the ruts: cracked and stained

rut 1: a random draft resuscitated.

"No, I haven't lost the plot, and I know Friday night looms like a greasy moon waxing for kicks and wholehearted immersion. I should be cueing up Big Star and looking out a freshly ironed shirt.

Turning a cheek in the bathroom mirror and attacking that spot.

Some months back, Joe Stumble announced on Last Days Of Man On Earth that Paul Fox of the Ruts had succumbed to a cancer some 27 years after Malcolm Owen's fatal overdose. I was genuinely saddened by the news. Not least because it almost made me mourn for my youth in a way nothing else could touch.

There were only 1000 copies of this 45 pressed and I have one of them.

Several years back, I bumped into a roadie in a bar in Glasgow. He was taking a break from rigging a tent for T in the Park. I despise T in the Park. The only thing remotely appealing about this event is that it's sponsored by Tennents, a Glaswegian brewery. I told the roadie this and he concurred good-naturedly. He was a decent bloke. I asked him who was headlining in this tent and he grimaced and looked away. Travis, he replied. Bad luck, I said. We both laughed and ordered another drink. A pint of lager for him ; a Jack Daniels for me. He took out some rolling tobacco and I offered him a cigarette. On his left arm he wore a tattoo of his young daughter. We swapped stories regarding tattoo parlours and the perils therein. Above the newly inscribed tattoo I could make out something much older, indelibly reposing in the folds of his shirt. I squinted and gasped.

The Ruts D.C. was the partially obscured legend, an open invitation to a brotherhood of tainted blood and a sibling regret."

It's Sunday morning. The weekend is dead.


▼ THE RUTS: IN A RUT from "In A Rut b/w H-Eyes" 45 (People Unite) 1978 (UK)

THE CRACK

bird song on the west highland way

Peter Fonda & Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider, 1969.

Okay, so I've been away and I'm only now just catching up. Apologies. Brendan from The Rising Storm I see put together an informative piece on one time Fugs co-conspirators, The Holy Modal Rounders over on Bowhowdy's Cover Lay Down. The material under dissection is from their 1964 debut on the Prestige label, reissued on Big Beat.

Just to remind you, we're not long back from a week long camping expedition on the trail of The West Highland Way here in the 'wilds' of Scotland. An arduous hiking route for riddley walkers the world over, the A Roads travelling alongside the off beaten track are a magnet for bikers of all ages looking to rekindle their "Born To Be Wild" rite of passage. Just don't stop off at any of the few shops scattered along the route like so many pigeon droppings hoping to pick up a bargain. 'The World Famous Green Welly Stop" is not only not world famous, I suspect, but resembles a venus fly trap with whitewashed walls to camouflage it from the insect buzz of passing motorists.

Like sheep, the tourists are only there to be fleeced.

"On a BSA with two bald tyres you rode a million miles,
You cut your hair with rusty pliars and you suffer from the pillion piles..."
- John Cooper Clarke, Psycle Sluts (Parts I & II), 1977

With this in mind, I was thinking if we were to field a party in honour of the Modal Rounders the bottle I would unhesitatingly bring would be a Thunderbird in celebration of their "Bird Song" from the soundtrack to Easy Rider. I'd like to raise that bottle in a toast to Löst Jimmy from Me, Myself & Motörhead who also appears to share my fetish for road movies screened in perpetuity on the "Idiot's Lantern", and is a fellow Scot to boot.

Hello too, to Brian & Beth from Newcastle whom we met along the way.

▼ THE HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS: BIRD SONG from "The Moray Eels Eat The Holy Modal Rounders" LP (Elektra) 1968 (US)

EASY RIDER OST

sibling whispers #9: farren & wyngarde; separated at birth

Shock Doc confession! This Is Peter Wyngarde. Slip outside the house.

do you remember tyrannosaurus rex ?

RZ 302269.



illustration by gus macdonald.

My friend - and co-conspiritor [sic] from The Ghosts - Gus, recently e-mailed me with the suggestion I might feature some Marc Bolan and Steve 'Peregrine' Took. Or more specifically, the b-side to Tyrannosaurus Rex's groundbreaking 1969 single, "King of the Rumbling Spires".
Gus, I believe I may have mentioned sometime earlier, lived for a period - as did fellow Ghostly wraith, Ken Warner, a while later during the mid 70s - in Ladbroke Grove in London where Pink Fairies once held court alongside the Pretty Things; Ian Kilminster's Sam Gopal; Tomorrow; Hawkwind; and Mick Farren & The Deviants. Though not necessarily in that order. In fact, general disorder would be a whole lot more appropriate.

The list goes on.

The Grove was London's Greenwich Village and Haight-Ashbury rolled up in a joint of Persian Carpet proportions. These days I believe it has sadly undergone a more gentrified makeover. Escalating rents have doubtless all but drained it of local colour. You may remember Van Morrison serenaded it not once but twice on his "Astral Weeks". A good few of those incidental anarchic characters have featured quite prominently here in previous posts. And no doubt shall continue to do so regardless of fashion or fad. Or higher intervention.

"Lord have mercy, I think that it's the cops".As Gus recalls:

"Bolan was a (Ladbroke) Grove resident at the time and Steve Took was a regular at the PinkWind gigs under the Westway every Saturday afternoon during 70/71 and lived with them at that time.

Any track with a first line like that deserves an entry."

For further coverage drop in on Mick Farren's Doc 40. And here in an essay by Nigel Cross.

Say hello to Magic Michael. Incidentally, Bolan on the sleeve to this bears an uncanny resemblance to my great aunt Rae, an artist of mildly bohemian eccentricity and a lovely woman. Just noticing that there makes me want to go and dig out some Lemonheads.

 
▼ TYRANNOSAURUS REX: KING OF THE RUMBLING SPIRES from "King Of The Rumbling Spires b/w Do You Remember (Cult)" 45 (Regal Zonophone) 1969 (UK)

▼ TYRANNOSAURUS REX: DO YOU REMEMBER (CULT) from "King Of The Rumbling Spires b/w Do You Remember (Cult)" 45 (Regal Zonophone) 1969 (UK)

CRIES FROM THE MIDNIGHT CIRCUS: LADBROKE GROVE 67-78 2 x CD

jesus built my hotrod

sire 0-40211.



It's Saturday. Let there be noise.

Written by Alain Jourgensen and Gibby Haynes, with Haynes providing vocals as guest contributor, this is almost as good as the Butthole Surfers. Almost, but no cigar.

This is the extended 12" version not found on the later album release.

Play loud.

▼ MINISTRY: JESUS BUILT MY HOTROD (REDLINE / WHITELINE VERSION) from "Jesus Built My Hotrod" 12" 45 / CD (Sire) 1991 (US)

PSALM 69 (THE WAY TO SUCCEED & SUCK EGGS) ON AMAZON

wire: strange

a quick dip back in the kitchen drawer.

Please. Forget about the 'duller than dishwater' R.E.M. version.

Yet another variation on the "Sister Ray" theme. If you want more from potentially the best LP of 1977, I suggest you check out a previous post on Art Decade. Down to the Wire.


▼ WIRE: STRANGE* from "Pink Flag" LP (Harvest EMI) 1977 (UK)

PINK FLAG

* I put this one up on impulse, after Matt posted the excellent "Three Girl Rhumba" over on Perceptions. Delusions last week. Little did I expect he would also post "Strange", on the very same day no less, as coincidence would have it. Strange things on the wire, indeed.

sibling whispers #8: clarence white

Head over to The Adios Lounge for some truly fascinating detail on guitarist, Clarence White. A series of posts which stake out a claim.

ghosts: the fabled lost album (maryjane)

"fleeing a dust storm". farmer arthur coble and sons walking in the face of a dust storm, cimmaron county, oklahoma.
arthur rothstein, photographer, april, 1936. (library of congress)


Between 1989 and 1993 The Ghosts recorded a vast number of songs (the group themselves would hesitate to dub these sketches demos) on a living room installed Teac 4-Track which subsequently never saw the light of day. The majority of those recordings were entirely spontaneous and fueled by a seemingly endless diet of alcohol and and various illicitly obtained nefarious substances. A few of these songs - the best, though by no means the vaguest - proved eerily prophetic.

Half muttered utterances and instrumental doodlings appeared to take shape arbitrarily on tape with little planning if not provocation ; fleeting snapshots etched magnetically like fragile antique photographs for posterity. Again, given their spontaneity, few seemed to benefit from subsequent reworkings. Repeated attempts to improve on the quality of those original scribbles resulted, at best, in yet more songs broadly hinted at ; at worst, in dead-ends frayed like unravelling string.

The fully fledged painting resisted editorial conceit.

The words 'ether' and 'happenstance' were increasingly employed with banal regularity, even as those more detailed aural pictures revealed themselves in unfolding events. The spectre of laughter seemed never far from present - like something faintly glimpsed over one's shoulder - but whether that might prove even tenuously rooted in the benign or malevolent was anyone's guess. It came and went like a sprite and avoided definition.

A pillow of moss ; a sliver of tears ; a broken pocket watch.



one of a series of working cd images ; more at some later date.

There was, in any event, a definitive group of five persons involved. Sometimes just three. Frequently a pair. As time went by, the most naked of those sketches, quite possibly, were fathered by only two. They felt themselves to be diviners of curiosity rather than serious musicians.
And then they just grew tired.

The following 'snapshots' are Begg & MacDonald compositions, if they can truly be coined as such. Only take them with a pinch of salt if you can locate nothing stronger.


▼ THE GHOSTS: NEW BAPTIST (DUST BOWL) from "The Lost Album" Teac Demos (Maryjane) 1992 (UK)
▼ THE GHOSTS: SISTER LINO from "Hitler's Watercolours: 56 Gower Street (1989-1993)" Teac Demos (Maryjane) 1992 (UK)
▼ THE GHOSTS: PONY NOSE from "Hitler's Watercolours: 56 Gower Street (1989-1993)" Teac Demos (Maryjane) 1992 (UK)
▼ THE GHOSTS: UNICYCLE from "Hitler's Watercolours: 56 Gower Street (1989-1993)" Teac Demos (Maryjane) 1993 (UK)

communiqué #12: salutations

A special thanks to Any Major Dude With Half A Heart for mentioning SibLINGSHOT ON THE BLEACHERS alongside several other sites in his Music For Bloggers: Vol. 7 post last week. It was gratifying on diving back into the blogging pool after my short break to find this site singled out for approval.

props and salutations. illustration by ib.

While I'm at it, I would also like to belatedly thank Fusion 45 for his extremely kind words of support in his Random Notes Of Import much earlier in the month. MJ@F45 has recently embarked on a new career at WNEW while continuing to serve up great music more frequently than is seemly on his own site too. Respect. There are two reasons, really, for my neglecting to bring attention to this sooner. Firstly, Sibling Whispers was not yet up and running at the time of this development as a regular feature highlighting what is happening elsewhere. Secondly - and a good deal more frankly - while it's obviously quite flattering to receive the odd testimonial, I was a tad reluctant to draw attention to it lest everybody out there conclude my ego had maybe taken flight.

I walk a tightrope, motherf@ckers! Of my inescapable, and no doubt faintly ridiculous, angst.

Anyway; thanks, people. Your support is greatly valued.

▼ THE FALL: HIGH TENSION LINE from "High Tension Line b/w X-Mas With Simon" 45 (Fontana / Cog Sinister) 1991 (UK)

SHIFT-WORK REMASTERED

tea box: simtec simmons

when is a teapot not a teapot ?

This stunningly obtuse selection from the world of fine teas comes freshly brewed from the wonderful Office Naps - run with considerable style by DJ Little Danny out of Austin, Texas - a site I stumbled across by happy accident some time back, and have turned to on many an occasion subsequently looking to score a regular fix.

On a weekly basis since Office Naps' inception, Danny has consistently surprised and enlightened his hard core readership with some amazingly rare and hard to find "45rpm curios" from a variety of genres falling between '60s psychedelia and jazz obscura with unstinting dedication, all lovingly ripped from his own out of print collection.

His site is a treasure trove of unpredictable cool.

I can't imagine I might have happened on this Chicago release without DJ Little Danny's obsessive attention to delivering up such obscure gems, richly augmented through his regular supporting commentary.

Written by Maurice Jackson and released on his independent tiny soul imprint, Maurci, "Tea Pot" is an infectious machine driven jazz concoction which sheds much needed light on the late 1960's scene anchored in the mid west prior to the funk explosion ushered in with the dawning of a new decade and an audience thirsty for some deeply stirred bitches' brew. Like the best of teas its gently heated ingredients are infused with a flavour best sipped and savoured. Natch.

" 'Tea Box', for all its whimsical qualities, was not some after-hours lark of a studio engineer at loose ends. This selection was the handiwork of Simtec Simmons, the singer, guitarist and leader of aspiring Chicago R&B group the Tea Boxes. “Tea Box,” according to legend, was recorded at the behest of Herb “Kool Gent” Kent, a Chicago radio disc jockey who was taken with the sound of the rhythm machine and who in turn encouraged Simmons and his combo to record using it.

“Tea Box” features Simtec Simmons on guitar and two members of the Tea Boxes - his brother Ronald Simmons on bass and Bobby Pointer on the drum machine. Released on Maurice Jackson’s tiny Chicago soul label Maurci in 1967, “Tea Box” was, strangely enough, a good-sized regional hit, its anomalous and quirky appeal sending robots all over the upper Midwest to their local record shops for something they could finally dance to."

Simmons would later gravitate to a much harder edged funk sound on teaming up with fellow Chicago band leader, Wylie Dixon, scoring some respectable hits with their duo Simtec & Wylie, but as the 70s drew to its close, Simmons's appetite to win over the dance floor waned to the point of his quitting the industry for good.

This shit is too good to miss.

As is Office Naps, back after a fortuitously brief hiatus. Go visit today and grab yourself a cup.

▼ SIMTEC SIMMONS: TEA POT from "Tea Pot" 45 (Maurci) 1967 (US)

OUT OF PRINT

the boys are back in town

the roof top concert, january 30th, 1969.

"i'd like to say 'thank you' on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition."
"hello. hello. good to be back."

I know, I know : some people are clearly better off back behind bars, and the less said the better.

By the same token, though, I can't completely shake that unhealthy fetish for early Paul Gadd & Mike Leander proto-punk production; a glam chant straight off the terraces and onto a battery eating transistor radio. Even our school teachers warned us there was something decidedly unsavoury about Gary. God bless them. One glimpse of him oozing out of his lamé sequined suit on Top Of The Pops was all that was required for them to deduce that something deeply sinister was afoot, albeit in a pair of outsize platform boots.

And to think his jailbreak was strictly legal.

Something is rotten in the state of Denial. Goodness gracious.

▼ THE BEATLES: GET BACK from "Let It Be... Naked" LP/CD (Apple) 1969/2003 (UK)

▼ GARY GLITTER: HELLO! HELLO! I'M BACK AGAIN from "Hello! Hello! I'm Back Again b/w I.O.U." 45 (Bell) 1973 (UK)

▼ THIN LIZZY: THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN* from "Jailbreak" LP (Vertigo) 1976 (UK)

* link deleted.

LET IT BE... NAKED
32 GLAM HITS
JAILBREAK

communiqué #11: gone camping

columbia F.B.2816.
illustration by ib, after the cure's "a forest".

This city is too filthy and sticky this weather to stay cooped up like chickens hiding from a fox.

"If you go out in the woods today
You'd better not go alone
It's lovely out in the woods today
But safer to stay at home

For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day
The teddy bears have their picnic."
The song is widely acknowledged to have originally been written by John W. Bratton as an instrumental in 1904, one of a number of "'humorous' pokes at Theodore Roosevelt following his refusal to shoot a bear cub whilst hunting". The lyrics were a later addition by Irish composer James B. Kennedy.
We'll be safe.

We intend to camp out in a wigwam. And not feed the bears.
See you soon.
▼ HENRY HALL & HIS (BBC) DANCE ORCHESTRA:
THE TEDDY BEARS' PICNIC from "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" 78rpm (COLUMBIA) 1933 (UK)

HENRY ROBERT HALL

bubblegum: special k for the kidz

and don't forget to floss.

For a brief period between 1969 and 1970 Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz's "Special K" productions very nearly came to dominate the charts and pollute the critical faculties of children everywhere.

Remember the awful 1910 Fruitgum Company ? How about Joey Levine and Kris Resnik's evilly Machiavellian Ohio Express ? Damnation bound and throwing up cartoon sparks. The very sound of their "Simon Says" is almost enough to drive you into the far corner of a rubber room without the aid of a straight-jacket.

Steve Dworkin, staff writer for Special K recalls:

"In 1969 I was a staff writer/producer at Super K Productions.
I had written "Bring Back Howdy Doody" as a joke, not expecting Kasanetz and Katz to go with it. At one point, K and K sent my partner Gary Willet and myself into the studio to record as many "bad" records as we could in one day, including "Bring Back Howdy Doody." The session was... a tax writeoff."

"Bring Back Howdy Doody" later scored a hit for Lt. Garcia's Magic Music Box - under the pseudonym The Flying Giraffe - for K & K on the Bell label. The first recording undertaken at A-1 Studios in NYC, on which Dworkin was directly involved, had been intended for consumption in its original indigestible backward form but
was reversed under the instruction of K & K and found a home on the b-side to 1910 Fruitgum Co.'s nauseating smash, "Indian Giver".

You may recall the hit was later covered by the Ramones, NYC's junk gourmets of the Special K fad diet.

It should have all died there and then, of course, as the Bubblegum generation graduated first to amphetamines and later heroin in an attempt to erase the Special K experience and lose themselves to merciful oblivion, but 100% proof distilled evil - as we are now aware - is as prone to mutation as a t-virus. It may slumber for years like a sleeping curse, but allow it the opportunity and it will jump trains quicker than a hobo on the trail of spilled meth.

Watch out. Mr. Burns is back in business.

Credit to WFMU and The Bubblegum University.

▼ 1910 FRUITGUM COMPANY: WOW WOP (REVERSED) from "Indian Giver b/w Pow Wow" 45 (Buddah) 1969 (US)

▼ STEINSKI: SIMPSONS REMIX from "Steinski's Simpson Remixes" MP3 (WFMU, New Jersey) 2005 (US)

SIMON SAYS: AAARGH!

further, pranksters, further

the electric kool-aid acid test.

From Psychedelic 60s:

"In 1959, Ken Kesey, a graduate student in creative writing at Stanford University, volunteered to take part in a government drug research program at Menlo Park Veterans Hospital that tested a variety of psychoactive drugs such as LSD, which was legal at the time, psilocybin, mescaline, and amphetamine IT-290. Over a period of several weeks, Kesey ingested these hallucinogens and wrote of his drug-induced experiences for government researchers. From this experience, Kesey wrote his most celebrated novel, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and began his own experimentations with psychedelic drugs."

The Merry Pranksters got their show underway with Neal Cassady at the wheel.

Their journey was an act in three parts;

"The first was the infamous Magic Bus Trip, from California to New York and back, in the summer of 1964. The second was the “ongoing communal life centered on aesthetic experience and experimentation” which happened at the Kesey homestead from 1964 to 1966. The third act consisted of the acid tests held around California from 1965 to 1966."

Kesey was arrested for possession of marijuana in 1965. In an elaborate bid to throw the dogs off the scent, he 'masterminded' his own suicide by instructing associates to abandon his truck on a cliffside road near Eureka.

His suicide note read, "Ocean, Ocean I'll beat you in the end."

Kesey fled to Mexico in the back of a friend's car, but was later apprehended and spent a further five months at San Mateo County Jail, Redwood City, CA.


astral piper: syd aged 16 at home on hills road, cambridge.

A decade later.

During the recording sessions for 1975's "Wish You Were Here" at Abbey Road Studios, England, usurped helmsman, Syd Barrett turned up unannounced with shaven head and loose kaftanesque folds not quite concealing his acquired bulk.

Captain Bligh later confessed he cried.

▼ PINK FLOYD: WISH YOU WERE HERE from "Wish You Were Here" LP (Harvest EMI) 1975 (UK)

WISH YOU WERE HERE (REMASTERED)

lost valley (of the dolls)

whiplash records EP200, naugatuck, connecticut.
arthur 'killer' kane: self prescribing living statue, 'mister kool'.

From Wiki:

"Arthur Harold Kane Jr, was born in The Bronx, New York to Erna and Harold Kane. His mother died when he was a young man and his difficult relationship with his father went downhill. He graduated from Martin Van Buren High School in Queens, New York. He first played bass in the band Actress along the other original New York Dolls: Johnny Thunders, Rick Rivets and Billy Murcia, but not David Johansen."

After the gig was up for the New York Dolls, bass player Arthur Kane went on to join up with Blackie Lawless, who had briefly stood in for Johnny Thunders during the Dolls' addled Forida tour in 1975. Thunders and Jerry Nolan quit the band and founded The Heartbreakers with Richard Hell in the wake of his acrimonious split with Television.

Arthur settled on the name Killer Kane for his splinter project. Hardly inspired, but by this time he was understandably desperate to see his name in lights. His days of playing second fiddle were no more.

The bid for parity with those other Dolls who went on to achieve a degree of success was short lived if not hopelessly stillborn.

Disillusioned, Kane soon quit New York entirely and relocated to LA, but sunny California was as cruel if maybe a little warmer. While he survived Thunders and Nolan long enough to stage a reunion with David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain in 2004, he succumbed to leukemia just two hours after being admitted to an LA emergency room with suspected fatigue in July of the same year.

The ranks of dead dolls lie swollen with entropy.

With thanks to Phil Milstein for the pic and vinyl rip.

▼ KILLER KANE BAND: MR. COOL from "Mr. Cool" EP (Whiplash) 1976 (US)

SONS OF THE DOLLS

(i belong to the) blank generation

stiff BUY 7, 1976.



sire 12" reissue, 1977.

After his alliance with Tom Verlaine - first with The Neon Boys and then Television - had fallen afoul, Richard Meyers hatched a gunpowder plot with his new band, the Voidoids, and immediately set out to coin and otherwise capitalize on the CBGB scene in New York City.

"Blank Generation" first saw light of day not as an a-side but on the flip to "(I Could Live With You In) Another World", released stateside on Ork Records and on Stiff in the UK in 1976.

What Hell lost in Verlaine he made up for through the shrewd recruitment of exceptional guitarist, Robert Quine to his team, with
Ivan Julien accompanying him on rhythm guitar and Marc Bell (Marky Ramone) on drums. A restless native of Akron, Ohio, Quine brought
an eclectic jazz oriented sensibility to the table and a lawyer's sharp nose for sniffing out the bullshit. Older than his peers, Quine had aquired a degree in law from Washington University in the mid to late 60's and had specialized in Tax Law for several years before meeting
up and working with both Hell and Verlaine in a movie memorabilia store in NYC. The antithesis of naive young street punk, what he also had in abundance was a raw enthusiasm for rock n' roll which stretched all the way back to his pre teens, coupled with an incisive encyclopaedic knowledge.

In short, he was a great fucking guitar player and his talent is etched deep into everything the Voidoids laid down on wax.

The energy of that New York borne scene through 1976-77 may be - fittingly - forever remembered as punk rock, but Hell's sloganeering "Blank Generation" just as perfectly sums it up. With a copywriter's intuitively deft touch for PR mileage, he labelled a generation as precisely as any expensively targeted advertising campaign.


original photograph by roberta bayley; robert quine far right.

Robert Quine went on to record with Lydia Lunch, and - perhaps most memorably - Lou Reed on 1982's "Blue Mask". He also stood in on numerous sessions for artists including Tom Waits and Marianne Faithfull.

Severely depressed after the death of his wife, Alice in August 2003 from cancer, Quine was unable to recover sufficiently to move on from his loss. He committed suicide by heroin overdose in his New York home on May 31, 2004, although there was some doubt as to whether his overdose was intentional or not.

From Lester Bangs, with characteristic restraint:

"Someday Quine will be recognized for the pivotal figure that he is on his instrument — he is the first guitarist to take the breakthroughs of early Lou Reed and James Williamson and work through them to a new, individual vocabulary, driven into odd places by obsessive attention to On the Corner-era Miles Davis."
I don't think I would argue.

▼ RICHARD HELL & THE VOIDOIDS: THE BLANK GENERATION from "(I Could Live With You In) Another World" 45 (Ork / Stiff) 1976 (US/UK)

BLANK GENERATION

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

massachusetts (twice)

the mighty jonathan richman.

Born in Natick, Massachusetts on May 16, 1951, Jonathan Richman moved to New York City in 1969 hoping to cement his infatuation with the Velvet Underground. That's 'GLUED" to you. After a spell sleeping and living on the Velvets' then manager, Steve Sesnick's couch, Richman returned to Boston nursing a somewhat bruised ego. Down but never out, he recorded a session of demos with John Cale in 1972.

"She Cracked" can be found, of course, on 1976's debut proper, "The Modern Lovers", released on Beserkley. The original demo, I think, is just a little superior.

Thanks to WZJN for engaging me in thinking more on Massachusetts following yesterday's Barbarians post, and Jon for reminding me that
I'd completely neglected to mention Jonathan in an aberrant fit of premature senility.

▼ JONATHAN RICHMAN: SHE CRACKED (1972 DEMO) from "Rough Trade Shops: Rock and Roll 1" 2 x CD (ROUGH TRADE) 2001 (US/UK)

ROUGH TRADE SHOPS

the barbarians: moulty

not quite black leather barbarians, but barbarians nonetheless.



laurie LR 3326. written by e. greenberg & d. morris.

Pre-dating The Seeds even, The Barbarians - formed in 1963 - were a proto-punk garage band straight out of Provincetown, Massachusetts. Their original line-up - consisting of Jeff Morris; Jerry Causi; Bruce Benson; and Victor "Moulty" Moulton - cut their first 45 in 1964 on tiny Massachusetts local imprint, Joy Records, a primitive British Invasion inspired number titled "Hey Little Bird".

Long haired and uniformly shod in jesus boots as part of some half-hearted gimmick, the real star of the band was Moulty himself, their one-handed drummer (and vocalist on this, their most infamous single) who sported a hook as the result of a tragic childhood accident.

Following a well secured appearance in Santa Monica's Teenage Music International show - sharing centre stage alongside a host of first division heavyweights including the Stones, James Brown, Chuck Berry, and the Beach Boys - the Barbarians were invited to record an album on Laurie; their predictably self-titled debut hit the racks in 1965. Although it featured the off-handedly cool (excuse the pun) "Are You A Boy, Or Are You a Girl ?", the LP itself is merely interesting.

The real jewel in their crown of thorns is the autobiographical, "Moulty", apparantly recorded during the album sessions as throwaway filler, but subsequently released as a 45 on Laurie in '66. The song by all rights should just be a rudely executed tear-jerker - a garage junk fileaway - but no, this 'nugget' actually goes far enough to rival the Stooges for pure punk attitude and pulse quickening heart. And it didn't even make the album's final tracklist.

But wait, it gets way more interesting.



The rest of the Barbarians don't even make an appearance. Recorded
in New York City after all but Moulty packed up their equipment and
fled back home, it transpires those musicians more than ably backing Victor Moulton are none other than The Hawks, or - to the still clueless - Bob Dylan's The Band. And none of the Barbarians - especially Moulty it would appear, ashamed to be seen milking his disability - wanted the song released in the first place. Producer, Doug Morris, however, could smell a hit when he heard one and went ahead and printed it up as a shiny new 45 regardless. Tempers frayed, the group soon walked.

The Barbarians bravely kept right at it, evolving into Black Pearl by 1968, but the real hero here is undoubtably Moulty and his righteous call to arms.

Don't Turn Away.

▼ THE BARBARIANS: MOULTY from "Moulty" 45 (Laurie) 1966 (US)

SUNDAZED BARBARIANS

pow!

rubber biscuit

josie 803. $100.

Performed by Charles Johnson; Nathaniel Epps; Shedrick Lincoln; Samuel Strain Jr.; Paul Fulton. Written by Charles Johnson. Released in August 1956 on Josie Records.



▼ THE CHIPS: RUBBER BISCUIT from "Rubber Biscuit b/w Oh, My Darlin'" 45 (Josie) 1956 (US)

CLASSIC 45s

deodato, carly and carole

creed taylor industries.

Recorded by Eumir Deodato in Brazil, 1972 and featuring a stellar line-up including several members of the original Os Catedráticos (with whom he'd recorded since 1964), the title used for the album's release in Brazil on the Equipe label.

Thanks to the mighty Loronix for filling in some of the blanks. More Deodato.

Unfortunately, I was unable to source any pictures of Carly and Carole getting it on.

▼ EUMIR DEODATO: CARLY AND CAROLE (Dedicated to CARLY SIMON & CAROLE KING) from "Skyscrapers" LP (CTI) 1973 (US/Brazil)

OS CATEDRÁTICOS '73

take five

columbia records CS 8192.

Featuring cover art by Neil Fujita, the album comprises all original compositions in a variety of time signatures.

Dave Brubeck: piano
Paul Desmond: saxophone
Eugene Wright: bass
Joe Morello: drums

Written by Paul Desmond. Wickedly restrained - but flamboyant enough - drumming from Joe Morello in the breaks.

▼ THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET: TAKE FIVE from "Time Out" LP (Columbia) 1959 (US)

TIME OUT

sibling whispers #7: les strokes

Switch the dial for a blistering set by The Strokes from 2002, at La Mutualité, Paris, France over on Art Decade. Posted by Mike. Complete with authentic accompanying franco-twittering to make you wish you were actually there. Nice.

san quentin

original punk rocker, and still king of the hill, mr. johnny cash.

▼ JOHNNY CASH: SAN QUENTIN #I from "Johnny Cash At San Quentin" LP (Columbia) 1969 (US)

▼ JOHNNY CASH: SAN QUENTIN #2 from "Johnny Cash At San Quentin" LP (Columbia) 1969 (US)

PURCHASE JOHNNY CASH AT SAN QUENTIN: LEGACY EDITION

alan vega & martin rev

my crude photoshop remix.

Suicide toured with the Clash in 1977. Bottles were thrown. People spat. Fucking assholes.

▼ SUICIDE: CHEREE (REMIX) from "Cheree / I Remember" 12" 45 (Red Star) 1978 (UK)

SUICIDE REMASTERED

vladimir cosma

kiss by the hotel de ville by robert doisneau, 1950.

Thinking on Emmett and his wife honeymooning close to the Seine as we 'speak', it brought back to me my first - and, alas, only - visit to Paris in the 80's.

It is a city unlike any other. The light, too, diffused and gentle, immediately brings to mind the Impressionists chasing on the heels of those famous street photographs by Robert Doisneau.

These f@ckers didn't paint like that for no good reason; the light itself is genuinely different.

While I was in Paris I walked (literally) in the footsteps of mad genius, Erik Satie on the daily route he took between his squalid studio apartment and the cafés where he passed time in the company of other artists. When I say squalid I don't mean romantically low-rent ; I mean filthily 'apart' in the truest sense, filled with the debris of his long distance work ethic and - allegedly - smeared with his own faeces in some prototype 'dirty protest'. There were no prison warders for him to offend, of course. He installed himself in a Devil's Island of his own making.

I was a good deal younger then, granted, and far more impressionable.

More than any other single composer, I believe Satie was the harbinger of 20th Century music. Everything from three chord rock n' roll to electronic experimentation. Some 'experts' have uncharitably labelled him a charlatan. What the fuck does that mean ? What weight does such a diagnosis ultimately carry ?

Erk Statie was a middle-aged, bespectacled punk who sought and found momentary peace in those silences between notes.



You may recall the seminal French movie "Diva" directed by Jean-Jaques Beineix. The film was revered for its stunning performance by Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez of Alfredo Catalini's aria from "La Wally". More than that, though, Vladimir Cosma demonstrated a devotion to Satie in his accompanying soundtrack.

I hear young muslim gangbangers have all but taken over the Champs-Élysées these days. A boulevard for colours to be flown. The Place Pigalle probably operates a one-stop picture framing service for the tourists.

▼ VLADIMIR COSMA: PROMENADE SENTIMENTALE from "Diva (OST)" LP (Pomme) 1981 (France)

▼ VLADIMIR COSMA: PROMENADE SENTIMENTALE II from "Diva (OST)" LP (Pomme) 1981 (France)

DIVA ON AMAZON

i have always been here before

roger kynard erickson's
all-seeing eye, or some outlandishly fiendish occult plot ?

This song was recorded in Roky's manager's office in Marin County, California during an acoustic solo performance in which the Aliens were notable by their absence.

"from the gargoyles to stone henge from the sphynx to the pyramids
religious temples praising the devil right
to the devils club as it strikes midnight..."

Hear that first line quoted above ? I'm still not convinced.

Ever since my friend, Gus - an Erickson aficionado - first brought this song to my attention a couple of years after its original release, I have been stone cold certain Roky actually sings "From The Gorbals to Stone Henge"...despite the odds. Even listening to it now, having finally sourced the lyric on the web somewhere in a bid to lay old ghosts to rest, I continue to harbour grave doubts.

Gargoyles just don't do it for me.

Call me crazy, but I have always been here before.

As for Roky, well; he uncovered more plots than in 'The Da Vinci Code', and I still think he's more sane than those people who rushed out to purchase Dan Brown's doorstop of a book.

▼ ROKY ERICKSON: I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HERE BEFORE from "Gremlins Have Pictures" LP (Pink Dust) 1986 (US)

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN HERE BEFORE:
THE ROKY ERICKSON ANTHOLOGY

kankan blues

Quite unbefittingly, this acoustic piece comes not from South Africa but far to the north-west in Mali, on the border with Senegal.

Like Baaba Maal, the mood is lazy and fatalistic.

▼ KANTÉ MANFILA & BALLA KALLA: KANKAN BLUES from "Kankan Blues" CD (Out Of Africa) 1991 (Africa)

KANKAN BLUES ON AMAZON

keep on pushing

remembering those ordinary people who refused to bow to tyranny. photograph by james nachtwey.

Nelson Mandela - along with seven others - was imprisoned on Robben Island in 1964 where he served eighteen years of his twenty-seven year sentence. While many people will of course be celebrating his 90th birthday today, let's all try to remember the struggle for democracy on the African continent is ongoing. As the crisis in twisted clown, Mugabe's Zimbabwe deepens just next door - and in South Africa itself with regard to Zimbabwean refugees - it is imperative the world doesn't lose focus. Any Major Dude With Half A Heart remembers his brush with the apartheid Security Branch in the late 80s and makes a compelling case for keeping Mandela's achievement in context while celebrating his triumph. There is no cause to be complacent.

▼ THE IMPRESSIONS: KEEP ON PUSHING from "Keep On Pushing b/w I love You (Yeah)" 45 (Karusell) 1964 (US)

KEEP ON PUSHING / PEOPLE GET READY

surf's up

...are you sleeping, brother john ?

Brian Wilson on perhaps one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded:

"One night in early spring 1971 I drove to the beach, parked the car, and walked out onto the deserted sand. If Marilyn, sleeping in a separate bedroom that night, had known where I was going, she would've hidden the car keys, perhaps robbing me of the inspiration that led to one of my best and least-known songs. Of course, she would've had good reason. Lately, I'd been depressed, preoccupied with death. I'd ordered the gardener to dig a grave in the backyard and threatened to drive my Rolls off the Santa Monica pier."

Written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks. The second arrangement is assembled from original 1966 studio sessions from the aborted "Smile".

▼ THE BEACH BOYS: SURF'S UP from "Surf's Up" LP (Brother) 1971 (US)

▼ BRIAN WILSON: SURF'S UP (ORCHESTRAL ARRANGEMENT) from "Smile" LP (No Label) 1967 (US)

SUNFLOWER / SURF'S UP

SMiLE (2004)

lieutenant pigeon

stop the pigeon...

This song perfectly encapsulates the grey twilight of the early 70's up and down the sewage stoked shores of these hallowed isles.

An era of miners' strikes and constant power cuts as a consequence. Unemptied refuse bins piling on the streets and troops deployed to clean up the decaying heaps.

Nobody seemed to mind too much. The miners were heroic then, the martyrs of Great Britain's declining heavy industry and just in their demands for better pay.

The winter was long and filled
with blackouts; kettles were boiled and baths filled with military precision lest the lights blinked off and caught you in the dark. Children padded home from school through the sleet and snow and watched what they could on the tragic lantern before the cathode rays invariably died.

Late at night their parents secretly cursed those same strikers they countenanced by day. Heavy metal canisters of Calor Gas appeared in every house like early Christmas presents.

Fast forward a mere decade, and the miners had a much tougher time of it as they fought to preserve their jobs and dignity under Tory prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.

This was Lieutenant Pigeon's only big hit. From Wiki:

"A spin-off from the experimental music band, Stavely Makepeace, fronted by Rob Woodward; Lieutenant Pigeon's sound was dominated by the heavy ragtime-style piano played by his mother, Hilda Woodward."

Written by Nigel Fletcher and Woodward - and recorded in Woodward's front room in Coventry with his mum tinkling on the ivories - this was one of Jarvis Cocker's Desert Island Discs when he guested on the very wonderful BBC Radio 4. My station of choice.

Ideal for any funeral as an antidote to the bogus angst of the Big Chill.

▼ LEUTENANT PIGEON: MOULDY OLD DOUGH from "Mouldy Old Dough b/w The Villain" 45 (Decca) 1972 (UK)

THE BEST OF LIEUTENANT PIGEON

eater

left to right: brian chevette; ian woodcock; phil rowland; andy blade.

Eater were one of my faves 'back in the day', as the cliché goes. This probably had more to do with their considerable youth - drummer Dee Generate (né Phil Rowland) was purportedly only fourteen years old when the band signed to Dave Goodman's 'The Label' - than their inspired mix of glam and proto-punk, a wicked blend of Alice Cooper; T.Rex; The Velvet Underground; and Bowie. They looked and sounded ridiculously young on record and I was too.

According to Mark Perry's Sniffin' Glue fanzine, issue #8, with regard to their first single:

"...this single is crap. It's not even good crap, it's just a waste of time."

The above condemnation really is
a shame. Mark P. formed the inimitable Alternative TV in Deptford, south-east London in 1976 alongside Glaswegian, Alex Fergusson on guitar, later of Psychic TV. This group in turn - owing more to Zappa and krautrockers, Can - also produced one of the best albums of 1977, "The Image Has Cracked" on Deptford Fun City Records. An invocation of slow motion riot.

And this was a year which produced more great records than you could shake a stick at.

Mark Perry did not often get it so wrong.

From Punk 77:

"Eater produced 5 singles and 1 album in their career spanning from December 1976 to January 1979 and all on Dave Goodman's The Label. They originally had a one year contract that was due to end November '77 but this was extended."

Eater should have been huge; a perfect teenage hybrid of the Ramones and Bay City Rollers. I'm still at a loss why this wasn't the case.

"Walter Lure comes from the USA ; Lou Reed comes from the USA ; Richard Nixon comes from the USA...
Gary Gilmore came from the USA !!"

▼ EATER: OUTSIDE VIEW from "Outside View b/w You" 45 (The Label) 1977 (UK)
▼ EATER: THINKING OF THE USA from "Thinking Of The U.S.A." 45 (The Label) 1977 (UK)
▼ EATER: MICHAEL'S MONETARY SYSTEM from "Thinking Of The U.S.A." 45 (The Label) 1977 (UK)

THE COMPLEAT EATER from CHERRY RED
BOOK IT: THE ANDY BLADE CHRONICLES

sibling whispers #6: central podcast

The theme for podcast #120 is threats and promises, and features fourteen contributors. Stay tuned and hear brother Matt's introduction at 15:49 followed by his contribution.

sucking on my ding dong

the velvet underground with john cale in the foreground at the dom, april 1, 1966. Photographs by Andy Warhol.

This is potentially the longest song I might ever get round to posting on SibLINGSHOT ON THE BLEACHERS. Turn up the heat.

I was listening attentively to the Ian Curtis and Joy Division version I posted a couple of days back, and while it was seldom off my turntable in 1981, it occurred to me then that the original just can't be beat.

No, sir. Not by a long short.

I suspect Mr. Beer N. Hockey might wholeheartedly agree. In fact, I may have inadvertently offended his sensibilities by not opting for this classic jazz "fuck you" from the very off.

Recorded at Scepter Studios, New York City in September 1967, the blistering "Sister Ray" not only fields the original and best line-up bar none - featuring Sterling Morrison; John Cale; Maureen Tucker; and Lou - but is also a distinct improvement on the fantastic plastic four's debut. And that is no small achievement.

Stripped of chanteuse, Nico's partridge feather bedding chamber sighs, the sound throughout "White Light / White Heat" is much more an impenetrable spider's web. It drips venom all over the fucking carpet.

No bass either on this one. Just howling electric organ and full-on Vox.

Andy, too, gets kicked to the kerb on production duties. The song is recorded in one fluid take, needle tracks and all. It is a righteous blast which has never been equalled, and perhaps never shall.

A group composition, produced by Tom Wilson - who apparently did little more than punch the record button - and engineered by Greg Kellgren.

The summer of love really ended here. Go suck your ding dong.

I'm counting on the fact that each and every one of you owns this one already, of course.

▼ THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: SISTER RAY from "White Light / White Heat" LP (Verve) 1967 (US)

WHITE LIGHT