I got to know this band from Teenage Depression, the song off the Ramones Rock And Roll High School soundtrack and next to Rockpile, my favorite band of the 70s nobody knows about. Not a punk band, they had more roots in Pub Rock but they played ultra fast versions of Get Out Of Denver, The Kids Are Alright and Gloria. Chris Blackwell signed them up to his Island Records label but the UK and US version of Teenage Depression are two different albums, the UK has a so so cover of Show Me and Shake, that showed more of their R&B than punk. The US album has their live Live At The Marqee EP and a different song list but leaves off Show Me and Shake. For the most Vic Maile records them in the raw, similar in tone to Dr Feelgood. When it came to pub rock Vic Maile was the best producer. Leading off with the three chords and the truth Get Across To You, Teenage Depression is classic pub or bar rock. Kids may not know the big deal but you had to be there to see them live and it has been known that Eddie And The Hot Rods could blow away Feelgood or Ducks Deluxe and give The Pirates a good run for their money as well.
Life On The Line has Graeme Douglas on lead guitar and has a more punk rock sound to it thanks be to Steve Lillywhite helping out and they had their best known single Do Anything You Wanna Do but in my case the title track, Quit This Town, the fast paced Ignore Them (Still Life) and the 8 minute epic Beginning Of The End. Teenage Depression while great, I played Life On The Line a bit more. I found the album as a cut out (I'm thinking I got it at Big Apple Records in the Town And Country Shopping Center in town) and I think I drove a high school date out of the house by playing Beginning Of The End, since she was a disco fan. Didn't make a good impression I gather. I still don't consider The Hot Rods punk at all. They simply rocked too hard on their 2nd album.
Thriller, (not the Michael Jackson album) only was available as a import and I was overjoyed to see Record Realm had it and I had to have it. But sad to say this is where they were losing their creative edge. Some of it was still fun but most of it was a bitter rant and rave, Does It With Mirrors is famous for the continual groove at the end of the record but that and Echoes was blah. Power And The Glory and Take It Or Leave it (featuring Linda McCartney on backing vocals, sure sounds like the late Lady Mac). But it was out of style and Warner Brothers, which at the time was distributing Island Records passed on its release.
A major overhaul of the band was coming up for the next album, Tony Craney replaced Paul Gray on bass, Douglas left the band and they were on the ill fated EMI America for the lackluster Fish And Chips, produced by Al Kooper. The title track may be the worst thing they ever recorded, the cover versions of You Better Run and Time Won't Let Me was phoned in and although I command them for a cover of Crack The Sky's We Want Mine, it was a ill suited fit for Eddie And The Hot Rods. Al Kooper produced and added some keyboards and effects but outside of Wide Eyed Kids, Fish And Chips is a strikeout.
With that Eddie And The Hot Rods faded into the sunset but some outtakes which came before Fish And Chips and still featured G. Douglas and P Gray, The Curse Of The Hot Rods is a better record than both Thriller and Fish And Chips although they are demos. Graeme Douglas provides comic relief as he describes the songs. Douglas also shares his thoughts on the Island best of End Of The Beginning, which pretty much cherry picks the best of the Island albums, and leaves Fish And Chips in the dust.
In the 1990s, Windsong issued BBC Radio One Live In Concert which captures two 1977, 1978 shows. Worth a listen if you can find it. Dojo in the same year put out Ties That Bind, a oddball collection of six tracks from Curse Of The Hot Rods, three songs from a 1985 lineup of Berrie Masters, Steve Nicol plus Warren Kennedy on guitar but is better known for five demos featuring long departed Lew Lewis on harmonica (yep he was the weakest link) and includes a raw version of Get Across To You as well as Gloria and Wooly Bully and Get Out Of Denver but it's for audiophiles who want everything only. Captain Oi! reissued the Island albums and loaded the CDs with plenty of bonus tracks. You can still live without Thriller but Teenage Depression and Life On The Line should be in your collection.
Barrie Masters continues the Hot Rods and they continue to play in and around England.
Albums:
Teenage Depression (Island 1977) B+
Life On The Line (Island 1978) A-
Thriller (Island 1979) B
Fish And Chips (EMI 1980) C
Curse Of The Hot Rods (Link 1985) B
End Of The Beginning (Island 1993) A-
BBC Radio One Live (Windsong 1994) B+
Ties That Bind (Dojo 1995) C+
Monday, October 21, 2013
Friday, September 27, 2013
Blue Oyster Cult
In my early youth, I was into buying 45s because we were dirt poor and couldn't afford albums but once I got a job peddling those free newspapers The Penny Saver, I managed to earn a few dollars to buy an album or two per year. Penny Saver paid something like a penny delivered to house and these fuckers were heavy. The good old days, now they just mail them off every Wednesday.
I think it was 1974 when Mom took me down to Woolworth's in downtown Cedar Rapids and they had Blue Oyster Cult's first album for something like 5 dollars thereabouts, BOC was played on the FM stations before The Reaper came out a couple years later but KLWW FM played Cities On Flame and Red And The Black from time to time. First time I ever played the first BOC album on the stereo it sounded much different than anything beforehand. The guitars sounded sinister, the vocalist evil and the sound recording opened up a new door of hearing music as it sounded back then. My ears weren't subjected to all the big cymbal crashes of my band and I could hear it all. The first record from BOC was original hard rock in the hushed vocals of Eric Bloom or countered sadder sounding Buck Dharma on Then Came The Last Days Of May or Albert Bouchard doing the original Cities On Flame or the 4th vocalist in Joe Bouchard on Screams, this was a thinking man's rock band and everybody helped out and still remains one of the best debuts in rock history rivaling only that of Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin (IMO). But BOC goes back further, going under the name of the Soft White Underbelly or Stalk Forrest Group which made a one off single for Elektra and an album that didn't get released till about 30 years down the road but odes more to The Grateful Dead in sound rather than the radical change that was Blue Oyster Cult, the first album.
The next two albums BOC took a page from the Tony Clarke/Moody Blues albums and Tyranny And Mutation and Secret Treaties the song segmented into the next one. Took me years to really warm to Tyranny (especially on 7 Screaming Diz Busters) and although they maintained the odd William Gralik cover art, the recording wasn't as mysterious as the first one. Side 1 remains a keeper with the scathing Red And Black, OD on Life Itself and Hot Rails To Hell with the epic 7 Screaming Diz Busters riding the band and the listener into hell itself. Side 2, there are moments like Mistress Of The Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl) and Teen Archer but the record feels a bit rushed, like the record label ordering them back into the studio. Secret Treaties is better where concert faves like Harvester Of Eyes and ME 262 can be found. And of course Astronomy. On Your Feet Or On Your Knees is a 1975 live document and the first of many many live albums out there, to which when I saw them play in Cedar Rapids in 1979, they were still using many of the songs that they don't now (I Ain't Got You) and the five guitars segment of ME 262 which is better seen live than heard. The original BOC of Eric Bloom, Don Roeser, Alan Lanier (RIP) and Joe & Al Bouchard were the best lineup and once the Bouchard boys would leave, the albums would become less and less satisfying.
The best albums remain Agents Of Fortune and Spectres, two album that defined my high school years since I played both of them a lot but liked the latter album better despite the familiar Don't Fear The Reaper is on the former. Returning to that forbidden sound of the first album Agents is perhaps the most democratic of all BOC albums, even Alan Lanier signs on True Confessions (the first and only time Alan ever sung in the band). Faves remain the big hit, This Ain't The Summer Of Love (Which bombed as a single), E.T.I and Albert Bouchard engages in a duet to the death with Patti Smith on Revenge Of Vera Gemini. And to further prove another point Albert leads off side two with I'll love you like sin but won't be your pigeon line to Sinful Love. Debbie Denise, originally thought to be the worst BOC ever, isn't that; it's somewhat tongue in cheek. I can probably listen to that one better than say, 7 Screaming Diz Busters or anything of Revolution By Night. Spectres on the other hand, to me was better leading with FM hit Godzilla, The Golden Age Of Leather which could be a followup to Then Came The Last Days Of May. Other faves are R U Ready 2 Rock but more often it's Albert again on Death Valley Nights and Don Roeser's I Love The Night, another vampire song so to speak. Their second live album in three years Some Enchanted Evening came out and although I have yet to hear the expanded version, I can say that the single album version was slightly better soundwise than On Your Feet.., but at that time it was product for the label to ship out. Perhaps someday I'll spring the big bucks to get the expended edition but as they say so little time so much music to hear. Moving on.
BOC said goodbye to Sandy Pearlman and ushered in a new era with pop master producer Tom Werman to produce Mirrors and in the result became their most pop sounding album ever. The Great Sun Jester would have benefited more from Pearlman's production but in this setting something seems missing, still a good song but one that could have been better with a harder production. Dr. Music, Mirrors and the beautiful goodbye to Patti Smith from Alan Lanier called In Thee are the standouts. Alas, side 2 has not held up very well over time. Al Bouchard's You're Not The One I Was Looking For, borrows a lot of the melody from The Cars Just What I Need and the James Gang Tend My Garden and turns BOC into power pop. The Vigil sounds uninspired.
The next two albums are considered the last good BOC efforts, this time hooking up with Martin Birch (Deep Purple, Iron Maiden) to make the prog rock sounding Cultosaurus Erectus, the last great album. Working with Mike Moorcock (Hawkwind) they came up with Black Blade, another guitar rock Lips In The Hills has great guitar work from Don Roeser but the lyrics are ultra silly. They even go jazz on Monsters! My other faves would be Hungry Boys and Fallen Angel. Fire Of Unknown Origin brings their second and final hit in the overplayed Burnin For You but also the sinister Joan Crawford and Veteran Of The Physic Wars, which would be used in the Heavy Metal movie as well. But this would be the end of the original BOC. Albert Bouchard would leave soon after and CBS issued yet another live album ETI Live which has Albert playing on only two tracks (the best ones Black Blade and Dominance And Submission to which he usually sang didn't by this time) and the rest by Rick Downey (later managing Anthrax).
And then the lost years. Revolution By Night (1983) which the late Bruce Fairbairn produced showed a band that lost its identity and although I have it on record I didn't like it enough to buy on CD. Take Me Away (co written with Aldo Nova) was the failed hit and best song, Shooting Shark the other decent song. The rest was forgettible. Club Ninja (1986) is a even bigger mess to which Joe Bourchard left after the Revolution By Night fiasco and although Sandy Pearlman is back in the producer's chair, the outside song doctors didn't help much, nor did the borrowed rhythm section. Dancing In The Ruins was the failed hit and best song. The strange Imaginos (1988) has Albert Bouchard coming back to write the lyrics and music and although Joe Bouchard is credited as a player here it sounds a bit too much like Club Ninja. This is one record that I can like one minute and hate the next. The namesake song Blue Oyster Cult is very bizarre sounding, while the backing vocals say We understand, I don't. Not in this context. And they do a disco version of Astronomy as well too. Imaginos the album has been reissued four times in its history and as a curio should be heard as least one time.
With that in mind, Columbia/CBS bid adios to the cult with the half assed Career Of Evil, which is a contractual obligation upon itself with inferior live versions of their hits. Since then, Sony Music has reissued many a best of Blue Oyster Cult album and the most practical one and cheapest was On Flame With Rock And Roll. Workshop Of The Telescopes is a 2 CD effort that takes sections off all the CBS albums and adds a few obscure ones as well. Later on Sony Music reissued the first five BOC albums with bonus tracks and if you're a fan like me you have them all now (the ones being the first album up to Spectres). The Essential Blue Oyster Cult is Workshop Of The Telescopes renamed.
BOC was not done yet; in the 1998, they signed up with CMC to release their best album in years in Heaven Forbid and had some airplay with Harvest Moon. Heaven Forbid is their most metal sounding record with See You In Black and Power Underneath Despair. Curse Of The Hidden Mirror (2001) was a decent followup. A Long's Day Night was a credible live album. BOC hasn't recorded much since then if they ever did but still remain one of the hardest working bands touring to this day.
In 2003, Sony Music finally reissued the first five studio albums with bonus tracks and finally the lyrics (except Spectres), for the first time people can actually read the lyrics but turns out the lyrics may have been the least worthy, and why hardly anybody ventures out of covering The Reaper or Godzilla, they're much harder to sing to. The notes to Spectres are half assed and the lyrics not even printed on this one. Club Ninja and Imaginos have been deleted by Sony, with Koch Records reissuing them for a time and then American Beat taking over and doing a bared bones reissue (at least the Columbia version had the printed lyrics and story line). Real Gone Music is now the third reissue label for that. Lemon Records in the UK still has Club Ninja in print.
Blue Oyster Cult continues to tour with Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser still the band. On occasion Joe and Albert Bouchard will pop up on stage for a special guest appearance. Many years of smoking Allen Lanier paid the price, dying from COPD in 2013.
Most recently, BOC has signed with Frontier Records and have reissued a few things including Cult Classic and a Agents Of Fortune 40 Year Anniversary live album. I can live without both albums. There's a promise of a new BOC album before the year is out. It would be wonderful to see Joe and Albert Bouchard back on board but that won't happen.
Grades
Blue Oyster Cult (Columbia 1971) A
Tyranny And Mutation (Columbia 1973) B+
Secret Treaties (Columbia 1974) A
On Your Feet Or On Your Knees (Columbia 1975) B
Live 1976 (Griffin 1976) B-
Agents Of Fortune (Columbia 1976) A-
Spectres (Columbia 1977) A
Some Enchanted Evening (Columbia 1978) C+ (Grade for the single LP only)
Mirrors (Columbia 1979) C+
Cultosaurus Erectus (Columbia 1980) A-
Fire Of Unknown Origin (Columbia 1981) B+
Extraterrestrial Live (Columbia 1982) B+
The Revolution By Night (Columbia 1983) C
Club Ninja (Columbia 1986) C
Imaginos (Columbia 1988) B-
Career Of Evil (Columbia 1989) C
On Flame With Rock N Roll (CBS Special Products 1990) A-
Cult Classic (Frontiers 1992) C+
Bad Channels S/T (Frontiers 1994) C
Workshop Of The Telescopes (Columbia 1995) B+
Heaven Forbid (Frontiers 1998) B+
Best Of Blue Oyster Cult-Don't Fear The Reaper (Legacy 1999) B+
Curse Of The Hidden Mirror (Frontiers 2001) B
A Long Day's Night (Sanctuary 2002) B+
Setlist: Live Hits (Legacy 2010) NR
Playlist (Sony/Legacy 2015) B
Update: There are now three compilations of BOC best known songs. I've included On Flame With Rock And Roll among the reissues simply of the fact, that the hits are there. Career Of Evil remains a half assed effort and Sony Music has deleted it out of the catalog in favor of Don't Fear The Reaper or Playlist. Workshop Of The Telescopes was renamed The Essential Blue Oyster Cult, same songs, different title. Don't Fear The Reaper is the better of the single best ofs, but Essential BOC is a good anthology, which packs a few b sides and rarities. Sony Music did remastered the original albums up to Spectres with bonus tracks, some do enhance the albums for sure, especially the first album and of course Agents Of Fortune While critics maintain Spectres was the weakest followup to Agents, I thought Spectres was better, at least we were spared of Debbie Denise, perhaps the worst song BOC wrote up to Revolution By Night or Club Ninja. Once Albert Bouchard left the band, BOC was never quite the same and became a parody of themselves. Not even Joe could rescue the band and then he finally left the band. Imaginos had everybody returning to the studios to help out and the music was more heavy metal than Club Ninja, but it's all over the place with guest guitar players and lack of focus.
As mentioned Frontiers reissued the Herald and CMC International albums and without the Bouchard brothers around, it's the Eric and Buck Dharma show. Heaven Forbid showed BOC going further into thrash metal but a lot of people didn't care for that album. Curse Of The Hidden Mirror is more streamlined, it's better than the mid 80s albums but to these ears I didn't care much for it. Since then, Frontiers has issued a few live BOC albums of the 2000s and 2010's but at this point, they are a nostalgic band. I went as far as picking Long Day's Night as a cutout and while it's not On Your Feet or On Your Needs or ET live, it shows BOC on a pretty good night. Setlist is interesting for the inclusion of The Vigil and a 1977 live Godzilla which was the B side to (ahem) Godzilla and Flaming Telepaths a live UK B side. For completeists only.
In the end, I'll pass on the BOC concerts in favor of the new BOC album when it comes out. If and when that happens. I'll cherish the days of seeing BOC tear up the Five Seasons center in 1979 and the 1981 return engagement with Foghat, to which by then Rick Downey replaced Albert on drums. If n when Buck and Eric return to a casino near me, I'll go watch.
I think it was 1974 when Mom took me down to Woolworth's in downtown Cedar Rapids and they had Blue Oyster Cult's first album for something like 5 dollars thereabouts, BOC was played on the FM stations before The Reaper came out a couple years later but KLWW FM played Cities On Flame and Red And The Black from time to time. First time I ever played the first BOC album on the stereo it sounded much different than anything beforehand. The guitars sounded sinister, the vocalist evil and the sound recording opened up a new door of hearing music as it sounded back then. My ears weren't subjected to all the big cymbal crashes of my band and I could hear it all. The first record from BOC was original hard rock in the hushed vocals of Eric Bloom or countered sadder sounding Buck Dharma on Then Came The Last Days Of May or Albert Bouchard doing the original Cities On Flame or the 4th vocalist in Joe Bouchard on Screams, this was a thinking man's rock band and everybody helped out and still remains one of the best debuts in rock history rivaling only that of Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin (IMO). But BOC goes back further, going under the name of the Soft White Underbelly or Stalk Forrest Group which made a one off single for Elektra and an album that didn't get released till about 30 years down the road but odes more to The Grateful Dead in sound rather than the radical change that was Blue Oyster Cult, the first album.
The next two albums BOC took a page from the Tony Clarke/Moody Blues albums and Tyranny And Mutation and Secret Treaties the song segmented into the next one. Took me years to really warm to Tyranny (especially on 7 Screaming Diz Busters) and although they maintained the odd William Gralik cover art, the recording wasn't as mysterious as the first one. Side 1 remains a keeper with the scathing Red And Black, OD on Life Itself and Hot Rails To Hell with the epic 7 Screaming Diz Busters riding the band and the listener into hell itself. Side 2, there are moments like Mistress Of The Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl) and Teen Archer but the record feels a bit rushed, like the record label ordering them back into the studio. Secret Treaties is better where concert faves like Harvester Of Eyes and ME 262 can be found. And of course Astronomy. On Your Feet Or On Your Knees is a 1975 live document and the first of many many live albums out there, to which when I saw them play in Cedar Rapids in 1979, they were still using many of the songs that they don't now (I Ain't Got You) and the five guitars segment of ME 262 which is better seen live than heard. The original BOC of Eric Bloom, Don Roeser, Alan Lanier (RIP) and Joe & Al Bouchard were the best lineup and once the Bouchard boys would leave, the albums would become less and less satisfying.
The best albums remain Agents Of Fortune and Spectres, two album that defined my high school years since I played both of them a lot but liked the latter album better despite the familiar Don't Fear The Reaper is on the former. Returning to that forbidden sound of the first album Agents is perhaps the most democratic of all BOC albums, even Alan Lanier signs on True Confessions (the first and only time Alan ever sung in the band). Faves remain the big hit, This Ain't The Summer Of Love (Which bombed as a single), E.T.I and Albert Bouchard engages in a duet to the death with Patti Smith on Revenge Of Vera Gemini. And to further prove another point Albert leads off side two with I'll love you like sin but won't be your pigeon line to Sinful Love. Debbie Denise, originally thought to be the worst BOC ever, isn't that; it's somewhat tongue in cheek. I can probably listen to that one better than say, 7 Screaming Diz Busters or anything of Revolution By Night. Spectres on the other hand, to me was better leading with FM hit Godzilla, The Golden Age Of Leather which could be a followup to Then Came The Last Days Of May. Other faves are R U Ready 2 Rock but more often it's Albert again on Death Valley Nights and Don Roeser's I Love The Night, another vampire song so to speak. Their second live album in three years Some Enchanted Evening came out and although I have yet to hear the expanded version, I can say that the single album version was slightly better soundwise than On Your Feet.., but at that time it was product for the label to ship out. Perhaps someday I'll spring the big bucks to get the expended edition but as they say so little time so much music to hear. Moving on.
BOC said goodbye to Sandy Pearlman and ushered in a new era with pop master producer Tom Werman to produce Mirrors and in the result became their most pop sounding album ever. The Great Sun Jester would have benefited more from Pearlman's production but in this setting something seems missing, still a good song but one that could have been better with a harder production. Dr. Music, Mirrors and the beautiful goodbye to Patti Smith from Alan Lanier called In Thee are the standouts. Alas, side 2 has not held up very well over time. Al Bouchard's You're Not The One I Was Looking For, borrows a lot of the melody from The Cars Just What I Need and the James Gang Tend My Garden and turns BOC into power pop. The Vigil sounds uninspired.
The next two albums are considered the last good BOC efforts, this time hooking up with Martin Birch (Deep Purple, Iron Maiden) to make the prog rock sounding Cultosaurus Erectus, the last great album. Working with Mike Moorcock (Hawkwind) they came up with Black Blade, another guitar rock Lips In The Hills has great guitar work from Don Roeser but the lyrics are ultra silly. They even go jazz on Monsters! My other faves would be Hungry Boys and Fallen Angel. Fire Of Unknown Origin brings their second and final hit in the overplayed Burnin For You but also the sinister Joan Crawford and Veteran Of The Physic Wars, which would be used in the Heavy Metal movie as well. But this would be the end of the original BOC. Albert Bouchard would leave soon after and CBS issued yet another live album ETI Live which has Albert playing on only two tracks (the best ones Black Blade and Dominance And Submission to which he usually sang didn't by this time) and the rest by Rick Downey (later managing Anthrax).
And then the lost years. Revolution By Night (1983) which the late Bruce Fairbairn produced showed a band that lost its identity and although I have it on record I didn't like it enough to buy on CD. Take Me Away (co written with Aldo Nova) was the failed hit and best song, Shooting Shark the other decent song. The rest was forgettible. Club Ninja (1986) is a even bigger mess to which Joe Bourchard left after the Revolution By Night fiasco and although Sandy Pearlman is back in the producer's chair, the outside song doctors didn't help much, nor did the borrowed rhythm section. Dancing In The Ruins was the failed hit and best song. The strange Imaginos (1988) has Albert Bouchard coming back to write the lyrics and music and although Joe Bouchard is credited as a player here it sounds a bit too much like Club Ninja. This is one record that I can like one minute and hate the next. The namesake song Blue Oyster Cult is very bizarre sounding, while the backing vocals say We understand, I don't. Not in this context. And they do a disco version of Astronomy as well too. Imaginos the album has been reissued four times in its history and as a curio should be heard as least one time.
With that in mind, Columbia/CBS bid adios to the cult with the half assed Career Of Evil, which is a contractual obligation upon itself with inferior live versions of their hits. Since then, Sony Music has reissued many a best of Blue Oyster Cult album and the most practical one and cheapest was On Flame With Rock And Roll. Workshop Of The Telescopes is a 2 CD effort that takes sections off all the CBS albums and adds a few obscure ones as well. Later on Sony Music reissued the first five BOC albums with bonus tracks and if you're a fan like me you have them all now (the ones being the first album up to Spectres). The Essential Blue Oyster Cult is Workshop Of The Telescopes renamed.
BOC was not done yet; in the 1998, they signed up with CMC to release their best album in years in Heaven Forbid and had some airplay with Harvest Moon. Heaven Forbid is their most metal sounding record with See You In Black and Power Underneath Despair. Curse Of The Hidden Mirror (2001) was a decent followup. A Long's Day Night was a credible live album. BOC hasn't recorded much since then if they ever did but still remain one of the hardest working bands touring to this day.
In 2003, Sony Music finally reissued the first five studio albums with bonus tracks and finally the lyrics (except Spectres), for the first time people can actually read the lyrics but turns out the lyrics may have been the least worthy, and why hardly anybody ventures out of covering The Reaper or Godzilla, they're much harder to sing to. The notes to Spectres are half assed and the lyrics not even printed on this one. Club Ninja and Imaginos have been deleted by Sony, with Koch Records reissuing them for a time and then American Beat taking over and doing a bared bones reissue (at least the Columbia version had the printed lyrics and story line). Real Gone Music is now the third reissue label for that. Lemon Records in the UK still has Club Ninja in print.
Blue Oyster Cult continues to tour with Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser still the band. On occasion Joe and Albert Bouchard will pop up on stage for a special guest appearance. Many years of smoking Allen Lanier paid the price, dying from COPD in 2013.
Most recently, BOC has signed with Frontier Records and have reissued a few things including Cult Classic and a Agents Of Fortune 40 Year Anniversary live album. I can live without both albums. There's a promise of a new BOC album before the year is out. It would be wonderful to see Joe and Albert Bouchard back on board but that won't happen.
Grades
Blue Oyster Cult (Columbia 1971) A
Tyranny And Mutation (Columbia 1973) B+
Secret Treaties (Columbia 1974) A
On Your Feet Or On Your Knees (Columbia 1975) B
Live 1976 (Griffin 1976) B-
Agents Of Fortune (Columbia 1976) A-
Spectres (Columbia 1977) A
Some Enchanted Evening (Columbia 1978) C+ (Grade for the single LP only)
Mirrors (Columbia 1979) C+
Cultosaurus Erectus (Columbia 1980) A-
Fire Of Unknown Origin (Columbia 1981) B+
Extraterrestrial Live (Columbia 1982) B+
The Revolution By Night (Columbia 1983) C
Club Ninja (Columbia 1986) C
Imaginos (Columbia 1988) B-
Career Of Evil (Columbia 1989) C
On Flame With Rock N Roll (CBS Special Products 1990) A-
Cult Classic (Frontiers 1992) C+
Bad Channels S/T (Frontiers 1994) C
Workshop Of The Telescopes (Columbia 1995) B+
Heaven Forbid (Frontiers 1998) B+
Best Of Blue Oyster Cult-Don't Fear The Reaper (Legacy 1999) B+
Curse Of The Hidden Mirror (Frontiers 2001) B
A Long Day's Night (Sanctuary 2002) B+
Setlist: Live Hits (Legacy 2010) NR
Playlist (Sony/Legacy 2015) B
Update: There are now three compilations of BOC best known songs. I've included On Flame With Rock And Roll among the reissues simply of the fact, that the hits are there. Career Of Evil remains a half assed effort and Sony Music has deleted it out of the catalog in favor of Don't Fear The Reaper or Playlist. Workshop Of The Telescopes was renamed The Essential Blue Oyster Cult, same songs, different title. Don't Fear The Reaper is the better of the single best ofs, but Essential BOC is a good anthology, which packs a few b sides and rarities. Sony Music did remastered the original albums up to Spectres with bonus tracks, some do enhance the albums for sure, especially the first album and of course Agents Of Fortune While critics maintain Spectres was the weakest followup to Agents, I thought Spectres was better, at least we were spared of Debbie Denise, perhaps the worst song BOC wrote up to Revolution By Night or Club Ninja. Once Albert Bouchard left the band, BOC was never quite the same and became a parody of themselves. Not even Joe could rescue the band and then he finally left the band. Imaginos had everybody returning to the studios to help out and the music was more heavy metal than Club Ninja, but it's all over the place with guest guitar players and lack of focus.
As mentioned Frontiers reissued the Herald and CMC International albums and without the Bouchard brothers around, it's the Eric and Buck Dharma show. Heaven Forbid showed BOC going further into thrash metal but a lot of people didn't care for that album. Curse Of The Hidden Mirror is more streamlined, it's better than the mid 80s albums but to these ears I didn't care much for it. Since then, Frontiers has issued a few live BOC albums of the 2000s and 2010's but at this point, they are a nostalgic band. I went as far as picking Long Day's Night as a cutout and while it's not On Your Feet or On Your Needs or ET live, it shows BOC on a pretty good night. Setlist is interesting for the inclusion of The Vigil and a 1977 live Godzilla which was the B side to (ahem) Godzilla and Flaming Telepaths a live UK B side. For completeists only.
In the end, I'll pass on the BOC concerts in favor of the new BOC album when it comes out. If and when that happens. I'll cherish the days of seeing BOC tear up the Five Seasons center in 1979 and the 1981 return engagement with Foghat, to which by then Rick Downey replaced Albert on drums. If n when Buck and Eric return to a casino near me, I'll go watch.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Arthur Lee And Love-The Classic Years
The Velvet Underground of the Los Angeles music scene, Arthur Lee and Love made some of the more different styles of albums that was part of that long ago and far away 60s. The first album was a Byrds tribute all the way through, but with Lee's oddball lyrics this side of Bob Dylan. Before the CD era happened, only Forever Changes remained in print whereas everything else came and went, you could get them via imports. They were originally The Grassroots but since a certain band had that name and was making AM pop hits, a name change was in order and Lee settled for Love.
The first Love album was, as mentioned before a Byrds tribute album all the way down to the chimey 12 string guitar work but they had a minor garage rock hit with a cover of My Little Red Book. Bryan MacLean would write one song or two and covered a classic garage rock song like Hey Joe, which was better than The Byrds version to these ears but pales next to the Leaves version. The album would sound pretty good after the likes of Turn Turn Turn or Mr. Tambourine Man.
Arthur and company would make a great 2nd album, with side A the best songs but side B gave us the overlong jam that was Revelation, a lotta people hated it, I can listen to it from time to time but it was Side 1 with Stephanie Knows Who, with a prog like break in the middle of the song and who thought of playing a harpsichord through the song (Genius!). TJ Canterrelli adds horns and gives more music personality on Orange Skies and She Comes In Colors but the standouts remain a blistering 7 + 7 = ? and the moody The Castle.
Lee topped himself with Forever Changes, an album that was much more different than the Byrds tribute first album and the experiments of Da Capo and going with a more acoustic guitar sound and David Angel's arrangements. New drummer Mike Stuart (who was on Da Capo) added a steady beat to the odd time changes of The Daily Planet or House Is Not A Home. Forever Changes is that perfect album, from start to finish every song is worthy of a place on the record concluding You Set The Scene to which the finale may have been Lee's way of saying that this OTT ending would be the end of the original Love.
MacLean left, and Arthur Lee would dismiss the rest of the band in favor of a more striped down and more rock and funk version of Love and Four Sail and Out There was the end result. In some ways, Lee was turning Love more into what Jimi Hendrix was doing with his band and what fan based he got with Forever Changes, he lost on Four Sail and Out There. For me, Four Sail was their least interesting, it may have been the poor mix or recording although Singing Cowboy is the best example of what Lee was trying to achieve. Out There, was issued through the new Blue Thumb label and has some of the better songs (I Still Wonder, Doggone before the 11 minute drum solo put everybody to sleep, Stand Out (a song that Lee liked so much he remade it on False Start), Better Late Than Never which goes into a 10 minute Gary Rowles guitar freakout). But as a 2 record set it's all over the map. False Start, has Gary Rowles taking over for Jay and best known song The Everlasting First has Jimi Hendrix playing guitar although the song itself isn't that great. The rest of the album is so so.
Lee would disband that version of Love (except to revive it in 1982 for a spell), made a solo album that I never heard but made one more go around with a new version of Love, to which became more of a R and B band, somewhat in the Sly and Family Stone Vibe. While reviews of Real To Reel was blah, I liked it better than False Start with a good cover of Be Thankful Of What You Got, a soulful Singing Cowboy but the track I remembered most was Everybody's Gotta Live, which got some airplay on the radio for a time. Out of all the Love albums, this has yet to see the light of day on CD, but hardly anybody knows about it except for the hardcore. Even the Rhino/Elektra best ofs simply have ignored it.
In 1982, MCA put out a cheapo comp Studio/Live to which one side was live and the other side were selected songs off Out There (with a edited version of Doggone without drum solo, and Better Late Than Never without guitar solo, edits done by Leon Tsilis-who says the live part came from the 1970 Fillmore concert).
In the 1990s Elektra did reissue the first three albums on CD, but the first generation Forever Changes CD suffered from a bad mastering job (Alone Again Or and the Daily Planet suffered from this) but later Rhino reissued the whole album and the sound was much better. An extensive 2 CD set Love Story combines most of the hits as well as side 1 of Da Capo and all of Forever Changes plus selected stuff from the Blue Thumb albums. The Best Of Love is a good introduction but really the first three albums are worth getting on their own. Later in life, Arthur Lee would reform Love and go on tour before he passed away, but John Echols continues with his own tribute band Love Revisited, Michael Stuart-Ware did perform on some 2009 dates. But even after the passings of Lee and MacLean, the Love legacy continues. They were ahead of the times but after Four Sail, Lee either fell behind or just contented to do simple rock and funk. But no denying the fact, that Love was blazing their own trail in the 60s.
Albums
Love (Elektra 1966) A-
Da Capo (Elektra 1967) A
Forever Changes (Elektra 1968) A+
Four Sail (Elektra 1969) B-
Out There (Blue Thumb 1969) B+
False Start (Blue Thumb 1970) B
Best Of Love (Elektra 1981) B+
Studio/Live (MCA 1982) C+
Love Story (Elektra/Rhino 1995) A-
Love Lost (Sundazed 2009) B
Black Beauty (Buffalo 1972, reissued Blue Moon Records 2012) NR
Reel To Real (RSO 1974) B+ (The only LP not on released on CD)
Reference:
http://love.torbenskott.dk/default.asp
The first Love album was, as mentioned before a Byrds tribute album all the way down to the chimey 12 string guitar work but they had a minor garage rock hit with a cover of My Little Red Book. Bryan MacLean would write one song or two and covered a classic garage rock song like Hey Joe, which was better than The Byrds version to these ears but pales next to the Leaves version. The album would sound pretty good after the likes of Turn Turn Turn or Mr. Tambourine Man.
Arthur and company would make a great 2nd album, with side A the best songs but side B gave us the overlong jam that was Revelation, a lotta people hated it, I can listen to it from time to time but it was Side 1 with Stephanie Knows Who, with a prog like break in the middle of the song and who thought of playing a harpsichord through the song (Genius!). TJ Canterrelli adds horns and gives more music personality on Orange Skies and She Comes In Colors but the standouts remain a blistering 7 + 7 = ? and the moody The Castle.
Lee topped himself with Forever Changes, an album that was much more different than the Byrds tribute first album and the experiments of Da Capo and going with a more acoustic guitar sound and David Angel's arrangements. New drummer Mike Stuart (who was on Da Capo) added a steady beat to the odd time changes of The Daily Planet or House Is Not A Home. Forever Changes is that perfect album, from start to finish every song is worthy of a place on the record concluding You Set The Scene to which the finale may have been Lee's way of saying that this OTT ending would be the end of the original Love.
MacLean left, and Arthur Lee would dismiss the rest of the band in favor of a more striped down and more rock and funk version of Love and Four Sail and Out There was the end result. In some ways, Lee was turning Love more into what Jimi Hendrix was doing with his band and what fan based he got with Forever Changes, he lost on Four Sail and Out There. For me, Four Sail was their least interesting, it may have been the poor mix or recording although Singing Cowboy is the best example of what Lee was trying to achieve. Out There, was issued through the new Blue Thumb label and has some of the better songs (I Still Wonder, Doggone before the 11 minute drum solo put everybody to sleep, Stand Out (a song that Lee liked so much he remade it on False Start), Better Late Than Never which goes into a 10 minute Gary Rowles guitar freakout). But as a 2 record set it's all over the map. False Start, has Gary Rowles taking over for Jay and best known song The Everlasting First has Jimi Hendrix playing guitar although the song itself isn't that great. The rest of the album is so so.
Lee would disband that version of Love (except to revive it in 1982 for a spell), made a solo album that I never heard but made one more go around with a new version of Love, to which became more of a R and B band, somewhat in the Sly and Family Stone Vibe. While reviews of Real To Reel was blah, I liked it better than False Start with a good cover of Be Thankful Of What You Got, a soulful Singing Cowboy but the track I remembered most was Everybody's Gotta Live, which got some airplay on the radio for a time. Out of all the Love albums, this has yet to see the light of day on CD, but hardly anybody knows about it except for the hardcore. Even the Rhino/Elektra best ofs simply have ignored it.
In 1982, MCA put out a cheapo comp Studio/Live to which one side was live and the other side were selected songs off Out There (with a edited version of Doggone without drum solo, and Better Late Than Never without guitar solo, edits done by Leon Tsilis-who says the live part came from the 1970 Fillmore concert).
In the 1990s Elektra did reissue the first three albums on CD, but the first generation Forever Changes CD suffered from a bad mastering job (Alone Again Or and the Daily Planet suffered from this) but later Rhino reissued the whole album and the sound was much better. An extensive 2 CD set Love Story combines most of the hits as well as side 1 of Da Capo and all of Forever Changes plus selected stuff from the Blue Thumb albums. The Best Of Love is a good introduction but really the first three albums are worth getting on their own. Later in life, Arthur Lee would reform Love and go on tour before he passed away, but John Echols continues with his own tribute band Love Revisited, Michael Stuart-Ware did perform on some 2009 dates. But even after the passings of Lee and MacLean, the Love legacy continues. They were ahead of the times but after Four Sail, Lee either fell behind or just contented to do simple rock and funk. But no denying the fact, that Love was blazing their own trail in the 60s.
Albums
Love (Elektra 1966) A-
Da Capo (Elektra 1967) A
Forever Changes (Elektra 1968) A+
Four Sail (Elektra 1969) B-
Out There (Blue Thumb 1969) B+
False Start (Blue Thumb 1970) B
Best Of Love (Elektra 1981) B+
Studio/Live (MCA 1982) C+
Love Story (Elektra/Rhino 1995) A-
Love Lost (Sundazed 2009) B
Black Beauty (Buffalo 1972, reissued Blue Moon Records 2012) NR
Reel To Real (RSO 1974) B+ (The only LP not on released on CD)
Reference:
http://love.torbenskott.dk/default.asp
Thursday, July 18, 2013
The Blues Project
For a band that has been so widely praised back in their heyday, The Blues Project didn't leave many albums behind and their reputation became more than the sum of their parts. Not exactly a blues band they also took their inspiration from jazz, and folk rock along with their Chuck Berry numbers. And every album always featured a different lineup it seems, Tommy Flanders was on for the Live at Cafe Au Go Go and would disappear till their forgotten Capitol S/T. Even their so called classic album Projections is hampered by a slow moving Two Trains Running that you're about ready to give up on them. But at their best Al Kooper would lead them to many different styles of music from the garage rock of No Time Like The Right Time or I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes, to the jammy Wake Me Shake Me and to the jazz flirtations of Flute Thing or covering the Donovan folk Catch The Wind, Projections will forever remain their claim to fame and one of the essential albums of the 1960s. Live At Cafe Au Go Go is a curio first album which shows them running through the Chess catalog with their versions of You Can't Catch Me, Going To Lousiana and a few others. Not needed in your collection but it's not bad either
Projections is everything Blues Project, the combination of Kooper, Steve Katz, Roy Blumenthal, Andy Kulberg and especially Danny Kalb on a wicked Caress Me Baby is their finest hour although I'm surprised that Fly Away didn't make the pop charts (They would try it again with another single in 1973). The recording is not exactly all that great, it sounds distorted but Sundazed reissued it with better sound. With Al Kooper and Steve Katz leaving to form Blood Sweat And Tears, Verve scraped the bottom of the barrel for Live At Town Hall which adds No Time Like The Right Time (with canned applause) and Electric Flute Thing adding more shock value to the LP (zzzzzz). Pressing on, Planned Obsolescence starts out with a nice cover of If You Gotta Make A Fool Out Of Somebody but the majority of songs were boring. Only decent thing about the album was the cover picture Andy Kulberg would form the minor all star band Seatrain with Peter Rowan and made three uneven albums for Capitol and Warner Brothers which had a underground classic with 13 Questions (Produced by George Martin of The Beatles fame). The Blues Project would solder on with the heavier Lazarus and Tommy Flanders returned for the S/T album which was so so.
For some reason Al Kooper decided to reunite the original Blues Project for one last show in Central Park in 1973 and it turned out to be a fine end to a band who never really got off the ground. Actually better than Cafe Au Go Go, Reunion In Central Park at least made a fine final statement that when the Blues Project put aside their egos and conflicts of interest, they were a damn good band.
Albums:
Live At Cafe Au Go Go-Verve Folkways 1966 B
Projections-Verve Forecast 1967 A-
Live At Town Hall-Verve Forecast 1968 B
Planned Obsolescence-Verve Forecast 1969 C
Lazarus-Capitol 1971 C+
Blues Project-Capitol 1972 C+
Reunion Live At Central Park-MCA 1973 B+
Projections is everything Blues Project, the combination of Kooper, Steve Katz, Roy Blumenthal, Andy Kulberg and especially Danny Kalb on a wicked Caress Me Baby is their finest hour although I'm surprised that Fly Away didn't make the pop charts (They would try it again with another single in 1973). The recording is not exactly all that great, it sounds distorted but Sundazed reissued it with better sound. With Al Kooper and Steve Katz leaving to form Blood Sweat And Tears, Verve scraped the bottom of the barrel for Live At Town Hall which adds No Time Like The Right Time (with canned applause) and Electric Flute Thing adding more shock value to the LP (zzzzzz). Pressing on, Planned Obsolescence starts out with a nice cover of If You Gotta Make A Fool Out Of Somebody but the majority of songs were boring. Only decent thing about the album was the cover picture Andy Kulberg would form the minor all star band Seatrain with Peter Rowan and made three uneven albums for Capitol and Warner Brothers which had a underground classic with 13 Questions (Produced by George Martin of The Beatles fame). The Blues Project would solder on with the heavier Lazarus and Tommy Flanders returned for the S/T album which was so so.
For some reason Al Kooper decided to reunite the original Blues Project for one last show in Central Park in 1973 and it turned out to be a fine end to a band who never really got off the ground. Actually better than Cafe Au Go Go, Reunion In Central Park at least made a fine final statement that when the Blues Project put aside their egos and conflicts of interest, they were a damn good band.
Albums:
Live At Cafe Au Go Go-Verve Folkways 1966 B
Projections-Verve Forecast 1967 A-
Live At Town Hall-Verve Forecast 1968 B
Planned Obsolescence-Verve Forecast 1969 C
Lazarus-Capitol 1971 C+
Blues Project-Capitol 1972 C+
Reunion Live At Central Park-MCA 1973 B+
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Blackfoot
Blackfoot was the hardest rocking band ever to come roaring from the Southern rock world of Lynyrd Skynyrd and led by the pounding drums of the late Jakson (Boomerfoot) Spires and the banshee shout vocals of Rickey Medlocke set upon a world of a Island debut that was way ahead of it's time, even in 1975 No Reservations with the metallic riff leading off side 2, the song Take A Train even with the female singers couldn't hide the fact that Blackfoot was much different than Skynyrd even though bass player Greg Walker and Medlocke played from time to time in the early years. That was my first hearing of Blackfoot, and it took years to find that album since Island had it out of print in 1977 (although they reissued it via the Antilles offshoot, don't ask why). Although uneven, No Reservations was a in your face train going 90 miles an hour and get out of the way if you can't take the music. Only other band that was this hard rocking would be Molly Hatchet.
Island couldn't figure out how to market a southern rock band so they let them go and Blackfoot signed with the other big independent label at that time Virgin Records (Via Epic) for the equally blistering Flyin' High but again the album met with indifference and they were let go. It wasn't until 1979 that they latched on to Atco Records with Strikes which kinda balances out the hard rock of Road Fever with the Skynyrd like answer to Free Bird Highway Song. Choice covers in Blues Image's Pay My Dues, I Got A Line On You (Spirit) and Wishing Well (Free) it also has Train Train (featuring the late great Cub Koda on Harmonica), it would eventually go gold.
Tomcattin' (1980) return to much harder attack in tuned with the early albums but despite classic songs such as Every Man Should Know (Little Queenie) and On The Run, the LP sales were disappointing. Marauder (1981) attempted a return to Strikes and that too didn't do very well despite having a decent single with Fly Away and rocking cuts such as Good Morning and Dry Country. Ken Hensley (Uriah Heep) joined up for the even less appealing Siogo but the bottom fell out on the lackluster Vertical Smiles which only made it to 176 on the charts. The dated keyboard sounds and half assed songwriter and one of the worst album covers ever didn't help either. And with that Blackfoot called it a day.
Or so it seemed. Rickey Medlocke returned with an all new Blackfoot lineup and managed to get that released on Atlantic rather than Atco and featured Wizzard from Mother's Finest as a member but that record was even worse than Vertical Smiles. Later albums featured Medlocke as the only original member although in the 2000's the other members of Blackfoot did reunite with Bobby Barth (Axe) being the main vocals and continuing till Jakson Spires death in 2005. They are now known as Fired Guns after Rickey Medlocke reclaimed the Blackfoot name and added new members in 2012, but for the most part Rickey spends time going from Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blackfoot and sometimes appearing on as an actor on TV, most notably on a 2001 Nash Bridges show.
Their best albums remains the first five plus the live 1982 Highway Song which didn't see US release till Wounded Bird issued it. It's better than the King Biscuit 1983 live album. The last true Blackfoot album is Vertical Smiles and this is where the story ends for me. The 1987 Atlantic album is a waste of time although Medlocke kinda returned to a more rocking sound on Medicine Man and After The Reign but by then I really wasn't that interested anyway.
Blackfoot when they were on, were just about the best Southern Hard Rock band but when they were off, they came across more like a second rated Skynyrd or by Vertical Smiles, a third rate 38 Special. But put on Take A Train or Train Train or Every Man Should Know, they'll stop you in your tracks and make you rock out. They were more celebrated in the UK than USA it seemed.
Albums:
No Reservations (Island 1975) B+
Flyin' High (Epic 1976-later reissued on Collectibles) B+
Strikes (Atco 1979) A-
Tomcattin' (Atco 1980) B+
Marauder (Atco 1981) B
Highway Song Live (Wounded Bird 1982) B+
King Biscuit Live (EMI 1983) C+
Siogo (Atco 1983) B
Vertical Smiles (Atco 1985) C
Rickey Medlocke And Blackfoot (Atlantic 1986) C-
Medicine Man (Nalli 1990) C+
After The Reign (Wildcat 1994) C+
Rattlesnake Rock And Roll-Best Of Blackfoot (Rhino 1995) B+
Island couldn't figure out how to market a southern rock band so they let them go and Blackfoot signed with the other big independent label at that time Virgin Records (Via Epic) for the equally blistering Flyin' High but again the album met with indifference and they were let go. It wasn't until 1979 that they latched on to Atco Records with Strikes which kinda balances out the hard rock of Road Fever with the Skynyrd like answer to Free Bird Highway Song. Choice covers in Blues Image's Pay My Dues, I Got A Line On You (Spirit) and Wishing Well (Free) it also has Train Train (featuring the late great Cub Koda on Harmonica), it would eventually go gold.
Tomcattin' (1980) return to much harder attack in tuned with the early albums but despite classic songs such as Every Man Should Know (Little Queenie) and On The Run, the LP sales were disappointing. Marauder (1981) attempted a return to Strikes and that too didn't do very well despite having a decent single with Fly Away and rocking cuts such as Good Morning and Dry Country. Ken Hensley (Uriah Heep) joined up for the even less appealing Siogo but the bottom fell out on the lackluster Vertical Smiles which only made it to 176 on the charts. The dated keyboard sounds and half assed songwriter and one of the worst album covers ever didn't help either. And with that Blackfoot called it a day.
Or so it seemed. Rickey Medlocke returned with an all new Blackfoot lineup and managed to get that released on Atlantic rather than Atco and featured Wizzard from Mother's Finest as a member but that record was even worse than Vertical Smiles. Later albums featured Medlocke as the only original member although in the 2000's the other members of Blackfoot did reunite with Bobby Barth (Axe) being the main vocals and continuing till Jakson Spires death in 2005. They are now known as Fired Guns after Rickey Medlocke reclaimed the Blackfoot name and added new members in 2012, but for the most part Rickey spends time going from Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blackfoot and sometimes appearing on as an actor on TV, most notably on a 2001 Nash Bridges show.
Their best albums remains the first five plus the live 1982 Highway Song which didn't see US release till Wounded Bird issued it. It's better than the King Biscuit 1983 live album. The last true Blackfoot album is Vertical Smiles and this is where the story ends for me. The 1987 Atlantic album is a waste of time although Medlocke kinda returned to a more rocking sound on Medicine Man and After The Reign but by then I really wasn't that interested anyway.
Blackfoot when they were on, were just about the best Southern Hard Rock band but when they were off, they came across more like a second rated Skynyrd or by Vertical Smiles, a third rate 38 Special. But put on Take A Train or Train Train or Every Man Should Know, they'll stop you in your tracks and make you rock out. They were more celebrated in the UK than USA it seemed.
Albums:
No Reservations (Island 1975) B+
Flyin' High (Epic 1976-later reissued on Collectibles) B+
Strikes (Atco 1979) A-
Tomcattin' (Atco 1980) B+
Marauder (Atco 1981) B
Highway Song Live (Wounded Bird 1982) B+
King Biscuit Live (EMI 1983) C+
Siogo (Atco 1983) B
Vertical Smiles (Atco 1985) C
Rickey Medlocke And Blackfoot (Atlantic 1986) C-
Medicine Man (Nalli 1990) C+
After The Reign (Wildcat 1994) C+
Rattlesnake Rock And Roll-Best Of Blackfoot (Rhino 1995) B+
Friday, July 5, 2013
Jim Croce
In the archives that is music, there are artists that die way ahead before their time and sad to say a few of them died in airplane crashes. Who knows what would have happened had Buddy Holly or Richie Valens never chose to take a plane to get out of a bad winter in Iowa. Or where Ronnie Van Zant would have taken Skynyrd after Street Survivors. Jim Croce was on his way to big stardom when a plane crash took him away from us in 1973.
There are 10 times many more best ofs from Jim Croce than actual albums but he did record a couple albums that didn't sell with his wife Ingrid, Pickwick issued a truncated version of his album which whoever heard it compared Jim and Ingrid to Ian And Sylvia, pleasant folk rock but nothing more.
Croce was the ultimate blue collar working man, working for many jobs while trying to make it in the music business and a chance contract with ABC gave him a top ten hit with You Don't Mess Around With Jim, a interesting account of pool hustlers and Willie McCoy aka Slim declaring revenge on Big Jim Walker, pool shooting sun of a gun. In some ways an East Coast answer to Tom Waits, Croce's songs were a bit more accessible and better sung than the gravel pit voice of Waits but Croce could be as melancholy as Waits. The single Operator (that's not the way it feels) to me tells a story of a guy trying to reconnect with an old ex girlfriend and enlists a operator to help him place a call and then saying the hell with it. That too hit the top ten here but Croce would top the charts with another bar hustler tune set to a barrellhouse piano boogie woogie tune called Bad Bad Leroy Brown to which the storyline is kinda like You Don't Mess Around With Jim but this time out it's shooting dice. And maybe he didn't intended it, It Doesn't Have To Be That Way is heard a lot more often during Christmas Time.
A posthumous release I Got A Name issued late 1973 ends the story there. Beginning with the title track which he didn't write himself, the album is perhaps his most introspective. I Have To Say I Love You In A Song is one of my favorite love songs ever but also Croce could write an anti love song, Lover's Cross comes to mind. Even though it was left off the best ofs, the revisiting of Age can touch the heart as well. The record kinda drags at the end of side two (The ho hum Salon And Saloon and Thursday both on the best ofs) but since Croce wasn't around to finish the album I'm sure ABC was looking for outtakes that they could use.
Outside of The Doors, record labels have continue to put out Best ofs after best ofs and perhaps the best overview was Rhino finally putting both Time In A Bottle and Photographs And Memories into the Classic Hits in 2004. Lifesong scraped the bottom of the barrel for the uneven The Places I've Been in 1976 and a 45 of Chain Gang Medley was released and made it to number 63 on the Billboard chart. But it seems that every major label has had a hand in putting out Croce's best ofs. ABC had the original best of, then Lifesong got distribution from CBS/Sony and Croce's albums came out on Lifesong/CBS in the 70s. Later on 21 Records (later Saja) via Atlantic put out the 2 best ofs at that time and even EMI managed to put out a couple of their own (and Croce didn't live to see that). Which you cannot go wrong but The CEMA/EMI best of has more filler songs and less hits but it does have Age on it. And Sanctuary (now part of Universal) has put out best ofs as imports abroad, so basically Croce get credit for recording all of the major labels, post death that is.
In 2006 thereabouts, Shout Factory reissued the early Jim And Ingrid Croce albums but also a live album Have You Heard Jim Croce Live which Croce with his right hand man Maury Muehelisen in tow and they give a intimate performance. Worth seeking out on either DVD or CD. But there wasn't much live TV stuff from Croce outside seeing him on one show (I think it was The Midnight Special but not too sure). Americana, is Jim and a tape recorder playing old cover songs. Not bad but not essential either.
Nevertheless had he lived Jim Croce could have had a career something like Gordon Lightfoot since both were basically folk rock artists. Or a less pretentious Bruce Springsteen, since Bruce kinda wrote along the same lines. He made classic singles and very good albums in his year stint with ABC and his tragic passing elevates him to the stature of Buddy Holly and Richie Valens, cut down before their prime. Any best of will do for you but somewhere in oldies and classic rock land Bad Bad Leroy Brown is playing and soft rock Time In A Bottle. To which the words ring truthfully that there's never enough time whatever you do.
And he was right.
The Albums:
Facets (Shout Factory 1966) B+
Croce (Capitol/One Way Records 1969) B
You Don't Mess Around With Jim (ABC 1973) A-
Life And Times (ABC 1973) B+
I Got A Name (ABC 1974) B+
The Places I've Been (Lifesong 1976) B-
Photographs And Memories (Lifesong 1978) B+
Time In A Bottle-Greatest Ballads (Saja/Atlantic 1985) B+
Home Recordings-Americana (Shout Factory 2004) B
Classic Hits (Rhino 2004) A-
Have You Heard Jim Croce Live (Shout Factory 2006) A-
Certainly there's more Jim Croce Best of's there's are the notables.
Down The Highway (Saja/Atlantic)
The 50th Anniversary Collection (Saja 1992)
Bad Bad Leroy Brown And Other Favorites (Cema 1994)
VH1 Behind The Music Collection (Rhino 2001)
Live The Final Tour (Saja/Edsel 2012)
The Way We Used To Be: The Anthology (Sanctuary)
There are 10 times many more best ofs from Jim Croce than actual albums but he did record a couple albums that didn't sell with his wife Ingrid, Pickwick issued a truncated version of his album which whoever heard it compared Jim and Ingrid to Ian And Sylvia, pleasant folk rock but nothing more.
Croce was the ultimate blue collar working man, working for many jobs while trying to make it in the music business and a chance contract with ABC gave him a top ten hit with You Don't Mess Around With Jim, a interesting account of pool hustlers and Willie McCoy aka Slim declaring revenge on Big Jim Walker, pool shooting sun of a gun. In some ways an East Coast answer to Tom Waits, Croce's songs were a bit more accessible and better sung than the gravel pit voice of Waits but Croce could be as melancholy as Waits. The single Operator (that's not the way it feels) to me tells a story of a guy trying to reconnect with an old ex girlfriend and enlists a operator to help him place a call and then saying the hell with it. That too hit the top ten here but Croce would top the charts with another bar hustler tune set to a barrellhouse piano boogie woogie tune called Bad Bad Leroy Brown to which the storyline is kinda like You Don't Mess Around With Jim but this time out it's shooting dice. And maybe he didn't intended it, It Doesn't Have To Be That Way is heard a lot more often during Christmas Time.
A posthumous release I Got A Name issued late 1973 ends the story there. Beginning with the title track which he didn't write himself, the album is perhaps his most introspective. I Have To Say I Love You In A Song is one of my favorite love songs ever but also Croce could write an anti love song, Lover's Cross comes to mind. Even though it was left off the best ofs, the revisiting of Age can touch the heart as well. The record kinda drags at the end of side two (The ho hum Salon And Saloon and Thursday both on the best ofs) but since Croce wasn't around to finish the album I'm sure ABC was looking for outtakes that they could use.
Outside of The Doors, record labels have continue to put out Best ofs after best ofs and perhaps the best overview was Rhino finally putting both Time In A Bottle and Photographs And Memories into the Classic Hits in 2004. Lifesong scraped the bottom of the barrel for the uneven The Places I've Been in 1976 and a 45 of Chain Gang Medley was released and made it to number 63 on the Billboard chart. But it seems that every major label has had a hand in putting out Croce's best ofs. ABC had the original best of, then Lifesong got distribution from CBS/Sony and Croce's albums came out on Lifesong/CBS in the 70s. Later on 21 Records (later Saja) via Atlantic put out the 2 best ofs at that time and even EMI managed to put out a couple of their own (and Croce didn't live to see that). Which you cannot go wrong but The CEMA/EMI best of has more filler songs and less hits but it does have Age on it. And Sanctuary (now part of Universal) has put out best ofs as imports abroad, so basically Croce get credit for recording all of the major labels, post death that is.
In 2006 thereabouts, Shout Factory reissued the early Jim And Ingrid Croce albums but also a live album Have You Heard Jim Croce Live which Croce with his right hand man Maury Muehelisen in tow and they give a intimate performance. Worth seeking out on either DVD or CD. But there wasn't much live TV stuff from Croce outside seeing him on one show (I think it was The Midnight Special but not too sure). Americana, is Jim and a tape recorder playing old cover songs. Not bad but not essential either.
Nevertheless had he lived Jim Croce could have had a career something like Gordon Lightfoot since both were basically folk rock artists. Or a less pretentious Bruce Springsteen, since Bruce kinda wrote along the same lines. He made classic singles and very good albums in his year stint with ABC and his tragic passing elevates him to the stature of Buddy Holly and Richie Valens, cut down before their prime. Any best of will do for you but somewhere in oldies and classic rock land Bad Bad Leroy Brown is playing and soft rock Time In A Bottle. To which the words ring truthfully that there's never enough time whatever you do.
And he was right.
The Albums:
Facets (Shout Factory 1966) B+
Croce (Capitol/One Way Records 1969) B
You Don't Mess Around With Jim (ABC 1973) A-
Life And Times (ABC 1973) B+
I Got A Name (ABC 1974) B+
The Places I've Been (Lifesong 1976) B-
Photographs And Memories (Lifesong 1978) B+
Time In A Bottle-Greatest Ballads (Saja/Atlantic 1985) B+
Home Recordings-Americana (Shout Factory 2004) B
Classic Hits (Rhino 2004) A-
Have You Heard Jim Croce Live (Shout Factory 2006) A-
Certainly there's more Jim Croce Best of's there's are the notables.
Down The Highway (Saja/Atlantic)
The 50th Anniversary Collection (Saja 1992)
Bad Bad Leroy Brown And Other Favorites (Cema 1994)
VH1 Behind The Music Collection (Rhino 2001)
Live The Final Tour (Saja/Edsel 2012)
The Way We Used To Be: The Anthology (Sanctuary)
Friday, June 21, 2013
Gretchen Wilson
For a female, country music is such a small window of opportunity, then if Tammy Wynette or Loretta Lynn came along in the late 90s and even the 00's they would be here for about a minute and then off into the bargain bins. The staying power has been limited although Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert have been the two exceptions in a male dominated genre.
But before American Idol cheapened the music and country became the monthly pin up girl, there wasn't much for pure singers. Warner Brothers couldn't figure out how to market a pure country singer like Elizabeth Cook who basically came over from a Atlantic Records fire sale. Jennifer Hanson made a decent Capitol debut and then fell victim to piss poor A and R direction, her album didn't get released till a good six months after Beautiful Goodbye. And whatever did happen to Jessica Andrews or Lila McCann?
About ten years ago, a spunky beer drinking, cigarette smoking queen from Pocahontas Illinois took country music by the storm by doing Redneck Woman, a hard charging ode the woman who shops at Wal Mart, goes out mud racing pick up trucks and if you dare her enough, outfart you, although she says she's country she's more of a Southern Rock woman that name checks Hank Jr, Charlie Daniels and Tanya Tucker. Perhaps the finest discovery by John Rich from Big & Rich fame, Redneck Woman was Gretchen's first single but it also topped the country chart, a first for a woman in many a year. And Here For The Party sold 3 million copies to boot. And you would have thought that Gretchen Wilson was here to stay.
Amazingly the shelf life was limited and although All Jacked Up and One Of The Boys sold decent, Sony Music gave up the ghost and probably that she was an older woman continued to hinder Gretchen's development into what could have been a career just like Miranda Lamberts but Sony Music rejected what would be I Got Your Country Right Here and cut their losses with a brief Greatest Hits that covered all the basics. Gretchen Wilson was more rock and roll than Sony Music would have liked, she's almost note for note perfect on the cover of Barracuda from Heart. If you don't think she's rock and roll then you haven't heard her Under The Covers collection to which she covers the likes of Bad Company, Hot Blooded and even Led Zeppelin's Over The Hills And Far Away. Without being limited to Sony Music's antics, Gretchen's albums under her own Redneck imprint, Wilson could double as the second coming as a Pat Benetar or even Bonnie Raitt (vocal wise).
The Playlist series from Epic/Legacy, gives us three more songs not available on Greatest Hits but includes the rockers (All Jacked Up, Here For The Party), Trailer anthems (California Girls, Redneck Woman) and southern rock (Homewrecker which borrows a riff from Sweet Home Alabama) but her weakness remains the ballads, Come To Bed or When I Think About Cheating although if she doesn't oversing, she can be convincing as well (Most of Sunday Morning Coming Down to which she needlessly goes into vocal overkill on the last chorus where she tries for American Idol oversing and the subduded I don't Feel Like Loving You Today). Playlist also gives two lesser known singles a spin, the rocker Don't Do Me No Good and the overblown If I Could Do It All Over Again to which I don't think I've ever heard on the radio.
With I Got Your Country Right Here, Wilson was no longer a country star but rather a Southern Rocker with a bit country on the side but her later albums the country is left further and further behind which explains why Sony Music couldn't deal with her. A woman who doesn't cut corners and does it her own way and if you like it fine, if not you're left behind. A no bullshit woman that does it her way. Her latest album Right On Time does acknowledge the present with a song co written by Kacey Musgraves but also borrows a bit too much from Bekka Bramlett (3 songs). Wilson's strengths remains songs that Vicky McGehee has her name on and maybe somewhere down the line Gretchen can write a complete album with Vicky in tow.
The Redneck Woman may be gone from country radio with the exception of that song but we all know that Gretchen has always been a Southern rock and roller from the get go. If you don't agree check out Under The Covers, not a single country song in there.
But before American Idol cheapened the music and country became the monthly pin up girl, there wasn't much for pure singers. Warner Brothers couldn't figure out how to market a pure country singer like Elizabeth Cook who basically came over from a Atlantic Records fire sale. Jennifer Hanson made a decent Capitol debut and then fell victim to piss poor A and R direction, her album didn't get released till a good six months after Beautiful Goodbye. And whatever did happen to Jessica Andrews or Lila McCann?
About ten years ago, a spunky beer drinking, cigarette smoking queen from Pocahontas Illinois took country music by the storm by doing Redneck Woman, a hard charging ode the woman who shops at Wal Mart, goes out mud racing pick up trucks and if you dare her enough, outfart you, although she says she's country she's more of a Southern Rock woman that name checks Hank Jr, Charlie Daniels and Tanya Tucker. Perhaps the finest discovery by John Rich from Big & Rich fame, Redneck Woman was Gretchen's first single but it also topped the country chart, a first for a woman in many a year. And Here For The Party sold 3 million copies to boot. And you would have thought that Gretchen Wilson was here to stay.
Amazingly the shelf life was limited and although All Jacked Up and One Of The Boys sold decent, Sony Music gave up the ghost and probably that she was an older woman continued to hinder Gretchen's development into what could have been a career just like Miranda Lamberts but Sony Music rejected what would be I Got Your Country Right Here and cut their losses with a brief Greatest Hits that covered all the basics. Gretchen Wilson was more rock and roll than Sony Music would have liked, she's almost note for note perfect on the cover of Barracuda from Heart. If you don't think she's rock and roll then you haven't heard her Under The Covers collection to which she covers the likes of Bad Company, Hot Blooded and even Led Zeppelin's Over The Hills And Far Away. Without being limited to Sony Music's antics, Gretchen's albums under her own Redneck imprint, Wilson could double as the second coming as a Pat Benetar or even Bonnie Raitt (vocal wise).
The Playlist series from Epic/Legacy, gives us three more songs not available on Greatest Hits but includes the rockers (All Jacked Up, Here For The Party), Trailer anthems (California Girls, Redneck Woman) and southern rock (Homewrecker which borrows a riff from Sweet Home Alabama) but her weakness remains the ballads, Come To Bed or When I Think About Cheating although if she doesn't oversing, she can be convincing as well (Most of Sunday Morning Coming Down to which she needlessly goes into vocal overkill on the last chorus where she tries for American Idol oversing and the subduded I don't Feel Like Loving You Today). Playlist also gives two lesser known singles a spin, the rocker Don't Do Me No Good and the overblown If I Could Do It All Over Again to which I don't think I've ever heard on the radio.
With I Got Your Country Right Here, Wilson was no longer a country star but rather a Southern Rocker with a bit country on the side but her later albums the country is left further and further behind which explains why Sony Music couldn't deal with her. A woman who doesn't cut corners and does it her own way and if you like it fine, if not you're left behind. A no bullshit woman that does it her way. Her latest album Right On Time does acknowledge the present with a song co written by Kacey Musgraves but also borrows a bit too much from Bekka Bramlett (3 songs). Wilson's strengths remains songs that Vicky McGehee has her name on and maybe somewhere down the line Gretchen can write a complete album with Vicky in tow.
The Redneck Woman may be gone from country radio with the exception of that song but we all know that Gretchen has always been a Southern rock and roller from the get go. If you don't agree check out Under The Covers, not a single country song in there.
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