V04-T13 Summer Single

.....If you missed track 12, it was in a draft that disappeared in the Blogger freeze a few days ago but recovered after the previous post published. You can find it by going back two posts or just checking the archive on the right.

Volume 4: "THE LITTLE BROWN ONES ARE THORAZINE, GEORGE", track 13

• 03:16 "SUMMER SINGLE" (John Wesley Harding, Steve Barton)
• performed by John Wesley Harding
• original source: CDEP PETT LEVELS Sire/Reprise 9 45331-2 (US) 1993
• and my source: the same

....."Wrong! It's not Elvis Costello. Admittedly, this reminded me of Costello's 'ANOTHER SIDE OF SUMMER', especially the line about 'a tunnel at the end of the light', but the truth is they're both tributes (sort of) to the Beach Boys. Even the EP title is a corruption of PET SOUNDS, Brian Wilson's lynch pin album."

.....When I wrote those notes in 1994, there was another level behind the EP title of which I was unaware. There's a much better story on this page of Harding's website:

wesleystace.com/album/pett-levels/

.....Four tracks left to this volume. See you Monday.

Blogger failure, May 11-13, 2011

.....Well, let's never do THAT again. No sooner do I shake the dust off and try to get back to the five-day-a-week schedule I originally shot for last year, a mere three days later the whole Blogger system has a seizure of some kind. The post for Wednesday began late and I save it, incomplete, as a draft. Late Wednesday night/Thursday morning I went to finish it and one for the comic book blog I do and I kept getting rerouted to error messages. Then I noticed that my on screen name (next to my icon) had been changed to my personal name. My name's not really a state secret or anything like that, but the few people who read and enjoy this and don't think to bookmark it have a much better chance of finding it again by Googling "pblfsda" than my own, much more common name.

.....Long story short: the draft I was working on was lost, but the draft of the comic book post was not, probably because that one was started earlier. I'm going to have to check my archives to see if anything was lost, so rewriting the post will have to wait until tomorrow or the next rainy day. If I can manage to post the comic blog weekly and the music blogs each twice a week, that'll give me two days 'off' to put the house and yard in order. Or maybe find a job. For anyone else in Blogger, I recommend reading Blogger Buzz (I know, I usually don't either but this is one of those times it fills a real need) for the few, vague sketchy details we're ever going to get about this system suspension. For anyone just reading, don't worry too much about it. Even during the worst of it you should have been able to read any post prior to May 11th. Well, let's see if this post works.

V04-T12 Pinheads On The Move

.....For anybody who remembers Bill Griffith's "The Punks and the Monks"...

Volume 4: "THE LITTLE BROWN ONES ARE THORAZINE, GEORGE", track 12

• 02:51 "PINHEADS ON THE MOVE" (Blaine Reininger, Steven Brown)
• performed by Tuxedo Moon
• original source: B-side 7" Tidal Wave Records TWR101 (US) 1978
• and my source: CD PINHEADS ON THE MOVE Cramboy CBOY 5050CD (Austria) 1987

.....Tuxedo Moon would be more accurately categorized as avant garde jazz rather than punk if not for the fact that they played punk venues like The Deaf Club and released records on small independent labels to retain creative control. I could only find one other release on Tidal Wave Records, another 7" from one of several bands called SST, except that this one had the guitarist for Flipper (Ted Falconi). The Tuxedo Moon single was reissued the following year as Time Release Records TR 101 (US) 1979. I have to assume that the same recordings of each song were used and not newly recorded. I have learned that at some point the master tapes were destroyed in a fire. I've also found out that there are at least two other labels called Tidal Wave that were started since 1990, but that's more of a symptom of the problems of modern data retrieval than anything illuminating. An internet term search is such that its greatest strength (it doesn't presume to know your intentions) is its greatest weakness (it just gives you everything). Your best bet is to be happy with whatever the creators can tell you. For instance, here's an interview with Steven Brown from the blog Totally Wired:

http://totallywiredbysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/2009/03/totally-wired-runner-up-transcripts-1-q.html

.....Granted, he also doesn't mention if the two pressings were identical because it's more of a general interview about the period, but it's nice to have someone confirm that the 'pinhead' term is self-referential. That's not the sort of thing you want to assume.

.....My original liner notes began with a lengthy and ugly diatribe about Los Angeles pseudo-punk bands which, while I still believe it was an accurate description of the time, is a little indulgent even for a blog. It only really served to set the tone for this:

"San Francisco bands, by contrast, tend to have a lot more focus and direction and are usually in a band not to obtain money, but to obtain what money can't. They are often political (Dils, Dead Kennedys) and, as with Tuxedo Moon, their music is not derivative even if it is reminiscent of an earlier band or evocative. Tuxedo Moon specifically were a band that evolved...very quickly. Actually, 'evolved' is probably exactly the wrong word to use, since the changes were not due to environment or outside forces. 'Metamorphosed' is more accurate, as in a cocoon. They seemed more attuned to the internal coherences of film music than the dreck coming over the radio in the late seventies. They obviously weren't concerned with audience feedback."

.....And it goes on:"Although a track like this is no doubt scandalous to the condescending and sanctimonious self-appointed advocates of 'the handicapped', the fact is that such people have themselves never produced a positive popular image of microcephalics (pinheads) and would blanche at the suggestion that a group of pins be 'allowed' to do anything as independent and self-directed as pile into a car and drive to L.A. ("Are you really Clark Gable?...") This, much more than any 'energetic rhythms' you may read about in some Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Top Lists of Things We Can Be Bothered To Half-ass Recall Encyclopedia of Rock 'N' Roll is why punk held on as long as it did, even with small numbers that would spell doom had it only been a fad. The idea of pinheads on the move comes much more naturally to a culture where everyone is a hero if that's what they want and nobody gets hidden away in the shadows, as opposed to our larger popular culture where certain persons are determined to need 'our help', which usually translates to restricting them to a structured environment so that we don't have to look at them. The Tod Browning film "Freaks" is strongly recommended viewing."

.....At the time I wrote that last paragraph, things had already been improving for people with non-standard bodies and abilities. It was really intended to describe the environment at the time the original single was released in 1978. Understanding was a long time in coming for many people and many didn't live long enough to see it. Today things are that much better, largely due to the efforts of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who, if faced with the prospect of a group of microcephalics piling into a car for a road trip, probably would have packed them a lunch. Hell, she probably would have piled in with them. The most revolutionary thing about Eunice is that she understood that what she was doing wasn't revolutionary at all. It was basic Emily Post. Whenever you can't remember the finer points of etiquette or are in an unfamiliar situation, default to the primary rule of treating other people as you wish to be treated. Now all that remains is to remember that those who are not us are people.

V04-T11 Paper Balloon Bomb

.....Most volumes in this compilation series include cover songs and every other one (or thereabouts) may have a non-English cover of an English language original. This is the rare occasion of a foreign language original.

Volume 4: "THE LITTLE BROWN ONES ARE THORAZINE, GEORGE", track 11

• 02:59 "PAPER BALLOON BOMB (Junnosuke Kawaguchi, Hiroto Kohmoto)
• performed by The Blue Hearts
• original source: LP TRAIN TRAIN Meldac Records MEL-50 (Japan) November 23, 1988
• and my source: CD BLAST OFF! Juggler Records JTD-2 (US) 1991

.....I'm going to default to my original 1994 liner notes for this one:

....."I don't know if Blue Hearts are supposed to be any relation to Purple Hearts, a pill of choice among British mods in the 1960's, but the band seems to understand the value of properly abused amphetamines.

....." Japanese pop music generally is almost the worst in the world. (Indian pop beats it, at least.) Most of the charting acts are openly groomed, corporate-sponsored 'idols', their careers laid down in print before they've even touched an instrument or used a microphone. Typically, the Japanese think nothing of this. No one even bothers pretending that musical prowess enters into the equation. The Blue Hearts are a glorious exception. Other tracks show they've spent a lot of time listening to the Ramones. That's a sure mark of someone who has learned to play by trial and error (the best way, really). The CD comes with lyrics in Japanese and English, so if you're really interested in a translation it's no problem.

....."The only other release from Juggler Records that I could find was JTD-1, a six song compilation of Blue Hearts' singles. Both of these CD's are in the cut-out bins, but make great listening despite the language barrier."

.....Okay, it's 2011 again. After 17 years, some updating is in order.

1. J-pop is still around, of course, but while Japanese radio may still sound like the second half of any given season of American Idol played at the wrong speed, the internet has given the beleaguered Japanese public so many other choices that it's debatable if even half the population has even heard this year's domestic top ten. And Indian pop has improved considerably, mostly in the last decade.
2. The two principles in The Blue Hearts dissolved the group a little more than a year after I made this compilation, then formed High-Low. In the past decade they reorganized again as Cro-Magnon, at least according to Wikipedia.
3. For the moment, the offer stands regarding the lyrics. I recently confirmed that I still have the same copy of the CD.
4. I still haven't found any other titles on the Juggler label.

.....In the next entry, punk by way of Sun Ra.

V04-T10 Defreeze Walt Disney

.....[yaaaawwn...] So, is it February yet? Where was I? Oh, yeah. "A whole different kind of tribute" to Disney.

Volume 4: "THE LITTLE BROWN ONES ARE THORAZINE, GEORGE", track 10

• 01:30 "DEFREEZE WALT DISNEY" (Steve Westfield, Dave Montovani)
• performed by Pajama Slave Dancers
• original source: [see below] LP BLOOD, SWEAT AND BEERS Restless 72234-1 (US) 1988
• and my source: the same

.....First things first; while the album listed above is definitely the source I used for the compilation tape, the recording sounds very much like an earlier release by the same band on their own label with a different line-up. After using this track I discovered the two LP's released on their Pajamarama Records label, CHEAP IS REAL (PR881, 1985) and PAJAMA BEACH PARTY (PR883, 1986). Of the 18 songs on BLOOD, SWEAT AND BEERS, seven come from the 1985 album and four came from the 1986 album. However, between the 1985 album (where "DEFREEZE WALT DISNEY" originally appeared) and the 1986 album the band changed their drummer and bass player. The 1986 personnel are the ones also credited on the 1988 album. A subsequent Restless album, 1989's HEAVY PETTING ZOO, was followed by long stretches of few releases, mainly live recordings and re-recordings of songs like these from the 1980's. The question I can't seem to answer is whether the version I used is a re-recording with the second line-up or the 1985 recording with the original musicians going uncredited. For the sake of argument, the 1985 bassist was Jim-Joe Greedy and the drummer was Jon Long. In 1986 the bassist was Scott Blood and the drummer was Dirk Futon.

.....The song itself is about the persistent rumor that Walt Disney was cryonically frozen at the time of death until a cure for whatever killed him (it was lung cancer; the stress of trying to breathe induced a heart attack) could be found. Despite a total lack of any physical evidence even suggesting he was frozen there have been numerous people who, for almost four decades now, have claimed to "know" that his corpse is being kept in a secret chamber somewhere and was not cremated in the 1960's as public records indicate. This tenacious belief as been the subject of parody by everyone from "Robot Chicken" to "iCarly". I'd have to rewatch the first "Shrek" movie to see if it includes any allusions to the rumors, but most of its swipes at Disney are more specifically aimed at Michael Eisner.

.....The reason for defreezin' is, according to the song, to revive the Disney corporation and that "he sure was a nice old geezer". Ultimately, however, it was turning away from Walt's preoccupation with nature documentaries full of fabricated 'facts' and whites-only feature films that saved the company. While Walt was driven to animate only European fairy tales (Cinderella, Pinocchio, Snow White, etc.), from the mid-1980's on the animation drew on traditional stories from Europe (Beauty And The Beast, The Little Mermaid) and everywhere else (Mulan, Hercules, Aladdin, Brother Bear) as well. And the steady money really comes from Disney's cable channel, which has always had a more varied mix of ethnicities than the broadcast networks but without that fact ever being an issue. Walt was anything but "a nice old geezer" and I'm guessing if he could be revived today that an afternoon watching Euro-, Afro- and Sino-American kids interacting innocuously on a channel named for him would give him a cardiac arrest, stroke and aneurysm before sundown. Call it Stravinsky's revenge.

.....Speaking of other ethnicities, we're going to be turning Japanese in the next post. And no, it's not about the Vapors' song.