Category Archives: history

Everything Changes, Nothing Changes

by

The most surprising aspect of our Spotify subscription is that Diane is crazy for it. She is admittedly not a music junkie like any of us here at the Remnants, in fact I asked what artists she followed and she promptly replied, “none.”

She just likes listening to playlists with high energy stuff she can work out to, and soul and funk from any era she can bop to while driving her car. But, I was surprised when she sent me a link to a song the other day, and I could not help but think of the song as analogous to other generations of horny post pubescent music junkies.

The first instance of song where boys are pleading for sex I could think of was the wonderful Good Golly Miss Molly by the one and only Little Richard, who was certainly clear about the whole sex/music thing in the fifties. This was at a time when saying words like “panties” were verboten on screen, for example, as shown in this clip from the Otto Preminger’s 1959 film, Anatomy of a Murder.

This clip of Richard, covering his tune, released in 1958, a year before Anatomy of a Murder came out, speaks for itself with respect to lyrical content, but this  clip was so perfect, as it is Richard live, playing for Muhammad Ali’s 50th birthday. And, well I have been thinking a lot about the loss of the great Ali as well as that of Prince, recently, and what a huge loss to our planet their spirits is.

The 60’s were not much better, and though this is indeed my favorite song by the Beach Boys, it is so lily-white in the Pat Boone’s cover of Little Richard’s Tutti Fruitti, sense, it makes my skin crawl. But, Brian Wilson could only hint at a time when “making love” still was kind of like Laurence Olivier suggesting the wooing of Joan Fontaine in Rebecca meant sweet talk behind a potted plant.

Here is the Beach Boys supporting that in the middle class white world very little changed over the 20 or so years between Rebecca and Don’t Worry Baby (which included that awful Boone shit in the middle of the time span). By the way, I love the song, but is this the worst “video” ever?

But, 50 years after Don’t Worry Baby, reality has struck and the world has simultaneously gone to hell in a hand basket, as witnessed by this song, by Strip Johnny, that popped up on Diane’s “Discover Weekly.” She heard it and  just had to share with me.

Truth is, I really like this last song a lot! Not as much as Little Richard, though. At least not just yet.

Kansas, Dust in the Wind

by

My daughter is writing a research paper about the Dust Bowl. She was looking for a title, and I glibly suggested Dust In The Wind. She liked it. I hope she gets an A.

But that moment was a reason to listen to the tune, which I probably haven’t done in a really long time. But in all these years, I could sing the song, and certainly have.

Checking out the video tonight. It is cheesy, but the melody and starkness of the tune are unforgettable. Is abjectness a vibe? Apparently.

Does that make it a great song? The video tells me this is some sort of midwestern crazy fundamental evangelical nonsense. All these pictures are like those on the internet that promise me pictures that changed weddings, history, Woodstock.

But the tune is straightforward, and was a hit everywhere. Maybe it’s the great melody, with an idea that everyone finds inevitable. Hell yeah!

What I don’t hear is careerism. I hear Remnants who went big and hit one out. Cool!

A Time Of Unreason, the story of the fake Zombies.

by

Screenshot 2016-06-04 13.46.10This is a terrific story about fake bands in the late 60s, touring the states as bands like the Zombies (pictured, wearing cowboy hats) and the Animals, and one particular band that went on to make it’s own music after the jig was up.

WTF? Deep Purple?

by

I admit that I don’t pay a lot of attention to who gets inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame.

As with any cluster of humans trying to determine what is good or socially relevant or important to a sport or genre or discipline, the subjectivity of said homo sapiens is always beyond puzzling to me. And, it isn’t that I don’t understand that KISS or Steve Miller were enormously popular, but neither of those artists ever put anything out as interesting or challenging as Moby Grape’s debut album, which still sounds great although the band broke up over 40 years ago meaning no group could be further from HOF consideration. (I was looking for a vid of the song Omaha and found this great and funny live bit from the Mike Douglas Show, believe it or not.)

I do, however, like watching the Hall of Fame induction concert that HBO shows after the ceremony, and when I flipped the channel on the other day to see what part of the concert was on, there was Deep Purple getting inducted.

Huh? Deep Purple, who owned two hits–Hush, and Smoke on the Water–and never released a complete album worth owning or listening to? Deep Purple over Roxy Music? Or, Yo La Tengo? Over Steve Earle, or Richard Thompson, or Mick Ronson, or Marc Bolan, or the Dolls or even fucking Turbonegro who are a lot more fun and interesting than Highway Star will ever be?

Putting Deep Purple in the Hall is like saying Mark Kotsay is HOF worthy (and, I love Kotsay, a good and steady player, but hardly one who should live in the archives among the best or most influential ever).

At this point, I am no longer interested in even seeing the live excerpts from the show, as the Hall is there with the Grammies and Oscars.

Note, it wasn’t even worth posting a Deep Purple video. We know their hits: we don’t care about the rest. Good thing the R’n’R HOF wasn’t started in the early 70’s or Up With People might have been voted in.

 

Moldy Peaches, Jorge Regula

by

While you were hating Nirvana and Pavement and actual crap indie bands in the 90s, the Moldy Peaches advanced.

A suburban rock guy with a love of noise meets a socially challenged preschool teacher who is a great song writer, what can happen?

Great songs can happen. (Though the record that made their names, as it were, wasn’t out until 2001.)

This video was made by fans, which makes it especially valuable. But I like the song.

Old Memories

by

This track kicks off Alice Cooper’s Muscle Of Love, a CD I just received the other day and haven’t heard for easily 30, maybe 35 years. It brought a big smile to my face, taking me back all those years.

Notes:

1) This was essentially my second rock ‘n’roll album. A friend of mine had introduced me to non-radio rock ‘n’ roll via Billion Dollar Babies prior to us starting catechism class together after not seeing each other for a couple years. I believe I was 12. After listening to Babies for months, I remember shoveling snow in order to buy Alice’s newest, Muscle Of Love. With no internet or older sibling guidance, my best guess was to buy the newest one (I often did this), figuring the newest was the best. It took me years to discover that isn’t true and it took me until years later to discover the best Alice Coopers – Love It To Death, Killer and School’s Out.

2) I had bought the Guess Who’s Share The Land and American Woman albums a couple years before, but then lost interest in music for a while (?!). Such is the life of a little kid.

3) Muscle is the last for the Alice Cooper band. Listening to the entire album one can hear the transition to the soon-to-come solo Alice Cooper. The crappy song ratio increases and the guitar sound is radically different as Glen Buxton was too drunk/drugged to play at this point. The Mick Mashbir/Dick Wagner duo is in full swing here. I imagine they let Michael Bruce still play a little rhythm guitar.

4) It’s also a pretty forgotten/ignored Alice Cooper album and that’s legit. Funny, the first two Alice albums are kind of ignored too, the weirdo Zappa-like Pretties For You and Easy Action. I’ve always counted Love It To Death as their debut.

5) No idea what (Hippo) is supposed to mean. Still don’t.

6) The “big” hit off this album was Teenage Lament ’74. If you remember anything from this album, it’s probably that one. Just found Big Country covering it for another hearty (?!).

Obit: Lonnie Mack (1941-2016)

by

lonniemackAgain the cosmic forces have struck the pop music world with the passing of guitar great Lonnie Mack.

To the casual listener, Mack might only be known for his iconic instrumental rendition of Chuck Berry’s Memphis in 1963.

But, the blues player who favored a Gibson Flying V axe fitted with a Bigsby whammy bar played sessions and influenced a generation of players including Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, Jeff Beck, and Bootsy Collins, among others, who all noted Mack’s style and attack were pivotal learnings in their own relative development as guitar gods.

Mack also collaborated, recording with Janis Joplin in a duet of George Jones’ Things Have Gone to Pieces, that featured Jerry Garcia on lap steel and Jimi Hendrix on guitar. Mack, who was the Elektra records guitar guru during the 60’s and 70’s also played bass on the first two Doors albums, in addition to his own recordings and performing over the decades.

Lesser known perhaps than his admirers, Mack was considered a “guitarist’s guitarist” and a pioneer within the music industry for his single string phrases accented by the infamous Bigsby.

Ciao Lonnie. Let’s leave you with the killer.

 

Dump, Raspberry Beret

by

I saw the band Dump, which is Yo La Tengo’s bassist James McNew’s side project, in 1998 opening for the Future Bible Heroes in the fun club that once existed under the now defunct Time Cafe. If I’m remembering correctly McNew started the show by saying that he’d seen Prince the night before in the city and they were going to play some covers. And they did.

What I didn’t know is that at some point later the band put out a record of Prince covers. Very much 90s rock, kind of a nice sound.

Coachella Gold from John Coleman

by

This weekend at Coachella the legendary Cleveland guitarist Glenn Schwartz performed with legendary Eagles savior Joe Walsh (who introduced Schwartz as the guy who taught him to play guitar), and Dan Auerbach, who is producing a boogie rock album by a band called the Arcs that contains (but certainly not restrains) all three.

I don’t think any of us anticipated seeing the Arc in our imaginary Coachella.

Legendary Clevelander and two-time Tout Wars winner John Coleman turned us on to Schwartz a couple of years ago. He has a great story and obviously great chops.

There is a short clip on YouTube here:

The much better clip is on Facebook, but you have to go to the Rock Remnants page on Facebook for us to help you find it. You should go there. This is excellent boogie rock at its best.

Can I say that Facebook is stupid about these outside links? Yes I can. Please let us link freely.

That said, it’s great to see Glenn Schwartz out and playing. Joe Walsh, too.

 

Bob Dylan, AARP, Frank Sinatra, Dr. ML King, and Rock ‘n’ Roll

by

There is a somewhat long piece by Brent L. Smith on Medium, linked here. It starts from a quote from Dylan in that interview he did last year in the AARP magazine, in which he says that payola was a force that caused rock ‘n’ roll in the 50s to split into rock (white) and soul (black) music in the 60s.

Smith covers a lot of ground in support of this idea, including the rise of DJs, doo wop’s role in the cleaving, the historical role of the tavern in the American multiracial democracy (and the elite’s disdain for the tavern and the multiracial democracy), Norman Mailer’s essay about the rise of the white Negro, a nod to Chuck Berry as poet and guitar master, and, of course, Jimi Hendrix. Which leads Smith to some talk about the fourth wave of garage rock he says is going on now, linking to the LA magazine, Janky Smooth, at which he works.

One of the highlights are competing quotes from Frank Sinatra and Dr. Martin Luther King decrying rock ‘n’ roll, which make that music of the 50s sound really dangerous.

Smith’s writing is loose limbed, I couldn’t always figure out where the quotes came from, and some word choices are, um, interesting. Smith is a graduate of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, which perhaps literally explains some of that, but the ambition and breadth of his ideas and their connections with each other are nothing if not provocative. You will miss having a genuine soundtrack to listen along to while reading. Here it is.