Monday, October 31, 2022

W.O.C.K On Vinyl: The Munsters - At Home With The Munsters (1964)

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Before things get too serious here at Rock On Vinyl, I thought it might be fun to post a song at the end of each month, that could be categorized as being either Weird, Obscure, Crazy or just plain Korny.

The Munster’s — Herman, the bolted together, head-of-the-dark-household at 1313 Mockingbird Lane, plus his witch-like wife Lilly, Grandpa the Count from the old country, lil’ son Eddie Wolfgang, and sexy niece Marilyn — take on pop music, as only they can. Campy and Corny… it’s TV’s version of the monster mash.

This months W.O.C.K on Vinyl offering is a rare one folks and is just in time for Halloween. This 'At Home with The Munsters' LP  from 1964 was recorded by the original cast to cash in on the success of the television show, which debuted in September, 1964. Universal TV Productions were the masterminds behind the series, and since they owned the rights to most of the classic horror films ("Frankenstein", "The Mummy", etc.), a crazy '60s sitcom seemed in order.

The LP features songs and stories performed by the original cast of the beloved TV show, unlike another 'Munsters' post I did 14 months ago that didn't feature any of the original cast members.  

"The Munsters'" came out during the same television season as Filmways Productions' "The Addams Family." I was about 6 years old and quickly became a devout Addams Family fan. In those days, you were either a "Munsters" fan, or and "Addams Family" fan.

Whereas "The Addams Family" was offbeat and macabre in a beatnik sort of way, "The Munsters" was goofier and more slapstick. Years later, I came to appreciate "The Munsters", and in retrospect, I think "The Munsters" is actually a funnier show. Fred Gwynne was priceless as the dim-witted "Herman Munster", and they had not one, but 2 cool cars, designed by George Barris. The car has recently featured on the T.V show 'American Pickers' along with the Bat Mobile - really cool!

'At Home With The Munsters' captures the nutty ambiance of the show, with appearances by all the cast members. Each actor gets his own song to perform, although it's obvious that Eddie Munsters' song is performed by another child, and I suspect that Marilyn's song was not performed by Pat Priest, the main actress who played the "homely" niece of the Munsters.

This album has been going for big bucks on Ebay lately (around $70) and I'm sorry to say that I don't actually own a copy of it! Thanks to a fellow blogger - Mr Weird And Wacky, I'm able to offer this rare Halloween gem to you all or this months W.O.C.K on Vinyl post in all its glory. Ripped to MP3, the post includes full album artwork and featured photos.

Now, a little about the main cast members:
Herman Munster
A child-like Frankenstein monster who works as a gravedigger, Herman often throws tantrums when he doesn't get his way. A bumbling idiot with defective brains, he is practically a caricature of Fred Flintstone. Add on his oddly effeminate traits, and it is clear that Brad Garrett states correctly in his stand-up routine that Herman Munster was the first gay sitcom star.

Lily Munster
Lily is a generic bride of Frankenstein (note the white stripe of hair), who is the matriarch of the Munsters. However, she is also a vampire (being the daughter of Grandpa Munster).

Eddie Munster
The son of a Frankenstein monster and a bride of Frankenstein/vampire mix, Eddie is inexplicably a wolfman, obviously a pathetic attempt to shoehorn in another of the Universal monsters into the mix. Eddie carried around a little wolfman doll and annoyed viewers everywhere.

Grandpa Munster
A Boris-Karloff knockoff played by the kooky Al Lewis. Clearly a vampire, so we are unsure who Grandpa knocked up to produce Lily. Most of the time he did experiments in the basement, providing convenient plot devices for many of the episodes.

Marilyn Munster
The “normal” member of the family. Herman and Lily are her aunt and uncle, so we can only assume that they have killed her parents and are holding her against her will. She is also apparently too dumb to realize that she is normal, and is viewed by the other Munsters as lacking their good looks. Oh how very hilarious…the first time

Track Listing
01 At The Munsters
02 Herman Says, "Hello"
03 It Takes All Kinds Of People
04 Everyone Is Welcome
05 Meet Our Pets
06 Meet Grandpa!
07 Grandpa's Lab
08 Eddie!
09 I Wish Everyone Was Born This Way
10 Marilyn: "When Will I Find A Boy For Me?"
11 Nice Of You To Drop In/(Reprise) At The Munsters
12 Herman's Favorite Story
13 Lily's Favorite Story
14 Grandpa's Favorite Recipe
15 Final Theme


Cast
Fred Gwynne - Herman Munster
Yvonne De Carlo - Lily Munster
Al Lewis - Grandpa Munster
Pat Priest - Marilyn Munster
Butch Patrick - Eddie  Munster


Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Leon Russell - Carney (1972) + Bonus Tracks

(U.S 1956 - 2016)

With his trademark top hat, hair well past his shoulders, a long, lush beard, an Oklahoma drawl and his fingers splashing two-fisted barrelhouse piano chords, future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Leon Russell cut a flamboyant figure in the early 1970s. He recorded his first hit single "Tight Rope" with the release of his third, and most successful album Carney, in 1972, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 200.

Two years earlier Russell had already played on hundreds of songs as one of the top studio musicians in Los Angeles. The Oklahoma-born pianist, guitarist, songwriter and bandleader led Joe Cocker's band Mad Dogs & Englishmen, appeared at George Harrison's 1971 Concert for Bangladesh in New York City, and composed numerous hits of his own. He was in Phil Spector's Wall of Sound Orchestra, and played sessions for Frank Sinatra, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, the Ventures and the Monkees, among many others.

But it was the top-rated Carney that put Russell into the league of extraordinary musicians. Soulful roots-rock yields to dizzying psychedelia on this, Russell's most famous album. His all-time biggest hit, "Tight Rope," leads to "Out in the Woods," "Cajun Love Song," "Roller Derby" and more!

The album did not disappoint Russell's followers, the original slate of songs displaying Russell’s trademark quirkiness and musically adventuresome spirit. Nowhere is Russell’s free spirit more apparent than on the delightful “Tight Rope”, the album’s hit single and an unlikely radio hit that featured syncopated rhythms, staggered vocals, and a minimalist soundtrack on what is a metaphor for life lived in the spotlight. 



“Out In the Woods” offers up a swamp-blues vibe with double-tracked Russell vocals (effectively singing parallel to himself) and an overall rootsy vibe while “Cajun Love Song” moves out of the bayou and onto Bourbon Street with an infectious melody and mesmerizing vocal patois. “Roller Derby” (or sometimes labelled as Queen Of The Roller Derby) offers a similar up-tempo New Orleans R&B sound with soulful vocals, honky-tonk piano, and breathless backing vocals.

Many critics, both at the time and more recently in reappraising Carney, have dismissed the second side of the album as too psychedelically-influenced which, honestly, would have been terribly out-of-date by ’72. Other than the second-side-opening, instrumental flight-of-fancy that is the title track, or maybe the meandering and bizarre “Acid Annapolis,” much of side two of Carney is just as finely-crafted and imaginative as the flip side. “If the Shoe Fits” is a rollicking, mid-tempo romp with plenty of rowdy juke-joint piano-pounding while “This Masquerade,” which would become a Top 10 chart hit a few years later when recorded by jazz guitarist George Benson, is an ambient jazz-soul ballad with crooned lyrics and elegant fretwork. Album closer “Magic Mirror” is a blue-hued ballad with muted keyboards and haunted vocals.

Russell wrote scores of hits for others, among them "Superstar," (written with Bonnie Bramlett) for the Carpenters, "Delta Lady" for Joe Cocker and "This Masquerade," for George Benson. His own version of "This Masquerade" is featured on Carney. More than 100 acts recorded "A Song for You," which Russell said he wrote in 10 minutes. Ray Charles' recording of the song in 1993 received a Grammy Award.

Sadly, Russell's life as a musical muse and performer ended with his death at 74 on Nov. 13, 2016, at his home in Nashville. He will be forever remembered for making a broad, sophisticated palette of American music sound down-home and natural [Extracts from thatdevilmusic.com & elusivedisc.com]

This post consists of FLACs ripped from my 'Sample Release' vinyl which I acquired second hand back in the 80's from a street market. My older brother bought the LP when it was first released, and so I spent my early teen years listening to the amazing sounds and musicianship on this album.  The circus sounds of the title track were distinct and it was only later on in life that I made the connection when I leant that Carney was a term used to describe a person who worked in a circus. It only seemed fitting that the popular U.S music magazine 'Circus'  (see above) featured Leon Russell on the front cover of their Sept, 1972 edition.

As usual, I am including full album artwork for both vinyl and CD formats. To sweeten the deal, I thought I'd include several live tracks from his Long Beach Arena, Californian concert held on August 28th, 1972.
'Carney' was Russell's signature album release alongside his debut self-titled album, which also featured many of his popular hits. Perhaps I might post that album at a later stage.

Tracklisting
01. Tight Rope - 2:58
02. Out In The Woods - 3:35
03. Me And Baby Jane - 3:52
04. Manhattan Island Serenade - 3:24
05. Cajun Love Song - 3:08
06. Roller Derby - 2:21
07. Carney - 0:46
08. Acid Annapolis - 2:48
09. If The Shoe Fits - 2:21
10. My Cricket - 2:55
11. This Masquerade - 4:21
12. Magic Mirror - 4:54
13. Roller Derby-Roll Away The Stone (Bonus Live 1972)
14. Out In The Woods (Bonus Live 1972)

Personnel:
- Leon Russell (Claude Russell Bridges) - vocals, guitar, bass, piano, producer
- Don Preston - guitars, backing vocals
- Joey Cooper - guitars, backing vocals
- John Gallie - organ
- Carl Radle - bass
- Chuck Blackwell - drums
- Jim Keltner - drums
- Patrick, Phyllis, Mary Anne, Wacy - backing vocals

Leon Russell Link (289Mb) New Link 04/09/2023

Friday, October 21, 2022

REPOST: Moody Blues - Greatest Hits (1989) + Bonus Tracks

(U.K 1964 - Present) .

The Moody Blues
are an English psychedelic rock band originally from Erdington in the city of Birmingham. Founding members Michael Pinder and Ray Thomas performed an initially rhythm and blues-based sound in Birmingham in 1964 along with Graeme Edge and others, and were later joined by John Lodge and Justin Hayward as they inspired and evolved the progressive rock style. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music, most notably in their seminal 1967 album 'Days of Future Passed' which features their all time classic track "The Night: (Nights in White Satin)" . 

Although they're best known today for their lush, lyrically and musically profound (some would say bombastic) psychedelic-era albums and singles, the Moody Blues started out as one of the better R&B based combos of the British Invasion. 

The Moody Blues' history began in Birmingham, England, where one of the more successful bands during that time was El Riot and the Rebels, co-founded by Ray Thomas (harmonica, vocals) and Mike Pinder (keyboards, vocals). Pinder left the band, first for a gig with Jackie Lynton and then a stint in the Army. In May of 1963, he and Thomas reunited under the auspices of the Krew Cats. They were good enough to get overseas bookings in Germany, where English rock bands were the rage. Upon their return to Birmingham in November of 1963, the entire English musical landscape was occupied by 250 groups, all of them vying for gigs in perhaps a dozen clubs. Thomas and Pinder decided to try and go professional, recruiting members from some of the best groups working in Birmingham. This included Denny Laine (vocals, guitar), Graeme Edge (drums), and Clint Warwick (bass, vocals). The Moody Blues made their debut in Birmingham in May of 1964, and quickly earned the notice and later the services of manager Tony Secunda. A major tour was quickly booked, and the band landed an engagement at the Marquee Club, which resulted in a contract with England's Decca Records less than six months after their formation. The group's first single, "Steal Your Heart Away," released in September of 1964, didn't touch the British charts. . 

Their second single "Go Now," released in November of 1964, fulfilled every expectation and more, reaching number one in England; in America, it peaked at number 10. Following it up was easier said than done. Despite their fledgling songwriting efforts and the access they had to American demos, this version of the Moody Blues never came up with another single success. By the end of the spring of 1965, the frustration was palpable within the band. The group decided to make their fourth single, "From the Bottom of My Heart," an experiment with a different sound. Unfortunately, the single only reached number 22 on the British charts following its release in May of 1965. Ultimately, the grind of touring coupled with the strains facing the group, became too much for Warwick, who exited in the spring of 1966, and by August of 1966 Laine had left as well. Warwick was replaced by John Lodge. His introduction to the band was followed in late 1966 by the addition of Justin Hayward. . 

The reconstituted Moody Blues set about keeping afloat financially, mostly playing in Europe, recording the occasional single. Their big break came from Deram Records, an imprint of their Decca label, which in 1967 decided that it needed a long-playing record to promote its new "Deramic Stereo." The Moody Blues were picked for the proposed project, a rock version of Dvorak's New World Symphony, and immediately convinced the staff producer and the engineer to abandon the source material and permit the group to use a series of its own compositions that depicted an archetypal "day," from morning to night. Using the tracks laid down by the band, and orchestrated by conductor Peter Knight, the resulting album 'Days of Future Passed' became a landmark in the band's history. The mix of rock and classical sounds was new, and at first puzzled the record company, but eventually the record was issued. This album, and its singles "Nights in White Satin" and "Tuesday Afternoon," hooked directly into the musical sides of the Summer of Love and its aftermath. In 'Search of the Lost Chord' (1968) abandoned the orchestra in favor of the Mellotron, which quickly became a part of their signature sound. . 

By the time of 1969's 'To Our Children's Children's Children', the group found themselves painted into something of a corner. Working in the studio with the process of overdubbing, they'd created albums that were essentially the work of 20 or 30 Moody Blues. Beginning with 'A Question of Balance' (1970), the group made the decision to record albums that they could play in concert, reducing their reliance on overdubbing and toughening up their sound. By the release of 'Seventh Sojourn' (1972), the strain of touring and recording steadily for five years was beginning to take its toll, and following an extended international tour, the band decided to take a break from working together, which ultimately lasted five years. During this era, Hayward and Lodge recorded a very successful duet album, 'Blue Jays' (1975), and all five members did solo albums. By 1977, however, the group members had made the decision to reunite, a process complicated by the fact that Pinder had moved to California during that period. Although all five participated in the resulting album, 'Octave' (1978), there were stresses during its recording, and Pinder was ultimately unhappy enough with the LP to decline to tour with the band. The reunion tour was a success, with Patrick Moraz (ex-Yes) brought in to replace Pinder on the keyboards, and the album topped the charts. .

The group's follow-up record, 'Long Distance Voyager' (1981), was even more popular, though by this time a schism was beginning to develop between the band and the critical community. Although they continued to reach the middle levels of the charts, and even ascended reasonably close to the top with the Hayward single "In Your Wildest Dreams" (1986), the Moody Blues were no longer anywhere near the cutting edge of music. By the end of the 1980s, they were perceived as a nostalgia act, albeit one with a huge audience. In 1989, Threshold released a Greatest Hits album on both vinyl and CD (as posted here). In 1994, a four-CD set called 'Time Traveller' was released. A new studio effort, 'Strange Times', followed in 1999 and 'Live at the Royal Albert Hall' 2000 followed a year later.

. "Greatest Hits" released by Threshold in 1989 is more like the Table of Contents rather than a full on anthology album. A mixture of songs from the band's late 60's/early 70's heyday and their early 80's "comeback" period, it misses some important highlights. For instance, the band's 1965 classic "Go Now," is nowhere to be seen. Neither are such gems as "New Horizons," and "For My Lady" to name a few. There is nothing wrong with the songs that were included here, there just aren't nearly enough of them to make this a representative collection. Of course the vinyl release had an excuse with its length limitations, but surely when the CD version was released, Threshold could have added these as extra tracks. Consequently, I have taken the liberty of adding them into this post as bonus tracks. Likewise, one should also note that two of the tracks included are re-makes (Isn't Life Strange & Questions) and in my opinion not as good as the originals. 

This Rip was taken from CD version in full FLAC format and includes full album artwork. I have also included some choice photos of the band. . 

Discography: 

1965: The Magnificent Moodies 
1967: Days of Future Passed 
1968: In Search of the Lost Chord 
1969: On the Threshold of a Dream 
1969: To Our Children's Children's Children 
1970: A Question of Balance 
1971: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour 
1972: Seventh Sojourn 
1978: Octave 
1981: Long Distance Voyager 
1983: The Present 
1986: The Other Side of Life 
1988: Sur La Mer 
1991: Keys of the Kingdom 
1999: Strange Times 
2003: December . 

Track Listing 
01 - Your Wildest Dreams* - 4:51 
02 - The Voice* - 5:17 
03 - Gemini Dream* - 4:09 
04 - The Story In Your Eyes - 3:06 
05 - Tuesday Afternoon - 4:53 
06 - Isn't Life Strange (1988 version) - 6:41 
07 - Nights in White Satin - 7:39 
08 - I Know You're Out There Somewhere* - 6:39 
09 - The Other Side of Life* - 6:52 (not on vinyl LP (Europe only) 
10 - Ride My See-Saw - 3:47 
11 - I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band) - 4:20 
12 - Question (1988 version) - 5:45 
[Bonus Tracks] 
13 - Go Now - 3:14 
14 - New Horizons - 5:10 
15 - For My Lady - 3:57 . 

Band Members:
Justin Hayward (Guitar/Vocals) 
John Lodge (Bass/Vocals) 
Graeme Edge (Drums) 
Ray Thomas (Flutes, Harmonicas, Vocals) 
Mike Pinder (Keyboards/Vocals) 
* Patrick Moraz (Keyboards) . 

Moody Blues Link (459Mb) New Link 04/09/2023 

Sunday, October 16, 2022

Faces - Snakes And Ladders. The Best Of (1976) + Bonus B-Side Single

 (U.K 1970 - 1975)

The Faces were an English rock band formed in 1969 by members of Small Faces after lead singer/guitarist Steve Marriott left that group to form Humble Pie. The remaining Small Faces: Ian McLagan (keyboards), Ronnie Lane (bass guitar, vocals), and Kenney Jones (drums and percussion), were joined by Ronnie Wood (guitar) and Rod Stewart (lead vocals), both from the Jeff Beck Group, and the new line-up was renamed Faces.

The Faces were a rough, sloppy rock & roll band, able to pound out a rocker like "Had Me a Real Good Time," a blues ballad like "Tell Everyone," or a folk number like "Richmond" all in one album.

Good-time Blues Rock was one of the offshoots of British music at the end of the 60's, and the Faces were at the forefront of the movement. Bass player and songwriter Ronnie Lane was the heart and soul of the band. During the early 1970s the raucous Faces were among Britain’s most popular live performers, and their album 'A Nod’s as Good as a Wink…to a Blind Horse' (1971) remains highly regarded. Nonetheless, Stewart, determined not to be constrained by the group format, pursued a parallel solo career during his tenure with the Faces (1969–75).

For four years they toured the world, playing enormous venues as ‘stadium rock’ took off and selling truck-loads of records and hit songs written by Ronnie and Rod, like ‘Stay With Me’ and ‘Pool Hall Richard’. Ronnie shared primary songwriting duties with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, composing, or co-composing many of their best-loved pieces and took a central role during the recording of their fourth and final album, Ooh La La, right as the band’s front man Rod Stewart was focused on his own solo career.

In 1973, unhappy due to poor reviews of the album and Stewart’s lack of commitment, Lane quit, making his last appearance June 4 at the Sundown Theatre in Edmonton, London. When Ronnie left Faces soon split. Ron Wood joined the Rolling Stones with Rod Stewart going on to become a pop star as a solo artist.

Ian McLagan went on to a successful solo career with The Bump Band and released the album "Spiritual Boy", dedicated to Ronnie Lane. As Rod Stewart’s solo career became more successful than that of the group, the band became overshadowed by their lead singer. Ronnie Lane left the band in 1973 and was taken over by Tetsu Yamauchi. Ronnie went on to join Paul McCartney and his Wings, and featured on McCartney's classic 'Band On The Run' album.

Tetsu Yamauchi joined the band to replace Ronnie, but the group made no further studio albums following Lane’s departure and the group split in 1975. The Faces final studio album with Lane was '9Ooh La La', released just months before he left the band. The following year a live album was released, entitled Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners.

The Faces released four studio albums and toured regularly until the autumn of 1975, although Stewart simultaneously pursued a solo recording career, and during the band's final year Wood also toured with The Rolling Stones, whom he later joined. The Faces and Small Faces were jointly inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

Album Review
'Snakes and Ladders' (The Best of Faces) was an October 1976 release by the Faces, an attempt to collect all of the popular songs from the group that had disbanded the previous year. Featuring photography by Tom Wright and cover art by guitarist Ronnie Wood, it was superseded by the far superior Good Boys... When They're Asleep in 1999.

The selections are biased in favour of Rod Stewart's lead vocals, with only one track featuring Ronnie Wood on vocals, and none featuring Ronnie Lane, the group's secondary vocalist, who sang on several tracks on each of the group's four studio albums.

Snakes & Ladders is a fine 12-song overview of the Faces, containing some of the group's best songs ("Had Me a Real Good Time," "Stay With Me," "Miss Judy's Farm," "Sweet Lady Mary," "Ooh La La," "Cindy Incidentally"), along with a couple of mediocre cuts ("Pineapple and the Monkey," "Flying") and the unremarkable, single-only "Pool Hall Richard." Though it gives a sense of what made the Faces a great rock & roll band, it falls far short of being a definitive retrospective or introduction.

Ronnie Quits The Faces
 
Perhaps due to the number of marital breakdowns and other romantic fall-outs within The Faces’ inner circle, Andy Neill was able to interview a bevy of ex-wags who weren’t coy about the way The Faces went about their business. He also spoke a several members of their predominantly American road crew.
It is April 1973 and all is not well in the Faces camp. Rod doesn’t like the new album and isn’t afraid to say so, and Ronnie is on the verge of quitting.

Ooh La La was launched with a pre-release playback party at the Warner Bros. offices and a more upmarket gathering at Tramp, on Jermyn Street, the London nightclub of choice for the well-heeled, A-list rock stars and footballers on the razz. The band had graduated to the Mayfair set from the less refined Speakeasy and it was now their playground of choice, along with the likes of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ringo Starr and Keith Moon. Surrounded by tarted up Can Can girls flashing their frilly knickers, the band posed for the press with glasses in hand, a dishevelled Ronnie Lane looking particularly worse for wear.

Before leaving for America, the band fitted in four British dates around towns and cities left off the previous tour. These included Sunderland on Friday, April 13. It was a week since the FA Cup semi-finals where Sunderland beat Arsenal 2-1 to progress to the final against Leeds. John Peel, a staunch Liverpool and Faces supporter, cherished the memory of that night as one of his favourite ever gigs when both band and audience bonded in one unholy communion. “I’m supposed to have danced in the wings with a bottle of Blue Nun in my arm,” Peel later recalled. “And I’m a person who never dances. Never, never, never.”

Ronnie Lane

The day after the show at Worcester Gaumont, Roy Hollingworth interviewed Rod at his home in Windsor and found him in a bored, surly frame of mind. When the journalist gave his favourable verdict on Ooh La La, Stewart registered surprise. “It was a bloody mess… But I shouldn’t say that should I? … It was a disgrace but I’m not going to say anything more about it.” Hollingworth tried diverting the conversation to a lighter bent but Rod was on a roll – he hit out at The Faces sticking to the same material, their problems in playing the new songs live and the wasteful work pattern in the studio. Stewart later claimed he’d been misquoted but the damage had been done.

When the interview, carrying a banner headline ‘Rod: Our new album is a disgrace… a bloody mess’, was printed prominently on page three in the Melody Maker dated April 21, all hell broke loose. “It was very mean spirited of Rod to slam Ooh La La in the press immediately after it came out,” says McLagan. “He was making his own albums, fair enough but he didn’t have to slag ours off and he had no right to because it wasn’t a bad album… The irony is he could have contributed more to it but he didn’t so he had even less of a reason to criticise.”

L to R: Ronnie Wood, Ronnie Lane & Rod Stewart

Amid ill feeling emanating from Rod’s outburst the Faces ninth US tour started just days later with Jo Jo Gunne supporting. From the beginning it was, to borrow a familiar phrase, never a dull moment especially as Lane deliberately disobeyed the band’s unwritten ‘no wives on the road’ edict.
[Roadie] Russ Schlagbaum: “The other guys were really pissed off, they felt that Kate [Lane] was putting all this shit in Ronnie’s head. I got the shock of my life because my girlfriend Barbara Morice, who was Ronnie’s secretary, came over with Kate. In Columbus, Ohio, there were a load of girls that I knew from college around, I was working for one of the world’s biggest rock’n’roll bands and I’m all set up. I walk into the lobby of the Holiday Inn and there stands my English girlfriend who I thought I’d left behind in Richmond. It was like ‘Holy fuck, what do I now?’ I thought it was very odd that Ronnie would bring someone over to play au pair but then leave the child with a hotel caretaker or some sort so that Kate and Barbara could go to the gig. They all travelled round in this great big Ford station wagon and I have to give Laney credit because he busted his ass to drive those distances from gig to gig with these women and a kid until the end of the tour in Indianapolis.”

Watch out for that Tambourine !

On May 10, the intractable situation came to a head at Nassau Coliseum, Long Island as Schlagbaum recounts: “It started at the hotel earlier in the day. [Roadie] Charlie Fernandez came in, saying ‘Whoa, something really weird is brewing’. The band got to the gig, had an argument in the dressing room before they went on and while they were walking on stage. I’m standing there, holding Ronnie Lane’s bass. He walks right by me and goes over to Mac and throws a glass of wine in his face, walks back and while I’m putting the bass on Ronnie, Mac picks up a tambourine and throws it as hard as he can. Ronnie ducks and it just misses him. The audience had no idea, they’re thinking it’s all part of the act. The band carried on arguing throughout the set and afterwards, they locked themselves in the dressing room for hours. Chuch and I were pissed off because we wanted to get back to the hotel for the party and the women but the keys to the truck were in the dressing room so we couldn’t leave. We said ‘Can’t we get in?’ and [Faces tour manager] John Barnes said, ‘Absolutely nobody can come in’. They had this huge row and that’s when Ronnie decided he was leaving the band.

The Faces On Tour Bus

“The next gig was in Roanoke, Virginia and nobody was speaking to Ronnie except Woody who was his usual bubbly self, you know, ‘Let’s put all the bad stuff behind us and have some fun.’ Woody was always desperate that everyone should have a good time. Laney always used to wander round in circles onstage so that his guitar cord would end up in a huge knot, which was always a problem for me but that night he just stood still back by his amps and played bass.”

Mac, who was celebrating his 28th birthday, remembers Lane coming up to his face during the gig and swearing at him whereupon an enraged McLagan kicked him up the arse and chased him off the stage. Alongside “Fuck the gig!” and the even more endearing “Bollocks, you cunt!” “I’m leaving the group” was a common Faces catchphrase – a mock cry wolf uttered whenever there was any minor hassle or pressure to deal with, usually with drink in hand and tongue firmly in cheek. But now Ronnie Lane was implacable as Mac recalled, “When he said ‘I’m leaving the group’, I said, ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, Ronnie.’ He said, ‘Why don’t you come with me and we’ll get another band together?’ I said, ‘I’m in the band I want to be in with you. I don’t want you to leave.’”

An uncorroborated story has it that after a gig on the tour, the resentment directed at Stewart from Lane descended to a confrontation where Rod, all satin and white gloves, sized up the bass player in his rag and bone man clobber and remarked, “What are you trying to be – a spiv or a Ted?” to which Lane retorted, “Well I’d rather look like a fucking Teddy Boy than an old tart who’s going through the change.” Lane later acidly remarked he knew it was time to move on when Rod “started buying his clothes from Miss Selfridge.”

Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart
For Lane it must have seemed a bitter irony – feeling he had no alternative but to leave the band he’d formed – ten years on from finding Kenney Jones in the British Prince. And his chief grievance being the vocalist he had objected to joining in the first place. It is unfair to lay all the blame at Rod’s feet for being the catalyst behind Lane’s decision, and it should be reiterated that Stewart did not want Lane to leave the Faces either. Onstage they were something of a double act – Ronnie doing his best to make ‘the LV’ (lead vocalist as Rod was sardonically referred to) crack up while Rod would piggyback Ronnie around the stage or help keep him vertical. Most crucially Lane’s levelling humour kept Rod’s excesses in check. During the fraught vocal overdubs for Ooh La La, Rod made it known to Circus reporter Barra Greyson that, in his opinion, “Ronnie’s the real songwriter.”

Going further back to the Never A Dull Moment sessions, Rod had expressed concern for his comrade, telling Nick Logan, “I saw Ronnie Lane the other day and he was looking a bit bleary eyed. I must ring him up and persuade him to take an early night.” Although in the same interview, he did admit having problems interpreting Lane’s compositions. “Ron [Wood] and I have this incredible thing between us. We could both be on opposite sides of the world and Ron could phone and play me a tune, and I could put the lyrics to it. Whereas I don’t have that same thing with Ronnie Lane because of the chords and the structures he uses. I can’t get into them.”

“They always took the mickey out of Ronnie’s songs,” says Jan Jones. “Kenney used to laugh about it. He’d come in from Olympic and I’d say, ‘How did it go?’ and he’d say, ‘We’ve got the statutory Ronnie Lane song, ‘rinky-dinky-dink…’’’ Musically Ronnie and Rod were like chalk and cheese but I loved the blend of Ronnie Lane and Rod’s voice.”
The Faces were predominantly a band built for the stage but, as Mac points out, “apart from singing the opening verse of ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, Ronnie didn’t really get to do anything with the band so it was no wonder he felt frustrated.”

Rod and Ronnie

Russ Schlagbaum: “Everyone thought Laney was insane. ‘Why the fuck would he leave the Faces right at their peak? He’s got to be out of his mind. It must be the woman he’s with’. Of course, Kate had a lot to do with it but Ronnie was on the alert from the very beginning. Ronnie saw through the Rod thing and he told Mac and Kenney, ‘Rod’s gonna leave you in the shit like Steve [Marriott] did’, but they wouldn’t have it. They didn’t want to get off the golden cart at that point.”

Ronnie’s brother Stan takes a similar view. “I used to say to Ronnie, ‘You only jump off the boat if it’s sinking.’ And for the first time in his life he was making plenty of money. But I think that Kate was a bad influence at that time because she wanted to be a hippie and live on a farm and all that shit. I think she was the force that dragged Ronnie away from the Faces plus he was pissed off with Rod so I think between the two of them it turned him.”

The Faces Play Their Last Concert

‘Faces Go To Town’ ran the front page of the May 19 edition of Sounds announcing that the band were to play three major London concerts at the Edmonton Sundown on June 1, 3 and 4 as a prelude to a full scale European tour with dates to be recorded for a proposed live album. But of far more drama and consequence was the paper’s announcement a week later: ‘Plonk Quits Faces’. “Following speculation about the future of the Faces, Ronnie Lane announced this week his decision to leave. Prior to leaving for a holiday in France, he said ‘It’s time for me to move on. I feel the need for a change.’”
The resultant hoopla surrounding the gigs involved fans queuing for over seven hours for tickets with the 3,500 capacity audiences being jammed against the barriers and the inevitable cases of fainting. Such was the fervor that a fourth and final show on June 6 was added. Ironically the Edmonton shows were some of the best the Faces played. “Ronnie was feeling good, his anger had passed,” says Russ. “It was accepted - he was leaving, there was no changing his mind and that was it. There wasn’t a lot of tension – or there appeared not to be.”

“All I mainly recall of Edmonton is the bar onstage,” support act Andy Brown says. “I couldn’t believe Rod had his wine frozen at the correct room temperature in an ice bucket. I thought what a spoilt bastard but nowadays that’s nothing.”
Aware of the sense of occasion, Gaff Management hired Mike Mansfield Television to videotape the final night. After a long wait in which an announcement was made that the Faces had been stopped by police on the way to the gig, a line of Can Can girls came on for a vibrant display before the Faces finally took their places on the wide, palm-treed stage with white rubber flooring – Rod in sparkling vest and long tartan scarf with a green feather boa tied around his waist, the two Ronnie’s fags clamped in mouths and Mac with candle atop the Steinway to add atmosphere as well as being handy for lighting ciggies. Kenney sat behind his new Ludwig ‘liquorice allsorts’ kit. If it weren’t for the presence of ‘Farewell Ronnie’ signs scattered among the ubiquitous tartan scarves in the audience, it was difficult to determine this was Lane’s last gig – as if the subject was verboten. The encore of ‘Memphis’ over, Lane joined the others to take his final bow, joining in on the traditional ‘We’ll Meet Again’ sing-along as the five Faces left the stage together.

“That last night at Edmonton was absolutely fucking fantastic,” says Stan Lane. “I was up in the balcony and it was moving. I was shitting meself because I thought it was all going to collapse. Ronnie left there that night and he came with me in the motor and we went to Tramp. He sees Marc Bolan, goes up to him and says, ‘You haven’t got a job for an out of work bass player, have ya?’”
[Extract from 'Had Me A Real Good Time', Andy Neill’s Faces biography]

This post consists of FLACs freshly ripped from my UK vinyl pressing (I must have bought this at an Import Shop back in the 70's) and includes full album artwork for both vinyl and CD formats. I do however remember buying this compilation after having acquired their 'A Nod Is As Good As A Wink ....' LP, which I absolutely loved.  

As a bonus, I am also including the B-Side to my "Pool Hall Richard" 45 (see left), a live recording of "I Wish It Would Rain" from their performance at the 1973 Reading Festival. 

Track Listing
01. Pool Hall Richard
02. Cindy Incidentally
03. Ooh La La
04. Sweet Lady Mary
05. Flying
06. Pineapple and The Monkey
07. You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything
08. Had Me A Real Good Time
09. Stay With me
10. Miss Judy's Farm
11. Silicone Grown
12. Around the Plynth
13. I Wish It Would Rain (Bonus Live B-Side Single)

Rod Stewart – lead vocals, Banjo
Ronnie Wood - Guitars
Ronnie Lane – bass, Guitar
Ian McLagan - Keyboards
Kenney Jones – drums, percussion
Bobby Keys - tenor saxophone on "Had Me a Real Good Time"
Harry Beckett - trumpet on "Had Me a Real Good Time"


Thursday, October 13, 2022

REPOST: Faces - A Nod Is As Good As A Wink... (1971)

(UK 1970-75)
.
When Rod Stewart hooked-up with the remnants of The Small Faces in 1969 by hanging round their rehearsal rooms with similarly unemployed pal Ron Wood, he was not universally welcomed. Having been ditched by Steve Marriott, en route to super-group Humble Pie, the three remaining Small Faces were not keen to be anyone else's backing band. Yet overwhelming musical compatibility kept such worries in the background until 1971, when the band's excellent third album coincided with Rod's solo 'Every Picture Tells A Story'.

There has always been a subtle shade of difference between Rod Stewart albums and The Faces albums. Somehow on the latter, Rod has shared more of the spotlight with his cronies. This is definitely the case on Nod... In fact, Stewart only sings lead on two-thirds of the tracks, letting Ronnie Lane step up to the vocal mike for the reminder. And a funny thing happens. Lane nearly pretty much steals the show. His voice is smooth and clear. He knows how to hold a note and draw the humor from a lyric, something he does quite handily on a little refrain entitled "You're So Rude." This is the age-old tale of a young man trapped flagrante delicto, and Ronnie works it for all it's got.

This is still very much Rod's show - it seems as if he must dominate the proceedings whether he wants to or not. Could be his scratchy set of pipes. Could be his effervescent personality. Maybe it's his breath. It doesn't matter. By now everyone's become accustomed to Stewart's extraordinarily appealing style, and from the opening track, "Miss Judy's Farm," on which he takes the love-crazy hero of "Maggie May" farther out into the pastures of raunch, to the closing number, the appropriately titled "That's All You Need," he is neatly in command. .

The material on the record is pretty evenly divided as far as songwriting credits are concerned. "Stay With Me," penned by Rod Wood and Stewart is a cockeyed masterpiece which Rod treats in a properly raucous and rowdy fashion. A nod (and a wink as well) go to Chuck Berry via a smartly moving version of "Memphis." An album of high level hi-jinx which should appeal to even the blindest of horses.
Sadly for the Faces, the follow-up, Ooh-La-La, is best forgotten, and their star waned as Stewart's rose toward the commercial apogee of Atlantic Crossing and stadium anthem "Sailing." The rest is history....

This Rip is taken from CD in FLAC and includes full album artwork. I have also included a bonus double live track "That's All You Need-Honky Tonk Woman" which was recorded by John Peel for the BBC in 1971.

New Improved RIP
.
Track Listing
01 - Miss Judy's Farm
02 - You're So Rude
03 - Love Lives Here
04 - Last Orders Please
05 - Stay With Me
06 - Debris
07 - Memphis, Tennessee
08 - Too Bad
09 - That's All You Need
10 - That's All You Need / Honky Tonk Woman (Bonus Live)

.Band Members:
Rod Stewart (Lead Vocals)
Ronnie Lane (Bass Guitar)
Ronnie Wood (Guitar)
Ian McLagan (Keyboards)
Kenny Jones (Drums, Percussion)
.
The Faces Link (292Mb) New Link 05/09/2023

Saturday, October 8, 2022

Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies (1973) plus bonus EP (School's Out)

 (U.S 1964 - Present)

The world stopped turning when Alice Cooper rose to prominence in the early ’70s. Taking somewhat of a cue from The Beatles, Cooper took rock and roll and molded it to shape his needs. His creativity and talent were unparalleled when it came to not only rock and roll theatrics, but also good old rock and roll itself. In the Alice Cooper Group was a formidable assortment of nasty rock and roll boys. With guitarists Michael Bruce and Glen Buxton, the band could simply not be touched. The two created a slab of hard rock that some critics would be quick to incorrectly term “heavy metal” years later. What Bruce and Buxton did was simply bring back some real power back to the six strings of rock that had gotten lost along the way at the beginning of the decade. Sure, there was Zeppelin. But not even Jimmy Page could have dreamed up a more influential and outrageous amalgam of music and theatricality like the one Cooper was offering to teenage kids who were happily eating up the former Vincent Furnier’s satire left and right.

My older cousin was really into Alice. And just to remind people how truly “shocking” Alice was to the parents back then (Marilyn Manson and Eminem have nothing on the Coop), my Aunty had originally ordered my cousin to send back his copy of School’s Out that she had received from a record club at the time because it was wrapped in a pair of women’s panties. We all laugh at that one now, because my Aunt actually liked some of the Coop’s music, like “Caught in a Dream” from Love It to Death. 

But at the time, Alice was breaking all the rules, and successfully giving the middle finger to not only the parents, but to the industry as well, that was more or less forced to embrace Cooper when he and the band started selling millions of albums. That fact was certainly helped along by producer Bob Ezrin, probably the only man who could make bombast sound so beautiful. After all, this was the man who was behind the control decks of Lou Reed’s Berlin and Peter Gabriel’s debut album. Ezrin had originally been sent out by the heads of Warner Brothers who didn’t want to have anything to do with the Alice Cooper Group. But the band’s manager had bugged the label so much that they asked Ezrin to go check the band out in hopes that he, too would find Alice Cooper to be nothing but a curio as well. After all, the band had started out as a strangely psychedelic outfit on Frank Zappa’s Straight label, having released Pretties for You and Easy Action to not much acclaim.


Ezrin, however, wound up being thoroughly excited by the group, mistaking the song “I’m Eighteen” as “I’m Edgy”. He was quick to get the band into the studio, not only to record the songs that got him all worked up, but to also help tighten the group into a powerful, functioning unit that would indeed become untouchable by its peers. Thus belong a great string of successful albums (Love It To Death, Killer, and School’s Out), with each one getting more outrageous and more popular than the one that came before it.

The Album
Billion Dollar Babies, released in 1973, would be Cooper’s bid to expand the band’s appeal to a wider audience. To trim away a touch of the heavier guitar sounds and produce a glitzy extravaganza previously unheard of in rock, even by Cooper’s own established line of preceding albums. The plan worked. Ezrin’s production that brought in orchestrated bits, horn sections, and the kitchen sink caused Billion Dollar Babies to become arguably the original Alice Cooper Group’s best album. It carried along with it a concept of politics and fame that sneered in the faces of all who desired to be president. The Coop even wound up running for the Big Cheese position himself.

It’s that theme of twisted rock and roll politics that runs rampant through killer tracks like “Hello Hooray” and “Elected”, the latter being a reworking of Cooper’s earlier tune, “Reflected”. In both tracks, Ezrin applies an ungodly amount of brass and the whole mix becomes unstoppable. “Kids want a savior and don’t need a fake / I wanna be elected / We’re all gonna rock to the rules that I make / I wanna be elected” sang Cooper, with his throat-shredding vocals firmly in place. He was giving the kids what they always wanted: a rock and roll leader. In turn, he was also knowingly giving the parents something to get uptight about and fear for their children’s sanity. Basically, it was a good time for all in Cooper’s eyes. In “Hello Hooray”, he addresses this pointedly: “Roll out / Roll out / With your American dream and its recruits / I’ve been ready / Roll out / Roll out / With your circus freaks and hula hoops / I’ve been ready / Ready as this audience that’s coming here to dream / Loving every second, every moment, every scream”.

Alice was also quick to poke fun at his image, while at the same time building upon it. In the hilarious and gorgeously catchy “Raped and Freezin'”, he turns the whole sexual harassment idea around on its head, while on the hit “No More Mr. Nice Guy”, Cooper continues the bad boy characterizations that he started to embrace on Killer and satirizes his popularity with prime time results: “My dog bit me on the leg today / My cat clawed my eyes / Mom’s been thrown out of the social circle / And daddy has to hide”. With its “You’re sick, you’re obscene” line being the sucker punch ending to the chorus, the Coop winked at all the parents and social (and political) factions that deemed him as the perverted madman who killed chickens on stage and led the children away liked some Pied Piper. To Alice, it was all glorious.

He even got so “perverse” as to have Donovan sing on the album’s title track. In “Unfinished Sweet”, Alice explored the terror of visiting the dentist. And in “Generation Landslide”, he took the parental bull by the horns and shook it fiercely: “Militant mothers hiding in the basement / Using pots and pans as their shields and their helmets / Molotov milk bottles heaved from pink high chairs / While Mothers’ lib burned birth certificate papers”.

Neal Smith / Michael Bruce

But what undoubtedly got the mothers’ fingers pointing the most was undoubtedly tracks like “Sick Things” and “I Love the Dead” (Did they even notice the funny “Mary Ann” sandwiched in between?), the latter track being a little ode to necrophilia. Ahh, what wouldn’t dear Alice do? On stage, he had previously been electrocuted, hanged, had his head chopped off at the guillotine nightly, only to rise from the dead for the encore each time. But this? It was Cooper’s crowning achievement. Billion Dollar Babies was everything outrageous and wonderful that the band had been working up to, and in such a short span of time.

Alice Cooper Stage Show 1973

However, things were becoming strained within the band. Some of the members wanted to focus more on the rock than the show. Understandable, but also a bit of a shame as all of the guys were part of the successful act. The music spawned the visuals. The songs were as great as ever. Somewhat predictably, the follow-up album Muscle Of Love showed the strain and shortly thereafter the original Alice Cooper Group disbanded, leaving cooper himself to forge even greater successes as a “solo” act with his Welcome to My Nightmare album and tour.

Decades have passed since Billion Dollar Babies was first unleashed. Trends have come and gone, hundreds of bands have attempted to ape Alice’s influence, and most have failed. Cooper himself failed on and off throughout the years, but not without style. He has always done what he wanted to do, even if that meant taking some artistic detours along the way like Lace and Whiskey and Dada that some of the fans found weak. If you want to hear Alice and his original band at their peak, when they could seemingly do no wrong and were laughing all the way to the bank, then Billion Dollar Babies is the album to discover. It’s brilliant, decadent, and encapsulated all the celebrity trashiness of the Seventies only three years into the decade. Not even Pete Townshend or Roger Waters could have had their fingers on the pulse of the kids like the Coop. Even now, Alice remains a great character and infinitely interesting man and musician. [extracts from Popmatters]

This post consists of FLACs ripped  from vinyl and includes full album artwork.  My Australian copy sadly lacks the foldout gatefold which made the U.S cover look more like a leather wallet  (Warners in Australia were cheap skates), however I've sourced the missing artwork from Discogs. 
As a bonus, I am also including a rip of my School's Out EP which I bought from my local newsagency back in 70's. Although they had a modest selection of singles for sale, the proprietor must have had a special interest in EP's and I regularly picked up releases which were unavailable elsewhere. This was one of them.  I am thankful to my cousin 'Andrew' for introducing Alice Cooper to me as a young impressionable teenager.

Billion Dollar Babies LP
Track Listing
A1  Hello Hooray 4:15
A2  Raped And Freezin' 3:15
A3  Elected 4:02
A4  Billion Dollar Babies 3:32
A5  Unfinished Sweet 6:17
B1  No More Mr. Nice Guy 3:04
B2  Generation Landslide 4:29
B3  Sick Things 4:18
B4  Mary Ann 2:17
B5  I Love The Dead 5:05

Alice Cooper - vocals
Glen Buxton - guitar
Michael Bruce - rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Dennis Dunaway - bass, backing vocals
Neal Smith - drums, backing vocals
Bob Ezrin - keyboards, producer
Donovan - vocals (04)
Steve "Deacon" Hunter, Mick Mashbir, Dick Wagner - guitar
Bob Dolin - keyboards
David Libert - backing vocals

Alice Cooper LP Link (257Mb) New Link 05/09/2023

School's Out E.P 
Track Listing
01 Caught In A Dream
02 Be My Lover
03 School's Out
04 Elected

Alice Cooper EP Link (80 Mb) New Link 05/09/2023