The Godfathers "Birth, School, Work, Death" 1988*****

I know that dissing the 80's is a kind of automatic reflex - only last week I wrote about how bad it was: the music, the clothes, the haircuts. I should have known better, though, 'cause I've been there. Do I cringe when I look at my teenage self in those old photo's? (you know which...the paper ones. We used to stick them in albums?) Why, is there anything cringeable about a nice mullet? I won't even mention the clothes - or, rather, I'll just mention one item: I used to have a one-button single-breasted faded denim blazer... with shoulder pads! I wasn't crazy about the pads, but have you ever tried to find a blazer without shoulder pads in the 80's? Try to remove them, believe me it only makes things worse. As for the rest of my wardrobe, thankfully I discovered at some point that you can match black with black: problem solved - from that moment on, I looked cool as fuck. Or rather I would have, if it wasn't for the mullet. But when nostalgia takes me back to my LP racks, I find evidence that the 80's weren't half as bad as they are supposed to have been: My record collection of the late 80's consisted of albums by The Ramones, Wipers, Violent Femmes, Cramps, Sunnyboys, Godfathers etc. I pull one record out, place it on the stereo, drop the needle and...

Boom! I just can't resist turning the volume up and shouting together with Peter Coyne: Birth! School! Work! Death! Birth! School! Work! Death! over and over again... because there was some awesome rock'n'roll going on in the 80's, which no-one's ever told you about. And if you think these youtube videos are good, let me tell you they're shit compared to seeing the Godfathers live at the Rodon Club, looking cool in their mobster suits, swinging their guitars while a throbbing sweaty crowd sings the chorus back to them. I've seen lots and lots of bands play live, and they were second to none. I mean, sure, The Rolling Stones can rock a stadium, but you'd have to see them at the Marquee Club in 1965 to get the same vibe The Godfathers were emanating during the late 80's to early 90's. Radio Birdman or Dr. Feelgood would probably be a better comparison: No-nonsense R&B coupled with punk's defiant sneer, irreverent lyrics, razor sharp riffs, short guitar solos and loud drums. The clean production tempers the attack, making it just easy enough on the ears to ensure radio play - the album is, after all, full of catchy tunes. Each side starts with a high energy dynamite ("Birth, School, Work, Death", "Cause I Said So") and the singer shouting rather than singing, while the chorus sounding like a slogan in a demonstration. "If I Only Had Time" is another strong rocker with melodic backing vocals, "Tell Me Why" a fast new wave number with energetic drumming, and "It's So Hard" a folk rocker reminiscent of Tom Petty. Side 1 closes with the druggy Velvets-like "When Am I Coming Down", while side 2 is slightly less impressive: no instant classics, with the exception of thuggish opener "Cause I Said So". "Obsession" is a similarly aggressive number but lacks hooks, while there are some nods to rock's past (60's Who in "The Strangest Boy", rockabilly in "S.T.B.") and present: "Just Like You" and "Love is Dead" are closer to the kind of indie pop one might hear at 80's college radio stations. They even show the band's romantic streak to counteract the nihilistic politics and drug references of the faster songs. Special mention goes to the album cover, depicting the 4 stages of existence according to the bleak Godfathers worldview. This LP should convince you it's time for you to re-discover the 80's, too. I mean, look! even my old denim jacket has made a comeback - except for the shoulder pads, that is. Shoulder pads and dinosaurs are two things that must never ever be resurrected, haven't you seen Jurassic Park?

***** for Birth School Work Death, If I Only Had Time, When Am I Coming Down, Cause I Said So

**** for Tell Me Why, It's So Hard, The Strangest Boy, S.T.B., Just Like You, Love is Dead

*** for Obsession

"And I don't need no PhD cause I'm ten times smarter than you'll ever be! Cause I said so! Cause I said so! Cause I said so! Cause I said so!"

"I cut myself but I don't bleed /'Cause I don't get what I need/Doesn't matter what I say/Tomorrow's still another day/Birth! school! work! death!"

KBC Band "KBC Band" 1986***

I just read on MOJO magazine's obituaries about the death of Jefferson Airplane co-vocalist and songwriter Marty Balin. He started as a minor teen idol before co-founding Airplane, getting gradually marginalized in his own group by the flamboyant personality of co-singer Grace Slick and radical political direction pursued by bandmate Paul Kantner. This  album isn't among his best, but deserves to be rescued from oblivion nevertheless. It comes from 1986, a bad year for music - as well as for hairstyles, fashion and whatnot. Not as bad, though, as 1985, the year that the Airplane's successors, Starship, had hit big with "We Built This City" - a tune that often tops "worst songs ever" lists. It supposedly celebrates "real rock" as opposed to playing "corporation games" - a song nevertheless propelled by heavy rotation on MTV, and written by hired guns for a band that had started as 60's counter-cultural icons Jefferson Airplane. By that time, of course, only Grace Slick was left from the original Airplane - her former boyfriend and bandmate Paul Kantner having quit, disappointed by the commercial direction of it all. Pretty soon he joined his former bandmates Marty Balin and Jack Cassady in new band KBC. Their (sole) album contains three Kantner/Balin compositions where they share the vocals and which partly revive the rebel spirit of the 60's with their anthemic choruses and harmonies, as well as with their lyrics. Opener "Mariel" sports some upbeat percussion and a rocking guitar solo (lead guitarist Mark Aguilar is a big asset for the band), but the lyrics speak about the murder of Chilean songwriter Victor Jara at the hands of a CIA-backed dictatorship, and warn that "if we don't care now/Chile could happen here". Likewise "America" echoes the call-to-arms of 1969's "Volunteers" (albeit with shiny 80's studio sheen), the dream of a U.S. without fear, poverty and warmongering. It's actually a catchy, uplifting tune with a strong chorus and nice guitar and sax solos. Their 3rd co-write "Dream Motorcycle" is a melodic rocker marred by the excessive use of sax and synths. The rest of the album was written by outside collaborators. The best of these songs is lead single "It's Not You, It's Not Me", which sports a strong vocal performance by Balin and music reminiscent of contemporary hits by Asia, Boston, Journey etc. It's no coincidence that Boston producer John Boylan co-produced AOR tracks "No More Heartaches" and "When Love Comes". Despite Kantner's professed disappointment with Starship's commercial direction (but then again, Balin was always more commercial-oriented) KBC utilizes all of the studio and songwriting tricks of the time to obtain a hit: big choruses, danceable rhythms, cheesy synths - it even often (e.g. "Wrecking Crew") veers close to disco. The obligatory power ballads (3rd single "Hold Me", Sadistic Mika Band cover "Sayonara") are also here. For whatever reason, this album wasn't the success they must have hoped for and Kantner, Balin and Cassisy soon joined Grace Slick in an almost full reunion of the original Jefferson Airplane, even cutting an album under that moniker. KBC are largely forgotten now, but if you are a fan of 80's AOR music you'll find there's a lot to like here. It certainly holds up much better than the more successfull Starship LP's of that era...  P.S. this is probably the only LP I have where the sleeve is also printed on the inside. You'd have to tear it at the seams to open it and see what the picture inside is. I didn't, but internet search reveals it shows a car floating down a desert highway with a sign in the distance saying "Life is a test. Had this been a real life, you would have been told where to go and what to do". Ha! 

**** for Mariel, It's Not You It's Not Me, America

*** for Hold Me, No More Heartaches, When Love Comes, Dream Motorcycle, Sayonara

** for Wrecking Crew

Prog Magazine's 100 Greatest Artists Of All Time

I was rummaging through my old magazines in the attic when I came across this issue of Prog Magazine entitled "The 100 Greatest Artists Of All Time". Now if you think they mean the likes of Da Vinci or Mozart, you've obviously never read the magazine. Forget the "artists" in general and the "all time" label, we're talking strictly rock groups and solo musicians here. Can you guess who's Number 1? Yes... Not as in "yes, you guessed right, of course it's The Beatles" but as in the band Yes. One would have thought that they meant to name it "the greatest strictly prog rock bands and musicians" in which case it might be alright, but no... keep reading and way down near the bottom of the list at no.80 you'll find... The Beatles! The Grateful Dead barely made the list at no.94 while Frank Zappa fares better at no.18. None of those artists can be considered prog in any sense of the word, so what gives? This is by far the craziest list I've ever seen: suppose Yes themselves compiled a "greatest artists" list, I can't imagine they'd place themselves 79 places above The Beatles. And that's not all. Marillion actually feature 3 times: as a band at no.6, while their original singer Fish is at no.60, and his replacement Steve Hogarth at no.76. Jeez, can any of you even name one Hogarth solo album? More duplicates ensue: Jethro Tull/Ian Anderson, Steven Wilson/Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd/Roger Waters, VDGG/Peter Hammil, King Crimson/Robert Fripp etc. A band called The Cardiacs (ever heard of them?) sits directly above Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Peter Gabriel and Zappa. I wonder in what way are they more culturally significant than them. But they're not the only ones - at least a dozen unknowns feature between bands that either sold millions of records or revolutionized prog rock. Make up your mind, gentlemen, is it a cult heroes list, a giants of prog list, or what? Here's the list for your own information, and possible comments:

1-Yes

2-Genesis

3-Pink Floyd

4-King Crimson

5-Rush

6-Marillion

7-Jethro Tull

8-Steven Wilson

9-ELP

10-Gentle Giant

11-Dream Theater

12-Camel

13-VDGG

14-Cardiacs

15-Porcupine Tree

16-Opeth

17-Peter Gabriel

18-Frank Zappa

19-Transatlantic

20-Kansas

21-Kate Bush

22-Anathema

23-Tool

24-Big Big Train

25-Hawkwind

26-Gong

27-Renaissance

28-Steve Hackett

29-Spocks Beard

30-Moody Blues

31-Soft Machine

32-Riverside

33-Flower Kings

34-Caravan

35-Focus

36-IQ

37-Neal Morse

38-Thinking Plague

39-Magma

40-Gryphon

41-Haken

42-The Enid

43-Henry Cow

44-Mike Oldfield

45-Pain Of Salvation

46-Supertramp

47-UK

48-Brian Eno

49-Pendragon

50-PFM

51-Robert Fripp

52-Alan Parsons Project

53-Peter Hammill

54-Rick Wakeman

55-Arjen Lucassen

56-Mahavishnu Orchestra

57-Mastadon

58-Nektar

59-Roger Waters

60-Fish

61-Muse

62-Tangerine Dream

63-The Nice

64-Anglagard

65-Arena

66-Eloy

67-Enchant

68-Oceansize

69-Saga

70-Strawbs

71-The Mars Volta

72-Anekdoten

73-Ayreon

74-Devin Townsend

75-Knifeworld

76-Steve Hogarth

77-The Plastic People Of The Universe

78-Mostly Autumn

79-Sigur Ros

80-The Beatles

81-Asia

82-Grpbschnitt

83-Haze

84-Magenta

85-Ne Obliviscaris

86-Public Service Broadcasting

87-Robert Wyatt

88-Sanguine Hum

89-William D Drake

90-Can

91-Dave Stewart

92-Frost

93-Galleon

94-Grateful Dead

95-It Bites

96-Ian Anderson

97-Pallas

98-Queensryche

99-And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead

100-Amon Duul II
Some entries will open to relevant posts in my blog, expect more of them in the future as I continue to present my record collection. Prog or not, I have albums from most of these artists.

The Vietnam Veterans "Green Peas" 1985***

The Vietnam Veterans were one of my favourite bands during the late 80's/early 90's, and the subject of my first piece of rock writing: Some 20 years ago I wrote an article on their second LP Crawfish For The Notary for ZOO, a fantastic but short-lived Greek publication reminiscent of MOJO. It was for a column called "Record Hunting" where the readers presented a record together with the story of how they acquired it - winning entries (such as mine) got published and secured their writers a year-long subscription to ZOO. I kept the magazine for a long time, but unfortunately don't know where it is anymore. It is a pitty, as it was -from what I remember- a brilliant and insightful piece of writing, highly praiseful of the band and especially of the singer (Mark Enbatta) for his out-of-time adherence to the long-forgotten hippie ideals. I'm afraid I'm not that eloquent (or maybe not that enthusiastic) any more, so this review will be a more pedestrian affair. For those unfamiliar with the band (which includes, I guess, most people) the Vietnam Veterans were a French garage/neo-psychedelic band from a small town called Chalon-sur-Saône. Like most of their peers, they took their cues from 60's legends like The Seeds, Electric Prunes, Jefferson Airplane etc. One distinguishing characteristic, though, was Lucas Trouble's keyboards, whose ghostly organ sound fell halfway between The Doors' Ray Manzarek and the Phantom Of The Opera (the actual phantom, not Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical). Enbatta's voice was equally distinctive: certainly not the prettiest in rock but with a rare passion and wide-eyed quality. Dylan, Donovan and Sky Saxon come to mind. This live album was recorded during their first two performances abroad (Germany, June 1985) by their friend (and Music Maniac label boss) Hans Kesteloo. It was actually the album that started Music Maniac and, apparently, the Veterans' best seller. Either because their former label Lolita did not promote their previous 2 albums (I searched record stores for years for a copy of Crawfish...) or -most likely- because people wanted a souvenir of their incediary live performances. On the evidence of this record, the band were really confident onstage, with great chemistry that allowed them to tear through the more aggressive numbers and improvise on the more psychedelic ones. Disc one contains their more concise songs, some of which came from their first two studio albums for Lolita and others that would feature in their next Music Maniac album In Ancient Times. The performances here are tight and running times are not stretched. In comparison to the studio versions, these are faster and noisier with more feedback. Songs like the mid-tempo "You're Gonna Fall" and "Dreams Of Today" from their debut, which was somewhat folkier and thin-sounding, benefit the most from this treatment. Other highlights include their dynamic signature song "Curanderos", garage dynamites "Is This Really The Time" and "Don't Try To Walk On Me" as well as early versions of, then still unreleased, "Wrinkle Drawer" and "Tower Of Babel". Disc two is where it really gets interesting for completists like me. This contains 3 improvised jams that remain unreleased in studio form: "Human Love", "Peas On Earth" and a freak-out medley of  Kim Fowly's "The Trip" and Enbatta's "Dreams Of Today". If you're new to the band, this LP has the advantage of containing some of their best songs and being relatively easier to get (though, nowadays with discogs etc, everything is a few clicks away). On the other hand, the recording quality isn't the best, which is why I'll give it 3* instead of 4*.

**** for Dreams Of Today, Curanderos, Wrinkle Drawer, Is This Really The Time, The Medley: The Trip/Dreams Of Today

*** for You're Gonna Fall, Dogs, Tower Of Babel, Don't Try To Walk On Me, What Are You Hiding, Out From The Night

** for Liars, Critics, Human Love, Peas On Earth