Black (Turtleneck) Friday

.....If you have someone in your life who loves their music to be a little more thought provoking than the hit parade (or, if you read this blog often, are that person) you might be interested in this recent article from NPR's "All Songs Considered", the musical counterpart to their news magazine format show "All Things Considered". It includes a half hour audio interview with Will Hermes about his new book, "Love Goes To Buildings On Fire", about the New York art-rock scene in 1973-1977. It might make a good Christmas gift for somebody. And if you're really cheap, so would this link:

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/22/142550159/when-new-york-was-on-fire-a-mid-70s-musical-revolution#playlist

.....Someone in the comments keeps asking, "What? No Ramones?" repeatedly, which is confusing because (a) they never really professed to be or were considered to be an art-rock outfit; (b) they do appear in the book anyway because they were close contemporaries of the bands who were and staple performers at many of the same venues; and (c) they're explicitly mentioned in the interview. Yeesh. After this weekend I'll try to write about as many Christmas songs as I can on the "New Carolls For This Merry Time" blog (link on the right) and make the occasional spotty post here until New Year's Day, then switch priorities. I hope to finish the Checklist of Shame series by then (I'm doing 'S' now)so that I can get the blog back to its original purpose.

Cramps Box personnel key

.....The posts for October 20 and November 16 of this year are the two halves of a theoretical career retrospective boxed set for the band The Cramps. Each track is preceded by an alpha-numeric code that designates where it would be located on either tape or disc format and ends with a letter that stands for the line-up performing that particular track. Here is the key detailing those line-ups. I intended to include the real names of the band members when possible but I discovered that many of them also used different pseudonyms when playing in other bands, so what follows their Cramps performing name is my best guess as to their actual name. Bear in mind that some (or even all) may just be alternate pseudonyms that were chosen to sound more realistic. The dates of activity accompanying each line-up are also approximations. A few can be corroborated down to the day, others are shots in the dark.

.....A (Feb. 1976- Aug. 1976) Lux and Ivy were scenesters in New York at the time and had already gone through a blizzard of assumed names and identities before they had even started performing. Bryan and Pam were brother and sister.

• Lux Interior (Erick Lee Purkhiser): vocalist [continues through all line-ups]
• Poison Ivy Rorschach (Kristy Marlana Wallace): guitarist [continues through all line-ups]
• Bryan Gregory (Gregory Beckerleg): guitarist
• Pam Balam (Pamela Beckerleg): drums

.....B (Sep. 1976- Aug. 1977) Miriam has posted a blog about her experiences in New York before, during and since her year in the Cramps. The only official release to include recordings with her is HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER but numerous bootlegs claim to have demos and live recordings with her because collectors look for the earliest versions of songs and she is known to have left before the first official releases were recorded. Some of them do, some of them don't. As always with bootlegs, caveat emptor.

• Bryan Gregory (~): guitarist
• Miriam Linna: drums

.....C (Sep. 1977- Jun. 1980) This is the first line-up to release recordings.

• Bryan Gregory (~): guitarist
• Nick Knox (Nicholas Stephanoff): drums

.....D (Jun. 1980- Nov. 1980)

• Julien Griensnatch (Julien Hechtlinger): guitar
• Nick Knox (~): drums

.....E and F (Dec. 1980- Sep. 1983) This is the first line-up with an intentionally provisional member. Terry was a member of the Gun Club who sat in for much of 1982 while Nick had medical issues and returned to them when Nick had recovered.

• Kid Congo Powers (Brian Tristan): guitar
• Nick Knox (~): drums (E)
• Terry Graham: drums (F)

.....G (Oct. 1983- Jul. 1984 and Aug. 1984- Feb. 1986) The recordings used on the compilation come from the second period and are presumed to be studio recordings in which Lux and Nick perform their parts but Ivy plays additional guitars or bass in overdubs. During this period there were at various times three other musicians but it is not clear that they appear on any finished recordings.

• Ike Knox (Michael Metoff): guitar (Ga; Oct.1983- Jul. 1984 except for Gb)
• Click Mort (still using this pseudonym as an outsider fine artist): guitar (Gb;filled in Dec. 1983 or Jan. 1984)
• Touch Hazzard (Tim Maag): bass (Gc;briefly in studio, 1985)
• Nick Knox (~): drums

.....H (Mar. 1986- Jun. 1986) There are television appearances but no studio recordings released.

• Fur Stokes: bass
• Nick Knox (~): drums

.....I (Jul. 1986- May 1991) Technically they made only one live and one studio album together, plus about an LP's worth of other recordings that now live on as bonus tracks. But at nearly five years this was, I think, the longest consistent line-up. Touring on the strength of ALOHA FROM HELL and STAY SICK, they have their fair share of bootlegs as well.

• Candy Del Mar: bass
• Nick Knox (~): drums

.....J (Jun. 1991- Sep. 1991)

• Slim Chance (Victor Willden): bass
• Jim Sclavunos: drums

.....K (Oct. 1991- Dec. 1993)

• Slim Chance (~): bass
• Nikki Alexander: drums

.....L (Jan. 1994- Summer 1998?)

• Slim Chance (~): bass
• Harry Drumdini (Harry Misenheimer): drums

.....M (Sep. 1998- Feb. 1999)

• Doran Shelley: bass
• Harry Drumdini (~): drums

.....N (during 2000)

• Sugarpie Jones (Tim Ferris): bass
• Harry Drumdini (~): drums
• Jen Hanrahan: percussion (Jun. 2000- Aug. 2000)

.....O (2000?- Aug. 2003)

• Chopper Franklin (Scott Franklin): bass
• Harry Drumdini (~): drums

.....P (Sep. 2003- May 2004)

• Chopper Franklin (~): bass
• Jungle Jim (Jim Chandler): drums

.....Q (Jul. 2004- Aug. 2006) This line-up is the one on the live DVD released last year. That makes it the most recent recording I know of, perhaps the last authorized recording made.

• Chopper Franklin (~): bass
• Bill Bateman: drums

.....R (Aug. 2006- Sep. 2006) The same as O; Harry briefly returns.

.....S (Oct. 2006- Nov. 2006)

• Sean Yseult (Shauna Reynolds): bass
• Harry Drumdini (~): drums

.....T (Dec. 2006- Feb. 2009) The same as O; Lux passed away on February 4, 2009 and while Ivy is capable of assembling an exceptional touring unit it is not at all clear that she wants to. She would be in demand as a solo act instead, and certainly welcomed by many as a studio guest. She and Lux spent 33 years performing together and a few years more as partners in life. Losing him has to have had some impact on her. It would not have diminished her considerable, often underestimated skill with a guitar, nor the fervor of the Cramps' fan base. The only question is where she wants to go from here. Solo act? Recording mogul (she still owns Vengeance and has extensive producing experience)? Axe for hire? Grande dame of a demimonde subculture? All of the above?

Cramps Box suggested program Part 2

.....This is the second half of the playlist for a theoretical Cramps boxed set. The first half was posted on October 20, 2011 and there will be a third post containing the band's line-ups. I'd recommend reading the paragraphs preceding the first post before examining this one because they explain how the tracks are numbered for both tape and disc formats. The finished set should contain either four 90 minute cassettes (eight sides) or five audio compact discs.

1. [T5:01/D3:10-I] 1:54 EVERYTHING GOES - From a rehearsal recorded at Cahuenga Blvd. Shack, Studio City, CA in Summer, 1988 {*}.
2. [T5:02/D3:11-I] 3:20 BIKINI GIRLS WITH MACHINE GUNS - A-side 7" Enigma ENV17 (UK) 01/90.
3. [T5:03/D3:12-I] 3:17 JACKYARD BACKOFF - B-side 7" Enigma ENV17 (UK) 01/90.
4. [T5:04/D3:13-I] 2:57 HER LOVE RUBBED OFF (Carl Perkins) - B-side 12" Enigma 12ENV17 (UK) 01/90. There are live versions of both this song and "BIKINI GIRLS..." that were used as B-sides later that same year. They are the only tracks from official singles I've knowingly left off this compilation, mostly because I chose to adhere to chronology as much as possible in order to organize all this material and they were released too close to the studio originals. Also, while not as common as these versions they were more widely available than later B-sides, having been released both on CD singles and vinyl as well as the very comprehensive Vengeance edition CD for STAY SICK.
5. [T5:05/D3:14-I] 2:39 DAISYS[sic] UP YOUR BUTTERFLY - From LP STAY SICK Enigma ENVLP1001 (UK) 02/90.
6. [T5:06/D3:15-I] 2:34 MAMA OO POW POW - From LP STAY SICK Enigma ENVLP1001 (UK) 02/90. This track may have also been the version used as a B-side for a Spanish 12" in 1994. (For more details, see the Livejournal posts from Feb. and Mar. 2011, also under the name pblfsda.)
7. [T5:07/D3:16-I] 2:51 SHORTIN' BREAD (public domain) - From LP STAY SICK Enigma ENVLP1001 (UK) 02/90. I couldn't (or shouldn't) just list this song without acknowledging that when it was released it met objections from some because it is one of dozens of traditional American songs that survived into the twentieth century because they were habitually included in minstrel shows, which is unfortunate since it was certainly catchy enough to deserve surviving on its own. Listeners too young to have experienced the song in the minstrel context of racial caricatures probably wouldn't understand the objections, since, in the hands of The Cramps, this dusty standard about rape, cannibalism and dead children has become something in which the possibility that one of the characters might be wearing a doo-rag would have to be the least disturbing image about it. One note about mixing: when using this album track it should quickly fade up at the beginning since the previous track carries over slightly.
8. [T5:08/D3:17-I] 3:08 ALL WOMEN ARE BAD - A-side 12" Enigma 12ENV19 (UK) 03/90. Also available as a 7" single.
9. [T5:09/D3:18-I] 2:29 KING OF THE DRAPES - B-side 12" Enigma 12ENV19 (UK) 03/90. This track and the next two are collectively known as 'The Crybaby Suite', since they were once intended for use in the John Waters movie "Crybaby".
10. [T5:10/D3:19-I] 3:04 TEENAGE RAGE - B-side 12" Enigma 12ENV19 (UK) 03/90. (see above) This track was also the B-side of the 7" format for "ALL WOMEN ARE BAD".
11. [T5:11/D3:20-I] 3:52 HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS - B-side 12" Enigma 12ENV19 (UK) 03/90.
12. [T5:12/D3:21-I] 4:50 JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF A GIRL - A-side 12" Enigma EPRO-287 (US) 1990, promo only.
13. [T5:13/D3:22-I] 3:12 CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON - A-side 12" Enigma 12ENV22 (UK) 08/90. This track is actually available in a variety of formats, including variant CD EP's, sometimes listed in databases and commercial sites and catalogues as mini-albums. I would advise listening to this track carefully several times before attempting to dub it into the compilation. As an album track it bleeds both out of the previous track and into the next one. I was disappointed to find the bleed was replicated on my copy of one of the CD singles. It must be faded up and faded down, thus the playing time of 3:12 I've put here is just a guideline; your time may vary by a few seconds depending on your tastes and reflexes.
14. [T5:14/D3:23-I] 2:26 BEAT OUT MY LOVE - B-side 12" Enigma 12ENV22 (UK) 08/90.
15. [T5:15/D3:24-I] 2:31 JAILHOUSE ROCK (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) - B-side 12" Enigma 12ENV22 (UK) 08/90, but released previously on VA2LP THE LAST TEMPTATION OF ELVIS New Musical Express NMELP 038/039 (UK) 02/90. The recording of most of the tracks on cassette side 5 were completed by the fall of 1989 after an extensive period that yielded STAY SICK and most of its contemporary single tracks. This one track was recorded in a separate facility in the US, probably later and shortly before leaving for a UK tour and at first was only available in the UK for that Elvis tribute album. I placed it here in the play order to reflect the presumed order of the recording, which coincides with the release order of the single. (I can't remember, but I think in the Livejournal pages I erroneously gave this song the songwriting credits for "HEARTBREAK HOTEL". If you've been following the project this long, sorry about that.)
16. [T6:01/D3:25-I] 3:01 MULESKINNER BLUES (Jimmie Rogers) - Recorded live at Brixton Academy, South London on Feb. 12, 1990. The studio version of this cover is the only track from the compilation A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CRAMPS which I haven't included. I used this version because, like the live version of "TEAR IT UP" from the movie "Urgh! A Music War", the momentum of the performance was more of an asset than the fidelity of the studio. That, and the fact that the STAY SICK album was already overrepresented.
17. [T6:02/D3:26-I] 3:31 YOU'VE GOT GOOD TASTE - Recorded live at Brixton Academy, South London on Feb. 12, 1990. This is from the same performance of the track above, but this was broadcast on BBC-TV's "Snub TV" shortly after it was recorded.
18. [T6:03/D4:01-Lux] 0:08 (PK excerpt) "GET OUT YOUR MAGIC DECODER RINGS..."
19. [T6:04/D4:02-J] 3:21 EYEBALL IN MY MARTINI - A-side 12" Big Beat NST135 (UK) 09/91.
20. [T6:05/D4:03-J] 4:20 I WANNA GET IN YOUR PANTS - B-side 12" Big Beat NST135 (UK) 09/91.
21. [T6:06/D4:04-J] 4:56 WILDER WILDER FASTER FASTER - B-side 12" Big Beat NST135 (UK) 09/91.
22. [__:__/D4:05-J] 2:40 MINISKIRT BLUES (L. Belden, Simon Stokes, L. Starr) - From CD5 Restless RPRO 012 (US) 1992, promo only. This one has a guest vocal from Iggy Pop. Either this track or "JELLY ROLL ROCK" must be withheld from the cassette configuration in order to fit the 90 minute limit. They are the two shortest tracks on side 6 and this is an album track. It's also the kind of track you'd also put on an Iggy Pop compilation anyway.
23. [T6:07/D4:06-J] 4:06 BEND OVER, I'LL DRIVE - From LP LOOK MOM, NO HEAD! Big Beat WIKAD (Germany) 1991.
24. [T6:08/D4:07-J] 4:36 DAMES, BOOZE, CHAINS AND BOOTS - This track comes from the same album as the previous one, but later in the year it would be the lead track for an EP on which it effectively replaces the song "HARD WORKIN' MAN" on the BLUES FIX EP. So, if you're having a hard time finding that EP (you shouldn't, but if) you can find the other three non-album songs by looking for this song's title or by searching for CD5 Intercard Record Service IRS 977-506 (Germany) 1992.
25. [T6:09/D4:08-J] 4:03 HARDWORKIN' MAN (Jack Nitzsche, Ry Cooder, Paul Schrader) - From CDEP BLUES FIX Big Beat CDNST136 (UK) 1992. Yes, that's the movie director Paul Schrader. This song was written specifically for Captain Beefheart to sing for the soundtrack of the movie "Blue Collar".
26. [T6:10/D4:09-K] 3:16 IT'S MIGHTY CRAZY (Otis Hicks, Jerry West) - From CDEP BLUES FIX Big Beat CDNST136 (UK) 1992.
27. [T6:11/D4:10-K] 2:26 JELLY ROLL ROCK (Jack Wilks) - From CDEP BLUES FIX Big Beat CDNST136 (UK) 1992. (see the note accompanying "MINISKIRT BLUES")
28. [T6:12/D4:11-K] 2:57 SHOBALOR (E.Sheriff, Aki Aleong) - From CDEP BLUES FIX Big Beat CDNST136 (UK) 1992.
29. [T6:13/D4:12-K] 3:34 WHAT'S INSIDE A GIRL - Recorded live at CBGB's, NYC on Dec. 10, 1993. From VACD5 CBGB'S 20TH ANNIVERSARY SAMPLER Giant/Warner Bros. PRO-CD 7059 (US) 1994. As I noted in the Livejournal posts, this sampler was supposed to promote an album, but I'm not entirely certain the full album shipped commercially.
30. [T7:01/D4:13-L] 3:48 ULTRA TWIST! - A-side 7" Medicine 7-17976 (US) 1994.
31. [T7:02/D4:14-L] 2:29 NO CLUB LONE WOLF - B-side 7" Medicine 7-17976 (US) 1994.
32. [T7:03/D4:15-L] 3:40 SWING THE BIG EYED RABBIT - From LP FLAMEJOB Epitaph 86449-1 (US) 09/94. The simultaneous CD release was on Medicine 9 24592-2 (US) 09/94.
33. [T7:04/D4:16-L] 2:28 INSIDE OUT AND UPSIDE DOWN (WITH YOU) - Same source(s) as above.
34. [T7:07/D4:17-L] 3:55 LET'S GET F*CKED UP - A-side 7" Medicine 7-18045 (US) 1994. Despite the standard catalogue number, this isn't a stock release; it's actually a jukebox single. This also means that it's release date is more fluid than usual and probably varies regionally. You may notice that this single is located after the next on the cassette configuration. The reasons for that will become more obvious by the end of this cassette side.
35. [T7:08/D4:18-L] 2:17 HOW COME YOU DO ME (Jason Joiner) - B-side 7" Medicine 7-18045 (US) 1994. (see above)
36. [T7:05/D4:19-L] 2:45 NAKED GIRL FALLING DOWN THE STAIRS - A-side 7" Medicine 7-17932 (US) 1995.
37. [T7:06/D4:20-L] 2:59 CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHOCAT - B-side 7" Medicine 7-17932 (US) 1995.
38. [T7:09/D5:01-L] 14:53 SURFIN' BIRD (Sonny Harris, Turner Wilson, Carl White, Al Frazier) - That's not a typographical error; this track is nearly fifteen minutes long. It was recorded live at The Academy, NYC on Nov. 23, 1994. After the release of the FLAMEJOB album the band toured as usual and these three tracks from those shows spiced up CD singles the following year. This track was released on CD5 Creation CRESCD196 (UK) 1995. I haven't been able to locate these three tracks but I'm including them specifically because of their rarity. While there are many items in the Cramps history with lower print runs and higher collectors' prices, these songs are among the few that have never been collected on an album length CD. The problem with not having heard them in advance is that a song of this length is probably a medley of some kind, or at least incorporates familiar riffs to keep things interesting rather than just vamping for three times the normal length of the song. Because of that I can't be certain if the songwriting credits are exactly accurate. Feel free to comment if you know otherwise.
39. [T7:10/D5:02-L] 2:55 NAKED GIRL FALLING DOWN THE STAIRS (live) - From Medicine PRO-CD-7344 (US) 1995.
40. [T7:11/D5:03-L] 3:45 I'M CUSTOMIZED (live) - From Medicine PRO-CD-7344 (US) 1995.
41. [T8:01/D5:04-Ivy] 3:20 PETER GUNN (Henry Mancini) - From VACD SHOTS IN THE DARK Donna Records DOCD 2113 (US) 04/96. This is an instrumental solo recording by Ivy Rorschach. Fortunately you can find it as a bonus track on the Vengeance edition CD of BIG BEAT FROM BADSVILLE.
42. [T8:02/D5:05-L] 3:06 LIKE A BAD GIRL SHOULD - From CD5 Epitaph Europe 6527-2 (The Netherlands) 1997.
43. [T8:03/D5:06-L] 3:37 WET NIGHTMARE - From CD5 Epitaph Europe 6527-2 (The Netherlands) 1997.
44. [T8:04/D5:07-L] 2:49 I WALKED ALL NIGHT (Hargus Robbins) - From CD5 Epitaph Europe 6527-2 (The Netherlands) 1997.
45. [T8:05/D5:08-L] 3:39 MONKEY WITH YOUR TAIL - From LP BIG BEAT FROM BADSVILLE Epitaph 86516-1 (US) 09/97.
46. [T8:06/D5:09-L] 2:45 SHEENA'S IN A GOTH GANG - From LP BIG BEAT FROM BADSVILLE Epitaph 86516-1 (US) 09/97.
47. [T8:07/D5:10-L] 2:54 HAULASS HYENA - From LP BIG BEAT FROM BADSVILLE Epitaph 86516-1 (US) 09/97.
48. [T8:08/D5:11-Lux] 2:24 BAD HOROSCOPE (Dee Dee Ramone) - B-side 7"Blackout BLK 5008E7 (UK) 1997. The same version is also on Dee Dee's album CD ZONKED! Other People's Music OPM2118 (Canada) 10/97. Lux provides guest vocals.
49. [T8:09/D5:12-Lux] 1:32 UNDERWATER SUN - This song originally appeared on a special episode of "SpongeBob Squarepants" called "SpongeBob's House Party". Unlike most episodes, which contain two short cartoons, this one contained one short cartoon ("Party Pooper Pants", the title commonly used in channel guides) and a live action framing sequence including this song being performed by The Bird Brains, a rock band of marionette birds whose vocalist was voiced by Lux Interior. There are no songwriting credits given specifically for this, although 'original music' is credited to Jeremy Wakefield. Imdb lists Carlos Palazio and series creator Stephen Hillenberg as Bird Brains performers, separate and distinct from otherwise credited puppeteers. That's the closest I can get to a band credit. The episode originally broadcast on May 17, 2002 and was eventually released on DVD Sep. 27, 2005. The audio was included on VACD THE YELLOW ALBUM Nick Records 73974-2 (US) 11/15/05.
50. [T8:10/D5:13-O] 3:37 BIG BLACK WITCHCRAFT ROCK - A-side 7"Vengeance 676 (US) 03/03. The playing time for this track as it appears on the album is 3:29 on CD. The eight second difference may be an error, a different edit or a different take entirely.
51. [T8:11/D5:14-O] 3:16 BUTCHER PETE (Henry Bernard, Roy Brown) - B-side 7"Vengeance 676 (US) 03/03.
52. [T8:12/D5:15---] 2:32 FUNNEL OF LOVE (Charlie McCoy, Kent Westberry) - From the Wanda Jackson album CD HEART TROUBLE CMH Records CD-8708 (US) 10/14/03. This track was also available on the vinyl edition: Sympathy For The Record Industry SFTRI724. On this track Ivy plays guitar and both she and Lux provide backing vocals. They play with Jackson's studio band, Larry Taylor on bass and Stephen Hodges on drums. This song and the one below were actually recorded after the album tracks that close out the compilation but I felt that the last track should not only be original but more importantly be recorded under their own name.
53. [T8:13/D5:16---] 2:25 RIOT IN CELL BLOCK #9 (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) - This second song recorded with Wanda Jackson was one of three songs from her album HEART TROUBLE that were omitted from the vinyl edition. Otherwise the information accompanying the above track is the same for this one.
54. [__:__/D5:17-O] 3:00 SHE'S GOT BALLS - From LP FIENDS OF DOPE ISLAND Vengeance 675 (US) 04/03. I'm omitting this album track from the cassette configuration due to time constraints.
55. [T8:14/D5:18-O] 4:22 DOPE FIEND BOOGIE - From LP FIENDS OF DOPE ISLAND Vengeance 675 (US) 04/03.
56. [T8:15/D5:19-O] 3:19 ELVIS FUCKING CHRIST - From LP FIENDS OF DOPE ISLAND Vengeance 675 (US) 04/03.
57. [T8:16/D5:20-Lux] 0:50 (PK excerpt) DOES YOUR CONSCIENCE BOTHER YOU...? This is the first half of the Lux's last spot on the Purple Knif radio broadcast (the second half involves identifying the records he had just finished playing and signing off with Ghoulardi phrases). I couldn't think of a more appropriate final track: "Okay out there all you simple life-forms, thanks for tuning in. Does your conscience bother you 'cause you did? You've been on a detour to nowhere with the Zulu king and his vigilantes. Hope you liked it. We'll see you soon. Thanks for tuning in."

.....FINALLY. 119 tracks including interstitials and approximately six hours. That's several months of my life I'm not getting back, but frankly, I'd just as soon have this box than those months. In the middle of all this I calculated that if I had abandoned the cassette format entirely and restricted myself to using only A-sides and non-album tracks that have not since become bonus tracks on the standard albums, the whole thing would have fit on two CD's. The problem with that is that many longtime concert favorites like "I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF" and "TV SET" wouldn't be represented by any versions. Also, the listener wouldn't hear the gradual changes the band made in their approach to covers from psychotronic deconstruction to nearly faithful reproduction in some cases. I have to admit I enjoyed listening through the full albums repeatedly and rediscovering songs left of the original compilation tape due to space limitations. The theoretical format is obviously more liberating but it is just as conducive to indulgence. With a little more discipline I might be able to whittle this down to three CD's without hurting the overall impact. Let me know in the comment section. What would leave off? Is there anything you'd add? (Really?) I'll be leaving the performance credits in the next post, but aside from that (and answering any questions you might have) you can all have the last word on this for the foreseeable future. To paraphrase Douglas Adams, I've spent a year dead for Lux purposes and I want to steer this blog back to its original mission.

Happy Halloween

.....You may have guessed by now that I was one of hundreds of thousands if not millions to suffer from power outages in the northeast U.S. in the wake of a freak snow storm. This should not have had any impact on completing the long overdue Cramps compilation which, frankly, I should have posted in August. However, for the previous week I'd been doing some cooking and caretaking for a relative recovering from major surgery. I brought my notes to complete editing the final track selection to make sure it fits the time limitations of the various formats. During my stay the best I could manage was to edit and post a previously written "Checklist Of Shame" installment. Now that I'm back in a position to get to work I'm finding it physically impossible to type fast enough to get this out for Halloween.

.....By some small way of compensation, I could refer you to the series of Halloween music compilations I suggested last year for those who hadn't discovered the blog. There should be a Halloween label to click on in the list to the right. Also, all this month you could have been enjoying the daily posts on http://theroadsofautumndusk.blogspot.com/ as well as http://historiesofthingstocome.blogspot.com/ for all variety of Halloween goodness (and badness), not just the musical end. Where I am trick or treating has been postponed for reasons of safety as much as convenience. Until all downed power lines have been reconnected it's best to give the kids one more day of anticipation. If I give up sleep, it might be all I need to finish the post. (And for readers in the U.S., don't forget to vote next week. You may not have any say in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, but you should have a say in your own fate.)

Cramps Box suggested program

.....I'll catch up with the Checklist Of Shame for the Hall Of Fame omissions later. I've got until April for those, after all, and I really want to get this Cramps project off the back burner before Halloween. Here are some ground rules: all songs are written by Ivy Rorschach and Lux Interior except as noted in parentheses after the song titles; tracks marked "PK excerpt" are taken from an hour-long guest spot Lux spent as a DJ (details below); tracks marked {*} are currently available on 2CD HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER Vengeance 677 (US) 09/21/04; and each track is preceded by a format code showing where the track would be found on the compilation. The format code is simpler than it looks and while you might be able to figure it out from context, I'd rather just spell it for the sake of completeness. "T" stands for "tape format", meaning a 90-minute chromium oxide cassette. "D" stands for"digital format", meaning a standard audio compact disc, typically with a 80-minute upper limit. Following each of those letters will be a volume number, colon and track number. The format code ends with a letter A through T which stands for the line-up of the band playing that particular track. I've largely ignored video sources in the hopes that someone can compile a comprehensive theoretical DVD with every video document prior to the 2006 concert video. This compilation is intended to be more of an over view.

.....The Purple Knif Show was broadcast from a Hollywood radio station in July, 1984. Lux Interior sat in as a guest DJ for an hour, temporarily renaming the show "Purple Knif"after an expression used by a childhood hero, midwestern TV horror show host Ghoulardi. ('Knif' is just 'fink' spelled backwards, but was enough to establish a synergy with artist Big Daddy Roth, creator of Rat Fink.) Much of what he played was from the late 1950's and early 1960's and not surprisingly reflected the rockabilly sensibilities he and Ivy brought to the Cramps. (They are or were both fanatic record collectors.) The entire show has been sold on CD several times from a variety of labels in different territories. My own copy is from Munster Records (MR CD 151, 1999) but was licensed from Skydog (CD 62 246 2).

.....Because this post is going to be unusually long, I'm going to post the band line-ups A-T on a subsequent post.

1. [T1:01/D1:01-Lux] 0:34 Introduction, probably from VACD TRADEMARK OF QUALITY VOLUME 3 Warner Bros. PRO-CD 7206 (US) 1994 and currently available on the 2001 Vengeance edition of BIG BEAT FROM BADSVILLE as the introduction to "CONFESSIONS OF A PSYCHOCAT".
2. [T1:02/D1:02-A] 1:15 LUX'S BLUES - From rehearsals, Summer 1976 {*}.
3. [T1:03/D1:03-A] 2:57 SUNGLASSES AFTER DARK (adapted from Dwight Pullen and "FAT BACK" by Link Wray; also attributed to James Noble) - From rehearsals, Summer 1976 {*}.
4. [T1:04/D1:04-B] 3:11 I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF - Recorded live at Max's Kansas City, NYC Jan. 14, 1977 {*}.
5. [T1:05/D1:05-B] 2:34 I'M CRAMPED (The Cramps) - Recorded live at Max's Kansas City, NYC Jan. 14, 1977 {*}.
6. [T1:06/D1:06-C] 5:08 SURFIN' BIRD (Sonny Harris, Turner White, Carl White, Al Frazier) - A-side 7" Vengeance 666(US) 04/78.
7. [T1:07/D1:07-C] 2:43 THE WAY I WALK (Jack Scott) - B-side 7" Vengeance 666(US) 04/78.
8. [T1:08/D1:08-C] 2:15 HUMAN FLY - A-side 7" Vengeance 668(US) 11/78.
9. [T1:09/D1:09-C] 3:09 DOMINO (Sam Phillips) - B-side 7" Vengeance 668(US) 11/78.
10. [T1:10/D1:10-C] 3:16 LONESOME TOWN (Thomas Knight) - This outtake was recorded Oct. 1977 with the two singles above but not released until the EP GRAVEST HITS and is now on the compilation OFF THE BONE.
11. [T1:11/D1:11-C] 3:01 RED HEADED WOMAN (Sonny Burgess) - Recorded with James Luther Dickinson in Oct. 1977 during the same excursion to Memphis but in a different studio from the singles session. Dickinson's project wasn't completed but this eventually surfaced on VALP ROCKABILLY PSYCHOSIS AND THE GARAGE DISEASE Big Beat WIK18 (UK) 06/84.
12. [T1:12/D1:12-C] 3:01 WHAT'S BEHIND THE MASK? - Recorded live at CBGB's, NYC Jan. 13, 1978 and first released on the promotional LP FRANK FURTER AND THE HOT DOGS Medicine/WB PROA-6736 (US) 12/10/93 {*}.
13. [T1:13/D1:13-C] 3:02 BABY BLUE ROCK [early version of DRUG TRAIN] - (see above)
14. [T1:14/D1:14-C] 2:54 SUBWIRE DESIRE [aka UNDER THE WIRES] - (see above)
15. [T1:15/D1:15-C] 2:31 TWIST AND SHOUT [early version of DRUG TRAIN] - Demo produced by Alex Chilton, probably from Ohio in July 1979. Commonly found as a bonus track on the CD for SONGS THE LORD TAUGHT US.
16. [T1:16/D1:16-C] 2:39 MYSTERY PLANE (original mix) - This may have been the version on the B-side of a known test pressing in Dec. 1979 coupled with the original mix of "GARBAGE MAN". The entire first album was remixed and the planned single was cancelled, but this track was also a bonus track on the CD for SONGS THE LORD TAUGHT US.
17. [T2:01/D1:17-C] 3:27 FEVER (John Davenport, Eddie Cooley)(edited) - A-side 7" Illegal ILS 0017 (UK) 03/80. This 7" edit is not available on CD. The album edit is 4:16 and will easily fit on the CD configuration here.
18. [T2:02/D1:18-C] 3:32 GARBAGE MAN - B-side 7" Illegal ILS 0017 (UK) 03/80 and A-side 7" I.R.S. IR9014 (US) 05/80.
19. [T2:03/D1:19-C] 3:12 TV SET - A French B-side and US compilation BAD MUSIC FOR BAD PEOPLE. Most commonly found on LP SONGS THE LORD TAUGHT US I.R.S. SP007 (US) 04/80.
20. [T2:04/D1:20-C] 1:55 ZOMBIE DANCE - From LP SONGS THE LORD TAUGHT US I.R.S. SP007 (US) 04/80.
21. [T2:05/D1:21-C] 3:47 MAD DADDY - From LP SONGS THE LORD TAUGHT US I.R.S. SP007 (US) 04/80.
22. [T2:06/D1:22-C] 1:47 ROCK ON THE MOON ("Burden"; also credited to Jimmy Stewart) - From LP SONGS THE LORD TAUGHT US I.R.S. SP007 (US) 04/80.
23. [T2:07/D1:23-Lux] 0:15 (PK excerpt) "THE DE-LUX EDITION OF THE NIGHT TRAIN"
24. [T2:08/D1:24-C] 2:38 DRUG TRAIN - B-side 7" I.R.S. IR9014 (US) 05/80 and A-side 7" Illegal ILS 0021 (UK) 09/80.
25. [T2:09/D1:25-C] 2:02 LOVE ME (Marty Lott) - B-side 7" Illegal ILS 0021 (UK) 09/80.
26. [T2:10/D1:26-C] 2:43 I CAN'T HARDLY STAND IT (Charlie Feathers, Jody Christian, Jerry Huffman) - B-side 7" Illegal ILS 0021 (UK) 09/80.
27. [T2:11/D1:27-C] 2:28 URANIUM ROCK (Warren Smith) - From VA2LP I.R.S. GREATEST HITS VOLUMES 2&3 I.R.S. SP70800 (US) 01/81. This is more commonly found on the US compilation BAD MUSIC FOR BAD PEOPLE and some later editions of OFF THE BONE.
28. [T2:12/D1:28-D] 3:59 TEAR IT UP (Johnny Burnette, Dorsey Burnette, Paul Burlison) - Live recording from VA2LP URGH! A MUSIC WAR A&M SP6019 (US) 05/81.
29. [T2:13/D2:01-E] 3:32 PRIMITIVE (Steven Venet and The Groupies [Norman Desrosiers, Pete Hendleman, Ronnie Peters, Gordon McLoren and Bobby Cortez]) - From LP PSYCHEDELIC JUNGLE I.R.S. SP70016 (US) 04/81. This is also the only track from the rare promo-only compilation A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CRAMPS that hadn't made it onto the first draft of this theoretical boxed set. I had originally tried to emphasize original compositions when selecting representative album tracks since covers were already inevitable among the singles.
30. [T2:14/D2:02-E] 2:49 ROCKIN' BONES (Jack Rhodes, Don Carter, Dub Nalls) - From LP PSYCHEDELIC JUNGLE I.R.S. SP70016 (US) 04/81.
31. [T2:15/D2:03-E] 2:04 DON'T EAT STUFF OFF THE SIDEWALK - From LP PSYCHEDELIC JUNGLE I.R.S. SP70016 (US) 04/81.
32. [T2:16/D2:04-E] 3:59 BEAUTIFUL GARDENS - From LP PSYCHEDELIC JUNGLE I.R.S. SP70016 (US) 04/81.
33. [T3:01/D2:05-E] 3:07 GOO GOO MUCK (Ronnie Cook, Ed James) - A-side 7" I.R.S. IR9021 (US) 05/81.
34. [T3:02/D2:06-E] 3:17 SHE SAID (Hasil Adkins) - B-side 7" I.R.S. IR9021 (US) 05/81.
35. [T3:03/D2:07-E] 1:48 THE CRUSHER (Bob Nolan) - A-side 12" I.R.S. PFSX 1008 (UK) 09/81.
36. [T3:04/D2:08-E] 2:57 SAVE IT (Mel Robbins, Mary Biggs) - B-side 12" I.R.S. PFSX 1008 (UK) 09/81.
37. [T3:05/D2:09-E] 3:32 NEW KIND OF KICK - B-side 12" I.R.S. PFSX 1008 (UK) 09/81.
38. [T3:06/D2:10-E] 1:50 RUMBLE BLUES (Milt Grant, Link Wray) - From rehearsal at Modern Music Studio, Hollywood,CA in Fall, 1981 {*}.
39. [T3:07/D2:11-F] 3:03 SOMETIMES GOOD GUYS DON'T WEAR WHITE (Ed Cobb) - Recorded live in Seattle, WA May 20, 1982.
40. [T3:08/D2:12-F] 2:11 I'M FIVE YEARS AHEAD OF MY TIME (Rusty Evans, Victoria Pike) - From secretly recorded demos, probably recorded Oct. 1982 {*}.
41. [T3:09/D2:13-F] 4:36 CALL OF THE WIGHAT - (see above)
42. [T3:10/D2:14-E] 3:03 THEE MOST EXALTED POTENTATE OF LOVE - From EP SMELL OF FEMALE Enigma 21 (US) 1/83.
43. [T3:11/D2:15-E] 2:31 {2:47 on LP} FASTER PUSSYCAT (Bert Schefter) - A-side 7" New Rose NEW28 (France) 02/84. The single edits for these four songs are not commonly available on CD (for details please read the Livejournal entries from Feb. and Mar. 2011, also posted under the name pblfsda). The slightly longer edits from the Vengeance CD for SMELL OF FEMALE are included in brackets and the total additional time, should you choose to employ them in assembling this compilation, is only 0:42 and should not exceed the time limits of either format.
44. [T3:12/D2:16-E] 3:21 {3:33 on LP} YOU GOT GOOD TASTE - B-side 7" New Rose NEW28 (France) 02/84.
45. [T3:13/D2:17-E] 3:02 {3:16 on LP} I AIN'T NOTHING BUT A GOREHOUND - A-side 7" New Rose NEW33 (France) 02/84.
46. [T3:14/D2:18-E] 2:33 {not on LP} WEEKEND ON MARS - B-side 7" New Rose NEW33 (France) 02/84.
47. [T3:15/D2:19-G] 4:12 SURFIN' DEAD (Ivy Rorschach, Lux Interior, Nick Knox) - From VALP RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD Enigma 72004-1 (US) 06/85.
48. [T4:01/D2:20-G] 3:19 CAN YOUR PUSSY DO THE DOG? - A-side 7" Big Beat NS110 (UK) 11/85 and A-side 7" New Rose NEW66 (France) 11/85.
49. [T4:02/D2:21-G] 2:39 BLUE MOON BABY (Meridan?, Satalsky, Rowe) - B-side Big Beat NS110 (UK) 11/85. By most accounts this was originally recorded by Dave Diddle Day, but I've found conflicting songwriting credits, none of which include first names. In at least one case, Satalsky's name was spelled "Sétalsky".
50. [T4:03/D2:22-G] 3:20 GEORGIA LEE BROWN (Hafner, Zinn, Hafner) - B-side New Rose NEW66 (France) 11/85.
51. [T4:04/D2:23-G] 2:36 ALOHA FROM HELL - From LP A DATE WITH ELVIS Big Beat WIKA 46 (UK) 02/86.
52. [T4:05/D2:24-G] 3:18 THE HOT PEARL SNATCH - From LP A DATE WITH ELVIS Big Beat WIKA 46 (UK) 02/86.
53. [T4:06/D2:25-G] 3:47 PEOPLE AIN'T NO GOOD - From LP A DATE WITH ELVIS Big Beat WIKA 46 (UK) 02/86. Improbably, this one is performed with The McMartin Preschool Choir. And the title is not ironic.
54. [T4:07/D3:01-G] 3:23 WHAT'S INSIDE A GIRL? - A-side 7" Big Beat NS115 (UK) 04/86.
55. [T4:08/D3:02-G] 3:12 GET OFF THE ROAD (Herschell Lewis) - B-side 12" Big Beat NST115 (UK) 04/86.
56. [T4:09/D3:03-G] 2:26 GIVE ME A WOMAN (Willie Jacobs) - B-side 7" Big Beat NS115 (UK) 04/86 and above.
57. [T4:10/D3:04-G] 3:02 KIZMIAZ - A-side 7" New Rose NEW71 (France) 06/86.
58. [T4:11/D3:05-G] 4:11 HOW FAR CAN TOO FAR GO? - B-side 7" New Rose FREE7 (France) Spring 1986. This album track was the flip of the promotional copy of "KIZMIAZ". The stock copies of the 7" and 12" used the B-sides from the UK "WHAT'S INSIDE A GIRL?" singles.
59. [T4:12/D3:06-I] 4:50 CORNFED DAMES (based on the novel by Dave Stuckey) - Recorded live at The Galaxy, Aukland, NZ on August 30, 1986. From LP ROCKINNREELININAUKLANDNEWZEALANDXXX Vengeance 669 (US) 09/87.
60. [T4:13/D3:07-Lux] 0:07 (PK excerpt) "OO-WEE-AHH, LISTEN TO THAT CLICKIN'; TIE ON THEIR BIB NOW AND LET'S HAVE SOME CHICKEN." This is a tough edit, but worth it. Lux interjected this snippet into the play order while guest DJ-ing as an introduction to the original version (by The Spark Plugs) of the next song.
61. [T4:14/D3:08-I] 1:37 CHICKEN (Traditional, arranged by IR/LI)(live) - From the same source as "CORNFED DAMES".
62. [T4:15/D3:09-I] 2:44 DO THE CLAM (Sid Wayne, Ben Weisman, Delores Fuller)(live) - From the same source as "CORNFED DAMES".

.....I'm going to cut off here at the half-way point and continue tomorrow. This project is so overdue that I'm anxious to let people to know I haven't abandoned it.

[Posted November 16, 2011 after editing and revision.]

Checklist Of Shame R

.....The Red Hot Chili Peppers were nominated this year, but not yet inducted. Cross your fingers and wash your socks.

.....By volume, many of the CD's beginning with 'R' in my old inventory are near-complete catalogues of artists already inducted, such as Rolling Stones, R.E.M., Ramones, etc. But as always, someone's getting short shrift and once again some of the missing are of the jaw-dropping "what were they thinking" variety.

1. RARE EARTH- This band had been around in varying line-ups and under varying names until the late 1960's when they settled on the name Rare Earth after signing to MGM as the Sunliners. They spent the decade gradually shifting from high school dance band to a rock band playing clubs, so they seemed like a polished unit emerging out of nowhere and still looked relatively young. When Berry Gordy decided to stake out a piece of the newly emerging hard rock market at the end of 1968 he closed down the recently acquired Inferno label and poached Rare Earth to be the band to launch a new label. In the early 1960's Gordy had branched out to include gospel, country, jazz and spoken word labels and imprints in the Motown family in addition to the chart-topping R&B and soul they were known for. He hadn't strayed too far from the formula since JFK was assassinated, but 1968 had been a year characterized by death and violence and 1969 seemed to be the year Gordy wanted to see new life. In addition to the new hard rock label he also created US distribution for a new afro-pop and jazz label from Hugh Masekela called Chisa and two failed efforts, Blaze and Weed, that each had a single release. When Gordy asked members of Rare Earth to suggest a name for the new rock label, they asked him to name it after themselves and surprisingly Gordy agreed. Of course, his pop culture instincts worked more often than not and the label continued until 1976. [The whole company pared down to the longest running R&B imprints after 1978 and consolidated completely in 1982.] While up and running, the label carried the U.S. releases of a number of British acts such as Pretty Things, who went on to Swan Song, the Led Zeppelin label. The band became famous not for hit singles but for their horn-and-guitar integrated albums, such as ECOLOGY and MA. Incorporating brass into rock (instead of pasting on horn tracks recorded by session players in post production as a producer's मुर्दोच) was a relatively new approach at the time. After the Beatles' "PENNY LANE" in 1967, people eventually caught on to the difference and Blood, Sweat And Tears emerged, along with Chicago Transit Authority and others. As neither of those more commercially successful bands is in yet (and I don't seem to remember arguing either of their cases in the earlier posts) I don't expect we'll see these guys getting their due anytime soon.


2. LOU REED- It's been many, many years since a music critic attending a Lou Reed concert figured out why the New York audiences spent half their time booing him and half their time cheering him. Those weren't 'boo's, the crowd was shouting "Loooouuuuu!". When the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame was inaugurated, the double live LP TAKE NO PRISONERS was still selling at enormous prices for battered, soiled copies. Since then, its availability on CD and the advent of internet auctions put an end to that, but I'll bet mint copies still go for something. His band The Velvet Underground was inducted after a few years of eligibility and considerable pressure from the creative and critical communities. Yet Reed as a solo artist also continues to command respect from his contemporaries. Witness the all-star "PERFECT DAY" fund-raiser project (1997) to benefit Children In Need on that song's silver anniversary. Or the cast assembled for the dramatic readings on the expanded 2CD version of his album THE RAVEN (2003). And when director Wim Wenders shot "Faraway, So Close!" (1993), the post-reunification sequel to his brilliant "Wings Of Desire"(1987), he juxtaposed East and West with non-German avatars Mikhail Gorbachev and Lou Reed. All I'm saying is, if someone is betting the success of a multi-million dollar film on the likelihood that international audiences will recognize you as representative of 20th Century Western Civilization on the same scale that Gorbachev represents the Soviet Union when all you really do is play rock music, then you belong in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame or there shouldn't be a Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.


3. THE RESIDENTS- These guys might get locked out on a technicality. Can you be in a Hall Of Fame if you're anonymous? For forty years The Residents have performed using disguises, the most famous recurring element being helmets shaped like eyeballs. It's commonly assumed that the personnel have changed over the years, but specifics such as which ones and at what points are known only to the members. The purpose is not just mystique, although there is that, but a long held principle that the art be the focus and not personalities. The anonymity has also helped them to continuously reinvent themselves as playing in a variety of styles for the purpose of deconstructing them from within. The difference between The Residents and a parodist like Spike Jones or Weird Al is that The Residents' concept of a musical style has less to do with keys or rhythms and more to do with sociological functions. Thus, they've reinvented nursery rhymes (DUCK STAB), gospel (WORMWOOD), folk (ESKIMO), rock (THIRD REICH AND ROLL) and musicals (THE MOLE TRILOGY). They've also turned their attention to specific musicians as in "THE BEATLES PLAY THE RESIDENTS AND THE RESIDENTS PLAY THE BEATLES" or THE KING AND EYE (songs associated with Elvis Presley) or STARS AND HANK FOREVER (side one: John Philip Sousa; side two: Hank Williams). They were pioneers of CD-Rom formats for home entertainment, not just for music but generally. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that Madonna mistakes their eye helmets for kabbalistic power channels and lobbies for them relentlessly and makes a royal freaking nuisance of herself. At that point I wouldn't even care if they got in, just knowing that ignoring them cost the nominating committee their last nerve.


4. JONATHAN RICHMAN- If you don't recognize the name, you might remember him as the balladeer in the movie "Something About Mary". First recording with the Modern Lovers (also not inducted) as lead singer-songwriter and guitarist forty years ago, Richman became discouraged when the band was passed around to no less than three producers without being able to complete an album. Every producer wanted to get the definitive take of each song, which meant multiple takes of the same material each time they got a new producer. It was a similar problem to what the Stooges had recording FUN HOUSE; it became impossible to muster spontaneity in the studio the way that the band could when playing the songs once a night to live audiences. But whereas the Stooges mutated the songs (and maybe themselves) as the sessions went on, the Modern Lovers became demoralized. Other members went on to the Cars and Talking Heads, Richman went solo and had something of a creative revelation, embracing low volume and minimal music with an almost evangelical fervor. A few years later he resurfaced on a small label with a new Modern Lovers line-up. The old recordings were picked through to compile a complete album and the two incarnations sat next to each other in the bins. This happened just as punk was being noticed in New York and just before it began in London. Richman and the punk groups often had a similar audience despite drastically different sounds, the common element being spare, straightforward arrangements. Unlike most Top 40 artists in the mid-70's, nothing they did was a studio trick; it could all be reproduced on stage. Unlike the punks, Richman was concerned that minimal arrangements more readily exposed mistakes and become increasingly technically proficient in his guitar playing, even as the songs he wrote seemed more simple and childlike. He spent the 1980's label hopping and making both funny and heart-breakingly beautiful songs which he continued to do when he settled in Rounder Records for a decade. I've seen him live several times, turning a room of college educated professionals and jaded hipsters into little kids singing along to campfire songs. With dozens of original albums and several compilations extant, Richman never sounds dated. That's mostly because he's never been derivative of whatever time he happens to be in. His music has always been personal and nonironic. A long overdue boxed set would be not only uncharacteristic of him but a licensing nightmare. But until there is one or some comparable focus for attention he will persist on word of mouth and constant touring, always creating and always in demand.


5. TERRY RILEY- He rarely works directly with rock musicians (it's worth looking for the album CHURCH OF ANTHRAX, recorded with John Cale), but he's already been enshrined in rock history as one of the inspirations (along with spiritual advisor Baba Meher) for the Who song "BABA O'RILEY". Riley, along with inventor Robert Moog, classical composer Philip Glass and jazz musician Raymond Scott, was one of a small handful of pioneers who realized that they had to teach themselves how to write music for the synthetic instruments being invented in the 1950's and 1960's. Others, notably Walter/Wendy Carlos, Tomita and Keith Emerson made an art of fitting the square peg of synthesizers into the round hole of the classical canon. The downside of that is that the instruments came to be defined by the degree to which they failed (or worse, succeeded) to be redundant to the instruments for which those pieces were written. Riley et al intuited that new works needed to be written that played to the new instruments' strengths. They all did, and in Riley's case the results included IN C, which has been rerecorded several times, RAINBOW IN CURVED AIR, from which the fusion band Curved Air (with the pre-Police Stewart Copeland) took its name, and a number of collaborations with Kronos Quartet. Rockers with a persistent experimental streak tend to have avant garde recordings at home and many of the same names appear over and over: Glass, John Cage, Edgar Varese, Meredith Monk and Terry Riley. Here's my vote for his induction as an influence.


6. TOM ROBINSON- Rupert Murdoch's "news" organizations have always had a bizarre fixation on homosexuals, particularly for vilifying them, unprovoked and out of the blue. Thus, when EMI cut loose the Sex Pistols in January 1977 they had no idea how the resultant publicity would snowball through a notoriously brief affiliation with A&M until Virgin Records parlayed the band's reputation into a number one single by June, despite being banned from the BBC as well as numerous major retail outlets. Around that time EMI signed the Tom Robinson Band in hopes that they could regain street credibility with a punk band, albeit one that wouldn't get into public fights that led to features in the Fleet Street tabloids. But after their debut single, the pub-and-soccer-match ready sing-a-long "2-4-6-8 MOTORWAY", Robinson began putting whatever weight he could muster from his burgeoning celebrity status behind decrying human rights abuses. His most memorable song in that effort was "GLAD TO BE GAY", which name checks the lurid and sexually sensationalistic Murdoch newspaper The Sun for its hypocritical and slanderous attacks on gay rights publications with no overt sexual content. He can be seen singing it in the first film of the Secret Policeman's Ball (1979), a benefit show for Amnesty International, a U.K.-based organization devoted to exposing human rights abuses around the world. Robinson, by then already a veteran of the Rock Against Racism concerts, apparently felt that should include the abuses in AI's own backyard. Today Robinson is a radio personality with the BBC, and while he did once have a reissue program of his EMI recordings done by Cooking Vinyl he has never had a comprehensive, career-spanning box. I'd like to see one that includes his acceptance speech.


7. MICK RONSON- After Ronson's death in the early 1990's (while completing his last album, BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HULL) I tried to compile a series of cassettes showing the full width and breadth of his session work. The project proved to be too ambitious. Not only was acquiring the source albums I didn't already have proving to be expensive, even when buying used vinyl, new material began surfacing all the time. I learned that between playing on David Bowie's MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD and HUNKY DORY, Elton John tried to hire Ronson while recording TUMBLEWEED CONNECTION. A finished outtake from then of Ronson playing "MADMAN ACROSS THE WATER" surfaced on the 1995 remaster of the album of the same name after first being released on RARE MASTERS (1992). Ronson became most famous as the guitarist for David Bowie's Spiders From Mars, but during the 1970's and 1980's he became incredibly prolific as a sideman, including playing and/or arranging parts for Lou Reed's TRANSFORMER, Mott The Hoople's ALL THE YOUNG DUDES, Pure Prairie League's BUSTIN' OUT, Lulu's MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD album, Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue resulting in the album HARD RAIN and one volume of Dylan's official 'Bootleg' series, Roger McGuinn, Johnny Cougar (and again years later as John Mellencamp), Ian Hunter (of course), David Cassidy, Van Morrison, Roger Daltrey, Corky Laing (of Mountain), The Rich Kids (with Glen Matlock and Midge Ure), Ellen Foley, David Johansen, Meat Loaf, T-Bone Burnett and Morrissey. He also produced a large number of lesser known acts. By all accounts, Mick Ronson is the musician for whom the sideman category was created. His guitar playing has sold countless millions of records, tapes and CD's and has been heard by billions, but chances are you've never heard of him. Change that.


8. DIANA ROSS- She was The Boss before Springsteen was, and although the Supremes are already in it wouldn't hurt to consider Diana Ross' solo career. I have no doubt she'd think so. "Mahogany", "The Wiz" and juggling Li'l Kim's li'l Kims ought to provide plenty of clips for promotion when induction time rolls around. But more importantly are the enormous crowds she draws (when she's not charging upwards of $300 per seat, and sometimes when she does) who would be the determining factor in any measure of 'fame'.


9. ROXY MUSIC- I mentioned "jaw-dropping" earlier. Yeah, this is kind of what I'm talking about. Every member (with the possible exception of the drummers) have released solo albums, three of them prolificly: Brian Eno, Bryan Ferry and Phil Manzanera. As for their influence, they've been covered by Grace Jones and Norah Jones, Def Leppard and Mudhoney, hit makers like Kylie Minogue and fringe groups like Fields Of The Nephilim, newcomers like Fatal Flowers and veterans like Tin Machine. Their bassist John Porter produced the earliest hits for The Smiths and others. And if you have an afternoon to kill, you can Google "roxy music remix love is the drug" and try to count how many remixes this one song was subjected to in the last decade alone. They've been eligible for nomination since 1997, and who got in from that bunch in 1998? The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac (with no mention of Bob Welch before, during or after the ceremony) and The Mamas And The Papas. All in all, not as impressive as the inducted influence (Jelly Roll Morton) or non-performer (Allen Toussaint) that year. The best inducted performers, Gene Vincent, Lloyd Price and Santana, were all overdue. Why would the committee limit themselves to eight inductees when such an obvious newly eligible choice has exhibited the rare combination of both commercial and critical success, pervasive influence among musicians of different styles and enough durability to chart with a twenty year old song? Here's a clue: after 1998 the number of inductees briefly expanded to ten or more per year (1999-2001), then Roxy announced a reunion in 2001 that led to a successful tour yielding a live DVD and companion CD but the inductee lists shrank to below ten per year for most of the decade (2002-2009). That caused the bottleneck of eligible performers only now being addressed (see the early posts in this series). And I don't believe this is entirely about the committee's transparent anti-UK bigotry I've discussed before. Yes, Fleetwood Mac only got in because they were California transplants since the early 1970's, but to admit Roxy Music would be to acknowledge the existence of glitter, hundreds of straight men in make-up and platform shoes playing actual rock music, of which Roxy was merely among the most artistically ambitious. When they debuted it was in the thick of it and the California buffooneratti worked mighty hard to keep it off American radio. Elton John circumvented the virtual ban by being practically a college radio act until a famous radio concert in 1971. After he got in, mostly as a country inflected singer-songwriter, out came the glasses. (Years later, out came Elton, but that's another story.) Then, down came the gates. The record setting chart successes of Slade, T.Rex, The Sweet, Mud, Gary Glitter and dozens of other lesser lights would not happen in the U.S., where we were treated to "DEAD SKUNK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD", "BILLY DON'T BE A HERO", "FEELINGS", "THE MORNING AFTER", "ONE TIN SOLDIER", etc., etc., etc. ad infinitum, ad nauseum. There was a reason punk started in the U.S. before England.


10. RUNAWAYS- Joan Jett is getting in, but curiously not the band that launched her. Lauded feature film and vindication, yes. Induction? No. Well, thank goodness they made room for notorious wife-beater James Taylor. Because, you know, whenever somebody says "Rock and roll", that's the first name we all think of, James Taylor.


11. TODD RUNDGREN- We gotta get you a nomination. Hell, just as a producer alone, he more than qualifies. As a performer he pioneered the concept of using cutting edge computer technology to encourage the public to remix his songs, putting individual component tracks of some of his recordings online and providing rudimentary tutorials encouraging people to play with the software are share the results. Forget awards, you should get down on your hands and knees and kiss his ass for saving your industry from irrelevancy in the age of interactive entertainment.


12. THE RUTLES- They have their own tribute album, that should tell you something. A parody of the Beatles, but moreso a parody of the then ubiquitous television documentaries on rock music perpetuated by Dick Clark, et al, in the 1970's. The band was created for a brief segment of the Rutland Weekend show starring ex-Python Eric Idle. George Harrison reportedly thought it was hilarious; he must have, since he supported the production of an hour-and-a-half long special and even made a cameo, as did Mick Jagger, Paul Simon and others. The special also added the original cast of "Saturday Night Live" and Gilda Radner delivers what might be the most scathing indictment of Baby Boomer fascism ever to make it onto television. Idle, doubling as the faux documentary's narrator, stops a random woman on the street (Radner) and demands wistful reminisces of the Rutles from her. She claims not to be familiar with them until escalating physical abuse drives her to rattle off a well-rehearsed testimonial of insincere calculated nostalgia, sounding exactly like the numerous boiler-plate clip shows of the time. The whole production was the obvious inspiration for "Spinal Tap" and like that movie manages to remain funny as well as hummable long after the decade it so accurately captured and skewered.

.....There's many more bands beginning with 'R' that certainly deserve acknowledgement and your attention, but maybe not enshrinement. I've enjoyed The Real Kids with John Felice, Redd Kross, Rezillos, Rich Kids, Rites of Spring and the Royal Guardsmen. If you can make a case for these or anyone else beginning with 'R' leave it in the comments area below. Unlike the Supreme Court, I hear hypothetical cases.

Checklist Of Shame N to Q

.....After this post it's practically the home stretch since there are few stand out bands beginning with Q, U, X, Y or Z that aren't already inducted. I want to put a stake in this monster and get back to the blog's original purpose. If you're just walking in on this movie, start reading at September 28th. Don't worry, it reads faster as you go forward.

1. BILL NELSON- After this old inventory was compiled the Bebop Deluxe back catalogue was remastered, and I scooped up all six titles. They're an acquired taste, but I had no trouble acquiring them and when (if) I attempt an update to this list next spring for the induction ceremony I'd add them in a heartbeat. Anyway, once I'd made my way through the Bebop Deluxe albums a few times I considered completing the Bill Nelson solo material to date. With a little investigation I found that his output, at least for the first twenty years after the band split, was far more prodigious than I realized. He put out four albums in the fall of 1989 alone, for example. Complicating matters is the fact that much of this is out of print, although I haven't investigated their availability (if any) by download. Because most of his releases in the last decade have been online and by mail order measuring his continued influence is a bit tricky. He could sell a million copies and never appear in Billboard. People who would enjoy his music would also be among the increasing number of people who no longer listen to music on broadcast radio. Artists like Nelson reveal their influence over time, when bands of subsequent generations find success using the same musical styles and ideas which kept the original artists obscured by an industry with a neurotic fear of risk. A hundred bands in clubs can foster a public taste for a new style more easily than a signed artist fighting his own label over what's viable. It's much easier to see now the influence that bands like the Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Fanny, 13th Floor Elevators and others had thirty to forty years ago than it was to see that influence at the time. That is, we're hearing now from the people who heard them then.
2. MICHAEL NESMITH- Check out the entry on the Monkees in the previous post if you haven't already. Nesmith usually sits out the very popular reunion tours, but did participate in the 1996 studio album JUSTUS and accompanying TV special. Since then he hasn't released much besides back catalogue. I've found a live 2CD set from England in the 1990's and a studio album about five years ago. The soundtrack TIMERIDER was coupled on CD with his first LP, WICHITA TRAIN WHISTLE SINGS (1968), which I mentioned in a post on Nesmith last year (June 12th, 2010), but I honestly don't remember its original release. For a man with his own record label and nearly a half-century of recording experience (like Davy Jones, his career preceded the Monkees) it's strange that he has no boxed set retrospective. He's either the most humble Texan who ever lived or he could consider such career summaries to be headstones, of a sort. Such sets become out of date as soon as the next new release appears. They seem more appropriate for the end of one's output or at least the end of a distinct phase of it. Nesmith must be around 70 at this point and either can't see himself as old enough to retire or else young enough to start a whole new phase of recording. I own everything but his early singles, so maybe next year I'll consider a suggested boxed set program. Hopefully it would coincide with a nomination, but I'm not holding my breath.
3. NEW YORK DOLLS- David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain have released five albums (3 studio, 2 live) since Morrissey engineered a reunion of the band's survivors last decade (Killer Kane could only take part in the reunion concert and subsequent documentary before finally succumbing to terminal illness after many years with leukemia). As for the band's influence, they were the model for Malcolm McLaren's concept for the Sex Pistols. McLaren owned a clothing store, saw the New York Dolls while on business in New York and returned to England with the idea that his provocateur fashion sense should be tied to a cultural movement and that a rock band such as the New York Dolls should be the heralds of that movement. If he couldn't get the real band, he'd make his own. At about that time Bowie name checked their recently deceased drummer Billy Murcia in the song "TIME" on the album ALADDIN SANE (1973). By the end of the decade the band had been split for years but had more fans than ever among punks and New Romantics alike.
4. NICO- Nobody's idea of a role model, certainly not going to win any 'mother of the year' awards, but definitely deserving of a permanent place in the rock pantheon. The minimalism of Talking Heads or Flying Lizards almost certainly can be traced directly to her post-CHELSEA GIRL solo albums, rather than Alban Berg or Erik Satie. Much of her personal history, marred by drug addiction and pathological lying, is a Gordian Knot of misinformation and contradictory accounts; I won't even attempt to address it here. For the curious, the only-- and I mean only-- trustworthy sources are the book "Nico: The Life & Lies Of An Icon" and the documentary film "Nico/Icon" it inspired. For supplemental reading, ex-band member James Young wrote a book that's been repackaged under a variety of titles by a variety of publishers and is filled with could-have-happened anecdotes from the early 1980's.
5. MOJO NIXON- I would guess that Mojo Nixon inspired any number of musicians by virtue of his sheer exuberance, and that's the last time during your life you'll ever see the word 'virtue' in the same sentence as Mojo Nixon. It's more likely that he inspired endless discussion within Viacom's Standards and Practices offices due to his long-running mutually contentious relationship with MTV. I wonder how much a lawyer in 1988 was paid by the hour to define "tallywhacker" for their written policies? Nixon was a natural choice to play in the band (with John Doe and Jimmy Vaughn) for the Jerry Lee Lewis film biography "Great Balls Of Fire". And with fans like Shane MacGowan and legendary producer Jim Dickinson he wouldn't face objections from other musicians, except for maybe Debbie Gibson. Or Don Henley. But Mojo's only recently become eligible, so I'm willing to bide my time with this one.
6. MIKE OLDFIELD- You do so know who he is. Remember that creepy music from "The Exorcist"? That's TUBULAR BELLS, the concept album-length song that saved Virgin Records. Unfortunately for Oldfield, the album's popularity nearly destroyed him. He's rerecorded it several times in order to maintain the sales necessary for a major label presence, making him his own worst competition for backlist sales. I think he hasn't been nominated for the same reason his other albums don't sell as well: everyone remembers TUBULAR BELLS but nobody remembers his name or connects it with the album.
7. YOKO ONO- I used to do a daily joke blog to condition me to produce something every day. The link should still be on the right. Anyway, one of the jokes was, "How come nobody remembers John Lennon as 'the guy who broke up Fluxus'?" That's only half kidding; Lennon met Ono only because the Beatles had achieved unrivaled success and it still wasn't making him happy. Doing what they managed to do in the first half of the 60's requires not only talent but drive and hunger. Nobody would put themselves through all that constant recording, touring and promotion if they were satisfied with their lives as they are. Lennon must have thought, like McCartney, that having a world-famous, best-selling rock band was what was missing from his life. When they got it, McCartney wanted more of it and after "Help!" wanted to direct movies as well. Lennon didn't know what he wanted, all he knew is that what he had wasn't satisfying what he needed and that the person that he was at the time wasn't helping him get it. When an art installation of Ono's intrigued him, he sought her out and took her from a world where people test the meaning and durability of concepts normally taken for granted and brought her to the center of a world where image means everything and your image is always, always crafted by others, often those who know you the least. Once there, she did what she had always done and was trained to do: she questioned the answers. Perhaps second only to Andy Warhol and more articulate than Salvador Dali, Yoko Ono brought avant garde art into middle American living rooms. A week on the Mike Douglas show probably had greater impact than a lifetime exhibiting at MoMA. Unfortunately, the blatant jingoistic racism of British tabloids steered the narrative of their marriage relentlessly. Even worse, purportedly legitimate news services in the U.S. and elsewhere would cherry pick out from these reports the racial and ethnic slurs that might be discordant with their own readers but fail to notice that they might have had something to do with the overall tone of the articles. They created a Pavlovian response in people who decades later would robotically mumble "the woman who broke up The Beatles" with glassy, half-open eyes whenever someone said the name 'Yoko Ono'. John Lennon broke up The Beatles. He broke it up, not because he didn't like the band but because he needed a personal change and he knew it and being part of a performing unit conceived in his youth had turned into an obstacle to and distraction from finally changing from a damaged little boy into a functioning capable man. That's difficult under the best of circumstances and impossible as a Beatle. For John, Yoko became a means, an excuse and a partner to extricate himself from what was never really what he thought it was when he got into it. For her own part, Yoko as a musician was not terribly different from Yoko as an artist cultivating a gallery installation. For her, the ideas that you're trying to convey are always more important than what brand of paint or gaffer's tape you use to do it. On her early albums her untrained voice was a poor choice of tools; a rookie mistake for a veteran of other media. By the time the album FEELING THE SPACE came out, that wasn't an issue. Unfortunately, no one would listen to find that out. It should come as no surprise then that her biggest boosters are younger musicians and fans who discovered her by working backwards and had already been familiar with "WALKING ON THIN ICE" and "A THOUSAND TIMES YES" long before they heard "FLY". Those people may not even be aware that there is a Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and may not be impressed with it if Ono isn't in it. I wouldn't hold out much hope that they would make much effort to put her in, either.
8. JIMMY PAGE- I know Led Zeppelin is already in, but Page definitely deserves a separate induction as a sideman. I'd guess that better than half of all Shel Talmy productions involved Jimmy Page. Rehearsals at his home studio became the core of the endlessly repackaged "White Boy Blues" recordings. His involvement in the Immediate label is also notable. The only problem here is the possible fear that Page would resent not being inducted as a headlining solo artist. I don't want to be the one to break it to him that tens of thousands of teenage boys aren't spending countless hours getting their fingers bloody trying to perfect their imitations of the album "OUTRIDER".
9. VAN DYKE PARKS- Google him. Seriously, I'm not going to be the umpteenth music critic to beat this dead horse. If nothing else, he should be in the Hall as a non-performer in several capacities: composer, arranger, producer, etc. It wouldn't surprise me if he's stuck the little labels on the center of the records at one time. For God's sake, he's done everything else.
10. GRAM PARSONS- Ahh, the poor little rich boy. This is another omission that struck me as extremely odd. The Byrds are in. Parsons has that California association that seems to give people a leg up. Also, Jann Wenner must have known that one of his magazine's foremost alumni, Ben Fong-Torres, wrote "Hickory Wind", Parson's best known biography. More importantly, Parson's impact is indisputable, launching the carer of Emmylou Harris, inspiring the Rolling Stones to write "HONKY TONK WOMEN", and it's no coincidence that U2 named their landmark album about their impressions of America, JOSHUA TREE, after the location where Parsons died. Having successfully spliced rock to country, he was America to many people. Gram was playing professionally since his early teens. He dropped out of Harvard to play music. His mood swings and ultimately successful self-destructive tendencies might look, in retrospect, like some sort of family curse and may be at the root of the lurid preoccupation of what passes for coverage in some corners, but his life was really consumed by music. And that music spoke to people, including many other musicians, to a degree far out of proportion to the volume of recordings he left behind. (Speaking of which, his recorded history goes far beyond the two solo albums commonly cited in many books and data bases. Not including redundant compilations, I can think of about a dozen albums of his performances off the top of my head.)
11. PERE UBU- It's almost obscene that the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is located in Ohio, and yet the pillars of American punk and alternative musics outside New York seem to come largely from Ohio and are barred from induction right across the board: Devo, Rocket From The Tombs, Dead Boys, Electric Eels and Père Ubu. When you name yourself after a character in a surrealist Jarry play you must know that it's going to sail over heads in the bars, but also that you're raising expectations among the few who will pick up on it. They worked overtime to live up to those expectations of cerebral art rock. They even predicted the Y2K scare before most of us even owned a computer. (For the record, I'm talking about "DATAPANIK IN THE YEAR ZERO" from 1978, a title they revived for a late 1990's boxed set collecting the bulk of their early recordings. The original EP could also have been an allusion to the contemporary Cambodian genocide, which its Wikipedia entry completely failed to pick up on.)
12. PSYCHEDELIC FURS- Not the strongest candidate here, I'll admit. A solid band with a distinctive lead vocalist playing durable songs, these guys were essentially the Temptations of the new wave bands. Both bands were not chronologically first at anything significant but we still remember them as standard bearers of quality.
13. PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED ( aka P.I.L.)- Don't call him Johnny Rotten. In the late 1980's a friend of mine mentioned that his younger sister and her friends were going to see their first concert, INXS when Hutchence was being promoted as a teen heartthrob. He was afraid he'd be corralled into driving them, or worse, picking them up. The question was really if the start of the concert overlapped his own plans. "Is there an opening act?" I asked. "Yeah," he said, "Public Image Limited". At the time they were getting a lot of mileage out of "RISE", from their generic album project. I started laughing, but he didn't follow me. "All these high school girls are going there to sing along with NEED YOU TONIGHT," I explained, "and the what's the first thing they're going to see? Johnny Rotten!" Then my friend got it. Lydon hadn't really been Johnny Rotten for about a decade by then, even though it was sometimes useful for him to backslide into his youth when dealing with insufferable television announcers and other fools tied to the apparatus of mass communication circulating his music. With P.I.L. he was just as interested in provoking his audiences as with Sex Pistols, but rather than settling for just shaking them out of their lethargy and complacency he worked with his new band to give them something to chew on after being awakened. The incomparable METAL BOX (1979) no doubt had something to do with the quantum leap between the Clash's LONDON CALLING and the third disc of SANDINISTA. Lydon's notorious open letter regarding the Sex Pistol's nomination will probably prevent the nomination of P.I.L., but it's the Hall Of Fame that will be poorer for it.
14. SUZI QUATRO- This year we're seeing Joan Jett being nominated and likely being inducted. It would be more appropriate to see her inducting her most obvious influence, Suzi Quatro. One more in a long line of Americans who had to go to England to be appreciated (Jimi Hendrix, P.P. Arnold, Pixies... um, Terry Gilliam...), Quatro is probably remembered as Leather Tuscadero from the television series "Happy Days". On the show she wore a vinyl outfit that looked like it was spray painted on and, since the show took place in the 1950's, it would have been perfectly in keeping with the image crafted for her years earlier by Chinn and Chapman of a retro rocker. Ironically, Leather Tuscadero was finally bringing her fame in America just as she was changing her musical direction to country. Despite her success with "STUMBLIN' IN" she went back to rock and at 60 she still performs and can still fit into that (or a) leather outfit.
15. ? AND THE MYSTERIANS- [Insert your own joke about crying 96 tears if they don't get in... here.] Notoriously unbalanced and litigious Allen B. Klein (you're absolutely sure he's dead, right?) bought the Cameo-Parkway labels, including their tape library and sat on many of those recordings, requiring the band to rerecord their entire catalog for other labels in order to get any residuals. Most notable among their later recordings was a 20th Anniversary reunion show recorded live for Reach Out International Records, a once-cassette-only label specializing in unsigned reggae acts that found a whole new audience by packaging punk, avant garde and art rock bands. Briefly, it became the only title the band had in print, ensuring that any music fans with a general interest in oldies would likely discover that they were still performing (and for that matter, alive). Some iteration of the band still performs to this day. Michigan has already enshrined them in its own Rock And Roll Legends Hall Of Fame but a wider recognition to match their audience is overdue.

.....As always, leave your suggested bands in the comments.

Checklist Of Shame L to M

.....Alphabetically we're reaching the halfway mark on this list of artists unjustly omitted from the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. The list has its intrinsic limitations, though, and the actual number of outrages is likely twice what I've listed here. You can read them in reverse order by clicking on "older post" at the bottom or forward by finding September 28th in the Blog Archive on the right and read them in the order they were written.

• LOVE- This is the Arthur Lee outfit. It gives us a little bit of insight into what might have happened had Syd Barrett or Roky Erikson or Skip Spence managed to keep their head together just enough to remain band leaders. While many bands have an incredible debut album and coast on its reputation or simply implode, Love had a fairly solid six albums before Lee went solo, the third of which, FOREVER CHANGES, became the best known and best reviewed. It walked the tricky line between innovative (for its time) and accessible.
• LOVE AND ROCKETS- I've already tipped my hat to Bauhaus in the first of these 'MIA' posts, but Love and Rockets really is a different animal, which the band emphasized by frequently dressing entirely in white at the band's commercial peak. Because L&R was actually three of the four members of Bauhaus and because they knew that writers for British music weeklies are generally lazy and stupid, it was easy to predict that articles about this new venture would be filled with recycled descriptions of dark clothes and eye make-up. When readers saw all that next to press release photos of their current outfits it would hopefully cause them to think twice about the robotic criticisms of the music being "dark" or "gloomy". While the new work was still spiritual and introverted/introspective, in other ways it deviated from earlier gothic motifs. Instead of ruminating on decay it was more proactive, always going somewhere, whether it was on the "KUNDALINI EXPRESS" or "BOUND FOR HELL". Bauhaus should take the priority, I feel, but L&R has now reached eligibility, as has Peter Murphy's solo work and it's long past the time that the anti-England embargo be lifted at the Hall Of Fame.
• LENE LOVICH- Boy, if there's anyone the Hall hates more than the British, it's quirky cerebrals. Devo, Buggles, They Might Be Giants, The Residents, Brian Eno, Sparks-- it's just as well that Magnetic Fields isn't old enough to qualify because it sounds as though Stephin Merritt's heart has been broken enough as it is. And whenever you have someone who hates nerds, it seems that they really, really hate female nerds for some reason. It's as though their mere existence offends some pagan god of childish stereotypes. Multilingual and multimedia savvy, Lovich viewed music as just one outlet for creativity among many and took an extended sabbatical from it to raise her kids just as MTV was launched. She would have been a natural for that cable channel's early years, but when she briefly returned to recording at the end of the 1980's she got sidetracked by her involvement in the more militant side of PETA. She continued to write and do soundtrack work and you can find a great interview spread across the booklets of the slipcased CD set of her Stiff albums.
• NICK LOWE- After the dissolution of the Brinsley Schwartz band, ex-member Nick Lowe took a job as a staff songwriter at a major label just as a friend was creating the Stiff label and inviting Nick to sign on as a performer and producer. Nick tried to get out of his contract by writing songs so bad that his label would drop him without a fight. Instead, one of them became a huge hit in Japan. He eventually got out of it and joined Stiff of course, but how good do you have to be if you can't write a song that isn't catchy even when you're trying to?
• LULU- Of all the various 'schoolgirl' acts in 1960's British pop, the only ones who started recording when they were actually young enough to be schoolgirls were Sandie Shaw, Twinkle and Lulu. (Millie would be considered reggae by many, but I wouldn't object to her being placed in this company as well.) Unlike most of the artists I have suggested and will go on to suggest, Lulu was more of an interpreter and not known as a writer. She was instead a tireless performer who has been a notable presence in every decade from the 1960's to the present. Many of these women will be getting 50th Anniversary nods in some form or another. As far as I can tell, only Dusty Springfield has made it into the Hall Of Fame.
• BILL LASWELL/MATERIAL- Better known among musicians, he's played sessions with everyone from John Lydon to the Dalai Lama. Material began as a flurry of 12" records in 1981, but bassist Laswell never settled into any one outfit. Although a headlining performer in his own right, he stands a much better chance of being inducted as a sideman with hundreds of credits among dozens of artists.
• JOHN MAYALL- Considering how many of his ex-flunkies have gone on to induction (Clapton, Beck and Fleetwood Mac) this should be a slam-dunk.
• MC5- The Motor City Five. Undoubtedly kept out because they butted heads with the cretinous Bill Graham. The MC5 were politically provocative by all accounts but when they were booked into one of Graham's venues in 1968 a violent radical organization calling itself The Motherfuckers demanded to take the stage during the show. They objected to the concept of property and insisted that their organization occupy the venue one night a week, starting with the MC5 show. Abbie Hoffman and/or Jerry Rubin were supposedly meant to appear. Band member McCoy Tyner announced that they intended to play the concert as planned. Not only was it ridiculous for anyone to presume to lecture the MC5 and their audience about revolutionary politics but patently dishonest to hijack a captive audience who willingly came for an entirely different purpose. (A year later at Woodstock Hoffman tried to commandeer the microphone to deliver a prepared screed. Unfortunately for him he made the mistake of trying this while the Who were playing; Townsend literally kicked his ass off the stage, as in "foot forcefully applied to backside resulting in a fall from a height and injuries". That might explain Abbie's relatively mellowed approach during the 1970's.) In retaliation, The Motherfuckers destroyed the MC5's equipment and physically beat Graham, who held the MC5 responsible and created numerous financial and legal headaches for the band and their manager John Sinclair. What's not certain is whether Graham's motivation was fear of retaliation from the radical group or from their dilettante connections in the West Coast music scene. That's only one of numerous complaints about Graham, generally coming from bands outside California and generally missing from Rolling Stone's coffee table picture books.
• MEATLOAF- Should he be inducted? "Let me sleep on it; Baby, Baby, let me sleep on it..." Motown artist, cast member of "Hair" and "Rocky Horror" and star of stage and screen. Also, his most famous album, BAT OUT OF HELL, has on its own outsold all the albums in Jefferson Airplane's entire catalog combined. That's including compilations.
• MIDNIGHT OIL- Good enough for Australia's legislature, but not good enough for the Hall Of Fame?
• MINISTRY- Eligible since 2006, this is a band notable for the fact that their career took off when their singles stopped charting in the U.S. Not only that, but Al Jourgensen should get some sort of lifetime achievement award for the sheer number of pseudonyms alone.
• MINOR THREAT- Their entire compiled releases would fit on one CD [they did it first with COMPLETE DISCOGRAPHY in 1990 then released a CDEP of their FIRST DEMOS in 2001 and three unreleased tacks on 20 YEARS OF DISCHORD, a label sampler/boxed set in 2002; 37 tracks in less than 70 minutes] and about 90 minutes of video. They also play a memorable part in the documentary "Another State Of Mind" when the tour that the film follows passed through D.C. One of the bands touring, Youth Brigade, features the vocalist from Teen Idles, the band from whose ashes Minor Threat emerged. The Teen Idle's rhythm section, Ian MacKaye (bass) and Jeff Nelson (drums), became Dischord Records after their band graduated from high school in 1980 and spent the summer playing shows in California. In the fall when the band decided to split they took the few hundreds of dollars they managed to save and decided to make something tangible to remind them of the band-- a privately pressed record. When they did that (around December 1980) other punk bands came out of the woodwork to ask "How can we do that?". By making artist control the top priority and making small initial pressings to control costs, Dischord Records became a voice for bands who would never have been given a venue through normal music industry channels. The initial roster came together when three bands (Teen Idles, The Extorts and Untouchables [D.C., not the L.A. band]) fell apart just before that first single was released. The Untouchables rhythm section plus a guitarist and Teen Idles' vocalist became Youth Brigade. The Teen Idles' roadie (the future Henry Rollins) replaced the vocalist departing The Extorts and they became State Of Alert. That Extorts vocalist (Lyle Preslar) left to become a guitarist and had a friend from school (Brian Baker) who had learned bass. Bassist MacKaye had left Teen Idles to become a vocalist. With Nelson still on drums, the four became Minor Threat. Even after its members went on to different bands (Fugazi, Dag Nasty, etc.), Minor Threat not only continued to sell new pressings but became the face of the label and a standard of ethics recognized even beyond the hardcore punk community. They would play all ages (i.e., no alcohol) shows that started at 5PM so that audience members could get to work or school the next day. They refused to give interviews to magazines or broadcast networks that advertised alcohol or cigarettes. They sold new albums postpaid by mail order for less than most labels sold midlines in stores, despite the fact that their lower print runs meant that they were absorbing higher per piece production costs. When the label's ads ran in zines they were more often accompanied by photography taken by musicians on the label or their friends and family than by reproductions of the album's art. None of these decisions was terribly complex and in retrospect it's astounding that they were viewed as being so radical. Every one was met with smug dismissal that it was more evidence that Dischord wasn't a real business, but someone's self-indulgent hobby. More than thirty years later it is still thriving in large part because it could never become dependent on the retailing conventions created to make artists and their audiences serve the interests of labels rather than the other way around. In the internet age the larger music industry's reliance on those conventions and general tunnel vision became a serious costly obstacle to adaptation. At Dischord, a band that had been defunct since 1984 was still a guiding light of sorts.
• ERRATUM- The band Youth Brigade who recorded with Dischord disbanded before the movie "Another State Of Mind" was filmed. The band with the same name in the movie is a different and unrelated Los Angeles band. Nonetheless, when the tour bus breaks down in D.C. Minor Threat allows them to stay at the house used as the headquarters of Dischord.
• MINUTEMEN- They were contemporaries of Minor Threat but based on the opposite side of the country. They also formed a record label, New Alliance, and split in the mid-80's but in the case of the Minutemen it was only because of the accidental death of their guitarist. New Alliance was eventually sold to SST (their original label) and the other band members formed a new band, fIREHOSE, splitting amicably in the mid-90's, at which point bassist Mike Watt became an in demand gun for hire both in the studio and on stage for many better known outfits including the reunited Stooges.
• MISFITS- It wouldn't be Halloween without them. Glenn Danzig's guest appearance (sort of) on an early episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force notwithstanding, The Misfits are an indelible stain visible even on rock's ubiquitous black T-shirt. They evoke Mario Bava the way Gillian Welch evokes Flannery O'Connor or Laurie Anderson evokes undergraduate humanities seminars. Why induct the Misfits? Besides being the often disputed missing link between punk and heavy metal? Because after Danzig left for greener pastures there was a decade of acrimony and intraband royalty suits, but when a settlement enabled the other members to perform their old songs under the name Misfits the audience already was waiting for them.
• MISSION OF BURMA- It would be way too easy (and probably actionable) to make a joke about the Hall Of Fame's nomination announcements being "when I reach for my revolver", but British readers under thirty wouldn't know what I was talking about. When Moby covered that Mission Of Burma song he was forced to change the word "revolver" to get airplay in England. (It became "That's when I realize it's over", also appropriate for most Hall Of Fame news.) MoB not only inspired a blizzard of art-punk bands, they formed many of them themselves after splitting in the early 1980's. Then, after twenty years of playing separately in different styles from MoB and from each other they reunited to record an album for their 25th Anniversary. The results, ONoffON, miraculously was not an incoherent jumble of their later styles or a throwback to the band sound that they had when they broke up. Instead it sounded as though they had continued to be a functioning group the entire intervening time and that the new album had a sound they had gradually and naturally grown into. They've recorded two more albums since, proving that it wasn't a fluke.
• MONKEES- Hear me out: normally a band becomes eligible 25 years after their first record is released. If we count the Monkees debut as their third album, HEADQUARTERS (1967), they've still been eligible for nearly two decades and their case is that much stronger. Their first two albums were made from songs recorded for the television series with the Monkees putting vocals over tracks recorded by session musicians (the same method used for Van Morrison and Them) plus Mike Nesmith recording his own songs. In fact, the second album was released before The Monkees were even aware that there were plans for a second album. The television show became wildly popular as were the records but to avoid prevent any more surprises in the second season they recruited Turtle Chip Douglas to produce sessions featuring songs they wrote or selected. Against the plans of both a record label and a television network they managed to get their records to lead the TV show rather than the other way around. Their projects, including the feature film "Head", financed the movie "Easy Rider" (and probably "Five Easy Pieces"). All the members of the band went on to further work, with Mike Nesmith being the most prolific. He also formed the record label Pacific Arts and video counterpart Pacific Arts Video. His plans to circulate a form of VHS magazine featuring music videos and music industry news was sold and further developed into a cable television network called MTV. In fact, Nesmith alone should be considered as well.
• MOODY BLUES- The Beatles had the idea first with Apple Records, but the Moodies also formed their own label/imprint in the late sixties, Threshold (as in "Threshold Of A Dream", no doubt). It is beyond question that they are deeply imbedded in the pop culture consciousness, having been covered by Stiv Bators, Ozzy Osbourne and Ramsey Lewis alike. And something they have in common with Aretha Franklin, Roy Orbison, Ray Charles and other inductees is that they've recorded Coca-Cola radio commercials. They have ubiquity, longevity, positive critical reviews, gold records and Grammy Hall Of Fame Award for the song "Nights In White Satin".
• MOTORHEAD- When Johnny and Joey were still alive the Ramones and Motorhead had their own sort of mutual appreciation society wherein each band would refer to the other in interviews as "the only band that matters". The Ramones are in the Hall Of Fame, incredibly considering they belong there. Motorhead belong there, too. Perhaps this year's nominees The Beastie Boys could explain to the directors that the expression they used, "No sleep 'til Brooklyn!" is a reference and homage to the Motorhead album "NO SLEEP 'TIL HAMMERSMITH". Whether or not you choose to believe the anecdote behind the title (that the band consumed amphetamines continually until the last date on a UK tour-- the Hammersmith Odeon) is irrelevant to the impact the band has had far beyond heavy metal fandom. And incidentally, anyone who gets kicked out of Hawkwind for excessive drug consumption has had things far less believable yet true happen to him than a week long meth bender.
• MOTT THE HOOPLE- It was Mott's records, not Traffic's, that convinced the Clash that it was worth the risk to work with Guy Stevens. They were the first rock band to have a run on Broadway. As the seventies wore on they lost guitarist Mick Ralphs to Bad Company and keyboardist Blue Weaver to the Bee Gees and eventually Ian Hunter and Luther Grosvenor to solo careers. Earlier in this blog I did an entry on Hunter's solo recording "ENGLAND ROCKS" in which I mentioned the impact Mott had on Queen. They more famously made an impact on David Bowie, who had been signed to RCA less than a year when Mott announced plans to break up and leave Island Records. Part of Bowie's contract was that he sign new artists. He contacted Mott and offered them their choice of (if I'm remembering this right) "SUFFRAGETTE CITY" or "ALL THE YOUNG DUDES". RCA passed and so CBS (the UK counterpart to the American Columbia Records label) got both Mott and The Stooges albums produced by Bowie and neither has been out of print since.
• MUSIC MACHINE- Sean Bonniwell and company have not only been widely covered by the post-"Nuggets" generation but they were dressing all in black and wearing sunglasses indoors even before the Velvet Underground. And while Bonniwell's single leather glove was likely not the inspiration for Michael Jackson's bedazzled one it was a striking visual for the nascent television age and his clear prescience that rock music was going to be at the heart of the younger generation that would be steering it, not on the outside waiting for permission from Ed Sullivan to come in.

.....That's it for today. As always, leave your suggestions in the comments.