’s record that Robert Plant would make with Pictures At Eleven. It’s a great picture of the shift in rock at this time before everything splintered into sub genres and before hair metal became the temporary “in” style.

 

I needed a recharge today. So I spent some time at a familiar spot by the water. Water gently lapping shores and watching sunsets over water are so calming to me.

It as a longtime ago but also just the blink of an eye in some ways. It was another gorgeous spring day, maybe a little warmer, a little less breezy than today that I picked up Robin Scott and wound up here – or at least pretty close to where I am [was] sitting today.

Technically I think it has always been Bowman Springs Park btu the local kids called it Feather Beach. I have no idea why. There’s not a whole lot of beach left since they rebuilt the boat ramp and added this landfill to build the park out. We lived a mile or so down the road for a couple of years when we were on that side of Arlington. Now the Zottolas, back from adventures in Andrews, were now living just a couple of blocks off then entrance to the park.

I don’t recall why we were off that day but I put most of my week’s lunch money [sorry Mom, statute of limitations is long in the past] and drove up to Arlington in the Chevrolet Land Whale [the ’79 Caprice Classic that became my ride after the tranny locked up the third time on the Duster] and picked Robin up. My senior prom was coming up and Robin was going to be my date. She had a strapless dress so she needed to even out her tan on her shoulders, so she grabbed her swimsuit and we trucked on over to Feather Beach to catch some rays. I swear she slathered Crisco cooking oil on herself. [Maybe Sherri can back me up, maybe not. I am sure we stopped in since we were there, ya know.]  For an hour or so we sat soaking up rays and bullshitting about the stuff teenagers bullshit about. Just two typical teens hanging out on day. I was hot for her, she was not interested in me that way, yadda yadda. We were kids with a whole life in front of us. Not the kind of day you think would be memorable yet there it sits in my brain all these decades later.

Robin has been gone somewhere around 15 years now. But every time I am here I can’t help but to remember her.