RIP Series - Peter Tork

We just lost Peter Tork.

The Monkees were favorite of mine from my youth that I'm not yet embarrassed to have liked.  Allow me to begin a rant of mine. 

The Monkees deserve a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  More so than Joan Jett, ABBA, and a host of others.   You naysayers may say they never played their instruments or wrote their own songs.   Well piss on you jack.   Here are some arguments:

1.  They didn't play their own instruments, but pretended to:  Well The Beach Boys didn't play on most of their records either. That was The Wrecking Crew.  The Beach Boys got a pass.

2.  They didn't write or produce their own material:   Where would The Supremes be without the Motown session musicians and the songwriting machine behind them?  The Jacksons (including pedophile Michael) as well.  And Madonna - how many people does it take to write an produce a record?   They got a pass.

3.  The Monkees pretty much created the music video.  This put the end to rock stars looking geeky.  It was all about personality once MTV came on the scene and ruined everything.

4..  They made some awesome records that still hold up.  I'm listening to the HEAD soundtrack right now.

5.  They are responsible for my appreciation of 45's.   Pleasant Valley Sunday was the first time I realized the single mix was different from the album mix.  So began my obsessions.

 
So let 'em in.  Just do it.  While you're at it, lets get Eno and King Crimson in as well.

 

Hey! She's a My Birthday Too!

Say happy birthday to Duke Dunton, your humble webmaster.

I don't really have many birthday records.   Last year, I presented Steppenwolf at Your Birthday Party.  So this year I present....

The Idle Race - The Birthday Party (Parlophone 1968  (reissued 2014))

 

This band featured Jeff Lynne who later joined The Move, which morphed into ELO before reaching a career high of working with Olivia Newton John on Xanadu.

The music is your basic English Pysch Pop.  Think Penny Lane.

As seemed to be a trend started by Sgt Pepper, famous faces populate the birthday party.

Unlike Sgt Pepper, we get an answer key to show how hip the band really was.   The Beatles get their due.  They had already appeared on the cover of The Rolling Stones Satanic Majesties LP.

The Band - Islands - A Pathetic End to a Great Career

In 1976, The Band decided to quit the road and stage The Last Waltz.  Word at the time was that they'd continue as a recording entity.  This held promise as their previous album Northern Lights - Southern Cross was such a stunner.   That promise didn't hold true.  At the time they owed Capitol one more record of new material.  They wanted to get it out of the way so Warner Brothers could release the soundtrack to the film in 1978.   Rather than give it the old college try, they released  this...

The Band - Islands (Capitol 1977)

It's nothing more than a spotty collection of outtakes and failed ideas from earlier in their career.  One or two gems, but nothing else of note.  Too bad.  They'd been at it for 10 years.  They could have/should have done better for a swan song.  If this was what was to come, I'm glad they imploded when they did.

The album was received poorly and quickly ended up in the cutout bins.  My copy went through a few hands before it ended up in my collection.   First it was shipped to a record store with the hopes of being sold at full price.   As evidenced by the "Factory Sealed for Your Protection" and "Music is Your Best Entertainment Value" stickers, it was returned to the distributor unopened.   It was then sent to the cutout bin as evidenced by the big hole Capitol put on their cutouts.  Someone bought it cutout, then sold it back to a used record emporium.  That's where I picked it up.  It rarely gets played and it held on only for completion purposes.  It recently came to light as I finished the Robbie Robertson book.

Your Los Angeles Dodgers 45 - Big Blue Wrecking Crew

In 1981, Your Los Angeles Dodgers (tm) won the World Series against the New York Yankees.   How could they follow this up?  Well, they're from Los Angeles, so naturally they cut a record. 

What we get is an embarrassing cover of an annoying Queen song. 

Big Blue Wrecking Crew - We Are The Champions b/w Theme From "New York, New York" (Elektra 1981)

This record would have no legs without a cover shot.  Dodger Steve Yeager, Rick Monday, Jay Johnstone and Jerry Reuss appear in their street clothes to remind us this was the '80's.    The photo was snapped on the top of the Capitol Records building in Hollywood.

Lots of talent is behind this. Don't know any of them other than a Pocaro.  I don't believe it's the same Gary Coleman of 'What you talkin' 'bout Willis' fame.   Lost in the mix is the legendary Helen Dell at the Dodger Organ.  Before pop hit's dominated inning changes, we had Helen.  She played at the stadium from 1972 to 2014.
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In case anyone has doubts about the quality of this recording, check out the Big Blue Wrecking Crew on some TV show.    Stick to baseball!

The Clash First Album

In 1977, The Clash released what is arguably the finest debut album by a rock band ever.  Sure, they were labeled as punk, but the breadth of style they showed early on hinted at things to come.   We get early punk, electrified reggae, and straight ahead rock and roll.

The Clash (CBS 1977)

But the American record companies were not impressed.  Columbia/Epic had the rights to release it stateside, but they declined to do so.   As a result, this became one of the most successful import albums ever in the USA.

Columbia claimed the album wasn't radio friendly.  Looking back at the top selling albums of 1977-1978, it's no wonder there was a backlash to come.   Fleetwood Mac's Rumors was the biggest selling album.  The Eagles cursed us with Hotel California.  Then there's Saturday Night Fever and the Grease Soundtrack, Billy Joel's 52nd Street, etc.   Linda Ronstadt gave us two (count 'em two) albums of safe watered down covers during this period.  In fact, the only Number One album from this period I still love is The Rolling Stones - Some Girls.  I'm proud to say that the others are not - nor have they ever been - in my collection.


When the American arm of CBS decided to release a version of the album two years later, they decided it would be a good idea to move the lettering to the top.  I would love to have seen the presentation at the marketing meeting.  They would have to justify the move.

Do You Think This Artist Would Have Gotten A Record Deal if They Didn't Have a Famous Family Member #6 - Dweezil Zappa

Frank Zappa's first born son.  Twelve years old at the time of this release. 

Dweezil Zappa - My Mother Is a Space Cadet b/w Crunchy Water (Barking Pumpkin 1982)

This kid grew up with impressive resources at his fingertips.  An accomplished guitarist father as a teacher, unlimited studio time in dad's studio, and a song written by Steve Vai.   He's still making music to this day, despite the interference from his younger siblings.

The band looks like it was assembled at some sort of play date.  Wonder what happened to the other kids in the band. 

Terry Knight and the Pack

Before there was Grand Funk Railroad  - there was...

Terry Knight and the Pack  (Lucky Eleven 1966)

This band was led by future Grand Funk Railroad producer/manager Terry Knight.  Members of The Pack include Grand Funk's drummer Don Brewer and frontman/guitarist Mark Farner.

Released on a small local label, this record went nowhere.  It's failure gave rise to Plan B  -   which turned out to be Grand Funk Railroad.   I considered them heavy blues for Jr High.   They were quite popular at the time when I was that age.