textfiles/magazines/FUNHOUSE/funhouse-1.5

FUNHOUSE!

 

The cyberzine of degenerate pop culture

 

 

vol. 1 - no. 5; October 20, 1994

Released on Bela Lugosi's would-be 112th birthday

editor: Jeff Dove (jeffdove@well.sf.ca.us)

associate editor: Jeff Frentzen (jfrentzen@pcweek.ziff.com)

back issues: ftp - ftp.cic.net or ftp.etext.org; gopher - gopher.well.sf.ca.us

 

The first FUNHOUSE! Garbage Rock issue

 

<Note: written on a Macintosh text editor, line feeds are on.  Display in

 nine point monaco font.>

 

 

FUNHOUSE! is dedicated to whatever happens to be on my mind at the time that

I'm writing.  The focus will tend to be on those aspects of our fun filled

world that aren't given the attention of the bland traditional media, or which

have been woefully misinterpreted or misdiagnosed by the same.  FUNHOUSE! is

basically a happy place, and thus the only real criteria I will try to meet is

to refrain from rants, personal attacks, and flames - and thus FUNHOUSE! is an

apolitical place.  Offbeat films, music, literature, and experiences are

largely covered, with the one stipulation being that articles are attempted to

be detailed and well documented, although this is no guarantee of completeness

or correctness, so that the interested reader may further pursue something

which may spark her interest.  Correspondence and contributions are thus

encouraged, and any letters will by printed in future issues.  Please send a

short message to the above address, and arrangements will be made for the

submission of larger items.  The only other item is that FUNHOUSE! is

Free-Free-Freeware!  PLEASE copy and distribute as you wish; however please do

not alter any text.  I will be happy to try to clarify anything contained

herein, and to provide additional information if I can, so don't hesitate to

contact me.

 

Table of Contents:

 

* Letters, Commentary, and Other Stuff You'll Probably Skip Over

* The Rust@Death Mail List Evaluates the Neil Young Catalog

* The FUNHOUSE! Hot 100 - The One-Hundred Most FUNHOUSE! LPs of All Time

* Jeff Frentzen's Sleaze Film Source List

* A Survey of Essential Sixties Garage Punk Albums

 

Letters, Commentary, and Other Stuff...

---------------------------------------

 

The other day, I was strolling through the local Safeway, where a "Safeway

Cart" now requires a 25 cent deposit (Safeway claims it's to keep the homeless

from bagging the carts, but the truth is that they want to force you to

return them to their racks).  I saw an interesting item for sale - "Teen

Spirit Shampoo."  How's that stuff "smell?"  I wonder if they had it available

in the Wood$tock Bazare, purchasable only with official Wood$tock Script, at

Wood$tock '94?  It would have been hard to imagine that punk rock would become

marketable back in '81 or '82, when you faced a brawl with some lowered pickup

truck full of jock assholes blasting Journey just for walking down the street

with your hair cropped.  And the only thing more annoying than the promoters

and their MTV cohorts - trying to blatantly squeeze every possible buck out of

the event - were all the hippies who were bitching about it with a headfull of

romanticized pseudo-memories about '69.  There's nothing wrong with making a

nice profit, but the concept of "excess" seems to be foreign to the peddlers

of Wood$tock '94.  MTV - where attitude is for sale: "I came in here for a

special offer / guaranteed personality."  And despite the Gillman Street days,

Green Day have demonstrated that there isn't much punk rock left in them.

Just appearing at Wood$tock is enough proof of that.  And to close off this

little blast of negativity and get on with the fun, I have to wonder about all

of the fond rememberances of Woodstock '69 anyway.  Does anybody still really

like the majority of groups that played woodstock '69?  I see that subgenre as

one of the absolute low points in rock-and-roll history.  If you look past Sly

and the Family Stone, The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young (apart from CS&N!),

the rest of them were below mediocre or pure crap.  $35 for a Rolling Stones

tee?  Man, yuppies are suckers.

 

In the FUNHOUSE! tradition, we aren't delivering much of what was promised in

the last issue.  Like it says above, it's "dedicated to whatever happens to be

on my mind at the time."  Don't worry, next time we'll get back to the Italian

movie Maestro retrospective, and present Argento Part II, as well as Part II

of Jeff Frentzen's "All Night Video Drive In."  However, this issue is

dedicated to real, raw, trashy rock-and-roll.  With the recent release of Neil

Young's noisy Sleeps With Angles album, I decided to comission members of the

the Neil Young mailing list Rust@Death (currently trading info through the

address rust@death.fish.com) to provide some evaluation of the wealth of

material that Mr. Young has put out over the last 25 years.  Also included in

this issue is the Top 100 FUNHOUSE! albums of all time.  This is no "best of"

list - I try not to be pretentious enough to claim to know that. Rather, it's

the 100 records which best fit the FUNHOUSE! aesthetic of being honest and

energetic rock-and-roll.  Carrying on in that vein, FUNHOUSE! also presents an

overview of the LPs of some of the raging'est punk groups of the sixties

(there should be no surprise at a certain degree of overlap in these pieces!)

Psychotronic cinema isn't abandoned completely this time.  For answers to

those questions of, "That's cool - but where do I get it?" Jeff Frentzen has

compiled a sleaze film source list for videos and zines.  There's no review

section this time, but it will be back with a vengeance in issue number six.

Giallo creeps into American TV!  Promos for a new Perry Mason telemovie (uh, 

sorry but I missed the actual show) showed a black gloved killer wielding a

blade.

 

More Russ redux:

 

There are a new pair of soundtrack CDs from Russ Meyer's films recently

released in Germany under the direction of Russ himself.  Each is a comp-

ilation of music from three films, and each comes with a heavily illustrated,

high quality, color booklet (adults only!)  One features FASTER PUSSYCAT KILL!

KILL!, LORNA and VIXEN, while the other contains music from UP! (aka

MEGAVIXENS,) BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRAVIXENS, and SUPERVIXENS.  Only

VIXEN and CHERRY, HARRY AND RAQUEL (both on the Beverly Hills label) and

BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS (originally on Fox, and recently reissued on CD

on the Media Archives label) have had soundtrack LPs issued in the past.  Grab

the PUSSYCAT one for the great title theme by the Bostweeds.  How about MONDO

TOPLESS next?

 

Long live Roger Nusic!

 

The Hall of Shame - The Most "Un-FUNHOUSE!" figures in "rock":

 

Billy Joel (Attila)

Phil Collins (whose latest tour is sponsored by Sears - isn't that the perfect

              alliance of peddlars of lowest common denominator, safe drool to

              boreing middle class America?)

Sammy Hagar (Van Hagar)

Steve Perry (Journey)

Pat Boone

 

************************************

 

Hi, 

 

I read FUNHOUSE! #4 the other day and I just wanted to let you know that I

didn't fuckin' believe it!  Amazing...there ARE weirdos like me who dig all

this psychotronic crap.  The music stuff was good - I was able to use the info

- but what I *really* dug was the piece on Argento - marvelous!  I'm a writer

and I was considering writing a piece for Psychotronic Video.  I figured I'd

write on one of my fave directors, and since Russ Meyer was just covered I

thought it'd be natural to do Argento.  Well this article had more info on

that guy than I even knew was publicly available, may I ask where the hell you

dug that shit up?  You know, it was news to me that there was a book out about

his stuff also.  All I know is that SUSPIRIA is my favorite witchcraft movie

ever, and (this is weird) when I read your article I had tons of flashbacks

about the Argento flicks that *I'd never seen before*, like I'd seen them

somewhere (where?) in early childhood.  I've been conducting a lot of research

on dreams and consciousness lately and realize that in a weird way this could

be a psychotronic flick in itself.  There is something unsettling about

Argento's movies, like after you watch them they linger in weird ways; they do

strange things to my early seventies / early childhood memories.  There's a

certain kind of truth to Argento flicks and I think that's why I love them.

 

Thank you,

 

Michael Stutz

at118@cleveland.freenet.edu 

 

************************************

 

Hi Jeff,

 

I'm really sorry to contact you this close to your deadline, but I really have

no time to write a review of Neil Young's Harvest.  I was out of town for

business quite frequently this month and I just can't make it.  Next week is

very busy again.  I tried to contact you before but was unable to.  Forgive me

contacting so late.  Hope you find a solution for this.

 

Greetings,

 

Wilco Schepen 

schepen@rulub2.leidenuniv.nl

 

************************************

 

 

The Rust@Death Mail List Evaluates the Neil Young Catalog

---------------------------------------------------------

 

When I put out a request for reviews of Neil's albums to the list members,

there were no rules.  I simply asked that a commentator pick a record that

they have strong feelings about one way or the other - a positive disposition

toward the title was not necessary.  It was no surprise, however, that each

person picked an album they liked a lot.  In light of Neil's comments that

anyone who claims to like every one of his records must be crazy, there are

probably some members of Rust@Death who could use some therapy.  With that in

mind, I believe these evaluations will help others sort through a diverse

catalog, in which Mr. Young puts his unique twist on varying musical styles -

from folky acoustic to hard and distorted, and from feedback-drenched to pure

country, big band R&B, rockabilly, synth and techno.  So if you're into some

of Neil's stuff and want to know which titles in his vast back catalog might

be of a similar style, or if you're just trying to put it all into place, the

following should be a useful source.  Only records on which Neil Young was the

principal artist are considered, which means nothing by Buffalo Springfield,

CSN&Y, or the Stills-Young band is included.  You will, however, read about

Crazy Horse, the Stray Gators, the Bullets, the International Harvesters, the

Shocking Pinks, the Bluenotes, and the Restless.  Booker T. and the MGs

haven't yet appeared on an official release, but hopefully that is something

we can look forward to.

 

 

NEIL YOUNG

1969 - Reprise 6317

The Emperor of Wyoming / The Loner / If I Could Have Her Tonight / I've Been

Waiting for You / The Old Laughing Lady / String Quartet from Whiskey Boot 

Hill / Here We Are in the Years / What Did You Do to My Life / I've Loved

Her So Long / The Last Trip to Tulsa

 

by Ken Myers

kmyers@usace.mil

 

I have always been impressed by the "sound" of this album.  I have heard that

the CD release of Neil Young does not stand up sonically, but my vinyl

version, now over 20-years old, still sounds great.  (Alright, alright, the

quiet passages, especially on "Quartet From Whiskey Boot Hill," are kind of

crunchy).  This album has a lot happening on it, from the Hollywood Strings

(?) to the almost mechanical, almost inaudible whirring and buzzing

multi-tracked muted fuzz guitars.  And then there's Neil's voice, haunting,

spooky, beautiful.  His plaintive, arid, downright dangerous sounding vocals

are some of his best.  I make no attempt to analyze lyrics here, but let me

say that it sounds like they're the words of a soul who has crossed to the

other side and wants us to follow him.  Here are just some brief thoughts on

this album.  Some may call this work overproduced, and I would dare say Mr.

Young would not disagree.  I remember a Rolling Stone interview from the

mid-70's in which Neil referred to this album as "overdub city."  Certainly

the presence of strings may put off many of his grunge followers today, but

taken within the context of its time, this album holds up remarkably well. I

hate the cover art.  I've always loved the opener, "The Emperor of Wyoming."

Hell if I know what the title means, but this starts off as a loping cowboy

instrumental (I bet there are lyrics to this song somewhere) and segues nicely

into "The Loner."  This is my favorite song on the album, it reminds me a lot

of "Mr. Soul," but with strings.  It's got those great buzzing guitars too.  I

think the background vocals work wonderfully on "The Old Laughing Lady," but

almost ruin "I've Loved Her So Long."  "I've Been Waiting For You" has a great

guitar (there must be hundreds of them) intro. Then there is "The Last Trip To

Tulsa"!!!  What a way to end this album - weirdness disguised as weirdness.  I

love it, it's so different from what came before.  The jangled and jarring

images, the paranoid, almost whining vocals - just Neil and his guitar.

However, the single most beautiful moment on this album is on "Here We Are In

The Years," when Neil sings the line "So the subtle face is a loser this time

around."   It is absolutely beautiful and evocative, and is my all time

favorite "Neil moment."

 

 

EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE

1969 - Reprise 6349

Cinnamon Girl / Everybody Knows This is Nowhere / Round and Round (It Won't

Be Long) / Down By the River / The Losing End (When You're On) / Running Dry

(Requiem for the Rockets) / Cowgirl in the Sand

 

by Lise R. Zawlocki

lisez@cruzio.com

 

The year is 1969.  The year of Woodstock, and of Neil Young's classic second

album, "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere."  The album marked Neil's first of

many collaborations with a group that calls itself Crazy Horse, and that

featured a guitar player named Danny Whitten.  Whitten's drug-overdose death

would later inspire Young's "The Needle and the Damage Done," featured on the

1972 release Harvest.  The next Crazy Horse project wouldn't be until 1975's

Zuma, with Frank San Pedro replacing Whitten on guitar.  Everybody Knows

This Is Nowhere has a stripped production sound; its beauty lies in the

guitar solos in "Down By The River," or in the childlike vocals in the title

track.  The album's lyrics are simple and soulful, yet not fully understood,

even after listening to this album for over twenty years.  But Everybody

Knows This Is Nowhere has clearly withstood the test of time, and has

produced some favorites that often get played live when one sees Neil Young

perform.  The first selection on the album is one such standard at many of

Young's shows - "Cinnamon Girl."  But what does this song speak of?  On this,

and many of the songs on this album, the lyrics are almost an afterthought.

It is the music - the lead guitar, the rhythm guitar, the drums, that make the

song a classic performance piece.  In the second track Neil complains that he

wants to go home, but does he really?  Is it complacency that keeps him from

going home or is he telling us sarcastically that "Everybody Knows This Is

Nowhere"?:

 

  "Everybody seems to wonder / What it's like down here / I gotta get

   away / From this day-to-day runnin' around / Everybody knows this is

   nowhere / (la la la, la la la la)"

 

That sweet, boyish harmony on the "la la la"'s send me reeling and wondering

what he's really trying to tell me.  The third track is "Round and Round (It

Won't Be Long)," with a slow, lulling pace and more angelic harmony vocals.

Like the spider who comes out every evening to patiently repair its web, this

song evokes a feeling of time drifting by, of death approaching.  The lyrics

are uncomplicated and intoxicating:

 

  "It won't be long.../ How slow and slow and slow it goes / To mend the tear

   that always shows / It won't be long / It won't be long..." 

 

Then, just as you are ready to drift off to never-never land, the last and

longest song of side one hits you right between the ears.  "Down By The

River," another brilliant vehicle for Neil's awesome guitar playing abilities,

explodes with unadulterated energy.  A long, raw guitar solo is restrained

only by the steady backdrop of the rhythm guitar and bass line.  The drums

beat a machine gun staccato in between each phrase of the chorus:

 

  "Down by the river / I shot my baby / Down by the river/ Dead (shot 

   her dead)..."

 

"The Losing End (When You're On)" is one of Young's most obvious early forays

into country music, with a simple tune and earthy charm.  He writes about

abandonment and self pity:

 

  "It's so hard to make love pay / When you're on the losing end / And I

   feel that way again... / It's so hard for me now / But I'll make it 

   somehow / Though I know I'll never be the same / Won't you ever change 

   your ways?"

 

It's easy to dismiss this little ditty, but it wears on you just the same,

like a shabby old coat that you just can't toss.  Throughout Everybody Knows

This Is Nowhere, Neil Young is feeling sorry for himself, confessing some

dark crime, or simply a secret wish he harbors in his heart.  By the time we

get to "Running Dry (Requiem For The Rockets)," it's not difficult to notice

that his apologies sound more like unrepentant, even proud, declarations.  The

chorus is one massive rationalization:

 

  "I'm sorry for the things I've done / I've shamed myself with lies /

   But soon these things are overcome / And can't be recognized."

 

Yet the lilting, plaintive melody and woeful violin solo reflect the artist's

inner torture at having deserted his lover:  

 

  "Oh please help me, oh please help me / I need someone to comfort me /

   My cruelty has punctured me / And now I'm running dry"

 

The truly fitting finale of this album is its longest song as well, "Cowgirl

In the Sand," a beautiful, lyrical, rocking and raw piece with long,

unrestrained guitar solos and soulful musicianship throughout.  The song may

have additional significance for its mention of Neil's favorite state of

deterioration: RUST!  Careful listening will reveal this lyric:

 

  "Hello Ruby in the dust / Has your band begun to... "  

 

You know the rest.  Blow the cobwebs off *your* copy and give it a listen.

It's a great album, and after a quarter of a century, still holds up for its

powerful music, evocative lyrics, and historic significance as the first Neil

Young / Crazy Horse collaboration.

 

 

AFTER THE GOLD RUSH

1970 - Reprise 6383

Tell Me Why / After the Gold Rush / Only Love Can Break Your Heart / Southern

Man / Till the Morning Comes / Oh Lonesome Me / Don't Let It Bring You Down /

Birds / When You Dance I Can Really Love / I Believe in You / Crippled Creek

Ferry

 

by Runar Igesund 

si2_ri92175@debet.nhh.no

 

After the Goldrush is a "right" album.  Right in the sense that it changes

and grows, along with the listener.  The first time I listened to it, I

thought that "Southern Man" was the only cool track on the album.  Maybe

because it, together with "When You Dance I Can Really Love", were the only

tracks that were with an electric band.  But soon I learned to appreciate the

fine lyrics of "Tell Me Why," and the ingenious melody of "Don't Let It Bring

You Down."  And "After the Goldrush" sums up the album, as a title track

should.  A mostly acoustic album, it tends to be a bit soft, like on Neil's

cover version of Don Gibson's "Oh Lonesome Me."  It's nice and calm, and

doesn't "tear up the neighborhood."  But most of all, the arrangements

underline what might be Neil Young's finest collection of tender melodies.

 

 

HARVEST

1972 - Reprise MS 2032

Out on the Weekend / Harvest / A Man Needs a Maid / Heart of Gold / Are You

Ready for the Country / Old Man / There's a World / Alabama / The Needle

and the Damage Done / Words

 

by Jyrki Kimmel

kimmel@sai.vtt.fi

 

  "Think I'll pack it in and buy a pickup / Take it down to L.A."

 

Those lines begin Neil Young's Harvest, the legendary album that "put (Neil)

in the middle of the road."  The image I always get listening to this part is

of driving down I-15 from Nevada to San Bernadino and Los Angeles - but what

could be more inappropriate?  Neil has since commented, "It was time to head

for the ditch," after he made this album, but signs of the ditch are already

evident here.  The opening tune, "Out on the Weekend," sets the tone for

Harvest's first section, which is comprised of four melancholy songs,

including Neil's one and only number-one hit single, "Heart of Gold."  Between

these two are "Harvest" and "A Man Needs a Maid."  All of them are clearly MOR

(middle of the road), but they are just another segment of Neil's vast range

of material.  However, experiments with the London Symphony Orchestra

distinguish this music from the usual chart-hit mache.  "Out on the Weekend"

is the story of someone escaping a broken relationship.  The L.A. reference is

a permanent symbol in Neil's work.  With this song you can escape anywhere.

"Harvest" is a much more innocent-sounding tune, with folkie references to a

young maiden:

 

  "Did I see you walking with the boys / Though it was not hand in hand" 

 

The "promise of a man" Neil wants to "fill your cup" with is, however, a

powerful reference to responsibility and the final decisions one encounters in

life.  "A Man Needs a Maid" is superficially a womanizer's song, but in fact

"a maid" is, literally, a profession.  If your heart is pure, you will

understand as there are no hidden meanings here!  The use of the London

Symphony Orchestra seems pompous at first, but maybe the Streisand sound in

fact works better here than anywhere else.  The song is simply heart breaking.

"Heart of Gold" is a song anyone can relate to, and maybe that's why it went

to number one on the US charts.  Neil's simple acoustic playing and piercing

harmonica give it a feeling of utmost importance:

 

  "I'd cross the ocean for a heart of gold"

 

We all know there's a "fine line" that cannot be defined which makes all the

difference.  The first side of the vinyl LP ends with "Are You Ready for the

Country," a healthy reminder of the "ditch" side of Neil.  Morbid references

to the hangman, and the haphazard guitar work, flip the album totally to the

other side of midnight.

 

Side two starts, again, with two songs in the MOR vein, "Old Man" and "There's

a World."  "Old Man" features another chilling performance, and James Taylor's

banjo provides a superb touch.  Neil's thoughts on the life of a celebrity,

and the fundamental loneliness found in overt publicity, are reflected here:

 

  "Oh, one look at my eyes and you can tell that's true" 

 

"There's a World" is another experimental tune with the London Symphony

Orchestra, complete with kettle drums and all.  "Take it in and blow hard" is

Neil's advice to his listener as to the attitude one ought to take in life.  A

counterpoint to these is "Alabama," a song altogether too widely labeled,

along with "Southern Man," as a comment on racist attitudes in the Southern

United States.  In fact, this is one of Neil's more personal tunes, and has

the ultimate reference to the MOR / ditch dualism:

 

  "Alabama - You got the weight on your shoulders that's breaking your back /

   Your Cadillac has got a wheel in the ditch and a wheel on the track" 

 

The guitar here is perfect "ditch."  The subject matter of the next track,

"The Needle and the Damage Done," brings Harvest to the bottom of the ditch.

It is Neil's anti-drug manifesto, performed live on acoustic guitar.  However,

the tune itself is strictly MOR.  Imagine the lyrics of "From Hank to Hendrix"

inserted and you'd get another chart-buster, but talk about junkies and drug

deals may not be appropriate.  The last song on the album is also "ditch."

Rhythmically, "Words" is an experiment,  but proves its point in a wall of

electric and slide guitar barrages, which is a more than appropriate ending to

this album.  Harvest is to the diehard Neil fan like a box of corn flakes;

you know what's there, you've tasted other cereals and maybe prefer more

exotic varieties, but you still have to go back once in a while for the

classic.  Trust me, it's all here, as the core of Neil's work has not changed

over time.  Neil has since produced albums that have surpassed the material on

Harvest, with respect to both MOR and "ditch," more so than probably anybody

imagined in 1972.  Harvest deserves its legendary status, even though it has

been criticized as patchy and not wholly developed conceptually.  I would

argue that it is conceptually perfect as a document of Neil's personality.

With its middle-of-the-road attitude and its "ditch" flip side, Harvest

provides both questions and answers concerning "life, the universe, and

everything."

 

 

JOURNEY THROUGH THE PAST

1972 - Reprise 2XS 6480

For What It's Worth-Mr. Soul / Rock-and-Roll Woman / Find the Cost of 

Freedom / Ohio / Southern Man / Are You Ready for the Country / Let Me 

Call You Sweetheart / Alabama / Words / Relativity Invitation / Handel's 

Messiah / King of Kings / Soldier / Let's Go Away for Awhile

 

by Steve Vetter  (Farmer John)

vetters@vax1.elon.edu

 

Journey Through the Past is probably one of Neil Young's most underrated

albums.  Released in 1972, as the soundtrack to the movie of the same name and

right after the massive success of Harvest, it was in many fans' eyes a

letdown.  In fact Journey Through the Past only offers one new song, and it

is buried on side four between what is, in my opinion, a bunch of crap.  The

double album (still not available on CD) starts off with some classic live

recordings of the Buffalo Springfield on old TV shows.  Interestingly enough,

you can hear the young girls go wild, just like the did for the Beatles'

appearances.  They do "For What It's Worth" and segue into "Mr. Soul."

Following that is a throw away version of "Rock-and-Roll Woman."  Closing side

one is a performance of "Find the Cost of Freedom" that runs right into a

version of "Ohio," which sounds very close to the original.  Sides two and

three are much better.  "Southern Man" begins side two with a long, jam

version in front of an audience.  Following it is "Are You Ready For the

Country" (or at least part of it), which segues into a group of teenagers

singing "Let Me Call You Sweetheart."  What comes next is my second-favorite

part of the album.  Neil and some of CSN take up a jam of "Alabama," and you

can hear someone in the studio fooling with the mix.  The best part of

"Alabama" is Neil saying, "We should do a moving Oooooh..."  What I like about

this is that you can hear the creative process between Neil and CSN.  You can

also hear an event like this on the bootleg Touch the Clouds.  As soon as the

guys figure out what they should play they get right back into the groove.

There is a bizarre section in which the music fades out and Richard Nixon is

heard doing a singalong of "God Bless America," along with Crosby (?) talking

about apple pie.  I liked it until Crosby got in there.  

 

The best is yet to come.  Once you turn over the record you are treated to a

*full* side of "Words."  This is also in practice / jam style and is

wonderful.  If you sit back and close your eyes, you almost feel like you are

with Neil and friends just working this out, jamming in the barn.   Side four

contains a bizarre sequence with Neil talking to a preacher about "Relativity

Invitation," then there is a really long, irritating section of "Handel's

Messiah."  The music and the "King of Kings" theme is pretty interesting, but

the singing is downright annoying.  The only new song on this album is

"Soldier," and it begins with an interesting intro not found on the Decade

version.  It had been a long time since I listened to this album and that was

a welcome surprise.  Concluding the side, and the record, is a song called

"Let's Go Away for Awhile."  It sounds lifted straight from the muzak system

at the dentist's office.  The only way to describe this album is unusual - the

good stuff is exceptional and the bad stuff is awful.  Sides two and three are

the standouts - if you are into jams and cool grooves buy the album and listen

to those two sides.  The rest of it (save "Soldier") is throwaway material

that did not translate well from screen to LP (including David Crosby screwing

up part of "Alabama.")  Neil has much better albums in his catalog, but

Journey Through the Past should not be overlooked or forgotten.  Fortunately,

Neil won't deny fans the opportunity to enjoy it on CD when the reissue comes 

out.

 

 

TIME FADES AWAY

1973 - Reprise 2151

Time Fades Away / Journey Through the Past / Yonder Stands the Sinner /

L.A. / Love In Mind / Don't Be Denied / The Bridge / Last Dance

 

by  David Skoglund	                                       

skog0013@gold.tc.umn.edu                             

 

"My songs are all so long

 And my words are all so sad"

               - Neil Young

 

The key to understanding and appreciating Time Fades Away is in knowing the

conditions under which it was recorded.  In the fall of 1972, Neil Young put

together a band to tour in support of his Harvest album.  He had not been out

for almost two years, since his solo acoustic tour of early 1971.  In that

time, both After the Goldrush and Harvest had been huge albums, thereby

creating a demand for live shows.  An arena tour was booked for the early part

of 1973, and to no one's surprise tickets sold quickly.  The band that Young

had assembled was a combination of the Nashville players from the Harvest

album, and Crazy Horse.  The initial tour lineup featured Young, Ben Keith

(steel guitar), Tim Drummond (bass), Kenny Buttrey (drums), Jack Nitzsche

(piano) and Danny Whitten (guitar and vocals).  After rehearsals, it was

obvious that Danny Whitten was in no condition to tour, as Whitten was in the

midst of trying to kick a heroin addiction by substituting large quantities of

other drugs in its place.  He was fired from the band, and given an airline

ticket home and fifty dollars.  A day later Whitten was dead of an overdose,

having used the severance money to buy the drugs that killed him.  The start

of the tour was right around the corner, so Young and company made the

difficult decision to continue as planned.  In early January, the band took to

the road for a three-month trip that was scheduled to visit over sixty cities.

Audiences were treated to a show that featured an opening solo acoustic set

followed by a rock set from the band.  The material was drawn mainly from

After the Goldrush and Harvest, along with a smattering of older songs and a

batch of new songs.  Part way into the tour Young's voice began to give out.

Without the vocal support of Whitten, he was forced to carry more of the vocal

chores than ever before.  As the strain of the road and the grief of Whitten's

death began to catch up to Young, the shows became more and more ragged and

raw.  In addition to everything else, the road crew tried to negotiate for

more money midway through - the temptation of seeing full arenas every night

must have proved too great.  A brief break halfway through provided a chance

for Young to regroup; it was obvious that if the tour was to continue,

something needed to be done.  Young called up his friends David Crosby and

Graham Nash for help, and they came onboard for the last month of the tour as

backup vocalists and rhythm guitarists.  An additional change in the band

lineup was the replacement of drummer Kenny Buttrey with Johnny Barbata, the

CSN&Y tour drummer.  Buttrey dropped out during the break because the

atmosphere was too much for him.

 

The bulk of Time Fades Away was recorded during this last leg of the tour, in

the western United States.  Like the live sets, the album features a mix of

understated acoustic work and raw, urgent electric tunes.  The new songs

included those that would appear on Time Fades Away, some that would appear on

Tonight's the Night ("Borrowed Tune," "New Mama," and "Look Out Joe") and some

that have yet to appear on any album ("Lonely Weekend" and "Sweet Joni.")  The

three acoustic tunes are "Journey Through the Past," "Love In Mind," and "The

Bridge."  Two of these songs are older numbers not written for this tour.

"Journey Through the Past" was a staple of the 1971 live performances, and the

version here was recorded during the first part of the 1973 tour, unlike all

the other 1973 material.  "Love In Mind" was recorded in Los Angeles in

February of 1971, and is presumably included here to balance the more raw

material.  The electric numbers ("Time Fades Away," "Yonder Stands the

Sinner," "LA," "Don't Be Denied," and "Last Dance") have an energy unlike

anything else Young had recorded before.  The main reason for this is the

steel guitar playing of Ben Keith, who assumes Whitten's role as the main

musical foil for Young's guitar work.  Unlike the Harvest material, in which

Keith mainly provides an atmosphere, his playing is sharp, biting and urgent.

It dramatically complements Young's wrenching, staccato playing, especially on

the album's closer, "Last Dance."  This album is an honest document of a very

difficult period in Neil Young's life, both in musical and personal terms.

The descent into darkness continued during the sessions for Tonight's the

Night, which started soon after this album was assembled and mastered.  The

safe thing would have been not to release these songs at all and let the tour

diminish into memory.  Luckily, Neil Young has never done the safe thing.

 

 

ON THE BEACH

1974 - Reprise 2180

Walk On / See the Sky About to Rain / Revolution Blues / For the Turnstiles /

Vampire Blues / On the Beach / Motion Pictures (for Carrie) / Ambulance Blues

 

by Sam Tennent 

stennent@hpqtdya.sqf.hp.com

 

On the Beach is perhaps the most personal record Neil Young will ever make.

It chronicles his emergence from a deep depression, caused in part by the

critical reaction to his post-Harvest artistic output.  It is also a statement

of intent, which Young has stuck to throughout his career, that he will make

and release whatever music he feels like, with no compromise to commercial

considerations.  This was a brave choice to make in 1974, when all of Neil's

musical contemporaries were urging him to make a "real" album - that is, to

hire a bunch of top notch session men and make Harvest II.  Neil could have

easily done this.  Listening to the material he was writing around this time,

songs like "Traces"  and "Separate Ways," Harvest II would have been no

problem.  Instead, Neil gave us a look into his REAL feelings and made some

remarkable music.  Young had written about the pressures of fame during his

Buffalo Springfield days, with songs like "Out of My Mind" and "Mr Soul,"

however On the Beach sees an older and wiser Young coming to terms with the

pressures, rather than allowing them to overcome him.  Almost every song

addresses these themes and gives Young's response.  In "Walk On," Young

addresses his critics with the line:

 

  "They go their way, I'll go mine" 

 

thus setting the agenda for the next twenty years of his musical career.  In

"Ambulance Blues" he is even more direct: 

 

  "All you critics sit alone / You're no better than me for what you've shown"

 

The title of the LP refers to Young's having "made it," but the songs reflect

the double-edged nature of fame.  Perhaps the most revealing line on the

record is on the title track, where Young sings:

 

  "Now I'm livin out here on the beach / But those seagulls are still out 

   of reach"

 

Elsewhere, his feelings about fame are shown to be even more bitter.  He says

of the showbiz crowd (in "Motion Pictures"):

 

  "All those people, they think they've got it made / But I wouldn't buy 

   sell borrow or trade anything I have to be like one of them / I'd rather 

   start all over again"  

 

The lyrical content of On the Beach has been meticulously examined and

analyzed over the years, whereas the musical content has received relatively

little attention.  This is an injustice, because this music is some of the

best that Young has ever produced.  In fact, if one examines the critiques of

Young's music throughout his career, there has been relatively little analysis

of the sound quality of the records, as critics tend to concentrate on the

lyrics or musical styles employed.  Hence in the eighties Young was accused of

excessive genre hopping by critics who failed to recognize that he has rarely

made two records that sound alike.  For example, Neil's first six solo records

sound vastly different from each other.

 

Side one begins with "Walk On," a bright, up-tempo number, which is propelled

along by a shuffling beat from the Crazy Horse rhythm section, and reflects

the progression suggested in the lyrics.  Next, Young chose to include an old

song, "See the Sky About to Rain."  Some reviewers have suggested that it is

an attempt at irony on Young's part to include a prime example of his "downer"

songs here, after the sentiments expressed in "Walk On," but it's just a great

song with a magical chord progression change at the last verse and superb

drumming from Levon Helm.  It is followed by "Revolution Blues," a song

inspired by Young's meetings with Manson.  One can almost hear the 10,000,000

dune buggies coming down the mountain as the song rolls along with the Band's

Levon Helm and Rick Danko in the engine room, and David Crosby supplying manic

rhythm guitar.  The pace then quiets down with "For the Turnstiles," a song

almost in the folk style, with Young singing falsetto accompanied by banjo and

Ben Keith on dobro.  What other major artist during the seventies would have

chosen to sing a song that strained their vocal range as much as this?   And

yet this gives the song its power and makes for compulsive listening.  The

first side ends with "Vampire Blues," a jokey, standard twelve-bar blues with

a terrific bubbling guitar solo, which perfectly evokes an image of bubbling

oil being "sucked From the Earth."   Here Young addresses one of the common

ecological themes found throughout his body of work.

 

Side two is a whole different ball game.  The mood is somber, almost narcotic.

Young has commented that this record was made mostly under the influence of

"honey slides" - a marijuana and honey concoction described by Young onstage

at his Bottom Line show in May 1974.  The title track is a beautiful, slow

bluesy song, with a wonderfully understated guitar solo that should come as a

great surprise to those who know Young only through his Ragged Glory period.

This is followed by "Motion Pictures (for Carrie)," a song written on the

road, in which Neil pines for the simplicity of the country life.  A

beautiful, meandering chord progression and laid-back harmonica give it a

world-weary sound.  The last track on the album, "Ambulance Blues," is among

the best five that Young has ever written.  As he later admitted, the melody

in the verses is the same as that in Bert Janch's "Needle of Death," a song

that Young has cited as an early influence.  However, the musical

implementation is stunning.  With breathy harmonica and genuinely spooky

fiddle playing from Rusty Kershaw, the track has a rootless, floating feel,

leaving the lyrics as the focus of the listener's attention.  On the Beach is

special to me, as it was the first Neil Young album that I bought at the time

of its release.  I had gotten into Neil's music in early '74, and had acquired

all of his earlier records by the time On the Beach came out.  I still

listen to it, twenty years later, more than either After the Goldrush or

Harvest.  I guess this is because the record is so musically interesting.

It's full of spontaneous performances and first-take errors, which were left

on because their feel is right.  It doesn't have the life produced out of it,

like, dare I say, Harvest Moon or Landing on Water.  For me, this was summed

up in my favorite moment on the whole record, in which Neil catches his thumb

/ pick on the bottom E-string during "Ambulance Blues."  The note booms out

over the line:

 

  "Where men STUB their toes on garbage pails!"  

 

It's just perfect.

 

 

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT

1975 - Reprise MS 2221

Tonight's the Night / Speakin' Out / World on a String / Borrowed Tune /

Come on Everybody Let's Go Downtown / Mellow My Mind / Roll Another Number /

Albuquerque / New Mama / Lookout Joe / Tired Eyes / Tonight's the Night

 

by Damon Ogden

60053@ibmmail.com

 

Tonight's the Night is like an OD letter - the whole thing is about life,

dope, and death.  "I probably feel this album more than anything else I've

ever done," said Neil Young in Rolling Stone (August 14, 1975).  I also feel

this album - more than any other Neil Young album, or any album ever -

completely captures the essence of what I believe makes Neil Young such a

great artist: His ability to put his mood, his beliefs, and himself into his

work.  Following Neil's work is a roller-coaster ride, and Tonight's the

Night is both the low point and the high point all rolled into one confused,

angry, sad, but brilliant piece.  This album is not pretty, and undoubtedly

would not be the first album you're going to pull out for a friend interested

in hearing Neil for the first time, unless maybe you and your friend are

drunk.  TTN was inspired by Bruce Berry, a longtime roadie, and Danny Whitten

of Crazy Horse, who both died of drug overdoses.  It was recorded over two

years before its release in mid-1975, but was shelved in favor of On the

Beach.  In 1975, Neil was playing his next album, Homegrown, for friends and

TTN followed on the reel.  Neil decided TTN was better than the

still-unreleased Homegrown, and it was released instead.  The album was

sequenced by Elliot Roberts, with three tracks, "Lookout Joe," "Borrowed

Tune," and "Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown" (recorded in 1970 with Whitten

signing lead) added to the original nine songs.  This album is raw, ragged,

and powerful music.  Every listener will have a different experience based

upon their tastes and state of mind at the time of listening.  TTN is a must

for any collector of Neil Young albums.

 

 

ZUMA

1975 - Reprise MS 2242

Don't Cry No Tears / Danger Bird / Pardon My Heart / Lookin' for a Love /

Barstool Blues / Stupid Girl / Drive Back / Cortez the Killer / Through 

My Sails

 

by Jeff Dove

jeffdove@well.sf.ca.us

 

 "If I could hold on to just one thought for long enough to know / Why my

  mind is moving so fast and the conversation is slow"

 

  - from "Barstool Blues"

 

Zuma is the first record with the current and long-standing version of Crazy

Horse (Billy Talbot - bass, Ralph Molina - drums, and Frank Sampedro -

guitar).  The record's sound is laid out in a way that places it on a

continuum that includes Rust Never Sleeps, Live Rust, Re-ac-tor, Ragged Glory,

and Weld in the future (as well as a few selected cuts here and there on other

albums, most notably "Like a Hurricane" from American Stars 'n' Bars).  With

Poncho joining Neil on guitar, the band developed a style that I believe

allowed him to create his best music over the years.  Previous Crazy Horse

collaborations had power, but Zuma is the beginning of the balance of raw

playing and a clean sound, featuring a perfectly balanced interplay between

the two guitars.  Similar to Big Star in the early seventies or Television in

the late seventies, there is an amplified noise which doesn't let up on the

energy, but is not overwhelming or excessive.  The previous Neil Young and

Crazy Horse collaboration, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, from the early

solo days, featured Danny Whitten's playing, but Whitten's death brought about

a six-year hiatus in the Horse's appearances as Young's backing band on a

complete record.  Zuma signals their return, and this record introduces the

sound that gives Neil his "Godfather of Grunge" title.  If Zuma has a lyrical

theme, it is one of romantic rejection, loneliness, hope, and despair.  From

song to song, it seems to have been written by a man who has just been dumped,

and might even be still harboring a bit of hostility; but on the other hand,

he longs for a return to what he once had.  The opening two high-energy songs

set this theme.  From the musically upbeat "Don't Cry No Tears":

 

 

  "Well I wonder who's with her tonight / And I wonder who's holding

   her tight / But there's nothing I can say, to make him go away..."

 

"Danger Bird" isn't as abrupt in its words, but it is a heavy, searing tune

with an anguished tone to both the vocals and the guitar solos that continues

the emotion without putting it into words.  Not every track is a full-on

electric work out, and side one takes a respite from this, in varying degrees,

with its third and fourth tracks.  "Pardon My Heart" finds Neil with his

acoustic, and its plea is one of the most straightforward:

 

  "Pardon my heart if I show that I care / But I love you more than moments,

   we have or have not shared"

 

"Lookin' for a Love" presents a return to the electric guitar, but the

distortion is down and the country-rock beat is up.  Again, the lyrical theme

of the album is pursued:

 

  "I've been lookin' for a lover but I haven't met her yet..."

 

And then, the telling chorus:

 

  "Lookin' for a love that's right for me / I don't know how long its gonna

   be / But I hope I treat her kind, and don't mess with her mind, when she

   starts to see the darker side of me"

 

It's a fatalistic response to the earlier, "Is it strange I should change I

don't know, why don't you ask her" line from the Buffalo Springfield song "Mr.

Soul."  "Barstool Blues" kicks side one back into high gear.  It is a raging

rocker, littered with wry observations and clever comments like the quote

which began this review, and is Zuma's best song.  More relationship-based

angst can be found in the verse, such as:

 

  "He trusted in a woman, and on her he made his bet" 

 

And then:

 

  "And I saw you in my nightmares, but I'll see you in my dreams / And I

   might live a thousand years before I know what that means"

 

The second side begins much as the first did, with some loud Crazy Horse

intensity.  However both "Stupid Girl" and "Drive Back" are centered less

around longing and are more bitter and angry.  The title to "Stupid Girl" tips

off its message.  When the Stones used this title on Aftermath for a different

song, it was to dismiss a woman for her superficiality and justified one of

Jagger's misogynist poses.  Neil's song seems based on a more personal

disgust.  On a musical level, listen as Neil harmonizes with himself on some

verses, singing in both his more usual voice and in the higher tone he

utilizes on occasion.  "Drive Back" is one of the album's hardest rockers, and

accompanying its guitar attack are more words of angry dismissal:

 

  "Drive back to your old town / I want to wake up with no one around"

 

The familiar "Cortez the Killer" continues the sound that has been prevalent

over the course of Zuma.  Neil's and Poncho's guitars play off of each other

in an intricate and exciting manner.  The music builds from subtle beauty

through an extended instrumental intro, to become more amplified and intense

as the song's story of the bloody aftermath of the arrival of imperialist

conquerors becomes more intense.  The theme of "Cortez" is obviously quite

distinct from that which Zuma has been occupied with up to this point, but

stuck into a refrain and the end of the song can be found these seemingly

unrelated lines:

 

  "And I know she's living there, and she loves me to this day / I still

   can't remember when, or how I lost my way"

 

"Through My Sails" is a knock-off with Crosby, Stills, Nash and their acoustic

guitars.  It's only average and, compared to the rest of the album, is a bit

of a let down.  Neil was probably throwing a bone to the trio, who by this

time had already demonstrated their lack of any ability to create anything

worthwhile without Young along for the ride.  If you're partial to the harder

edge of Neil Young's music, Zuma is an important stage in his development; if

your tastes run toward the sounds of loud electric guitars zealously playing

off of each other, then it is essential.

 

 

AMERICAN STARS 'N' BARS

1977 - Reprise MSK 2261

The Old Country Waltz / Saddle up the Palomino / Hey Babe / Hold Back

the Tears / Bite the Bullet / Star of Bethlehem / Will to Love / Like a

Hurricane / Homegrown

 

by Stephen J. Chant 

schant@moose.uvm.edu

 

All of Neil's fans should own American Stars 'n' Bars, if only for the seminal

November '75, 8:14 minute "Like a Hurricane."  AS'n'B is one of Neil's

scattershot albums, in which he explores a variety of themes, including rock,

country, ballad, even the waltz.  Side one is performed by Neil, Crazy Horse,

and the Bullets.  The Bullets (a humorous, oblique reference to the clitoris)

are Linda Ronstadt, Nicolette Larson and Carole Mayedo.  Opening with the

rural-paced "The Old Country Waltz" and "Saddle Up the Palomino," Neil then

delivers a one-two-three roundhouse of excellent, romantically inspired songs

with the warm "Hey Babe," the hot "Hold Back the Tears," and the blistering

"Bite the Bullet."  Side Two is a total mishmash.  Neil picks up a group that

includes Emmylou Harris, Ben Keith, Tim Drummond and Karl Himmel for "Star of

Bethlehem," then goes solo for "Will to Love," before joining up with the

Horse for two classics, a raging "Hurricane" and a laconic and lovable

"Homegrown."  AS'n'B remains one of my favorite albums, even after fifteen

years.  Neil demonstrates versatility and unpredictability in a very laid-back

atmosphere, much like a favorite bar or back porch.  At the very least, this

is an album that should've warned David Geffen that in Neil Young, he wasn't

getting a commodity driven by commercial success.

 

 

COMES A TIME

1978 - Reprise MSK 2266

Goin' Back / Comes a Time / Look Out for My Love / Lotta Love / Peace of

Mind / Human Highway / Already One / Field of Opportunity / Motorcycle

Mama / Four Strong Winds

 

by Crazy Donkey (aka Rob Blackmore)

rblckmor@vax1.tcd.ie

 

Comes A Time, produced by Neil Young, Ben Keith, Tim Mulligan and David

Briggs, is regarded by some as a comeback to folk music for Neil Young, more

in the style of Harvest and After the Goldrush.  Originally, the album was

going to be called Ode to the Wind, and several copies were pressed with that

name.  There are ten tracks on the album, five on each side.  All of the

selections are written by Neil Young, except for the tenth track, "Four Strong

Winds," which is a cover version of an Ian Tyson song.  A wide variety of

musicians play on the album, and Nicolette Larson sings the backing vocals.

Crazy Horse plays on "Look Out For My Love" and "Lotta Love," with J.J. Cale

on electric guitar.  "Goin' Back" is one of my favorite tracks on the album.

It's a peaceful song, expressing a wish to return to the past, back to a more

simple time when "fire filled the sky" and where there was "nowhere to stay."

It also mentions a relationship splitting apart, which is possibly a central

theme to the album.  The mixture of guitar sounds works very well, and Neil's

voice and the backing vocals of Nicolette Larson combine beautifully.  The

imagery is quite geological to begin with, something Neil has touched on in

other songs, "Thrasher," from "Rust Never Sleeps," for example.  The song

ends, however, in the city, where the shadows of the buildings "tore us apart,

and now we do what we do."  Comes A Time opens with some great fiddling, which

blends well with the guitar.  Neil's voice is quite lonesome, and the backing

vocals are perfect, just being audible on the edges.  The imagery is again

very earthy, and the song seems to describe how time keeps passing by.  The

idea of the earth spinning round, and "It's a wonder tall trees ain't layin'

down," is typical of Neil's ability to paint a picture with a few words.

"Look Out For My Love" is probably my favorite track on the album.  Recently,

it was performed brilliantly for the Unplugged show, and it was hardly altered

because the set-up is so perfect!  The crisp combination of guitars superbly

complements Neil's voice, which is pitched spot-on.  The electric guitar,

which comes in at "hydraulic wipers pumping," just makes it for me - it's

heavenly!  The whole description of the airport and traffic is classic; what

more can I say!  "Lotta Love" is the next track on my tape, slightly out of

place with the sleeve order.  There's some nice piano and high pitched

percussion work.  It appears to be saying that it takes a lotta love to keep

people together.  There's a wish for the right person / lover to "show up

soon."  "Peace Of Mind" has an interesting beat, sort of like a ticking clock.

It describes how it takes a long time to get to know someone and to let them

get to know you.  "It's hard to face that open space" is a sort of warning

that if you leave, you won't have "peace of mind," and that's probably the

best thing to go for.  The electric guitar at the end adds to the drum beat.

The second side of the album opens with "Human Highway."  This is more in the

style of the first two tracks of side one, with plenty of earthy imagery.  It

also speaks, however, about people being unkind, and maybe talking about you

and your life behind your back.  The backing vocals once again add to this

song.  "Already One" always makes me feel a little sad.  It's about splitting

up with someone, but being forever attached to them through a child, in this

case a little son.  It's got a slow, lonely beat, and the guitar at the end is

great.  Once again Neil uses words and phrases that have so much feeling, as

in:

 

  "In my new life, I'm traveling light / Eyes wide open for the next move"

 

"Field Of Opportunity" livens things up.  There's a nice blend of fiddle, and

acoustic and electric guitar; the strumming keeps the beat.  The song talks

about moving on, new growth, and new love; everyone makes mistakes but you

just have to keep trying.  "Motorcycle Mama" was apparently written by Neil

after watching a woman fall off her barstool in Florida, but I don't know how

reliable that is.  This is certainly the most electric song on the album, and

it keeps the country feel with a mean piece of fiddling.  Nicolette Larson's

vocals are very much the dominant force of this song.  It sort of follows the

"moving on" theme, with:

 

  "I just escaped from the memory-county jail."  

 

The album finishes with a cover version of the Ian Tyson song "Four Strong

Winds."  It's a fairly lively version, and the lyrics fit with the other

songs.  Neil's voice is perfect, and again the set-up works well.  I really

like this album.  I find the mixture of acoustic and electric guitar with the

fiddle to be really pleasant to listen to.  The songs are sometimes fairly

lonesome, but usually there is a balance.  As usual, the subject matter would

appear to reflect Neil's personal life, but as with so many of his songs, the

problems are of a human nature that everyone can relate to.

 

 

RUST NEVER SLEEPS

1979 - Reprise HS 2295

My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) / Thrasher / Ride My Llama / Pocahontas /

Sail Away / Powderfinger / Welfare Mothers / Sedan Delivery / Hey Hey, 

My My (Into the Black)

 

by Richard Dubourg 

uctpa08@ucl.ac.uk

 

Just recently, some people have started to say that they never really could

understand the connection made between grunge and Neil Young, and between

grunge and Rust Never Sleeps in particular.  Don't listen to them, as this is

seminal, and all the more astounding for having been recorded over fifteen

years ago (with many of the songs older than that).  The all-pervading theme

of the album is one of change, and of what becomes of those who try to resist

it.  Hence, the boy who stands to fight the anonymous invaders, ignoring his

father's advice ("Red means run, son, numbers add up to nothing") gets a

bullet in the head for his pains ("Powderfinger"); the alien who says, "It's

old but is good" is nothing but a "primitive" ("Ride My Llama"); even the now

infamous line, "It's better to burn out than to fade away" is more an

exhortation to accept, and if possible to adapt to, change rather than resist

it and become obsolete ("Out of the Blue [Into the Black]").  Rust Never

Sleeps is an album borne of the decade that saw Vietnam, environmental

disasters, and other events of global change, and ends up being one of the

most direct and coherent statements about the punk movement ever put to vinyl.

"This is the story of Johnny Rotten," Young sings, and you know he sees Rotten

as the ambassador to an irresistible driving force in popular music at the

time.  This only serves to reinforce the grunge connection, with that later

(and almost exclusively North American) phenomenon being a fruitful (if

somewhat overdue) offspring of the union between punk and rock music.  You can

be sure that Young wasn't intending to "fade away" from "I'll know the time

has come to give what's mine" ("Thrasher").  But don't think this is just a

grunge album, as it has all of the Young trademarks: the distorted guitar, the

country influence, and good ol' rock'n'roll.  But all of it, even the acoustic

first side, has a hard edge.  There are not many albums which sound as fresh

and relevant today as when they were first recorded.  Rust Never Sleeps is

one, and deserves to be in everyone's collection.

 

 

LIVE RUST

1979 - Reprise 2296

Sugar Mountain / I Am a Child / Comes a Time / After the Goldrush / My My,

Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) / When You Dance I Can Really Love / The Loner /

The Needle and the Damage Done / Lotta Love / Sedan Delivery / Powderfinger /

Cortez the Killer / Cinnamon Girl / Like A Hurricane / Hey Hey, My My

(Into the Black) / Tonight's The Night

 

by Joost Groen 

joost@klft.tn.tudelft.nl

 

Live Rust was released by Reprise in 1979, only a few months after Rust Never

Sleeps saw daylight.  It is a record of Neil's 1978 North American Rust Never

Sleeps tour, with Crazy Horse in its strongest line-up (Poncho, Billy Talbot

and Ralph Molina,) and was primarily released as a soundtrack to the tour's

filmed documentary.  The set list of Live Rust comprises a good overview of

Neil's work thus far.  The show can be more or less subdivided into two parts

(as is usual in a lot of Neil's concerts), an acoustic and electric.  Live

Rust immediately starts off with one of the highlights, a very clear guitar

and Neil's singing what's famously known as the song he wrote on his 19th

birthday, "Sugar Mountain."  The ending, with Neil singing the last stanza in

a kind of desperate way with the help of his harmonica, really strikes at the

heart.  After this emotional song, the somewhat hurriedly played "I Am A

Child" comes as a kind of an anticlimax - I think this song deserves more.

But then, "Comes a Time" is great.  I'm prejudiced toward this song, since my

friend Marc and I used it as the theme of the party for our graduation from

University.  These first three songs have the same theme - a loss of childhood

and innocence.  "After the Gold Rush" is alright, but "My My, Hey Hey" is kind

of impoverished.  Although the audience appreciates Neil's dedication to

Johnny Rotten (shouted out), within this line-up the usual emotionality of

this song, telling of the first indications of maturing after an innocent

childhood, does not come out clear enough.  With "When You Dance I Can Really

Love" bursting from your stereo set, things are alright again.  Now this is

emotion, this is how being in love feels!  The power emerging from this song

is incredible.  "The Loner" is, again, somewhat hastily played, and therefore

loses some of its power.  The thunderstorm and rain at the end of "The Loner"

("my guitar! - no rain!") is a nice relaxation point in an altogether exciting

show, and Neil's emerging from the rain acoustically with "The Needle and the

Damage Done" gives the song a good setting - the junkie in the gutter and in

the rain.  "Lotta Love" is played better than the original, in my opinion,

especially the background vocals, which contribute to a sweet but intense

song.  It maybe should've been performed earlier in the set, however.

 

With "Sedan Delivery," Neil and the Horse switch to electric - definitively. I

don't like this version of "Sedan Delivery," as it's too noisy and you can

hardly hear Neil's singing.  That's a pity, but then the sequence

"Powderfinger" - "Cortez The Killer" - "Cinnamon Girl" - "Like A Hurricane"

produces one hell of a lot of energy.  A very powerful "Powderfinger" again

describes the difficulties one encounters in maturing:

 

  "I just turned 22 / I was wondering what to do" 

 

"Cortez the Killer" is played slowly, in the way that it should be.  The

reggae-ish ending of the song is famous and makes you smile.  "Cinnamon Girl"

is still one of my early Neil favorites, but the version on Live Rust has a

strange spectral distribution (lots of treble, too low on bass).  I've heard

Neil do better versions of "Like A Hurricane," as well.  Well, the song was

still pretty young then, and it has certainly since developed.  The encores of

"Hey Hey, My My" and "Tonight's the Night" are both played in a very

distorted, heavy, black style.  I love them that way, but they make for a

strange appearance on an otherwise quite clear album.  However, their symbolic

value - of decline setting in - serves the "story" of this concert well; in

this way, the concert ends in some kind of black hole through which we all

eventually have to crawl.  The line-up of the songs on Live Rust suggests a

story of growing maturity.  From childhood in the first couple of songs, to

death (in this case of someone in your vicinity) at the end.  Some critics

claim that Live Rust doesn't really add anything to Neil's oeuvre, especially

since it came out only two years after Decade, and nine of the songs on Live

Rust are on Decade as well. I think the power of Live Rust is the fact that

it is live.  It takes you on a 74'01" minute journey through the past.

 

 

HAWKS AND DOVES

1980 - Reprise HS 2297

Little Wing / The Old Homestead / Lost in Space / Captain Kennedy / Stayin'

Power / Coastline / Union Man / Comin' Apart at Every Nail / Hawks and Doves

 

by Jeff Connelly

jeffc27553@aol.com

 

Of his popular hit "Heart of Gold," Neil Young wrote, "This song put me in

the middle of the road.  Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for

the ditch; a rougher ride, but I saw more interesting people there."  The

same can be said for Hawks and Doves, Neil Young's first album following his

phenomenally successful Rust tour.  He heads straight for the metaphoric

ditch, following his muse rather than striving for commercial success.  This

album is the first in his string of eclectic, experimental (self-indulgent?

- you be the judge) eighties records.  Side one has a spare, at times eerie

sound.  Unusual for a Neil Young album, the first track, "Little Wing," is

practically a throwaway; perhaps it leads off so the album doesn't start

overly dark.  (Yeah, I know, you've got three words for me: Tonight's the

Night).  "The Old Homestead" dates back to 1974.  Neil will often hold onto

a song until he feels the time is right to release it, and it is the only

track on the side with instruments other than Neil's guitar and harmonica.

The song has a ghostly, Band-like feel to it, helped by the presence of Band

drummer Levon Helm.  The darkness of "Homestead" is countered by the

relative whimsy of "Lost in Space" (featuring a guest vocal by a Marine

Munchkin).  The side ends with "Captain Kennedy," which lyrically would fit

on a Tom Waits album, and both lyrically and musically evokes an image of

Neil singing in a candlelit room with people lying about, smoking grass, and

staring up at the flickering ceiling.  Side two, in contrast, has a bright,

country flavor and a full band.  The omnipresent fiddle player would

later tour with Neil in the International Harvesters.  Most importantly,

Neil sounds like he's having a lot of fun.  Lyrically, the songs are much

more direct - "Stayin' Power" and "Coastline" are love songs, while "Union

Man" and "Comin' Apart at Every Nail" are more political, though the most

pressing matter at the meeting in "Union Man" is the issuance of "Live Music

Is Better" bumper stickers.  Hey, first things first.  The album ends with

Hawks and Doves, which today Neil probably couldn't sing without making it

ironic.  (We'll ignore for the moment that he is originally from Canada).

It's a burst of hey-we're-in-the-greatest-country-in-the world patriotism,

right in tune with the beginning of the Reagan Era.  Though I'm not a

patriot in the classic sense (I prefer to think of myself as a Biafran

neo-patriot), the song never fails to pick me up and make me smile.  Had it

been issued as a single and successful, it probably would stand today as a

popular patriotic country anthem for those who find Lee Greenwood boring.

 

 

RE*AC*TOR

1981 - Reprise HS 2304

Opera Star / Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze / T-Bone / Get Back on It / 

Southern Pacific / Motor City / Rapid Transit / Shots

 

by Jack "Shakey" Mullins

j.mullins1@genie.geis.com

 

In 1979, Neil Young released Rust Never Sleeps, and side two of that album

proved that he could dish out punk with the best of them.  Then after an odd

(but good) 1980 album Hawks and Doves, Neil followed up his punk effort with

even rougher rock-and-roll.  The outcome was Re*Ac*Tor.  This 1981 album, with

Crazy Horse, features some of the finest and rawest (not to mention

overlooked) music of Neil Young's career; this album is a prerequisite to

Grunge 101.  Side one opens with "Opera Star," and reveals what would be in

the future musically, with synthesizers quite up-front in the mix.  It's

uncompromising nonetheless, and the lyrics sting: "So you stay out all night

getting fucked-up in that rock-and-roll bar," Neil sings.  Following this,

"Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze," might remind one, thematically, of a heavier

version of Three Dog Night's (or Randy Neman's -JF) "Mama Told Me Not to

Come."  The next song wasn't even meant to be recorded, apparently, but wound

up so because Neil and the Horse still felt like playing after they recorded

the album.  Nine-plus minutes of Neil playing wildly falanged guitar solos and

repeating "Got mashed Potatoes, ain't got no T-Bone."  This would be a show

stopper if Neil ever took this song on tour!  The side closes with "Get Back

On It," a very jumpy tune, like "Are You Ready for the Country" with no steel

and a grunge backbeat.  It has a tough spot on the LP following the first

three songs!  Side two begins with what is probably the most accessible song

on the album, "Southern Pacific," a rolling three-chord rocker about forced

retirement - just like a Springsteen song, only with balls.  The pretty hokey

(but amusing) "Motor City" follows, and demonstrates how varied a Neil Young

album can be from song to song.  "Rapid Transit," along with the first three

songs, would create the most perfect album side of all time - a very crunchy

trip through power-chords, and Neil's stammering, which would offend some

people.  It's classic Neil, and almost a one note guitar solo again as well!

"Shots" closes the album, and it takes on a completely different form than

when Neil presented it in concert three years before, much as how the electric

version of "Cowgirl in the Sand" compares to the Four Way Street version.  But

this song is much more sloppy and rough than "Cowgirl,"  which in fact sounds

tame by comparison.  Listening to one song at a time does not do justice here,

folks.  The album on a whole is a classic, and sadly it's a very underrated

one.  The forthcoming CD release of Re*Ac*Tor will hopefully give it another

chance to be noticed, and I think it will be well received by people hearing

it for the first time, since the roots of grunge show so clearly.

 

 

TRANS 

1982 - Geffen GHS 2018

Little Thing Called Love / If You Got Love / Computer Age / We R in Control /

Transformer Man / Computer Cowboy (aka Syscrusher) / Hold on to Your Love /

Sample and Hold / Mr. Soul / Like an Inca

 

by Jeff Dove

jeffdove@well.sf.ca.us

 

As either a description of the transformation to a techno-Orwellian society or

as a method of communication with a special child, Trans could not be created

from the traditional approaches of solo, acoustic rock (Comes a Time, Rust

Never Sleeps, Hawks and Doves) or fuzzed out, dueling guitar, electric rock

(Rust Never Sleeps, Re-ac-tor) that Neil Young worked with over the previous

four years.  Trans required a new methodology.  The core of this record

features Neil contributing synthesized rhythms through the use of a

Synclavier, and distorting his voice through a device called a Vocoder, to

create a distant, metallic, robotic sound.  It has been reported that the use

of this gadgetry was borne from Young's attempts to reach his cerebral palsy

afflicted son, but what emerged is a bit of negative science fiction about

society's transistion to the computer age.  The five central tracks, "Computer

Age," "We R in Control," "Transformer Man," "Computer Cowboy (aka

Syscrusher)," and "Sample and Hold," tell of a cold and mechanical society.

"Computer Age" is a plea for warmth and humanity, while "We R in Control"

spells out a technological anti-Utopia:

 

  "We control   The data banks /

   We control   The think tanks /

   We control   The flow of air"

 

As its title suggests, "Computer Cowboy (aka Syscrusher)" updates the

mythology of the old west maverick to a modern electronic rebel.  "Sample and

Hold" describes a commercial venture that can provide a "unit" for a wanting

man, made completely to the height, weight, skin and eye color, and other

specifications of his desire.  The song's protagonist, through Neil's vocals,

requests not "the angry one" or "the lonely one" but "a new design - new

design."  "Transformer Man" is the key song, as it takes the idea of new

technologies directly to the inspiration for this record, as the transformer

man is Young's son:

 

  "Direct the action with the push of a button..."

  "Let us throw off the chains that / Hold you down"

 

The overall message is one of the mechanization of mankind, and this is

symbolized by the cover art.  On the front a hippie with bongos thumbs a ride

into the horizon (and into the album itself) from a convertible Chevy on a

tree-lined road, while his counterpart on the other side of the street is an

automaton making the return trip by hitching a space car traveling through the

brave new world.  The transition from one state to the next is described

within the record, which is the unseen point in the distance.  The back cover

sums up the state of this future with a drawing of a human heart peeled open

to reveal its transistor and microchip interior.  The album is not completely

techno, however, and these theme songs back their synthesized sounds with real

guitars, bass, and drums - the beat is there.  "Computer Cowboy (aka

Syscrusher)" has a pretty raw guitar lead running through it, and "Sample and

Hold" straight-out rocks through all of its weirdness.  These five tracks

weren't enough for an album, and thus Trans is filled out with two interesting

pairs of songs.  "Hold on to Your Love" and "Mr. Soul" maintain the sonic

effect described above, although the former drops the Vocoder and presents an

older, simple love song with the new style of music.  "Mr. Soul" is the

classic, given the complete futuristic treatment with distorted vocals and

all.  "Little Thing Called Love" and "Like an Inca" have a traditional sound

to them.  Each has none of the Kraftwerkesque effects, but are still somewhat

unique when stacked up against the whole of Young's work.  They seem to be the

products of the same session, as each has a similar make-up.  Though they

employ a full rock band, the subtle electric lead guitar, strumming acoustic

rhythm guitar, understated bass and drums, and calm singing don't sound like a

lot else of what Neil does when he goes electric.  They begin and end Trans,

and I suspect that they had been in the can, not really fitting on previous

records.  With the need for more material for this record and a desire

(however unsuccessful) not to completely alienate the new label (Geffen),

Trans was seen as a good place to pull them out.  "If You Got Love" is a

phantom track (at least on my LP).  It's listed on the jacket and the sleeve

(with lyrics) but isn't on the disk.  

 

That Trans is Neil Young's first release for Geffen is also of interest.  It

is doubtful that he was intentionally trying to deliver uncommercial product,

but likely that the record is just the result what he felt at the time.

Dedicated Neil fans know that this is not unprecedented - just look back to

Journey Through the Past.  Geffen, however, wanted a big payoff from their new

artist and probably were hoping for Harvest II.  There have been several

accounts of the label's initial rejection of Trans and the subsequent struggle

to get it out.  In 1994, we are well aware of the strange turns Neil's music

can take, with Everybody's Rockin', Landing on Water, This Note's for You, and

even Trans behind us.  However, in 1982 the listening public wasn't prepared

for these sounds, at a time when "new-wave and punk sucks" was the mantra of

the FM rock stations who were fighting with everything they had to dismiss

rock-and-rollers like the Ramones and the Clash as worthless.  If you can

accept the mechanical vocals you'll find some great, solid rock sounds behind

them.  All of Crazy Horse are involved (they are probably the band on "Little

Thing Called Love" and "Like an Inca," although the liner notes don't break

down musicians by song), as well as Nils Lofgren, and regular Young

contributors Ben Keith and Bruce Palmer.  Trans doesn't seem intended as a

swipe at Geffen, but the bad blood between artist and label started with it,

and led to the giant FU that is the next record, Everybody's Rockin'.  At a

time (1983) when the fad was a rockabilly revival (with the fluff of the Stray

Cats leading the way), Neil probably wanted to put Geffen off and show the

youngsters how it's done at the same time.  How else can you explain an album

that is just over twenty minutes long and is completely detached in style from

any of his recorded work that came before?  The tour that followed Trans was

also an interesting experience.  It was mostly a solo acoustic event, with

Neil shifting between upright piano, grand piano, and acoustic guitar, until

the encore.  At that point in the show he emerged, complete with futuristic

shades, behind his synth and with Vocoder in place to deliver a trio of songs

from the record, including "Transformer Man" and "Mr. Soul."

 

 

EVERYBODY'S ROCKIN'

1983 - Geffen GHS 4013

Betty Lou's Got a New Pair of Shoes / Rainin' In My Heart / Payola Blues /

Wonderin' / Kinda Fonda Wanda / Jellyroll Man / Bright Lights, Big City /

Cry, Cry, Cry  / Mystery Train / Everybody's Rockin'

 

by Jyrki Kimmel

kimmel@cortex.sai.vtt.fi

 

As much has been said about Neil Young and his relationship with Geffen in the

1980's, this review focuses only on the record Everybody's Rockin'.  A history

of listening to Neil Young, however, brings a personal bias to the article.

The album consists of five rock-and-roll standards as well as five songs by

Young (two of them with co-authors).  In all, the tone is that of great

nostalgia, and the standards are recorded with care and original spirit.  At

the same time, humor is not forgotten, as is shown in the opening "Betty Lou's

Got a New Pair of Shoes," a childish play on rhymes, and "Kinda Fonda Wanda,"

as in its lyric:

 

  "...'cause Wanda always wanna wanna wanna..."

 

Another play on words, or rather imagery, is "Jellyroll Man," with obvious

references to sex:

 

  "I gotta have it right now " 

 

But maybe I just see it that way.  The album-ending title song is also a

seemingly meaningless rock-and-roll tune, in the vein of "Shakin' All Over,"

"Let's Twist Again," "At the Hop," or any other song proclaiming the birth of

a new way to dance, but with the added topical notion of Ronnie and Nancy,

"rocking in the White House all night long."  A more serious effort is "Payola

Blues," a lament of record company payoffs and of radio DJs. "Rainin' In My

Heart" and "Cry, Cry, Cry" go beyond the usual in rock and roll tear-jerker

ballads, and Neil's renditions are superbly true to that spirit in both songs.

The most noteworthy songs, when taken out of context on the album, are

"Wonderin'," a tune Neil wrote and had performed on stage in the seventies,

and covers of "Bright Lights, Big City" and "Mystery Train," both great hits

from their era.  "Wonderin'" would be a rocker in any arrangement, and this

version is just perfect.  "Bright Lights, Big City" is sang as if Neil

personally is relating a story of a girlfriend lost in metropolitan splendor.

"Mystery Train" also has a personal, emotional feel, and it does not have its

roots in Neil's model railroad hobby.  The album clocks in at 24 minutes, over

which the very essence of fifties rock is laid out, turned over, and emptied.

Undoubtedly this is the music Neil grew up with (with the obvious exception of

the personally penned songs), and as such, Everybody's Rockin' is a great

tribute to the roots of rock-and-roll in a time when artists of a "Younger"

generation are crafting tribute albums to the Godfather of Grunge himself.

 

 

OLD WAYS

1984 - Geffen GHS 24068

The Wayward Wind / Get Back to the Country / Are There Any More Real

Cowboys? / Once an Angel / Misfits / California Sunset / Old Ways / My Boy /

Bound for Glory / Where Is the Highway Tonight?

 

by Steve Peck 

speck%indycms@uicvm.uic.edu

 

You can take Neil Young out of the country (like when he tours Europe or

elsewhere), but you can't take the country out of Neil Young.  After several

less definitive forays into country-and-western music (such as album sides on

American Stars 'n' Bars and Hawks and Doves), Young finally strapped on the

country harness for real on Old Ways.  Backed by a full band, the

International Harvesters, replete with fiddles, pedal steel, and banjos, Neil

managed to make a very solid country record.  While it may not be one of his

very best, Old Ways turns out to be an important work nonetheless.  On Old

Ways, Neil Young has grown up; he is no longer a young man finger pointing at

the establishment.  There is a new found sense of responsibility showing up in

his songs.  He attempts to do his part in standing up for the small guy who's

dreams are being dashed, and who is trying to maintain his / her lifestyle,

built on the basic human values of family, love, and hard work.  Neil speaks

of these things from the perspective of a man who has learned these lessons.

It is a transformation for Young, and actually is easy to miss when listening

to this laid-back sounding album.  This new sensibility is also found in most

of his subsequent work.  The main thematic highlights of the album are in "Are

There Any More Real Cowboys?," a song that chronicles the plight of the modern

cowboy / farmer, and "Bound For Glory," a tale of a lonely pickup-truck

driver, a hitchhiking girl, and her dog.  The title cut, "Old Ways," has the

author swearing off his evil ways, although he cannot stay straight.  Other

memorable moments are "California Sunset," an ode to his state of residence,

"Once An Angel," a slow country ballad with a very traditional setting, and

"My Boy," a touching song for his son.  "Misfits" is one of those really weird

Neil Young numbers where you wonder what the hell he is talking about and what

possessed him to write it.

 

The International Harvesters were a swinging band that added a lot to the

quality of the record, and this is Neil's most realized country effort to

date.  One enjoyable aspect of the album is his use of Waylon Jennings for

vocal harmonies.  Waylon and Neil's voices blend well together, and Jennings

is one of the best harmonizers around.  Willie Nelson shows up to duet on "Are

There Any More Real Cowboys?," adding further to the record's country

credentials.  This period of Neil's career is even more significant if you

look past the Old Ways album, and take into account the subsequent

International Harvesters tour, with its performances of several exceptional,

unreleased songs, "Interstate" and "Grey Riders."  Two other songs that

further defined Neil's sympathy for the modern farmer, "This Old House" (later

recorded by CSNY) and "Nothing Is Perfect" (still unreleased), fit right into

the themes of Old Ways.  The Harvesters proved to be a spectacular live band,

and really shined when given the opportunity to stretch out and jam.  Notable

highlights from the tour were smokin' renditions of "Southern Pacific" (with

great fiddling), and an epic version of "Down By the River" where Neil

strapped on the old electric guitar and wailed.  Although this record is

generally viewed as one of Young's weird genre pieces from the eighties, it is

actually a pretty traditional album for him, as Neil's music always had a

country edge, even when blasting away with Crazy Horse.  Old Ways breaks new

ground in terms of personal expression for Mr. Young, with his acceptance of

his role as a responsible adult.  It is also a nice album to listen to when

you are sitting on your porch, doing nothing.

 

 

LANDING ON WATER

1986 - Geffen GHS 24109

Weight of the World / Violent Side / Hippie Dream / Bad News Beat / Touch

the Night / People on the Street / Hard Luck Stories / I Got a Problem /

Pressure / Drifter

 

by Don St. John

donstjohn@aol.com

 

Somewhere in the mid-eighties, Neil Young began the transition from "guy

making oddball records and being sued by his record company" to "legend and

avatar of post-punk and grunge."  If you'd like to know where the changeover

started, check out Landing on Water, his 1986 release and the one Geffen

Records could never justify suing him for.  Landing on Water was Neil's return

to a more rocking sound after the various experiments of Trans, Everybody's

Rockin', and Old Ways.  It has something in common with these albums; the

record features a stark, metallic sound that has more than a little in common

with the synthesizer-driven Trans.  Nobody plays bass on this album; Neil and

cohorts Steve Jordan on drums and Danny Kortchmar on guitars fill the gap with

synths, leaving no bottom end, and thus no warmth to the sound.  Jordan's

drums rattle like garbage cans, and Neil employs lots of brittle, feedback

guitar on Old Black, his classic Les Paul.  The record's themes touch

continually on alienation ("Touch The Night," "I Got A Problem," "Drifter"),

lost visions ("Hippie Dream"), and the search for control ("Violent Side,"

"Pressure").  Neil never sounds convinced, even on the opening track, "Weight

Of The World," that the loneliness he felt until he met his love has really

gone for good.

 

  "What about you / How can I count on you to count on me?" 

 

is the plaintive question of "Drifter."  The listener can't count on a solid

answer.  This ambiguity, and the way it presages the power of later albums

such as Freedom and Ragged Glory, makes Landing on Water the missing link in

Young's canon for most listeners.  My advice: Go find it and fill the gap now.

 

 

LIFE

1987 - Geffen GHS 24154

Mideast Vacation / Long Walk Home / Around the World / Inca Queen / Too

Lonely / Prisoners of Rock'n'Roll / Cryin' Eyes / When Your Lonely Heart

Breaks / We Never Danced

 

by Gary A. Lucero

glucero@wordperfect.com

 

Life is Neil's last official recording with Geffen.  It was released in 1987,

with much of it recorded live during the Landing on Water tour.  Although not

as reliant on keyboards for its sound as Landing on Water, Life shares a

certain feeling with its predecessor.  Many of the songs, like "Mideast

Vacation," "Around the World," "Too Lonely," "Prisoners of Rock'n'Roll," and

"Cryin' Eyes," are rockers.  They're fairly hard, and have some great guitar

work.  The remaining songs, "Long Walk Home," "Inca Queen," "When Your Lonely

Heart Breaks," and "We Never Danced," are slow, melodic numbers.  Most ofthe

songs are about war, the Incas, rock, or love.  One interesting thing is that

the song "We Never Danced" was used as the basis for the movie "Made in

Heaven," which stars Timothy Hutton and Kelli McGillis.  Neil Young has a

cameo role in the film as a truck driver.  "We Never Danced" was unfortunately

not sung by Neil in "Made in Heaven," but was used to good effect none the

less.  As with Landing on Water, Life was not appreciated very much by Neil

Young fans at the time of its release.  Rolling Stone magazine said that

Freedom, which came out two years later, was more a "life" album than Life

was.  I disagree; real life is love, war, hate, rock-and-roll, etc., and

that's what the album Life is about.  Long may you run.

 

 

THIS NOTE'S FOR YOU

1988 - Reprise 25719

Ten Men Workin' / This Note's for You / Coupe de Ville / Life in the City /

Twilight / Married Man / Sunny Inside / Can't Believe Your Lyin' / Hey Hey /

One Thing 

 

by David G Skoglund 

skog0013@gold.tc.umn.edu

 

"My songs are all so long

 And my words are all so sad"

 

               - Neil Young

 

After re-signing with Reprise, Neil created another excursion into a different

musical style - big-band electric blues.  During the North American tour with

Crazy Horse in the summer of 1987, there was a short set of blues number

between the opening, acoustic set and the Crazy Horse electric set.  The new

style began to draw Neil's interest.  In November of that year Neil Young and

the Bluenotes (Crazy Horse plus a horn section) did a small tour of clubs on

the West Coast.  The material ranged from newly-written songs to numbers

written back in Neil's teen years in Canada.  Shortly after the tour, the band

headed into the studio, but only after a few changes.  The Crazy Horse rhythm

section of Talbot and Molina was replaced by Chad Cromwell on drums and Rick

(The Bass Player) Rojas on bass, and in the intervening time Neil had written

more material.  In April of 1988, the album This Note's For You was released.

It can be roughly divided into two styles, the up-tempo "power swing" numbers

and the atmospheric ballads.  The two styles mix nicely together, much in the

manner of the acoustic / electric split of other albums.  The album features

some of Neil's most technically proficient guitar playing in a long time,

especially on the slower numbers.  Some of the standout tracks include "Coup

Deville," "Twilight" (both ballads), "Hey Hey," "Life In The City," and the

title track, "This Note's For You."  The title track would prove to be a point

of controversy, especially where the video was concerned.  Originally banned

by MTV, the clip went on to win best video of the year - go figure.  On the

album, the song appears in a heavily edited version (at little more than two

minutes long) and is almost a throw away.  The live version that was later

released on Lucky Thirteen is more representative.  This period is said to be

very prolific for Neil in terms of song writing, and this was proven true when

the band hit the road in the summer of 1988 with even more new material.  In

retrospect, it would have been nice if the band had recorded the album at the

end of its time together rather than the beginning, as the songs from the

summer tour have a little more fire than the ones that made it to the record.

A planned live album by the Bluenotes never materialized, but it's rumored

that the Archives project will contain a lot of Bluenotes material that never

saw release.  In the eyes of many mainstream critics, this album marked the

beginning of Neil's "comeback."  This opinion would be cemented by the release

of Eldorado and Freedom a year-and-a-half later.

 

 

ELDORADO

1989 - Reprise 20P2-2651 (CD-EP, Japan and Australia only)

Cocaine Eyes / Don't Cry / Heavy Love / On Broadway / Eldorado

 

by Steve Vetter  (Farmer John)

vetters@vax1.elon.edu

 

Eldorado is the 21st release from Neil Young, one of the most prolific artists

around today.  Released as a special EP in Australia and Japan, and running at

only 25 minutes, Eldorado is not much of a value.  However, in that 25 minutes

there is some of the hardest rocking music that Neil had put out, pre-Ragged

Glory.  Recorded with the Restless (making for the joke, Neil Young and the

Restless), this is a wonderful accomplishment for only three players.  The

other musicians on the record are Chad Cromwell on drums and Rick "The Bass

Player" Rosas, who both also appear on the album This Note's For You.  One of

the great things about Neil is that after playing with people such as Cromwell

and Rosas (and more recently Booker T and the MGs), he gets a great idea for

what would be fun to do next and does it.  Unfortunately, this is the only time

that Neil ever did anything like release less than a full album.  The opening

cut, "Cocaine Eyes," is perhaps my favorite track on the disc.  It has a real

groovy thing happening at the beginning that basically sounds like they threw

it together in the span of five minutes.  Neil plays a little riff-intro type

of thing and says, "Let's try one like that," then breaks into the song like

he had it all in his head the whole time.  Cromwell's drumming is very punchy

and fits very well. "Don't Cry" is the next track on the CD, and is also found

on Freedom.  I like this song for its music and lyrics.  It has the words of a

love ballad, but then Neil and the Restless break into a wild solo / power

chord trip that scales up and down more times in the span of thirty seconds

than an elevator does all day.  "Heavy Love" is next, and has a sort of Ragged

Glory-type Crazy Horse to feel to it.  If you like the stuff on Ragged Glory,

you will probably like this track.  Personally, it is my least favorite on the

disc, but do not take that as a professional opinion.  "On Broadway" is next,

which is a cover of the old sixties tune.  Neil does a stock version, with the

electric guitar and the rhythm section falling nicely into place.  Then

something changes, as Neil does a short solo and then seems to get angry,

screaming "On Broadway" at the top of his lungs and breaking into another

wicked guitar solo, until finally topping it off with "Gimme some of that

crack!  Gimme that crack!  Aggggg!"  It really sounds like he got pissed off

on his way to the Hit Factory studio in New York City, where this was

recorded.  The title track is presumably Neil's favorite off the disc, being

the only one that he performed with any regularity on the Freedom tour.  It is

interesting because Neil plays some Spanish guitar riffs that I find

particularly enjoyable.  At one point, he breaks it wide open with his guitar

and fills your ears with wild distortion.  I think that on this song you can

also see some of the influence of the Bluenotes sessions.  Mixed in with the

riffs is some melodic, blues-type playing, however this track would have been

out of place on the Bluenotes album.  This EP is one of the most important

pieces in Neil's career because it shows the beginning of the Freedom to

Harvest Moon era of his popularity.  I also think that it is one of those

projects that we will look forward to more of in the future (but may never

get).  If you can find a copy (it's not readily available but is attainable),

I don't think there's anyone who has regretted buying it.

 

 

FREEDOM

1989 - Reprise 25899

Rockin' in the Free World / Crime in the City (Sixty to Zero Part I) / Don't

Cry / Hangin' on a Limb / Eldorado / The Ways of Love / Someday / On 

Broadway / Wrecking Ball / No More / Too Far Gone / Rockin' in the Free World

 

by Jeff Dove

jeffdove@well.sf.ca.us

 

Freedom is Neil Young's Odds and Sods.  His return to Reprise, with This

Note's for You, found him still in his "odd" period, but this second return

effort for The Chairman of the Board's label put him back on friendly ground

with old-style fans and radio programmers alike.  This isn't to say that

Freedom is an easy album to evaluate, in the fashion of something like Ragged

Glory.  This collection is in fact quite eclectic, and while that is a trait

that we expect from Neil from album to album, it is never found within the

boundaries of any other single release quite to the extent that it is here.

Freedom seems to be culled from several sources.  A careful listening, and

perusal of the liner notes, places the tracks into a few sort of fuzzy

categories.  "Rockin' in the Free World," which opens and closes the album in

different versions, recalls Rust Never Sleeps.  The parallel goes beyond the

similar tactic, used in "Hey Hey, My My (Out of the Blue) / My My, Hey Hey

(Out of the Black)," but the styles of the two recordings on Freedom match

Rust Never Sleep's live acoustic A-side and Crazy Horse-raging B-side.  As

with "Hey Hey...," and for that matter as with "Tonight's the Night" on the

album of the same name, the two versions have some lyrical differences.  The

opening version of "Rockin' in the Free World" is a live solo acoustic version

from a Jones Beach, Long Island, NY show, while the closer is an electric

ripper that is right in there with the best of the Horse.  The acoustic

"Rockin'" can be grouped with "Hangin' on a Limb," another solo number, this

time done in the studio with the vocal backing of Linda Rondstadt.  The

rocking "Rockin'" falls in with another pair of tunes recorded in Neil's Barn

studio, "No More" and "Crime in the City."  These are all up-tempo recordings

that recall Neil's work with Crazy Horse.  "Crime in the City's" aggressive

acoustic guitar riffs are backed with subtle bass and drums, and "No More"'s

guitar lead recalls that of "Cortez the Killer."  While these are a little

cleaner and more subtle than Crazy Horse tunes, their style was reminiscent

enough of past glory to quickly get FM rotation, and gain the status of being

amongst Neil's most liked and well known songs.  Poncho Sampedro contributes

to them all.

 

Although "Rockin' in the Free World" recalls Rust Never Sleeps, other Barn

recordings, "The Ways of Love" and "Too Far Gone," could be off of American

Stars 'n' Bars.  Each has a country-rock feel, complete with Ben Keith's pedal

steel guitar, and each works.  In fact, "Hangin on a Limb" sounds like a

Comes A Time recording, and "No More" would fit right in on Everybody Knows

This Is Nowhere.  The other distinct grouping of tracks are those recorded at

New York's Hit Factory with the Eldorado line-up.  "Don't Cry," "Eldorado,"

"On Broadway," and "Wrecking Ball" are done with a guitar-bass-drum trio, with

the exception of a little acoustic work by Poncho on "Eldorado," and all but

"Wrecking Ball" also turn up on the Eldorado CD EP.  These three songs have a

somewhat distinct sound from anything else in Neil's body of work.  In "Don't

Cry," he delivers a soulful vocal plea which is interrupted by crashing and

dissonant guitar chords.  The show tune cover "On Broadway," which could very

well elicit a gasp upon first seeing it listed on the cover, actually succeeds

by using a similar technique.  "Eldorado" accompanies its tale of drug dealing

south of the border with music with a Latin feel, carried by Neil's beautiful,

crisp leads, and occasional Spanish guitar and castanet sounding

interjections.  Unfortunately "Wrecking Ball" doesn't work.  It's a piano

driven ballad that is a little too typical of such songs by lessor artists. It

lacks the Neil "edge," musically and lyrically, which make songs such as

"After the Gold Rush" and "Helpless" exciting and distinct from MOR dreck.  On

a record this varied you can expect some misfires; however, one track falls

below, way below "Wrecking Ball," and that is "Someday."  It is rehashed Bruce

Springsteen at best, and like theme music to some lame Hollywood "formula"

film at worst.  With its tinkling piano, and tempo which mimics the Boss'

"Thunder Road," you keep waiting for a Clarence Clemons-styled sax lead to

interject itself, and towards the end it finally does.  Come on Neil, this was

recorded in 1989...and it's a Barn track also!  Freedom represents the first

step in Neil's commercial come back, and as such there are a number of good,

and some great, cuts included.  Its shifting style makes for a unique

listening experience, and while fans have seen such shifts in style in the

past on records from one side to the other, notably on Rust Never Sleeps and

Hawks and Doves, be ready for changes from track to track on this one.

 

 

RAGGED GLORY

1990 - Reprise 26315

Country Home / White Line / F*!#in' Up / Over and Over / Love to Burn /

Farmer John / Mansion on the Hill / Days That Used to Be / Love and Only

Love / Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)

 

by Kurt "The Hangman" Blumenau

terrapin@bu.edu

 

The turn of a decade has often proved a fertile time for Neil Young.  1969-70

brought us Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and After the Gold Rush, while 1979

saw the release of Neil's clearest and most enduring cri de coeur, Rust Never

Sleeps.  The pattern continued into the nineties with Neil's 1990 release of

Ragged Glory, recorded with longtime backup band Crazy Horse in his barn in

California.  The moods in this ten-song set range from giddiness (a hilarious

cover of "Farmer John") to scathing self-flagellation ("F*!#in' Up"), but

overall the mood of the album seems to be the sort of guarded optimism for the

future as expressed in "White Line:"

 

  "Right now I'm thinkin' bout these things that I know / And the daylight

   will soon be breakin'"  

 

Ragged Glory is not one of Neil's dark albums, even with the inclusion of

"F*!#in' Up" and the shimmering noise-guitar-and-choir environmental warning,

"Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)."  The lyrics are too optimistic and not as

barbed as Neil's words have been in the past ("Days That Used To Be"

effectively comments on the passing of hippiedom without being TOO cutting).

The music, as befitting the album title, is beautifully fast and loose,

expressing great emotion in its simplicity.  Crazy Horse is, for my money

anyway, Neil's most simpatico backing band; here they bash and clang

merrily away, creating a ragged groove that a lot of modern grunge bands

would kill for.  Many of the songs are stretched out in the fashion of

earlier NY/CH epics like "Cortez The Killer" and "Down By The River,"

allowing plenty of room for interplay and Neil's characteristic passionate,

spasmodic solos (the songs average about six-and-a-half minutes, and two or

three top the ten-minute mark).  Ragged Glory represents a return to form

for Neil, a smart, tough, yet fairly optimistic view of the turn of another

decade from a true survivor of the rock-and-roll wilderness.  A taste for

loud, sloppy rock is essential to appreciate Ragged Glory, but if you've got

it, then get it.  It's a triumph, comparing well with any of Neil's electric

work, even the hallowed Rust Never Sleeps.  Stay tuned for 1999-2000...

 

 

ARC

1991 - Reprise 26769

by Tom Henke

henke@hrm.admin.usfca.edu

 

Arc is one of the most strange sidelights in Neil Young's long career of sonic

experimentation.  The set-up is, in this case, half the story.  Young had

finished the noisy, cranked sessions that resulted in Ragged Glory, and had

taken Crazy Horse back out on the road for a mammoth tour, which emphasized

snarling distorted Gibsons (for the first time in years).  As an intriguing

generational prelude, he had Sonic Youth opened the tour.  Apparently, SY's

Thurston Moore was talking with Young and told about a habit he had cultivated

of making random, collage-type tapes out of different parts and performances

from SY's tours - jigsaw puzzle tapes of noise, feedback and songs.  This

idea intrigued Young and he kept it in the back of his mind for later use.

When the tour was over, it was announced that a live album, Weld, was on its

way.  It would be packaged in a limited edition with a piece of experimental

noise, as Arc-Weld.  These editions proved impossible to find, but Arc did

appear as its own single CD.  It turned out to be, more or less, Moore's idea

filtered through Young's conceptual framework.  Specifically, it is a collage

of extended outros from several songs on the tour, especially "Like a

Hurricane" and "Love and Only Love."  These songs were stretched out during

the tour until their ends became freaked-out noise collisions all their own,

sometimes lasting an additional five to ten minutes.  Young took recordings of

several of these long endings and wove them together into a 34:57 minute epic

of surge and crash, splatter and hum.  He was very proud of this work at the

time and claimed it had a definite logical structure.  This supposed structure

is hard to fathom.  Rather than a complete composed piece, as it seems Mr.

Young viewed the document, what it appears to be is something far more oceanic

- a connected series of swells and crashes leading to times of relative calm.

The piece begins with some rather random clanks of picks upon clean,

undistorted electric guitar strings, then comes the sound of a plug hitting

its socket - a prelude creating anticipatory tension.  Quite suddenly, we are

washed into a rampant distorted storm - a shriek of guitar noise, cymbals run

amok, a cheap-sounding synth chord from Poncho, and this rumble-rumble-rumble

shooting through it all.  This is the general sound of most of the piece.

Cymbal crashes, guitars, and that distinctively dense rumble of random tom

toms and bass cut through most of Arc like a verse melody.  At 3:07 we hit the

first words, most of a verse from "Like a Hurricane."  The phrase:

 

  "Once I thought I saw you, in a crowded hazy bar / Dancin' on the light 

   from star to star" 

 

comes through clearly and beautifully while the rumble subsides to hum and

echo.  Surreal blips of noise peek through, then squeaks and burps, then a

crash and a buildup into a dive bomb of feedback.  This word portion of the

piece serves as a coda and is repeated at ten minute intervals - at 13:00 the

same verse returns and at 23:05 it is back again.  Between these bits of

"Hurricane" and their associated crashes, sung lines of "I want love," and

"...love and only love..." appear and fade into the din like some strange

bobbing memory.  At times these phrases are strangely vulnerable, like a plea,

and at other times they are more strident and declarative.  When the noise

dips to a whisper (every eight minutes or so) the crowd suddenly appears like

a breath of fresh air, screaming over the top of everything, only to be

deluged by the next burst of swooping whammy-bar dive bombs.  Things really

freak out at the very end of the piece.  At around 26:34 it begins to tatter

with a smash of Poncho noise, a crash and a distant echo that sounds like

"Aww...I'm sorry...so sorry...,"  then noise and another crescendo, then back

down again.  There are whammy-bar swoops and noises through 28:00.  At 28:30 a

regular insistent bass line picks up, easy drums come behind, Neil noodles

with a spacy guitar sound then gives a "Yeah!" in the background.  All gets

very phased and weird and the crowd comes through again for a moment.  There

is a cut in the sound and another crash, then more "Sorry man...sorry..." from

Poncho(?).  More crashes into more "Love and only love..." choruses occur, now

like a mantra of strength.  At 30:57 some real melody notes are played,

recalling the figures from "Like a Hurricane,"  then finally a coda of "Take a

chance, take a chance on love...," and a fade down.

 

It seems over, until at 32:00 there is a thrash of one chord, crashes, and a

buildup to a chant of "no more pain!"  Then it's off again with a shout of,

"Hey mom, hey mom, I'm hungry mom!"  The music gets martial again, with Neil

jamming away on real notes while Poncho slams chords.  The rant goes on with

"Get in the car...go to the post office..."  The whole thing comes to a jammy,

slamming, rumbling close.  There is a brief final repeat of "I want love," a

distorted explosion, a couple of clear bass chords, and a fadeout - end.  The

overall effect is, again, mostly tidal.  Noise lifts you like a wave only to

smash apart.  There are moments of calm, then all hell breaks loose.  Drawing

conclusions from this piece seems nearly impossible.  Not exactly an

experiment in tolerance and irritation, like Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music,

Arc is more of an organic piece reflecting the chaos of life, or at least of

electricity.  The real meaning here is anyone's guess.  A soundtrack for the

growth of fractals?  A sonic portrait of a Gulf War annihilation?  Nothing at

all?  Arc is a strange beast.  Not a piece for the casual listener, it seems

only recommendable to completists and those out for a weird, joyless,

difficult experience.  Arc is in the end interesting, but not much fun.

 

 

WELD

1991 - Reprise 26671

Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) / Crime in the City / Blowin' in the Wind /

Welfare Mothers / Love to Burn / Cinnamon Girl / Mansion of the Hill /

F*!#in' Up / Cortez the Killer / Powderfinger / Love and Only Love / Rockin'

in the Free World / Like a Hurricane / Farmer John / Tonight's the Night /

Roll Another Number

 

by Gary A. Lucero

glucero@wordperfect.com

 

"Sparks Be Flyin'"

 

Weld is one of those incredibly wonderful albums that comes along rarely.

When it first came out, I happened upon it by chance.  I didn't listen to the

radio, I wasn't a member of the N.Y.A.S., and I didn't belong to Rust@Death,

so the only way I was able to find out about new releases was from the CD

store where I bought my music.  The place I used to buy CDs, a big book store

in Albuquerque, also sells books, software, newspapers, and other stuff.  My

wife worked there, and in the afternoon, when I would come to pick her up, I

would rummage around in the music department.  I would check out the Neil

Young section every day, even though it almost never changed.  I guess I hoped

a new CD would be released, the Archives would ship, or something.  Anyway,

one day I walked into the store, wandered over to the music department, and

checked out the Neil Young section.  Arc-Weld was sitting there.  I was blown

away.  I couldn't believe it, a new Neil Young CD.  And actually not just one

CD, but three...incredible!  I could not believe it.  I of course bought it

immediately.  I liked Arc-Weld right away.  I thought Arc was a good CD, and I

thought Weld was too, but I didn't like either of them then as much as I do

now.  "Hey, Hey, My, My (Into the Black)" opens, and Neil and Crazy Horse

thunder into this staple.  The crowd comes up, and then "Out of the Blue," the

song, begins.  It is performed with as much energy as in its original version

or the Live Rust version, and its musical and vocal qualities seem clearer

than in those versions.  It's brighter, and Neil's voice seems more solid.  It

is an outstanding rendition of a great song, and a nice way to kick off the

album.

 

One of the real highlights of Weld is "Crime In The City."  The Freedom tour

boasted the acoustic version of this incredibly moving song, and the Freedom

album gave us a Bluenotes-influenced rendition.  But Weld gives us a

rock-and-roll version, complete with driving guitar work, clear drums, and

screaming vocals.  Crazy Horse proves to be an excellent band to back Neil on

one of his most delicate and sincere songs.  From there it moves to "Blowin'

in the Wind," the Dylan classic.  Sirens, machine gun fire, rockets flying by,

explosions, and Neil's lone guitar begin the song.  It is reminiscent of

"Mother Nature (Natural Anthem)," except with special effects and Neil's

feedback-drenched guitar looming overhead while he belts out the lyrics.  The

backing vocals work well to provide synergy, and to hone the otherwise

unweilding song.  The real standout for this reviewer is "Welfare Mothers."

Never before had this song affected me so much.  I've always loved Rust Never

Sleeps, and enjoyed "Welfare Mothers," but I never understood it until Weld.

The song begins simply enough, and isn't really any different than the

original version for several minutes.  It is not until it begins to wind down,

and Billy Talbot and Neil Young begin their interchange of dialog, that the

song takes on real new meaning.  Neil sings "beautiful" at the end of every

chorus, and his guitar screams out the lead.  Then the song begins to slow up,

and Neil says "take care."  You hear "no more pain," and when Neil asks Billy,

"Where's the check Billy?," the classic response is "The check's in the mail."

The message conveyed is the cycle of starvation, child abuse, false love, and

the false relief brought when the check comes.  Chaos takes place, with the

guitar and drums sounding wildly, and then it dies into the crowd.  Before you

know, it another song starts.  "Love To Burn" is one of the most gorgeous

songs from Ragged Glory.  Neil does it justice here.  The guitar soars,

reminiscent of "Cortez The Killer" or "Dangerbird," but the lyrics are surreal

and touching:

 

  "Why'd you ruin my life? / Where you takin' my kids?"

 

The rest of the first disc, "Cinnamon Girl," "Mansion On The Hill," and

"F*!#in' Up," are standard fare.  They are good versions of good songs, but

let's move on to disc two.

 

"Cortez the Killer" is slow and plodding, careful and meticulous, almost like

a prayer or incantation.  Each words carries forth the emotion of a man who

seems in awe of the Aztecs and the Incas.  Neil's guitar work is beautiful,

and the drums and backup vocals are clear and concise.  Neil Young and Crazy

Horse provide us with one of their most moving versions of this song.  When

Neil sings "killer!" it just about rips out your heart.  It is followed by

"Powderfinger."  This has never been one of my favorites, though the lyrics

are entertaining and the song is a lot of fun to listen to.  On Weld, it is

sung well, and Neil and the band do an excellent job.  "Love and Only Love,"

another of my favorites from "Ragged Glory," is also performed beautifully.

Like all of the songs on Weld, it is sung with clarity and feeling.  "Rockin'

in the Free World," "Farmer John," and "Roll Another Number," the fourth,

sixth and last song of disc two, are all performed well, but I want to discuss

the remaining songs, "Like a Hurricane" and "Tonight's the Night."  These

songs are standards, and the versions presented here are exceptional.  "Like a

Hurricane" has some of the most outstanding guitar playing since the Berlin

version.  Neil squeezes sounds from Old Black that are incredible, and brings

the song to an orgasmic level.  After the first verse, the guitar is slow and

careful, and then with each subsequent verse it becomes more chaotic and

fierce.  Chords and notes are sounded with feeling, and though they are

familiar to anyone who has heard more than one version of this song, they are

yet new and revealing.  This is the best rocker on the album, and one that

should be remembered for a long time to come.  There is no way Neil Young can

top the version(s) of "Tonight's the Night" that appear on the album of the

same name, but on Weld he provides a good electric rendition.  Whereas the

original had Neil's great piano work, Nils Lofgren's solid guitar, a great

bass line (which you hardly ever hear in Neil's music) by Billy Talbot, and

wonderful harmonies coming from the group, on Weld it is quite different.  The

bass is distinguishable at the beginning, and the drums are clearer - you can

hear the tom toms and the cymbals.  Neil's guitar sort of wails, even as his

voice does, and what starts out as a slow rocker soon becomes a scorcher.

Again, the emotion in his voice is undeniable.  He sings the song with

feeling.  When it takes off, after a couple of verses, Neil sings "oh Bruce"

and launches into a frenzy of guitar solos.  They start off slow, but soon,

after a bit more vocals, some being improvisational, and some great bass

playing by Billy Talbot, it really begins to fly.  The drums are pounding, the

guitar is screeching, and you can hear screaming in the background ("oh Bruce,

oh Bruce, oh Bruce").  The song then dies out, and Neil gives his thanks with,

"And a word of thanks for all of our families, and for the great crew that we

got out here for the last fifty-four shows; the best; thank you."  The show,

and the album, finish with "Roll Another Number."

 

I have not compared Weld to bootlegs or concert tapes, but only to officially

released albums and video tapes.  You may know of unofficial concert

recordings which have superior versions of many of these songs, but for the

money there is no better live CD than Weld.  I'm not saying there aren't

better LPs, cassettes or DAT tapes, but on compact disc you will not find a

better value.  Weld is an incredible album, and if you can find Arc-Weld, buy

that - it is even better.

 

 

HARVEST MOON

1992 - Reprise 45057

Unknown Legend / From Hank to Hendrix / You and Me / Harvest Moon / War of

Man / One of These Days / Such a Woman / Old King / Dreaming Man / Natural

Beauty

 

by Uncle Dave

covey@lts.sel.alcatel.de

 

After the angst of his early work and the metallic thrashing of the later

albums, Harvest Moon reveals the true Neil Young.  The Neil Young that was

left behind in the post-hippie trauma that was seventies rock.  With Harvest

Moon, Neil finally grows up!  Ragged Glory was Young at his snarling best -

plenty of volume on the guitar and powerful lyrics to match.  Arc was an

epitaph to that period, an exercise in self-indulgent exorcism.  Harvest Moon

is mature.  This is music not from the heart or the head, but from, and for,

the soul.  Neil's music is always fresh, often surprising, sometimes maudlin,

intense and perplexing, but never until this quite so (aw shucks!)

heart-warming.  Harvest Moon is the quintessential down-home-mom's-apple-pie

American folk album.  It's one of the few Neil Young albums that you can share

with the one you love, along with a bottle of something nice, without having

to apologetically hit the fast forward button or move the tracking arm

forward.  The fact that it has undoubtedly won new admirers of Neil's work is

due just as much to its refusal to conform to what you might expect, as to its

undoubted wider appeal.  "You and Me" could easily have been on Harvest, the

other NY album to enjoy a mass audience, while "Old King" is probably too

country for Country Music Television.  The title track is one of the most

evocative songs from the most evocative of songsmiths.  It is pure beauty, one

of those songs which you live, recalling long lost summer nights and inducing

that sad nostalgia that comes from knowing you'll probably never quite get

there again.  If it has a theme, Harvest Moon is about love, and love in its

many guises.  That is love of nature, love for old friends, love for a

favorite pet, and yes, even the standard boy meets girl is expressed here, and

in a refreshing fashion to boot.  While probably not the most favored album

among Neil's hardcore fans, this is nevertheless a masterpiece.  There is not

a single weak track, and from the very first listen you get the feeling that

you're seeing the real man stripped bare for all.  Some people have found it

very easy to be cynical about Harvest Moon, but then they've probably never

been in love, and if you have then you'll know.  This album would make such a

fitting epitaph for Neil Young that it's scary.  Whilst hoping that it won't

be, it's difficult to see where he can go from here.  But of course, this is

Neil Young we're talking about.

 

 

LUCKY THIRTEEN

1993 - Geffen GEF 24452

Sample and Hold	/ Transformer Man / Depression Blues / Get Gone /

Don't Take Your Love Away From Me / Once an Angel / Where Is the Highway

Tonight / Hippie Dream / Pressure / Around the World / Mideast Vacation /

Ain't It the Truth / This Note's for You

 

by Gary A. Lucero

glucero@wordperfect.com

 

"Excursions Into Alien Territory"

 

Lucky Thirteen is an eclectic collection of music made by Neil Young from 1982

through 1988.  Many of Neil's fans appreciate little from these years, which

the artist spent with the David Geffen Company.  The albums he released during

this segment of his career include Trans, Everybody's Rockin', Old Ways,

Landing on Water, and Life.  He also toured with the Bluenotes while with

Geffen (before releasing This Note's For You on Reprise Records in 1988).

These albums represent some of the best music Neil has ever made, though, and

Lucky Thirteen is a good sampling from them.  Lucky Thirteen opens with

"Sample and Hold."  This is not the original version that appeared on the

Trans LP, though it does appear on the Trans CD that Geffen released in Europe

and Japan last year.  It does not have the rock 'n' roll bite that the

original had.  It is longer and slower, but is well worth listening to.  Next

is "Transformer Man" from Trans, and it is a good song about Neil's youngest

son Ben.  "Depression Blues," "Get Gone," and "Don't Take Your Love Away From

Me" follow.  All are previously unreleased, and all are excellent.

"Depression Blues" is a slightly country number that is very pretty, and the

other two are blues songs recorded live on the Neil Young and the Shockin'

Pinks tour.  Except for "Ain't It the Truth," which is a previously unreleased

Neil Young and the Bluenotes song, and "This Note's For You," which is a

tremendous, previously unreleased, live version of the song from the album of

the same name, the rest of the songs on Lucky Thirteen are the original

versions from the albums Old Ways, Landing on Water, and Life.  Their order

and selection are very pleasing.  Lucky Thirteen can be considered not only as

a sampler of what Neil Young did in the eighties, but it also hints at how he

will prepare his long awaited Archives, and the Lucky Thirteen liner notes

suggest that many tracks on this album will appear on Archives when they are

finally released.  While you're waiting for Neil, who is careful but slow, to

put together and finally release that boxed set, you can put Lucky Thirteen on

and understand that it's his varied styles, wonderful guitar playing, and

wondrous songwriting that sets him apart from the crowd.

 

 

UNPLUGGED

1993 - Reprise 45310

Old Laughing Lady / Mr. Soul / World on a String / Pocahontas / Stringman /

Like a Hurricane / The Needle and the Damage / Helpless / Harvest Moon /

Transformer Man / Unknown Legend / Lookout for My Love / Long May You Run /

From Hank to Hendrix

 

by Uncle Dave

covey@lts.sel.alcatel.de

 

I like to be at the office by seven, so the World Cup is not my favorite

tournament - and not just because England isn't there.   I live in Germany

where they're football mad - and have a team which makes the "luck of the

Irish" look almost unfortunate.  Trying to sleep when they are playing is out

of the question in my neighborhood, so I lay in the dark and listened to

Unplugged instead.  It's that kind of album - crisp and clear and the digital

sound definitely enhances some of those older songs.  This could be subtitled

"Greatest Hits," and it's certainly as close as you'll come to a marketing

exercise from Neil Young.  It succeeds in that because it is a well-chosen,

well-performed set that spans the whole of NY's career.  I tuned in to

Unplugged on MTV the other day to remind myself what it's all about.

Aerosmith were on and sounded like, well, Aerosmith "sans electrique."  They

were even more mind-numbingly boring than usual.  That seems to be the way of

it, and I wonder whether, with such groups, there's a point as their music

relies on power.  People like Neil Young can do it with or without the wall

sockets, and it shows.  The marketing idea is enhanced by the fact that the

lyrics are printed on the insert, but then destroyed by the failure to mention

the albums that they come from.  Strange, but when you're listening to someone

who can write (from "Pocahontas"):

 

  "I wish I was a trapper, I would give a thousand pelts / To sleep with 

   Pocahontas and find out how she felt"

 

normal rules don't apply.  As a showcase for his astonishingly consistent song

writing abilities, Unplugged is ideal, and the opportunity is taken

professionally and consummately.  The scope for invention in an acoustic

environment is somewhat less than can be achieved electronically, but there

are still things here to send a shiver down your spine.  "Harvest Moon" is so

much like the original track that it's scary, and the use of a pump organ for

a gothic start to "Like a Hurricane" is one of those moments of musical genius

rarely witnessed, which some artists go their whole lives without seeing.  I

like Unplugged a great deal.  The only question mark is why, in this age of

Hi-Fi video machines and the ease with which you can feed digital sound

through your speakers while watching TV, should someone buy the record instead

of the video.  It's a thoroughly good album, and if after reading some of

these reviews you'd like to try a Neil Young sampler, then this is it.

 

************************************

 

As a point of reference, here are the results of the Rust@Death list's "First

Annual Favorite Neil Young Album Poll," as published in Broken Arrow no. 55,

from May, 1994 (compileds by Keith "The Thrasher" Bonney):

 

Rust Never Sleeps - 35 points

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere - 32 points

Tonight's the Night - 26 points

Ragged Glory - 25 points

After the Goldrush - 24 points

Freedom - 23 points

On the Beach, Zuma - 21 points

Decade - 16 points

Time Fades Away - 13 points

Weld - 12 points

Harvest, Live Rust - 10 points

Trans, Harvest Moon - 8 points

Comes A Time, This Note's For You - 7 points

American Stars 'n' Bars - 6 points

Hawks and Doves, Unplugged - 5 points

Re-ac-tor - 4 points

Neil Young, Old Ways, Eldorado, Arc-Weld - 3 points

Landing On Water, Arc - 1 point

Journey Through the Past, Everybody's Rockin', Life - 0 points

 

 

The FUNHOUSE! Hot 100 - The One-Hundred Most FUNHOUSE! LPs of All Time

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The following albums communicate the FUNHOUSE! sensibilities.  They weren't

"crafted," no surveys were done, and no close adherence to the demographics of

the commercial radio audience or the tastes of arrogant DJs were considered.

That's more the style of Toto, Journey, or Skid Row.  As I interpret it, most

of the music below came from the guts of some dweeb or dweebs who were making

noise that communicated their excitement or anxiety - they made it because

they liked it.  In a couple of cases (Kiss?), they may have just got lucky in

capturing something more real than was intended, but some of the best "art"

comes from twisted and failed attempts to create something that, if

successful, would have been altogether lame.  Just watch the movie AIRPORT '70

- THE CONCORD to get an idea of what I mean.  This is no "best-of" list, and

as any issue of FUNHOUSE! is just a snapshot in time I may laugh hysterically

or be disgusted about something below in the future.  You may even read about

it in these pages.  What follows is the soundtrack for the FUNHOUSE!

experience.  These are the tunes that go with watching a Russ Meyer flick or

reading an EC comic.  The goal is to turn you on to something that you might

like but haven't yet discovered, and if that happens I'd love to hear about

it.  One stipulation going in was that nothing released later than 1992 was

considered.  Music didn't mystically get generally worse at that point, but

this was just to prevent an overvaluation of something currently sitting on my

turntable.  Undoubtedly, records have come out since then which would make it,

but a little distance is required to get a more honest picture of where they

stand.

 

100.NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS - The Sex Pistols (1977, Warner Brothers 

    BSK-3147)

    I had to fit it in somewhere.  Although a bit overrated, it still has

    some monster riffs from Steve Jones, who also plays the bass parts.

    Don't think that Vicious had anything to do with the music in this 

    band.  Punk 100 - this serves as an intro to the scene for fourteen year

    old kids and thirty year old come-lately rock critics alike. 

 

99. METAL MACHINE MUSIC - Lou Reed (1975, RCA CPL2-1101(S))

    Lou during his most bitter period created his most caustic joke.  The

    best part occurs when the feedback between the tube amps in series

    and the arbitor distorter (Jimi's) achieve a little variation in the third 

    minute of side C.  There's a Yoko effect.  Lou claims the presence of a 

    harmonic build up in one channel - I'll take his word for it.  64:04 

    minutes of heaven and hell.  Is this partially responsible for Masana?  

 

98. PARANOID or MASTER OF REALITY or VOLUME FOUR or SABOTAGE [pick one] -

    Black Sabbath (1971-75, Warner Brothers WS-1887 or BS-2562 or BS-2602

    or BS-2822)

    The bottom-heavy psychometal acid rock pioneers tread on ground that only

    Blue Cheer also walked at the time.  Sabbath had better hooks however,

    and anyone who's actually listened to these knows that intriguing

    instrumental acoustic passages can also be found.  The first six

    albums all pack a wallop and make Soundgarden possible.  Numbers one

    and five slip a bit below those above, and thus any of these four will

    do.  Purist might go for Paranoid, but that would skip over "Sweat Leaf"

    (Master), "Snowblind" (Vol. 4), and "Hole in the Sky" (Sabotage).

 

97. REVOLVER (UK version) - The Beatles (1966, Parlaphone 3075 [UK])

    The Fab Four at their peak of creativity as a band.  The stretch of LPs

    Help-Rubber Soul-Revolver (UK versions!) is where they matured as

    musicians and songwriters, and hadn't yet disintegrated into one 

    songwriter and three-studio musicians.  This is their most psychedelic /

    feedback drenched effort.  Listen to your early Beatle albums sometime

    and imagine how intense they would be if the guitar was mixed up there

    with the vocals and drums.

 

96. DOREMI FASOL LATIDO - Hawkwind (1972, United Artists UA-LA001-F)

    This is everything that Rush wish they could be.  The music of this 

    English trio is the sonic representation of a trip - a trip on a spaceship

    that is.  The seven tracks are built on a surging and driving heavy sound,

    interspersed with guitar created SFX noises, to try to translate the

    science fiction scenario described in the record's liner notes and its

    inner sleeve, which looks as if it could have been taken from the Mighty

    Thor.  Lemmy contributes the fatalistic "The Watcher," which may be the

    mellowest thing with his name attached to it, and which was given a harder

    treatment on Motorhead's first.

 

95. LOLA VS. POWERMAN AND THE MONEYGOROUND - The Kinks (1970, Reprise 

    RS-6423)

    In the period between the hits, The Chairman's label decided to allow the

    Davies brothers to continue producing a series of concept albums that now

    comprise their best work.  This one is a notch ahead of Something Else

    on the basis of its added energy.  "Lola" emerged as the most well known 

    song, but the rest is up to that level.

 

94. BEACH BOULEVARD - Compilation (1979, Posh Boy PBS 102)

    Back in high school in Orange County, Beach Blvd through Huntington Beach

    was the road to the party, and in the late seventies the kids carved a

    niche in the punk scene with roots in Dick Dale and the Lonely Ones.

    Beach Punk had the energy of the Ramones, with a more melodic overtone.

    The best of the bunch, the Crowd, the Simpletones, and Rik L. Rik, are 

    collected here.

 

93. CATHOLIC BOY - The Jim Carroll Band (1980, Atco SD 38-132)

    The gutter poet gets a rock band, and lucky for him they were a good one.

    Carroll translates his blasts of consciousness tales of Big City life on

    the Mean Streets of NYC through an energetic but cleaned-up noise that was

    typical of the post-punk movement of the time.  There's a definite dose of

    fatality, but it seems honest, as opposed to the pretentiousness of 

    today's fashionably in-style negative kids.  In the adolescent days of 

    video rock, JC claimed he'd never make one, but that may be irrelevant as 

    he probably wouldn't have been given the chance.  And even then, the 

    corporate stiffs at Music Telejism couldn't handle observations of the 

    like that, "It's too late to fall in love with Sharon Tate."

 

92. PURE MANIA - The Vibrators (1977, Epic 82097 [UK])

    Power pop punk from the UK.  Not as angry as some of their contemporaries

    but still quite energetic.  The precursor for bands like the Dickies in 

    the US.

 

91. I FOUGHT THE LAW - The Bobby Fuller Four (1966, Mustang MS-901)

    The title track has become a classic due to renditions from the likes of

    Lou Reed, the Clash, and the Dead Kennedys, but the original packs just as

    much power as those later remakes.  Power-chording rhythm guitar work 

    provides a much fuller sound than was common in the early sixties.  "Never

    to be Forgotten" stands up with the big hit on this one.

 

90. DIGGIN' OUT: TWENTY SURF BLASTS - Compilation (1992, Mr.Manicotti

    MM 329)

    THIS is surf music, not the pop pabulum put out by vocal groups like the

    Beach Boys and Jan and Dean.  If you're into "Pipeline," "Wipeout,"

    "Miserlou" etc. grab this - it's those tunes with extra reverb and 

    distortion.  Avenger VI, Newport Nomads, the Lonely Ones - definitely 

    punk man.

 

89. NUGGETS - Compilation (1972, Elektra 7E-2006)

    Lenny Kaye opened the door in 1972 for the likes of Pebbles, Boulders,

    Highs in the Mid-Sixties, Back from the Grave etc.  Sneering attitude from

    post-Stones American sixties garage cretins like the Count Five, the 

    Shadows of Knight, the Standells, the Chocolate Watchband, and the Music

    Machine.  Proof that punk didn't start in London / 1976.

 

88. SURFIN' BIRD - Trashmen (1964, Garret GAS-200)

    The title track alone insures this record's placement.  The bird will 

    never die, and the song copped from the Rivingtons and covered by the 

    Cramps and the Ramones is surrounded by some equally crazed surf ravers

    from a group of Minnesota boys who never set foot an a beach

 

87. OUT OF THE TUNNEL - MX-80 Sound (1980, Ralph MX-8002)

    Imagine one of those late seventies new wave / power pop bands that were

    always on the radio back then (an aside - my dix refers to new wave as

    with, "...lyrics which express anger and social discontent."  Would that

    be the B-52s?) and then imagine if the guitar was mixed WAY out in front.

    Now imagine it with a speeded up Asheton-like intensity.  Bruce Anderson's 

    fluid but intense string thrashing leads these unfortunately underrated 

    nouveau-metal Hoosiers.

 

86. PSYCHOCANDY - The Jesus and Mary Chain (1985, Reprise 25383-1)

    It's Metal Machine Music with melodies.  What do you do if you're a young

    angst ridden teen with great tunes running through your head but no

    ability to play an instrument?  You get your bro to plug in a guitar, turn

    all the knobs on ten, and sing along with the distortion.

 

85. FREAK OUT! - Mothers of Invention (1966. Verve V6-5005-2)

    In the first double studio LP rock record, Frank Zappa lets everyone know

    that he's a little weird.  The debut has the Mothers at their best,

    trudging through all the usual styles (garage, doo wop, R & B, esoteric

    cacophony) at their most succinct.  "Trouble Every Day" is still relevant

    to today's world.

 

84. BEGGAR'S BANQUET - Rolling Stones (1968, London PS-539)

    Poor Stones; after coming up with their first record that really defined

    them as a band with a sound of their own (not just great renderers of

    Chuck Berry's or Elmore James' sounds), they thought that they would 

    finally move ahead of the Beatles as Kings of Rock.  It's too bad for them

    that that other group came out with their "Revolution" / "Hey Jude" single

    at the same time.  This albums got more balls, though.

 

83. BOOKER T. AND THE MG'S - Best of Booker T. and the MG's (1968

    Atlantic 8202)

    The Stax / Volt house band in the sixties delivered an amazing series of

    groovable soul-rock instrumentals on their own as well.  Limited to organ,

    guitar, bass, and drums, the foursome produced a more complete sound than

    any larger ensemble.  "Green Onions" was the biggest hit, and this collec-

    tion is filled with songs which carry just as much rhythm as anything with

    a vocalist.  It's from an era when an wordless tune could still climb the 

    charts.

 

82. WILD GIFT - X (1981, Slash 107)

    X in their early raw and unrefined era, which is highlighted by stinging  

    Billy Zoom punkabilly guitar, and vocal harmonies telling of the decadent

    world of LA hype club life.  Unique punk rock that gets the edge over their

    first LP (Los Angeles) based on greater length.

 

81. AVENGERS - CD presents (1983, CD Records CD 007)

    A compilation of singles etc. from SF's greatest punk band.  Penelope

    Houston's vocals are powerful without being screamed or shrill, and the

    music is delivered in the Cal punk style without sacrificing the hooks.

    It's too bad that Penelope sings today as if she thinks that she's a 

    Judd - someone get some real guitars behind her.

 

80. RAGGED GLORY - Neil Young and Crazy Horse (1990, Reprise 26315-2)

    The Godfather of Grunge revives himself once again after a period of wacky

    experimentalism, which took him from techno to rockabilly to country to 

    R & B.  There's no filler on this record, which is the result of Neil and

    the Horse shacking themselves up in his mountain spread and working out

    each song to perfection.  The guitar cuts loose better than anything heard

    on the Headbangers Ball.

 

79. KINGS OF OBLIVION - Pink Fairies (1973, Polydor )

    Bands like Blue Cheer, Dust and Sir Lord Baltimore hinted to Cream 

    followers what the "power trio" concept was all about, but it took this 

    version of this limey band to define it for the early seventies (before 

    Motorhead would assume the throne three years later).  It's fast, it's 

    got drive, it rocks.

 

78. SANDINISTA! - The Clash (1981, Epic 37037)

    Everything including the kitchen sink is thrown in over this six side /

    thirty six song follow up to the hit "London Calling" album.  Some 

    complain that the record would be better had they trimmed it up a bit

    (those who hold that view should seek out the promo sampler, "Sandinista

    Now!" single LP,) but I enjoy digging through the funk-tinged punk of

    "Magnificent Seven," the country-tinged punk of "Loose this Skin," the

    ska-tinged punk of "Police on my Back," the gospel-tinged punk of 

    "Sound of the Sinners," the jazz-tinged punk of "Look Here," the reggae-

    tinged punk of "One More Time / One More Dub," as well as "hits" like

    "Somebody Got Murdered," Hitsville UK," "Charlie Don't Surf," "Lightning

    Strikes," and "The Call Up."

 

77. IN A PRIEST DRIVEN AMBULANCE - Flamin' Lips (1989, Restless 7 72359-1)

    One of the last two Lips LP's might just as well have been included as a

    representative of the group's high volume acid trip rock-and-roll, but

    that would violate the post-'92 rule, and this record stands up to those.

    Every guitar effect is utilized to produce the extreme fuzz tone sound.

    Half of the song titles have "Jesus" in them.

 

76. A WORLD APART - The Crowd (1980, Posh Boy PBS 108)

    The Huntington Beach punk band who ushered in the modern face of surf 

    music.  This is a full album of the best band from the Beach Boulevard 

    compilation. 

 

75. TOO TOUGH TO DIE - The Ramones (1984, Sire 25187)

    The bros slipped a bit after the huge success (artistically) of their 

    first four releases.  They started getting back on track with 1983's

    "Subterranean Jungle," and with Tommy Ramone returning as producer on this

    one, they delivered a collection with a harder and tougher sound without 

    sacrificing their mutant-pop tendencies.  The Ramones' best post-

    seventies album.

 

74. TURN ON THE MUSIC MACHINE - The Music Machine (1966, Orignal Sound 

    5015(M),8875(S)) 

    The band wears all black clothes and a single glove - and they're not

    poseurs.  Sean Bonniwell delivers the vocals with the expected sixties

    garage-band sneer, and the music has more fuzz guitar than anything

    outside of Davie Allan.  Even the cover tunes, which tend to drag down

    albums from this era, are interesting and serve as more than filler.

    The ubiquitous "Hey Joe" as a dirge and Neil Diamond's "Cherry, Cherry"

    are examples.

 

73. AND JUSTICE FOR ALL - Metallica (1988, Elektra E2 60812)

    The best of the new metal bands and their best record.  Extended workouts

    stretch these tunes out to maximum length.  This is proof that not every 

    long-hair band gigging the LA clubs in the early-to-mid eighties was

    worthless.  Most were though, as for every Metallica there were a handful

    of Ratts, Great Whites, Armored Saints, Poisons, and Quiet Riots.

 

72. THE MADCAP LAUGHS/BARRETT - Syd Barret (1974, Harvest SABB-11314 [UK])

    This should be required listening for all psychiatry students; a peek

    into the mind of an acid casualty.  After leading Pink Floyd through

    the Brit-psych sounds of their debut, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,

    a combination of Barrett's wackiness and Roger Water's ego forced his

    ouster.  This is a double-LP compilation of the two record payback 

    from Waters and Gilmore, who hauled their portable studio over to Syd's

    crash pad and turned on the tape.  The result is a barely-produced 

    collection a songs that are sometimes goofy and sometimes display 

    some offbeat philosophy.  The original records were put out in 1969 

    and 1970.

 

71. NOBODY'S HEROES - Stiff Little Fingers (1980, Chyralis CHR 1270)

    Irish ramalama punk rockers who displayed a progression from hardcore to

    raw rock-and-roll over the course of their four albums, and always with a

    bit of a reggae influence.  This LP is number two, and strikes the best

    balance between white guitar noise and more complex compositions.  A cover

    of the Specials "Doesn't Make it Allright" is a highlight.

 

70. BORN INNOCENT - Red Cross (1982, Smoke Seven SMK-7-103)

    A pair of 12 and 15 year old brothers from the LA suburbs sing tributes to

    Russ Meyer, Linda Blair, The Brady Bunch, and Charley Manson - with the

    utmost in trash rock sensibilities.  Charley's "Cease to Exist," which can

    be heard on his Lie album, is the unlisted final track.

 

69. OSMIUM/RHENIUM - Parliament (1970, Invictus 7302/H.D.H. HDH LP 008 [UK])

    Osmium (that's a pretty heavy metal!) is essentially the first

    Funkadelic record.  The is the initial LP after George Clinton's doo wop 

    group recruited a gang of young Hendrix freaks to back them up with a 

    heavy-funk-psychedelic-Delta Blues-soul-acid overamplified rock sound.  A

    great forecast of things to come, when for legal reason the group's name

    was temporarily retired.  Rhenium is the reissue, which is improved by the

    inclusion of some single only releases from the same period.  Check out

    the original recordings of "I Call My Baby Pussycat" and "Red Hot Mama."

 

68. BRAIN CAPERS - Mott the Hoople (1972, Atlantic SD-8304)

    If you've only heard the post-Bowie version of this band you might be

    surprised at how hard they rocked before his emasculation job (as he did

    with Lou and Ig).  This is the last of the four Atlantic albums before 

    they took the glitter edge on Columbia, and it's their best.  Ian Hunter's 

    raspy croak delivers on songs with titles like "The Wheel of the Quivering  

    Meat Conception" and "Death May be your Santa Claus."

 

67. STAND! - Sly and the Family Stone (1969, Epic BN-26456)

    Sly reached his happy / groovy peak here, just before the big bummer led 

    him to the introspection of "There's a Riot Going On."  The wah-wah jamming

    on the 13:48 minute "Sex Machine" is the greatest rock-soul fusion this 

    side of Brother George. 

 

66. I AGAINST I - Bad Brains (1986, SST 065)

    As it was once said, "Spyz kicks Color's ass, but Brains kicks them both."

    Explosive hard rock from these former DC part-time rastamen, part-time 

    punks, which is the indisputed successor to the ground broken by Sly and 

    Funkadelic in the seventies.  Dr. Know roars.

 

65. BLANK GENERATION - Richard Hell and the Voidoids (1977, Sire SR-6037)

    Dick Hell could never be happy until he was calling the shots, and thus he

    jumped ship from both Television and the Heartbreakers before getting his

    own name in the title of a group.  It took him the previous four years in

    those bands to come up with the compositions found here, and some can be 

    followed on their developmental path through the years.  The music thus had

    time to evolve, which is good as Hell's greatest talent is as a clever 

    lyricist.  Future Lou Reed sidekick Robert Quine helps things along 

    considerably with his unique guitar talents, and Marc Bell pounds the 

    between stints with Dust and the Ramones.

 

64. ACE OF SPADES - Motorhead (1980, Mercury SRM-1-4011)

    Full throttle, balls out, take no prisoners, and all knobs to the right -

    one of the most intense record I've ever heard.  The songs are catchy to

    boot.  Lemmy plays bass chords and shouts from the back of his throat.

 

63. SONGS THE LORD TAUGHT US - The Cramps (1981, IRS SP 007)

    Mutant rockabilly meets sixties garage noise meets horror movie sound-

    tracks tracks, all backed with liberal doses of fuzz guitar and no bass to

    be found.  Motley Crue and Judas Priest should realize that this is what a

    leather clad band is supposed to sound like.

 

62. NEW YORK DOLLS - New York Dolls (1973, Mercury SRM-1-675)

    Not even Todd Rungren's production could muddy the kick of these songs.  A

    raw updating of the Rolling Stones rock-and-roll ethic, that easily

    surpasses attempts by Aerosmith and Guns and Roses, presented by Johnny

    Thunders (RIP), Jerry Nolan (RIP), Arthur Kane (MIA), David Johannson (aka

    Buster Poindexter), and Sylvain Sylvain, whose guitar was lifted by Malcom

    MacLaren and strummed by Steve Jones in the Sex Pistols.  Don't let the

    cover picture fool you.

 

61. THIS YEAR'S MODEL - Elvis Costello (1978, Columbia BL 35331)

    Elvis used to have energy overload to back up the anger he still carries

    around like a badge of honor.  This is his first outing with the 

    Attractions, and the hopped up attitude demonstrates what a bunch of hacks

    Huey Lewis' News are, who walked through the backing band roll on the

    previous, debut album.  "Radio Radio" is one of a handful of the greatest

    rock songs of all time.

 

60. DUB HOUSING - Pere Ubu (1978, Chrysalis)

    On the first listen, this record sounds as if it is a discordant mess,

    with two guitars, bass, drums, and a synthesizer meeting head on with

    David Thomas' aka Crocus Behemoth's (no, he's not in Gwar) sort of alto

    warble singing style.  But close listening, especially with headphones,

    quickly reveals that there is a place for everything and everything is in 

    its place.  It's a masterpiece of composition, as well as of mixing and

    production, and after picking it apart you can put the whole back together

    and find that the mesh produces some great rock-and-roll rhythms.

 

59. NUMBER ONE RECORD - Big Star (1972, Ardent ADS-2803)

    Alex Chilton shows his real musical side after bailing on his forced Eric

    Burdon imitation as the singer of the Box Tops.  The music is clean, it's

    it's sharp, it's clever, and it rocks.  This is what REM wish they could

    sound like.

 

58. SUPERFLY SOUNDTRACK - Curtis Mayfield (1972, Custom CRS-8014)

    Superfly is high grade cocaine, not a guy in pimp drag.  It's great that

    when Sly finally went into the toilet, Curtis was there to carry on with

    this great, groovy sound.

 

57. STANDING ON THE VERGE OF GETTING IT ON - Funkadelic (1974,  

    Westbound 1001)

    The heaviest of the Funkadelic albums, and thus it's also the most Eddie

    Hazel-influenced.  I still haven't heard Sir Ed's solo album however, and

    and if anyone can help me out please let me know.

 

56. FLIP YOUR WIG - Husker Du (1985, SST 055)

    Du is another group whose recorded career can be placed on a sort of

    linear progression.  They moved from badly-recorded dissonant noise, to

    above average punk, to the new rock sound, to an overproduced attempt

    at major label success.  This album, along with its predecessor "New Day 

    Rising," represents the midpoint, at which the distorted frenzy of the

    music isn't cleaned up, but is tempered with catchy melodies.  This is 

    their last independent label release.  Husker Du made it possible for

    bands like Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins to be successful today.

 

55. SOUND EFFECTS - The Jam (1980, Polydor PD-1-6315)

    The "new Who" start to expand their sound with touches of sixties soul for

    this fourth record.  The songs are still loaded with energy, which would

    all but disappear by the time Paul Weller was into the Style Council and

    his solo career.  He's been trying to repeat the sound of this album 

    unsuccessfully throughout all of those later recordings.

 

54. HUEVOS - Meat Puppets (1987, SST 150)

    Grab a giant brain dart, bake in the desert sun, and let your mind take

    control.  This has intricate but powerful picking, and truly psychedelic 

    lyrics from the Kirkwood boys.  This is MY Grateful Dead.

 

53. $100 FINE - The Litter (1968, Hexagon HX-681)

    An obscure Minnesota band who recorded on an obscure Minnesota label.

    This has recently been reissued by none other than K-Tel.  It is very 

    much the result of heavy duty guitar effects and studio experimentation, 

    which resulted in something on the border between sixties punk and heavy 

    psychedelia.

 

52. PLEASED TO MEET ME - The Replacements (1987, Sire 25557-1)

    The last record with any integrity from Paul Westerberg.  It's solid from

    beginning to end and should have fit easily into rotation on AOR radio.

    When that format proved too conservative to try anything that wasn't

    completely contrived formula or twenty years old, a desperate for success

    Westerberg attempted to give then what they wanted and sunk this band with

    two terrible final releases.

 

51. SPECIALS - The Specials (1980, Chrysalis CHR 1265)

    Most ska is like most reggae, it's great in the background but any attempt

    at close listening reveals most bands to be largely indistinguishable from

    each other.  The Specials are absolutely an exception.  Not only are their

    beats backed up with bursts of punk derived guitar, but lyrically their 

    social commentaries provide added punch.

 

50. GO GIRL CRAZY - The Dictators (1975, Epic KE 33348)

    This isn't punk rock, but rock made by punks - the closest thing to a real

    Spinal Tap to crawl from the wreckage.  At the time of this power chord

    dominated debut the 'Tators could only barely play their instruments, but

    the knew exactly what they wanted to say.  A testament to idle youth and

    their obsessions with cars, girls, wrestling, partying, and rock-and-roll.

 

49. ROAD TO RUIN - The Ramones (1978, Sire SRK-6063)

    The early chainsaw pop style of the Ramones reached its peak with Rocket

    to Russia, the LP which came before this.  Wisely, rather than risk

    retread, the boys added a bit of hard rock crunch to their sound and at

    the same time came up with their most diverse collection of songwriting 

    styles to date.  The lack of success commercially was extra unfortunate 

    (and to this day only "I Wanna Be Sedated" gets any attention from this 

    collection) as they continued to reach for a more saleable sound on their 

    next two records, End of the Century and Pleasant Dreams, with pretty 

    poor results.  Marky graduates from the Voidoids and Dust to take the drum

    chair for the first time.

 

48. THE EVIL ONE - Roky Erickson and the Aliens (1981, 415 Records 415A-0005)

    The second acid casualty of this list (see Syd Barrett), Roky's decline

    into his own cerebral cortex took more of a gradual path.  Here he is, ten

    years after the dissolution of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, giving his

    distinctive form of vocalizing to tales of demons, alligators, bloody 

    hammers, and the Creature with the Atom Brain.  Roky has the unique vocal 

    ability to cram as many words as needed into a lyrical line without 

    destroying the meter or going out of tune.  Interestingly, this proto-punk 

    sounding album was produced by Stu Cook from Creedence Clearwater Revival.

 

47. DAYDREAM NATION - Sonic Youth (1988, Enigma/Blast First 75403-1)

    I'd seen Sonic Youth a few times over the years, thought that they ripped 

    live, but was never that much of a fan of theirs on record.  Albums like 

    Bad Moon Rising and EVOL seemed to get a little to bogged down under their 

    own pretensions, so I wrote off SY as a studio band - until I heard 

    Daydream Nation.  The starting point for this is Cale era VU, but through

    out the layers upon layers of guitar noise the band definitely define 

    themselves.  This double album is their most accomplished work.  It's one

    of those that takes a few listens to get into, but after digging in you'll

    find a plethora of hooks and melodies within the chaos.  Favorites: 

    "Teenage Riot" and "Total Trash."

 

46. MACHINE GUN ETIQUETTE - The Damned (1979, Chiswick 0067.068 [UK])

    The Captain switches to guitar and shows that there's room for some

    demented wailing within the confines of the Brit-punk genre.  Brian James' 

    departure (soon to turn up in the Lords of the New Church with Dead Boy

    Stiv Bators [RIP]) shipped out his power chord songwriting and replaced 

    it with Sensible's more garage styled leanings.  The new sound makes much 

    better use of Vanian's undead vocals and Rat's Moonesque skin pounding.

 

45. SAFE AS MILK - Captain Beefheart (1967, Buddah BDM-1001(M),5001(S))

    Van Vliet's LP debut isn't as convoluted as the weirdness heard on his

    most notorious record, Trout Mask Replica, but it still veers all over the

    rock spectrum, and displays Beefheart's distinctive multi-octave growl on

    raw takes on blues, soul, psych, garage, and R & B.  This one anchors his

    singing to the most charged musical background on all of his albums.

 

44. CYCLE-DELIC - Davie Allan and the Arrows (1968, Tower DT-5094)

    The king of the fuzz guitar on the last of his three sixties albums

    featuring his band exclusively (not soundtrack LPs).  The double neck

    Mosrite roars through two sides of buzzing instro madness.  "Cycle-Delic"

    is probably the best thing that he did.

 

43. MEATY, BEATY, BIG AND BOUNCY - The Who (1971, Decca DL 79 184)

    Bands such as the Buzzcocks and the Clash mirrored their elder countrymen 

    in that they delivered their primary musical statements early in their 

    careers, through series' of frequently-issued singles rather than a 

    cohesive album.  This is the ancestor of Singles Going Steady and the

    American version of the Clash, where UK issued 7"-ers are collected 

    together for US consumption.  If "Call me Lightning" or "Disguises" had

    replaced "Boris the Spider," this one might have hit my top twenty.

 

42. YOUNG, LOUD, AND SNOTTY - Dead Boys (1977, Sire SR-6038)

    I was once making a compilation tape for a friend and included some things

    from this record.  A roommate's response was, "So you're bringing him down 

    huh?"  Critics who are fans of seventies "punk" frequently rave about the 

    clever artiness of Talking Heads or Pere Ubu while retching at the fact 

    that the Dead Boys had to exist.  When Cleveland's Rocket from the Tombs

    disbanded there was a parting of the more avant-garde wing and the devoted

    hard rockers.  Crocus Behemoth and Peter Laughner started Pere Ubu while

    Stiv Bators and Cheetah Chrome paid tribute to the Stooges with this band.

    Liberal doses of hedonism and misogyny (even if tongue-in-cheek) make

    this early metalcore dangerous for the overly sensitive.

 

41. KILLING JOKE - Killing Joke (1980, Malicious Damage EGS 109)

    An early attempt to put an industrial edge onto hard rock.  It sounds 

    incredibly angry before any lyrics even begin, with heavy, churning music 

    backing distorted vocals through a very overmodulated recording.  Most 

    subsequent attempts to harness this much chaos fail, but this one doesn't.  

    Fans of Ministry, Prong, and Nine Inch Nails should give this a spin to 

    find out from where their heroes copped their sound.

 

40. NEVERMIND - Nirvana (1991, DGC 24425)

    A groundbreaking record in that no previous punk rock album (and that's

    what it is) ever hit number one in America.  This is a descendent of

    Black Flag and Husker Du, and achieved success unimaginable for its

    style only a few years previous.  Much more significant than anything

    put out by Pearl Jam, the Grand Funk Railroad of the nineties. (If you 

    know what I mean by that, and I think that you do).

 

39. RAW POWER - Iggy and the Stooges (1973, Columbia KC-32111) 

    James Williamson offers no substitute for Ron Asheton's guitar emanations

    from the deepest caverns of an LSD soaked mind, but Iggy's sneer has never 

    sounded better.  One of the most influential recordings of all time, 

    despite David Bowie.

 

38. KICK OUT THE JAMS - MC5 (1969, Elektra EKS-74042)

    A live debut album designed to catch the fury of the Motor City Five on 

    stage.  It does a pretty good job.  Elektra was stepping out on a limb 

    with the signing of the Doors and Love a few years earlier, but somebody 

    must have put something in somebody's drink to inspire the signings of the 

    Five and the Stooges.  Neither Detroit combo lasted long, with the MC5 

    getting the boot after just this album when they didn't wish to cooperate 

    with the censoring of their trademark slogan "kick out the jams mother-

    fuckers" in the recording, or some liner notes with a similar use of 

    the vernacular.  What ever happened to the rest of the tapes from these

    shows which didn't make it on to this record?

 

37. ORIGINAL RUMBLE - Link Wray (1989, Ace CH 924 [UK])

    If the Meat Puppets are my Grateful Dead, then Link Wray is my Elvis.  The 

    true king of rock-and-roll pioneered an electric guitar sound that is 

    omnipresent today.  This collects the best of his mostly instrumental 

    output from his start in 1958, up through some recordings of new composi-

    tions from 1989, which maintain his special verve.  There are numerous 

    Link compilations and reissues made available in recent years, but this 

    one has the best collection of old and new tracks that I've seen.  

 

36. IN TOO MUCH TOO SOON - New York Dolls (1974, Mercury SRM-1-1001)

    The energy of Johnny Thunders' playing is even more apparent without the 

    muddy production found on the debut LP.  Trashy good fun with elements of

    everything from early sixties R&B to the Sticky Fingers era Stones to the

    MC5 tossed into the mix.

 

35. L.A.M.F. - The Heartbreakers (1977, Track 2409 218 [UK])

    Thunders and Nolan from the Dolls' next band packs on even rawer punch,

    with a couple of years of NY punk behind them and David "Buster 

    Poindexter" Johnansson on his way to Vegas.  The sound on the Track label

    recording is pretty poor though, so look for the remixed version (with a

    slight variation in songs) put out under the title L.A.M.F. Revisited by

    Jungle (Freud 4) in 1984.  Compare "Chinese Rocks" here with the

    Spectorized mess on the Ramones End of the Century album.

 

34. TEENAGE HEAD - The Flamin' Groovies (1971, Kama Sutra KSBS-2031)

    A unique Groovies sound that was brewing on the earliest records, and 

    which almost completely emerged on Flamingo, finally pops through on their

    third LP.  The roots music influences of Roy A. Loney and the guitar rock 

    influences of Cyril Jordan synergize into a sound with heavy doses of the 

    then current Detroit style kicking in as well.  This is the last LP for 

    the original band, as after 1972's Slow Death EP, Loney was out and

    Jordan led SF's best ever band in a Dave Edmunds produced sixties pop 

    meets new wave direction.

 

33. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND AND NICO - The Velvet Underground (1967, Verve

    V6-5008)

    Nothing had ever been heard like this before in 1967, and thus it was

    almost completely ignored, with only a small contingent of degenerate

    psychotics, paranoids, and dope heads knowing exactly where Lou was 

    coming from.  Rock's greatest writer invites you along with him through 

    his world of smack, bondage, degradation and death.  The music is lyric-

    ally frightening and musically groundbreaking, with innovative uses of 

    distortion and dissonance that many have tried to imitate over the years 

    but none have succeeded in doing so.  This is Lou's band and Lou's album,

    and anyone who thinks John Cale or (especially) Andy Warhol was the

    creative force has been in art school for too long.

 

32. BACK DOOR MEN - The Shadows of Knight (1966, Dunwich 667)

    What if the Rolling Stones were even louder and snottier?  Then they might

    sound like this gang of teen primitives from suburban Chicago.  The So'K 

    take the basic Stones rock-and-roll update of classic blues and R & B 

    and crank up the volume and distortion.  This second release gets the nod 

    over the debut, which highlighted a minor hit cover version of Them's 

    "Gloria," due to better original material to go with the Jimmy Reed and 

    Willie Dixon covers.  A live, sound board recording from a 1966 show at 

    the group's home base The Cellar, on the Sundazed label, has recently 

    surfaced - grab it while you can.

 

31. BEST OF THE STANDELLS - The Standells (1983, Rhino RNLP 107)

    The Standells have been covered extensively in FUNHOUSE! #2, and more is 

    said about them in the garage punk article in this very issue.  To briefly 

    summarize, they were the best of the LA based mid-sixties punk bands, and 

    accompanied their songs of sneering youthful defiance with some raw rock 

    and roll rave-ups.  "Dirty Water" was the hit, and kicks off this 

    collection. 

 

30. ALIVE - Kiss (1976, Casablanca NBLP-7020)

    Wouldn't it be funny if these guys and their macho sexist swagger were

    serious?  Wait a minute, they are!  Unlike like the Dictators, Spinal 

    Tap, or the Dead Boys, Kiss' musical bragging of scoring with the babes

    and partying down weren't done tongue in cheek, and that's part of the

    kick.  There are plenty of heavy riffs in classics like "Strutter," 

    "Hotter than Hell," "Black Diamond," and "Rock and Roll All Night" to

    add to the fun.  The best material from the group's first three records

    is recycled with a rawer and less muddy sound, in a calculated and 

    career saving move.  It was all downhill after this, a slow roll until

    Alive II and then off the cliff.

 

29. EXILE ON MAIN STREET - The Rolling Stones (1972, RS COC-2-2900

    The final offering from the '68-'72 period in which the Stones truly were

    The World's Greatest rock-and-roll Band.  They came full circle here, as

    their early R & B swagger finally collides with their distinct style which

    matured on Let It Bleed and Sticky Fingers.  The Five were dissolved, 

    Iggy was on hiatus, the Modern Lovers' tapes were gathering dust in the 

    vaults, the Dolls were still slaving in the Bowery, and Townshend was 

    committed to excessive "rock operas," if such a thing can truly exist.  

    Exile was the only game in town at the time, and if this period hadn't 

    been so productive, the RSs probably wouldn't have carried through into

    today's ca$h-in, megabuck$ $tadium tours.

 

28. NO WAY OUT - The Chocolate Watchband (1967, Tower DT-5096)

    Garage punk acid rock psychedlia might sum it up, but it might be more

    accurate to say that they just dropped some L, plugged in, put all knobs

    to the right, and let everything else sort itself out.  Ed Cobb's other

    project ranges from tripped out instrumentals, to feedback doodlings, to 

    distorted chords, and even to a cover of "The Midnight Hour," all carried 

    with that Jaggeresque vocal sneer that so many American mid-sixties angst 

    combos went for.

 

27. PINK FLAG - Wire (1977, Harvest ST-11-757 [UK])

    The first record from the British proto-Minutemen is a collection of brief

    sonic outbursts of angular intensity whose sly observations should make

    Devo proud.  Don't confuse the sound of the reformed group with this, as

    before the '79-'86 time of inactivity it was strictly guitar-bass-drums.

    In fact, when the group toured the US after reforming, they hired an 

    interviewer's band whose only experience was in some college ghetto, 

    dubbed them Ex-Lion Tamer, and had them open the show with a performance

    of this entire record, start to finish, to get it out of the way.  Like 

    the Ramones, the bare bones approach may have been a technical necessity,

    but also like those glue sniffers Wire make it work.

 

26. PLASTIC ONO BAND - John Lennon (1970, Apple SW-3372)

    Lennon liked to play out his neuroses in public, and on this first solo

    album (well, with music anyway) he puts his internal pain and suffering

    on record for all to hear.  It's confession time, but it's also raw,

    primal, stripped down, no BS rock-and-roll which makes it clear who had

    the edge in the previous band, when stacked up against Mr. McCartney's 

    wimp infested nonsense such as the contemporary "The Lovely Linda."  Mac's 

    cover of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was right around the corner. - 'nuff 

    said.

 

25. NEW DAY RISING - Husker Du (1984, SST 031)

    A perfect pairing of Husker Du's twin driving forces occurs on this LP - 

    sheets of highly amplified layered guitar noise backed by a pounding 

    rhythm section, and compositions of hook driven pop songs that could make 

    it as bubblegum hits on AM radio if laid down by a commercial band.  Their 

    unrelenting punk energy had been refining itself in the direction of this

    marriage in their two previous records, the EP Metal Circus and the double

    album Zen Arcade, but New Day Rising strikes the perfect balance.

    Guitarist Bob Mould's later band Sugar achieve a similar balance with

    their records, and would have probably cracked this list somewhere if they

    weren't just a bit too recent.

 

24. EASTER EVERYWHERE - The Thirteenth Floor Elevators (1967, International

    Artists IALP 5)

    The next time some poser tries to tell you that the Jefferson Airplane or

    the Grateful Dead is acid rock, toss this platter on and prove them wrong.

    The grooves ooze trippines, with weird guitar noises, pro freak out 

    lyrics, and an electric jug backing up Roky Erickson's right on space 

    vocals - and it all rocks straight out of the garage, something those 

    hippie bands couldn't even comprehend.  This sophomore release has the 

    edge over the even spacier debut, Psychedelic Sounds, for its slightly 

    better songwriting.

 

23. MORE FUN IN THE NEW WORLD - X (1983, Elektra 60283)

    The Exene / John Doe harmonies are a unique diversion from most of the 

    third wave of punk bands, but it is Zoom's punk-o-Billy guitar which gives

    this group the upper hand over most of the other LA late 70s / early 80s

    punks and wavos.  By the time of this fourth album they had learned to 

    stretch and diversify their early dark, urban, hard folk groove in a

    variety of directions.  Because all of these style experiments work, this

    is a great album, and the clever lyrical twists are an added bonus.

 

22. MY GENERATION - The Who (1966, Decca DL-4664)

    The teenage Who deliver a sound wound around slashing guitars and youthful

    angst which was really unprecedented for its time.  During this period

    Townshend and company were truly the most innovative of the Brit invasion

    era crew, as while there are hints of an R & B influence through such

    touches 
as a couple of James Brown covers, this band was less beholden to

    a blues or early rock-and-roll foundation than their peers.  The explosive

    energy of the Who's formative music really wasn't matched at the time, and

    serves as one of the early pillars on which punk zeitgeist was built.  

    Shell out import prices and get the addition of "I'm a Man" and a longer

    "The Kids Are Allright."

 

21. ZUMA - Neil Young and Crazy Horse (1975, Warner Brothers MS 2242)

    The first LP with the Poncho Sampedro line-up of Crazy Horse to back Neil

    serves up the clean and raw sound that would come to represent the sound

    of Young at his most loud and primitive, up to the present day.  The 

    intricate electric interplay of the two guitars continues on in the

    releases Rust Never Sleeps, Re-ac-tor, Life, Ragged Glory, and Sleeps With

    Angels, but this is where it began.

 

20. THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES - The Dream Syndicate (1983, Ruby JRR807)

    While most members of LA's revivalist "paisley underground" were mining

    Beatles-Yardbirds-Easybeats, or at their most adventuristic, Seeds

    territory, the Dream Syndicate went straight back to the Velvet 

    Underground.  They're much more guitar oriented than the retro-psych bands

    they often shared bills with.  The twin attack of Steve Wynn and Karl 

    Precoda, with their TV styled Fender-Marshall intensity, provides a 

    powerful backing for Wynn's haunting vocal Louisms.

 

19. ENTERTAINMENT - Gang of Four (1979, Warner Brothers BSK 3446)

    The Marxist sympathies in the lyrics of these British post-punks don't

    come off as annoyingly preachy, as they mainly serve as a framework for

    some caustic and humorous observations on American cultural hegemony and 

    the British social condition.  Commentary on corrupt governments, mindless

    followers, unchecked consumerism and a deteriorating social order accomp-

    any music which brings a heavy, funky bottom to a slash and burn guitar

    sound that would fit in well on a Voidoids record.

 

18. THERE'S A RIOT GOING ON - Sly and the Family Stone (1971, Epic KE-30986)

    If Sly's Stand! album is Woodstock, then this is Altamont.  Sly woke up

    the up morning after the flower power party, where everything and every-

    body was groovy, and saw Nixon, Vietnam, and the ghetto.  While Mr.

    Stewert didn't "leave that bummer behind," he did produce a powerful if 

    subdued record, which is relentless in both its soulful funk and its 

    honest telling of the truth about "Luv n' Haight."

 

17. PRETENDERS - The Pretenders (1979, Sire SRK 6083)

    Chrissy Hynde puts to rest the notion that a woman's place in a rock-and-

    roll band is as some Laurie Partridge / tambourine player / go-go dancer. 

    Anybody whose roots are in White Light/White Heat and Raw Power has to

    have her attitude in order.  The songs are sharp statements of sexuality,

    but one where Chrissy is in control and isn't adverse to a sharp FU if 

    necessary.  The cover attempts to represent a spanning of the rock and 

    roll era through the dress of Farndon (50s), Hynde (60s), Honeyman Scott 

    (70s), and Chambers (80s).

 

16. MAGGOT BRAIN - Funkadelic (1971, Westbound 2007)

    A spacified Eddie Hazel lays down acid soaked I-wanna-be-Jimi-isms with

    his guitar to accompany George Clinton's most satisfying achievement from

    the early stage of the P-Funk universe's existence.  After George's

    freak-out intro spiel and Eddie's emotional ten minute guitar work out on

    the instrumental title cut, there are bits of funk, soul, gospel, 

    punk-metal, and a chaotic end of the world enactment called "Wars of

    Armageddon."  A perfect fusion of the riddum of Funkadelic's eponymous 

    debut, and the over-the-edge weirdness of their second, Free Your Mind and

    Your Ass Will Follow.  It was onto a more refined, but still great, sound

    after this.  There's nothing else like it.

 

15. RADIO CITY - Big Star (1974, Ardent ADS-1501)

    Alex Chilton's post-Box Top band delivers some straightforward, non-agro,

    basic rock-and-roll, which is thankfully free of the sappiness, over

    production, and pretentiousness that all to often infiltrated the more

    reserved rock music of the time.  There are just a couple of clean

    electric guitars, bass, drums, and some incredibly earnest singing to

    translate the great songwriting.  Like the Lennon album above, this is a

    testament to the fact that it's possible to rock with a pared down

    approach.

 

14. HIGH TIME - MC5 (1971, Atlantic SD-8285)

    Each of the first two MC5 records have their problems.  On the first, the

    live format certainly demonstrated the intensity of the band, but that

    format had its reservations as to production possibilities.  The follow-

    up, Back in the USA, suffers from too much production, as future Boss

    manager Jon Landau tried too hard to score a radio hit for Atlantic, their

    new label after the Five were dumped from Elektra for encouraging a 

    boycott of their own record (over the label's censoring of the word "fuck"

    - still a no-no at the time).  On High Time, (from which the dope mag took 

    its name), the dudes knew that the end was near, and the expectations borne 

    of the hype were gone.  Without the pressure, they assembled their most 

    complete work, which best captures the twin blast rock-and-roll assault 

    of guitarists ("Let me tell you 'bout") Wayne ("and his deals with 

    cocaine") Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, which was the essence of the 

    band's sound.

 

13. LET IT BE - The Replacements (1984, Twin Tone TTR-8441)

    Another record which is a songwriting triumph.  After the raunchy trash

    punk of their first two records, the 'Placements began to show some

    diversity on Hootenanny, their third.  This album takes another giant 

    leap forward, and demonstrates Paul Westerberg's new found ability to

    balance his comic angst rock approach with bits of subtlety and craft,

    without losing the music's rawness, its humor, or its honest energy.  It

    was on to the majors after this, and a great deal more production.  Two

    more quality records came out before a final pair, which represent one of

    the most disappointing collapses in recorded history, as Westerberg 

    cranked out AOR dreck in a sad attempt at FM radio acceptance.

 

12. LONDON CALLING - The Clash (1979, Epic E2 36328)

    The Clash were more successful, artistically and eventually commercially,

    than their Brit First Wave competitors as they were able to harness their

    punk attitude and intensity and progress in their music.  This double LP

    is the validation of this move, which had been suggested in the band's

    preceding seven inchers.  Keeping the angry sociopolitical lyrics, they

    refined their musical attack, relying on more rhythms and especially the

    heavy beat of Paul Simonon's bass.  It was recorded with the production 

    of Guy Stevens, who oversaw the early, hard rock days of Mott the Hoople 

    (a Mick Jones favorite).  There's not a bad track over the four sides, and 

    it even opened the door for the group in America with the top forty hit 

    "Train in Vain."

 

11. WALK AMONG US - The Misfits (1982, Ruby JRR 804)

    Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers meets The Angry Red Planet on the cover, and

    inside Vampira can be found hooking up with The Brain Eaters and The Astro

    Zombies on The Night of the Living Dead.  Proof that Glen Danzig can use 

    his powerful vocal skills for more than the phony satanic metal that gets 

    him on Beavis and Butthead these days.  The horror flick schlock rock pose 

    is backed up by hardcore music, with a considerable amount of satisfying 

    hooks, that keeps your head banging.

 

10. MARQUEE MOON - Television (1977, Elektra 7E-1098)

    The is one of the best guitar records of all time.  If you're stuck in a

    Yngwie Ray Satriani glut it may not be your cup of tea, but these songs

    offer some of the most exciting interplay of twin leads that you can find.

    Rather than being self serving, as is the style of those "guitar heroes,"

    the playing on this by Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd is built around the

    creation of a good song - and you can dance to it.  Verlaine's quivering

    vocals are definitely secondary to the music.

 

 9. MODERN LOVERS - Modern Lovers (1974, Home of the Hits HH-1910/Beserkley

    BZ-0050)

    Jonthan Richman is the godfather of straight edge.  These John Cale

    produced tracks were recorded three years before they were finally rescued

    by the HOTH label.  Perhaps in the time of Floyd, Yes, and the Mighty Led 

    Zep, no one thought that the stripped down rock of the Modern Lovers, with

    Richman's musings on the joys of being straight, looking for a girlfriend, 

    living in the suburbs, and driving to the sounds of the car radio, were of

    any interest to anyone.  A respite from all of the pseudo-seriousness for 

    some good clean fun would have done everybody some good.  Future T-Head

    Jerry Harrison is on keys.

 

 8. SINGLES GOING STEADY - Buzzcocks (1977-80, IRS SP 001)

    It takes a lot for me to convince myself to put a compilation record in a

    list like this, especially when a group's albums are indeed quality stuff.  

    However, like the Who with Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, the music on this

    comp is made by a definite singles band.  Each track is a blast of hyper-

    melodic, raw angst, but each is also a skillfully crafted pop song.  The

    Buzzcocks had the volume and distortion, and the timing of their exist-

    ence, to warrant their lumping in with the Damned, the Sex Pistols, and

    the Clash as the first of the British punk bands, but their University

    background, separation from London (as they were Manchester based), and 

    their penchant for taking LSD in the recording studio all contribute a 

    certain detachment from those angry youth.

 

 7. NEUROTICA - Redd Kross (1987, Big Time 6034-1-B)

    Tommy Ramone's production brought out the real essence of this band,

    previously hinted at on the cover tune EP Teen Babes From Monsanto.  It's

    not quite metal, not really psychedelic, almost garage, and rooted in

    punk.  This album would be at home in 1966, in 1977, in 1992 - but not 

    really in 1987, which might be why it was barely noticed other than by

    long time fans.  Guitars charge, riff, wail, jam, solo, and create a 

    cranking rock-and-roll backdrop to hysterical pop culture observations on 

    Sunset Blvd. hair-metal types ("move to Fresno, grow 
a mutant afro"),

    McKenzie Phillips ("McKenzie baby you blew your mind..."), and the caste 

    conscious LA scene ("no metal sluts or punk rock ruts for me").

 

 6. DAMAGED - Black Flag (1981, Unicorn/SST 9502)

    All you Hank-haters out there have to give it to him for his performance

    on this.  After Dez moved from vocals to second guitar, Flag rescued 

    Rollins from behind the counter of an ice cream shop, and used him on

    Damaged where his vocal intensity registers a ten.  Being basically 

    nothing previous other than a fan, as his DC band SOA were strictly local, 

    meant that no rock star attitude had yet taken over, and being young meant

    that his anger was real rather than a pose.  It is still Greg Ginn's

    writing and jackhammer guitar blasts which drives this thing throughout.

    It's a document of pent up youthful anxiety so real that MCA, who were the

    record's original distributors, dropped it; and act which led to a court

    case which kept new Black Flag material off the shelf for three years.  

    One exec's comment, "As a parent I found it to be an anti-parent record,"

    was plastered onto some early copies.  Some import versions have the

    band's excellent take on "Louie Louie," from a Posh Boy single, tacked on.

 

 5. LOADED - The Velvet Underground (1970, Cotillion SD 9034)

    Having defined themselves, redefined themselves, and then reached a point

    where the end was undoubtedly near, and with the pressure off, the VU 

    recorded their most accomplished, most mature, and most complete album.  

    After the experimentation of the first record, the attempt to push beyond 

    the boundaries broken there with the follow-up White Light/White Heat, and

    the subtle reaction to those two in the understated Velvet Underground LP,

    Lou Reed was in a mood to establish that he was, after all, a true rock

    and roller.  And as much as Doug Yule may have thought otherwise, he was

    not the force that John Cale had been in driving the music in a certain

    direction, and thus the sound of this album is all Lou.  It is the most

    conventional and structured of all of the group's records, but to make

    an album that is the pinnacle of a style one must work with in that

    realm, and this is the only example of the VU dedicating themselves 

    completely to straight rock.  In fact it is so much as stated so in the 

    third track, the second most well known Velvet Underground song "Rock and 

    Roll," which follows their most well known song, "Sweet Jane."  These are 

    amongst the mellower moments on a trip which includes "Head Held High," 

    "Cool It Down," and "Train Comin' 'Round the Bend."  Artier types may miss

    the rule breaking of the Cale era stuff, but this album rocks hard, and 

    it's right on target the whole way.

 

 4. DOUBLE NICKELS ON THE DIME - The Minutemen (1984, SST 0028)

    On the cover Mike Watt is cruising 55 in the fast lane, heading for the

    Pedro turnoff - that sets the pace for a record which always goes the 

    limit.  There are 45 songs over four sides with an average length of

    somewhere around a minute and a quarter each.  These dudes are the 

    absolute antithesis of Yes and their pretensions.  The trio are lead by 

    the sharp, jagged guitar of D. Boon, which is all over the place stylis-

    tically but never slows down.  The rhythm section of Watt and drummer 

    George Hurley is both intense and complex.  The sound of the Minutemen 

    is really impossible to describe, except to say that they produce concen-

    trated sonic blasts which musically and lyrically get right to their 

    points and then move on to the next.  Elements such as choruses or intros 

    are treated as superfluous by a band for who economy is a key word.  Their

    to-the-point nature can be summed up by the fact that the lyrics to every 

    song, except for a handful of covers and instrumentals, are printed on one

    half of the back cover.  They jam econo.

 

 3. ROCKET TO RUSSIA - The Ramones (1977, Sire SR-6042)

    All of the first three Ramones albums are essential for their high energy,

    chainsaw, sledgehammer, minimalist PR from which so much do-it-yourself 

    inspiration was drawn.  Rocket to Russia is the third of these, and repre-

    sents the boys getting everything just right before moving out of their 

    initial mode for better (Road to Ruin) or worse (End of the Century). 

    This is the best because everything clicks, the playing, Tommy's hand in 

    the production, and a great batch of tunes.  If you ain't hip to the 

    Ramones beat I can't clue you in with words, if you are, a run down of the

    tracks will tell you why this is the best: "Cretin Hop," "Rockaway Beach,"

    "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow," "Locket Love," "I Don't Care," "Sheena is a 

    Punk Rocker," "We're a Happy Family," "Teenage Lobotomy," "Do You Wanna 

    Dance?," "I Wanna Be Well," "I Can't Give You Anything," "Ramona," 

    "Surfin' Bird," and "Why is it Always This Way?"

 

 2. THE CLASH (US version) - The Clash (1979, Epic JE 36060)

    The US version wasn't released until two years after the UK debut by The

    Only Group That Matters, leading to the latter holding the title of all

    time best selling import for awhile in America.  Epic's ignorant opinion 

    that the sound was too raw and unrefined for Yank tastes is laughable (in 

    fact, they opted to bring in BOC studio main man Sandy Pearlman to clean 

    the band up for their US debut with Give 'Em Enough Rope), but it did

    lead to a better record when some material from singles issued over the

    intervening years was substituted for a few of the weaker cuts.  "Clash 

    City Rockers," "Complete Control," "White Man In Hammersmith Palais," "I 

    Fought the Law," and "Jail Guitar Doors" replace "Deny," "Cheat," "Protex

    Blue," and "48 Hours."  The seven inch version of "White Riot" is also 

    substituted for the British LP cut, and original copies contained a white

    label bonus single with "Gates of the West" and "Groovy Times" from the 

    Cost of Living EP.  It is raw and underproduced by the standards of the 

    typical corporate A & R hack, but it also is the greatest British punk 

    record of all time.

 

 1. FUN HOUSE - The Stooges (1970, Elektra EKS-74101)

    This zine isn't named for it because I don't like it!  It builds, it

    surges, and it piles on intensity, as the tripped out, extra-amplified 

    Asheton guitar psychosis and the Ig's guttural growl reach toward some

    peak, through "Down on the Street" to "TV Eye" to "Loose" to "Dirt" to 

    "1970," after which the ONLY result possible is self-implosion on top of

    the album's own excesses.  Everything comes crashing down in the form of 

    the dissonant "Fun House," which is the point where the angst finally 

    succumbs to its own weight, and finally the cacophony of "L.A. Blues," 

    which represents the hazy confusion of the next morning's hangover.  Steve

    Mackay's Coltrane inspired sax comes in and out of the mix, and somehow

    after the build up of the record's first side and a half it all seems 

    right - there's nothing else that COULD be done.  This record is the roots

    for all of the punk and post-punk metal that is heard today.

 

 

Jeff Frentzen's Sleaze Film Source List

---------------------------------------

 

First edition - August 28, 1994

 

By Jeff Frentzen

 

Contributors: Jeff Dove, Jan Borgelin, Stuart Lerner, and Bernd Backhaus

 

 

TRASH CINEMA SOURCES is a response to one of the most common questions on the

Internet's alt.cult-movies newsgroup: "Where do I find it?"  Information about

obscure horror / sci-fi / fantasy movies not covered in the mainstream press,

as well as sleaze/cult movies, is hard to find.  You can't go down to the

local Waldenbooks magazine rack and pick up the latest issue of, say,

Psychotronic Video.  For those of you in the U.S. who live near a Tower

Records / Video store, consider yourself lucky - Tower carries some of the

publications listed here.

 

We've also compiled a list of sources for the trash-movie collector.  For

example, you can't find an uncut version of Dario Argento's PHENOMENA (aka

CREEPERS) at Blockbuster Video; they only carry the R-rated, cut version.  But

if you wanted to own (or rent) that uncut version, there are places to get it,

and we've listed some of those places here.

 

Most of this list is North America-centric, although Europe is represented

slightly.  We know there are more international sources than we've listed.  If

you don't see a trash-cinema source that you feel ought to be here, drop us a

line.  We'll include it in the 2nd edition.  Prices are listed for U.S.

dollars and British pounds, where appropriate.

 

Every attempt was made using limited resources to verify information or

double-check sources.  There are bound to be mistakes, so please let us know

when you find them.  Some listings include information about content and

quality of service. If you have anything to add, please write.  We've included

some sources for Hong Kong, Japanese, and other Asian films.  We have included

only a few Anime sources.  Steve Pearl's extensive Anime sources document is

posted in the Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.anime.

 

---------------------------

Contact us on the Internet:

---------------------------

 

Jeff Frentzen (jfrentzen@pcweek.ziff.com)

Jeff Dove (jeffdove@well.sf.ca.us)

Jan Borgelin (jborge@sara.cc.utu.fi)

Stuart Lerner (lerner@netcom.com)

Bernd Backhaus (bbbo.ping.de!bernd@jwd.ping.de)

 

========================================================

CONTENTS

 

Publications -

 

     Magazines / fanzines / special publications

 

Video -

 

     Obscure horror / sci-fi / fantasy / trash on tape that you can purchase

 

Video rentals by mail -

 

     Obscure horror / sci-fi / fantasy / trash on tape that you can rent

 

Looking for more information -

 

     Sources we've heard of but could not confirm for inclusion in this issue

========================================================

 

Publications

 

Magazine/fanzine name and address is followed by the price.  Sometimes the

only price we've been able to confirm is the per-single-issue price.  It's

likely that a few of these pubs have bitten the dirt, so if you know that one

has gone away, please let us know and we'll take it off the list.

 

------------------------------------

 

3AM

152 W. 3rd St.

Oil City, PA  16301

$2.00

 

     #15 -- Movie reviews

 

 

Alternate Cinema

Tempe Press

P.O. Box 6573

Akron, OH  44312

 

     Fanzine devoted by low-budget filmmaking

     #1 -- Ozone; Bookwalter films

 

 

Asian Eyes

253 College St. #108

Toronto M5T 1R5, Ontario

Canada

 

     Hong Kong action flicks (May have ceased publication)

 

 

Asian Trash Cinema

P.O. Box 5367

Kingwood, TX  77325

 

     Digest-sized magazine devoted to Far East sleaze

 

 

Blood Feast Inc.

6506 Glencoe Ave.

Brooklyn, OH  44144

$4.50

 

     "News from the world of filmic gore and musical gore-core."

 

 

Blood Times

P.O. Box 3340 Steinway Station

Long Island City, NY  11103

$3.00

 

     Vol 2, No 2 -- Edgar Wallace; Jean Rollin; Ultra Q

 

 

Bloody Horror Fanzine

P.O. Box 243

Winnetka, IL  60093

$2.00

 

     #1 - Movie reviews

 

 

Book of the Dead

Media Publications

26 Salford Rd., Old Marston

Oxford OX3 0RY

U.K.

UK<EFBFBD>6.00

 

     #4 - Living Dead movies; Armando De Ossorio interview

 

 

Bruce on a Stick

P.O. Box 416

Tarrytown, NY  10591

$3.00

 

     Bruce Campbell fanzine; Includes movie reviews

 

 

Camera Obscura

Kloosterstraat 38

9717 LE, Groningen

The Netherlands

$5.00

 

     #5 -- Jean Rollin; Laura Betti; Asian films; Movie reviews

 

 

Children of a Far Greater God

221 Ashmore Rd., 2nd floor

Queens Park, London, W9 3DB

U.K.

UK<EFBFBD>4.00

 

 

China in Your Hand

M.J. Simpson

Flat 3, 113 Litchfield St.

Hanley, Stoke-on-trent, Staffs ST1 2EB

U.K.

UK<EFBFBD>2.00

 

     #1 - Extensive Frankenstein filmography

 

 

Cinefantastique

P.O. Box 270

Oak Park, IL  60631

$10 or so per issue

 

     Still going strong

 

 

Cineraider

P.O. Box 240226

Honolulu, HI  96824

$4.00

 

     Formerly "Skam" magazine

     #1 -- Asian movie reviews; HK films; Sex and Zen; American theatres that

     show HK films

     #2 -- 1993 HK movie round-up

 

 

Critical Condition

215 B Overmount Ave.

W Paterson, NJ  07424

$9/4 issues

 

     #6 -- Harry Novak; Retitled movies

 

 

Crud Bomb

103 Boulton Hall

S.U.N.Y. New Paltz

New Paltz, NY  12561

$1.00

 

     #1 -- Bigfoot movies

 

 

Cult Characters

1799 Batview Dr.

Fort Wayne, IN  46815

$4.00

 

     Devoted to little-known character actors

 

 

Cult Movies

6201 Sunset Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA  90028

$18/4 issues

 

     #11 -- Ed Wood interviewed by Fred Olen Ray; Movie reviews

 

 

The Dark Side

Stray Cat Publishing

P.O. Box 146

Plymouth PL1 1AX

U.K.

UK<EFBFBD>2.50

 

     #41 - Mummy movies; Paul Naschy interview; Sam Sherman.  One of the 

     better British-made magazines, with the accent on accurate info and 

     wild color layouts.

 

 

Dark Terrors

Ventor Tce

St. Ives, Cornwall TR26 1DY

U.K.

 

     Devoted to Hammer films

 

 

Delirium

Media Publications

26 Salford Rd., Old Marston

Oxford OX3 0RY

U.K.

UK<EFBFBD>8.00

 

     #2 -- Italian exploitation films

 

 

Delirious: The Fantasy Film Magazine

1326 Cleveland Hts Blvd.

Cleveland, OH  44121

$3.50

 

     Academic look at space / horror / fantasy / B movies

 

 

Dreadful Pleasures

650 Prospect Ave.

Fairview, NJ  07022

$10.00/5 issues

 

     "Concentrating on films released in the 70's to backwoods drive-ins and

     sticky-floored downtown rundown theaters."

 

 

Draculina

P.O. Box 969

Centralia, IL  62801

$3.75

 

     #18 -- Norman Thaddeus Vane; Scott Shaw

 

 

Dragon Fury

332 Ocean Ave.

Ocean City, NJ  08226

$3.00

 

     Devoted to Asian action flicks

 

 

Eastern Heroes

P.O. Box 409

London SE18 3DW

U.K.

US$6/issue (for U.S. customers)

 

     Asian action flicks.

 

 

Ecco

Kill-Gore Productions

P.O. Box 65742

Washington, DC  20035

$12/4 issues

 

     #18 -- Barbet Schroeder

     #19 -- Mexi-movies and dubbing

 

 

Epi-Log

P.O. Box 1322

Dunlap, TN  37327

(615) 949-4443 (fax)

$5.95/$30 for 6 issues

 

    "The Television Magazine of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Comedy, Drama,

     and Adventure"

     Full episode listing and detailed plot summaries of all types of shows; 

     Thorough and detailed

 

 

Essential Cinema

2011 5th Ave., #301

Seattle, WA  98121

$3.75

 

 

The Exploitation Journal

40 S. Brush Rd.

Valley Stream, NY  11581

$3.00

 

     #16 -- Paul Naschy; Leon Klimovsky; Rene Cardona; Santo

 

 

Exploitation Retrospective

P.O. Box 1155

Haddonfield, NJ  08033

$1.75

 

     #37 -- Zoe Lund; Danzig; Movie reviews

 

 

European Trash Cinema

P.O. Box 5367

Kingwood, TX  77325

$20/4 issues

 

     Vol 2 No 8 -- Trauma; Jean Rollin interview and filmography; Brigette 

     Lahaie; Claude Chabrol

 

 

Famous Monsters of Filmland

P.O. Box 9669

N. Hollywood, CA  91609

$5.95 plus $2.00 postage

 

     They're up to #202.  The magazine that would not die.

 

 

Fangoria

475 Park Ave. S.

New York, NY  10016

$4.95

 

     Long-running magazine devoted to horror / gore / special effects.

 

 

Fatal Visions

P.O. Box 133

Northcote, Victoria 3070

Australia

$4.50 ($6.00 for U.S. residents)

No subscriptions available outside of Australia

 

     #15 -- Ringo Lam; Ari Roussimoff; Movie reviews

     #16 -- Lance Henrikson; Ren & Stimpy; Betsy Blood; Asian movies

 

 

Femme Fatale

5023 Frankford Ave.

Baltimore, MD  21206

(410) 488-8147

published quarterly, annual subscription $18

 

	Full-color; "Insider" articles on B-film "scream queens;" With 

        interviews and photos

 

 

Filmfax

P.O. Box 1900

Evanston, IL  60204

$25/6 issue

 

     Slavish devotion to classics and old B-movies.  Sometimes they 

     reprint articles from other publications.  Sinister Cinema advertises 

     their catalog here.  Filmfax has an extensive list of TV shows / movies /

     serials for sale.

 

 

Film  Threat 

Film Threat Video Guide

P.O. Box 3170

Los Angeles, CA  90078

$12/4 issues

 

     The Film Threat Video Guide is a "must-have" review of obscure and 

     independent productions.  The monthly, Film Threat, is a routine 

     Hollywood movie magazine.

 

 

Flesh and Blood Media Publications

26 Salford Rd., Old Marston

Oxford OX3 0RY

U.K.

UK<EFBFBD>7.00

 

     #2 - British horror films (1970-72)

 

 

G.A.S.P. etc. 

P.O. Box 661

Brockton, MA  02403

$3.00

 

     #1 -- Gunnar Hansen; Sepultura

     #2 -- Bruce Campbell; Whoregasm

     #3 -- Night of the Living Dead; Emtombed

     #4 -- Kane Hodder; Henry Manifredi; Gwar; Prong

 

 

Giallo Pages

On Line Publishing

P.O. Box 134

West PDO, West Nottingham, Ng7 7Bw

UK<EFBFBD>2.50

$9.00 US (Cash only for sample issue)

 

     #3 -- John Morghen; Quentin Tarantino talks trash movies; Movie reviews; 

     Lucio Fulci and Franco Nero interviews; Barbara Steele

     #2 is sold out; #1 is available

 

 

Gore Gazette

643 Bloomfield Ave.

Nutley, NJ  07110

$13/12 issues

 

 

Grind House 

P.O. Box 1370

Murray Hill Station

New York, NY  10156

$7/6 issues

 

     #13 -- Movie reviews; Ultra-low budget schlock

 

 

Headpress

P.O. Box 160

Stockport, Cheshire, SK1

4ET

U.K.

UK<EFBFBD>7.00

 

 

Highball

Kronos Publications

MPO Box 67

Oberlin, OH  44074

(216) 774-1825

 

     "A heady cocktail of pleasure and pain."  It focuses on sixties nudie /

     / kinky / roughie films.

     #1 -- Dave Friedman; Lee Frost; Barry Mahon; Ted V. Mikels; Lots of 

     reviews.

     #2 -- David McGillivray contributes; free flexi featuring the Mono Men 

     plus another band

     #2/#4 of Monster! International -- A different #2; A dual issue which

     focuses on sleazy / nudie horror; Jean Rollin, Jess Franco, Man or Astro

     Man flexi; $6.95

 

 

Hong Kong Film Connection

P.O. Box 867225

Plano, TX  75086

$12/10 issues

 

     #4 -- Clarence Ford; Wong Fei Hong; Asian movie reviews

 

 

Hong Kong Film Monthly

601 Van Ness Ave. #E3728

San Francisco, CA  94102

 

     HK movie articles, mainly concentrated on what's playing in San 

     Francisco and Berkeley (Calif).

 

 

Horror Pictures Collection Series

Gerard Noel

90 Rue Ghandi

46000 Cahors, France

$6.00

 

     Best to order this through Fantaco, Titan, or Psychotronic Video

 

 

Imagi-Movies

P.O. Box 270

Oak Park, IL 60303

 

     Journal covers the making of fantasy films; Spin-off of Cinefantastique

 

 

The Joe Bob Report

P.O. Box 2002

Dallas, TX  75221

Free issue on request

 

     16-page bi-weekly full of charm

 

 

The Kaiju Review 

301 E. 64th St. Suite 5F

New York, NY  10021

$10/4 issues

 

     For serious lovers of Japanese monster-movie films and collectibles.

     #4 -- Japanese monster movie memorabilia; Utraman trivia

 

 

Killing Moon

Draculina Publishing

P.O. Box 969

Centralia, IL 62801

(618) 532-8813 phone/fax 

 

     #1 -- interviews, articles, and many photos

 

 

Kinokaze Exploding Cinema

295 Wendover St.

London SE17

2UW

U.K.

UK<EFBFBD>1.50

 

     Underground movie magazine.

 

 

Laser's Edge

P.O. Box 1092

N. Baldwin, NY  11510

 

     Laserdisc review zine.

 

 

Magazines of the Movies

45 Killybawn Rd.

Saintfield, Ballynahinch

Co Down NI BT24

7JP

U.K.

UK<EFBFBD>6.95

 

     Annual guide to magazines and fanzines about movies.

 

 

M.A.M.A.

6635 DeLongpre #4

Los Angeles, CA  90028

$10/4 issues

 

     #32 -- Steve James; Movie reviews

 

 

Midnight Marquee

9721 Britinay Lane

Baltimore, MD  21234

$5.95

 

     One of the oldest fanzines, previously known as Gore Creatures, and 

     getting a bit repetitive.

     #45 -- 70s vampire films; Christopher Lee interview; Erotic horror 

     movies; Murray Kinnell; Movie reviews

 

 

Monster! International

Kronos Publications

MPO Box 67

Oberlin, OH  44074

(216) 774-1825

$5.95

 

     "100% creature features - no slashers."  A pretty dense and well-written 

     zine centered on monster pics from Asia, Europe, and Mexico.

     #3 -- Very detailed Jose Mojica Marins article; Exorcist films

     #4/#2 Highball A dual issue which focuses on sleazy / nudie horror; Jean 

     Rollin, Jess Franco, Man or Astro Man flexi; $6.95

 

 

Monster Maker Journal

The Organization of Amateur and Professional SPFX Make-up Artist's Magazine

Davis Enterprises

75 Driftwood Lane

Stafford, VA  22554

$24/year

 

     Detailed photos, with many tips for practical application.

 

 

Necronomicon

15 Jubilee Rd

Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 1LB

U.K.

$20/3 issue subscription to U.S. residents;

 

     Tower Records carries this at $5.75 per quarterly issue

     #4 -- Matador; Enzo Castellari; Cicciolina; Movie reviews; BBFC censors

     #5 -- Venus in Furs (Dallamano version); Umberto Lenzi interview; 

     Monika M; Movie reviews

 

 

Oriental Cinema

P.O. Box 969

Centralia, IL  62801

$15/4 issue

$3.25

 

     #2 -- Live-action robots; Super heroes; Asian films; Amy Yip; Angelo Mao

 

 

Oriental Cinema and Video

Damon Foster

P.O. Box 576

Fremont, CA  94537

$6/issue

 

     More Asian action flicks.

 

 

Parts

451 Moody St. #134

Waltham, MA  02154

$10/4 issues

 

     The world's only Jeffrey Combs fanzine, it covers other subjects too.

 

 

Peripheral Visions

28 Hillside Ave.

Kilmacoln, Renfrewshire

PA13 4QL Scotland

UK<EFBFBD>2.95

 

     #1 -- Movie reviews

 

 

Phantom of the Movies' Videoscope

Phanmedia

P.O. Box 31

Keyport, NJ  07735

$4.00/sample issue

 

     Vol 2 #10 -- Serial Mom; Spaghetti westerns; Nightmare Alley

 

 

Psychotic Reaction

50 Wingfield Rd.

Great Barr, Birmingham, B42 2QD

U.K.

UK<EFBFBD>5.50

 

 

Psychotronic Video

3309 Rt. 97

Narrowsburg NY 12764

(914) 252-6803

$22/6 issues

 

     One of the best

     #18 -- Robert Clarke; Dario Argento, Steve James; William Rotsler; 

     Movie-music-book reviews; Most back issues available

 

 

Quatermass

Javier Romero

Apdo. 5100

48009-Bilbao, Spain

$7.00

 

     #0 -- Spanish-language; Hammer movies; Naschy

 

 

Samhain

77 Exeter Rd.

Topsham, Exeter, Devon, EX3

0LX

U.K.

US$20/5 issues

U.S. customers send $1 cash for a sample issue

 

     One of Britain's longest-running magazines; Glossy but thin

 

 

Savage Underground

P.O. Box 4011

Capitol Heights, MD  20791

$4/4 issues

 

     Reviews of unusual underground films and banned educational films like 

     LSD-25.

 

 

Scarlet Street

P.O. Box 604

Teaneck, NJ  07666

(201) 836-1113

$5.95/$20 for 1 year subscription

 

     Good quality, loaded with in-depth articles and interview; Latest 

     issue includes a good piece on director Val Guest

 

 

Schlock

3841 4th Ave. #192

San Diego, CA  92103

$3.00

 

     #10 -- First half of biker flick article from FUNHOUSE! #2, which will 

     conclude in #12; Movie reviews

 

 

Scream

409 S. Franklin St.

*** NOTE: other sources give this address: 

490 S. Franklin St.***

Wilkes-Barre, PA  18702

$5.50

 

     #1 -- Uncle Ted; John Russo's Booby Hatch Manifesto; Blaxpolitation. 

     Limited ed.; May be sold out.

     #2 -- The Man Who Laughs; Peter Jackson interview; Zacherley; Tetsuo 2; 

     Jorg Buttgereit

     #3 -- Jodorowsky films; Danny Mills interview; GG Allin.

     #4 -- Sam Sherman; Dario Argento; Bloodsucking Freaks; Brian Yuzna.

 

 

Scream Queens Illustrated

Imagine Inc.

20 Market Street

Pittsburgh, PA  15222

(412) 921-8777

quarterly $5.95

 

     The title tells all -- Glossy photos of topless actresses, also with 

     brief articles.

 

 

She

20 St. Patrick St. #1004

Toronto M5T 2Y4 Ontario

Canada

$4.00

 

     #5 -- HK femme stars

 

 

Shemp

1919 Evergreen Park Dr. SW  Apt. 79

Olympia, WA  98502

Send SASE for sample

 

     #6 -- 76-page reviews of music / video / etc.

 

 

Shock Cinema

P.O. Box 518

Peter Styvesant Station

New York, NY  10009

$4.00

 

     #6 -- Wall-to-wall movie and book reviews; HK films; Thorough and 

     well-researched

 

 

Shocking Images

P.O. Box 7853

Citrus Heights, CA  95621

(916) 334-7026

$3.95

 

     Vol 1 # 3 -- Movie reviews; Nick Zedd; Coffin Joe; Rudy Ray Moore; 

     Asian videos

 

 

Sticky Carpet Digest

163 Third Ave., Suite 235

New York, NY  10003

$1.50

 

 

Strange Adventures

13 Hazely Combe

Arreton, Isle of Wight

PO30

3AJ

U.K.

UK<EFBFBD>5.00

 

     #46 -- Horror / SF media review zine

 

 

Sub-terrenea

47 Thorncliff Pk. Dr. #609

Toronto M4H 1JS Ontario

Canada

$4.00

 

     #9 -- Peter Jackson; Quentin Tarantino; Dr. Lamb; Movie reviews

 

 

Tame

P.O. Box 742 Station Q

Toronto M4T 2N5 Ontario

Canada

$6.00

 

     Formerly "Killbaby" magazine

     #1 -- Jack Taylor interview; movie reviews

 

 

Trash Compacter

253 College St. #108

Toronto  M5T 1R5

Ontario

Canada

$3.75

 

     Detailed journal devoted to exploitation movies

     Vol 2 No 6 -- Blaxploitation issue

     Back issues have dealt with hippie flicks, John Ashley, rubber-monster

     suit movies, Ed Wood and the like. (May have ceased publication).

 

 

2000 Maniacos

Apdo.

5251

46009 Valencia, Spain

450 ptas.

 

     #12 -- Tobe Hooper; Peter Jackson; Narcisco Ibanez Serrador; 

     Spanish-language

 

 

Ungawa!

P.O. Box 1764

London NW6 2EQ

U.K.

US$6/sample issue

 

     Enthusiastic mix of true crime, trashy movies, and sex.

 

 

Vampyres

Tim Greaves, Palmyra

118 High St.

Eawstleigh, Hants S05 5LR

U.K.

UK<EFBFBD>7.00

 

     One-shot devoted to lesbians in vampire films.

 

 

Video Ooze

P.O. Box 9911

Alexandria, VA  22304

$5.00

 

     #5 -- Elizabeth Bathory films; Movie reviws; Suzy Kendall

 

 

Video Watchdog

P.O. Box 5283

Cincinnati, OH  45205

(513) 471-8989

$24/6 issues

 

     Movie reviews; Retrospective articles on "buried classics"; Extensive 

     devotion to tracking down video retitlings; Well-written.  Get the 

     Video Watchdog book.

 

 

Wonder

The Children's Magazine for Adults

2770 Fairlane Drvie

Atlanta, GA  30340

$15/4 issues

 

     Long, well-researched articles for the afficionado; Detailed articles 

     on classic horror and sci-fi; Published twice annually

 

 

World of Fandom

P.O. Box 9421

Tampa, FL  33604

(813) 933-7424

(813) 238-4643

 

     Articles, reviews and interviews; Mostly an insider's view of fandom; 

     Some movie-related information

 

 

Xenorama

4540 Maple Ave. #141

La Mesa, CA  91941

$9/6 issues

 

     The Journal of Heroes and Monsters

 

 

Zine Shock

Ap. 16056

08080 Barcelona,

Spain

350 ptas.

 

     #4 -- Mondo movies; Henenlotter; Tetsuo

 

===================================================

 

Video

 

Same format as above - Company name followed by address.  Phone numbers are

listed, when we could verify the info.  Each company has a different policy

regarding payment, returns, etc.  All offer NTSC-format VHS tapes unless

otherwise noted.  Many of these firms do not accept credit cards.  Nearly

all of the U.S. firms charge an outrageous amount of money to overseas

buyers.

 

----------------------------------------------------

 

Aardvark Video

612 N. High St.

Columbus, OH  43215

(614) 461-6302

 

     Foreign, classic, and cult titles; They also rent

 

 

Absolute Beta Videos

P.O. Box 130

Remington, VA  22734

(703) 439-3259

 

     Beta-format titles only; Catalog / club membefrship $9.95; Newsletter; 

     $3.95 p/h per order; Credit cards accepted

 

 

Alternative Videos

837 Exposition Ave.

Dallas, TX  75226

(214) 823-6030

 

     Specializes in Afro-American titles; Free catalog; Rental service 

     available (expensive); Has rental store in Dallas

 

 

Astral-Ocean Cinema

P.O. Box 931753

Los Angeles, CA  90093

 

     Erotic; Asian; 85-page Asia-Blue catalag for $3.00

 

 

Audubon Film Library

P.O. Box 7883

New York, NY  10150

 

     Radley Metzger; Exploitation titles

 

 

Blackest Heart Video

1275 Washington Ave., Suite 360

San Leandro, CA  94577

 

 

Blood Times Video

P.O. Box 3340 Steinway Station

Long Island City, NY  11103

(718) 972-6737

 

     Eurpoean and import titles; Catalog $2.00; Prices $12-25; $2.00 p/h 

     per title; They carry some titles that no one else has; Slow to respond

 

 

Bosko Video

3802 E. Cudahy Ave.

Cudahy, WI  53110

 

     Animation; Classics; Free catalog

 

 

Cape Copy Center

631 Main St

Hyannis, MA  02601

 

     Free catalog; Specializes in out-of-print titles; Good service; Titles 

     shipped immediately; Seventies porn specialists; Prices from $12-80.

 

 

Captain Bijou

P.O. Box 87

Toney, AL  35773

(205) 852-0198 (phone)

(205) 859-8946 (fax)

 

     Sales, VHS/laser; 9-5 CST Mon.-Fri; VHS and laser monster movies /

     serials / B-movies / westerns / animation / TV, Catalog $3.00; Credit

     cards accepted

 

 

Central Park Media

250 W. 57th St., Suite 250

New York, NY  10107

(212) 977-7456

 

     U.S. Manga Corps. is a label under Central Park Media; They sell anime 

     titles.

 

 

Chainsaw Video

Oudegracht A/D

Werf 265

3511 NN Utrecht

The Netherlands

 

     "Cult-horror-SF-underground-sexploitation; Uncut versions; Magazines; 

     T-shirts; US $1.00 for catalog

 

 

Chas Balun

8456 Edinger Suite 111

Huntington Beach, CA  92647

 

     Euro / Asian / US gore-trash-sleaze titles from the publisher of the 

     defunct Deep Red zine; Reasonable quality dupes for $14.95 + $2.05 p/h 

     each; SASE for info.

 

 

Cinefear Video

40 S. Brush Dr.

Valley Stream, NY  11581

 

     European and import titles; Catalog for $3.00

 

 

Cinemacabre Video

P.O. Box 10005

Baltimore, MD  21285

 

     Trailers; Old TV shows; Catalog $1.00; Most titles $19.95; Fanzine 

     available; No phone orders

 

 

Cinema Classics

P.O. Box 174

Village Station

New York, NY  10014

(212) 675-6692 (phone)

(212) 675-6594 (fax)

 

     Boxed originals or dupes made from 16mm; Free catalog ($3.00 overseas); 

     Covers a number of PD titles; Suspense / cult / sci-fi / horror; Credit 

     cards OK

 

 

Dave's Video

The Laser Place

12144 Ventura Blvd.

Studio City, CA  91604

(818) 760-3472 (phone)

(800) 736-1659 (outside L.A. county)

(818) 760-3818 (fax)

 

     Laserdisc sales; "The mecca for Hollywood's laser buffs"; Credit cards 

     accepted

 

 

Eddie Brandt's Saturday Matinee

6310 Colfax Ave.

North Hollywood, CA  91606

(818) 506-4242

 

     Sales and rentals; Specializes in locating rare videos; Free catalog

 

 

Dark Dreams

6228 Sandpoint Way NE

Seattle, WA  98115

 

     Horror / sci-fi / silents; Two 29-cent stamps for latest catalog

 

 

Discount Video Tapes

P.O. Box 7122

Burbank, CA  91510

(818) 843-3366

 

     "Rare and unusual" titles; Classics; Westerns; Horror; Sci-Fi; Cartoons; 

     TV; Free catalog; Long catalog for $2.00   

 

 

Facets Video

1517 W. Fullerton Ave.

Chicago, IL  60614

(800) 331-6197 (orders only)

(312) 281-9075

(312) 929-5437 (fax)

 

     The best source for independent / out-of-print / foreign; Sells 

     laserdiscs and videos; $9.95 for large catalog; Credit cards OK

 

 

Far East Flix

59-13 68th Ave.

Ridgewood, NY  11385

(718) 381-6757 phone/fax

Mon-Sat 11am-7pm

 

     Good quality dupes $20 each; Factory boxed titles $39.95 each; They

     now sell new laser discs; New catalog free with order; HK and Japanese

     titles

 

 

Feature Creature Theatre

MAP Video Productions

P.O. Box 222321

Dallas, TX  75222

 

     Horror / sci-fi / B-movies from the 50s and 60s; Catalog $2.00; Tapes 

     $18.95  plus $2.50 p/h for the first tape, $1.00 per each additional tape; 

     Specializes in PD titles and trailers

 

 

Filmfax Products

P.O. Box 1900

Evanston, IL  60204

 

     Forgotten / B-movie / horror / silents / TV shows; Mostly PD stuff; Buy 5,

     get one free policy; Most titles are $15-30; $4.00 p/h first tape, $1.00 

     each additional tape; Offers VHS and Beta

 

 

Film Threat Video

P.O. Box 3170

Los Angeles, CA  90078

 

     Advertises in its own monthly magazine; Good source for amateur and 

     independent films

 

 

Foothill Video

7732 Foothill Blvd.

Tujunga, CA  91043

(818) 353-8591

 

     Specializes in silents / early talkies / some horror films; 40-page 

     catalog $4.95; Price per tape usually under $10; Takes credit cards; 

     $3.50 p/h first tape, 50-cents each additional tape

 

 

Ken Crane's Laserdisc Superstore

15251 Beach Blvd.

Westminster, CA  92683

(800) 624-3078

(714) 892-8369 (fax)

 

     Laserdisc sales only; Over 100,000 titles; Call or write for free 

     catalog; New release list faxed on demand; Credit cards OK

 

 

Laser Blazer

2518 Overland Ave.

Los Angeles, CA  90064

(310) 558-8386 (phone)

(310) 558-3255 (fax)

(800) 488-DISC (orders only)

 

     Laserdisc sales; Free catalog; Mastercard and Visa accepted; COD's 

     accepted (!) "We stock every title currently available"; Offers 

     discounts

 

 

Laser Cinema

2258 Market St.

San Francisco, CA  94114

(415) 621-2462 (fax only)

 

     Specializes in finding out-of-print laserdiscs

 

 

Laser's Edge

2103 N. Veteran's Parkway, Suite 100

Bloomington, IL  61704

(309) 662-9347

 

     Import and U.S. laserdiscs; Catalog for $9.95

 

 

Le Video

1239 9th Ave.

San Francisco, CA  94122

(415) 566-3606

 

     Rare and out-of-print video and LDs; A walk-in video rental store that 

     does some mail order; If you're anywhere in the San Francisco Bay area, 

     go there! Just about every film that has been mentioned in FUNHOUSE! 

     can be rented from them.  A primary FUNHOUSE! source.

 

 

Loonic Video

2022 Taraval St. #6427

San Francisco, CA  94116

(510) 526-5681

 

     Commercial distributor; Carries some unusual and imported titles; 

     Catalog for $1.00

 

 

LS Video

P.O. Box 415

Carmel, IN  46032

 

     "Eclectic mix" of older titles; Mostly rare and forgotten films; Free 

     catalog, Send a 29-cent stamp; Prices $9.95-around $20; $2.05 p/h per 

     tape

 

 

Mangamania Club

P.O. Box 85

New York, NY  10023

(800) 626-4277

 

     Anime distributors; Free catalog

 

 

Media Man

Reinhold G. Schmidt

Postfach 23

91584 Lichtenau

Germany

09827-6536 (phone)

09827-6832 (fax)

 

     Mostly books and magazines (US-imported); also NTSC videos, LDs and 

     toys; Prepaid only to foreign countries; Very reliable and they have 

     booths at many conventions and movie-market bashes

 

 

Midnight Video 

5010 Church Dr.

Coplay, PA  18037

(610) 261-1756

 

     Rare and import titles; Best source for uniformly good quality PAL /

     SECAM transfers; 2-week service on orders paid via Postal Money Order; 

     Longer wait for payment by personal check; Detailed catalog for $3 

     ($5 overseas); Most titles are $19 plus p/h ($4 for the first tape, $1

     each additional); Some special orders are $22-25.

 

 

Milestone Film and Video

275 W. 96th St., Suite 28C

New York, NY  10025

(212) 865-7449

 

 

Monday-Wednesday-Friday Video Club

73 E. Houston St.

New York, NY  10012

(212) 219-0765

 

     Underground films; Catalog for $1.00

 

 

Mondo Movies

255 W. 26th St.

New York, NY  10001

(212) 929-2560

 

     Experimental / trash / sexploitation / sleaze; Free catalog

 

 

Movie Club Video

12 Moray Ct.

Baltimore, MD  21236

(410) 256-5944

 

     Commercial distributor; Free catalog

 

 

Pagan Video

Box 763

Valatie, NY  12184

 

     Obscure films from the silents to the 1970s; Catalog for $3.00

 

 

Pagoda Video

2 Holworthy Terrace

Cambridge MA 02138

 

     More HK dupes; $15.00 each plus $3.00 p/h first tape, $1.50 each 

     additional tape

 

 

Phoenix Distributors

6253 Hollywood Blvd. #818

Hollywood, CA  90028

(800) 356-4386

(213) 469-7041 (fax)

 

     Horror and classics; Free catalog; Visa / Mastercard

 

 

RM International

PO Box 3748

Hollywood, CA  90078

 

     Russ Meyer's company which sells his films and new video projects on

     video tape.  Currently available are: THE IMMORAL MR. TEAS, EVE AND THE

     HANDYMAN, WILD GALS OF THE NAKED WEST, LORNA, MOTOR PSYCHO, MUDHONEY,

     FASTER PUSSYCAT KILL! KILL!, MONDO TOPLESS, GOOD MORNING AND GOODBYE,

     COMMON-LAW CABIN, FINDER KEEPERS LOVERS WEEPERS, VIXEN, CHERRY HARRY AND

     RAQUEL, SUPERVIXENS, UP!, and BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE ULTRAVIXENS;

     $79.95 each or $40.00 for six or more; Free glossy, slick, adults only

     brochure

 

 

Rhino Video

10635 Santa Monica Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA  90025-4900

(800) 432-0020

 

     Sci-fi / horror / JD / serials / TV / rock; 132-pg. catalog (music + 

     videos) for $2.49 (I called and got it free)

 

 

R.T.S.

P.O. Box 93897

Las Vegas, NV  89193

(702) 896-1300

 

     Exploitation / horror / action / Euro-trash; Prices range from $30-60; 

     Occasional $19.98 per tape sales; $5.00 p/h per order; B-movie catalog

     $1.00, "big catalog" for $9.95

 

 

Savage Cinema

Post Box 8887

1006 JB Amsterdam

Holland

Internet: peterzir@hacktic.nl

 

     Exploitation / horror / Euro / U.S.; PAL format only, NTSC "maybe soon.";

     Two titles per tape, $19.50 plus $3.50 p/h for the first tape, $2.50 for

     each additional tape; High-grade tape, $2.00 extra each; U.S. currency 

     and postal money order OK; No bank checks; Catalog available free via 

     Internet.

 

 

Scarecrow Video

5030 Roosevelt Way

Seattle, WA  98105

(206) 524-8554

 

     Rare and import titles, in NTSC and PAL; Finder service; Free catalog

 

 

Scorched Earth Productions

P.O. Box 101083

Denver, CO  80250

 

     "Cult films on video;" All tapes $14.95 plus p/h

 

 

Sight and Sound

27 Jones Rd.

Waltham, MA 02154

(617) 894-8633

 

     U.S. and imported videos and Laserdics; Walk-in rental service; BBS

     service with membership; Free catalog

 

 

Sinister Cinema

P.O. Box 4369

Medford, OR  97501

(503) 773-6860

(503) 779-8650 (fax)

 

     Sci-fi / horror / peplum / serials / westerns / drive-in double features;

     Free catalog; Prices range from $12.95 to under $30; $2.00 surcharge for 

     beta; Credit cards OK; Pre-records

 

 

Snappy Video

P.O. Box 3206

Ann Arbor, MI  48106

Something Weird Video

P.O. Box 33664

Seattle, WA  98133

(206) 361-3759

(206) 364-7526 (fax)

 

     Commercial distributor, similar to Sinister Cinema; "The nation's 

     consummate collection of eclectic exploitation and sexploitation";

     Carries dozens of old sex films; Catalog $3.00; All titles $20 plus 

     $3.00 p/h plus $1.50 each additional tape; Visa / Mastercard; Pre-records

 

 

Starlight Video

520 W. Fullerton Pkwy., #201

Chicago, IL  60614

 

     Specializes in horror and sleaze; Catalog with an SASE and two 29-cent 

     stamps

 

 

Stephen M. Russo

Box 3250

McCormack Station

Boston, MA  02101

 

     Rare TV series (U.S. and international)

 

 

Tai Seng Video Marketing

170 S. Spruce St., Suite 200

San Francisco, CA  94080

(800) 888-3836

(415) 871-8118

 

     Hong Kong titles; Free catalog; Sometimes subtitles are cut off or 

     hard to read; Pre-records; Prices: $50.00 each less than six month 

     old, $35.00 each more than six months old; Tapes in both Mandarin

     and Cantonese.

 

 

Tapes of Terror

P. Riggs

6226 Darnell Dept. PS

Houston, TX  77074

 

     Reportedly sells boxed originals

 

 

Tempe Video

P.O. Box 6573

Akron, OH  44312

(216) 628-1950

(216) 628-4316 (fax)

 

     B-movies / horror  /sci-fi / Euro sleaze; Catalog $1; "B's Nest" 

     newsletter for $10/4 issues

 

 

Threat Theatre International

P.O. Box 7633

Olympia, WA  98507

(206) 866-3593

 

     Rare U.S. and import titles; Specializes in Asian; Catalog for $5.00; 

     The catalog is hokey but their service is reliable

 

 

Twonky Video

19 W. Main St.

Somerville, NJ  08876

 

     Cult, animation, rare films; Also sells memorabilia; Videos and 

     laserdiscs; Free catalog

 

 

Video by Mail

P.O. Box 1515

Whitney, TX  76692

(800) 245-4996

(817) 694-4865 (fax)

 

     Sales and rentals; Cult / independent / international; Credit cards OK

 

 

The Video Den Collection

40 Kilmer Rd

Vestal, NY  13850

(800) RARE-VHS

 

     "Hard-to-find videos"; Catalog for $4.95; Accepts Mastercard and Visa;

     These folks advertise ERASERHEAD for $50; Call for catalog

 

 

Videodrom Mail Order

Fuerbringer Str. 17

10691 Berlin

Germany

030-69213311 (phone)

030-6913787 (fax)

030-6923361 ("info phone")

 

     Large selection of books, magazines, PAL and NTSC videos and LDs; 

     Catalog for DM $8 (maybe US $5); Includes updates; Accepts Mastercard

 

 

Video Madman

P.O. Box 40094

San Diego, CA  92164

 

     Imports and cult titles; Free catalog

 

 

Video Oyster

62 Pearl St

New York, NY  10004

(212) 480-2440

 

     Specializes in rare or out-of-print titles; Three catalogs based on 

     type of film you're looking for ($3 for a sampler); One-person operation;

     COD is okay

 

 

Video Search of Miami

P.O. Box 16-1917

Miami, FL  33116

(305) 279-9773

 

     Hundreds of rare U.S. and import titles; Free catalog; Two-day service 

     in many cases; Quality of video transfers vary wildly and they don't 

     take criticism very well; Prices $25 plus p/h; Very fast service

 

 

Video Specialists International

182 Jackson St.

Dallas, PA  18612

(717) 675-0227

 

     Specializes in exhuming lost films, from 1900 to 70s; TV shows; Adult 

     titles; Prices average $14.95; Catalog for $3.00; Credit cards OK

 

 

The Voyager Company

1 Bridge St

Irvington, NY  10012

(800) 446-2001

(914) 591-5500

 

 

Whole Toon Catalog

P.O. Box 1910

Seattle, WA  98111

(206) 441-4130

 

     Specializes in hundreds of animation titles; Free catalog (takes a long 

     time); Send $2.00 to get it right away; Credit cards OK

 

==========================================

 

Rentals by Mail

 

These companies specialize in renting trash movies to mail-order customers.

Usually, there's some kind of membership fee, and some require credit cards.

The ones that don't require credit cards require a cash deposit.  You join,

they send you a catalog, you mail or phone-in your order, they send it in a

reusable carboard mailer, you return the tapes by the due date.

 

-------------------------------------

 

Home Film Festival

P.O. Box 2032

Scranton, PA  18501

(800) 258-3456

(717) 344-3810 (fax)

 

     Foreign / U.S. / independent /cult; Membership $15/year; Rentals: $4.50-6

     per tape/three nights plus postage (both ways); Catalog w/membership

 

 

Movies Unlimited 

6736 Castor Ave.

Philadelphia, PA  19143

(800) 523-0823

(215) 725-3683 (fax)

 

     Mostly mainstream and foreign films for rent; An occasional cult movie 

     (like older John Waters films and other proven moneymakers); Call for 

     membership info; Enormous catalog (30,000+ titles); Credit cards OK

 

 

Video by Mail 

P.O. Box 1515

Whitney, TX  76692

(800) 245-4996

(817) 694-4865 (fax)

 

     Sales and rentals; Cult / independent / international; Rental fee: $4.00

 

 

Video Library

7157 Germantown Ave.

Philadelphia, PA  19119

(800) 669-7157

 

     VHS / laserdisc rentals; $5 per title/three nights; Specializes in

     cult and out-of-print titles; Catalog $8.95; Postage varies; Credit

     cards OK

 

 

Video Vault

323 S. Washington St.

Alexandria, VA  22314

(703) 549-8848

 

     Three films for one week $19.95, includes one-way shipment via UPS; Huge 

     selection of cult and mainstream titles; Membership fee; Friendly service 

     but a bit expensive

 

 

Video Wasteland

214 Fair St

Berea, OH  44017

(216) 891-1920

(800) 532-1533

 

     Three films for 4-5 days $18.95, includes one-way shipment via Priority

     Mail; Ever-growing catalog of rare U.S. and import titles; Membership 

     fee; Ken the owner answers the phone; Personalized service and quick 

     response to phone orders

 

=============================================

 

Looking for more information on. . .

 

Magazines:

 

DROP OUT

Andrea Giorgi

Via Atene 6

20132

Milan, Italy

 

EYEBALL

14 Kintyre Court

New Park Rd., Brixton Hill

London

SW2 4DY

U.K.

 

KILLING MOON

1265 Pollokshaw Rd.

Glasgow G41

3RR

Scotland

 

SPROCKETS FALL

7735 Attingham Lane

St. Louis, MO  63119

 

 

Video sources:

 

GIALLOMAINA

D.J. Pieplow

13579 Calico Place

Chino, CA  91710

 

NYUE Enterprises/Rainbow Video and Audio

Address?

 

WORLDSHOP

3665 29th St.

Grand Rapids, MI  49512

 

WORLD VIDEO

Address unknown

 

 

A Survey of Essential Sixties Garage Punk Albums

------------------------------------------------

 

Sixties garage punk is a common thread running through FUNHOUSE!, and it is a

crucial link in the great continuum that runs from Link Wray to the Jesus

Lizard.  These snot-nosed, do-it-yourselfers connect the Who and the Stones to

the MC5 and the Stooges in the chain of raw, primitive, and honest

rock-and-rollers.  They serve an additional function as a reminder to us that

the Woodstock-"San Francisco scene" boring hacks weren't the only thing going

at the time, despite what the curators of popular culture today might believe.

What follows is a run-down of some of my favorite groups to issue LPs of this

sort.  For each group, all relevant contemporary albums and a brief synopsis

is given to aid you in your digging pleasure.  Most of these have been

reissued on CD (and some on vinyl),  so you don't have to shell out those

collector's prices.  Check out European labels, such as Eva, Edsel, Line, and

Decal for pressings of questionable legality.  A good source for mail order is

Midnight Records in NY (PO Box 390, Old Chelsea Station, New York, NY, 10011,

212-675-2768; Fax, 212-741-7230).  This list represents the most successful,

and to some extent accomplished, Sixties garage bands, as most never got much

further than locally issued 45s.  However, thanks to dedicated and even

obsessive archivists, a lot of these singles have been collected onto albums

in such series' as Pebbles, Highs in the Mid-Sixties, Boulders, Beyond the

Calico Wall, Girls in the Garage, ad infinitum - check those for many

terrible, and some great, obscure tidbits.

 

 

THE STANDELLS

Dirty Water (Tower 5027, 1966)

Why Pick On Me / Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White (Tower 5044, 1966)

Try It (Tower 5098, 1967)

 

There are three additional Standells LPs, but these are the records that

demonstrate their punk aesthetic.  Two earlier albums were live recordings

from a time when the Standells were a clean-cut cover band, and the third was

released between Why Pick On Me and Try It, and is made up of more limp

covers of then-current hits.  The band was profiled in detail in FUNHOUSE! #2.

When Ed Cobb (ex-Four Preps) took over management of this L.A. group, he

brought to them a style of sneering defiance and chord-driven garage rock.

Cobb wrote a number of the group's best songs, and contributed greatly to

their new Stones-derived sound.  The lyrics reflect an attitude of rebellion,

characterized by growled vocals from drummer Dick Dodd; he tells his

adversaries to "flake off."  Russ Tamblyn's brother Larry on keyboards, Tony

Valentino on guitar, and bass players Gary Lane or Dave Burke make up the rest

of the band.  The big hit was "Dirty Water," with "Sometimes Good Guys Don't

Wear White" and "Why Pick On Me" having modest success.  Other ripping tunes

include "Little Sally Tease," "Why Did You Hurt Me," "Rari," "Mr. Nobody,"

"Mainline," "Try It" (banned for encouraging loose morals), "Barracuda," and

the amazing "Riot On Sunset Strip," from that film's soundtrack.  Several

compilations have come out in recent years, the best being from Rhino.  Get

all of the info you could ever need on these kings of the sixties punks from

the previous FUNHOUSE! article.

 

 

THE CHOCOLATE WATCHBAND

No Way Out (Tower 5096, 1967)

Inner Mystique (Tower 5106, 1967)

One Step Beyond (Tower 5153, 1968)

 

Another Tower band, also produced by Ed Cobb, who are from San Jose rather

than Los Angeles.  There are some similarities to their label-mate's style,

but there's more of a chemical-induced haze over these proceedings.  A little

more trippy and a little less raw and angry, the Watchband still make guitar

rock untainted by the more tedious trappings of hippie psychedelia.  Having no

hits whatsoever, the originals of these albums are quite difficult to find

(and expensive).  No Way Out rocks the hardest of the group, with

over-amplified cuts such as "Are You Gonna Be There (At the Love-In?)" and

"Let's Talk About Girls."  The band also slips into instrumental jams, always

with a steady beat, such as the title cut, "Expo 2000," and the appropriately

titled "Dark Side of the Mushroom."  Inner Mystique goes a little further

into trippy terrain, with more feedback and extended instro jams.  Check out

"I Ain't No Miracle Worker," a good cover of Dylan's "It's All Over Now Baby

Blue," and a rave-up rendition of the Kink's "I'm Not Like Everybody Else."

The group came up with many freaked-out tunes; a sitar and flute could mix

with harmonica and singer Dave Aguilar's deep, heavily echo-chambered sneer to

make for a great doobie-and-black light soundtrack.  I don't go for the more

pretentious and overproduced psychedelic stuff, so don't think that, despite

this weirdness, the Watchband don't keep things firmly grounded in a heavy,

heavy beat.  The Cobb penned experimental cuts "Voyage of the Trieste" and

"Inner Mystique" from the second LP are good examples of this.  He also gave

them his drug anthem "Medication," also heard on the Standells Dirty Water

album.  Unfortunately, with Aguilar out of the picture, One Step Beyond fails

to click, so track down the first two.  These guys are also featured live in

RIOT ON THE SUNSET STRIP and are heard on the soundtrack album.  There they

deliver two of their wildest numbers, with the intense "Don't Need Your

Lovin'" and the major-distorto "Sitting There Standing."  The Chocolate

Watchband's second single was a cover of Davie Allan and the Arrow's "Blue's

Theme," recorded under the name the Hogs, and produced by Frank Zappa.  A comp

from Rhino has been put out also.

 

 

THE SHADOWS OF KNIGHT

Gloria (Dunwich 666, 1966)

Back Door Men (Dunwich 667, 1966)

 

The scene in the sixties which produced the rawest, grungiest, and most

distorted variety of punk was not found in California nor in New York, but in

the midwest's Second City.  These monsters of the midway actually hailed from

the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights.  Many of their fellow bands from the

Cellar club were just as loud and rude, but the Shadows o' Knight were the

best, and the only group to put out an album.  Their influences are straight

from Muddy, John Lee, Elmore, and Willie, but all knobs are to the right and

the tempos are way up.  The first record yielded a hit with a cover of Them's

"Gloria," and contains only three originals.  The influences are apparent from

renditions of Chuck Berry ("Let It Rock"), John Lee Hooker ("Boom Boom"), Bo

Diddley ("Oh Yeah"), and three from Willie Dixon ("You Can't Judge a Book [By

the Cover]," "[I'm Your] Hoochie Coochie Man," and "I Just Want to Make Love

to You").  The second LP moves more toward rock-and-roll rave-ups and is

better for it.  It has even more punk intensity, which blasts through in great

cuts like "Bad Little Woman," "Gospel Zone," "I'll Make You Sorry," and

Dixon's "Spoonful."  The snarling, Jagger-esque vocals that characterize sixo

garage bands are in full force, and the Shadows of Knight may have the most

charged up sound of them all.  Maybe the easiest way to pick up this music now

is through the recently released Raw and Alive in the Cellar record, which

proves that punk rock was alive and well in Chicago '66.  These guys, along

with the Standells and the Chocolate Watchband, are my picks of this list.

The Dunwich label put out some seven-inchers by bands with equivalent levels

of volume and distortion, and some of them can be found on the in-print The

Dunwich Story and The Dunwich Story comps (Sundazed).  The best songs are by

the Del-Vetts, the Things to Come, the Knaves, and the Pride and Joy.

 

 

THE LITTER

Distortions (Warick UR-5M-1940, 1967)

$100 Fine (Hexagon HX-681, 1968)

Emerge (ABC Probe CPLP-4504, 1969)

 

With the Trashmen in their past, and Husker Du and the Replacements in their

future, the Litter occupy an important niche in the Minnesota, white boy,

guitar noise, angst music fraternity.  It must have something to do with the

weather.  They are either the most psychedelic of sixties metal bands or the

most metal of sixties psychedelic bands.  The independent releases are

preferred.  $100 Fine is the less conventional of the two, being character-

ized by loud and spacey guitar effects, which highlight Warren Kendricks'

off-kilter production.  High volume trip-outs such as the spacified

"Mindbreaker," "Morning Sun," and "Blues One" line up with a more obscure

selection of cover material than turned up on most sixties LPs:  "Here I Go

Again" (Small Faces), "Tallyman" (Yardbirds), "She's not There" (Zombies), and

"Kaleidoscope" (Procol Harum).  The debut, Distortions, is a more conventional

affair, but it is still filled with monster heavy riffs.  It leads off with

the band's kick-ass masterpiece, the raging "Action Woman."  The weird "The

Mummy," as well as "The Egyptian" and "Soul Searchin," give a taste of what

was to follow, but the covers are a bit more standard fare (they include the

Who's "Substitute" and "A Legal Matter," as well as "I'm a Man").  Both of

these albums showed up as reissues in 1990-91 on the K-TEL (!) label, but I

haven't yet seen them advertised on TV!  The $100 Fine reissue contains the

addition of "Confessions of a Traveler Through Time," which the band are seen

playing in the film Medium Cool (1968), but are not heard as the producers

decided to dub a Mothers cut over them.  Emerge is a major label release which

features a new singer and lead guitarist.  It rocks pretty hard, but is

inferior to the other two.  A cover of the Love-styled version of "Little Red

Book" is interesting.  The French Eva label dug through the vaults and came up

with a record called Rare Tracks, which fills out the group's recorded

career for completists.

 

 

THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR ELEVATORS

The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators (International

  Artists 1, 1966)

Easter Everywhere (International Artists 5, 1967)

Live (International Artists 8, 1968)

Bull in the Woods (International Artists 9, 1968)

 

"What is that funny little noise in that record?" reads a quote from an

anonymous DJ on the liner notes to Psychedelic Sounds.  That noise is the

sound of an electric jug, and it's the second most distinct sounding thing on

"You're Gonna Miss Me," the minor hit which leads that first album off - the

most distinct being the haunted blues meets space cadet vocals of Roky

Erickson.  Toss out those Pink Floyd records, this is the most acid-soaked

music you'll find, and despite that it doesn't lose its rock-and-roll edge.

Coming out of Houston in 1966 on the upstart International Artists label, the

Elevators concocted a record blatant in its drug induced sound, lyrics, and

album cover, which would become more usual in a few years, but which was

pioneering in its time.  Some of the later period psyche bands would slip into

a little too much hippie-dippy mysticism with woodwinds, sitar, and other out

of place instruments, but these guys were all garage rock, and they never

loose their edge thanks to Stacy Sutherland and Roky's dissonant and driving

guitars.  "Reverberation," "Fire Engine," and "Monkey Island" are probably the

other strongest cuts from the debut, but the whole thing melds together into

one long, continuous, trip out, which preaches to the temple of the Vitamin A

through both words and music.  The follow up, Easter Everywhere, takes right

up were the previous record lets off, and is probably the stronger of the two.

It kicks off with what may be the group's best song, the eight minute opus

"Slip Inside This House," which again is crafted from a mind melting collision

of the eerie emotion of Erickson's singing, the peculiar blowing of Tommy

Hall's electric jug, and the unmatched driving weirdness of the electric

guitars.  "Slide Machine" and Dylan's "Baby Blue" also stand out, but again

this is a work to be experienced in its entirety.  It's hard to give a

description to these records as nothing else sounds like them, but

unquestionably key is Roky's vocals, and thus Bull In the Woods is to be

avoided as it was recorded while he was locked away in the state mental

hospital after a pot bust.  The live album above is one of a few available,

but it was released while the group was active.  Erickson's late-seventies and

early-eighties recordings with the bands the Aliens and the Explosions are

also highly recommended.  From an appearance on The Bandstand - Dick Clark:

"Who is the head of the band?," Roky: "We're all heads."

 

 

THE MUSIC MACHINE

Turn on The Music Machine (Original Sound 8875, 1966)

 

Dark, brooding, and very, very fuzzy.  The Music Machine are the soundtrack

for 4:00 AM on Sunday morning following a sixer plus and multiple BTs.

Distorted instruments are complimented by Sean Bonniwell's distorted vocals,

which create a sound which is perfect for the darkest, dankest, most

subterranean stage you can imagine.  The originals mostly carry their sound

with an uptempo punk beat.  "Wrong," "The People in Me," "Masculine

Intuition," and especially "Trouble" and the single "Talk Talk" are chord

driven rockers.  An interesting collection of covers range from "Taxman," "96

Tears, and "See See Rider," to the unusual in selection with Neal Diamond's

"Cherry Cherry" and the common "Hey Joe" - done as a mega-slow dirge.  The

boys dress head to toe in black - boots, pants, turtlenecks and a single

leather glove.  Listen for some of the most extreme stereo you'll ever hear!

Reports are that the mono version (reviewed here) is much more raw than the

stereo one, but I can't verify that myself.  The singer later put out a self

titled record with his new band Bonniwell's Music Machine (Warner Brothers

1732, 1967), and Rhino put out a Music Machine compilation.

 

 

COUNT FIVE

Psychotic Reaction (Double Shot 5001, 1966)

 

Count Five achieve greatness for two reasons: 1) They somehow came up with the

most fantastic single song of any of the bands mentioned in this article (and,

with apologies to Neil Young, maybe anywhere in this issue) with "Psychotic

Reaction."  That cut builds on an amazingly captivating, and yet simple beat,

until it finally explodes into chaos, only to be brought back under control

with a steady riff and heavy drumbeat combo.  2) The wacked cover art which

has the fellas, complete with checkered and striped double knits, starring

maniacally into the camera from around the edge of what appears to be a

freshly dug grave.  The music is pretty simplistic, and the guitar playing is

of a cleaner Byrds / Beatles style rather than the Stones / Kinks influence

which drives most of the American garage punks of the era.  However, the kooky

lyrics of songwriter / rhythm guitarist Sean Byrne do add a certain extra

something, especially when he speaks of his girl "from the deep, deep south"

who also is equipped with a "pretty big mouth," 
and when he takes on the

ranting voice of the committed in the paranoid "They're Gonna Get You."  Byrne

does write all but two tracks (a rarity then, as you have read), and while the

covers are pretty straight renditions of the Who's "My Generation" and "Out in

the Street," remember that it was the pretty cool group who drew their

influences from Townshend and Co. in 1966 when the Who were hitless, virtual

unknowns in America with only a just released debut album.  Some of the tracks

on Count Five's singles of the time (especially "Revalation in Slow Motion"

and "Contrast") are as good as anything (save "Psychotic Reaction") on the

album.  Look for the Edsel reissue which replaces the cover tunes and a couple

of lesser tracks with these.  Gonzo Rock Journalist King Lester Bangs elevated

this group of San Jose, CA teens by creating a mythical catalog for them,

which contained four additional releases (the compilation of Bangs' work,

"Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung," draws its name from this record and

the second one he made up for them).  Bangs got to pondering what would happen

if a bunch of low-talent punks, like these guys, actually developed a career,

and thus went ahead and created one for them that included psychedelic

experimentation and seventeen minute tracks - it's like he wished it did

happen.  For the record, the band members were attending the following

educational institutions at the time of this release: Los Altos Foothill

College, San Jose City College, San Jose State College, and San Jose Pioneer

High School.  There's even a live CD out there from a reunion show a few years

ago.

 

 

THE SEEDS

The Seeds (GNP Crescendo 2023, 1966)

A Web of Sound (GNP Crescendo 2033, 1966)

Future (GNP Crescendo 2038, 1967)

A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues (GNP Crescendo 2040, 1967)

Merlin's Music Box Raw and Alive (GNP Crescendo 2043, 1967)

 

Brother Sky Saxon was one groovy cat who was so far out man that he still

hasn't come back.  The Seeds had hair way past their shoulders on their 1966

debut, spoke openly and without crypto-innuendo about the joys of things for

the head when others only hinted at such notions, and had the 14:27 minute

freak out "Up in Her Room" on A Web of Sound a year before "Sister Ray."  As

ahead of their time as they were, the LA based group was still dominated by

Sky's throaty and warbling singing and his loopy bass playing, along with dual

fuzz guitars and Daryl Hooper's cheesy organ.  But along with the kooky

lyrics, therein lies the charm.  "Pushin' Too Hard" from the debut was the

hit, and that cool tune sets the pace for the rest of the music.  "Evil

Hoodoo," also from The Seeds, rises above most of the rest with its powerful,

loud, and driving fuzz guitar and organ lead which sustains over the course of

5:15 minutes, and the abovementioned "Up in Her Room" makes the second LP

worth checking into - you put it on and it keeps going, and going, and

going...  A bit more subtle approach on Future does nothing to hide Sky's

wacko sensibilities, but A Full Spoon... is something altogether different.

Yep, the Seeds play the blues, but surprisingly it's pretty good.  The Seeds

proper rounded things out with the live album, recorded at one of the Sunset

Strip's coolest night spots, which is a good representation of what they were

all about, and with the inclusion of "Two Fingers Pointing on You," one of

their best songs, on the soundtrack to Richard Rush's Jack Nicholson-in-

the-Hashbury exploitation classic PSYCH-OUT.  The band can be seen live in the

film, as well.

 

Sky moved to Hawaii and spent the seventies as the guru of a church that

worshipped his dog.  During the course of things, he kept various versions of

the Seeds together, and issued a number of albums under the "New Seeds"

moniker.  Among these are Sunlight and the New Seeds (1976, Expression), Stars

New Seeds Live at the Orpheum Theatre (Sunbow, 1977), In Love With Life

(Expression, 1978), and Lovers Cosmic Voyage (Golden Flash, 1978).  In between

those were many obscure, low numbered pressings of mystic chant records.  By

the eighties he was resurrected from Hawaii by his old pal, L.A. DJ and

hipster Rodney Bingenheimer.  First out was Starry Ride (Psycho, 1984) were he

was backed by other burn-outs, late of the bands Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf,

and Fraternity of Man.  He then made the rounds of the early-eighties paisley

underground scene, appearing as Sky and Purple Electricity while ranting over

the MacDonald bros playing classic rock (see last ish's Redd Kross piece) or

in Firewall, a group he headed made up of members of the Dream Syndicate, the

Plimsouls, and the Droogs (A Groovy Thing [New Rose, 1986] and Destiny's

Children [PVC, 1986] are records of the same Firewall material).  ...In Search

of Brighter Colors (New Rose, 1988), World Fantastic (Skyclad, 1988), and

Private Party (Voxx, 1986) are even more new material, these being

post-Firewall.  If anyone could supply me with a tape of any of the seventies

material I would gladly trade a tape of anything mentioned in any FUNHOUSE!

for it.

 

 

THE SONICS

Here are the Sonics (Etiquette ALB-024, 1965)

The Sonics Boom (Etiquette ALB-027, 1966)

Introducing the Sonics (Jerden JRL-7007, 1967)

 

Seattle's original garage band have a sound that might be called agro frat

rock.  Raw guitars keep a pace with the simplest of chords, accompanied by

piano or organ, and occasionally interrupted with a psycho-solo from a six

string or a sax.  What makes these guys pretty damn cool is singer /

keyboarder Jerry Roslie's manic, I-wanna-be-Screamin' Jay growls, snarls, and

screams.  Plenty of covers are present, and the performances on them are good

("Do You Love Me," "Shot Down," "Keep a Knockin'" - even "Louie Louie" keeps

you interested).  An A for effort and for several classic, crazed originals

("Psycho," "Strychnine," and "Witch") make at least a comp from the Sonics

worth checking out.  But, despite their reputation, there are a few groups on

this list that are a bit more original.  An additional problem lies in the

fact that the Etiquette label did a pretty lousy job of recording most of this

music.

 

 

THE OTHER HALF

The Other Half (Acta 38004, 1968)

 

Teetering on the edge of prog metal, this record bridges the gap between the

group's earlier drug punk classic single "Mr. Pharmacist" and guitarist Randy

Holden's later ear shattering white noise in Blue Cheer (for a truly warped

experience seek out his solo guitar opus, Population II [Hobbit, 1968]).  It's

noisy, it's fuzzy, and it's as much a precursor to seventies heavy metal as to

seventies punk rock.  All original except for a cover of fellow Frisco friend

Country Joe's "Feathered Fish," this one demands that it be played at maximum

volume.

 

 

THE LEAVES

Hey Joe (Mira 3005, 1967)

All the Good That's Happening (Capitol 2638, 1967)

 

Another LA band, they operate at their best in the style of the earliest

Stones, and at their worst somewhere in Herman's Hermits land.  They have a

dual guitar attack, with the classic chugging chord rhythm and clean picking

lead combo.  The Leaves' superior musicianship elevates their better numbers,

and the best of these kick along pretty well and above the level of some of

their contemporaries who were mired in Brit-clone boredom.  (Let's face it,

only the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, and the Kinks were consistently good,

as most sixties limey music just plain sucked).  The guitar may be cleaner and

the vocals less angry and snotty than most of the other groups here, but their

roaring take on the ubiquitous "Hey Joe" is definitive.  This garage staple

was also covered by (at least) the Standells, the Music Machine, Love, the

Shadows of Knight, and the Byrds.  The best stuff on the Hey Joe record is

well worth having.  "Get Out Of My Life Woman" recalls the Beatles in their

Help / Rubber Soul period, only angrier.  "War of Distortion" goes for a

trippy effect by including sound effects and extreme stereo separation, and

"Words," written by Boyce and Hart and more well known from the Monkees

version, is great high energy pop.  Along with "Hey Joe," the shredding

instrumental "Back on the Avenue" and the album closer, "Too Many People," an

original with a great punk beat supporting outbursts of lead guitar and

harmonica over the singer's statement of defiance, are incredible sonic

explosions.  The weaknesses of tracks like "Girl From the East," He Was a

Friend of Mine," and a sappy version of the Searchers "Good Bye, My Lover" are

even more glaring when stacked up against these.  The Leaves' "Hey Joe" was

also the version that was the biggest hit, and that earned them a promotion to

the majors with the Capitol issued All the Good That's Happening.  It's an

undistinguished record, thrown together just as the band was splitting up.

 

 

THE RISING STORM

Calm Before the Rising Storm (Remnant BBA-3571, 1968)

 

These Andover prep schoolers in coats and ties seem to be equally influenced

by the Booker T and the MGs Stax / Volt sound, and Love's SoCal psych-punk (in

fact they cover both "In the Midnight Hour" and "A Message to Pretty," but you

wouldn't need to hear those two to catch these influences).  The tunes chug

along at a good pace, like British Invasion music with an edge.  Keyboards and

occasional fuzz guitar punctuate a sound which fans of the Jam and their

revivalist peers might groove to.  Highlights include "Don't Look Back," an R

& B influenced rave-up that probably got the crowd on its feet at MA keggers.

It features some wild leads, multiple tempo changes, and a rap in the middle

that would make Peter Wolf proud.  "I'm Coming Home," another driving rocker

which breaks for a spastic solo, and "She Loved Me," which has a fuzzy lead

driving its soulful vocals, round out the best material.  Cover versions of

the popular "Big Boss Man," whose definitive sixo version was delivered by the

Syndicate of Sound, and "Baby Please Don't Go" (yep, that one) are used for

padding.  A few of the slower numbers are rather rote.  This LP circulates

these days for more cash than any other mentioned here (it can be over $500).

While it's a fun spin, it doesn't warrant that much scratch in my book.

  

 

THE SYNDICATE OF SOUND

Little Girl (Bell 6001, 1966)

 

Yet a third band from the mid-sixties period who emerged from San Jose, CA.

While SF to the north was stuck in the Beau-Quicksilver-Airplane-Grape flower

child morass, its mega suburban sprawl neighbor was cranking out garage bands

dedicated to the true spirit of rock-and-roll.  It must be something with the

tract housing.  The title track was the big hit for these guys, with its

ringing, driving guitar propelling its tell off vocals.  If you've never

caught this on oldies radio you can always check into the Dead Boys live

knock-off on their Young, Loud and Snotty LP.  Following closely on the tail

of that classic is a raving cover of the Sonics "Witch," but once you get past

those straight rockers the dominant style is a fifties sound similar to what

the early Flamin' Groovies did.  The choice of covers should clue you in as to

what to expect: "Big Boss Man," "Dream Baby," "I'm Alive," "Lookin' For the

Good Times," and "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby."  While not as wild, in

the garage style, as some of their peers, there's still plenty of volume in

these sax featuring tunes.  Even if the old rock-and-roll sound isn't up your

alley don't pass up this vinyl slab if you run across it cheap, especially for

"Little Girl" and "Rumors," another jammin' original which credits one member

with "fuzz bass."  My copy has a peace sign drawn on the label, which is

covered by a price sticker for 50 cents from Record House Inc (I think that I

actually shelled out $1.98!)  If you're out there Terry Mello, you should have

hung on to this baby.

 

 

THE FIRE ESCAPE

Psychotic Reaction (GNP Crescendo 2034, 1967)

 

A real SF garage band or a Kim Fowley / GNP Crescendo throw together?  The

liner notes tell a probably bogus story about the producers finding the group

in The Gutter, "a club so far 'in' that the 'in-kids' didn't know where it

was."  The album is mostly well played covers of garage rock classics, but it

gets extra points for its subtle collection of LSD references.  Covers are of

"Psychotic Reaction" (Count Five), "Talk Talk" (Music Machine), "96 Tears" (?

and the Mysterians), "Trip Maker" and "Pictures and Designs" (both by label

mates the Seeds), and "Fortune Teller."  In addition to the Seeds' acid

tributes, Fowley's fantastic "The Trip" and the bad trip ode "Love Special

Delivery" add to the fun.  The playing is fast and charged, but not heavy on

the distorto content which drives the best music of the genre.

 

 

? AND THE MYSTERIANS

96 Tears (Cameo 2004, 1966)

Action (Cameo 2006, 1967)

 

And mysterious they were (and are).  ? took the name "Rudy Martinez" for a

songwriting credit, but reports are that that name was phony too.  What's

known about the group is that they were a mutant crossing of sixo-styled

Tex-Mex with Detroit angst.  "96 Tears," with its retard piano lead, should be

known to all, but that hit is just the jumping off point.  ? himself was a

warped presence slithering across the stage, and the music is loaded with

charged chords and lyrics which hide messages of sexual want.  The record

company said it was "Girl, You Captivate Me" but on stage that tune took its

true form as "Girl, You Masturbate Me."  Both LPs are equally recommended, but

no reissues exist, as they are owned by Allen Klein and he refuses to let them

out (probably for no other reason than that people want to hear the music).

You can however pick up the ROIR / Danceteria reunion show live album, which

rocks just as if these cinco dudes never went away.

 

 

THE TROGGS

Wild Thing (Atco 33-193, 1966)

The Troggs (Fontana SRF-67556, 1966)

Love Is All Around (Fontana SRF-67576, 1968)

 

Though the Stones and the Who were a major influence on the American garage

punks, once they had moved on to superstardom there weren't many English bands

to carry on with the noise (things degenerated to the level of Herman's

Hermits, the Hollies, and the Dave Clark Five).  The Troggs are the major

exception.  If you haven't heard these cave dwellers kick out their most

famous tune, I don't know what interest you have in reading this far, but that

three chord classic is only the begining for these guys.  Each of their early

records is filled with the snotty vocals and crunchy guitar noise which makes

"Wild Thing" one of the most covered rock-and-roll creations of all time.

There's probably no band mentioned anywhere in FUNHOUSE! who hasn't played it

at some time (well maybe Phil Collins, it probably wouldn't even occur to

him).  Loud bar chords and feedback rave-ups are all over the sixties

material, with just a few of the highlights being "From Home, "With a Girl

Like You," "I Want You," and "66-5-4-3-2-1."  Wild Thing and The Troggs are

actually the same record, released by different labels.  It's a version of

this which gets the nod for its first record level of angst and intensity.

Either of the above will do, but these guys carried on far longer than any of

the other bands here, so enter the seventies with them at your own risk.

 

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EOFunhouse!

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