rozenblit incident

The partnership which bore the short-lived Satwa was a collision of seemingly disparate identities from the same north-eastern coastal territories; Lula Côrtes from the old Portugese state of Paraíba, and Lailson from the resettled Dutch colony of Pernambuco.

Both, though, were very much a product of an idealogical optimism which flourished in spite of the third military government under Emilio Garrastazu Médici. Each traveled freely. Côrtes to Morocco, Lailson in the United States. On their return home in 1973, the "economic miracle" fostered by seven years free trade was in collapse.

Côrtes and Lailson parted company soon after the resulting LP was issued on a private press.

While Bernardo Rondeau* documents that Lailson subsequently drifted - eventually concentrating on a successful career as a newspaper satirist - Côrtes went on to collaborate with fellow Paraíban, Zé Ramalho on a more ambitious project. Where "Satwa" bristles with a raw dynamic, "Paêbirû" is considered and cerebral. Determinedly apolitical. The contrast is striking.

Just one year separates the two, but it as if the gentle unrest which saturated those earlier sessions has been burned away. The ashes interred. The memory of Morocco crystallized into something opaque and distant.

Ironically, given the material is presented in four distinct acts corresponding to the elements, all but a handful of copies were allegedly consumed by a river flood which bankrupted the label.

The story has never been convincingly authenticated.

The first piece is one of three gathered under 'ar'. The second, the last of four stained by 'água'.

Produced by Hélio Ricardo and Katia Mesel.

Recorded at Rozenblit Studio,
Recife, PE. October - December, 1974.

* Review of "Satwa", Dusted Magazine, 2005.

▼ LULA CÔRTES E ZÉ RAMALHO: HARPA DOS ARES from "Paêbirû" 2 x LP (ROZENBLIT RECORDS / SOLAR) 1975 (Brazil)
▼ LULA CÔRTES E ZÉ RAMALHO: TRILHA DE SUMÉ from "Paêbirû" 2 x LP (ROZENBLIT RECORDS / SOLAR) 1975 (Brazil)

heavy sarsaparilla

...any allusion to crème brûlée is entirely coincidental.

If you are diligent in keeping an ear close to the tracks, you will probably be familiar with Milwaukee's Creme Soda. Their sole release, 1975's "Tricky Zingers" has gathered a fair bit of attention; more so the proto-punk babble of the 45 it spawned, "(I'm) Chewing Gum", backed with the strikingly gentle, "Roses All Around", from the same album. The blog Ugly Things picked up the gum under a feature on "Primitive Shit Music" a few years back, as did The Lunatic Asylum operating out of Canada.

Somewhere down the line, although I forget where precisely, it adhered to my shoe - my sneaker soul, to be unkind - and I've never quite managed to scrape it loose. Carapaced on the outside only, "(I'm) Chewing Gum" attached itself like a limpet somewhere on my drive. Very occasionally I might stumble on it, and evey time I do I am reminded that what made Milwaukee famous is far from all she wrote.

The disparate four piece seemingly forged a working aliance sometime in 1972. Maybe they were just bored. It stretches credulity to believe they might have found genuine favour in their native Wisconsin, but who can say for sure. In an interview from 1974 which eventually ran, after a fashion, in an undisclosed Chicago based periodical, Creme Soda appear distracted if not downright uncooperative. Well. Keen to point out that they make use of a kitchen sink where a cowbell is suspected, at least.

That is not to suggest that Creme Soda were not prepared to make a desparate (lemonade) stand:

"On June 29, 1974, at about noon in downtown Milwaukee, at the southeast corner of Water & Michigan, on the fifth storey ledge of the Mitchell Building, Billy Tanon announced to the world that "Creme Soda is more than just soda-pop!" Armed with a megaphone he proceeded to 'broadcast' that mesage for five hours, all in vain - the world just wasn't listening. However, the police were listeningand helped our hero down from the dangers of the open ledge..."

- Nozmoe Wrabenawitz; sleevnotes, "Tricky Zingers", Trinity Records.

There is no mention that Tanon's antics attracted a crowd.

Unlike the Wild Bunch down in San Rafael, they bit the dust without much stir. Spilling copious amounts of syrup where William Holden and Ernest Borgnine laid it down in blood. Or. As copious a measure of Creme Soda as the tiny Trinity imprint could muster.

"Tricky Zingers" is an contrary animal. Every song on it wanders off tangentially at the drop of a hat, jerking the listener's ears this way and that as they stamp over tumbleweed before reining it in and heading off to the drugstore. As many flavours as sodas on the counter or out front in the gumball machine. "Keep It Heavy", in particular, is a wonderful song - a pristine gem with traces of Eno's "Baby's On Fire" as reinterpreted by Peter Laughner - wholly at odds with their Hasel Adkins tinged "(I'm) Chewing Gum". If Greg Shaw of Bomp! Records - who signed off the LP with on a glowing note - held real collateral then, Creme Soda might have made it onto a million doorsteps with the morning's milk delivery.

Then again, probably not. There and gone in the time it takes to grow a beard.

Billy Tanon: guitar, mandolin, bass, harp, bowed guitar, vocals;

Art Hicks: drums, bongos, dahka-de-bello, vocals;

Jim Wilson: bass guitar, piano, percussion, vocals;

Ron Juntunen: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, slide guitar, bass.

Recorded at Trinity "multi-hundred dollar international" Studios, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

▼ CREME SODA: KEEP IT HEAVY from "Tricky Zingers" LP (Trinity Records) 1975 (US)

savage fingers forge peaceful

Recorded March 21st, 1974: Studio A, WKCR FM, Columbia University, NYC. 

Sonny Sharrock: guitar;
Abe Speller: drums;
Jose Santos: percussion;
Dave Arches: bass;
Linda Sharrock: vocals.
 

Warren Harding "Sonny" Sharrock: August 27th, 1940 - May 26th, 1994.
Linda Sharrock, top, by Peter Bastian.

▼ SAVAGES: PEACEFUL from "Live Broadcacast WKCR: 21/03/74" (Archive) 1974 (US)
▼ SAVAGES: SWEET BUTTERFINGERS from "Live Broadcacast WKCR: 21/03/74" (Archive) 1974 (US)

rude boy

Appearing on the Success label compilation, "Yamaha Skank", in 1974 - reissued in 1990 on the Trojan CD, "Rupie Edwards & Friends: Let There Be Version" - this is, so far as I can gather, the earliest release by The President, aka Shorty. 

Produced by Rupie Edwards.

 wet mix by ib.

▼ SHORTY THE PRESIDENT: YAMAHA SKANK from "Yamaha Skank (V.A.)" LP (Success Records Ltd.) 1974 (Jamaica)

sliding windows and moonbeams

Taking up the slack from a recent post by Sheridan Dupre III, stepping off sun dappled kerb into twilight, here is a positively chilled vibe lingering in the shadow.

Because less is more, and I've been feeling a mite agitated of late. Spiky.

Lonnie Liston Smith: keyboards;
Donald Smith: flute;
Cecil McBee: bass;
Lawrence Killian: percussion, congas;
Art Gore: drums;
Michael Carvin: percussion;
Leopoldo: percussion;
Don Hubbard: soprano saxophone.

Produced by Bob Thiele and Lonnie Liston Smith.

photograph by charles harbutt.

▼ LONNIE LISTON SMITH & THE COSMIC ECHOES: SHADOWS from "Expansions" LP (Flying Dutchman) 1975 (US)

on the way home thru the park; or a tuna, darkly

Perhaps merely the faintest registration that broadcaster, Michael Terence Wogan has finally confronted the none too premature prospect of retirement has upset the radio friendly tuning in my brain. For whatever reason, I find myself contemplating Carly Simon circa "No Secrets"; and from there, the jump to Helen Reddy's 3 minutes and 29 seconds of sheer hokum requires not so much a leap of faith into the abyss of 1974 as a gentle shove.

The fashionably oblique "Angie Baby", penned by Californian musician turned professional songwriter Alan O'Day, provided the Antipodes' born Reddy with her first Billboard #1 in the US, and a top 5 position here in the UK. Allegedly inspired, in part, by the Beatles' "Lady Madonna", I freely admit to being less intrigued by the lyric at the time than vaguely irritated. In fact, prior to my stumbling across the copious speculation it appears to have provoked over the decades since its release, I had not given it much headroom.

From Wiki:

" O'Day said he also thought to his own childhood, since as an only child who was often ill, many of his days were spent in bed with a radio to keep him company...

Originally the character was just supposed to be mentally "slow," but while writing the song, O'Day showed it to his therapist, who pointed out that the character's reactions in the song were not those of a retarded person, so O'Day changed the lyric from "slow" to "touched," and the character switched from retarded to "crazy." "

Well. There you go. Don't shoot the messenger.

Despite its conceit, I have always secretly harboured some fondness for this disposable slice of psychopomp, oddly. File next to Bobbie Gentry. Or Bobby Goldsboro.

For those of you well acquainted with or simply dumbfounded by Mr. Beer N. Hockey's fixation for Grammy Award winner - and celebrity golfer - Anne Murray, this is one you might want to ponder.

Go now. Before I open the Pandora's Box that is Jimmy Webb's "McArthur Park".

Written by Alan O'Day.
Arranged by Nick De Caro. Produced by Joe Wissert.

▼ HELEN REDDY: ANGIE BABY from "Angie Baby b/w I Think I'll Write A Song" 45 (Capitol) 1974 (Australia / US)

houston, we have no problem

Ouch.

I did not intend to let this 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing pass unremarked. Launching on July 16th, 1969 from the Kennedy Space Center at 9:32 AM, local time - in the unlikely event that you may have missed all recent television coverage on it - Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins splashed back down to earth four days later on July 20th with just 25 seconds worth of fuel remaining.

Unbuckle your safety belt and grab an earful of Cozy Powell's barefaced homage to Jimi's "Third Stone from the Sun".

The Eagle has landed, siblings. And Eugene lingers on the dark side of the moon.

▼ COZY POWELL: DANCE WITH THE DEVIL from "Dance With The Devil b/w And Then There Was Skin" 45 (RAK / EMI) 1974 (UK)

PREVIOUSLY: AND THE MOON IS FULL OF WRINKLES

vorsprung durch technik

Written and produced by Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter.
Percussion by Wolfgang Flür; violin, guitars by Klaus Roeder.

Engineered by Konrad Plank.
Recorded at Conny's Studio & Mobile Equipment.

On a grimmer note, police are today examining CCTV footage after a ten-year-old boy resisted an attempted abduction last night in the south side of Glasgow, when a man attempted to coerce him into a car as he walked home through the Gorbals. The incident took place no more than several hundred yards from two primary schools within the area. Although understandably traumatized, the boy was otherwise unscathed.

For details, see here.

Excuse me while I look out Ry Cooder's "Vigilante Man".

UPDATE:

Subsequent reports now reveal the above incident to have been mere "horseplay". Horseshit, more like. There is a lesson in there clearly. Good thing too "Vigilante Man" ultimately eluded me. The whole thing leaves a bad taste in the mouth like a tale from the deeper south. Probably he was simply late for his dinner.

Now I feel compelled to uproot Billie Holiday's take on Abel Meeropol's "Strange Fruit".

▼ KRAFTWERK: AUTOBAHN from "Autobahn" LP (Philips) 1974 (Germany)

jocularis

joc•u•lar |ˌdʒɒkjʊlə|
adjective fond of or characterized by joking; humorous or playful : she sounded in a jocular mood | his voice was jocular.

DERIVATIVES joc•u•lar•i•ty |-ˌlarɪti| noun joc•u•lar•ly adverbORIGIN early 17th cent.: from Latin jocularis, from joculus, diminutive of jocus (see JOKE ).


A salacious furball from one time Clevelander Robert Dennis Crumb and cronies. The instrumental - "with novelty singing by members of the band" - was originally coupled with "Christopher Columbus", an even bawdier piece of faux 1920's whimsy featuring a vocalisation by one Leila Jane Dornacker.

This one can either be fairly amusing or downright irritating, depending on one's mood and material condition. Rather like "The Rain Song". You have been warned.
▼ THE CHEAP SUIT SERENADERS: MY GIRL'S PUSSY from "R. Crumb And His Cheap Suit Serenaders Party Record" 78rpm (Red Goose Records) 1974 (US)

communiqué #22: radio silence

Apologies to all my fellow siblings for the absence of communication over the past week. I have not intended to be aloof. I have needed this time away to collect myself and take stock of where I stand up in the soup. MIA, certainly. But only temporarily. And hopefully no longer alone and spiked and nailed to a signpost on the sharp curve of the road.

Things are moving. Good things are growing. From a junction which has history, regret, and a knapsack full of dogged ambition. Or devotion.

Touch wood, leaves and stems and seeds, I don't - we don't - fuck up again.

▼ BIG STAR: I'M IN LOVE WITH A GIRL from "Radio City" LP (Ardent/Stax) 1974 (US)

PURCHASE RADIO CITY REMASTERED

pacifist

It's still like a fridge out there, and still as a pool on
a beach. My eyes are wide open and dry as old bark.
Last night's indiscretions have been preserved in ice.

photograph by ib.

▼ BOB DYLAN: YOU'RE A BIG GIRL from "Blood On The Tracks" LP (Columbia) 1975 (US)

chain gang cupid

"cerambycidae #1". photograph by insect lab.

"Aren't you going to do something," she demanded.
"No, Bill," he replied, dismissing Mildred and
choosing to address the organ-grinder face to face.
" I'm all out of rejoinders, and - besides -
this game was fucking rigged right from the start."

Vinyl rip from Office Naps.

▼ CHARLIE'S WAY: CHARLIES TUNE from "Charlie b/w Charlie's Tune" 45 (Revlon: "A Charlie Record") 1974 (US)

mildew on my mirrorball...

And lava on my lamp.

Twin snare attack from the most kick-ass, bubblegum-baiting, glam backing band Mike Leander could hope for. Also released as a 45 in July, 1974. Going it alone for a string of hits, they sounded infinitely snide and genuinely antagonistic. Don't allow the discomforting guilt by association force you to turn the other cheek.

John Springate: bass, vocals; Gerry Shepard: guitar, vocals;
Harvey Ellison and John Rossall: saxophones;
Pete Phipps and Tony Leonard: drums.

Produced by Mike Leander.
Written by Gerry Shepard and John Rossall.

▼ THE GLITTER BAND: JUST FOR YOU from "Hey!" LP (Bell) 1974 (UK)

PURCHASE HEY! ON CD

christ, you'll never know

"...an event organised by city lights in san francisco 1972."

Christ. Microphone hum and grating applause. Laughter. And over it all, haltingly - caged and singing like a sparrow - a man sitting at a table with the spotlight flaring on his reading glasses. Seized with fright at the prospect of not making it to the end of the sentence, as much as the fear of not making it as a published writer. And not making the rent.

After Bukowski finally threw in the towel with the Post Office, public readings and appearances became pivotal as a means of cementing his reputation as a 'serious' literary presence.

Recorded at MCCC-TV Studio, Detroit, Michigan; 31st October, 1974.

"You don't have a tv ?...
You got to look once in a while. You never know what's going on."

I've heard it said that Detroit - like Glasgow - was a seriously tough gig in those days. Despite the nerves, Bukowski was a natural.

A more entertaining way to idle away a halloween I cannot imagine. Trick or Treat, brothers and sisters. Hecklers too.

▼ CHARLES BUKOWSKI: CHRIST, YOU'LL NEVER KNOW / THE CLOSING OF THE TOPLESS AND BOTTOMLESS BARS from "Totally Corrupt" LP (Giorno Poetry Systems) 1976 (US)

OUT OF PRINT

ding-dong, the witch is dead

left to right: andy hummel; jody stephens; and alex chilton.

Three-piece suite: "Radio City" era Big Star - minus Chris Bell - doing exactly what it says on the tin. Contrast the fresh-faced Chilton from the Mala / Bell publicity shot in today's previous post with the wasted cadaver taking a back seat in the above photograph. A vacant stare seven long years in the cultivating, and a portent of a holocaust yet to come. No picture credit, sadly; but for some nicely detailed observations on John Fry's Ardent Studio in Memphis, where he recorded and engineered both "#1 Record" and its successor, follow the yellow brick road via the link provided below.

'SEPTEMBER GURLS' ON SOUND ON SOUND, CLASSIC TRACKS *
* Article by Richard Buskin.

shang a lang

an early incarnation of the bay city rollers, circa 1971.
prior to the arrival of les mckeown in '73 on vocals and plaid.

"There are claims that the group sold 100-300 million records and generated the equivalent of £5 billion in revenue, with the band members themselves earning very little. According to BBC they sold 70 million records."

From the sublime content of the previous post, to the palpably crass and ridiculous. Produced and written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter. Dross from the ashes of the group originally formed in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1969 with Pilot's David Paton and Billy Lyall.

Alan Longmuir (Bass guitar, accordian, piano); Leslie Richard McKeown (Lead vocals, guitar); Eric Faulkner (Guitar, violin, mandolin, bass); Derek Longmuir (Drums, congas, tambourine); Stuart 'Woody' Wood (Guitar, bass, piano, mandolin)

And if you believe the above 'official' instrumentation credits, you are obviously witless enough to buy Bush and Brown's financial bail-out.

A big influence on NYC's Ramones, however, who settled on a formula cleanly stripped back to guitar, bass, drums and vocals, and cut their cloth accordingly. An invaluable lesson certain CEOs might do well to consider as they continue to sit on in the greater scheme of things.

Without recourse to mendacious attempts at ill-fitting embroidery.

PURCHASE ROLLIN' REMASTERED

the air that i breathe

photograph by bruce davidson.

Written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood. Originally recorded by Phil Everly, and later plagiarized by Radiohead. Quality cheese.

Excuse me while I put out that cigarette.

▼ THE HOLLIES: THE AIR THAT I BREATHE from "The Air That I Breathe b/w No More Riders" 45 (Polydor) 1974 (UK)

PURCHASE THE HOLLIES GREATEST HITS 2 x CD

david bowie: rock n' roll with me

photograph by 'street photographer', henri cartier-bresson.

 From one of my most revered Bowie albums. And there are a few. The first release after the spiders got sent back to mars, recorded between October, 1973 and February, 1974 at Olympic and Island Studios, London and Ludolf Studios, Hilversum, Netherlands without the great and sadly missed Mick Ronson.

Sin city.

▼ DAVID BOWIE: ROCK N' ROLL WITH ME from "Diamond Dogs" LP (RCA) 1974 (UK)

PURCHASE DIAMOND DOGS 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION

pretzel logic

Hum Ho. This would-be correspondent requires some healing music.
By way of an aside, Oakland, California is in and out of the house faster than you can shake a salty stick, I see. No time for introductions.

▼ STEELY DAN: RIKKI, DON'T LOSE THAT NUMBER from "Pretzel Logic" LP (ABC) 1974 (US)

PRETZEL LOGIC REMASTERED

massachusetts (thrice): another view

varulven records 805-111. feauring jonathan richman.

First off, let me explain why "Massachetts (Thrice)".

This is not the original version of "Sticking With You" from the unreleased 'fourth' album by the Velvet Underground, recorded in NYC between 1968-69 for MGM, and repackaged as "VU" on Verve in 1985. There never was really a 'lost' album as such, just a collection of unreleased songs which never made the final cut in the transition from MGM to Atlantic.

The original version of the song, penned by Lou Reed, is a much more laid-back affair and lacks the childish vitality and spark of this 1974 collaboration between Moe Tucker and Jonathan Richman.

It was released on the Boston imprint, Varulven, as a split 45 backed with "Count Viglione's Love and Flame featuring Lady Carolyn" in 1980, and remains - as far as I'm aware - out of print, although it was re-released as part of a five track EP, again on Varulven, in 1985.

The line-up features Willie "Loco" Alexander on keyboards and backing vocals; Jonathan Richman performing Lou Reed's original vocal part; and a possible - but uncorroborated - guitar part by George Nardo.

▼ MOE TUCKER & FRIENDS: ANOTHER VIEW (I'M STICKING WITH YOU) from "Another View b/w Of Yesterday" Split 45 (Varulven) 1980 (US)

VU