The grunge movement that ended with Kurt Cobain blowing his brains out, leaving rock radio trying to find some other band to carry on the so call anti establishment movement (if there was anything to rebel against) in 1994 started a punk revival of sorts. Not that punk went away, it was always around in some capacity that during that year two bands of note came out of the California wasteland, one was The Offspring whose left field smash called Smash became a modern rock staple to this day you can't escape the pop hits of Come Out And Play (Keep Them Separated) or Self Esteem and eventually would become more fun pop than real punk.
The other band that broke it big was Billie Joe Armstrong and Green Day, coming off Lookout Records, which was home to Operation Ivy to which Tim Armstrong (no relation) would form the Clash/ska influenced Rancid. Green Day was more rock influenced than actual punk, in fact their roots can be traced to The Who when The Who were actually punks then became grand rock and rollers with their concept albums Tommy and Quadaphenoia to which Green Day would make their own grand statements with American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. Nevertheless, their first album 1039/Smoothed Out Sloppy Hours was them trying to learn at they go. I don't play it very much myself.
They came into their own with Kerplunk! to which the Tre Cool became the drummer and GD found the spark that would ignite their albums from here on out. The sound is very thin but the performance is dead on rock and roll and songs such as Who Wrote Holden Caulfield? Android and 2,000 Light Years Away would become the starting point for later chart toppers like Welcome To Paradise or Longview, Words I Might Have Ate, acoustic Ramones. Had Cobain lived on Dookie wouldn't be the landslide seller it became but perhaps the world was tired of grunge and wanted a more lighter and punker sound.
And so the love affair with Green Day started with Dookie which combines three chord punk and roll but with a more smoother production. Critics weren't amused, punk fans accused them of being sellouts when they went major label and BJ's fake Brit accent annoyed the purist but to me it was the music that mattered and Tre Cool being the Keith Moon of punk generation smashing cymbals left and right on Burnout and the moody Having A Blast. Armstrong singing the angst of teens living in mom and dad's basement on Basket Case echoed many a frustrated teen or not enjoying playing with themselves on Longview, their own Pictures Of Lily I gather. Dookie the album was a blast but it was a short enjoyable blast barely a half hour at the very least. And it got the be the album of 1994 in my book.
Even better to these ears was Insomniac which bombed but Green Day kept it short and sweet, turning the guitars and angst up to ten. Sure they ripped off the Who here and rewrote She's Got Everything by the Kinks into Walking Contradiction but the music pulled it through big time with Geek Stink Breath, the unsafe at any speed Bab's Uvula Who and the slow burn of Brain Stew which deteriorates into the thrash Jaded or the chaos of Panic Song, Insomniac is their perfect statement. Three chords and basically rock and roll to which they would not revisit till their latest Uno!
The problem with punk rock is that is one dimensional and after a while playing the same chords and singing the same song over gets even tiring for punks and they were getting to be in their mid twenties at that time so they added some horns and a violin on Nimrod, which to me is their weakest album in this era. First of all too many songs (18 of them) and Billie Joe beginning to sound very crusty and grouchy even for being 25. In fact he wrote a song about being a Grouch. Hitchin A Ride featuring the violin work of Petra Haden, King For A Day had the horn section honking away and Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) a acoustic rant that ended up being the theme song from the prom crowd or perhaps the graduation song for the class of 1997. With that Green Day took a sabbath and came back in 2000 with the more adult thinking Warning but that ended up being their poorest selling album even though it was a marked improvement over Nimrod. Fearing the end of a great punk rock band Reprise rushed out International Superhits which basically is the perfect snapshot of rock radio of the 1990s and perhaps the best overall view of the best or what some may call the worst of that era. Shenanigans soon followed and has the b sides to respective songs. Worth a listen if you're a fan, pass if your not.
Then Green Day decided that they were going to write concept albums and they did, striking gold and a big comeback with American Idiot which may or may not had to do with Bush Jr. They tried not one but two version of A Quick One (meaning adding short songs to one another to form a suite of sorts) and it works great on Jesus Of Suburbia, but not so much on Homecoming but Green Day got two major big hits on Wake Me Up When September Ends and Boulevard Of Broken Dreams. American Idiot was so great that they had to have a Broadway version of this album to which I politely declined to get. 21st Century Breakdown was yet another concept album but by this time the pompousness finally got Billie Joe and company and that turned out to be their least interesting album to me, even though 21 Guns was another big hit. I think at that point that I gave up on them and not even picking up their live albums that came out, although I'm sure Awesome As Fuck had some great moments they don't differ all that much from the studio albums except with more F bombs.
To which at this point Green Day finally decided tor return to their punk roots with Uno!, a three album trilogy that two more would follow (Dos in November, Tre! in Jan 2013) and despite Cumulus KRNA sticking Oh Love down our throats three days per day, the rest of the album is a welcome return to the three chords glory of Kerplunk/Dookie/Insomniac but then again having three albums back to back to back might be risking permanent damage to their reputation, especially after Billie Joe's meltdown in Las Vegas over seeing a wide screen telling the band they had one more minute to play on the infamous I Heart Radio show and Armstrong's F bomb tirade and one finger salute which is rock and roll rebellion but not into sales. But at as he approaches 40 years, the new punks really don't take heed to the old fart punks, just as Pete Townsend found that out in 1977 and Johnny Rotten did 20 years later. Rock and roll and punk is a young man's game as Billie Joe is finding out the hard way, but he's still going to go down fighting regardless.
Looking back at the 90s and all that mattered to me, Green Day ended up being my choice of the band of the decade, simply of the fact I thought they rocked harder than the grunge bands and whatever passed for album rock and then the second decade came back from the dead by throwing The Who's attitude into the mix. So far Uno! sales have not done very well and perhaps may have cast a rethink on the forthcoming Dos! and Tre! albums from consumers but unlike them I'll be waiting in line.
Because I think they still matter to me.
Albums:
1039 Smoothed Out Sloppy Seconds (Lookout/Reprise 1990) B-
Kerplunk! (Lookout/Reprise 1991) A-
Dookie (Reprise 1994) A
Insomniac (Reprise 1995) A+
Nimrod (Reprise 1997) B-
Warning (Reprise 2000) A-
International Superhits (Reprise 2001) A
Shenanigans (Reprise 2002) B+
American Idiot (Reprise 2004) B+
21st Century Breakdown (Reprise 2009) C+
!Uno! (Reprise 2012) A-
!Dos! (Reprise 2012) B+
!Tre! (Reprise 2012) B+
Revolution Radio (Reprise 2016) B
Friday, October 26, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Starcastle
They came from Illinois and made four albums for Epic but their lead singer used to be in REO Speedwagon. Terry Luttrell was the barrelhouse screamer on that self titled album and then left soon after. In the meantime hooking with some like minded individuals that had a deep love of Yes and progressive rock at that time, a bit of a Kansas to go with as well.
The first album was recorded in the great rock and roll mecca that is known as Pekin Illinois and the self titled album remains the only in print on the Epic label. The three others were reissued via Renaissance. Critics didn't get them and wrote them off as Yes clones and Luttrell does sound like a more mild mannered Jon Anderson as the first album gave them a FM hit with Lady Of The Lake.
The next two albums Starcastle worked with Roy Thomas Baker on the fine sounding Fountains Of Light with another FM hit with Fountains which adds elements of Queen and Styx to the mix. This is probably their most prog rock soundish. Citadel shortens the songs a bit there's more of a pop sound, although it still sounds prog rock but I like this record the best, especially on Can't Think Twice, Evening Wind and Could This Be Love. While Epic was winning to cut them some slack and let them chase that prog rock dream, the next and final effort Real To Reel had them working with Jeffrey Lesser who is best known for producing Head East and Real To Reel sounds more like an Head East album rather than Starcastle. Some of the songs feel like demos or half attempts for the radio and while it's a interesting listen it's not a prog rock album. The last two songs The Stars Are Out Tonight and When The Sun Shines At Midnight (which makes them sound like Lake, the German band) are the closest thing to the sound of the previous albums. However the band doesn't mention that album on their website. And of course the album cover of Real To Reel is horrendous.
Still, Starcastle may have not enjoyed the big sales of Kansas or as remembered as well as Yes, they made great albums in the prog rock tradition. One of the bands that I didn't get into till later in my years. Worth looking for if you can find their albums.
Albums
Starcastle (Epic 1976)
Fountains Of Light (Epic 1977)
Citadel (Epic 1978)
Real To Real (Epic 1979)
The first album was recorded in the great rock and roll mecca that is known as Pekin Illinois and the self titled album remains the only in print on the Epic label. The three others were reissued via Renaissance. Critics didn't get them and wrote them off as Yes clones and Luttrell does sound like a more mild mannered Jon Anderson as the first album gave them a FM hit with Lady Of The Lake.
The next two albums Starcastle worked with Roy Thomas Baker on the fine sounding Fountains Of Light with another FM hit with Fountains which adds elements of Queen and Styx to the mix. This is probably their most prog rock soundish. Citadel shortens the songs a bit there's more of a pop sound, although it still sounds prog rock but I like this record the best, especially on Can't Think Twice, Evening Wind and Could This Be Love. While Epic was winning to cut them some slack and let them chase that prog rock dream, the next and final effort Real To Reel had them working with Jeffrey Lesser who is best known for producing Head East and Real To Reel sounds more like an Head East album rather than Starcastle. Some of the songs feel like demos or half attempts for the radio and while it's a interesting listen it's not a prog rock album. The last two songs The Stars Are Out Tonight and When The Sun Shines At Midnight (which makes them sound like Lake, the German band) are the closest thing to the sound of the previous albums. However the band doesn't mention that album on their website. And of course the album cover of Real To Reel is horrendous.
Still, Starcastle may have not enjoyed the big sales of Kansas or as remembered as well as Yes, they made great albums in the prog rock tradition. One of the bands that I didn't get into till later in my years. Worth looking for if you can find their albums.
Albums
Starcastle (Epic 1976)
Fountains Of Light (Epic 1977)
Citadel (Epic 1978)
Real To Real (Epic 1979)
Monday, August 27, 2012
The Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Tribute
Twenty two years ago, I was sitting at Dancer's the infamous night club and tittie bar and chatting up with Melissa who at that time was considered a good friend and I had hopes of taking her out for supper but to make a long story short it didn't work out for me but she had a long sad look on her face and she came up to me and said "Have you heard the news? Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash in Alpine Valley". And it turn out to be a very sad day for me, in fact this hit home much harder than Elvis Presley in 1977.
To me, Stevie Ray was the last of the true guitar heroes. He was the shining light in the muck that was called hair spray metal or subpar pop. Nobody could do Hendrix as well and sometimes better than SRV. His version of Voodoo Chile was a constant play on my stereo. And when he fell into a life and death struggle with drugs till he got over that and was enjoying a new and exciting second chance till that fateful Aug 1990 helicopter crash that took him away from us.
I have my own tribute to SRV, I still have the back cover of his longbox CD The Sky Is Crying with him on it on my cluttered stereo, looking out into the world and it has been a mainstay on my shelf since getting it from Relics in 1991. Live Alive was one of the earliest albums I got on CD, (my good friend Dennis Lancaster made it his first ever cd buy) and even he was high he can still play guitar like no other. But in the early years he was one of Austin Texas' best kept secrets till he managed to play Montreaux in 1982 and played a wild set but got booed off the stage by the stuck up pricks in the audience. However David Bowie was there and offered him to play guitar on what would be the Let's Dance album and Jackson Browne offered studio time for SRV to do his own album which would be Texas Flood.
Certainly Stevie Ray had owed a lot to Albert King and Jimi Hendrix but he also highly influenced by Lonnie Mack who he managed to co produced Mack's Strike Like Lightning and may have put in a good word at Epic for Road Houses And Dance Halls. Vaughan may have also played on James Brown Living In America although the Gravity album that Volcano reissued mentions nothing of this. Vaughan was influenced by his brother Jimmie to which they would record the one and only Family Style in 1990 to which my favorite song was Long Way From Home to which the guitar riff is the price of admission to hear.
While Texas Flood got things straight and to the point, Couldn't Stand The Weather is more varied and even adds element of jazz and slow blues to the mix, Soul To Soul a bit more nodding to rhythm and the blues and adding Reese Wyanis to keyboards. Live Alive, what can you say, despite some muddy sound SRV gave us the FM classic Willie The Wimp. Everything leads to In Step, which in 1989 introduced the world to the new SRV sound which was a much more polished sound (thanks to Jim Gaines) and hits by the score with The House Is Rockin, Cross Fire and Tight Rope but also paying homage to Howlin Wolf (Let Me Love You Baby) and barrelhouse rock and blues (Scratch n Sniff). Then hooking with Jimmie with Family Style, a album which was good in some places and questionable in others (I never gotten into much into the voice over that almost bogs down Brothers) but still was a sign of things to come. And then Alpine came and then....
There's no shortage of repackages out there, The Greatest Hits packages are good and have the hits or highlights. The Sky Is Crying gives us some outtakes and paying more homage to Lonnie, Jimi and Jimmie and Albert but gives the bittersweet Life By The Drop as SRV's final statement which stings. There's also some post SRV live albums, the Montreaux Concert is the best of them and includes two shows, the infamous and famous 1982 show and the triumphed 1985 return to which SRV is treated to a hero's welcome. Live at Carnegie Hall is a 1984 performance which features brother Jimmie and Dr John on keyboards. In The Beginning is a 1980 showcase and shows SRV and Double Trouble in its humble beginnings. Blues At Sunrise is straight ahead slow blues.
Like Hendrix, SRV didn't record many studio albums, he only recorded four proper ones. And he's never made a bad album, nothing short of a B plus. For my generation, SRV was the last true real guitar hero for me. Even though he may have taken a cue from Lonnie Mack or Jimi Hendrix, he found a way to make it his own style. He could switch from playing lead guitar to rhythm without missing a beat. And still be humble enough to talk to you after a show in the process. There'll never be another Stevie Ray Vaughan.
At least that's what I Think.
Albums:
In The Beginning (1980 reissued by Epic in 1992) B+
Live At Montreaux 1982 & 1985 (Epic) A-
Texas Flood (Epic 1983) A
Couldn't Stand The Weather (Epic 1984) A-
Soul To Soul (Epic 1985) B+
Live Alive (Epic 1986) A-
In Step (Epic 1989) A-
The Vaughan Brothers-Family Style (CBS Associated 1990) B+
The Sky Is Crying (Epic 1991) A-
Live At Carnegie Hall (Epic 1984, reissued 1995) A-
To me, Stevie Ray was the last of the true guitar heroes. He was the shining light in the muck that was called hair spray metal or subpar pop. Nobody could do Hendrix as well and sometimes better than SRV. His version of Voodoo Chile was a constant play on my stereo. And when he fell into a life and death struggle with drugs till he got over that and was enjoying a new and exciting second chance till that fateful Aug 1990 helicopter crash that took him away from us.
I have my own tribute to SRV, I still have the back cover of his longbox CD The Sky Is Crying with him on it on my cluttered stereo, looking out into the world and it has been a mainstay on my shelf since getting it from Relics in 1991. Live Alive was one of the earliest albums I got on CD, (my good friend Dennis Lancaster made it his first ever cd buy) and even he was high he can still play guitar like no other. But in the early years he was one of Austin Texas' best kept secrets till he managed to play Montreaux in 1982 and played a wild set but got booed off the stage by the stuck up pricks in the audience. However David Bowie was there and offered him to play guitar on what would be the Let's Dance album and Jackson Browne offered studio time for SRV to do his own album which would be Texas Flood.
Certainly Stevie Ray had owed a lot to Albert King and Jimi Hendrix but he also highly influenced by Lonnie Mack who he managed to co produced Mack's Strike Like Lightning and may have put in a good word at Epic for Road Houses And Dance Halls. Vaughan may have also played on James Brown Living In America although the Gravity album that Volcano reissued mentions nothing of this. Vaughan was influenced by his brother Jimmie to which they would record the one and only Family Style in 1990 to which my favorite song was Long Way From Home to which the guitar riff is the price of admission to hear.
While Texas Flood got things straight and to the point, Couldn't Stand The Weather is more varied and even adds element of jazz and slow blues to the mix, Soul To Soul a bit more nodding to rhythm and the blues and adding Reese Wyanis to keyboards. Live Alive, what can you say, despite some muddy sound SRV gave us the FM classic Willie The Wimp. Everything leads to In Step, which in 1989 introduced the world to the new SRV sound which was a much more polished sound (thanks to Jim Gaines) and hits by the score with The House Is Rockin, Cross Fire and Tight Rope but also paying homage to Howlin Wolf (Let Me Love You Baby) and barrelhouse rock and blues (Scratch n Sniff). Then hooking with Jimmie with Family Style, a album which was good in some places and questionable in others (I never gotten into much into the voice over that almost bogs down Brothers) but still was a sign of things to come. And then Alpine came and then....
There's no shortage of repackages out there, The Greatest Hits packages are good and have the hits or highlights. The Sky Is Crying gives us some outtakes and paying more homage to Lonnie, Jimi and Jimmie and Albert but gives the bittersweet Life By The Drop as SRV's final statement which stings. There's also some post SRV live albums, the Montreaux Concert is the best of them and includes two shows, the infamous and famous 1982 show and the triumphed 1985 return to which SRV is treated to a hero's welcome. Live at Carnegie Hall is a 1984 performance which features brother Jimmie and Dr John on keyboards. In The Beginning is a 1980 showcase and shows SRV and Double Trouble in its humble beginnings. Blues At Sunrise is straight ahead slow blues.
Like Hendrix, SRV didn't record many studio albums, he only recorded four proper ones. And he's never made a bad album, nothing short of a B plus. For my generation, SRV was the last true real guitar hero for me. Even though he may have taken a cue from Lonnie Mack or Jimi Hendrix, he found a way to make it his own style. He could switch from playing lead guitar to rhythm without missing a beat. And still be humble enough to talk to you after a show in the process. There'll never be another Stevie Ray Vaughan.
At least that's what I Think.
Albums:
In The Beginning (1980 reissued by Epic in 1992) B+
Live At Montreaux 1982 & 1985 (Epic) A-
Texas Flood (Epic 1983) A
Couldn't Stand The Weather (Epic 1984) A-
Soul To Soul (Epic 1985) B+
Live Alive (Epic 1986) A-
In Step (Epic 1989) A-
The Vaughan Brothers-Family Style (CBS Associated 1990) B+
The Sky Is Crying (Epic 1991) A-
Live At Carnegie Hall (Epic 1984, reissued 1995) A-
Friday, August 24, 2012
The Two Sides Of Lynyrd Skynyrd
Once upon a time in the South there was a little rocking Southern band by the name of Lynyrd Skynyrd that came from the swamps to record classic albums for MCA before a plane crash took the vision and thoughts of Ronnie Van Zant to the Great Beyond. To which survivors started their own band and did the unthinkable: reunite with a brother singer and became a cliche upon itself.
There's no bar band that ever escaped some yayhoo screaming PLAY FREE BIRD or SWEET HOME ALABAMA at some hole in the wall bar out in the middle of nowhere. Free Bird was the lesser seller of Sweet Home, it hardly got any airplay unless it was FM radio but since the beginning of the CCC owned classic rock stations either song is being played at some spot in the world as we speak. Once an anthem, it's as overplayed as they come. And while both are great songs, they pretty much fall under something I could listen to once a year and then that's that.
Nevertheless, Skynyrd the Original cannot be topped due to the wry and sly song writing ability from Ronnie Van Zant and with a triple guitar lineup of Ed King, the late great Allen Collins and sole remaining original band member Gary Rossington they took southern rock and boogie to a whole new level. The first album is just about perfect with each song in its rightful spot. The insane beginning of I Ain't The One, the yearning Tuesday's Gone, the bar band staple Gimme Three Steps and Simple Man, every song on side one was many a band learning it for the bar faithful. Although side 2 slips a bit, Things Goin On and Mississippi Kid rarely get played on the radio and Poison Whiskey a Van Zant PSA about the dangers of rotgut these songs have a charm on their own. Which leads into Free Bird, which turns out to be the song most associated with Ronnie, a song about defiance and having a come and gone way to which they would jam out the last 5 minutes with a fury of lead guitars from all three guitarist. Long time ago, it came out on Al Kooper's Sounds Of The South label, which was distributed by MCA but the first album sold well enough for Second Helping, more fun stuff and songs that were as good as the first. To where Sweet Home Alabama picks up where Free Bird left off, a Southern gentleman's FU to Neil Young's Southern Man. To which these two songs, forever playing somewhere would be the basis of the After Ronnie Lynyrd Skynyrd would rewrite time and time ago. I think Second Helping is a bit better than the first album, there's no wasted songs anywhere to I Need You, the funny Don't Ask Me Any Questions, the boogie Swamp Music and The Ballad Of Curtis Loew which marvels on how well Ronnie Van Zant could look back in the past and create memories and turn it into a original song and not the cliche. And of course Working for MCA which still may be the best song about working for a major label for all the good or bad. Ronnie seemed to have no patience for those pencil pushers or the city slickers stealing his money. And then another anti drug song The Needle And Spoon and the album classic Call Me The Breeze. You heard them all before on the radio but it still sounds good when you put the record on.
While critics have not been kind to Nuthin Fancy or Gimme Back My Bullets, they were probably recorded at the time all the band would be fucked up to perform, new drummer Artimus Pyle gave them a more harder rocking beat. And these two albums were the most played at my place. Nuthin Fancy featured the last album Al Kooper produced and it was the best recorded. Saturday Night Special was the main hit but Ronnie is fed up and ready to shoot his Cheatin Woman, wants to ride the rails on Railroad Song and still remains I'm A Country Boy. Second side gives a hard rocking romp On The Hunt, wonders If I'm Losing due to fairweather friends, and adds a pre war blues romp on Made In The Shade before concluding with Whiskey Rock N Roller.
Gimme Back My Bullets showcases The Honkettes, the female singers that would from that day forward would be a part of Skynyrd. Tom Dowd produced this and the mix was terrible but it still had great songs (the remastered cleaned up the sound much better). The title track and the power driving Double Trouble to which Ronnie proclaims if he fell into a rose bush he still coming out smelling like SH---. I found myself playing Every Mother's Son a lot during high school and Trust still rings true like it did today. And they find themselves raiding J J Cale again with I Got The Same Old Blues Again. For the first time, some of the songs on side 2 sounded weak, like they needed a break but still Searching and All I Can Do Is Write About It, the latter sees Van Zant getting a bit cynical as he sees the creeping concrete coming closer to take away childhood memories. It may have been seen slight back then but Ronnie was way ahead of his time even on the throwaways. The two slight songs are Roll Gypsy Roll and Cry For The Bad Man
But the band's drug and booze habits were weighing things down so they decided to get clean and sober but before then gave the world One More From The Road, a album that has the hits and what they were famous for, right down the 10 minute ending of Free Bird. It still remains an album to get if you wanted to hear how damn great they were. By then Steve Gaines joined up and he may have been the best guitar player and plus he could sing too.
Street Survivors to me is like what In Step from Stevie Ray Vaughn was. They got cleaned up, they went and made their best album and then the plane crash that ended the best version of that band (in SRV's case it was a helicopter). An early recording of One More Time from a early session is on it but the rest are sure fire hard rocking classics, from What's Your Name to That Smell to Steve Gaines playing swing guitar on I Know A Little and then dueting with Ronnie on You Got That Right. Even I Never Dreamed may have been slight it still fits in well and then a cool cover of Merle Haggard's Honky Tonk Night Time Man. Steve Gaines takes over on vocals on Ain't No Good Life. If later albums were an indication, Gaines would play a big role but then a 1977 plane crash took both him and Ronnie and Skynyrd would be silenced for 10 years afterwards.
Since then MCA has repackaged their albums and added bonus cuts and B sides. Skynyrd's First and Last album was a early session featuring Ricky Medlocke on drums for a collection of rough and wild southern rock (Preacher's Daughter, Wino, Down South Jukin'). MCA would reissue it with even more tracks and some that would feature later on other albums including a wobbly take on Free Bird. Legend, the 1990 scrapes the bottom of the barrel with outtakes from Street Survivors and the Sweet Home Alabama b side, the 7 and half minute Take Your Time. There are tons and tons of greatest hits out there and basically it's for those who only want the hits although their albums were so much more. The Free Bird Movie Soundtrack is a rougher live performance which isn't too bad.
And then rising from the ashes, the survivors returned to do a live album Southern By The Grace Of God and the Skynyrd returned with Johnny Van Zant doing the vocals. Not a bad album by any means a version of Free Bird is sung by the crowd. Which begins the second phase of Skynyrd which continues to this day. Johnny Van Zant may be a better singer than Ronnie says the critics, but Ronnie trumps both him and Donnie and the songwriting department. The 1991 comeback album for Atlantic was basically flat I thought but The Last Rebel was much better but by then a revolving door of personnel begain. Ed King and Randall Hall would be replaced down the road by Ricky Medlocke who left and formed the harder rocking Blackfoot with late great Jackson Spiers on drums, and Hughie Thomassen of The Outlaws but instead of adding their own songs and vocals, chose to pretty much to be guitar playing sidemen on later albums. After making 2 albums for Atlantic, they did a an acoustic one off for Capricorn (Endangered Species) and then over CMC International (Later Sanctuary) for Twenty best known for Travelin' Man a song that Ronnie comes back from the grave to sing it with Johnny and Donnie Van Zant. Kid Rock appears on Vicious Cycle.
While most original members have died (Bob Burns, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkerson, Allen Collins, Ronnie, Steve & Cassie Gaines) or left (Artimus Pyle) The Lynyrd Skynyrd that is still around is not like the band of long ago and far away. Moving to Roadrunner Records in 2010 they begin to update their sound to something like Nickleback (Bob Marlette who produced their recent two albums may have something to do with that). Although Gods & Guns and the latest Last Of A Dying Breed are good in their own way, they have more to do with the new rock sound that Nickleback is known for I certainly don't think Ronnie would ever stoop down to do anything in protools, the original Skynyrd sound was rough and tumble, the way Southern rock and roll is meant to be. Marlette's production seems to smooth up the edges a bit too much for me although Last Of A Dying Breed works a lot better than Gods & Guns did. In some ways it might be their best of the Johnnie Van Zant led band. No, it doesn't hold a candle to early albums but take it for what's worth, it's got enough of the new modern rock but still a nod toward the country and southern rock. As long as Gary Rossington and Johnnie Van Zant with Rickey Medlocke remain together, I won't count them out. Neither should you.
The Albums:
Pronounced Lynyrd Skynyrd (MCA 1973) A-
Second Helping (MCA 1974) A+
Nuthin Fancy (MCA 1975) A
Gimme Back My Bullets (MCA 1976) A
One More From The Road (MCA 1976) A-
Street Survivors (MCA 1977) A+
Skynyrd's First and Last (MCA 1978) B+
Gold And Platinum (MCA 1979) A-
Best Of The Rest (MCA 1982) A-
Legend (MCA 1988) B-
Skynyrd's Innyrds (MCA 1990) B+ (There's many best ofs out there, this was the only one I reviewed)
Skynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Sessions (MCA 1998) B
Free Bird The Movie (Cabin Fever/MCA 1996) B
The new Skynyrd
Southern By The Grace Of God Tour (MCA 1987) B
1991 (Atlantic 1991) C+
The Last Rebel (Atlantic 1993) B-
Endangered Pieces (Capricorn 1994) B
Twenty (CMC 1997) B
Edge Of Forever (CMC 1999) C+
Vicious Cycle (Sanctuary 2003) NR
Gods & Guns (Roadrunner 2009) C
Last Of A Dyin Breed (Roadrunner 2012) B
Side Projects:
Rossington Collins Band/Allen Collins Band
Anyplace Anytime Anyhow (MCA 1980) B
This Is The Way (MCA 1982) B+
Here, There And Back (MCA 1983) B+
Returned To Scene Of The Crime (Atlantic 1986) C
Love Your Man (MCA 1988) C
Solo Flytes (MCA 1999) B (collection of Rollington/Collins, Allen Collins, APB, Steve Gaines tracks)
Steve Gaines:
One In The Sun (MCA 1987) B+
Artimus Pyle
APB (MCA 1983) C
Artimus Venomus (Deadline 2007) C+
There's no bar band that ever escaped some yayhoo screaming PLAY FREE BIRD or SWEET HOME ALABAMA at some hole in the wall bar out in the middle of nowhere. Free Bird was the lesser seller of Sweet Home, it hardly got any airplay unless it was FM radio but since the beginning of the CCC owned classic rock stations either song is being played at some spot in the world as we speak. Once an anthem, it's as overplayed as they come. And while both are great songs, they pretty much fall under something I could listen to once a year and then that's that.
Nevertheless, Skynyrd the Original cannot be topped due to the wry and sly song writing ability from Ronnie Van Zant and with a triple guitar lineup of Ed King, the late great Allen Collins and sole remaining original band member Gary Rossington they took southern rock and boogie to a whole new level. The first album is just about perfect with each song in its rightful spot. The insane beginning of I Ain't The One, the yearning Tuesday's Gone, the bar band staple Gimme Three Steps and Simple Man, every song on side one was many a band learning it for the bar faithful. Although side 2 slips a bit, Things Goin On and Mississippi Kid rarely get played on the radio and Poison Whiskey a Van Zant PSA about the dangers of rotgut these songs have a charm on their own. Which leads into Free Bird, which turns out to be the song most associated with Ronnie, a song about defiance and having a come and gone way to which they would jam out the last 5 minutes with a fury of lead guitars from all three guitarist. Long time ago, it came out on Al Kooper's Sounds Of The South label, which was distributed by MCA but the first album sold well enough for Second Helping, more fun stuff and songs that were as good as the first. To where Sweet Home Alabama picks up where Free Bird left off, a Southern gentleman's FU to Neil Young's Southern Man. To which these two songs, forever playing somewhere would be the basis of the After Ronnie Lynyrd Skynyrd would rewrite time and time ago. I think Second Helping is a bit better than the first album, there's no wasted songs anywhere to I Need You, the funny Don't Ask Me Any Questions, the boogie Swamp Music and The Ballad Of Curtis Loew which marvels on how well Ronnie Van Zant could look back in the past and create memories and turn it into a original song and not the cliche. And of course Working for MCA which still may be the best song about working for a major label for all the good or bad. Ronnie seemed to have no patience for those pencil pushers or the city slickers stealing his money. And then another anti drug song The Needle And Spoon and the album classic Call Me The Breeze. You heard them all before on the radio but it still sounds good when you put the record on.
While critics have not been kind to Nuthin Fancy or Gimme Back My Bullets, they were probably recorded at the time all the band would be fucked up to perform, new drummer Artimus Pyle gave them a more harder rocking beat. And these two albums were the most played at my place. Nuthin Fancy featured the last album Al Kooper produced and it was the best recorded. Saturday Night Special was the main hit but Ronnie is fed up and ready to shoot his Cheatin Woman, wants to ride the rails on Railroad Song and still remains I'm A Country Boy. Second side gives a hard rocking romp On The Hunt, wonders If I'm Losing due to fairweather friends, and adds a pre war blues romp on Made In The Shade before concluding with Whiskey Rock N Roller.
Gimme Back My Bullets showcases The Honkettes, the female singers that would from that day forward would be a part of Skynyrd. Tom Dowd produced this and the mix was terrible but it still had great songs (the remastered cleaned up the sound much better). The title track and the power driving Double Trouble to which Ronnie proclaims if he fell into a rose bush he still coming out smelling like SH---. I found myself playing Every Mother's Son a lot during high school and Trust still rings true like it did today. And they find themselves raiding J J Cale again with I Got The Same Old Blues Again. For the first time, some of the songs on side 2 sounded weak, like they needed a break but still Searching and All I Can Do Is Write About It, the latter sees Van Zant getting a bit cynical as he sees the creeping concrete coming closer to take away childhood memories. It may have been seen slight back then but Ronnie was way ahead of his time even on the throwaways. The two slight songs are Roll Gypsy Roll and Cry For The Bad Man
But the band's drug and booze habits were weighing things down so they decided to get clean and sober but before then gave the world One More From The Road, a album that has the hits and what they were famous for, right down the 10 minute ending of Free Bird. It still remains an album to get if you wanted to hear how damn great they were. By then Steve Gaines joined up and he may have been the best guitar player and plus he could sing too.
Street Survivors to me is like what In Step from Stevie Ray Vaughn was. They got cleaned up, they went and made their best album and then the plane crash that ended the best version of that band (in SRV's case it was a helicopter). An early recording of One More Time from a early session is on it but the rest are sure fire hard rocking classics, from What's Your Name to That Smell to Steve Gaines playing swing guitar on I Know A Little and then dueting with Ronnie on You Got That Right. Even I Never Dreamed may have been slight it still fits in well and then a cool cover of Merle Haggard's Honky Tonk Night Time Man. Steve Gaines takes over on vocals on Ain't No Good Life. If later albums were an indication, Gaines would play a big role but then a 1977 plane crash took both him and Ronnie and Skynyrd would be silenced for 10 years afterwards.
Since then MCA has repackaged their albums and added bonus cuts and B sides. Skynyrd's First and Last album was a early session featuring Ricky Medlocke on drums for a collection of rough and wild southern rock (Preacher's Daughter, Wino, Down South Jukin'). MCA would reissue it with even more tracks and some that would feature later on other albums including a wobbly take on Free Bird. Legend, the 1990 scrapes the bottom of the barrel with outtakes from Street Survivors and the Sweet Home Alabama b side, the 7 and half minute Take Your Time. There are tons and tons of greatest hits out there and basically it's for those who only want the hits although their albums were so much more. The Free Bird Movie Soundtrack is a rougher live performance which isn't too bad.
And then rising from the ashes, the survivors returned to do a live album Southern By The Grace Of God and the Skynyrd returned with Johnny Van Zant doing the vocals. Not a bad album by any means a version of Free Bird is sung by the crowd. Which begins the second phase of Skynyrd which continues to this day. Johnny Van Zant may be a better singer than Ronnie says the critics, but Ronnie trumps both him and Donnie and the songwriting department. The 1991 comeback album for Atlantic was basically flat I thought but The Last Rebel was much better but by then a revolving door of personnel begain. Ed King and Randall Hall would be replaced down the road by Ricky Medlocke who left and formed the harder rocking Blackfoot with late great Jackson Spiers on drums, and Hughie Thomassen of The Outlaws but instead of adding their own songs and vocals, chose to pretty much to be guitar playing sidemen on later albums. After making 2 albums for Atlantic, they did a an acoustic one off for Capricorn (Endangered Species) and then over CMC International (Later Sanctuary) for Twenty best known for Travelin' Man a song that Ronnie comes back from the grave to sing it with Johnny and Donnie Van Zant. Kid Rock appears on Vicious Cycle.
While most original members have died (Bob Burns, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkerson, Allen Collins, Ronnie, Steve & Cassie Gaines) or left (Artimus Pyle) The Lynyrd Skynyrd that is still around is not like the band of long ago and far away. Moving to Roadrunner Records in 2010 they begin to update their sound to something like Nickleback (Bob Marlette who produced their recent two albums may have something to do with that). Although Gods & Guns and the latest Last Of A Dying Breed are good in their own way, they have more to do with the new rock sound that Nickleback is known for I certainly don't think Ronnie would ever stoop down to do anything in protools, the original Skynyrd sound was rough and tumble, the way Southern rock and roll is meant to be. Marlette's production seems to smooth up the edges a bit too much for me although Last Of A Dying Breed works a lot better than Gods & Guns did. In some ways it might be their best of the Johnnie Van Zant led band. No, it doesn't hold a candle to early albums but take it for what's worth, it's got enough of the new modern rock but still a nod toward the country and southern rock. As long as Gary Rossington and Johnnie Van Zant with Rickey Medlocke remain together, I won't count them out. Neither should you.
The Albums:
Pronounced Lynyrd Skynyrd (MCA 1973) A-
Second Helping (MCA 1974) A+
Nuthin Fancy (MCA 1975) A
Gimme Back My Bullets (MCA 1976) A
One More From The Road (MCA 1976) A-
Street Survivors (MCA 1977) A+
Skynyrd's First and Last (MCA 1978) B+
Gold And Platinum (MCA 1979) A-
Best Of The Rest (MCA 1982) A-
Legend (MCA 1988) B-
Skynyrd's Innyrds (MCA 1990) B+ (There's many best ofs out there, this was the only one I reviewed)
Skynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Sessions (MCA 1998) B
Free Bird The Movie (Cabin Fever/MCA 1996) B
The new Skynyrd
Southern By The Grace Of God Tour (MCA 1987) B
1991 (Atlantic 1991) C+
The Last Rebel (Atlantic 1993) B-
Endangered Pieces (Capricorn 1994) B
Twenty (CMC 1997) B
Edge Of Forever (CMC 1999) C+
Vicious Cycle (Sanctuary 2003) NR
Gods & Guns (Roadrunner 2009) C
Last Of A Dyin Breed (Roadrunner 2012) B
Side Projects:
Rossington Collins Band/Allen Collins Band
Anyplace Anytime Anyhow (MCA 1980) B
This Is The Way (MCA 1982) B+
Here, There And Back (MCA 1983) B+
Returned To Scene Of The Crime (Atlantic 1986) C
Love Your Man (MCA 1988) C
Solo Flytes (MCA 1999) B (collection of Rollington/Collins, Allen Collins, APB, Steve Gaines tracks)
Steve Gaines:
One In The Sun (MCA 1987) B+
Artimus Pyle
APB (MCA 1983) C
Artimus Venomus (Deadline 2007) C+
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Jason And The Scorchers
Somewhere along the line last month of all the happenings going on, little did the major music mags ever mentioned of the passing of Perry Baggs, the longtime drummer holding the backbeat to one of the earliest cowpunk bands of the 1980s Jason And The Scorchers who died at age 50 from diabetes I think and a frail body that simply wore out over the years of hard rocking. But Baggs also was instrumental into playing gospel at the local church and was in the process of recording a gospel album before his death. Anyway here's a blog that celebrates more about Baggs than I can give. http://tim-ghianni.blogspot.com/2012/07/please-bang-drum-slowly-for-jesus-and.html
Jason And The Scorchers were way ahead of the times and like their more country counterpart Rank And File gave the world the start of what was called cowpunk. Sounding more like an amped up Hank Williams, they roar out of Nashville with a 1982 independent album called Reckless Country Soul, which the world has never heard of. Who are they to desecrate Hank Williams by speeding the songs up to wreckless abandon? Word and interest got around and they managed to score a contract with EMI America to issue another EP, Frevor to which they had a alternative hit with a cover of Absolute Sweet Marie. I didn't jump on board till I heard White Lies, their single off Lost And Found to which they worked with Terry Manning, combining originals with some lost country honky tonk hits of long ago and far away, Lost Highway and I Really Don't Want To Know. Lost And Found actually made my list of the top ten albums of 1983 and it sold well enough for a second album Still Standing to which Tom Werman produced. While some claimed that Werman may have smooth out all the rough edges, I found this album to have aged quite well, whereas Lost And Found may have been done in by the booming drums mix of Terry Manning. Still Standing also focused more on the original songs, the only cover was the Rolling Stones 19th Nervous Breakdown. The record didn't sell very well and they left for A & M for the underrated Thunder And Fire (Produced by Barry Beckett), Jason was co writing with some of Nashville's best songwriters at that time (Tim Krekel, Steve Earle, Dan Schlitz). In some ways Thunder & Fire remains their best in terms of songs flowing from one to another. When I first heard the album I didn't think much of it but I recall playing When The Angels Cry a lot in the late 80s and early 90s. It's the only album that Andy York compliments Warren Hodges on guitar, York would eventually move on to John Mellencamps band and Hearts And Minds
Thunder And Fire also flopped and Jason decided to call it a day and disband the Scorchers. He made a 1992 album One Foot In The Honky Tonk for Liberty but in 1995 they decided to give it a go again. This time signing with a more sympathetic label in Mammoth and recording A Blazing Grace with Jeff Johnson back in tow. Atlantic picked them up for Clear Impetuous Morning and then returned them back to Mammoth for the live Midnight Roads And Stages Seen. But Mammoth folded and Jason return to a solo career and the band splintered apart.
In the time since then, The Scorchers have reunited from time to time but by the time they got around to do Halcyon Times, Perry Baggs was too sick to continue. Still the fire and gasoline that is Jason and Warren Hodges delivered one of their best albums ever, even with the new guys in tow (Al Collins and Pontus). It was one of that those albums that you had to get from the band themselves for that time they decided the hell with majors and do it themselves.
Being a big fan of theirs I am very biased in terms of what to look for or what to get. You're better off with Both Sides Of The Line, a EMI comp that puts Fervor and Lost And Found Together but that is out of print as well as Essential Jason And The Scorchers Volume 1: Are You Ready For The Country which adds the title track to the EP and LP mentioned above as well as a couple old live cuts. Still Standing was issued by Capitol and adds three bonus cuts to the original EMI album (also issued on CD years ago but also out of print). Reckless Country Soul was reissued as a full album by Praxis/Mammoth in 1996 and is the best indicator of the early years on just how punky and great they were back then although the sound quality isn't that great. The Mammoth albums also have a fine quality of their own although this was a more mature Scorchers but still intense when they want to be.
In short, nothing before or after was quite like Jason & The Scorchers who made rock and roll fun, and made converts of those who wanted to hear something different than the new wave keyboard dominated crap of the 1980s. They didn't sell many records but God almighty they rocked harder than any band of the 80's.
RIP Perry Baggs
Dedicated to the memory of Jack Emerson who left us too soon (Manager of the band).
Albums:
Reckless Country Soul 1982 (later reissued with more bonus tracks 1996) Mammoth A-
Fervor EP (EMI America 1982) A-
Lost And Found (EMI America 1983) A-
Still Standing (EMI America 1986) B+
Thunder And Fire (A&M 1989) B+
A Blazing Grace (Mammoth 1995) B+
Clear Impetuous Morning (Mammoth/Atlantic 1996) A-
Midnight Roads And Stages Seen (Mammoth/Hollywood 1998) B
Halycon Times (Courageous Chicken 2010) A
Compilations:
Are You Ready For The Country (EMI 1993) A-
Both Sides Of The Line (EMI 1995) A-
Still Standing (Bonus tracks) (Capitol 2002) A-
Jason: Too Long In The Honky Tonk (Liberty 1992) B
Jason And The Scorchers were way ahead of the times and like their more country counterpart Rank And File gave the world the start of what was called cowpunk. Sounding more like an amped up Hank Williams, they roar out of Nashville with a 1982 independent album called Reckless Country Soul, which the world has never heard of. Who are they to desecrate Hank Williams by speeding the songs up to wreckless abandon? Word and interest got around and they managed to score a contract with EMI America to issue another EP, Frevor to which they had a alternative hit with a cover of Absolute Sweet Marie. I didn't jump on board till I heard White Lies, their single off Lost And Found to which they worked with Terry Manning, combining originals with some lost country honky tonk hits of long ago and far away, Lost Highway and I Really Don't Want To Know. Lost And Found actually made my list of the top ten albums of 1983 and it sold well enough for a second album Still Standing to which Tom Werman produced. While some claimed that Werman may have smooth out all the rough edges, I found this album to have aged quite well, whereas Lost And Found may have been done in by the booming drums mix of Terry Manning. Still Standing also focused more on the original songs, the only cover was the Rolling Stones 19th Nervous Breakdown. The record didn't sell very well and they left for A & M for the underrated Thunder And Fire (Produced by Barry Beckett), Jason was co writing with some of Nashville's best songwriters at that time (Tim Krekel, Steve Earle, Dan Schlitz). In some ways Thunder & Fire remains their best in terms of songs flowing from one to another. When I first heard the album I didn't think much of it but I recall playing When The Angels Cry a lot in the late 80s and early 90s. It's the only album that Andy York compliments Warren Hodges on guitar, York would eventually move on to John Mellencamps band and Hearts And Minds
Thunder And Fire also flopped and Jason decided to call it a day and disband the Scorchers. He made a 1992 album One Foot In The Honky Tonk for Liberty but in 1995 they decided to give it a go again. This time signing with a more sympathetic label in Mammoth and recording A Blazing Grace with Jeff Johnson back in tow. Atlantic picked them up for Clear Impetuous Morning and then returned them back to Mammoth for the live Midnight Roads And Stages Seen. But Mammoth folded and Jason return to a solo career and the band splintered apart.
In the time since then, The Scorchers have reunited from time to time but by the time they got around to do Halcyon Times, Perry Baggs was too sick to continue. Still the fire and gasoline that is Jason and Warren Hodges delivered one of their best albums ever, even with the new guys in tow (Al Collins and Pontus). It was one of that those albums that you had to get from the band themselves for that time they decided the hell with majors and do it themselves.
Being a big fan of theirs I am very biased in terms of what to look for or what to get. You're better off with Both Sides Of The Line, a EMI comp that puts Fervor and Lost And Found Together but that is out of print as well as Essential Jason And The Scorchers Volume 1: Are You Ready For The Country which adds the title track to the EP and LP mentioned above as well as a couple old live cuts. Still Standing was issued by Capitol and adds three bonus cuts to the original EMI album (also issued on CD years ago but also out of print). Reckless Country Soul was reissued as a full album by Praxis/Mammoth in 1996 and is the best indicator of the early years on just how punky and great they were back then although the sound quality isn't that great. The Mammoth albums also have a fine quality of their own although this was a more mature Scorchers but still intense when they want to be.
In short, nothing before or after was quite like Jason & The Scorchers who made rock and roll fun, and made converts of those who wanted to hear something different than the new wave keyboard dominated crap of the 1980s. They didn't sell many records but God almighty they rocked harder than any band of the 80's.
RIP Perry Baggs
Dedicated to the memory of Jack Emerson who left us too soon (Manager of the band).
Albums:
Reckless Country Soul 1982 (later reissued with more bonus tracks 1996) Mammoth A-
Fervor EP (EMI America 1982) A-
Lost And Found (EMI America 1983) A-
Still Standing (EMI America 1986) B+
Thunder And Fire (A&M 1989) B+
A Blazing Grace (Mammoth 1995) B+
Clear Impetuous Morning (Mammoth/Atlantic 1996) A-
Midnight Roads And Stages Seen (Mammoth/Hollywood 1998) B
Halycon Times (Courageous Chicken 2010) A
Compilations:
Are You Ready For The Country (EMI 1993) A-
Both Sides Of The Line (EMI 1995) A-
Still Standing (Bonus tracks) (Capitol 2002) A-
Jason: Too Long In The Honky Tonk (Liberty 1992) B
Crabb Corner Retrospective
From 2003 to 2006 I wrote a bunch of blogs for the now defunct MSN Groups Network. From the previous four parts I have selected the best of the bunch before they all faded into neverland.
The course of the The Four Part of Crabb Corner was written in that order when it appeared on a different site. Basically they are there for perserving what's left of a hobby that continues to be 10 years onward.
More to come as I try to preserve things before that other website goes into oblivion too.
The course of the The Four Part of Crabb Corner was written in that order when it appeared on a different site. Basically they are there for perserving what's left of a hobby that continues to be 10 years onward.
More to come as I try to preserve things before that other website goes into oblivion too.
Best Of Crabb Corner Part 4
Bumfuk Egypt is the to the left of Tim butt two hahaha. (from Subscription Blues 10/17/03)
More
venom and bile to spew, at our wonderful clear channel owned MIX 96.
Monday, when i felt well enough to get out there, I went to the Dollar
Store only to hear the dyke queen Melissa Ethridge's crappy song, and
then good ole Uncle Krackup's Drift Away, a song that has been on the
number one most overplayed piece of crap for the last seven months.
Don't Radio and Records even make a attempt to change their top ten at
all anymore? This is the reason why people dont wanna listen to radio
anymore, same ole crap every hour on the hour. Oh did i say the Dollar
Store had MIX 96 on? Sorry got my radio stations mixed up, it was KDAT,
another soft rock station with the same playlist as SHIX 96. Of
course, at work on MIX 96 they were playing the same damn Melissa Dyke
Ethridge song and then Uncle Krackup (im not making this up). Same
songs, different radio stations. And you wonder why I wanna blow up the
radio transmitter. Oh yea, Sheryl Crow, another reason (please shoot
me). (Subscription Blues 10/18/03)
this
story centers on the eventual closing of Long Wong's, a Tempe based area
dive bar, to which you can get greasy buffalo wings, and watery
spegetti for two bucks a plate. When I lived in that area in the late
80s, Long Wongs was the place to eat very cheap, and that place was the
basis for the Tempe sound at that time, The Gin Blossoms, Dead Hot
Workshop and the Refreshments would later go on to major labels later
on, but for them, they were just as unknown once you left the Tempe
scene. But in the twenty years since I was a resident of that town, old
buildings down in the downtown Tempe have been torn down and made way
for newer, more posh looking and higher rents. Only the Jack In The Box
next door have remained, and I suspect that they too will be forced to
locate in the future.
True story number two.
Elvis Del Monte, was a charater in himself. When the Gin Blossoms
preformed at Chuy's that july 1992 day, he got up to do his Elvis
impersonation of Little Sister, which he did forget the words, but he
more than made it up with his karate kicks. And I too, thought that he
was part of the band too, but when they played the Cedar Rapids Freedom
festival one year later, he was not there.
Julie
Hurm-Tessitore. This woman I remember sat next to me at Chuy's, and
gave me the story of the Gin Blossoms since i havent heard of them at
that time; I went to Chuy's on the ideal that the Sand Rubies, another
Tucson band was gonna be there. Somehow, at Chuy's I managed to find a
sofa right in front of the stage and she came up later, she was also
friends with a band called Echohouse who opened for the Gin boys.
Anyway, she passed away from cancer early this year, and they will have a
benefit for her with the reunion of Beats The Hell Out Of Me, a metal
band from Phoenix. Even though I only met her that nite in July, I do
remember her.
But getting back to Long Wongs,
its a dive no doubt, its small, cramped and very smelly, in fact I was
there only to go to the bathroom when i was there last august. Even for
five minites of being there, the memories still remain. Kinda reminds
me of my days at the OK lounge in Marion IA, the last known performance
of Paraphernalia. The OK was torn town to make way for the Nancy Miller
Public Library, which smells a lot better than the OK did. (The Closing
of Long Wongs 11/6/03)
Another
rant to amuse you with. Went to FYE yesterday, and found three used
CDs. Again, I wish these dammed stores would quit putting out scratchy
CDs and charging them 8 bucks for them, and also, quit writing on the
disc. Nothing boils da crabb more than hot water is buying a cd with
somebody writing their freaking name on it. If your not gonna keep your
CD, DONT WRITE ON IT! (Punk Soup 11/09/03)
On
the subject of Don Gibson, he died monday he was 75. Don Gibson to me
wrote some of the best songs of the 50s and 60s, and some of the
darkest songs to boot. Who could argue with Oh Lomesome Me, Blue Blue
Day, Sweet Dreams and I Cant Stop Loving You. My personal fave is Oh
Such A Stranger, a song so dark and despair it makes Ian Curtis look
tame. BMG cant keep a decent Don Gibson best of in print, but try to
find RCA Country Legends (Buddha), or All Time Greatest Hits
(RCA-deleted), or I Wrote A Song (RCA-long long deleted but availble via
Bear Family) for a good idea of what he can do. (Don Gibson RIP From
Bottom Of The Barrel 11/21/03) Note: Arthur Conley died on that week as
well.
I don't wanna work, I want to bang on the drum all day (the link still works!)
Dave Dudley has taken his Big Rig and have head to the Great Beyond. (End Of Year thoughts 12/29/03)
Outside
of what i liked, 2003 was another disappointing year. We lost our last
true record store in town, lost the best damn Mexican restrauant in the
state, and the last true classic country radio station in favor of yet
another faceless Top 40 hip hop station. And of course, we lost June
and Johnny, Warren Z, Ty longley, Don Gibson, and distant cousin Elliott
Smith. On the plus side Rhino did reissue Rank And File, Wounded Bird
gave Root Boy Slim back to the masses, and we got some decent blues
complations as well. And the Townedgers finally did get off their cans
and put out a new album. But in the long run, Britney This, Fred Durst
That and Micheal jacksons problems all outdistanced the good, Time/Life
music barfed up the same ole 70s complations once again and the RIAA
terrolized the computer users of the world. Universial promised us
some cheaper cds, but all that was was the usual dangling the carrot in
front of the horse. You want cheap cds, its still the pawnshops, so
look there.
I dont expect any of you to go out and buy
everything a artists puts out, but if a artist or band had a classic I
think you should know about I would tell you about it. If I influenced
you to buy a Blue Rodeo or a Bottle Rockets or the Romantics then I did
my job, If I warned you bout a crappy cd and you avoided it ditto. But
in the end it dont matter, it all comes down to what sounds good to
you. Thats the magic of music, a song that may sound sappy, but will
make you remember the good times in your life, and no smart assed
comment will change that. Good music is timeless, regardless.
(Acknowledgements 12/23/03)
Final thought for
that year came from End Of The Year Thoughts and hard to believe five
years later it still remains true. Visionary I'm not, but I know a
cockroach that you keep killing and it keeps coming back.
Britney Spears will never amount to much more than a Pop Tart and a 4th rate one at that.
Da Crabb's Corner I predict will last longer than Britney Spears' wedding. (He's Back 1/5/04)
It already has, bro! 
Hoop ( A reply to above note He's Back 1/5/04)
Hoop ( A reply to above note He's Back 1/5/04)
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