Here is the group that has led to all those noisy guitar licks in heavy metal and hard rock.
It was early 1960s and a handful of white British kids became immersed in American blues, singers and guitar pickers. They learned the songs, for which they applied amplification and voila: The amplified blues chords have been heard in songs from Black Sabbath to Deep Purple to Blue Oyster Cult (hey, I could have used Green Day.)
The Yardbirds is a group that at separate times had Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Actually there was a short time when Beck and Page were in the group together, according to the liner notes written by Ira Robbins the editor of Trouser Press magazine.
Writing in 1977, when this compilation was released, Robbins said: ‘It only takes a little applied listening to current R-n-R to discern how much of today’s rock traces back to things the Yardbirds did almost a decade ago.‘
Now that was 1977 and this album is culled from songs of the 1960s. Listening to it you can almost make that same case. The blues riffs ring out on much less sophisticated equipment, perhaps, but the song remains the same (if I may pull from a Led Zeppelin song with Jimmy Page on guitar.)
Page, Beck and Clapton are revered like few others and on many lists of top guitarists. I guess I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the original Yardbirds: Keith Relf, lead vocalist and harmonica; Jim McCarty, drums; Paul Samwell Smith, bass; Chris Dreja, rhythm guitar; and Top Topham, lead guitar. Topham’s departure after six months made way for Clapton.
Somewhat ironically, Clapton left the band about a year later saying they were going too commercial for his purist sensibilities. Evidence was the song ‘For Your Love,’ Clapton said.
Well, that’s one of my favorite Yardbird songs (not on this album for some reason) and it was a worldwide hit lifting the band from obscurity.
I say it’s ironic because Clapton starting in the late 1970s has put out more than his fair share of commercial shlock. Some of it was OK shlock but shlock nevertheless. (Shlock is a nicer word than dreck, I believe).
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.
When I started this countdown of the 678 records in my collection, I vowed I would finish before my degenerative brain disease — Lewy body dementia — killed me or rendered me too incapacitated to finish.
Well, that was six years ago. I won’t lie, it has been a bumpy road. I didn’t post for more than six months starting at the end of last Juy (2020) because hallucinations were, shall we say, keeping me occupied. (Post on how we handled my hallucinations later.)
So, I just re-started a few months ago in January as a new medication knocked back most of the hallucinating.
I have 190 to go.
Sounds like a lot, and it is. But I have already under my belt 487 mini-profiles of vinyl records I started collecting in my teens.
That’s a lot of rock and roll (and jazz and blues). It’s all available free at www.myvinylcountdown.com. Also included on the blog but not part of the countdown are more than 100 essays, poems and ranking lists, many centered on Lewy and me.
In the music reviews, the numbers in the headline where the artist is identified there should be a number representing its place in the countdown. (There’s a plus/minus error rate of three I would estimate.)
And as a side bet, I think I’ll break the lifespan averages on this disease. Depending on the source, the average lifespan after diagnosis is anywhere from four to eight years. I’ve got six. I just hope I don’t end up like the poor runner in one of the Carolinas a few years ago, he finished a grueling marathon only to be struck by lightning at the finish line.
For more information see the About Me button on the website. Also check out the Lewy Body Dementia Association site www.lbda.org
ALBUMS: Three Week Hero-PJP (1969); Enigma (1966): You Can’t Come Home Again (45 rpm) (1968): Somewhere (1967): What’s Wrong With My World (1968): Focus Con Proby (1977)
MVC Rating: Hero 4.0/$$$; Enigma 4.0/$$$; Home (45) 3.5/$$; Somewhere 3.5/$$; What’s Wrong with My World 2.5/$$; Focus Con Proby. (pending review)
I have written about Proby earlier when I named one of his albums one of the seven most underrated albums in My VInyl Countdown collection.
Proby’s story is certainly a wild one: he got kicked out of England; Van Morrison wrote a song about him; his sister dated Elvis; he played Elvis in a stage production; sang mostly rock and roll and ballads but at one point in the 1970s was lead singer for Focus the heavy prog band from the Netherlands in ‘Focus Con Proby.’ Focus is a group best known for their heavy metal yodeling song called Hocus Pocus.
First, a quick update on My Vinyl Countdown.com. That’s my website where I state my mission by vowing to listen to, write about and list (in alphabetical order) all of the records I have collected since, oh about age 12.
I’m 60 now. (I took about a two-decade detour into digital).
I am doing this to raise awareness of Lewy body dementia, which I have.
There is no cure for this disease, the second-leading form of degenerative dementia after Alzheimer’s. So yes, I am forgetful and I have tremors now and then. But thanks to modern science and miracles of their cost prohibitive I’m doing fine. My bank account may not be doing fine, but I am.
So anyway, I started with 678 records and have reviewed 438. Now I have about 240 records to go. (Give or take).
Thanks to everyone with the notes and kind words throughout this. It keeps me hanging on. (Got a Vanilla Fudge album to do when I get to the V’s).
Proby is one of those artists that I really didn’t know during my formative vinyl years. He’s one of several on the countdown that I have purchased more recently (past 3 years) as I started thumbing through bargain bins and thrift shops.
Coming home after a thrift store find I put on his Enigma record and immediately noticed the voice. It was an entity all to itself, Vegas, swamp rock, Elvis, Otis, Tom Jones — that voice channeled just about everything.
He was not moving the needle much in the U.S. but the UK seemed to love him. He was like Bizarro World Elvis: or Tom Jones playing Mick Jagger in a movie about the Stones; or Johnny Cash if he had grown up in Ireland during the 1950s and 60s and was heavily influenced by Van Morrison.
(These are fun, I could go on but I’ll restrain myself.)
The ‘accident’ sparked so much audience reaction that it happened again ……..and again. I couldn’t find any stories that detailed how many times it happened. But an oversight office on moral turpitude basically had Proby thrown out of the country.
PJ Proby’s albums were often a hodgepodge of styles looking for a theme. Some real gems however found within.
About the music. I would recommend Enigma which has his single ‘Niki Hoeky’ a Deep South novelty tune in the vein of Tony Joe White’s ‘Polk Salad Annie.’ Or about anything Jim Stafford would do.
Proby’s vocals jump comfortably from falsetto to hard rock/soul back down again.
The man knew he had a voice and that was possibly his downfall.
On stage he knew he could wow anyone when he opened his mouth to sing. But his ability to sing any type of song also meant that he recorded any type of songs — as if he was going for the shotgun affect and seeing which style will stick
The problem, which comes clear in the very-good-but-disjointed ‘Three Week Hero., ‘ is that he thinks it’s all too funny, like a comedian who has no sense of when to quit repeating the punch line. His exaggerated bumpkin accent on the opening title song on Hero has no reasoning behind it, context.
It’s bizarre as if he was brushing up to be on TV’s Hee Haw.
In another really good song he sounds like Johnny Cash — only better!
Then he airs out a completely gut wrenching Otis Redding like vocal on a song that made me readjust the listening device. He covered ” It’s so hard to be a N-word.’ No, I’m not going to write it).
It’s a song written by Georgia civil rights activist and African American Mable Hillery. I was brought up that white people never use the N-word so I questioned the appropriateness of a white man singing. Here’s Mable’s version.
And here is Proby’s version with the backing of a group of four men called the New Yardbirds.
Yes, the New Yardbirds were John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. It is believed to be the first time the future Led Zeppelin members recorded together.
NOTE: This song is part of a 3-song medley that also includes ‘George Wallace came Rolling in this Morning.’
Off the same album is this one which sounds like it could have been a single.
This kid from Montgomery contacted me on Twitter and directed me to a video of a song.
It’s about his mother and single mothers everywhere. (‘Single Mamas’)
I am a 60-year-old white man who loves music but this style urban contemporary hip hop is not one I listen to much. Sounds like it has radio potential.
I know there’s a thousand mix tapes and CD’s being pushed at streetcorners and online from folks who think they got something. Maybe they do. I think Rich Boi Streeter feat. the Younginz’ has something. Spread this around if you like it.
As always check out my music blog at www.myvinylcountdown.com
Long before Dave Chappelle’s hilarious I-Am-Rick-James- Dammit, Rick James was a crossover hit at my fully integrated high school in Athens, Ga. It was 55 percent white and 45 percent black in my day “Go 78.’
The back parking lot where students hung out for one more cigarette before running to class, vibrated on most mornings.
Blacks and whites jamming to Super Freak. Power boosted stereos buzzing windows and even some dancing along the way. Other crossover songs included ‘Play that Funky Music White Boy’ by Wild Cherry, and Brick House by the Commodores.
The white kids’ favorites Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker Band, the Outlaws and Wet Willie were Southern Rock and did not cross over as well. Foreigner, Bad Company, Heart and Journey were sort of MOR hard rock that appealed to a mostly white audience.
Pink Floyd, Yes, Led Zeppelin and to a lesser extent King Crimson were on a different plane. One of my black friends was a huge Emerson Lake and Palmer fan.
Parliament Funkadelic and George Clinton were like the heavy metal/Frank Zappa sub-genre of funk/space music. Does that make sense? No.
I got tired of the Southern rock thing and found Elvis Costello my senior year in high school, he had just come out with ‘My Aim is True.’ Had it on cassette for car playing. I pivoted again and it ultimately led me down a very expansive, if not winding, path of music appreciation.
So while there was crossover there was a lot of segregation of the music.
Super Freak was kind of dirty for the radio but it was infectious and a huge dance hit. Rick James, who took off like a lightning bolt got into some big trouble and spent time in prison. He died in 2004.
This group he helped create and produce, Process and the Do-Rags, was a throwback group to the black doo-wop and male vocal groups, like Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters or the Temptations.
They didn’t do well and disbanded after two albums. But they were rediscovered not long ago and there were some albums re-released from Japan.
They were probably ahead of their time as a retro male vocal soul and funk group. Can definitely see the Rick James influence with ‘Stomp and Shout’ and ‘The Bells.’ RIck was writer or co-writer on most songs.
ALBUMS: Two Wheels Good (1985); From Langley Park to Memphis (1988)
MVC Ratings: Two 4.0/$$$$; Langley, 4.0/$$$
This group on these two albums play great, melodic folk English Pop-Rock with very smart lyrics. It’s the kind of band I guarantee someone reading this review and listens to it will fall in love. Not for everybody, but those who fall, fall hard. Listen to first side of Wheels five times. ‘When love breaks down’ was a hit. I love ‘Bonny.’
Listen to ‘The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ and ‘Cars and Girls’ on Langley five times each.
Get back to me next week and tell me what you think.
If you like two or more of these following groups, you will certainly enjoy Prefab Sprout: Squeeze, Roxy Music, 10cc, the Housemartins, Thomas Dolby (who produced both of these albums.)The sound is very 80s but very good 80s.
One explanation for their name is that band members misheard the June Carter-Johnny Cash song ‘Jackson’ when Carter sings “We got married in a fever hotter than a pepper sprout’ — they had apparently been singing and hearing that as “prefab sprout.
Two Wheels Good was released with the name Steve McQueen (yes the American actor) in the UK. But the McQueen estate objected and that why mine says ‘Two Wheels Good’ at the top right corner of my album.
ALBUMS: Damn the Torpedoes (1979); Let me Up I’ve Had Enough (1987);
MVC Ratings: Torpedoes, 4.5/$$$$; Let me up 4.0/$$$.
Of course like nearly every Florida southern boy (at least partly) I was a big fan of the Gainesville, FL, native. He became big when I was in late high school, early college age. ‘Let Me Up’ came out about the time CD’s were taking over and I’m kind of surprised i don’t have this in CD format.
The Let Me Up album was a surprise — I don’t think I listened to it much and it has some great playing and singing on it. Jammin’ Me is a good one although it exposed what may be the reason this album was on the verge of busting out but never had the song to push that on through. Jammin’ Me has a lot of cultural references that I think are cool and most people got. But when you are raising up issues in song about the news, sometimes the stories get old in a 24-hour news cycle.
I would also like to point out here that one of Petty’s best records, unbeknownst to much of the public, was the soundtrack to the movie “She’s the One.” His masterpiece, I believe was ‘Full Moon Fever,’ but that movie soundtrack had some of Petty’s best work such as Walls Pt. 1 and 2; Change the Lock; Asshole and California.
If memory serves me correctly.
I remember we had a road trip to see Petty the main act with the DelFuegos and the Georgia Satellites. Fun time had by all. If memory again serves me correctly. There was me, Bob Carlton, Rick Bragg and Dennis Love. But that may be wrong. I know I was there.
