801 "Live" 1976*****

As wikipedia says "801 Live is the live album by 801". Well, who would have guessed? You shouldn't let the literal and unimaginative title fool you though, there's lots going on here despite the fact that it seems to be a spontaneous and low-key affair. First things first, just who is 801? One could rightfully call them "Phil Manzanera and friends", as the Roxy Music guitarist is obviously in charge here. But Brian Eno merits equal billing since he wrote many of the tracks and sings lead on them. The other players are also listed on the album cover, but none of them is a household name so calling 801 a "supergroup" as some do is a bit of a stretch. The band played a total of 3 gigs, the last of which was recorded for this album. The LP rightfully got great reviews and was considered at the time to be the best-sounding live album ever, due to recording technology used. Indeed it combines the clear sound of a studio recording with the exhilaration of a live one. The album opens with ambient guitar instrumental "Lagrima" segueing into an unbelievable cover of The Beatles' "TNK (Tomorrow Never Knows)" with spacey keyboards, nimble bass and dreamy vocals. Dare I say better than the original? Too close to call really, but in any case one of the best Beatles covers ever. "East of Asteroid" is an instrumental jazz rock mix of two Manzanera tunes called "Mummy Was An Asteroid..." and "East Of Echo". Amazing playing, especially the guitar and drums - difficult to believe that drummer Simon Phillips was only 18 at the time! "Rongwrong" is a semi-pastoral ballad that reminds me of early Pink Floyd. Eno's "Sombre Reptiles" sounds livelier than on Another Green World, while on "Baby's On Fire" he reminds us that the man we think of as a production guru and master of ambient music could rock out with the best of them. Great guitar solo, too! "Diamond Head" is an atmospheric Floydian instrumental with beautiful solos by Manzanera, followed by "Miss Shapiro", another song that sounds livelier and better than the studio version on the Diamond Head LP. Afterwards the band lets loose with a rocking cover of The Kinks' "You Really Got Me" and closes with a galloping version of Eno's "Third Uncle" from Taking Tiger Mountain... Now this is a song I first heard by Bauhaus and always associate with them, which makes me realize how far ahead 801 were from the rest: just as the music world was starting to split between "classic rock" and "punk", they were playing a mix of prog, glam and post-punk unlike anything else out there. Even in 2021, they don't sound a bit outdated! So, this is what you get with 801 Live: interesting compositions, classic songs turned inside-out, amazing musicianship, and Eno at his rockiest and most fun. Normally I hesitate to award 5* to an album that isn't a stone cold classic but I can't find the slightest fault here - so I guess it must be a stone cold classic after all!

***** for TNK (Tomorrow Never Knows), Baby's on Fire, Third Uncle

**** for East of Asteroid, Rongwrong, Sombre Reptiles, Diamond Head, Miss Shapiro, You Really Got Me

*** for Lagrima

Gram Parson's International Submarine Band "Safe at Home" 1967(orig) 1991(CD reissue)****

In retrospect, this short album is one of these seminal moments in pop music, signifying the first "marriage" of rock and country music. True, at the beginning of rock'n'roll there were some artists like Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins that felt equally at ease with both genres, but by the mid-60's they were worlds apart: country was music for conservative rural America, rock for the hip teenagers. It took an unlikely personality to bring them together. Gram Parsons (true name: Ingram Cecil Connor the 3rd) was the opposite of a redneck, indeed he was as blue-blooded as any American can get. His father was a renowned fighter pilot and his mother's family were wealthy land-owners; when he came of age they enrolled him in Harvard University and endowed him with a trust fund that solved his livelihood problem once and for all. Seeing as he didn't actually need an education, Gram immediately indulged himself chasing his two loves: music and girls. He formed the first version of The International Submarine Band (ISB) in 1965 and released a few pop singles that went nowhere. Undaunted he took his band first to New York and then to Los Angeles; in each city, he bought a house for the whole band to live and practice together. By '67 he had decided to focus on country music, going completely against the flow: this was the year of hippies, drugs, and free love while country music was considered to be the music of redneck farmers, Southern religious nuts and gun-toting "love it or leave it" nationalists. With the exception of guitarist John Nuese, the rest of the band saw no future in that direction, and abandoned him - just as he was meeting his future producer Suzan Hokom. Suzan was impressed by the group and convinced her then-boyfriend Lee Hazlewood to give ISB a recording contract. Soon, Gram, Nuese and a few country session musicians went into studio to record what would be the first ever crossover country rock album. The LP clocks in at only 26 minutes and consists of a mix of country classics and original compositions. It seems quite audacious for an upper class 21-year old to tackle these tunes by Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, "Cowboy Jack" Clement and Porter Wagoneer. What could he possibly know of these people's lives? But -just like with those English white boys who dared to play the blues- his honest passion for the material and the culture that inspired it helped Gram see it through. He sounds as authentic as possible under the circumstances, and his band of mostly Nashville session men help him achieve it, especially with the addition of pedal steel guitar and backing vocals. My favorites among the covers are the two murder ballads, "Miller's Cave" and "Folsom Prison Blues". The latter sports an R&B beat and is played as a medley with Elvis' "That's Alright Mama", as if to better emphasize the country/rock mix the band was attempting. That said, it is Gram's own compositions that remain the most interesting: "Strong Boy" and "Luxury Liner" are somewhat faster than the rest and remind me of The Byrds' folk rock of the era, especially in the former's harmonies. "Blue Eyes" and "Do You Know How It Feels To Be Lonesome?" are perfect imitations of classic country & western songwriting. Had this album been released immediately after its recording, it would have deservedly taken its place in history as one of the most innovative debuts of all time. Instead, The Byrds snatched Parsons from the ISB and beat them to the punch, recording and releasing with him their Sweetheart Of The Rodeo LP while the ISB tapes were still languishing in Hazlewood's drawers. Regrettably, many of Parson's contributions to the S.O.T.R. album were erased for copyright reasons, and re-recorded with Roger McGuinn on vocal. ISB's Safe At Home was released later that year to good reviews, but sounded less pioneering in the shadow of The Byrds' album which had made history as the first commercialy released country rock LP. Parsons left the Byrds in protest when they accepted an invitation to play in appartheid-era South Africa; he subsequently recorded seminal albums, both solo and with The Flying Burrito Brothers, and discovered Emmylou Harris who made her recording debut as a guest singer in his GP album. He also befriended Keith Richards and introduced The Stones to country music, all before dying from overdose in 1973, a couple of months before his 27th birthday - another hugely talented member of the so-called 27 Club.

***** for Folsom Prison Blues/That's All Right, Luxury Liner

**** for Blue Eyes, I Must Have Been Somebody Else You've Known, A Satisfied Mind, Miller's Cave,  I Still Miss Someone

*** for Strong Boy, Do You Know How It Feels To Be Lonesome?

Doctors Of Madness ‎"Late Night Movies, All Night Brainstorms" 1975****

The Doctors Of Madness (DoM) are a bit of a riddle. I came across them while researching proto-punk bands on the internet in order to create a spotify playlist which would be both eclectic and entertaining, mixing familiar and lesser-known names. They surprised my by sounding nothing like the other bands on it, e.g. The Flamin' Groovies or New York Dolls. Indeed the DoM are just as close to prog or glam as they are to punk. Their name is another riddle: I would understand it if they were called the Mad Doctors, but what is a Doctor Of Madness? Not a psychiatrist, surely. An expert on madness - someone who has studied it up-close or who lives it every day? Wikipedia writes about (singer/main songwriter) Kid Strange's "ideas and compositions, which analysed urban culture neurosis and systems of control" as if he was some kind of blue-haired punk-prog-rock Michel Foucault. Maybe that provides an indication to their name.

Of course there's no parthenogenesis in rock and roll, even though some bands make it seem so. The DoM, for example, borrow heavily from Roxy Music's experimental art rock and Cockney Rebels' decadent glam cabaret - I think Strange even sounds like a mix of their respective singers Brian Ferry and Steve Harley. But that's only one component of their sound. Then there's the long duration of some tracks and overabundance of violin which marks them as progressive rock. Violinist Urban Blitz can be both melodic and aggressive; at times he reminds me of Velvet Underground's John Cale, other times of Curved Air or String Driven Thing. And then, there are elements presaging punk: the relatively short (and, in the case of the singer, dyed blue) hair, their stage names (next to Kid Strange and Urban Blitz, we have bassist Stoner and drummer Di Lemma) and non-conformist attitude. To be fair, only two songs here justify their classification as proto-punk: opener "Waiting" and "B-Movie Bedtime" from side 2 are as loud and aggressive as anything by, say, Damned - not coincidentally, The Damned's Dave Vanian had a short stint as the DoM's co-vocalist. Punk bands (Sex Pistols, Jam, Joy Division) supported the DoM at many occasions when punk rock was still an underground phenomenon. This LP was their first. In the best prog tradition, Side 1 is a kind of song suite, with the aforementioned "Waiting" followed by 3 semi-acoustic songs ("Afterglow", "Mitzi's Cure", "I Think We're Alone") featuring theatrical vocals and lyrical violin. "The Noises Of The Evening" which closes the side, is more experimental with slow and fast passages, the violinist spiraling out of control to produce an awesome noise. "Billy Watch Out" is an art-rock piece reminiscent of Roxy Music and Pink Floyd, while Side 2 closes with a prog opus called "Mainline". In the space of its 16-minute duration, anything can -and does- happen. Like with every over-long piece, it lags at times but still has amazing moments, often provided by Blitz's electric guitar and violin. Lyric-wise the album has been described as doomy or even suffocating, the singer acknowledging William Burroughs as a key inspiration. A sample (from "Waiting") goes like this "Kentucky chicken is dripping Around my ears/ Let me down easy before my Mind disappears/ Rationalize this pageant of pigsties/ Definalise the unthinking grey skies/ I'm sitting uneasy upon my throne of fears". Happy Days! This kind of stuff might resonate with Goth fans, but DoM didn't stick around long enough to witness Goth. They turned out to be too intellectual for the thuggish punk crowd and broke up in 1978, after releasing two more albums. They became one of those cult bands fondly remembered by music critics and collectors, getting gradually re-discovered and gaining posthumous recognition thanks to the internet. A CD box set reissue of their entire catalogue appeared in 2017 to rave reviews, while they also released a new album in 2019, at which point only Strange remained of the original band. Their debut Late Night Movies, All Night Brainstorms remains their best though. Add it to your collection and get an approving nod by any rock connoisseur who comes across it.

**** for Waiting, Afterglow, The Noises Of The Evening, Billy Watch Out, B-Movie Bedtime

*** for Mitzi's Cure, I Think We're Alone, Mainlines

Ronnie Spector "Siren" 1980***

I was recently reading Phil Spector's obituary on MOJO. It was an interesting one, because it was the only one I've ever read that tried to minimize the departed's achievements and give all the credit to the singers and musicians whom he collaborated with. You see, gradually Spector's status as a legendary producer and creator of the famous "Wall Of Sound" was eroded by his huge personality flaws: the tyrannical behaviour towards his associates, the gun threats, the terror he inspired and abuse he inflicted on his wife and (step)children. He died from COVID-related complications in prison, where he inevitably ended up, serving a 19-year sentence for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson. One may argue that trying to erase someone's artistic achievements is justified if he was such a big asshole in his private life - why allow him the "satisfaction" of posthumous glory? I myself am not convinced that it's either useful or honest. It certainly is a sign of the times that no-one is willing to "give the devil his due" any more. Not only in Hollywood but also in my own homeland Greece where the belated coming of the #metoo movement is the big news of the last months, sweeping away established actors, directors, and sports magnates, even threatening the political establishment. But in any case I didn't feel like writing something about Phil Spector anyway. No, this article reminded me that I have a record by his former wife Ronnie which I've hardly listened at all and so I took it out to give it a few spins.

Ronnie (real name Veronica Bennett) was a mixed race girl (Irish, African and Cherokee Indian) from Spanish Harlem whose band The Ronettes was picked up in '63 by Spector who produced a number of big hits for them. Unfortunately he also turned out to be a tyrannical control freak, especially to Ronnie with whom he was romantically involved. He became even worse after their 1968 marriage, when he imprisoned her in his mansion and forbade her to perform any more. She managed to make her escape in 1972 and got a divorce a couple of years later. In the divorce settlement she gave away all her earnings (past and future) from her recordings, as well as custody of their stepchildren - succumbing, as she later admitted, to Phil's death threats. A few wasted years of alcohol and drug addiction followed until she released her first solo record Siren in 1980, almost 2 decades after forming the Ronettes. By then, the advent of punk had changed everything. While the 70's had seen Phil Spector struggling to regain his mojo by producing flops for the likes of Leonard Cohen, by the end of the decade he was back in fashion as punk rockers re-discovered the "simpler" virtues of rock'n'roll (although Phil's productions were anything but simple) and the world was hit with a nostalgia wave as movies set in the 60's like American Graffiti and Grease became box office smashes. This worked well for Ronnie too, with punk and new wave musicians lining up to help her in her comeback album - including members of Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers, the Dead Boys, Mink DeVille and the Cherry Vanilla Band. The album was conceived and produced by Genya Ravan a.k.a. Goldie, a female singer from the 60's like her who had turned her hand to production and was well respected by the new generation. It was certainly Genya that chose to open the LP with a Ramones cover that fit Ronnie's voice perfectly, "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow". The Ramones (especially Joey) were big Ronettes fans, and were around the same time having a horrible time working with Phil who was producing their End Of The Century LP. In order to get his famous Wall Of Sound treatment, they had to be subjected to his usual insanity, gun toting and mad perfectionism, being made to repeat their parts endlessly until they got them exactly right, a crazy thing to make a punk band do. Siren was the sonic opposite of that: a straight production with all the musicians clearly audible and Ronnie's ageless voice in the forefront - although the "ageless" epithet is hardly necessary: despite being a pop music veteran, she was still only 37 years old. "Here Today..." was the highlight - one could swear that Joey had written it expressly for her - but she sounds just as good in punky rockers "Settin' the Woods on Fire" and "Tonight", gutsy rockabilly "Dynamite" and reggae "Let Your Feelings Show". There's also some Blondie-like new wave ("Hell Of A Nerve", the disco-ish "Boys Will Be Boys") as well as throwbacks to her original early 60's pop sound, including "Darlin'", and ballad "Happy Birthday Rock'N' Roll". In the end, the album is something of an interesting flop, its attempt to modernize 60's girl pop by marrying it to new wave somewhat marred by the sparse production and indecisiveness as to which style to follow. The Go Go's would get that combination right next year with their Beauty And The Beat LP, which we'll review on another occasion. Ronnie's voice is not too well served by being so much in the foreground - it always sounded best when framed by her sister's and cousin's in The Ronettes. Moreover, there's no chemistry among her and the musicians, which didn't matter when she had the Wall Of Sound behind her but is important when one is singing with a rock band. Thirdly, not all the material here is first class. Nevertheless, her expressiveness and unique tone won't fail to warm the hearts of those nostalgic for the "innocent" early days of rock'n'roll.

**** for Here Today Gone Tomorrow, Any Way That You Want Me, Settin' The Woods On Fire

*** for Tonight, Let Your Feelings Show, Hell Of A Nerve, Dynamite, Happy Birthday Rock'N' Roll

** for Boys Will Be Boys

 

Bangor Flying Circus "Bangor Flying Circus" 1969***

Now here's a coincidence: one week my random selection method chooses New Colony Six (NC6), and the next I get another Chicago band of the same period. Back in the mid-60's, the best garage band in Chicago were the Stones-like "bad boys" Shadows Of Knight (SoK) while their rivals NC6 were the clean-cut Beatles types. Moving forward to the end of the decade, garage rock is dead and NC6 are playing light pop while two SoK members (keyboardist David "Hawk" Wolinski and drummer Tom Schiffour) form Bangor Flying Circus. By they time they recorded their only album, Schiffour was replaced by Michael Tegza (from local psychedelic rockers H.P. Lovecraft). The music in this album has some blues influences, but couldn't otherwise be more different from SoK. This is adult music while SoK was for teenagers. Most of the songs are written by Wolinski who also plays bass and shares singing duties with guitarist Al DeCarlo. The album is very well-arranged and played (this is the "adult" part), even though devoid of any really memorable compositions. The song that opens the album "Violent Man" has a melodic West Coast psychedelia sound with nice harmonies and guitar solos. It's followed by the soulful and jazzy "Come On People" - at this point I started thinking of them as Chicago's version of Traffic, and the impression sticks with me throughout the whole album. "Ode To Sadness" is another jazzy piece with great organ work, scat singing and a female guest vocalist singing bossa nova. "Concerto For Clouds" is another Traffic-like number and "A Change In Our Lives" (the only De Carlo composition) a jazz rock ballad with scorching guitar solo and cool piano. "Mama Don't You Know" has some country-ish harmonies, "In The Woods" is a prog-ish piece with fast drums, guitars and organ, and "Someday I'll Find" another ballad with jazzy improvisations. A long instrumental cover of The Beatles' "Norwegian Wood" is a testament to the trio's abilities as arrangers and instrumentalists, but short on rock'n'roll grit (which the SoK had oodles of). Bands these guys remind me of: Traffic, Blood Sweat & Tears, and Santana minus the Latin element. De Carlo and Wolinski would continue together as Madura, while Wolinski would become a successful session musician and producer, appear in various albums by Chicago and join Rufus and Chaka Khan for whom he wrote disco classic "Ain't Nobody". All in all, Bangor Flying Circus is a better than average record that will appeal more to fans of jazz soul than psychedelia even though it's usually considered psychedelic, probably because of its name and album cover.

**** for Violent Man, Ode To Sadness, In the Woods

*** for Come On People, Concerto For Clouds, A Change In Our Lives, Someday I'll Find, Mama Don't You Know (That Your Daughter's Acting Mighty Strange), Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)