Frozen Warnings/A Given Voice

Well, it's that time of year again. The Bob Dylan Covers project I began last year will continue this year. However, the point of that project is that Dylan has become perennial and that his covers are ubiquitous. At the moment I have realized that there is something more pressing, at least to me.

Later this year will be the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Nico. It is unlikely to be observed in mass media. Although her music is widely respected by other musicians and fans of innovative music, it is not likely to ever be widely popular. I've written in this blog before about the mix of confusion and vindication I've felt watching music I had been told for years was "commercially unviable" becoming the soundtrack for actual television commercials. Ramones, Nick Drake, Joy Division, the Stooges and even Syd Barrett were licensed for ads in the last 20 years, but Nico, who was featured in a series of television ads in Europe before becoming a musician? Not so much. Wes Anderson soundtracks, maybe, but Nico wasn't going to get onto broadcast television unless it was in one of the three Velvet Underground songs she sang on or a track from her first solo album, "Chelsea Girls". Both sets of songs were released on the Verve label and the recordings would be licensed through UMC, presumably. But going through Warner Music isn't the reason TV shows and ads don't license tracks from "Marble Index". There's also the fact that however fascinating her life has been she had spent much of it as an unsympathetic figure. Heroin addicts and pathological liars are a dime a dozen on basic cable scandal shows but rarely get network retrospectives or tribute concerts.

Despite all of that, I still contend that Nico is overdue for a comprehensive career retrospective of her music. In fact, I felt that way over twenty years ago when I compiled the two-cassette, three hour overview that appears in the scans on the right. Like most of the compilations I made in the 90's it was a compilation of hits and rarities plus representative album tracks in roughly chronological order of their recording. In this case, 'hits' translates to anything released on a single or songs that became concert staples.

One should be aware that creating a compilation such as this, drawing on as many different sources held by so many different interests, for retail purposes is markedly different from me creating these tapes for my own enjoyment. Since I never sold these I never had to pay licensing fees or royalties. I also didn't have to locate the original masters from numerous points around the globe. These songs were all dubbed from standard store-bought CD's and vinyl. They were individually equalized and the volume levels had to be readjusted when changing sources, but the differences between formats of pre-recorded music are minor compared to trying to mix from one song to another from reels that have differing numbers of tracks recorded years apart on equipment sometimes separated by generations.

The expense of engaging capable engineers on top of the expenses of providing them with the original recordings in question all has to be balanced against the likelihood of the end results selling. Also, the more sophisticated and attractive the packaging, the higher the suggested retail price and the smaller the pool of potential customers despite its greater desirability.

Below are the final drafts of the notes for the compilation, handwritten on notebook paper (keepin' it classy). You should note that each side of the 90-minute cassettes are about the length of an LP and I saw fit to correspondingly give each side its own title as though it were a self-contained album. The particular selection of tracks allowed me to make a clean break between sides at points where Nico changed labels in different years.

In the coming months I hope to look at each track considered for this compilation and why they did or didn't make the cut. I'll also try to look at the releases made since these were compiled and consider how the retrospective might be expanded or improved. If I can complete these posts before the anniversary of her death in July, perhaps someone in a better position than I might assemble a fitting commemoration for her (likely) 80th birthday in October.

See you soon.

The Last Waltz

Today, Thanksgiving in the U.S., November 24th, 2016, is being recognized as the 40th Anniversary of the concert by The Band known as The Last Waltz. It was both filmed and sound recorded, resulting in a documentary film directed by Martin Scorcese and a triple-LP released by Warner Bros. (although their prior albums were mostly on Capitol-- except for two recorded with Dylan when he was renegotiating with his own label, Columbia). The actual date of the concert was November 25th, 1976. This month there have already been several retail items released to commemorate the event, including a 2CD set replicating the 3LP album and a deluxe package that appears to pair the 2002 4CD set with a Blu-ray disc of the Scorcese film.

The reason why this was preserved for posterity at all, let alone revisited periodically as it has been, becomes immediately evident to anyone who has seen the film, even though it relates only a fraction of the proceedings. Guitarist and principal lyricist Robbie Robertson was leaving the group. At the time, and for some time after the film hit theaters in 1978, it was widely believed that the group was splitting up entirely. Interviews since then indicate that was not the intention of the other members but public perception has a way of shaping self-fulfilling prophesies. Other members would tour and record separately and in combinations, including as "The Band", but the performances that night were fantastic even if the title isn't 100% accurate.

The whole event was roughly nine hours, including four hours of music, Thanksgiving dinner for 5000 people, plus prior band rehearsals and later studio recordings to complete the two planned media projects. Joining The Band onstage were a wish-list of headlining musicians and singers they've worked with or for. The only one I can think of that wasn't evident was Allen Toussaint. To date there has never been a legitimate release of the full day's recordings and it's unlikely there ever will be. Perhaps for the 50th Anniversary a raw source tape without edits or overdubbing will stream online on Thanksgiving as background music for people who don't watch football.

Well, leftovers are calling me. If Black Friday proceedings don't slow the internet to a crawl then I'll probably add some thoughts tomorrow.

V05-T05 Scumbag

.....This track has two giants and I'm not going to shed much light on them that you couldn't find from a hundred other sources, so I'll just give the posting then go right into my old liner notes.

Volume 5: DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL (YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE IT'S BEEN), track 5

• 06:00 "SCUMBAG" (John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Frank Zappa)
• performed by John & Yoko and The Plastic Ono Band with Frank Zappa and The Mothers
• original source: 2LP SOMETIME IN NEW YORK CITY Apple/Capitol SVBB3392 (US) 06/12/72
• and my source: 2CD SOMETIME IN NEW YORK CITY Capitol/EMI 07777 93850 2 7 (US) 05/90
• NOTE: the disc surfaces on the CD's have the same catalogue numbers as the 1987 CD release, CDP 7 46782 2 and CDP 7 46783 2

.....From 1994: "Speaking of not getting on the radio...

....."Lennon and Zappa used to be college radio staples and mainstream pariahs. Lennon became some kind of weird martyr to people after his murder, but the hypocrites never bought his records while he was alive. Ringo was the Beatle with the most solo hits until about 1974, when Wings took off. John's records hardly sold at all. And how often do you hear "POWER TO THE PEOPLE" or "TIGHT A$$" on 'classic rock' stations, as opposed to "INSTANT KARMA" and "IMAGINE"? Hell, when was the last time any Frank Zappa was played on those stations? Rhetorical questions, I know.

....."Think of it as the first safe sex anthem (a scumbag, after all, is literally a condom). And sing along. It's easy-- there's only two words."

.....The only thing I could add to that would be the full credits. Although the first LP of the set was mostly recorded with Elephant's Memory, the second LP was mostly recorded live at Fillmore East in New York on June 6th, 1971 with The Mothers (and not, as the packaging says, The Mothers Of Invention, which was Zappa's band in the sixties). Other recordings from that night and the previous one formed The Mothers' album LP FILLMORE EAST-- JUNE 1971, which had been released the previous fall. The tracks on the Lennon/Ono set have the same personnel plus John on guitar and vocals, Yoko on vocals and studio overdubs of Klaus Voorman on bass. The Mothers personnel were:

• Frank Zappa on guitar and vocals
• Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan on vocals (these are the former Turtles I mentioned in the post for "SKEET SURFING"; after this they worked with T. Rex and formed Flo and Eddie)
• Ian Underwood on woodwinds and keyboard, plus vocals (a longtime Zappa collaborator)
• Aynsley Dunbar on drums (who's kind of the Forrest Gump of rock drummers)
• Jim Pons on bass and vocals (another ex-Turtle)
• Bob Harris on 2nd keyboard and vocals (a Turtles associate)
• Don Preston on mini moog (a prolific session player)

.....The manic nature of this track demanded that it be followed by a change of pace (literally), a palate cleanser. I'll be back in a few days.

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.

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-T05 I'm A Potato

.....My original notes on this spiraled off into a rambling diatribe about De-evolution, evolution, the Church of the Sub-Genius and the Industrial Revolution. I'm going to spare you that and stick to the track in question.

Volume 4: "THE LITTLE BROWN ONES ARE THORAZINE, GEORGE", track 5

• 02:38 "I'M A POTATO" (Bob Casale, Gerald V. Casale)
• performed by Devo
• original source: demo, recorded 1976 [possibly self-pressed single?]
• and my source: CD HARDCORE VOL. 1 1974-1977 RYKOdisc RCD 10188 (US) 1990

.....It may be debated for years whether Devo merely predicted the 1980's or actually caused them. Considering the number and scope of forces at work, I'm inclined to say 'predicted' but their theories of De-evolution seemed to be a blueprint for everything from the Reagan presidency to the Islamic revolution in Iran. Simplification, even over-simplification, became a rallying cry for people who could no longer bear the increasingly impossible burden of respecting others. Well, impossible for them, apparently.

.....The parallels to Ronald Reagan can sometimes be particularly chilling. Before he had the advantage of Peggy Noonan providing an articulate filter for his "the world was how I imagined it as a child" outlook, Reagan often wrote his own speeches in 1960's California. For his gubernatorial inauguration he wrote: "For many years now, you and I have been shushed like children and told there are no simple answers to complex problems which are beyond our comprehension. Well, the truth is, there are simple answers-- but there are no easy ones." At no point does he assert that the simple answers would work, you understand, only that the mere fact that they are simple is in itself a virtue and an end in itself. For Reagan, the point was never to solve the problem. The point was always to adhere to the principle. If you get your way, you win, regardless of the consequences of getting your way. The principle is never subjected to testing. The principle is never subjected to analysis. The principle is the only standard. Simple, simple, simple.

.....Devo never fell into the trap of believing that evolution is progress. The word "progress" implies moving forward, which further implies that there is an understood consensus on which direction is "forward". The truth is that 'evolution' is just the name that we slap on whatever process (and it's usually a process of elimination) that got us from where/what we were to where/what we are. It is not a process that moves toward a goal, it is really just a reaction to conditions as they are. Conditions change, and chances of survival with respect to this or that ability or trait change with them. It has long been a human conceit that whatever we happen to be right now is the pinnacle to which anyone might aspire. Devo have spent decades wryly turning that arrogance on its head by isolating those parts of our culture and civilization that are characteristically contemporary and sarcastically chiding us about the "wonderful world we live in; a beautiful, magic place". Reagan was a textbook example of the dangers of indulging that kind of fuzzy sentimentality. While most us grow up to lose some aspect of innocence and learn that the world is not entirely wonderful, it is usually not necessary to sit each of us down and explain to us that when we were children that the adults in our lives shielded us from many of the worlds more depressing aspects. That's the sort of thing most of us work out for ourselves when it becomes our turn to care for someone much younger and helpless, someone at the mercy of a world that can hurt them and scare them with very little effort. When we need to placate their anxieties we try to tell them only what we assume they can digest at their age. They can deal with more later. It makes us more forgiving of those who soft-peddled the world's evils to us when we were that age. The problem with Reagan is that he behaved, and certainly spoke, as though he thought that the world genuinely was the way it was presented to him as a child. He once said, incredibly, that labor strikes were unheard of when he was a kid and certainly not as violent as they had become in the 1970's and 1980's. Even more incredibly, no one in news media challenged that clearly false statement, probably because Reagan said it, as he said everything, with absolute conviction.

.....The point here is that Reagan was one of many raised to believe that humanity and more specifically western civilization in his youth were the pinnacle. When the world changed, when it proved unable to remain stagnant and dead for decades, he could only conclude that something had gone wrong. It was inconceivable to him that many of these changes were improvements over conditions of which he was unaware and that many more were never changes at all. He hadn't learned as many of us had that the world had not always been how we were led to believe it was and that the changes it undergoes aren't good or bad but merely developments to be dealt with. In "I'M A POTATO" we have Devo painting a nostalgic picture of what most people would consider a nightmare of chromosomal damage and failed elective surgery. The music sounds like an enthusiastic march (again, the illusion of progress, of moving 'toward' something) with electric guitars imitating a trumpet fanfare. It would take virtually no effort at all to write arrangements for high school marching bands to play at football games. All of which is to celebrate being a 'potato', a recurring image and metaphor in many of their songs. The potato actually has more genetic material than a human (48 chromosomes to our 46) with much of that information devoted to storing energy. Recorded in 1976,supposedly the year that the phrase "couch potato" was coined, this demo is already anticipating a time when over-simplification will be lionized as the epitome of human development. The potato becomes the ideal model for the future of human evolution. We would become big featureless inert sponges, soaking up information or some other unit of value and retaining it as long as possible, just as potatoes retain heat energy. What Devo is telling us is that this can be viewed as a problem to prevent or a paradigm to embrace. What is not as obvious is that our current evolutionary status can also be viewed that way. If we don't occasionally step back from ourselves and look objectively at what we are we may never realize that we are the mongoloids happily devolving and embracing ourselves as not only the best that we can be but the best that can be, as Reagan did. Devo painted that picture of mutant dystopia to warn us, but a decade later it seemed that the picture was adopted as a blueprint.

V03-T12a (excerpt Dead London)

.....Spoken word interstitials can be like peanuts sometimes...

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 12a

• 00:17 (excerpt DEAD LONDON) (H.G. Wells, adapted by Jeff Wayne)
• performed by Richard Burton
• original source: 2LP THE WAR OF THE WORLDS Columbia PC2 35290 (US) 6/78
• and my source: 2CD THE WAR OF THE WORLDS Columbia C2K 35290 (US?) 1986?

.....According to the novel, the line I wanted to use was, "...slain, after all man's devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth.", or the nearest equivalent from the George Pal movie adaption. At the time I was putting this compilation together I was using a versatile analog receiver that could juggle input from multiple sources in multiple formats and I wanted to take advantage of the fact that that included using the audio portion of VHS recordings (this was pre-DVR), especially as I was developing a thread of film-related music. I was nearing the end of that side of the cassette and wanted to switch gears slightly one more time and needed a bridge/interstitial. I had recently recorded the George Pal adaption of "War Of The Worlds"(1953) but couldn't find the VHS tape, but remembered having the Jeff Wayne project on CD. Better known as a producer, Wayne took three years to construct a musical adaption of the 1898 novel using artists he had worked with, including Justin Hayward (of the Moody Blues), Phil Lynott (of Thin Lizzy) and others. The full story came to light in 2005 with the release of the 6CD/1DVD collector's edition, Columbia/Legacy CECD96000 (aka C7H 94427 1 2 or UPC#8 27969 44276 0). Had it existed at the time, I could have used the expanded box as a source for the paraphrased recording of the above passage. The three discs of outtakes includes all of the spoken material without music. As it happened, I wasn't able to isolate the phrase I wanted from the musical bedding and other dialogue. Seconds later, at the very end of a track called "DEAD LONDON", I found the excerpt I eventually used bookended with the second's pause I needed to fade in and out without jarring the listener. The exact phrase I used was, "Directly the invaders arrived and drank and fed, our microscopic allies attacked them. From that moment, they were doomed." It actually seemed like a more fitting link from a "Rocky Horror" spin-off (since Frank and company were alien invaders) to our next track.

V03-T10a Belt You About The Mouth

.....Wow, is it Monday already?

.....When I left off in July I mentioned that the prevalent theme of rebellion so common in the first half of Volume 3 would be shifting to a theme of little things in the latter half. What better way to introduce little things than with an interstitial?

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 10a

• 00:31 "CUT #4 BELT IN MOUTH" [no writer credited]
• performed by Richard O'Brien [as Riff-Raff]
• original source: promo-only one-sided 7" on 20th Century Fox Music #DS211(US) ?9/75
• and my source: CD SONGS FROM THE VAULTS Rhino R2 71011B(US)1990

.....The first time I heard this was when I found this rarities disc in the boxed set 4CD THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW 15TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION Rhino/ODE R2 71011(US) 1990. This, and a second compilation featuring foreign language and other performances from various international cast albums, were boxed with the previously available soundtrack and Roxy (L.A.) cast albums. The track above originally came from a promotional single sent to radio stations in advance of the September 24, 1975 theatrical release of the "Rocky Horror" film adaption, hence the approximate release date I estimated. A common enough format at the time, the single was a one-sided 7" vinyl record with eight cuts. On the boxed set it's given the self-explanatory title "ROCKY HORROR RADIO COMMERCIAL (BELT YOU ABOUT THE MOUTH)", but I went with the title as it appears on the record. Of the eight promotional clips only this and one other made it onto the CD. If you like, you can check out the details at the following link:

http://www.rockymusic.org/album/radio-spots.php

.....Tomorrow I'll detail the track into which this interstitial leads.

V03-T04 They Don't Know

.....I first knew this song from a Tracey Ullman video, made before she had an American television series. It was when the 'M' in 'MTV' stood for 'Music' instead of 'Misanthropy'. Finding this original version on a compilation by accident was a sweet surprise.

Volume 3: A KINDER, GENTLER ZERO TOLERANCE, track 4

• 03:01 "THEY DON'T KNOW" (Kirsty MacColl)
• performed by Kirsty MacColl
• original source: A-side, 7"Stiff BUY47 (UK) June, 1979
• and my source: VA4CD THE STIFF RECORDS BOX SET Demon/Rhino R2 71062 (US?) August, 1992

.....This is MacColl's debut single, not counting an EP she appeared on as a member of Drug Addix the previous year. None of the songs on that were credited to her and I'm guessing she's just fine with that. This, on the other hand, is pop music gold. My original notes from 1994 haven't really changed, so I'll just quote them below, followed by the current availability of this recording.

.....[from 1994:]Most Americans who know this song know it from the Tracey Ullman version recorded just a few years later [in 1983] (and, I believe, also for Stiff [it was]). That was before Ullman had her American television show on Fox (in fact, before there was a Fox). The video for the remake recast the meaning of the song: in it, Ullman plays a teenager with an enormous crush on Paul McCartney. Obviously nothing ever comes of it, but she grows up to be a bored housewife in a loveless marriage who still daydreams that McCartney will sweep her off her feet. (He does, sort of, when the real McCartney appears briefly at the end.)

.....The original MacColl version is more in the spirit of the mid-1960's British female 'mod' singers (Sandie Shaw, Cilla Black, Petula Clark, Lulu, etc.) who were in turn inspired by Motown and Phil Spector-produced girl groups. It sounds like one of many songs about a girl in a bad relationship, but sung from the girl's perspective so that it seems as though the rest of the world has gone crazy and turned against her. The lyrics to "THEY DON'T KNOW" are sufficiently vague and general that the song could just as easily be about any of the following:

• a) a paranoid schizophrenic speaking to one of their other personalities
• b) a gay rights anthem
• c) a Romeo-and-Juliet/West Side Story couple caught in an ethnic conflict
• d) an addict singing to their drug
• e) an acolyte singing to a cult leader
• f) a prostitute seducing a client
• g) an agent signing a band (see f)

.....[back to 2010:] There was no contemporary album to this single, so it doesn't appear on any reissue even as a bonus track. The year after the Stiff Box came out there was an unimaginative package of MacColl's Stiff material called THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION (1993), but the year after I put together this mix MacColl supervised a replacement, GALORE-THE BEST OF KIRSTY MACCOLL (1995). Both contain "THEY DON'T KNOW".

.....On Monday, we take a break from the A-sides.

V02-T14b Gimme Some Skin

.....As per the previous post, Iggy Pop and James Williamson sold a box of Stooges demos and outtakes to Greg Shaw when he launched a record label named after his magazine, BOMP! Once Iggy curtailed his substance abuse, they recorded an album of new material, KILL CITY, which was released in 1977 with a handful of singles while Iggy was in Europe.

Volume 2: "WE'RE ALL GOING TO JAIL FOR THIS, AREN'T WE?", track 14b

• 02:47 "GIMME SOME SKIN" (Iggy Pop, James Williamson)
• performed by The Stooges
• original source: B-side, 7" Siamese PM001 (US) 1977
• and my source: CD IGGY POP AND THE STOOGES Revenge BF 50 (France) 1987?

.....Shaw dipped back into that box again and again over the years, issuing multiple takes of the same songs. Most if not all of BOMP!'s label samplers and VA compilations have one or two of those Stooges songs. The three singles from 1977 were collected as the mini-album I'M SICK OF YOU (Line LLP 5126) in 1981 and just two years later that album and KILL CITY were the sole sources for yet another compilation, I GOT A RIGHT (Invasion E1019). You may have noted that even though the tapes for these records can be traced to BOMP!, the releases appear on labels such as Siamese, Line and Invasion. I believe Siamese was an early division of BOMP!, Line was a German label to whom the material was licensed and I honestly don't know the story behind Invasion.

.....My source for this track was a CD that combined the KILL CITY and I'M SICK OF YOU albums, one of the first releases on the Revenge label. It was also an early example of a French CD, many of which had problems with frequency compression. Admittedly that's more of a problem for classical opera where they use a greater range of frequencies. A little conscientious reequalization on my part made it sound pretty serviceable or at least as good as I remember the vinyl being.

.....In 1995, each of the three singles from 1977 were reissued as full-length CD's by amending them with alternate versions of their songs. This track appears on the CD for "I GOT A RIGHT" BOMP! BCD 139 (US?) 1995. The mix is probably a mite sharper, too.

.....Two tracks to go for this volume, then I'm giving myself a day to sleep before starting Volume 3.

V02-T14a The audience participation portion of our program

.....Iggy Pop once said something to the effect that there are no bystanders or casual observers at his concerts. If you are there, you are engaged and participating, whether you want to be or not. He makes eye contact (as lighting allows), scans the room, sings directly to (or at) audience members, whatever it takes to make it beyond doubt that you are not going to experience the performance from an objective vacuum. We're all in this together, we all have a stake in each other's experience. And unlike many performers, Iggy always seems prepared to roll with it when the audience shows up with the prior intention of getting very much engaged.

Volume 2: "WE'RE ALL GOING TO JAIL FOR THIS, AREN'T WE?", track 14a

• 01:00 [dialogue in lieu of "I Wanna Be Your Dog"] (Iggy Pop)
• performed by Iggy And The Stooges (and the audience)
• original source: 2LP METALLIC 2XK.O. Skydog 62232-1 (France) 1988?
• and my source: CD METALLIC 2XK.O. Skydog 62232-2 (France) 1992?

.....I had already established a precedent of spoken word pieces on these tapes and knew that if I used more of them sparingly but consistently they'd have the desired effect of pacing the music as well as occasionally adding indirect commentary. Use them too frequently and it feels as though I'm trying to make a gimmick substitute for ideas; use them too little and it feels as though the few I did use were mistakes.

.....I also wanted to have balance in the sense of using both music from my collection that I loved and music from my collection that was just there and deserved a little validation. This track fits both bills, but posed a new problem. I had set a ground rule for myself that I would not repeat artists. With less than ten minutes to go on the tape I had already decided that there would be further volumes and I could not imagine a series like this with no actual Stooges songs. To compromise I decided to consider this dialogue to be an interstitial introducing a contemporary song of theirs and consider all interstitials generally to be exempted from the 'no-repeat' rule. Seeing as how some of them are five to ten seconds long, that seemed reasonable.

.....The history behind this recording is extremely convoluted and I'm not likely to do a decent job of disambiguation with less than 24 hours of preparation. What I can provide is a quick chronology:

• In Oct. 1973, The Stooges play the Michigan Palace and this track is recorded by a friend of the band.
• In Feb. 1974, The Stooges return to the Michigan Palace and play what turns out to be their last show.
• Later in 1974, Ray Manzarek has dissolved the post-Morrison version of the Doors (they put out two albums that seem to have vanished from their label's memory) and begins recording with Iggy and guitarist James Williamson. Although Manzarek does release a solo album at this time, it doesn't include anything from these demos, which Manzarek has never released. Desperate for money, Pop and Williamson bring a boxed filled with random unmarked reels of Stooges outtakes to Greg Shaw of BOMP! Magazine.
• Iggy voluntarily entered a mental health facility to end, or severely curtail, his substance abuse problem. Long time fan David Bowie is reportedly his only visitor.
• In spring of 1976 the album METALLIC K.O. is released in France on the label Skydog (SGIS 008). It claims to contain the last Stooges show, but is actually one half of the Oct. 1973 show and one half of the Feb. 1974 show. Later, Pop and Williamson record the album KILL CITY for Shaw, who is still sifting through the reels of Stooges demos and opting to release them as singles. Bowie opts to escape the drugs, insanity and human parasites in Los Angeles by going to Berlin. He offers to take Iggy and they make a brief stop in France to record demos and begin recording Iggy's IDIOT album and Bowie's LOW album at Chateau d'Herouville. They finish both at Hansa Studios in Berlin.
• In 1977 there is a deluge of Stooges material, including the new KILL CITY and Stooges singles from BOMP!, two new albums each from both Pop and Bowie and METALLIC K.O. has sold so well in the US as an import that American pressings are made by a label called Import (IMP 1015). Bowie tours as Iggy's pianist and live selections are released the following year as T.V. EYE LIVE.
• In 1978, Skydog releases an EP with more of the Feb. 1974 show (SGIS 012).
• c.1988, the double album METALLIC 2XK.O. is released, including the 1976 LP, the 1978 EP and more of the Oct. 1973 show. This is where I came in.

.....Tomorrow, one of the tapes Grew Shaw found in that box.

V02-T12 Up Against The Wall

.....[From Jon Savage's "England's Dreaming" St. Martin's Press (NYC, first US edition, January 1992) pages 392-396]

.....On August 23, 1977, The National Front (a notorious neo-Nazi group) caused a riot by making a well-publicized march through Lewisham, a predominantly black working-class borough of South London. They were confronted by Socialist Workers Party and Rock Against Racism protesters. British press and television deliberately edited footage and wrote copy to portray the protesters as antagonists and the National Front as innocents under an unprovoked attack.

....."The same week that the music press carried their reports on Lewisham, they announced the signing of the Tom Robinson Band to EMI Records for nearly 100,000 pounds. The TRB-- who were affiliated to RAR, Spare Rib, the National Abortion Campaign and Gay Switchboard-- offered the perfect chance for EMI Record Division, still bruised by the events of December, to claw back some radical chic."

.....The "events of December" Savage was referring to were EMI's collective behavior towards the Sex Pistols in the wake of the Bill Grundy incident (Google it) resulting in EMI cancelling their contract in January 1977.

Volume 2: "WE'RE ALL GOING TO JAIL FOR THIS, AREN'T WE?", track 12

• 03:35 "UP AGAINST THE WALL" (Tom Robinson, Roy Butterfield)
• performed by The Tom Robinson Band
• original source: A-side, 7" EMI 2787 (UK) May 1978
• and my source: CD POWER IN THE DARKNESS Razor and Tie RE2018 (US) 1993

.....Robinson was in a genteel, too-clever band called Cafe Society when he got his first serious opportunity to record. They were one of the first acts signed to Konk, a new label created and owned by The Kinks. Unfortunately, the sessions were nearly finished before Robinson figured out that the direction his band's album should take was just one more bone of contention between the Davies brothers, one more excuse for them to fight with each other. The album came out, and it was OK, especially for a freshman effort, but Robinson couldn't help but think something was missing. He found out what that was the first time he saw The Sex Pistols perform. He would form a punk band.

.....Roy Butterfield was also known as 'Anton Mauve', the first TRB guitarist when they formed in late 1976. Less than a month later not one original member (besides Tom) was still in the line-up. The line-up they did have remained stable until shortly before this single. After a more than a year of touring, a debut single that reached number 5 in the UK charts ("2-4-6-8-MOTORWAY") and a live EP in the top 20 ("RISING FREE") they finished recording this single and the album POWER IN THE DARKNESS when it was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the toll it was taking on their 17-year-old keyboard player, Mark Ambler (he was 16 when he was hired). Many rock musicians are stultifying cases of arrested adolescence under the best of circumstances. Being in a politically radical rock band that also has national 'hit' status (and the attention and media coverage that comes with it), led by a very vocal gay activist playing punk venues and targeted by violent terrorist hate groups requires a maturity most high schoolers don't have. For his own sake, Robinson fired him. Eventually he would play in a band with ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock, who got fired from that band for being too mature. If it was any consolation to Ambler, after he was fired he got to see the sessions he played on yield this single (which went top 40) and the album within a week or two (which went top 5).

V02-T11 England Rocks

.....Yes, you've probably heard it before and no, you probably haven't. This is going to take a bit of explaining.

Volume 2: "WE'RE ALL GOING TO JAIL FOR THIS, AREN'T WE?", track 11

• 02:51 "ENGLAND ROCKS" (Ian Hunter)
• performed by Ian Hunter
• original source: A-side, 7" CBS 5497 (UK) July, 1977
• and my source: 2LP SHADES OF IAN HUNTER Columbia C2 36251 (US) 1979

.....After I put this compilation tape together in 1993, this track was released as a bonus track for the CD of the album OVERNIGHT ANGELS Columbia/Sony Rewind 506063 2 (E) January 28th, 2002. There was an earlier CD pressing of the album (without the bonus track) for the European market in 1994 and a later one in Japan in 2006. We finally got a sort-of domestic release when it was combined with ALL-AMERICAN ALIEN BOY for American Beat Records, including "ENGLAND ROCKS" as a bonus track.

.....According to Ian Hunter's own liner notes from the 2CD compilation ONCE BITTEN TWICE SHY, this song was first written as "CLEVELAND ROCKS". I'm not sure when it was written exactly, but Hunter rarely wrote about America or American music for Mott The Hoople, but frequently did as a solo artist. And while there's been a handful of outtakes from each of his first two solo LP's (IAN HUNTER and ALL-AMERICAN ALIEN BOY) surfacing as bonus tracks and compilation tracks in the past two decades, "CLEVELAND ROCKS" hasn't been one of them. What he did bring with him from those sessions to the third album was a long-standing connection to the band Queen. Early in their career Queen opened for Mott and were shocked at how good their live shows were, given the commercial underperformance of their Island albums. While Ian was recording ALL-AMERICAN ALIEN BOY in New York, his wife Trudi bumped into Queen on a trans-Atlantic flight, mentioned his sessions at Electric Lady and after landing, the band waited around for an hour at the studio hoping to contribute something. While their own "BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY" single and A NIGHT AT THE OPERA album were both number one in England and top ten in the US, all they wanted at that moment was to be on Hunter's record. They provided the overwhelming backing vocals to "YOU NEARLY DID ME IN", bumping it up to A-side status (it was still buried in the charts by their own "YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND", ironically). The Queen connection continued after they completed their next album, A DAY AT THE RACES, and their producer Roy Thomas Baker signed on to produce Hunter's next, OVERNIGHT ANGELS, and help him get a harder rock sound than he had producing himself.

.....To this day, Hunter reportedly does not perform songs from this album live. His memories of the project, aside from the actual recording, are pretty bad. During the production period, Hunter had secured a house for the band and crew to crash in (for comfort, camaraderie and minimizing lost time). While they were sleeping, the house caught fire and it was only through sheer dumb luck that nobody died. When the jackets for the album were printed, the photo of studio drummer Dennis Elliott (properly credited in small print) was replaced with a photo of touring drummer Curly Smith. Elliott had been on Hunter's first solo album and then joined Foreigner, whose first album and single had only just come out in the US and was due out imminently in England when the jacket proofs appeared. Hunter had been hoping to persuade Elliott to come back full time, but the jacket switch hurt his case long enough for Foreigner's 7" and LP to go top 5 in the US, killing it completely. This and a number of other things led Hunter to fire his manager, and... well, I should just let Ian explain this one:

"OVERNIGHT ANGELS was not released in the US because I fired my manager, Fred Heller, during the English promotional tour-- just before it was to be released in America. Columbia said they didn't want to release it until I had new management and that dragged on until it became too late." [from Ian Hunter's website, maintained by his wife, Trudi; under the heading 'The Horse's Mouth #6 August 7th, 2000']

.....The label CBS also reportedly nixed using the song "CLEVELAND ROCKS", claiming it was too regional in scope to be widely popular. That didn't seem to hurt "NUTBUSH CITY LIMITS", "BRISTOL STOMP", "MEMPHIS", "JACKSON" or dozens of songs about Chicago and New York. We could probably put this down to executives feeling pressured to appear to have some kind of magical insight into the idiosyncrasies of their business but zero incentive or reward for being right and zero punishment for being wrong. (Sidebar: 1977 was the same year that the comic book character The Incredible Hulk-- then 15 years old-- was turned into a television series. The executives at CBS-TV insisted the character's name, Bruce Banner, be changed to David because they were certain that the public would find the name Bruce too effeminate. Keep in mind that Bruce Jenner took home a chestful of gold medals for being the world's greatest athlete the previous summer and was still on boxes of Wheaties. I'm just saying...) Producing a new session himself, Hunter finally recorded the song as "ENGLAND ROCKS" and it was released with "WILD 'N' FREE" from the OA album on the back.

.....After waiting out Mick Ronson's contractual obligations, Hunter and Ronson were working together again in 1978 on a succession of low-profile and mostly fruitless studio sessions with Corky Laing and Felix Pappalardi (of Mountain) and John Cale, but it was an offer to produce an album for punk group Generation X (with Billy Idol) that led to him signing with their label, Chrysalis. He and Ronson produced his next album, YOU'RE NEVER ALONE WITH A SCHIZOPHRENIC in 1979 and included "SHIPS", covered mere months later by Barry Manilow(?) and becoming Manilow's only top ten single from the ONE VOICE album. In England Hunter had released singles for "WHEN THE DAYLIGHT COMES" and his own "SHIPS" when he got his first US chart action for a single with "JUST ANOTHER NIGHT", backed with the new "CLEVELAND ROCKS". That led to "CLEVELAND ROCKS" getting an A-side release in England and Columbia rethinking matters. Early in 1980, about two months before Chrysalis would release a live double-LP of Hunter and Ronson, Columbia released a double-LP compilation: SHADES OF IAN HUNTER-- THE BALLAD OF IAN HUNTER AND MOTT THE HOOPLE. US copies are actually marked '1979' for copyright purposes. It included one LP of Mott (but only 1972-1974) and one LP of Hunter solo. The first three sides were good mixtures of hits and rarities (given the limited space and the fact that Columbia/CBS already had a hits compilation for Mott in print), but side four was made of "ENGLAND ROCKS", "WILD'N'FREE" and three other songs from OVERNIGHT ANGELS.

.....I wanted to see that compilation make it to CD, but in 1988 Chrysalis used the name SHADES OF IAN HUNTER for a CD-only compilation of 1979-1982 material. Believing that the two labels would dispute claim to the title endlessly, I gave up waiting and added this to my tape as a legitimate rarity. By the end of 1993, too late for me, the Columbia compilation came out on CD in Germany. Then, as I mentioned in the first paragraph, OA got a European CD in 1994, etc. In 1997, The Drew Carey Show (on US television) changed it's opening theme song to a cover of "CLEVELAND ROCKS" by American band Presidents Of The United States. Since then it's been kicking around more broadly than before in the general pop-consciousness, but for many out there the "ENGLAND ROCKS" recording is still an unusual twist on things.

.....Tomorrow, more England, more rock.

V02-T08 The Day The World Turned Day-Glo

.....For any readers who have not lived in England and who are not certain what a "Wimpy Bar" is, the photo on the right is an example of one. It's a fast food restaurant chain, probably the first in England and inspired by the character Wimpy ("I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today...") from the Popeye cartoons/comic strip. Now, before I inadvertently contribute to the mountain of online misinformation out there, I should point out two things: (1) the owners of the Wimpy restaurants don't license or use the cartoon character and (2) they're not affiliated with the Popeye's Fried Chicken restaurants.

.....Oh, and if anybody asks, the photo (assuming it reproduces properly) was uploaded to Flickr by somebody named 'Sumit'. They either are meticulous at cropping digital photos or have a wonderful sense of composition when snapping shots of discount diners.

Volume 2: "WE'RE ALL GOING TO JAIL FOR THIS, AREN'T WE?", track 8

• 02:50 "THE DAY THE WORLD TURNED DAY-GLO" (Poly Styrene)
• performed by X-Ray Specs
• original source: A-side, 7" EMI INT553 (UK) April, 1978
• and my source: CD GERM-FREE ADOLESCENTS Caroline CAROL 1813-2 (US) 1991

.....Poly Styrene was actually Marion Elliott, whose half-English, half-Somali heritage made her stand out when punk swept London in 1977. She definitely belonged in a key spot in punk as a cultural movement; this song was not her only one that showed a keen eye for society's acquiescence and capitulation to the artificial. But in punk as a scene that became increasingly filled with Northern skins and pale, disaffected Mancunians, being afro'd, Arabic, teenage and female was a combination that made her a demographic of one. At the beginning of the year merely being in a punk band gave you an extended family of sorts, but by the end of 1977 there were so many people identifying as punks that the scene was factionalizing under its own weight.

.....This song really dates from at least as far back as the summer of 1977. A studio demo from that time nearly reproduces the live set they performed at the Roxy in April, adding "OBSESSED WITH YOU" and "THE DAY THE WORLD TURNED DAY-GLO". It's worth seeking out that version because it includes original saxophonist Lora Logic, who only appeared on the first of their studio singles, "OH BONDAGE, UP YOURS!" for Virgin that October, before quitting the band to complete high school. (Let me repeat that: she didn't quit high school to join a band in the hopes of becoming famous; she was in a band that was already famous and quit to go to high school. She later formed the band Essential Logic.) Poly Styrene and the rest carried on with Rudi Thomas (Steve Thompson) on sax. They signed to EMI right after New Year's and demo'd all new material plus new takes of "OBSESSED..." and "THE DAY...", which became their label debut in April.

.....Marion dissolved X-ray Specs (who all went on to other bands) and experienced a deeply felt religious conversion. She didn't give up music categorically but only performed or recorded when she could write or find material consistent with her faith. She had one solo album and reconvened X-Ray Specs in the 1990's for the album "CONSCIOUS CONSUMER".

.....I probably picked this song to follow "BATMAN" because there had been an issue of the comic book Doom Patrol named after "THE DAY THE WORLD TURNED DAY-GLO". The writer Grant Morrison was like many other Brits writing American comics in that he incorporated song titles into character names and story titles. Anyway, I'm getting tired and I'm going to need to rest. Tomorrow I exchange social commentary for something more philosophical.

V02-T01 "Good evening, record lovers..."

.....When this first compilation tape was being planned I had no idea that it would be the first of a series. Although each side of the tape was conceived as its own volume, roughly the length of an LP, I wanted to remain conscious of how it would be experienced. It would have two beginnings and two ends, and I wanted those terminal points to be flagged appropriately with listeners welcomed in and ushered out. The intro to Volume 1 was one of the most famous introductions in the world, not only to the work from which it was taken, but for many children it was their introduction to 'grown-up' music. I was hoping to capture that feeling of discovery when everything is still new and more importantly when there was no need for everything to be immediately familiar. Too many adults find it threatening to their egos when they're forced to admit that they don't know something. Children spend most of their time being lectured, being expected to not know things. Finding something unfamiliar is just another part of their day. They don't get defensive about it the way adults do. I was hoping that the first intro would put people into a state of mind where the unfamiliar was a chance for personal expansion and not a threat of personal impugn. But that was the first side. The second side was time for something completely different...

Volume 2: "WE'RE ALL GOING TO JAIL FOR THIS, AREN'T WE?" track 1

• 00:50 [excerpt from "MORE TELEVISION INTERVIEWS"]
• performed by Monty Python's Flying Circus [Graham Chapman]
• original source: LP MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS BBC Records REB 73M (UK) 1970
• and my source: LP THE WORST OF [~] BBC Records BBC-22073 (UK) [reissue of above, prob. c.1980]

.....This was the first album from Monty Python. It was also the only one owned by the BBC and therefore left out of subsequent campaigns of catalogue reissues. At the time I put the tape together there had only been one CD pressing, one extremely rare one in the very early days of the technology and while I've never heard it, it reportedly sounds pretty poor. Entirely in character for the BBC, they were tone deaf to the very considerable demand for this material. It remained out of print on CD until the late 1990's. (For those unfamiliar with the history of the comedy group, the only reason anyone is able to see the show today is because someone working inside the BBC warned Terry Gilliam in advance while he worked on the second season that episodes from the first season would be recorded over later that day. The reason was that the BBC wanted to save money on film/tape. Gilliam bought blank film with money out of his own pocket and switched it for the Python masters and did the same for the rest of the series. Most shows were not so lucky.)

.....Because the rest of this album contains the dialogue of sketches used on the first season of the show, many people erroneously believe that it was made by lifting the soundtrack right off those episodes. It was actually recorded separately but under similar circumstances. The first season of the show was shot with a small studio audience and so was the record (hence the audience laughter you can hear on this track-- it's not canned). As the show got more ambitious and was written more as a stream of consciousness than a loose collection of collegiate-type sketches, that approach was no longer practical. But it made selecting material to rerecord for an album a relatively simple procedure. Even so, the cluelessness of the BBC prevails as ever. The famous Parrot Sketch is listed as the track "Pet Shop" and the Crunchy Frog Chocolate routine is listed as "Trade Description Act". People who would have bought the album on the strength of those bits might have passed on it not realizing that it contained them. In fact the track used here is the first minute of the second side of the album, leading into a routine better known as "It's The Arts" or "Arthur 'Two-Sheds' Jackson", but labeled simply "More Television Interviews". The final straw for the Pythons might very well have been this simple piece performed solo by Chapman with the audience. They always submitted material in advance for the BBC when doing the show; Chapman's military officer conducting a stereo test was the only truly new material for the album. That script, plus minor rewrites to the sketches to compensate for the lack of visuals, were already in the network's hands when Pythons, producer and audience entered the studio. Only during the recording process did they discover that it was being recorded in monaural. The script, as originally conceived, got its humor from the self-important officer being ultimately superfluous. As it turned out, he exposes the defective bureaucracy at the BBC. Subsequent albums were produced by the group with engineers and released by Charisma in the UK and by Buddah (and later Arista) in the US.

.....The obvious reason for wanting to use this excerpt is that it explicitly refers to the start of side two (of the record). The other less obvious reason is that it is the contrast to the opening of the first side, which sat you down and set you at ease before introducing you to the program. Having made it through that side, if the audience is still listening, if they took the initiative however minor to flip the cassette and set aside the next forty-five minutes, then they must be aware of the sentiments, the humor, the sense behind the flow or progress of the track selection. They are 'in on the joke' in a way; they know that the 'stereo' isn't working and that the powers that be don't seem to be aware of it. Now when something flies at them out of left field that surprise is something they can welcome, not something to be managed or endured.

.....Coming up, I've got a few more choice covers to get out of my system, we'll push the range back to the 1960's (my collection includes CD's with material recorded c.1900 but is mostly from the last fifty years), a few more punk singles and even some things that should be easy to recognize.

V01-T16 First National Rag

.....The last track of volume 1 is a free-standing piece but has all the characteristics I look for in a good interstitial. It's short, it speaks directly to the listener and is self-referential in the sense that it acknowledges its format. It could only be used as the end of a two sided format however, and wouldn't translate very well to one-sided digital discs, which is a shame.

Volume 1: THE PITCHFORK APPROACH, track 16

• 00:21 "FIRST NATIONAL RAG" (music by Orville Rhodes)
• performed by Mike Nesmith
• original source: LP MAGNETIC SOUTH RCA Victor LSP 4371 (US) 1970
• and my source: CD MAGNETIC SOUTH Awareness AWCD 1023 (UK) 1991

.....Michael Nesmith produced a lavishly orchestrated album of songs he had written for the Monkees (some of which they hadn't recorded or released) while he was still with the group in 1968. Depending on who you listen to it was an in-joke or a vanity project or a tax write-off or serious resume building. When the group gradually fell apart over the following two years he rebounded most easily. He spent the first half of the 70's recording six underappreciated albums for RCA, the first of which was MAGNETIC SOUTH. He then formed the Pacific Arts label to release his new albums, reissue the RCA ones and eventually pioneer music video formats.

.....The instrumental portion of this track was written by band member Red Rhodes and named for the First National Band, Nesmith's group for the first three albums. (Yes, he also formed a Second National Band.) Rhodes was a talented and much in demand session man on the west coast, possibly the second go-to guy for pedal steel guitar after Sneaky Pete. There was something in there that appealed to me, that sound that reminded me of a vinyl record that isn't warped but sounds like it's being played on a record player that isn't maintaining a consistent speed. There's an irony to consciously choosing an experience unique to playing vinyl records to replicate on a cassette and there's a parallel in the choice for the final track on Volume 2.

.....Speaking of Volume 2, I'm going to be taking a two day break to gather my notes from 1993 and do some appropriate updating and maybe a few 'where-are-they-now's. On my 'off-days' I'll recommend things that I've noticed among current releases.

V01-T09 Tra-La-La/The Banana Splits Theme

.....I've mentioned before that the nature of this compilation tape is to make a continuous listening experience from selections representative of my... heterogeneous music collection without choosing items so similar as to create themes where none was intended. Having introduced a poppy television theme (in the previous post), I needed something that could naturally follow a television theme without being a television theme.

Volume 1:THE PITCHFORK APPROACH, track 9

• 01:56 "BANANA SPLITS" [aka "TRA-LA-LA"] (Ritchie Adams and Mark Barkan)
• performed by The Dickies
• original source: A-side, 7" A&M AMS 7431 (UK) April 21,1979
• and my source: CD GREAT DICTATIONS A&M CD5236 (US) 1989

.....According to the Dickies' website, this song went on to become their biggest hit, selling in excess of a quarter million copies. I didn't know that at the time that I added it to the compilation, it just seemed like the route to take. And if you're going to take that route, you might as well be driving a Banana Buggy, n'est-ce pas?