Friday, July 17, 2009

road runner (thrice)



spirit of '76


In which Rotten, Jones and chums throw up - not without some revolutionary affection - on the spirit of 1956, if not Boston's JR or 1776. Stern and bow, like time travelling pirates from William S. Burroughs' "Cities of the Red Night". Rather aptly too, since it appears a couple of previous posts on the original '74 demo (once) and the definitive Modern Lovers version (twice) have mysteriously been erased... Ah, those witch trials and the puritan spectacle of the ducking stool.

A pox on you, sir.



Spooky. Thank you, John and Jonathan.

SEX PISTOLS: ROAD RUNNER (WESSEX STUDIOS REHEARSAL SESSION, OCTOBER 1976) from "Box Set" 3 x CD (Virgin On The Ridiculous) 2002 (UK)

7 comments:

Denier said...

Man, speaking of that whole Cleveland scene the other day, that Modern Lovers album was also so far removed from everything else on the radio when it was recorded in, what, 1972?!

Blank Stares and Cricketclaps said...

That reminds me, must pick up a block of Country Life when i go to the shops this afternoon.

Mr. Beer N. Hockey said...

Such photos remind me ever so much of my youth, up on the roof, as the Adverts put it, getting bombed out of sight of The Bollocks.

Anonymous said...

That's one heck of a photo of Johnny Rotten!

Your driver said...

In his autobiography Rotten claims to have never worn jeans. Aha! At last he's been uncovered as a fraud! Actually, I just came across some kid's 'punk' blog. Punk rock, it seems, started sometime in the '90's when he heard his first hardcore record. The Sex Pistols were a 'boy band' who had nothing to do with punk. Kid, go invent your own stupid subculture.

ib said...

My internet connection has been inexplicably down for much of the past 24 hours so I'm catching up here...

Thanks for the comments.

Regarding that denim antipathy, I always felt it was a simple scam on McLaren's part to punt more leatherette out of Sex on the King's Road, but it is scandalous that Lydon continues to shamelessly collude in said lie. All the while content - as Blank Stares & Cricketclaps observes - to advertise Country Life spread with the obsequious fervor of Toad of Toad Hall.

Stay tuned for more sartorial nonsense from Mr. Rotten, when we unearth period sporting of shoulder length hair as a Pink Fairies infatuated teenager circa 74-5.

ib said...

RE JR:

Yeah, some of those songs on the Modern Lovers 1976 debut were origanally recorded as demos as early as '72 - notably the superior version of "She Cracked" which was featured here a spell back.

"Roadrunner (Once)", backed with "Pablo Picasso", was originally released as a single in 1974 and credited solely to Jonathan Richman.

The proper version, "Thrice" appeared as the flip to "The Morning of Our Lives" Lover's 45 release in 1977 on the Beserkley label after "Once" b/w "Twice" on the same label, again in '77.