It's funny how I can't remember much of today but can pick out certain things in the 53 years of life itself. Most of the time revolves around my times at the local record store or various ones that used to be in existence. The old Woolworth's stores from Webster City to Lincoln to the ones that were close by. I'm certainly glad that I grew up in a era that we could pick out 4 for a dollar specials at Woolworth's or Arlens for that matter. One thing stands out in my mind was that around the hippie era (1969) I gotta kick out of some dude, whacked out on too much pixie sticks and playing Sookie Sookie about 10 times that day. I really don't know what ever happened to that guy, or the three ladies in Arlens, reeking of not having a bath for about 10 days and stinking up the joint. It was a whole different time and somehow I can still picture and for that matter smell that. It wasn't pretty.
Now that I got your attention there, the majority of singles found in Woolworths or Arlens' got me to acquire plenty of Dunhill singles from Steppenwolf, a band originally known as Sparrow and made a hard to find album for Columbia before moving over to Dunhill. The first two singles flopped (A Girl I Knew, and Sookie Sookie) before they struck rock and roll gold with Born To Be Wild. For the most part, the first Steppenwolf album was very good and was one of the longer albums that were out there at that time, clocking about 48 minutes. John Kay and company could do pop as well as rock and roll, (B sides Everybody's Next One and Take What You Need), but they could also jam out, sometimes great (The Pusher), sometimes good (The Ostrich) and sometimes so so (Desperation, later covered by a new British band Humble Pie).
While John Kay sang most of the time, Steppenwolf the 2nd had Goldy McJohn (I'm guessing) helping out on vocals on Faster Than The Speed Of Light and 28, but the hits belonged to Kay with Magic Carpet Ride and FM classic Don't Step On The Grass Sam. This could have been a classic album but it's hampered by a strange medley after Magic Carpet Ride, but overall the album isn't bad either.
At Your Birthday Party is another strange album, the singles taken off the album the highlights including It's Never Too Late, Rock Me and Jupiter Child. Most of side 1 is listenable with Round And Down, Don't Cry and Chicken Wolf getting a lot of play on my stereo, but side 2 falls apart with too much filler.
Monster seems to be a concept album about the wrongdealings of the government that ring true to this day although the 9 minute Monster/America/Suicide segment may be too much for the short attention span people out there. Move Over was a minor hit. With that Steppenwolf Live came out and shows the band in fine form, but it's poorly recorded. Early Steppenwolf, which dates back to 1967 is a bit more rougher and has the 21 and half minute The Pusher which takes forever getting off the ground. You had to be there.
While John Kay, Goldy McJohn and Jerry Edmonson being the core members of this band, there were plenty of personnel changes and turnovers in the band and George Biando replaced the fired Nick St. Nicolas on the heavy Steppenwolf 7 album. While this record gets a bad rap, I tend to call this my favorite of the studio Steppenwolf albums out there. The songs titles are hilarious (Ball Crusher, Earsplittenloudenboomer), Kay's lyrics hard to figure out but they do ride the groove on Who Needs Ya and Hippo Stomp. And Kay continued to talk of social issues like Renegade. I might be overrating this with an A minus grade but to me it's a classic. For Ladies Only, on the other hand is kinda bland as Kay starts writing more sensitive songs like Tenderness or the title track which just might be the best thing Goldy McJohn ever did on the piano break. Outside of Ride With Me, it's their least interesting album. Of course when this came out on CD, the infamous Penis mobile in the record jacket disappeared, perhaps that somebody at Universal would have thought people would be offended.
With that in mind, Steppenwolf decided to call it a day and Rest In Peace, their final Dunhill LP, cherry picked key tracks off the First album and 7. 1973's 16 Greatest Hits highlighted their singles but somehow didn't add the Hey Lawdy Mama 45 edit, choosing to go with the fadeout on the live album. John Kay moved to a so so solo career and made two decent albums before deciding to reconnect with Steppenwolf once again.
With a new guitar player (Bobby Cochran) and a new label (Mums/Epic) Slow Flux came out in 1974 and while reviews of that record were lukewarm at best, they managed to score a top thirty hit in Straight Shooting Woman but Slow Flux was more in line with For Ladies Only rather than Born To Be Wild, it's more middle of the road rock. Sometimes they would get heavy (Gang War Blues, co written with Kim Fowley, Get Into The Wind) but they kinda played it safe, even covering Albert Hammond's Smokey Factory Blues (The 45 version is different than the LP). The record didn't sell very well, their label Mums went under and the next two albums came out on Epic. Goldy McJohn was booted out of the band and the late Andy Chapin (who would be killed in the plane crash that took the life of Rick Nelson) replaced him for Hour Of The Wolf. With some highlights (Caroline, Hard Rock Road, Someone Told A Lie), it was sadly coming the fact that Steppenwolf's time has come and gone. 1976's Skullduggery is their final chapter of anything decent, but the only time the record catches fire is on the title track. The record didn't sell, Epic dropped them and then the band would go through many many configurations and personnel before John Kay and Jerry Edmonton retook the name away from various lineups that Goldy McJohn and Nick St Nicolas would put together.
While semi retired, John Kay does tour as John Kay And Steppenwolf when summertime comes around but he only does about four to five show at best. Larry Byrom, guitarist for the Monster and 7 albums would become a go to Nashville session player and can be heard on many country albums. Jerry Edmonton died in a car accident in 1993. Goldy McJohn continues to play in various bands around the Washington State area and still remains very bitter toward John Kay.
Grades:
Steppenwolf (Dunhill 1968) B+
Steppenwolf The 2nd (Dunhill 1968) B+
At Your Birthday Party (Dunhill 1969) B-
Monster (Dunhill 1969) B
Steppenwolf Live (Dunhill 1969) C+
Early Steppenwolf (Dunhill 1970) B-
7 (Dunhill/ABC 1970) A-
For Ladies Only (Dunhill/ABC 1971) C+
Rest In Peace (Dunhill/ABC 1972) B
16 Greatest Hits (Dunhill/ABC 1973) B+
Slow Flux (Mums/Epic 1974) B+
Hour Of The Wolf (Epic 1975) B
Skullduggery (Epic 1976) C
All Time Greatest Hits (MCA 1999) A-
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Dean Martin-King Of Cool
The Rat Pack! Frank, Sammy and Dino!
Back as a snot nosed brat, I disowned everything from these squares cause they were not rock and roll. Far from it, but over time and age and tired of crappy music from crappy bands of the 80s and 90s, I basically to scour the bargain bins for certain albums. While Frank Sinatra remains the all time great vocalist according to everybody, I was more into the king cool of Dean Martin more than the MOR Pop of Frank and while someday I may attempt to pick the ultimate Sammy Davis Jr, I will cast my lot for Dean Martin. After all he was Matt Helm in those mid 60s spy movies and of course The Dean Martin Show which I did watch and of course they can be found on DVD and the Dean Martin Roasts are always campy but good fun.
For music, Dean could nail a song with one or two takes tops. The guy could sing a telephone book and get a hit with it. With the Reprise albums, Bowen would record the tracks, then have Dean come in later and lay them down the greatest of ease. The early years Capitol has always managed to put out albums via CD. Like Frank and Nat King Cole, there's a lotta fluff to go with the pop but once in a while Dino would make a winning single (Memories Are Made Of These, Standing On The Corner) but most of the time the dated charts and background singers made it a chore to listen to. While pop, Dean Martin was also (to me) a damn good country singer, had Jimmy Bowen, his Reprise producer lined him up with folks from Bradley's barn or Nashville rather than the Your Hit Parade backing singers.
The period I'm more familiar with is his Reprise/Warner Brothers tenure which he had the number 1 single that knocked the Beatles off the top spot, with Everybody Loves Somebody Sometimes, but when you listen to this on the Collector's Choice mixtape of The Long Lost Reprise Hits, you hear the same arrangements over and over, (The Door Is Still Open To My Heart, a carbon copy of Everybody Loves Somebody and did fairly well) Bowen always did surround Dean with some great session players, The late Earl Palmer on drums but Godalmighty the cheesy background muzak singers really didn't do anybody any favors. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had Lee Hazlewood taken a crack at production, the track Houston is the best percussion use of a coke bottle ever done. And Houston plays to the strengths of Dino, for it's a country based song, something not out of character on a Roger Miller album if Roger even attempted to do that song. While later songs didn't chart as high or well, Martin was best at the country croon like I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am or Little Ole Wine Drinker Me, or the 56th version of Gentle On My Mind. Capitol, sensing this issued a couple of Country based themes in around 1998, the one I found, Hurtin Country Songs while good, suffered from dated production. Martin covered the country hits at that time and did credible versions of For The Good Times which could rival the late great Ray Price, but he beats out O.C. Smith in Little Green Apples.
There's no shortage of Dean Martin on vinyl, any thrift store will probably have a few scratched up copies of Houston or Everybody Loves Somebody and for the casual listener that borderlines on overkill if you only looking for the hits. Collector's Choice in the 2000's managed to reissue all of the Reprise albums as 2 on 1 CDs and certain ones do command higher prices than the 25 cent copy at the Salvation Army. Although Dean was winding down in the late 70s, he managed to return to lush pop sounds on the just about forgotten 1978 Every Once In A While. But Martin would reunite with Jimmy Bowen one more time for the 1983 Nashville Sessions, Dean's final album and actually had a country hit with My First Country Song.
Capitol for the most part has continued to keep Martin's legacy alive with a slew of Best ofs and ICON series which makes decent but spotty sampler of cherry picked hits that come both from Capitol and Reprise but this year, The Dean Martin Family Trust has signed up with Sony/Legacy to reissue Dean's Reprise albums once again, will they do it as the 2 albums on 1 CD that Collector's Choice or will they be issued as stand alone albums? The one that I am most interested in would be The Nashville Sessions though I don't think Collector's Choice ever reissued it. With Martin Family Trust moving the Reprise stuff over to Legacy, Capitol's revamping of Dino, The Essential Dean Martin, takes out the Reprise stuff and adds a second cd of Capitol recorded stuff. But the original 2004 Dino Capitol Comp does have most of the Reprise hits. The new Legacy Playlist of the Reprise Years (2014) to me is a disappointment with the omission of key tracks (Gentle On My Mind, Too Many Indians) in favor of lesser known stuff and leaves off My First Country Song and instead has Drinking Champagne. It's buyer beware and this will not let me give up the Collector's Choice version of Long Lost Reprise Hits, which omits Gentle On My Mind. Out of everything that is out there, Dino (2004) Essential Dean Martin covers most of it.
In the smoke filled Las Vegas Sahara ballrooms and lounge areas of the long gone 40s, 50s and 60s nothing could compare with the laid back cool of Dean Martin. He's gone now, been gone for over 25 years but his music, his movies and his roasts still remain.
Forever cool.
Back as a snot nosed brat, I disowned everything from these squares cause they were not rock and roll. Far from it, but over time and age and tired of crappy music from crappy bands of the 80s and 90s, I basically to scour the bargain bins for certain albums. While Frank Sinatra remains the all time great vocalist according to everybody, I was more into the king cool of Dean Martin more than the MOR Pop of Frank and while someday I may attempt to pick the ultimate Sammy Davis Jr, I will cast my lot for Dean Martin. After all he was Matt Helm in those mid 60s spy movies and of course The Dean Martin Show which I did watch and of course they can be found on DVD and the Dean Martin Roasts are always campy but good fun.
For music, Dean could nail a song with one or two takes tops. The guy could sing a telephone book and get a hit with it. With the Reprise albums, Bowen would record the tracks, then have Dean come in later and lay them down the greatest of ease. The early years Capitol has always managed to put out albums via CD. Like Frank and Nat King Cole, there's a lotta fluff to go with the pop but once in a while Dino would make a winning single (Memories Are Made Of These, Standing On The Corner) but most of the time the dated charts and background singers made it a chore to listen to. While pop, Dean Martin was also (to me) a damn good country singer, had Jimmy Bowen, his Reprise producer lined him up with folks from Bradley's barn or Nashville rather than the Your Hit Parade backing singers.
The period I'm more familiar with is his Reprise/Warner Brothers tenure which he had the number 1 single that knocked the Beatles off the top spot, with Everybody Loves Somebody Sometimes, but when you listen to this on the Collector's Choice mixtape of The Long Lost Reprise Hits, you hear the same arrangements over and over, (The Door Is Still Open To My Heart, a carbon copy of Everybody Loves Somebody and did fairly well) Bowen always did surround Dean with some great session players, The late Earl Palmer on drums but Godalmighty the cheesy background muzak singers really didn't do anybody any favors. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had Lee Hazlewood taken a crack at production, the track Houston is the best percussion use of a coke bottle ever done. And Houston plays to the strengths of Dino, for it's a country based song, something not out of character on a Roger Miller album if Roger even attempted to do that song. While later songs didn't chart as high or well, Martin was best at the country croon like I Take A Lot Of Pride In What I Am or Little Ole Wine Drinker Me, or the 56th version of Gentle On My Mind. Capitol, sensing this issued a couple of Country based themes in around 1998, the one I found, Hurtin Country Songs while good, suffered from dated production. Martin covered the country hits at that time and did credible versions of For The Good Times which could rival the late great Ray Price, but he beats out O.C. Smith in Little Green Apples.
There's no shortage of Dean Martin on vinyl, any thrift store will probably have a few scratched up copies of Houston or Everybody Loves Somebody and for the casual listener that borderlines on overkill if you only looking for the hits. Collector's Choice in the 2000's managed to reissue all of the Reprise albums as 2 on 1 CDs and certain ones do command higher prices than the 25 cent copy at the Salvation Army. Although Dean was winding down in the late 70s, he managed to return to lush pop sounds on the just about forgotten 1978 Every Once In A While. But Martin would reunite with Jimmy Bowen one more time for the 1983 Nashville Sessions, Dean's final album and actually had a country hit with My First Country Song.
Capitol for the most part has continued to keep Martin's legacy alive with a slew of Best ofs and ICON series which makes decent but spotty sampler of cherry picked hits that come both from Capitol and Reprise but this year, The Dean Martin Family Trust has signed up with Sony/Legacy to reissue Dean's Reprise albums once again, will they do it as the 2 albums on 1 CD that Collector's Choice or will they be issued as stand alone albums? The one that I am most interested in would be The Nashville Sessions though I don't think Collector's Choice ever reissued it. With Martin Family Trust moving the Reprise stuff over to Legacy, Capitol's revamping of Dino, The Essential Dean Martin, takes out the Reprise stuff and adds a second cd of Capitol recorded stuff. But the original 2004 Dino Capitol Comp does have most of the Reprise hits. The new Legacy Playlist of the Reprise Years (2014) to me is a disappointment with the omission of key tracks (Gentle On My Mind, Too Many Indians) in favor of lesser known stuff and leaves off My First Country Song and instead has Drinking Champagne. It's buyer beware and this will not let me give up the Collector's Choice version of Long Lost Reprise Hits, which omits Gentle On My Mind. Out of everything that is out there, Dino (2004) Essential Dean Martin covers most of it.
In the smoke filled Las Vegas Sahara ballrooms and lounge areas of the long gone 40s, 50s and 60s nothing could compare with the laid back cool of Dean Martin. He's gone now, been gone for over 25 years but his music, his movies and his roasts still remain.
Forever cool.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Brand New Sin
Part of the new hard rock era of the 2000's, Brand New Sin came from Syracuse but their heart and soul came from Southern Rock and Molly Hatchet more so than Skynyrd. Joe Atler's booming vocals recall more of Phil Amselmo of Pantera than Chad Kroeger from Nickelback. They made three fairly hard rocking albums for Century Media before Atler departed after 2007's Tequila and the band split from Century Media due to poor promotion and usual major label distractions.
The first two album benefited from Pete Walker's production which kinda smoothed out the rough edges. Recipe For Disaster continued a straight ahead Southern rock vibe with a Corrosion Of Conformity south and BNS benefited with some FM airplay with The Loner and Freight Train. Tequila, produced by Joey Z, has a more rougher and trashing sound. Kris Wiechmann took over lead vocals on later albums.
Albums:
Brand New Sin (Century Media/Neverland 2002) B+
Recipe For Disaster (Century Media 2005) B+
Tequila (Century Media 2006) B+
Distilled (Subcat 2009) B
United State (Goomba 2011) B-
The first two album benefited from Pete Walker's production which kinda smoothed out the rough edges. Recipe For Disaster continued a straight ahead Southern rock vibe with a Corrosion Of Conformity south and BNS benefited with some FM airplay with The Loner and Freight Train. Tequila, produced by Joey Z, has a more rougher and trashing sound. Kris Wiechmann took over lead vocals on later albums.
Albums:
Brand New Sin (Century Media/Neverland 2002) B+
Recipe For Disaster (Century Media 2005) B+
Tequila (Century Media 2006) B+
Distilled (Subcat 2009) B
United State (Goomba 2011) B-
Friday, February 7, 2014
Foghat Revisited
It was 14 years ago that we lost Dave Peverett to cancer and a long standing career with Foghat, perhaps one of most maligned bands in the rock and roll era. Amazingly the lineup of original member Roger Earl, longtime bass player to the boogie years Craig Mcgregor, former Ted Nugent/Humble Pie lead singer Charlie Huhn and Bryan Bassett (Wild Cherry, Molly Hatchet, Root Boy Slim) holding down the lead guitar that the late Rod Price used to do, this version of Foghat continues to do what they do best, boogie blues and rock. They have spent almost four years touting their last album Last Train Home and if it pales in comparison to the Price/Peverett years it makes up with honest effort.
It all begins on Savoy Brown Looking In, although Lonesome Dave, Roger Earl and Tony Stevens were part of the Savoy Brown band in the early years, they branched out after Looking In and started up their own band, adding Rod Price to the mix and Dave Edmunds produced their first album. And it starts up with the remarkable I Just Want To Make Love To You and somehow Edmunds' production of distorted vocals, rampant wah wah guitars and smashing cymbals makes it work. The difference between Kim Simmonds and Savoy Brown and Foghat was that Foghat had a more rocking sound, than the total blues of Looking In. Not that its a bad album, it's good in its own way, but I doubt if Kim Simmonds would ever signed off on all those wild wah wahs on IJWTMLTY. And a more uptempo sound. And more Chuck Berry too.
For whatever reason, Dave Edmunds and Foghat parted ways on the second album (the rock and roll album) and Tom Dawes (The Cyrkles' Red Rubber Ball band) produced it. It's a more dense and polished sound than the first, and it had a minor hit with the only song that Rod Price ever sang lead on (What A Shame) plus FM classic tracks A Long Way To Go, Ride Ride Ride and It's Too Late. Energized, had more boogie than actual blues and give us more FM hits like Honey Hush, Home In My Hand and a cover of Buddy Holly's That Will Be The Day, to which the single version had the complete ending while the album has it fading away. There's even double drums tracking on Wild Cherry and Nothing I Won't Do. Later in the year Rock And Roll Outlaws came out and this time relied more on covers of the title track and a killer version of Howard Tate's Eight Days On The Road. Tony Stevens left, Nick Jameson replaced him and than their best known album Fool For The City came out with their top ten hit Slow Ride which continues to be in regular rotation on the classic rock channels.
Perhaps the best lineup came to be when Jameson decided to do other things in production (he later became a actor and had a hand in the 1994 Fox Cartoon The Critic) and for a solo career and Craig MacGregor replaced him. Dan Hartman produced the darker sounding Night Shift and they had another FM hit with Drivin Wheel and the pounding Don't Run Me Down. Their last true boogie rock album Stone Blue came out in 1978, and was produced with Eddie Kramer (which the band misspelled his name on the album title, not too excited with the end result) but the record itself is striped down rock and roll although Midnight Madness on record really sounded distorted on vinyl.
Lonesome Dave begin to alter the formula, and adding more pop and new wave into the music and the albums begin to show that. Boogie Motel gave them their other big hit with Third Time Lucky (First time i was a fool) and a cover of Somebody's been sleeping in my bed. Lonesome Dave was not much of a lyricist and basically recycled the same old love cliche over and over, on the blah Love In Motion, the first true POS song he wrote. Even though it hints at new wave pop, the boogie is still there on the title track of Boogie Motel and Nervous Release. Tight Shoes, is their new wave jump and fans didn't know what to think of it. They still played the single from time to time Stranger In My Home Town but outside of that, all the songs have a same sound and the same beat over and over. Not one of their best but and Rod Price left the band, replaced by Erik Cartright. The 1981 Girls To Chat and Boys To Bounce outside of Wide Boys and the odd ball Live Now Pay Later was another waste of time. MacGregor left, Jameson returned for the 1982 covers In the Mood For Something Rude which spared the world of Lonesome Dave's one dimensional songwriting for some nice covers of Slipped Tripped Fell In Love, Love Rustler and Ain't Living Long Like This. The final Foghat album, Zig Zag Walk is where they finally became the New Wave band that Peverett dreamed they would be and for myself I actually liked it, it's better than Boys To Chat and perhaps Tight Shoes and Boogie Motel and maybe Dave was years early on the swingtime revival of the 90s with a nice version of Louis Jordan Choo Choo ChaBoogie and Seven Day Weekend, but the Huey Lewis influenced That's What Love Can Do went nowhere on the charts. And then they broke up.
In the late 80s and early 90s both Roger Earl and Dave Peverett had their own versions of Foghat, Earl holding on the Craig MacGregor and Erik Carthright (this may have been the band that I saw in Oklahoma City in 1989), Peverett's band coming through Cedar Rapids in 1990 or 1991 and featured Riff West and Bryan Bassett fresh from leaving Molly Hatchet. Neither band recorded anything till a chance meeting with Rick Rubin got them back in the studio with the original members intact (Bassett returned to Molly Hatchet for their last good effort Devil's Canyon, which would be the last album to feature the late great Danny Joe Brown) but Rubin skipped out of producing their 1994 comeback Return Of The Boogie Men, so Nick Jameson came back on board to produce (and on the acoustic sides Tom Dawes) but while it was a good album, the unplugged version tended to drag down the Jameson' produced electric sides. But it would be the last studio album they would do, they would do two studio takes on the Road Cases live album and Peverett would succumb to cancer in 2000. Rod Price five years later would suffer a heart attack and falling downstairs and his slide would be silenced.
Instead of calling it a day, Earl and Tony Stevens with Bryan Bassett back in for good tapped Charlie Huhn to do the vocals and Family Joules came out in 2002. It's a silly album of sorts but it does lay claim to the spirit of Lonesome Dave and Bassett remains one of the more underrated guitar players nobody's ever heard of. He was the guitarist for Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music and produced and played on Root 6 from the late great Root Boy Slim. Huhn came from the late 70s Ted Nugent band of Weekend Warriors and State Of Shock, the last two good album Nugent ever did. And MacGregor replaced the departing Stevens once and for all in 2005. And basically this has been the Foghat that continues to tour day in and day out. And remain the perfect tribute band. Certainly Foghat Stages or Live Volume 2 are worthy but the best way to hear Foghat live back then is the original Bearsville Live album and companion King Biscuit Time CD, although the latter album is more rougher around the edges. The extended I Just Want To Make Love To You has been many of a bar band's cornerstone (I should know) but the speed metal version of Honey Hush gives visions of Anthrax or Metallica in the future without them knowing that.
But the mare mention of Foghat brings out gaffaws and LOL's from the kiddies today, whose ears are deafen by autotuner rapper who never realized that this music got us through the hardtimes, that Foghat remained true to their love of old rock and roll and the blues and even Louis Jordan which places them high in my heart. Even if Last Train Home does anything, what it does is celebrate the blues and keeps the blues alive if nothing else. And Foghat remains to this day, a band for its fans and they love the fans too. Even though they're now regulated to the casinos and state fairs and festivals, Foghat still does this for the fans. And somewhere in the great beyond, Lonesome Dave and Rod Price are smiling with approval.
So take a slow ride.......
It all begins on Savoy Brown Looking In, although Lonesome Dave, Roger Earl and Tony Stevens were part of the Savoy Brown band in the early years, they branched out after Looking In and started up their own band, adding Rod Price to the mix and Dave Edmunds produced their first album. And it starts up with the remarkable I Just Want To Make Love To You and somehow Edmunds' production of distorted vocals, rampant wah wah guitars and smashing cymbals makes it work. The difference between Kim Simmonds and Savoy Brown and Foghat was that Foghat had a more rocking sound, than the total blues of Looking In. Not that its a bad album, it's good in its own way, but I doubt if Kim Simmonds would ever signed off on all those wild wah wahs on IJWTMLTY. And a more uptempo sound. And more Chuck Berry too.
For whatever reason, Dave Edmunds and Foghat parted ways on the second album (the rock and roll album) and Tom Dawes (The Cyrkles' Red Rubber Ball band) produced it. It's a more dense and polished sound than the first, and it had a minor hit with the only song that Rod Price ever sang lead on (What A Shame) plus FM classic tracks A Long Way To Go, Ride Ride Ride and It's Too Late. Energized, had more boogie than actual blues and give us more FM hits like Honey Hush, Home In My Hand and a cover of Buddy Holly's That Will Be The Day, to which the single version had the complete ending while the album has it fading away. There's even double drums tracking on Wild Cherry and Nothing I Won't Do. Later in the year Rock And Roll Outlaws came out and this time relied more on covers of the title track and a killer version of Howard Tate's Eight Days On The Road. Tony Stevens left, Nick Jameson replaced him and than their best known album Fool For The City came out with their top ten hit Slow Ride which continues to be in regular rotation on the classic rock channels.
Perhaps the best lineup came to be when Jameson decided to do other things in production (he later became a actor and had a hand in the 1994 Fox Cartoon The Critic) and for a solo career and Craig MacGregor replaced him. Dan Hartman produced the darker sounding Night Shift and they had another FM hit with Drivin Wheel and the pounding Don't Run Me Down. Their last true boogie rock album Stone Blue came out in 1978, and was produced with Eddie Kramer (which the band misspelled his name on the album title, not too excited with the end result) but the record itself is striped down rock and roll although Midnight Madness on record really sounded distorted on vinyl.
Lonesome Dave begin to alter the formula, and adding more pop and new wave into the music and the albums begin to show that. Boogie Motel gave them their other big hit with Third Time Lucky (First time i was a fool) and a cover of Somebody's been sleeping in my bed. Lonesome Dave was not much of a lyricist and basically recycled the same old love cliche over and over, on the blah Love In Motion, the first true POS song he wrote. Even though it hints at new wave pop, the boogie is still there on the title track of Boogie Motel and Nervous Release. Tight Shoes, is their new wave jump and fans didn't know what to think of it. They still played the single from time to time Stranger In My Home Town but outside of that, all the songs have a same sound and the same beat over and over. Not one of their best but and Rod Price left the band, replaced by Erik Cartright. The 1981 Girls To Chat and Boys To Bounce outside of Wide Boys and the odd ball Live Now Pay Later was another waste of time. MacGregor left, Jameson returned for the 1982 covers In the Mood For Something Rude which spared the world of Lonesome Dave's one dimensional songwriting for some nice covers of Slipped Tripped Fell In Love, Love Rustler and Ain't Living Long Like This. The final Foghat album, Zig Zag Walk is where they finally became the New Wave band that Peverett dreamed they would be and for myself I actually liked it, it's better than Boys To Chat and perhaps Tight Shoes and Boogie Motel and maybe Dave was years early on the swingtime revival of the 90s with a nice version of Louis Jordan Choo Choo ChaBoogie and Seven Day Weekend, but the Huey Lewis influenced That's What Love Can Do went nowhere on the charts. And then they broke up.
In the late 80s and early 90s both Roger Earl and Dave Peverett had their own versions of Foghat, Earl holding on the Craig MacGregor and Erik Carthright (this may have been the band that I saw in Oklahoma City in 1989), Peverett's band coming through Cedar Rapids in 1990 or 1991 and featured Riff West and Bryan Bassett fresh from leaving Molly Hatchet. Neither band recorded anything till a chance meeting with Rick Rubin got them back in the studio with the original members intact (Bassett returned to Molly Hatchet for their last good effort Devil's Canyon, which would be the last album to feature the late great Danny Joe Brown) but Rubin skipped out of producing their 1994 comeback Return Of The Boogie Men, so Nick Jameson came back on board to produce (and on the acoustic sides Tom Dawes) but while it was a good album, the unplugged version tended to drag down the Jameson' produced electric sides. But it would be the last studio album they would do, they would do two studio takes on the Road Cases live album and Peverett would succumb to cancer in 2000. Rod Price five years later would suffer a heart attack and falling downstairs and his slide would be silenced.
Instead of calling it a day, Earl and Tony Stevens with Bryan Bassett back in for good tapped Charlie Huhn to do the vocals and Family Joules came out in 2002. It's a silly album of sorts but it does lay claim to the spirit of Lonesome Dave and Bassett remains one of the more underrated guitar players nobody's ever heard of. He was the guitarist for Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music and produced and played on Root 6 from the late great Root Boy Slim. Huhn came from the late 70s Ted Nugent band of Weekend Warriors and State Of Shock, the last two good album Nugent ever did. And MacGregor replaced the departing Stevens once and for all in 2005. And basically this has been the Foghat that continues to tour day in and day out. And remain the perfect tribute band. Certainly Foghat Stages or Live Volume 2 are worthy but the best way to hear Foghat live back then is the original Bearsville Live album and companion King Biscuit Time CD, although the latter album is more rougher around the edges. The extended I Just Want To Make Love To You has been many of a bar band's cornerstone (I should know) but the speed metal version of Honey Hush gives visions of Anthrax or Metallica in the future without them knowing that.
But the mare mention of Foghat brings out gaffaws and LOL's from the kiddies today, whose ears are deafen by autotuner rapper who never realized that this music got us through the hardtimes, that Foghat remained true to their love of old rock and roll and the blues and even Louis Jordan which places them high in my heart. Even if Last Train Home does anything, what it does is celebrate the blues and keeps the blues alive if nothing else. And Foghat remains to this day, a band for its fans and they love the fans too. Even though they're now regulated to the casinos and state fairs and festivals, Foghat still does this for the fans. And somewhere in the great beyond, Lonesome Dave and Rod Price are smiling with approval.
So take a slow ride.......
Monday, January 27, 2014
The Elms
The music world is such a unforgiving industry. Too many bands and performers get too much kudos and press from Rolling Stone and most of them suck to high heaven, whereas the more traditional rocking bands get ignored and the list is long. And The Elms are in the latter category, not outrageous enough for SPIN or Rolling Stone to get noticed but for myself, perfect in their own ways of rock and pop.
Originally, they started out more of a Christian band after an EP that I have not heard. Big Surprise is your standard Praise Jesus album with more pop gospel than actual rock and roll, simply of the fact they recorded for the gospel Sparrow label. It's not bad, but something I would listen to.
The next album Truth, Soul And Rock And Roll, they still praising Jesus but this time they're adding more Rolling Stones riffs and some Gin Blossom pop to their Christian rock. Somehow it does rock, leading off with the Tom Petty meets Georgia Satellites Speaking In Tongues and the pop rock of Though The Night and You Got No Room To Talk shows they have a sense of humor too. Still embracing the Good Lord on You Saved Me and the Train sounding Smile At Life Again (complete with annoying falsetto), The Elms are beginning to shy away from the gospel into secular music and the next album would be their 360 turnaround.
They turn the amps up to ten on the David Bianco produced The Chess Hotel, their first and only album for Universal South, basically a country label and it clashed with their Cheap Trick meets Cream sound. Beginning with the pounding I Am The World and Who Puts Rock And Roll In Your Blood , a Black Crowes soundalike. The rest of the album is like that, any Gospel rock is thrown out the window. The Elms simply want to rock and rock they do well. From the Stones groove of Black Groove to even a Big Star sound of Tower and The Trains. Of course, Universal South had no way of promoting this and dropped the album soon after. It's a shame really, they had more new country smarts than the Bro Country band of Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean.
Licking their wounds a bit, The Elms turned it down a bit on The Great American Midrange, some consider to be their best album and it just might be. Balancing hard rockers like Strut and Thunderhead and slightly mellower stuff like Unless God Appears First. It's not as in your face like The Chess Hotel was but also owes a bit more to their second album. And with that The Elms called it a day in 2010, putting in a decade career that should have made them better known. But for a band started as Christian Rockers, they did finished strong as honest to God rock and rollers, making honest to God real Midwestern rock and roll.
For which we should be thankful.
Albums:
Big Surprise (Sparrow 2001) B-
Truth, Soul And Rock And Roll (Sparrow 2002) B+
The Chess Hotel (Universal South 2006) A-
The Great American Midrange (Trust Inc 2009) A-
Originally, they started out more of a Christian band after an EP that I have not heard. Big Surprise is your standard Praise Jesus album with more pop gospel than actual rock and roll, simply of the fact they recorded for the gospel Sparrow label. It's not bad, but something I would listen to.
The next album Truth, Soul And Rock And Roll, they still praising Jesus but this time they're adding more Rolling Stones riffs and some Gin Blossom pop to their Christian rock. Somehow it does rock, leading off with the Tom Petty meets Georgia Satellites Speaking In Tongues and the pop rock of Though The Night and You Got No Room To Talk shows they have a sense of humor too. Still embracing the Good Lord on You Saved Me and the Train sounding Smile At Life Again (complete with annoying falsetto), The Elms are beginning to shy away from the gospel into secular music and the next album would be their 360 turnaround.
They turn the amps up to ten on the David Bianco produced The Chess Hotel, their first and only album for Universal South, basically a country label and it clashed with their Cheap Trick meets Cream sound. Beginning with the pounding I Am The World and Who Puts Rock And Roll In Your Blood , a Black Crowes soundalike. The rest of the album is like that, any Gospel rock is thrown out the window. The Elms simply want to rock and rock they do well. From the Stones groove of Black Groove to even a Big Star sound of Tower and The Trains. Of course, Universal South had no way of promoting this and dropped the album soon after. It's a shame really, they had more new country smarts than the Bro Country band of Florida Georgia Line and Jason Aldean.
Licking their wounds a bit, The Elms turned it down a bit on The Great American Midrange, some consider to be their best album and it just might be. Balancing hard rockers like Strut and Thunderhead and slightly mellower stuff like Unless God Appears First. It's not as in your face like The Chess Hotel was but also owes a bit more to their second album. And with that The Elms called it a day in 2010, putting in a decade career that should have made them better known. But for a band started as Christian Rockers, they did finished strong as honest to God rock and rollers, making honest to God real Midwestern rock and roll.
For which we should be thankful.
Albums:
Big Surprise (Sparrow 2001) B-
Truth, Soul And Rock And Roll (Sparrow 2002) B+
The Chess Hotel (Universal South 2006) A-
The Great American Midrange (Trust Inc 2009) A-
Monday, January 6, 2014
The Fatal Flowers
One of the mystery bands of the 80s, The Fatal Flowers came from Amsterdam and made two albums for Atlantic that owed a lot to glam rock, garage rock and anything T Rex although they're a Dutch band. The late Vic Maile produced Younger Days, and it showed a pub rock side, outdated by 1986 standards but had decent songs.
Their best album Johnny D Is Back!, was produced by Mick Ronson (Ian Hunter, David Bowie) and Richard Janssen revealed his inner Ian Hunter in him. Although proclaimed the best album in 1988 in (where else?) Amsterdam, Atlantic gave little promotion in the album. and since this was not a hair metal band, The Fatals' were left to be written off as a tax write off. Atlantic never bothered to issue Younger Days on CD either. Johnny D Is Back! is a lost classic with the title track, Second Chance and the Mott sounding The Dance as standouts. Moving over from WEA to Phonogram proved more bad news, their third album never came out in the states (Polygram passed on it) and disgusted with no promo and PR the band broke up.
Nevetheless, the two Atlantic albums do show up in used bins from time to time. And recommended to those with a open mind.
Albums:
Younger Days (Atlantic 1986) B+
Johnny D Is Back! (Atlantic 1988) B+
Their best album Johnny D Is Back!, was produced by Mick Ronson (Ian Hunter, David Bowie) and Richard Janssen revealed his inner Ian Hunter in him. Although proclaimed the best album in 1988 in (where else?) Amsterdam, Atlantic gave little promotion in the album. and since this was not a hair metal band, The Fatals' were left to be written off as a tax write off. Atlantic never bothered to issue Younger Days on CD either. Johnny D Is Back! is a lost classic with the title track, Second Chance and the Mott sounding The Dance as standouts. Moving over from WEA to Phonogram proved more bad news, their third album never came out in the states (Polygram passed on it) and disgusted with no promo and PR the band broke up.
Nevetheless, the two Atlantic albums do show up in used bins from time to time. And recommended to those with a open mind.
Albums:
Younger Days (Atlantic 1986) B+
Johnny D Is Back! (Atlantic 1988) B+
Saturday, December 21, 2013
The Dave Clark Five
For the second all time best selling British Band of the 60s there's hardly much out there to buy. Dave Clark is a very frugal guy who really controls the copyrights to his band's songs to the point that the last official US release, The History Of The Dave Clark Five was licensed to Hollywood Records back around 1992 for a limited time and while 50 songs is quite a few, there's a few clunkers in there as well. Universal in the UK issued a single cd The Hits, which is just as hit and miss as the Hollywood overview. Frustrated at Clark's oddball song selection, I pretty much made a single mix CD and still wasn't that satisfied with the results. And so the story begins.
In the heydays of The British Invasion, The Beatles and DC5 duked it out for chart position and Ed Sullivan's buddies, appearing just about on a regular basis back in 64 and 65. But while the Beatles evolved and became more adventurous with their albums, the DC5 became obsolete relics in three years, the last top ten was a cover of You Got What It Takes. The DC5 were a singles act and they made some tough sounding singles in Glad All Over, Bits And Pieces and a 53 chart placing of I Knew It All The Time which somehow made it to a compilation Piccadilly Story on Castle in the early 2000s and how that escaped the claws of Clark's watchful eye is a feat upon itself. The DC5 had a excellent vocalist in the late great Mike Smith although upon hearing them doing a punked up Do You Love Me, it sounds like he screaming WHY DO YOU LOVE ME in the call and response of the the band members. Make no mistake, Clark had a eye and ear for the music hook and most DC5 songs clocked under 2 and a half minutes, I Like It Like That only a minute forty time of song. And Anyway You Want It showed that they can do garage punk as well. Even KISS covered that song in 1977 on Alive Two, the studio side that is.
For the most part, the DC5 wrote the majority of songs but the problem was Dave Clark was never a lyricist. Listening to Glad All Over their Epic debut has great singles (Glad All Over, Bits And Pieces, Do You Love Me) but the embarrassing good I Know You, has the middle eight that sounded like Clark took them off a bunch of grade school kids throwing insults at one another, but it also has the embarrassing bad Doo Dah which is a variation of you guessed it, the old Foghorn Leghorn cartoon show. And each DC5 album would be more of the same, about 10 to 12 songs clocking in and around 25 minutes at best with varying results. They could do a decent Beatles cop, Because, 19 Days, and failed latter day single Live In The Sky which echoes All You Need Is Love but by the late 60s, Dave Clark was redoing rock classics, in the 70s covering Tommy James' Draggin The Line (more bizzare than TJ's version but with the cheesiness of horns I ever heard. He took on Neil Young on a version of Southern Man, which isn't too bad given the dated guitar solo work. It helped that he still had Mike Smith shouting it out too. But it seems that Dave Clark really has no intention of putting this nor Draggin the Line out since neither song has appeared on any best of.
And that's the problem. Clark's tight reins on his back catalog may reveals that even though he might be a shrewd businessman that perhaps even he thinks that the lesser DC5 songs are not worth preserving. But you can license any of his best songs for a fee from his website or buy them on Itunes. Or take your chances trying to find vinyl copies that are not scratched up or 45s for that matter. Turns out that everybody that bought a DC5 record wore the grooves down to nothing. And honest the DC5 had rocking great songs, but some songs are absolute dated relics of the past. The silly Catch Us If You Can, You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby, which is basically the same arrangement of You Got What It Takes (although the beginning and end also borrows from The Beatles) and the Good Old Rock And Roll Medley that nobody bought.
It's really hard to put together a complete overview of Dave Clark Five albums since Dave Clark will probably take the damn masters to his grave when he dies off. Even the most recent Best of import is now out of print. So you're better off trying to locate The History Of The Dave Clark Five on CD at your local store and hope that the owner don't jack the price up to about 50 dollars. The single The Hits import, more scattershot and more disappointing in song selection. Unless you're hip to hear them do the Steam cover of Kiss Him Goodbye and of course.. the good old rock and roll medley. There are bootleg copies of their albums on CD and the sound varies from each and every one. To which Buyer Beware comes into play. But don't hold your breath on if and when Dave Clark decides to have them available again. He's done more to slit his own throat about having the legacy of the DC5 fade into 60's folklore. But he'll be happy to tell you that they had their own plane before the Beatles. The first and only time he's ever topped the fab four.
In 2019, Dave Clark finally issued a stand alone single best of CD (tho in the UK it was a 2 CD set). For a bare bones introduction it is probably all the DC5 you could ever want, with their hits (Glad All Over, Bits And Pieces, Try Too Hard) and misses (Universal Love) but at 38 minutes it's a small history lesson about how the DC5 challenged the Beatles and for a small time in 64-65 managed to hang with them before The Beatles started changing their music, whereas The DC5 stayed the same and their music never did evolve like The Beatles or Rolling Stones . If nothing else, Mike Smith was Dave Clark's voice and sound. But I also think session drummer Bobby Graham might have more to do with the drum sound rather than Mr. Clark. Mike Smith's passed away in 2008.
Grades:
History Of The Dave Clark Five (Hollywood 1994) B+
The Hits (EMI 2007) C+
All The Hits (BMG 2019) B+
PS
While the DC5 may have been the closest rivals to The Beatles, an essay sheds more light on Dave Clark, the boss rather than the rock and roller. Bobby Graham, the long time UK session drummer seemed to be the one that played drums rather than Clark himself. Perhaps the MVP of the band was Mike Smith and maybe set the boss off. While Clark has issued a few of the catalog on I Tunes and has varied the history of the band, this essay makes the first time I have ever heard of Ron Ryan, who was instrumental of the hits like Because or Anyway You Want It. You can't deny the fact that from 64-66, the DC5 had very good singles but the albums were basically 10 songs, two or three good song and the rest filler. Which explains Doo Dah on Bits And Pieces. Sgt Pepper pretty much shut the DC5 down since Clark didn't have a clue on how to counter this, but choose instead some R n B covers and old rock songs medley that went nowhere, and made the DC5 more bubblegum pop than blazing rockers. Clark was a true visionary in scoring a deal where 10 years from signing he'd get his masters back to do what he wanted and that's what he did: put out 50 songs of hits and misses and buried the rest in his backyard. He also had the most dedicated members in his band, sticking with him as salaried employees till the end. There was a PBS special that aired the other day about the life and times of the DC5 but from what I have heard, it could have been an infocommercial promoting Dave Clark himself. Which is fine but without Mike Smith, Lenny Davidson, Mike Huxley and Dennis Payton, Clark is nothing. The music proves it. http://asithappens.hubpages.com/hub/CuriousStoryofDC5
Dave Clark; control freak: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harold-bronson/the-dave-clark-five-dave-_b_5091519.html
Another opinion: http://www.richieunterberger.com/wordpress/the-dave-clark-five-pbs-special-and-beyond/
In the heydays of The British Invasion, The Beatles and DC5 duked it out for chart position and Ed Sullivan's buddies, appearing just about on a regular basis back in 64 and 65. But while the Beatles evolved and became more adventurous with their albums, the DC5 became obsolete relics in three years, the last top ten was a cover of You Got What It Takes. The DC5 were a singles act and they made some tough sounding singles in Glad All Over, Bits And Pieces and a 53 chart placing of I Knew It All The Time which somehow made it to a compilation Piccadilly Story on Castle in the early 2000s and how that escaped the claws of Clark's watchful eye is a feat upon itself. The DC5 had a excellent vocalist in the late great Mike Smith although upon hearing them doing a punked up Do You Love Me, it sounds like he screaming WHY DO YOU LOVE ME in the call and response of the the band members. Make no mistake, Clark had a eye and ear for the music hook and most DC5 songs clocked under 2 and a half minutes, I Like It Like That only a minute forty time of song. And Anyway You Want It showed that they can do garage punk as well. Even KISS covered that song in 1977 on Alive Two, the studio side that is.
For the most part, the DC5 wrote the majority of songs but the problem was Dave Clark was never a lyricist. Listening to Glad All Over their Epic debut has great singles (Glad All Over, Bits And Pieces, Do You Love Me) but the embarrassing good I Know You, has the middle eight that sounded like Clark took them off a bunch of grade school kids throwing insults at one another, but it also has the embarrassing bad Doo Dah which is a variation of you guessed it, the old Foghorn Leghorn cartoon show. And each DC5 album would be more of the same, about 10 to 12 songs clocking in and around 25 minutes at best with varying results. They could do a decent Beatles cop, Because, 19 Days, and failed latter day single Live In The Sky which echoes All You Need Is Love but by the late 60s, Dave Clark was redoing rock classics, in the 70s covering Tommy James' Draggin The Line (more bizzare than TJ's version but with the cheesiness of horns I ever heard. He took on Neil Young on a version of Southern Man, which isn't too bad given the dated guitar solo work. It helped that he still had Mike Smith shouting it out too. But it seems that Dave Clark really has no intention of putting this nor Draggin the Line out since neither song has appeared on any best of.
And that's the problem. Clark's tight reins on his back catalog may reveals that even though he might be a shrewd businessman that perhaps even he thinks that the lesser DC5 songs are not worth preserving. But you can license any of his best songs for a fee from his website or buy them on Itunes. Or take your chances trying to find vinyl copies that are not scratched up or 45s for that matter. Turns out that everybody that bought a DC5 record wore the grooves down to nothing. And honest the DC5 had rocking great songs, but some songs are absolute dated relics of the past. The silly Catch Us If You Can, You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby, which is basically the same arrangement of You Got What It Takes (although the beginning and end also borrows from The Beatles) and the Good Old Rock And Roll Medley that nobody bought.
It's really hard to put together a complete overview of Dave Clark Five albums since Dave Clark will probably take the damn masters to his grave when he dies off. Even the most recent Best of import is now out of print. So you're better off trying to locate The History Of The Dave Clark Five on CD at your local store and hope that the owner don't jack the price up to about 50 dollars. The single The Hits import, more scattershot and more disappointing in song selection. Unless you're hip to hear them do the Steam cover of Kiss Him Goodbye and of course.. the good old rock and roll medley. There are bootleg copies of their albums on CD and the sound varies from each and every one. To which Buyer Beware comes into play. But don't hold your breath on if and when Dave Clark decides to have them available again. He's done more to slit his own throat about having the legacy of the DC5 fade into 60's folklore. But he'll be happy to tell you that they had their own plane before the Beatles. The first and only time he's ever topped the fab four.
In 2019, Dave Clark finally issued a stand alone single best of CD (tho in the UK it was a 2 CD set). For a bare bones introduction it is probably all the DC5 you could ever want, with their hits (Glad All Over, Bits And Pieces, Try Too Hard) and misses (Universal Love) but at 38 minutes it's a small history lesson about how the DC5 challenged the Beatles and for a small time in 64-65 managed to hang with them before The Beatles started changing their music, whereas The DC5 stayed the same and their music never did evolve like The Beatles or Rolling Stones . If nothing else, Mike Smith was Dave Clark's voice and sound. But I also think session drummer Bobby Graham might have more to do with the drum sound rather than Mr. Clark. Mike Smith's passed away in 2008.
Grades:
History Of The Dave Clark Five (Hollywood 1994) B+
The Hits (EMI 2007) C+
All The Hits (BMG 2019) B+
PS
While the DC5 may have been the closest rivals to The Beatles, an essay sheds more light on Dave Clark, the boss rather than the rock and roller. Bobby Graham, the long time UK session drummer seemed to be the one that played drums rather than Clark himself. Perhaps the MVP of the band was Mike Smith and maybe set the boss off. While Clark has issued a few of the catalog on I Tunes and has varied the history of the band, this essay makes the first time I have ever heard of Ron Ryan, who was instrumental of the hits like Because or Anyway You Want It. You can't deny the fact that from 64-66, the DC5 had very good singles but the albums were basically 10 songs, two or three good song and the rest filler. Which explains Doo Dah on Bits And Pieces. Sgt Pepper pretty much shut the DC5 down since Clark didn't have a clue on how to counter this, but choose instead some R n B covers and old rock songs medley that went nowhere, and made the DC5 more bubblegum pop than blazing rockers. Clark was a true visionary in scoring a deal where 10 years from signing he'd get his masters back to do what he wanted and that's what he did: put out 50 songs of hits and misses and buried the rest in his backyard. He also had the most dedicated members in his band, sticking with him as salaried employees till the end. There was a PBS special that aired the other day about the life and times of the DC5 but from what I have heard, it could have been an infocommercial promoting Dave Clark himself. Which is fine but without Mike Smith, Lenny Davidson, Mike Huxley and Dennis Payton, Clark is nothing. The music proves it. http://asithappens.hubpages.com/hub/CuriousStoryofDC5
Dave Clark; control freak: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harold-bronson/the-dave-clark-five-dave-_b_5091519.html
Another opinion: http://www.richieunterberger.com/wordpress/the-dave-clark-five-pbs-special-and-beyond/
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