V04-T16a Don't Give It Up

.....The link between this track and the last appears to be label samplers.

Volume 4: "THE LITTLE BROWN ONES ARE THORAZINE, GEORGE", track 16

• 03:46 "DON'T GIVE IT UP" (Jeff Connolly)
• performed by :Willie Alexander [and the Space Negroes?]
• original source: VA 2LP PLAY NEW ROSE FOR ME New Rose ROSE 100 (France) 1986
• and my source: the same

.....According to the notes I took when I made this compilation tape, this was recorded at Sounds Interesting, Cambridge, Mass. by Erik Lindgren in June 1986. I frankly, though I did remember the song even before reviewing these tapes for this blog project, I couldn't remember anything about the song. I'll just copy the rest of the notes here:

....."The other musicians on this track are Roger Miller (Mission of Burma), Erik Lindgren (Birdsongs of the Mesozoic), Aram Heller and Boby Bear. I can verify all but Heller as being in the Space Negroes and Heller probably was as well. The band was a Lindgren project of no particular fixed line-up. These gypsies (and others) surface on recordings by Moving Parts, No Man and who-knows-how-many pseudonymous pick-up bands and one-off outings to be found on the numerous compilations to come out of the area each year since the Ford administration.

....."This particular compilation is from the French New Rose label, similar but not as elaborate as its predecessor, VA 2LP LA VIE EN ROSE, which was used on the first volume of this cassette series. While LA VIE... was on rose colored vinyl in a rose colored box, PLAY NEW ROSE... was on black vinyl in a single sleeve. The one remarkable feature it has is that all the songs on it are covers, including two written by Willie Alexander and four by Bo Diddley. "DON'T GIVE IT UP" is a cover of the Lyres' first single (from 1979) which was finally reissued on CD this year on SOME LYRES (Taang! T82). The Lyres were one of those bands that called to mind that line from the movie 'Spinal Tap': You saw exactly how many people have been in this band over the years. Thirty-seven people have been in this band over the years. Purely on the basis of the lyrics, this is an odd choice for a first single, but not a bad irony for ending this collection."

.....I wrote that in 1994. All these years later there is a Lyres website and I've learned a few things from it. First of all the song was the B-side of that first single. That doesn't contradict factually anything I wrote above but it does mean that I was off the mark on the last sentence. While it would have been an odd choice for an A-side no one expects a B-side to be some kind of mission statement. It was more likely an epilogue to Connolly's previous band, DMZ. Also, the movie quote? Turns out the number of band members is closer to twenty-seven, but I think the basic idea behind using the quote is still valid. Oh, and one of those band members? Aram Heller. Small world.

.....When I posted last year about the tracks that I found on LA VIE EN ROSE, I looked around on line to find out what the status on the label was. I didn't get a definitive answer but it looked as though it existed as a legal entity but had not done new releases for awhile. The most recent project could find was something I already had, the boxed set VA 4CD NEW ROSE STORY 1980-2000 New Rose/Last Call 3062312 (France) 2005. On it you'll find Willie Alexander playing "BE-BOP A LULA" and the Lyres performing "DON'T GIVE IT UP" from their 1984 album ON FYRE. Last Call has also reissued PLAY NEW ROSE FOR ME on CD by dropping three songs to fit it on one disc and thankfully this cover by Willie Alexander was one of the songs they kept.

.....One closing interstitial and we will have concluded this volume.

V04-T15 Seven Deadly Finns

.....In the previous post I said something along the lines that I never met a pun I didn't like.

Eno - Seven Deadly Finns - album cover">

Volume 4: "THE LITTLE BROWN ONES ARE THORAZINE, GEORGE", track 15

• 03:11 "SEVEN DEADLY FINNS" (Brian Eno)
• performed by Brian Eno
• original source: A-side 7" Island WIP 6178 (UK) 03/74
• and my source: 3CD BRIAN ENO II: VOCAL Virgin ENOBX 2 (72438 39114 2 4) (UK) 11/93

.....[NOTE: Virgin is one of many labels that gives individual product codes to each disc in its multi-disc sets. The code above that follows the 3CD box catalog number identifies the set. The song is from the first disc, 72438 39115 2 3.]

.....From my notes in 1994: "Of course, the song is a joke about Finnish sailors so promiscuous that they'd contracted countless venereal diseases and become 'deadly'. Today the song wouldn't be a joke-- promiscuity is no longer necessary. Thus, this little non-album track has become a quaint reminder of a (relatively) more innocent past in spite of itself."

....."For a recording that's made the rounds as often as this one, it's damned difficult to come by. Released as a single in England on Island (not a conglomerate, but they carried Roxy Music, Bob Marley, Traffic and other big sellers in England), but not in the US." In 1982, "JEM distributors issued an E'G artists compilation, including Eno, King Crimson and various ambient or art rock performers. 'SEVEN DEADLY FINNS' was used, but... it was a radio-promo only album to acquaint out-of-it radio programmers in the US with material that JEM was reissuing (in some cases the albums were US debuts). I was lucky enough to find a used copy and and enjoyed it for a few years. It was not, however the source for this compilation." Later, "in 1984, it was reissued on an EP of rarities. Unfortunately the EP was only available in a boxed set with ten albums entitled WORKING BACKWARDS 1983-1973." That was also not the source I used. "That would be the fourth configuration, but the first on CD. The minute I saw it (marked down on sale!) I had to have it: ENO II: VOCAL, a three-CD import box. Much of the material I already had, on inferior sounding JEM CD's mostly. I had been reading about the box (and its counterpart, a three-CD box of instrumental and ambient music) for months, annoying salespeople with questions about it (do you have an arrival date? what will it cost?) for weeks until it showed up. The actual item turned out to be uninspired programming in a disarmingly beautiful package. The package you'd have to see (and feel) for yourself. To illustrate what I mean about the programming: the entire second CD is drawn from two albums already available on disc; the songs appear in their original track order, remastered but not remixed, with only a few songs missing, among them one of my personal favorites. My question is this: why reproduce so much of any album and fall short of reproducing the entire album for the sake of two or three songs? Keep in mind that these albums, good as they are, were drawn from to the neglect of some sources and the omission of others. That would be acceptable in a budget compilation, but not in a career retrospective. I could do a better job. And I'm going to (maybe in 1995). So in the meantime, enjoy this deadly seven-incher."

.....I never made that Eno retrospective. In 1995 I moved and then moved again a year later. It was a situation that split large chunks of my collection. At any given time it was in at least three different cities. For an artist like Eno, who does so much in collaboration, a serious career retrospective would include a ton of material released by other artists and I never had it all in one place at one time. For more on him, check out the enoweb link on the right, which didn't exist back then.

.....You may also have noticed that the second paragraph of quoted material is fragmented. That's largely due to an error in the original that I didn't want to perpetuate. The reference to the "radio-only promo" is more complicated. What I have is LP FIRST EDITION Editions E'G EGED 15 (US) 1982, and I have a promo-only copy. A similar album was released commercially in England. It had the same title and jacket art but three songs were different and it didn't include "SEVEN DEADLY FINNS". There are further details on that version on the blog Version Crazy. I think the page is:

http://www.versioncrazy.com/2008/01/31/compilation-lp-first-edition-eg-records-1982/

.....I was led to believe that the US edition followed WORKING BACKWARDS 1983-1973 but I can't remember why. The editing I did above amounts to changing the order of the quotes and the corresponding syntax. Otherwise it's my thoughts at the time. I hope to post again Friday.

V04-T14 Love Comes In Spurts

.....Supposedly, later this year will see an official DVD release of the Sonic Youth/Nirvana tour documentary "1991:The Year Punk Broke". I was kind of shocked that it's not available already, as I can remember the impact it had on younger music fans when they were between the high of discovering NEVERMIND and the low of hearing about Cobain's death. Sonic Youth fans are still waiting (perhaps forever) for a home video version in any format of "Put Blood In The Music", the excellent documentary on the New York music scene prior to the tour, a large chunk of which is devoted to Sonic Youth.

.....Since Richard Hell doesn't do much in the way of performance anymore, the recent bit of news took me back to one of the last musical projects he did that garnered significant press outside New York. Right after "1991: The Year Punk Broke" hit theaters in 1992, Hell and Sonic Youth collaborated as Dim Stars for an album and single. He's recorded bits since then, but his musical efforts seem more like a hobby next to his writing these days. Today's selection, by contrast, was one of the first (if not the first) of his recordings.

Volume 4: "THE LITTLE BROWN ONES ARE THORAZINE, GEORGE", track 14

• 02:05 "LOVE COMES IN SPURTS" (Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell)
• performed by The Neon Boys
• original source: 7" EP Shake SHK 101 (US) 1980 (previously unreleased 1973 demo)
• and my source: VALP SHAKE TO DATE Albion SHAKE1 (UK?)1981

.....I only know Albion as a British label (hence the name), but to be honest there's no nation of origin anywhere on the jacket or label. The Neon Boys were Tom (Miller) Verlaine , Richard (Meyers) Hell and drummer Billy Ficca. They would later add guitarist Richard Lloyd and rename themselves Television, shortly after that replacing Hell with bassist Fred Smith. By 1979 Television had released two studio albums on Elektra without Hell, who had released his own LP BLANK GENERATION on Sire. The Shake label was a New York based operation. In 1980 they released a split EP with both bands being Richard Hell endeavors. One side had two of the six known recordings by The Neon Boys. The other side had two unreleased Voidoids songs. All four tracks made it onto the label sampler SHAKE TO DATE, whose liner notes alluded to a second Richard Hell album they intended to release. That must have meant the flawed DESTINY STREET, eventually released on Red Star in 1982 and which Hell years later rerecorded.

.....At the time I compiled this tape I knew Hell had rerecorded "LOVE COMES IN SPURTS" with the Heartbreakers and again with the Voidoids. Looking over my original notes, I can't see much more in the way of discrete facts such as that and what I've included in the paragraph above. There are some personal observations that might be worth your time.

....."This is one of those songs that keep showing up in rock literature, yet more people have heard of it than heard it. Odd, since there are several recordings of it..."

.....Also, "I picked this track for the compilation mostly for its historical value (it sure wasn't for sound quality) and because I never met a pun I didn't like. Also, this and Patti Smith's PISS FACTORY represent the New York scene that followed Warhol's Factory, with the New York Dolls being the link between the two." All I could add to that is that Wayne County was the most likely link between Warhol and the New York Dolls. The link between the Dolls and the rest was more direct, although if I had to wedge someone between them as an aesthetic exercise... I don't know, Genya Ravan, maybe?

.....In the next post, the puns continue. This time they're across the Atlantic.