Part of the new hard rock era of the 2000's, Brand New Sin came from Syracuse but their heart and soul came from Southern Rock and Molly Hatchet more so than Skynyrd. Joe Atler's booming vocals recall more of Phil Amselmo of Pantera than Chad Kroeger from Nickelback. They made three fairly hard rocking albums for Century Media before Atler departed after 2007's Tequila and the band split from Century Media due to poor promotion and usual major label distractions.
The first two album benefited from Pete Walker's production which kinda smoothed out the rough edges. Recipe For Disaster continued a straight ahead Southern rock vibe with a Corrosion Of Conformity south and BNS benefited with some FM airplay with The Loner and Freight Train. Tequila, produced by Joey Z, has a more rougher and trashing sound. Kris Wiechmann took over lead vocals on later albums.
Albums:
Brand New Sin (Century Media/Neverland 2002) B+
Recipe For Disaster (Century Media 2005) B+
Tequila (Century Media 2006) B+
Distilled (Subcat 2009) B
United State (Goomba 2011) B-
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Friday, February 7, 2014
Foghat Revisited
It was 14 years ago that we lost Dave Peverett to cancer and a long standing career with Foghat, perhaps one of most maligned bands in the rock and roll era. Amazingly the lineup of original member Roger Earl, longtime bass player to the boogie years Craig Mcgregor, former Ted Nugent/Humble Pie lead singer Charlie Huhn and Bryan Bassett (Wild Cherry, Molly Hatchet, Root Boy Slim) holding down the lead guitar that the late Rod Price used to do, this version of Foghat continues to do what they do best, boogie blues and rock. They have spent almost four years touting their last album Last Train Home and if it pales in comparison to the Price/Peverett years it makes up with honest effort.
It all begins on Savoy Brown Looking In, although Lonesome Dave, Roger Earl and Tony Stevens were part of the Savoy Brown band in the early years, they branched out after Looking In and started up their own band, adding Rod Price to the mix and Dave Edmunds produced their first album. And it starts up with the remarkable I Just Want To Make Love To You and somehow Edmunds' production of distorted vocals, rampant wah wah guitars and smashing cymbals makes it work. The difference between Kim Simmonds and Savoy Brown and Foghat was that Foghat had a more rocking sound, than the total blues of Looking In. Not that its a bad album, it's good in its own way, but I doubt if Kim Simmonds would ever signed off on all those wild wah wahs on IJWTMLTY. And a more uptempo sound. And more Chuck Berry too.
For whatever reason, Dave Edmunds and Foghat parted ways on the second album (the rock and roll album) and Tom Dawes (The Cyrkles' Red Rubber Ball band) produced it. It's a more dense and polished sound than the first, and it had a minor hit with the only song that Rod Price ever sang lead on (What A Shame) plus FM classic tracks A Long Way To Go, Ride Ride Ride and It's Too Late. Energized, had more boogie than actual blues and give us more FM hits like Honey Hush, Home In My Hand and a cover of Buddy Holly's That Will Be The Day, to which the single version had the complete ending while the album has it fading away. There's even double drums tracking on Wild Cherry and Nothing I Won't Do. Later in the year Rock And Roll Outlaws came out and this time relied more on covers of the title track and a killer version of Howard Tate's Eight Days On The Road. Tony Stevens left, Nick Jameson replaced him and than their best known album Fool For The City came out with their top ten hit Slow Ride which continues to be in regular rotation on the classic rock channels.
Perhaps the best lineup came to be when Jameson decided to do other things in production (he later became a actor and had a hand in the 1994 Fox Cartoon The Critic) and for a solo career and Craig MacGregor replaced him. Dan Hartman produced the darker sounding Night Shift and they had another FM hit with Drivin Wheel and the pounding Don't Run Me Down. Their last true boogie rock album Stone Blue came out in 1978, and was produced with Eddie Kramer (which the band misspelled his name on the album title, not too excited with the end result) but the record itself is striped down rock and roll although Midnight Madness on record really sounded distorted on vinyl.
Lonesome Dave begin to alter the formula, and adding more pop and new wave into the music and the albums begin to show that. Boogie Motel gave them their other big hit with Third Time Lucky (First time i was a fool) and a cover of Somebody's been sleeping in my bed. Lonesome Dave was not much of a lyricist and basically recycled the same old love cliche over and over, on the blah Love In Motion, the first true POS song he wrote. Even though it hints at new wave pop, the boogie is still there on the title track of Boogie Motel and Nervous Release. Tight Shoes, is their new wave jump and fans didn't know what to think of it. They still played the single from time to time Stranger In My Home Town but outside of that, all the songs have a same sound and the same beat over and over. Not one of their best but and Rod Price left the band, replaced by Erik Cartright. The 1981 Girls To Chat and Boys To Bounce outside of Wide Boys and the odd ball Live Now Pay Later was another waste of time. MacGregor left, Jameson returned for the 1982 covers In the Mood For Something Rude which spared the world of Lonesome Dave's one dimensional songwriting for some nice covers of Slipped Tripped Fell In Love, Love Rustler and Ain't Living Long Like This. The final Foghat album, Zig Zag Walk is where they finally became the New Wave band that Peverett dreamed they would be and for myself I actually liked it, it's better than Boys To Chat and perhaps Tight Shoes and Boogie Motel and maybe Dave was years early on the swingtime revival of the 90s with a nice version of Louis Jordan Choo Choo ChaBoogie and Seven Day Weekend, but the Huey Lewis influenced That's What Love Can Do went nowhere on the charts. And then they broke up.
In the late 80s and early 90s both Roger Earl and Dave Peverett had their own versions of Foghat, Earl holding on the Craig MacGregor and Erik Carthright (this may have been the band that I saw in Oklahoma City in 1989), Peverett's band coming through Cedar Rapids in 1990 or 1991 and featured Riff West and Bryan Bassett fresh from leaving Molly Hatchet. Neither band recorded anything till a chance meeting with Rick Rubin got them back in the studio with the original members intact (Bassett returned to Molly Hatchet for their last good effort Devil's Canyon, which would be the last album to feature the late great Danny Joe Brown) but Rubin skipped out of producing their 1994 comeback Return Of The Boogie Men, so Nick Jameson came back on board to produce (and on the acoustic sides Tom Dawes) but while it was a good album, the unplugged version tended to drag down the Jameson' produced electric sides. But it would be the last studio album they would do, they would do two studio takes on the Road Cases live album and Peverett would succumb to cancer in 2000. Rod Price five years later would suffer a heart attack and falling downstairs and his slide would be silenced.
Instead of calling it a day, Earl and Tony Stevens with Bryan Bassett back in for good tapped Charlie Huhn to do the vocals and Family Joules came out in 2002. It's a silly album of sorts but it does lay claim to the spirit of Lonesome Dave and Bassett remains one of the more underrated guitar players nobody's ever heard of. He was the guitarist for Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music and produced and played on Root 6 from the late great Root Boy Slim. Huhn came from the late 70s Ted Nugent band of Weekend Warriors and State Of Shock, the last two good album Nugent ever did. And MacGregor replaced the departing Stevens once and for all in 2005. And basically this has been the Foghat that continues to tour day in and day out. And remain the perfect tribute band. Certainly Foghat Stages or Live Volume 2 are worthy but the best way to hear Foghat live back then is the original Bearsville Live album and companion King Biscuit Time CD, although the latter album is more rougher around the edges. The extended I Just Want To Make Love To You has been many of a bar band's cornerstone (I should know) but the speed metal version of Honey Hush gives visions of Anthrax or Metallica in the future without them knowing that.
But the mare mention of Foghat brings out gaffaws and LOL's from the kiddies today, whose ears are deafen by autotuner rapper who never realized that this music got us through the hardtimes, that Foghat remained true to their love of old rock and roll and the blues and even Louis Jordan which places them high in my heart. Even if Last Train Home does anything, what it does is celebrate the blues and keeps the blues alive if nothing else. And Foghat remains to this day, a band for its fans and they love the fans too. Even though they're now regulated to the casinos and state fairs and festivals, Foghat still does this for the fans. And somewhere in the great beyond, Lonesome Dave and Rod Price are smiling with approval.
So take a slow ride.......
It all begins on Savoy Brown Looking In, although Lonesome Dave, Roger Earl and Tony Stevens were part of the Savoy Brown band in the early years, they branched out after Looking In and started up their own band, adding Rod Price to the mix and Dave Edmunds produced their first album. And it starts up with the remarkable I Just Want To Make Love To You and somehow Edmunds' production of distorted vocals, rampant wah wah guitars and smashing cymbals makes it work. The difference between Kim Simmonds and Savoy Brown and Foghat was that Foghat had a more rocking sound, than the total blues of Looking In. Not that its a bad album, it's good in its own way, but I doubt if Kim Simmonds would ever signed off on all those wild wah wahs on IJWTMLTY. And a more uptempo sound. And more Chuck Berry too.
For whatever reason, Dave Edmunds and Foghat parted ways on the second album (the rock and roll album) and Tom Dawes (The Cyrkles' Red Rubber Ball band) produced it. It's a more dense and polished sound than the first, and it had a minor hit with the only song that Rod Price ever sang lead on (What A Shame) plus FM classic tracks A Long Way To Go, Ride Ride Ride and It's Too Late. Energized, had more boogie than actual blues and give us more FM hits like Honey Hush, Home In My Hand and a cover of Buddy Holly's That Will Be The Day, to which the single version had the complete ending while the album has it fading away. There's even double drums tracking on Wild Cherry and Nothing I Won't Do. Later in the year Rock And Roll Outlaws came out and this time relied more on covers of the title track and a killer version of Howard Tate's Eight Days On The Road. Tony Stevens left, Nick Jameson replaced him and than their best known album Fool For The City came out with their top ten hit Slow Ride which continues to be in regular rotation on the classic rock channels.
Perhaps the best lineup came to be when Jameson decided to do other things in production (he later became a actor and had a hand in the 1994 Fox Cartoon The Critic) and for a solo career and Craig MacGregor replaced him. Dan Hartman produced the darker sounding Night Shift and they had another FM hit with Drivin Wheel and the pounding Don't Run Me Down. Their last true boogie rock album Stone Blue came out in 1978, and was produced with Eddie Kramer (which the band misspelled his name on the album title, not too excited with the end result) but the record itself is striped down rock and roll although Midnight Madness on record really sounded distorted on vinyl.
Lonesome Dave begin to alter the formula, and adding more pop and new wave into the music and the albums begin to show that. Boogie Motel gave them their other big hit with Third Time Lucky (First time i was a fool) and a cover of Somebody's been sleeping in my bed. Lonesome Dave was not much of a lyricist and basically recycled the same old love cliche over and over, on the blah Love In Motion, the first true POS song he wrote. Even though it hints at new wave pop, the boogie is still there on the title track of Boogie Motel and Nervous Release. Tight Shoes, is their new wave jump and fans didn't know what to think of it. They still played the single from time to time Stranger In My Home Town but outside of that, all the songs have a same sound and the same beat over and over. Not one of their best but and Rod Price left the band, replaced by Erik Cartright. The 1981 Girls To Chat and Boys To Bounce outside of Wide Boys and the odd ball Live Now Pay Later was another waste of time. MacGregor left, Jameson returned for the 1982 covers In the Mood For Something Rude which spared the world of Lonesome Dave's one dimensional songwriting for some nice covers of Slipped Tripped Fell In Love, Love Rustler and Ain't Living Long Like This. The final Foghat album, Zig Zag Walk is where they finally became the New Wave band that Peverett dreamed they would be and for myself I actually liked it, it's better than Boys To Chat and perhaps Tight Shoes and Boogie Motel and maybe Dave was years early on the swingtime revival of the 90s with a nice version of Louis Jordan Choo Choo ChaBoogie and Seven Day Weekend, but the Huey Lewis influenced That's What Love Can Do went nowhere on the charts. And then they broke up.
In the late 80s and early 90s both Roger Earl and Dave Peverett had their own versions of Foghat, Earl holding on the Craig MacGregor and Erik Carthright (this may have been the band that I saw in Oklahoma City in 1989), Peverett's band coming through Cedar Rapids in 1990 or 1991 and featured Riff West and Bryan Bassett fresh from leaving Molly Hatchet. Neither band recorded anything till a chance meeting with Rick Rubin got them back in the studio with the original members intact (Bassett returned to Molly Hatchet for their last good effort Devil's Canyon, which would be the last album to feature the late great Danny Joe Brown) but Rubin skipped out of producing their 1994 comeback Return Of The Boogie Men, so Nick Jameson came back on board to produce (and on the acoustic sides Tom Dawes) but while it was a good album, the unplugged version tended to drag down the Jameson' produced electric sides. But it would be the last studio album they would do, they would do two studio takes on the Road Cases live album and Peverett would succumb to cancer in 2000. Rod Price five years later would suffer a heart attack and falling downstairs and his slide would be silenced.
Instead of calling it a day, Earl and Tony Stevens with Bryan Bassett back in for good tapped Charlie Huhn to do the vocals and Family Joules came out in 2002. It's a silly album of sorts but it does lay claim to the spirit of Lonesome Dave and Bassett remains one of the more underrated guitar players nobody's ever heard of. He was the guitarist for Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music and produced and played on Root 6 from the late great Root Boy Slim. Huhn came from the late 70s Ted Nugent band of Weekend Warriors and State Of Shock, the last two good album Nugent ever did. And MacGregor replaced the departing Stevens once and for all in 2005. And basically this has been the Foghat that continues to tour day in and day out. And remain the perfect tribute band. Certainly Foghat Stages or Live Volume 2 are worthy but the best way to hear Foghat live back then is the original Bearsville Live album and companion King Biscuit Time CD, although the latter album is more rougher around the edges. The extended I Just Want To Make Love To You has been many of a bar band's cornerstone (I should know) but the speed metal version of Honey Hush gives visions of Anthrax or Metallica in the future without them knowing that.
But the mare mention of Foghat brings out gaffaws and LOL's from the kiddies today, whose ears are deafen by autotuner rapper who never realized that this music got us through the hardtimes, that Foghat remained true to their love of old rock and roll and the blues and even Louis Jordan which places them high in my heart. Even if Last Train Home does anything, what it does is celebrate the blues and keeps the blues alive if nothing else. And Foghat remains to this day, a band for its fans and they love the fans too. Even though they're now regulated to the casinos and state fairs and festivals, Foghat still does this for the fans. And somewhere in the great beyond, Lonesome Dave and Rod Price are smiling with approval.
So take a slow ride.......
Monday, January 27, 2014
The Elms
The music world is such a unforgiving industry. Too many bands and performers get too much kudos and press from Rolling Stone and most of them suck to high heaven, whereas the more traditional rocking bands get ignored and the list is long. And The Elms are in the latter category, not outrageous enough for SPIN or Rolling Stone to get noticed but for myself, perfect in their own ways of rock and pop.
Originally, they started out more of a Christian band after an EP that I have not heard. Big Surprise is your standard Praise Jesus album with more pop gospel than actual rock and roll, simply of the fact they recorded for the gospel Sparrow label. It's not bad, but something I would listen to.
The next album Truth, Soul And Rock And Roll, they still praising Jesus but this time they're adding more Rolling Stones riffs and some Gin Blossom pop to their Christian rock. Somehow it does rock, leading off with the Tom Petty meets Georgia Satellites Speaking In Tongues and the pop rock of Though The Night and You Got No Room To Talk shows they have a sense of humor too. Still embracing the Good Lord on You Saved Me and the Train sounding Smile At Life Again (complete with annoying falsetto), The Elms are beginning to shy away from the gospel into secular music and the next album would be their 360 turnaround.
They turn the amps up to ten on the David Bianco produced The Chess Hotel, their first and only album for Universal South, basically a country label and it clashed with their Cheap Trick meets Cream sound. Beginning with the pounding I Am The World and Who Puts Rock And Roll In Your Blood , a Black Crowes soundalike. The rest of the album is like that, any Gospel rock is thrown out the window. The Elms simply want to rock and rock they do well. From the Stones groove of Black Groove to even a Big Star sound of Tower and The Trains. Of course, Universal South had no way of promoting this and dropped the album soon after. It's a shame really, they had more new country smarts than the Bro Country band of Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean.
Licking their wounds a bit, The Elms turned it down a bit on The Great American Midrange, some consider to be their best album and it just might be. Balancing hard rockers like Strut and Thunderhead and slightly mellower stuff like Unless God Appears First. It's not as in your face like The Chess Hotel was but also owes a bit more to their second album. And with that The Elms called it a day in 2010, putting in a decade career that should have made them better known. But for a band started as Christian Rockers, they did finished strong as honest to God rock and rollers, making honest to God real Midwestern rock and roll.
For which we should be thankful.
Albums:
Big Surprise (Sparrow 2001) B-
Truth, Soul And Rock And Roll (Sparrow 2002) B+
The Chess Hotel (Universal South 2006) A-
The Great American Midrange (Trust Inc 2009) A-
Originally, they started out more of a Christian band after an EP that I have not heard. Big Surprise is your standard Praise Jesus album with more pop gospel than actual rock and roll, simply of the fact they recorded for the gospel Sparrow label. It's not bad, but something I would listen to.
The next album Truth, Soul And Rock And Roll, they still praising Jesus but this time they're adding more Rolling Stones riffs and some Gin Blossom pop to their Christian rock. Somehow it does rock, leading off with the Tom Petty meets Georgia Satellites Speaking In Tongues and the pop rock of Though The Night and You Got No Room To Talk shows they have a sense of humor too. Still embracing the Good Lord on You Saved Me and the Train sounding Smile At Life Again (complete with annoying falsetto), The Elms are beginning to shy away from the gospel into secular music and the next album would be their 360 turnaround.
They turn the amps up to ten on the David Bianco produced The Chess Hotel, their first and only album for Universal South, basically a country label and it clashed with their Cheap Trick meets Cream sound. Beginning with the pounding I Am The World and Who Puts Rock And Roll In Your Blood , a Black Crowes soundalike. The rest of the album is like that, any Gospel rock is thrown out the window. The Elms simply want to rock and rock they do well. From the Stones groove of Black Groove to even a Big Star sound of Tower and The Trains. Of course, Universal South had no way of promoting this and dropped the album soon after. It's a shame really, they had more new country smarts than the Bro Country band of Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean.
Licking their wounds a bit, The Elms turned it down a bit on The Great American Midrange, some consider to be their best album and it just might be. Balancing hard rockers like Strut and Thunderhead and slightly mellower stuff like Unless God Appears First. It's not as in your face like The Chess Hotel was but also owes a bit more to their second album. And with that The Elms called it a day in 2010, putting in a decade career that should have made them better known. But for a band started as Christian Rockers, they did finished strong as honest to God rock and rollers, making honest to God real Midwestern rock and roll.
For which we should be thankful.
Albums:
Big Surprise (Sparrow 2001) B-
Truth, Soul And Rock And Roll (Sparrow 2002) B+
The Chess Hotel (Universal South 2006) A-
The Great American Midrange (Trust Inc 2009) A-
Monday, January 6, 2014
The Fatal Flowers
One of the mystery bands of the 80s, The Fatal Flowers came from Amsterdam and made two albums for Atlantic that owed a lot to glam rock, garage rock and anything T Rex although they're a Dutch band. The late Vic Maile produced Younger Days, and it showed a pub rock side, outdated by 1986 standards but had decent songs.
Their best album Johnny D Is Back!, was produced by Mick Ronson (Ian Hunter, David Bowie) and Richard Janssen revealed his inner Ian Hunter in him. Although proclaimed the best album in 1988 in (where else?) Amsterdam, Atlantic gave little promotion in the album. and since this was not a hair metal band, The Fatals' were left to be written off as a tax write off. Atlantic never bothered to issue Younger Days on CD either. Johnny D Is Back! is a lost classic with the title track, Second Chance and the Mott sounding The Dance as standouts. Moving over from WEA to Phonogram proved more bad news, their third album never came out in the states (Polygram passed on it) and disgusted with no promo and PR the band broke up.
Nevetheless, the two Atlantic albums do show up in used bins from time to time. And recommended to those with a open mind.
Albums:
Younger Days (Atlantic 1986) B+
Johnny D Is Back! (Atlantic 1988) B+
Their best album Johnny D Is Back!, was produced by Mick Ronson (Ian Hunter, David Bowie) and Richard Janssen revealed his inner Ian Hunter in him. Although proclaimed the best album in 1988 in (where else?) Amsterdam, Atlantic gave little promotion in the album. and since this was not a hair metal band, The Fatals' were left to be written off as a tax write off. Atlantic never bothered to issue Younger Days on CD either. Johnny D Is Back! is a lost classic with the title track, Second Chance and the Mott sounding The Dance as standouts. Moving over from WEA to Phonogram proved more bad news, their third album never came out in the states (Polygram passed on it) and disgusted with no promo and PR the band broke up.
Nevetheless, the two Atlantic albums do show up in used bins from time to time. And recommended to those with a open mind.
Albums:
Younger Days (Atlantic 1986) B+
Johnny D Is Back! (Atlantic 1988) B+
Saturday, December 21, 2013
The Dave Clark Five
For the second all time best selling British Band of the 60s there's hardly much out there to buy. Dave Clark is a very frugal guy who really controls the copyrights to his band's songs to the point that the last official US release, The History Of The Dave Clark Five was licensed to Hollywood Records back around 1992 for a limited time and while 50 songs is quite a few, there's a few clunkers in there as well. Universal in the UK issued a single cd The Hits, which is just as hit and miss as the Hollywood overview. Frustrated at Clark's oddball song selection, I pretty much made a single mix CD and still wasn't that satisfied with the results. And so the story begins.
In the heydays of The British Invasion, The Beatles and DC5 duked it out for chart position and Ed Sullivan's buddies, appearing just about on a regular basis back in 64 and 65. But while the Beatles evolved and became more adventurous with their albums, the DC5 became obsolete relics in three years, the last top ten was a cover of You Got What It Takes. The DC5 were a singles act and they made some tough sounding singles in Glad All Over, Bits And Pieces and a 53 chart placing of I Knew It All The Time which somehow made it to a compilation Piccadilly Story on Castle in the early 2000s and how that escaped the claws of Clark's watchful eye is a feat upon itself. The DC5 had a excellent vocalist in the late great Mike Smith although upon hearing them doing a punked up Do You Love Me, it sounds like he screaming WHY DO YOU LOVE ME in the call and response of the the band members. Make no mistake, Clark had a eye and ear for the music hook and most DC5 songs clocked under 2 and a half minutes, I Like It Like That only a minute forty time of song. And Anyway You Want It showed that they can do garage punk as well. Even KISS covered that song in 1977 on Alive Two, the studio side that is.
For the most part, the DC5 wrote the majority of songs but the problem was Dave Clark was never a lyricist. Listening to Glad All Over their Epic debut has great singles (Glad All Over, Bits And Pieces, Do You Love Me) but the embarrassing good I Know You, has the middle eight that sounded like Clark took them off a bunch of grade school kids throwing insults at one another, but it also has the embarrassing bad Doo Dah which is a variation of you guessed it, the old Foghorn Leghorn cartoon show. And each DC5 album would be more of the same, about 10 to 12 songs clocking in and around 25 minutes at best with varying results. They could do a decent Beatles cop, Because, 19 Days, and failed latter day single Live In The Sky which echoes All You Need Is Love but by the late 60s, Dave Clark was redoing rock classics, in the 70s covering Tommy James' Draggin The Line (more bizzare than TJ's version but with the cheesiness of horns I ever heard. He took on Neil Young on a version of Southern Man, which isn't too bad given the dated guitar solo work. It helped that he still had Mike Smith shouting it out too. But it seems that Dave Clark really has no intention of putting this nor Draggin the Line out since neither song has appeared on any best of.
And that's the problem. Clark's tight reins on his back catalog may reveals that even though he might be a shrewd businessman that perhaps even he thinks that the lesser DC5 songs are not worth preserving. But you can license any of his best songs for a fee from his website or buy them on Itunes. Or take your chances trying to find vinyl copies that are not scratched up or 45s for that matter. Turns out that everybody that bought a DC5 record wore the grooves down to nothing. And honest the DC5 had rocking great songs, but some songs are absolute dated relics of the past. The silly Catch Us If You Can, You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby, which is basically the same arrangement of You Got What It Takes (although the beginning and end also borrows from The Beatles) and the Good Old Rock And Roll Medley that nobody bought.
It's really hard to put together a complete overview of Dave Clark Five albums since Dave Clark will probably take the damn masters to his grave when he dies off. Even the most recent Best of import is now out of print. So you're better off trying to locate The History Of The Dave Clark Five on CD at your local store and hope that the owner don't jack the price up to about 50 dollars. The single The Hits import, more scattershot and more disappointing in song selection. Unless you're hip to hear them do the Steam cover of Kiss Him Goodbye and of course.. the good old rock and roll medley. There are bootleg copies of their albums on CD and the sound varies from each and every one. To which Buyer Beware comes into play. But don't hold your breath on if and when Dave Clark decides to have them available again. He's done more to slit his own throat about having the legacy of the DC5 fade into 60's folklore. But he'll be happy to tell you that they had their own plane before the Beatles. The first and only time he's ever topped the fab four.
In 2019, Dave Clark finally issued a stand alone single best of CD (tho in the UK it was a 2 CD set). For a bare bones introduction it is probably all the DC5 you could ever want, with their hits (Glad All Over, Bits And Pieces, Try Too Hard) and misses (Universal Love) but at 38 minutes it's a small history lesson about how the DC5 challenged the Beatles and for a small time in 64-65 managed to hang with them before The Beatles started changing their music, whereas The DC5 stayed the same and their music never did evolve like The Beatles or Rolling Stones . If nothing else, Mike Smith was Dave Clark's voice and sound. But I also think session drummer Bobby Graham might have more to do with the drum sound rather than Mr. Clark. Mike Smith's passed away in 2008.
Grades:
History Of The Dave Clark Five (Hollywood 1994) B+
The Hits (EMI 2007) C+
All The Hits (BMG 2019) B+
PS
While the DC5 may have been the closest rivals to The Beatles, an essay sheds more light on Dave Clark, the boss rather than the rock and roller. Bobby Graham, the long time UK session drummer seemed to be the one that played drums rather than Clark himself. Perhaps the MVP of the band was Mike Smith and maybe set the boss off. While Clark has issued a few of the catalog on I Tunes and has varied the history of the band, this essay makes the first time I have ever heard of Ron Ryan, who was instrumental of the hits like Because or Anyway You Want It. You can't deny the fact that from 64-66, the DC5 had very good singles but the albums were basically 10 songs, two or three good song and the rest filler. Which explains Doo Dah on Bits And Pieces. Sgt Pepper pretty much shut the DC5 down since Clark didn't have a clue on how to counter this, but choose instead some R n B covers and old rock songs medley that went nowhere, and made the DC5 more bubblegum pop than blazing rockers. Clark was a true visionary in scoring a deal where 10 years from signing he'd get his masters back to do what he wanted and that's what he did: put out 50 songs of hits and misses and buried the rest in his backyard. He also had the most dedicated members in his band, sticking with him as salaried employees till the end. There was a PBS special that aired the other day about the life and times of the DC5 but from what I have heard, it could have been an infocommercial promoting Dave Clark himself. Which is fine but without Mike Smith, Lenny Davidson, Mike Huxley and Dennis Payton, Clark is nothing. The music proves it. http://asithappens.hubpages.com/hub/CuriousStoryofDC5
Dave Clark; control freak: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harold-bronson/the-dave-clark-five-dave-_b_5091519.html
Another opinion: http://www.richieunterberger.com/wordpress/the-dave-clark-five-pbs-special-and-beyond/
In the heydays of The British Invasion, The Beatles and DC5 duked it out for chart position and Ed Sullivan's buddies, appearing just about on a regular basis back in 64 and 65. But while the Beatles evolved and became more adventurous with their albums, the DC5 became obsolete relics in three years, the last top ten was a cover of You Got What It Takes. The DC5 were a singles act and they made some tough sounding singles in Glad All Over, Bits And Pieces and a 53 chart placing of I Knew It All The Time which somehow made it to a compilation Piccadilly Story on Castle in the early 2000s and how that escaped the claws of Clark's watchful eye is a feat upon itself. The DC5 had a excellent vocalist in the late great Mike Smith although upon hearing them doing a punked up Do You Love Me, it sounds like he screaming WHY DO YOU LOVE ME in the call and response of the the band members. Make no mistake, Clark had a eye and ear for the music hook and most DC5 songs clocked under 2 and a half minutes, I Like It Like That only a minute forty time of song. And Anyway You Want It showed that they can do garage punk as well. Even KISS covered that song in 1977 on Alive Two, the studio side that is.
For the most part, the DC5 wrote the majority of songs but the problem was Dave Clark was never a lyricist. Listening to Glad All Over their Epic debut has great singles (Glad All Over, Bits And Pieces, Do You Love Me) but the embarrassing good I Know You, has the middle eight that sounded like Clark took them off a bunch of grade school kids throwing insults at one another, but it also has the embarrassing bad Doo Dah which is a variation of you guessed it, the old Foghorn Leghorn cartoon show. And each DC5 album would be more of the same, about 10 to 12 songs clocking in and around 25 minutes at best with varying results. They could do a decent Beatles cop, Because, 19 Days, and failed latter day single Live In The Sky which echoes All You Need Is Love but by the late 60s, Dave Clark was redoing rock classics, in the 70s covering Tommy James' Draggin The Line (more bizzare than TJ's version but with the cheesiness of horns I ever heard. He took on Neil Young on a version of Southern Man, which isn't too bad given the dated guitar solo work. It helped that he still had Mike Smith shouting it out too. But it seems that Dave Clark really has no intention of putting this nor Draggin the Line out since neither song has appeared on any best of.
And that's the problem. Clark's tight reins on his back catalog may reveals that even though he might be a shrewd businessman that perhaps even he thinks that the lesser DC5 songs are not worth preserving. But you can license any of his best songs for a fee from his website or buy them on Itunes. Or take your chances trying to find vinyl copies that are not scratched up or 45s for that matter. Turns out that everybody that bought a DC5 record wore the grooves down to nothing. And honest the DC5 had rocking great songs, but some songs are absolute dated relics of the past. The silly Catch Us If You Can, You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby, which is basically the same arrangement of You Got What It Takes (although the beginning and end also borrows from The Beatles) and the Good Old Rock And Roll Medley that nobody bought.
It's really hard to put together a complete overview of Dave Clark Five albums since Dave Clark will probably take the damn masters to his grave when he dies off. Even the most recent Best of import is now out of print. So you're better off trying to locate The History Of The Dave Clark Five on CD at your local store and hope that the owner don't jack the price up to about 50 dollars. The single The Hits import, more scattershot and more disappointing in song selection. Unless you're hip to hear them do the Steam cover of Kiss Him Goodbye and of course.. the good old rock and roll medley. There are bootleg copies of their albums on CD and the sound varies from each and every one. To which Buyer Beware comes into play. But don't hold your breath on if and when Dave Clark decides to have them available again. He's done more to slit his own throat about having the legacy of the DC5 fade into 60's folklore. But he'll be happy to tell you that they had their own plane before the Beatles. The first and only time he's ever topped the fab four.
In 2019, Dave Clark finally issued a stand alone single best of CD (tho in the UK it was a 2 CD set). For a bare bones introduction it is probably all the DC5 you could ever want, with their hits (Glad All Over, Bits And Pieces, Try Too Hard) and misses (Universal Love) but at 38 minutes it's a small history lesson about how the DC5 challenged the Beatles and for a small time in 64-65 managed to hang with them before The Beatles started changing their music, whereas The DC5 stayed the same and their music never did evolve like The Beatles or Rolling Stones . If nothing else, Mike Smith was Dave Clark's voice and sound. But I also think session drummer Bobby Graham might have more to do with the drum sound rather than Mr. Clark. Mike Smith's passed away in 2008.
Grades:
History Of The Dave Clark Five (Hollywood 1994) B+
The Hits (EMI 2007) C+
All The Hits (BMG 2019) B+
PS
While the DC5 may have been the closest rivals to The Beatles, an essay sheds more light on Dave Clark, the boss rather than the rock and roller. Bobby Graham, the long time UK session drummer seemed to be the one that played drums rather than Clark himself. Perhaps the MVP of the band was Mike Smith and maybe set the boss off. While Clark has issued a few of the catalog on I Tunes and has varied the history of the band, this essay makes the first time I have ever heard of Ron Ryan, who was instrumental of the hits like Because or Anyway You Want It. You can't deny the fact that from 64-66, the DC5 had very good singles but the albums were basically 10 songs, two or three good song and the rest filler. Which explains Doo Dah on Bits And Pieces. Sgt Pepper pretty much shut the DC5 down since Clark didn't have a clue on how to counter this, but choose instead some R n B covers and old rock songs medley that went nowhere, and made the DC5 more bubblegum pop than blazing rockers. Clark was a true visionary in scoring a deal where 10 years from signing he'd get his masters back to do what he wanted and that's what he did: put out 50 songs of hits and misses and buried the rest in his backyard. He also had the most dedicated members in his band, sticking with him as salaried employees till the end. There was a PBS special that aired the other day about the life and times of the DC5 but from what I have heard, it could have been an infocommercial promoting Dave Clark himself. Which is fine but without Mike Smith, Lenny Davidson, Mike Huxley and Dennis Payton, Clark is nothing. The music proves it. http://asithappens.hubpages.com/hub/CuriousStoryofDC5
Dave Clark; control freak: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harold-bronson/the-dave-clark-five-dave-_b_5091519.html
Another opinion: http://www.richieunterberger.com/wordpress/the-dave-clark-five-pbs-special-and-beyond/
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
The Producers
One of the strangest things I see on the internet or at the local thrift shop is that The Producer's first album you can find for a dollar, but try to find the One Way 2 on 1 CD and it will set you back about 30 dollars. For an investment firm, my advice is if you do find The Producers' One Way CD cheap and in good shape, chances are you can get your investment back times 10.
They were from Atlanta and started out as a Beatles type tribute band but eventually their music was more Cheap Trick than the fab four. CBS signed them up, assigned them to Portrait, and put their S/T out in those 5.99 new band introductory price. It's not bad but there's not much variation to the songs and despite the minor hit What She Does To Me and album cut staple What's He Got. the rest sound too similar. Cheap Trick did it better.
The second album You Make The Heat,spawned the number 48 hit single She Sheila and a more varied style of music, a little more toward arena rock but still holding the power pop ways of most bands of that era. Despite the top 50 single, the album didn't chart and CBS said bye bye to The Producers.
Kyle Henderson quit the band after You Make The Heart, got born again, played Christian Music and now is back playing more of a blues and R&B type of music, and is now based the Madison area. Wayne McNutt (Famous) sometimes moonlights as a taxi driver and session player, but from time to time The Producers have known to get together off and on and play some live dates.
In 2000, One Way issued both Portrait albums as a highly prized 2 and 1 CD and issued the 1989 MCA recorded but never released Coelacanth with Tim Smith replacing Henderson. For latter day power pop, not bad but not exactly memorable either. Soon after One Way records went out of business, and even though the Portrait albums came from Sony Music, no other record label has gone ahead and reissued them. Until somebody gets the word over to Real Gone or Wounded Bird, the CD set will be a high priced acquisition for CD collectors. Better to have a working turntable and the cheaper record to play it on.
Grades:
The Producers (Portrait 1980) B-
You Make The Heat (Portrait 1981) B
Run For Your Life (Marathon 1985) C+
Coelacanth (MCA 1989/One Way 2001) C+
Producers/You Make The Heat (One Way 2000) B+ (Up a grade for historical value)
They were from Atlanta and started out as a Beatles type tribute band but eventually their music was more Cheap Trick than the fab four. CBS signed them up, assigned them to Portrait, and put their S/T out in those 5.99 new band introductory price. It's not bad but there's not much variation to the songs and despite the minor hit What She Does To Me and album cut staple What's He Got. the rest sound too similar. Cheap Trick did it better.
The second album You Make The Heat,spawned the number 48 hit single She Sheila and a more varied style of music, a little more toward arena rock but still holding the power pop ways of most bands of that era. Despite the top 50 single, the album didn't chart and CBS said bye bye to The Producers.
Kyle Henderson quit the band after You Make The Heart, got born again, played Christian Music and now is back playing more of a blues and R&B type of music, and is now based the Madison area. Wayne McNutt (Famous) sometimes moonlights as a taxi driver and session player, but from time to time The Producers have known to get together off and on and play some live dates.
In 2000, One Way issued both Portrait albums as a highly prized 2 and 1 CD and issued the 1989 MCA recorded but never released Coelacanth with Tim Smith replacing Henderson. For latter day power pop, not bad but not exactly memorable either. Soon after One Way records went out of business, and even though the Portrait albums came from Sony Music, no other record label has gone ahead and reissued them. Until somebody gets the word over to Real Gone or Wounded Bird, the CD set will be a high priced acquisition for CD collectors. Better to have a working turntable and the cheaper record to play it on.
Grades:
The Producers (Portrait 1980) B-
You Make The Heat (Portrait 1981) B
Run For Your Life (Marathon 1985) C+
Coelacanth (MCA 1989/One Way 2001) C+
Producers/You Make The Heat (One Way 2000) B+ (Up a grade for historical value)
Monday, November 25, 2013
Frank Marino
For my money, Frank Marino was the best rock guitar player that came from the 70s and made some classic and trippy rock and roll for 20th Century and later Columbia Records to which Frank considered that to be one of the darkest periods of his music career. I first heard Frank on California Jam 2, to which they showed him doing an edited version of Johnny B Goode but left off the electric reflections of war segment. Frank never cared for that either and what you didn't hear on the LP was his final song a version of the Mickey Mouse Club Theme. An outsider even in rock and roll.
The comparisons to Jimi Hendrix has been a touchy subject to Frank and even though he cites him as a influence, his other influence was Johnny Cipolina of Quicksilver Messenger Service. The first album Maxoom is Frank's tribute to Jimi Hendrix and it shows by his guitar playing and song delivery. The next album Child Of The Novelty, Frank begin to distanced himself from the Hendrix myth as he begin to sing about a New Rock And Roll. His band Mahogany Rush had wild man James Ayoub on drums and Paul Harwood on bass and they complimented his guitar player quite well. The next album Strange Universe got a bit more heavier Land Of 1000 Nights, Frank has said was written from the after effects of a bad acid trip. I love it as well as failed hit single Satisfy Your Soul. Although the record was underpromoted by 20th Century, Frank took his act over to Columbia for the classic years. And years of distain.
Mahogany Rush IV sometimes I think is their best studio album. There's more confidence in Frank's vocals but his guitar work was nothing short of awesome. Frank was migrating toward a jazzier and progressive rock sound on Dragonfly or The Answer but Little Sexy Annie is pure rock fun. The World Anthem continued more into Prog rock with Requiem For A Sinner and the title track but like Little Sexy Annie, Hey Little Lover is back to rock but a bit more complex on the beat.
As the ad proclaimed it takes other bands to make a 2 record set whereas it takes Frank to make one album, basically it was Columbia not springing for the full two record set so Live! was kept to a one LP set. But this was the live record that I played all the time in my Senior year and got my best friend hooked on Frank as well. Beginning with plenty of fireworks, Frank leads off with a killer start of The Answer and Dragonfly before bringing on the blues with a killer I'm A King Bee and showstoppers A New Rock And Roll and more stripped down Johnny B Goode from the Cal Jam 2 version. The medley of Talkin About A Feeling/Who Do You Love/War/New World Anthem is so over the top at the end one has to hear it to believe it. And then the usual Jimi Hendrix tribute with Purple Haze. This is the legend of Frank Marino from start to finish.
Tales Of The Unexpected (1979) continues the Hendrix love with Sister Change and All Along The Watchtower before going into Norwegian Wood and the jazz/prog rock of Tales Of The Unexpected. The inclusion of live versions of new songs Down Down Down, Door Of Illusion, Woman and Bottom Of The Barrel kinda deflated the momentum of the first side and pales to the Live album. Reviews were mixed but it's really not that bad. A subpar Frank Marino could outrock Ted Nugent on his best any night (with the exception of Ted's S/T Epic album) but for some reason the buying public that bought the Live album got off the bus on Tales
What's Next (1980) was a more return to form but again radio only played Roadhouse Blues, the Doors cover and Rock Me Baby to which Frank's version was more Robin Trower than BB King or Jimi. In fact, What's Next was Marino moving away from the sound of Hendrix to a more signature sound and it's very heavy sounding on You Got Livin and the 8 minute Loved By You. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame/Mona medley is throwaway. The biggest selling album for Columbia has never seen CD release in the US (Black Rose issued a poorly mastered CD).
With that Frank retired the Mahogany Rush name and made perhaps his more heaviest albums with The Power Of Rock And Roll and Juggernaut. Both sold well but Columbia never promoted them very well. The former album's powerful title track should have made it to rock radio. Other fine rockers include Ain't Dead Yet and the jazz fusion that is Go Strange. Juggernaut, his final CBS platter contained his only hit single Strange Dreams to which I never heard on KRNA nor KKRQ but have on XM radio. Juggernaut had the searing title track, the crash and bash Free and Stories Of A Hero which actually harkens back to World Anthem. It sold enough but by then Frank, tired of dealing with a corporate label clueless how to market him walked away.
When he disappeared from the rock and roll world, I kind of forgotten him till I pulled out Live or Strange Universe and the CBS albums that he did. Full Circle, while rocking, was venturing toward new age, a honest effort but it didn't do much for me. In 1993 Frank retired from music only to be brought back by the fans who continued to support his back catalog and of course it may have something to do with Razor and Tie cherry picking some cuts into a best of Dragonfly, a big mess since it includes nothing from the 20th Century albums and ends up putting the wrong songs off Power Of Rock And Roll. Buyer Beware. Sony Music issued in the states Live and Tales only, the rest are import only. However, the 20th Century albums have been reissued a few times on CD and although Maxoom still remains Frank's I Love Jimi album, the rest does show a more conventional and blues hard rock sound that I still think they have all have their moments. However, Frank in a interview has mentioned that the original tapes of what he did at Tempo Studios in Canada got taped over by other bands which is a bummer, although I'm sure Sony Music still has the masters of the finished albums on CD somewhere. But still Frank remains his own man and not owned by the labels whatsoever, when he plays live, he says he plays it for fun and when it's not fun he doesn't go on tour. But when he does play, he still plays with the rude tenacity that blew Ted Nugent off the stage in 1978.
In a perfect world, The Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame would have Frank Marino in there. And still, to me, Frank remains the best unheard guitarist that classic rock radio has forgotten. Which is as bad as having Jann Wanner being head of the RnRHOF dictating who gets in. Up his ass if he can deal with real rock and roll.
The Frank Marino Anthology (Incomplete)
Maxoom 1972 (20th Century/Just A Minute) B-
Child Of The Novelty (20th Century/Just A Minute 1974) B+
Strange Universe (20th Century/Just A Minute 1975) A-
Mahogany Rush IV (Columbia/Pilot 1976) A-
World Anthem (Columbia 1977) B+
Live (Columbia/Silver Cloud 1978) A
Tales Of The Unexpected (Columbia 1979) B+
What's Next (Columbia 1980) B+
The Power Of Rock And Roll (Columbia 1981) B+
Juggernaut (Columbia 1982) A-
Dragonfly-The Best Of Frank Marino/Mahogany Rush (Razor And Tie 1996) B-
The comparisons to Jimi Hendrix has been a touchy subject to Frank and even though he cites him as a influence, his other influence was Johnny Cipolina of Quicksilver Messenger Service. The first album Maxoom is Frank's tribute to Jimi Hendrix and it shows by his guitar playing and song delivery. The next album Child Of The Novelty, Frank begin to distanced himself from the Hendrix myth as he begin to sing about a New Rock And Roll. His band Mahogany Rush had wild man James Ayoub on drums and Paul Harwood on bass and they complimented his guitar player quite well. The next album Strange Universe got a bit more heavier Land Of 1000 Nights, Frank has said was written from the after effects of a bad acid trip. I love it as well as failed hit single Satisfy Your Soul. Although the record was underpromoted by 20th Century, Frank took his act over to Columbia for the classic years. And years of distain.
Mahogany Rush IV sometimes I think is their best studio album. There's more confidence in Frank's vocals but his guitar work was nothing short of awesome. Frank was migrating toward a jazzier and progressive rock sound on Dragonfly or The Answer but Little Sexy Annie is pure rock fun. The World Anthem continued more into Prog rock with Requiem For A Sinner and the title track but like Little Sexy Annie, Hey Little Lover is back to rock but a bit more complex on the beat.
As the ad proclaimed it takes other bands to make a 2 record set whereas it takes Frank to make one album, basically it was Columbia not springing for the full two record set so Live! was kept to a one LP set. But this was the live record that I played all the time in my Senior year and got my best friend hooked on Frank as well. Beginning with plenty of fireworks, Frank leads off with a killer start of The Answer and Dragonfly before bringing on the blues with a killer I'm A King Bee and showstoppers A New Rock And Roll and more stripped down Johnny B Goode from the Cal Jam 2 version. The medley of Talkin About A Feeling/Who Do You Love/War/New World Anthem is so over the top at the end one has to hear it to believe it. And then the usual Jimi Hendrix tribute with Purple Haze. This is the legend of Frank Marino from start to finish.
Tales Of The Unexpected (1979) continues the Hendrix love with Sister Change and All Along The Watchtower before going into Norwegian Wood and the jazz/prog rock of Tales Of The Unexpected. The inclusion of live versions of new songs Down Down Down, Door Of Illusion, Woman and Bottom Of The Barrel kinda deflated the momentum of the first side and pales to the Live album. Reviews were mixed but it's really not that bad. A subpar Frank Marino could outrock Ted Nugent on his best any night (with the exception of Ted's S/T Epic album) but for some reason the buying public that bought the Live album got off the bus on Tales
What's Next (1980) was a more return to form but again radio only played Roadhouse Blues, the Doors cover and Rock Me Baby to which Frank's version was more Robin Trower than BB King or Jimi. In fact, What's Next was Marino moving away from the sound of Hendrix to a more signature sound and it's very heavy sounding on You Got Livin and the 8 minute Loved By You. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame/Mona medley is throwaway. The biggest selling album for Columbia has never seen CD release in the US (Black Rose issued a poorly mastered CD).
With that Frank retired the Mahogany Rush name and made perhaps his more heaviest albums with The Power Of Rock And Roll and Juggernaut. Both sold well but Columbia never promoted them very well. The former album's powerful title track should have made it to rock radio. Other fine rockers include Ain't Dead Yet and the jazz fusion that is Go Strange. Juggernaut, his final CBS platter contained his only hit single Strange Dreams to which I never heard on KRNA nor KKRQ but have on XM radio. Juggernaut had the searing title track, the crash and bash Free and Stories Of A Hero which actually harkens back to World Anthem. It sold enough but by then Frank, tired of dealing with a corporate label clueless how to market him walked away.
When he disappeared from the rock and roll world, I kind of forgotten him till I pulled out Live or Strange Universe and the CBS albums that he did. Full Circle, while rocking, was venturing toward new age, a honest effort but it didn't do much for me. In 1993 Frank retired from music only to be brought back by the fans who continued to support his back catalog and of course it may have something to do with Razor and Tie cherry picking some cuts into a best of Dragonfly, a big mess since it includes nothing from the 20th Century albums and ends up putting the wrong songs off Power Of Rock And Roll. Buyer Beware. Sony Music issued in the states Live and Tales only, the rest are import only. However, the 20th Century albums have been reissued a few times on CD and although Maxoom still remains Frank's I Love Jimi album, the rest does show a more conventional and blues hard rock sound that I still think they have all have their moments. However, Frank in a interview has mentioned that the original tapes of what he did at Tempo Studios in Canada got taped over by other bands which is a bummer, although I'm sure Sony Music still has the masters of the finished albums on CD somewhere. But still Frank remains his own man and not owned by the labels whatsoever, when he plays live, he says he plays it for fun and when it's not fun he doesn't go on tour. But when he does play, he still plays with the rude tenacity that blew Ted Nugent off the stage in 1978.
In a perfect world, The Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame would have Frank Marino in there. And still, to me, Frank remains the best unheard guitarist that classic rock radio has forgotten. Which is as bad as having Jann Wanner being head of the RnRHOF dictating who gets in. Up his ass if he can deal with real rock and roll.
The Frank Marino Anthology (Incomplete)
Maxoom 1972 (20th Century/Just A Minute) B-
Child Of The Novelty (20th Century/Just A Minute 1974) B+
Strange Universe (20th Century/Just A Minute 1975) A-
Mahogany Rush IV (Columbia/Pilot 1976) A-
World Anthem (Columbia 1977) B+
Live (Columbia/Silver Cloud 1978) A
Tales Of The Unexpected (Columbia 1979) B+
What's Next (Columbia 1980) B+
The Power Of Rock And Roll (Columbia 1981) B+
Juggernaut (Columbia 1982) A-
Dragonfly-The Best Of Frank Marino/Mahogany Rush (Razor And Tie 1996) B-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
