I've never been big on Boston (blame Tom Scholz and co.) No slight is intended to the legion of great bands from Boston, but their collective weight never used to seem the equal of London, New York or L.A. or even Vancouver. That said, Volume Eight of the DIY series (which has the longest timeline) makes a pretty stopping argument for Boston's diversity and depth with high points like The Real Kids, The Cars (!) and The Dangerous Birds (more to come).
So here's to Boston Rock from The Standells to The Queers to The Freeze to The Pixies to The Dropkick Murphys!
"Each of the bands at CBGB was like a little idea. It wasn't that kind of style of punk rock that happened when England took over. Here it was all like little art projects....There was no one dominant thing."
Lenny Kaye
When you stop and consider Patti Smith, Suicide, The Heartbreakers, Television, Blondie, The Ramones, Richard Hell, Mink Deville and Talking Heads, what really united them? Aside from geography, we could add a rabid individualism, a strong sense of image, a distrust of the machinery of pop stardom and a backward-lookingness combined with a fervor for new sounds. But as far as the records they cut, no party line emerged from NYC. That utter non-uniformity keeps this era ever-fascinating.
So this long out-of-print Rhino collection (sans Talking Heads) not only makes for good listening it also goes a long way towards proving Kaye's argument.
1. Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones 2. (I Live for) Cars and Girls - The Dictators 3. Ask the Angels - Patti Smith 4. All for the Love of Rock & Roll - Tuff Darts 5. Let Me Dream If I Want To - Mink DeVille 6. Max's Kansas City 1976 - Jayne County, Wayne County 7. X Offender - Blondie 8. Blank Generation - Richard Hell 9. See No Evil - Television 10. In the Flesh - Blondie 11. Spanish Stroll - Mink DeVille 12. Venus - Television 13. Sonic Reducer - Dead Boys 14. Chinese Rocks - The Heartbreakers 15. Sheena Is a Punk Rocker - The Ramones 16. Crocodile Tears - The Mumps 17. Love Comes in Spurts - Richard Hell & the Voidoids 18. Born to Lose - The Heartbreakers 19. Cheree - Suicide
The big difference between us and punk groups is that we like KC and the Sunshine Band. You ask Johnny Rotten if he likes KC and the Sunshine Band and he'll blow snot in you face.
Chris Frantz, Talking Heads
Talking Heads could have been terrible. There were enough lofty artistic goals (some would say pretensions) in that band, and their extended entourage, to throw the world off its axis. But when those disparate elements; the funky jamming crossed with the nervous elocution, the world-beat experimentations hitched to the art-school theorizing gelled, as they did throughout the late seventies and early eighties, it was magnificent. This live show (may be available as a DVD here) contains each those elements (and many more) mentioned, all of which served to make them one of the most critically-esteemed bands of their time. Don't hold that against them, either.
I'd like to dedicate this post to my former colleague, Rolly, who recently passed on. Rolly would sometimes walk the halls of the school where we taught, yelling "Who's in charge here?" just like Capt. Willard and, occasionally, when the students had departed, he'd throw on "Once in a Lifetime" on the P.A. and just his eyes would dance.
As a coda to MRML's series on Graham Parker from earlier this month, here's a collaboration GP did with The B-52's Kate Pierson, Cheap Trick's Robin Zander and Buffalo Tom's Bill Janovitz on versions of Lennon and McCartney songs the Beatles never recorded. While far from perfect, it's fascinating for fans of either the Beatles or the artists involved. Lost Songs of Lennon & McCartney CD
MRML is a blog about the devestating effects of culture: music, politics, comics plus etc. blah blah blah. At times MRML will post fine, unpurchasable three-chord obscurica (punk, pop-punk, new wave, mod, power-pop, gospel, reggae, hardcore, rockabilly, folk, country...whatever.) - - - - - - "The otherwise unavailable files in this blog are posted for a limited time and are intended for educational, non-commercial use. These files were transcribed from what are believed to be out-of-print sources. If you are aware of any of these items being readily available from commercial sources, or if any of these files infringe upon rights that you hold, please notify us so that we can quickly remove the referenced items immediately." - - - SUPPORT THE ARTISTS - BUY MUSIC!
If you have any questions or music to donate you can contact me at musicruinedmylife (at) gmail (dot) com
Re: Re-Ups
MRML does not plan to restore all of the content lost in The Great Mediafire Gutting of 2012. Polite requests may be made in the appropriate section, regular commenters will get priority.
