ALBUM: The Smoker You Drink the Player You Get (1973); So What? (1974)
MVC Rating: 3.5/$$$
Joe Walsh is a good guitarist, good songwriter and great band member. It’s not easy coming to work for a new employer. So when Walsh joined the Eagles in 1975, there were concerns that Walsh was too hard rock for them or wouldn’t fit the Eagles sound.
While the Eagles sang the sedate Best of My Love, Walsh was playing songs like Rocking Mountain Way with its crushing guitar chords and nasty slide guitar. Before Rocky Mountain Way, he led the James Gang, a hard rocking, steady touring band with Midwest origins.
How would the Eagles with their soft Southern Cal delivery integrate with the rocking guitarist who loved to make his guitar talk through a vocoder and fuzz it all up with a fuzzbox?
Turns out he did OK. Understatement of course.
In 1998, a reader’s poll by Guitarist magazine selected the Hotel California guitar solos as the best guitar solos of all time.
ALBUM: A Pagan Place (1984); This is the Sea (1985)
MVC Rating: Pagan’s 4.5/$$$$$; Sea 4.5/$$$$$
I think of this band as one that never quite achieved the success it deserved. Their sound was dubbed ‘big music’ after one of the songs on ‘A Pagan’s Place.’ Implying: The Next Big Thing.
Which creates a lot of expectations.
Mike Scott, the band’s leader, was (very obviously) influenced by Bob Dylan. He counts Joe Strummer of the Clash as an influence as well.
With the debut ‘A Pagan Place,’ followed by ‘This is the Sea’ and then ‘Fisherman’s Blues,’ the band snared me immediately as a fan. I have Fisherman’s Blues on CD so I’m not reviewing it here but I say ‘buy it,’ — it’s probably their best. Although the others are awesome. ‘Sea’ had their biggest ‘hit,’ if you can call it a hit, called ‘Whole of the Moon.’
The critique I’ve read and/or heard about the Waterboys is that they sounded overwrought with big subject matter (religion/Christianity), big singing, big music, leading to big pretensions.
OK, perhaps true. This tea is not for everybody.
But in my collection they each earn 4.5 points (out of 5). There is some real musical and songwriting craft going on here.
After ‘This is the Sea,’ Karl Wallinger, a keyboardist for the band left to form his own band, World Party, reviewed later. Mike Scott had some solo endeavors, some like ‘Bring Em All In,’ which touched on spiritual issues.
NOTE: This is the result of one of my brain exercises. Think of pushups for my cerebellum. I think of these ‘exercises’ sometimes mostly to amuse myself.
*****
I called myself today on my cell phone. I knew it was me right away. But I wondered how I got my unlisted number?
‘Hey, how am I doing, I asked.
Not so hot, a little slow this morning, I replied.
Really? Me too, I said.
I was thinking of going to a record store or a thrift store, I said.
I was thinking the same thing but I remembered I went last week.
Wait, I didn’t see me there?
Yes I did. Remember looking in that full length mirror in the clothing area?
That was me.
Oh yeah, that was me, wasn’t it.
I am me.
Duh. Please don’t call me again, these conversations are useless.
The story goes, according to Wikipedia, the band was busking on a street corner out in front of a theater in the band’s hometown of Milwaukee where the Pretenders would be playing that night.
The trio caught the ear of Pretender guitarist James Honeyman Scott. Lead Pretender Chryssie Hynde let them play a song or two after the opening act ended. It was the beginning of a decades long career.
The band is not for everyone. Gordon Gano who writes the songs and sings lead embodies alternative at its most alternative.
With a tip of the hat to Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, the Violent Femmes wrote songs from the street touching on drugs, lost love and loneliness. On the second album (Hallowed Ground) Ganos’ Christianity created some dissension at first. That was worked out, and the band member who complained said years later that those songs were among the band’s best.
lt was the strength of Gano’s fiery gospel punk songs, the devotional “Jesus Walking on the Water,” “Hallowed Ground,” which reads like it was ripped from book of Psalms, and his gleeful ode to God’s righteous wrath, “It’s Gonna Rain,” that caused Brian Ritchie to relent.
Scoop is a two-record grab bag from Who guitarist Pete Townshend.
It’s not good. There’s no there there.
I’ve just listened to two records (four album sides) of demos, outtakes, studio tomfoolery, and alternate versions.
It’s one of those recordings meant for the trash heap, or at least kept private, but instead ends up in a store somewhere with a price sticker on it.
These albums are built on the belief that the public is riveted to every bent G note from the master musician. It’s esoterica for true diehards who are fascinated by the way their guitar hero noodles around in the studio with his mechanical devices. There’s a song ‘Initial Machine Experiments,’ and another ‘Unused Piano – Quadrophenia. (I do like ‘Piano Tipperary, however (all 1 minute of it.)
So, I think we have established that I don’t like ‘outtake’ albums. But for pure confounding full disclosure, one of the best records in this category is ‘Odds and Sods’ by you guessed it: The Who. And I like it. At least I did once. But maybe it was because I was older then, but am younger than that now. I will be reviewing that one when we get to the ‘W’s’.
Maybe you have to read the extensive liner notes to understand the significance of this mess. Pete, himself, offers a clue in the liner notes on the cover (to distinguish between those written reveries for every single one of the 25 songs and snippets.)
No, ha ha, you say. This scathing critique is coming from a man who is chronicling and reviewing all 678 records in my collection, even the Partridge Family and Bobby Sherman????
Well, yes, but I’m not charging for my mess.
Townshend in his liner notes seems to want to offer an explanation.
“These enthusiasts of Who music and the part I played in it will probably welcome this record to add to their stockpile of obsessive memorabilia.”
No.
I mean, yes, there will be some that love to obtain the strummed acoustic versions of songs that sound great only when played loud.
Townshend explains in the liner notes, how he just bought a new TEAC portable studio which has led to 40 songs without words as he is touring with the band. Uh oh.
Now, I like Townshend and admire his songwriting and guitar playing. His voice strains to be strong never quite making it — that’s why they have Roger Daltrey. I really enjoyed Townshend in an English folky record with Ronnie Lane called Rough Mix. I thought his solo album ‘Empty Glass’ was solid.
Now somebody must like this. I Googled e-Bay and Amazon and see copies of my album going used for more than $30. Wait what’s this? Also for sale: Scoop 2 and Scoop 3?
ALBUMS: Labour of Love (1983): Little Baggariddim (1986)
MVC Ratings: Labour 4.5/$$$$; Little 3.5/$$$
Named after a British unemployment form (Unemployment Benefit Form 40), this band, once it got going, certainly didn’t have to stand in any lines for filling out forms during a long career that included 70 million records sold.
‘Labour of Love’ is a fantastic album of reggae covers originally done by obscure artists (at least to most American ears).
One of their biggest hits “Red Red Wine” was originally written and recorded by Neil Diamond and not in a reggae way. ‘Many Rivers to Cross’ by Jimmy Cliff was another big one off of this album.
The album provided worldwide exposure for such Jamaican groups as the Grand Melodars, Winston Groovey, Eric Donaldson, and the Slickers. If you want original reggae hits, try Cliff’s excellent movie soundtrack ‘The Harder they Come.”
‘Little Baggeriddm’ is an EP (extended play), which means more than a .45 but not quite a full album. A cover of ‘I Got You Babe,’ popularized by Sonny and Cher, went high on the charts in the UK. Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders played Cher.
If you spot a good copy of Labour of Love and don’t have it, I would jump on it. In a way it is like Dr. John’s ‘Gumbo,’ taking fun, bouncy songs from an overlooked or niche genre and spreading them around the world.
ALBUMS: October (1981); Under a Blood Red Sky (1983)
MVC Ratings: October 4.0/$$$$; Under a Blood Red Sky 4.5/$$$$
I only have these two early U2 albums on vinyl. I have several others on homemade cassette tapes and CDs.
The groundbreaking Irish band was a ubiquitous soundtrack to life in the 1980s and 90s. Bono’s larger than life persona and the Edge’s cutting guitar were and are instantly recognizable. They have sold 150 million records.
But I’m not here to review all of U2 here. The two LPs I have will allow a peek into what some critics and die hard fans say is the the best band of its era.
‘October’ in 1981 is a ‘pre-fame’ record. The band had picked up critical kudos for its first album, ‘Boy.’. And while October one had all the hallmarks of the band, it didn’t exactly skyrocket in sales, partially I think due to some weaker cuts on the album and the fact that people were not accustomed to the sound which was really like no other in the heart of the New Wave synth laden songs. I guess you could say they were like the Clash with more love and a little less anger.
‘Under a Blood Red Sky’ is a live mini album which actually has nearly the length of a regular LP. Recorded at the gorgeous venue Red Rocks in Colorado, it shows U2 becoming U2: anthemic protest songs with a simple but effective musical format of guitar, bass, drums and vocal.
“How long,? How long must we sing this song,” Bono asks in ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday.’
“I Will Follow’ and ‘New Year’s Day’ remain rock classics.
The Edge’s chiming guitar is a perfect fit for Bono’s big vocals as was the name the Edge for the style of guitar he plays. The guitar would shimmer, sting and wail and walk up to the edge of power chord metal but never took the step.
ALBUMS: No Heavy Petting (1978); Phenomenon (1974)
MVC Ratings: Heavy4.0/$$$$; Phenomenon 4.0/$$$$$
These albums bring me back to Indiana, where I went to Klondike Junior High School.
Our nickname was the Nuggets and there was a little prospector dude with a pick-ax as our mascot. You can’t make this stuff up people.
Why we in the country and cornfields outside of West Lafayette, Indiana, had a gold mining theme, I don’t know. Indiana was flat as a pancake and if you looked to the west you could see Illinois.
UFO was a hard rock band, so much so that if not for the slower numbers would be considered Heavy Metal. But this was mid-1970s and the term heavy metal as a genre was in its infancy with bands like Black Sabbath leading the way.
Despite its hard rock reputation, UFO was a tuneful band, with technically proficient guitar playing mainly from Michael Schenker. He had previously worked in the German band the Scorpions, a band similar in aptitude and fluid guitar (by his brother Rudolph Schenker). The lyrics were banal, but that’s OK. They knew how to tap into the teen angst like all the hard rock bands were doing at this time. I just found that UFO sounded better than most of this ilk.
The summer after we had moved to Georgia, I was 15 and took a Greyhound to see my friends. (My poignant historical detail: We moved a lot. And these were some of the closest friends I had made heretofore in my young life.).
On the bus ride down I sat next to a Vietnam Vet drinking tall cans of beer (‘tall boys’).
“Where you headed man?’ the vet asked.
‘Indiana I said,’ I replied.
Oh shit,’ he said. “Indiana is the armpit of the nation.’
I still remember looking through the bus window as he said it and saw the rows of corn; it was probably mid-to-late summer, and time for the hard work of de-tasseling the corn. Occasionally, the landscape would be broken by a stand of trees or a little town that time forgot. The half-drunk vet wasn’t far off in his assessment, but as you’ll see later in the story, Indiana wanted me.
I got up there and the older brother of a friend let me stay in his trailer, at least part of the time. Good times, as we listened to UFO, REO Speedwagon (which was decidedly more hard rock than they became later in life.) And we listened to Led Zeppelin, lots of Zeppelin — in a hot sticky trailer baking in the Indiana summer heat.
There’s something about that time and place I’ll never forget; years later I related to the songs of Indiana singers like John Mellencamp and John Hiatt chronicling the nowhere feeling I got. It was a sad feeling of loss; Its origin I could not pinpoint.
One night near the end of my stay, we all piled into a big American-made car, about five of us. A friend said his family was going out of town and we could come over and play pool in the basement and maybe swim in a pool. Heck yeah, we were down for that. The house was like a mansion to us. Time passes and I guess we started getting louder as the caretaker of the property confronted us. A small hermit-like man, who lived on property, said he had called the police. Our pleas that we were invited did not persuade the caretaker, now yelling at us. So, we hopped in our car as Led Zeppelin wailed ‘keep me from the gallow’s pole.’
The police eventually caught up with one of our group at his home after running the car tag. My friends got into various degrees of trouble for that night’s escapade.
Me? I was on a Greyhound bus running southbound to my new home in Georgia.
Tom Verlaine is not a name that surfaces much these days. But in the 70s with the band, Television, Verlaine and his co-horts, including Richard Lloyd, created quite a stir with the ringing guitar sound of its debut album Marquee Moon.
‘Adventure,’ their sophomore offering is just as good, I think. Released in 1978, Adventure continued the guitar sound heralding punk’s transformation into more melodic music. New Wave was upon us.
Verlaine and Richard Lloyd were the guitarists, alternating lead and rhythm. Some of the longer guitar parts sound like a smoother Neil Young epic (think ‘Cowgirl in the Sand’ or ‘Like a Hurricane.’)
I remember getting this in Athens, Ga. at WUXTRY, it came out my senior year in high school.
Motown, the extremely successful record company, left no rock unturned, no trend passed over.
Call it psych-soul or soul-psych, this was soul music tricked out to take advantage of the late-1960s, early 1970s, popularity of psychedelic music.
Norman Whitfield, a Motown producer who worked quite a bit with the Temptations, was the key player behind this outreach.
Billie Calvin, Brenda Evans and Joe Harris were the members of this group. The group had a No. 3 hit, ‘Smiling Faces, Sometimes,’ written by Whitfield.
Whitfield liked to cover his bases by giving songs to multiple groups inside the Motown stable which explains why the Temptations also did the ‘Smiling Faces’ song. (Whitfield also gave the song ‘War’ to the Temptations and then to Edwin Starr who took it to No. 1).
Other songs on this debut album include a surprisingly faithful rendition of Bob Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone; the 60’s psych-pop classic ‘Aquarius;’ and the much covered groove song, ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine.’ Written by Whitfield, and Barrett Strong for Gladys Knight and the Pips, the song was ultimately covered by Creedence Clearwater Revival and Marvin Gaye.
Gaye’s version is considered by critics to be the definitive one. I like Gaye’s and the Pips’ and CCR’s — it’s fun to listen to try to discern what goes into the very different arrangements.
Also on this album is ‘Ball of Confusion (That’s what the world is today).
‘People movin’ out, people movin’ in, Why, because of the color of their skin,’
One of many rock’n’roll songs that helped shape my world view as a kid.
However, the version I heard on the radio was probably the Temptations’ hit version of the song. (There goes Whitfield again, hedging his bets.)
