Lou Reed: Live at the Bottom Line 1977

"It's the music that kept us all intact.You should have two radios, in case one gets broken"
Lou Reed

"Hi MRML, thanks for the second LP of the out-of-print VU LP. As a thank you. I'm adding...a great Lou Reed boot, Live at the Bott0m Line (with) great sound quality. Note Lou's vocals on "Satellite of Love", he reminds me of Johnny Rotten? Cool stuff !!! Anyways here ya go..."

Thanks to Revolutionary Bum for the guest post!


Live at the Bottom Line CD.



Plus here's a live Moe Tucker show from 2002. Thanks again Rev.

It is my hope that every reader here interested enough to take this bootleg has supported (and will continue to support) the Velvet Underground and those strange twist and turns of the solo careers of Lou Reed, John Cale and Moe Tucker.

Lou Reed: Rock N' Roll Diary 1967-1980

"You know I'd really love to hear Frank Sinatra do "Heroin". Really. It would be just incredible to hear Frank Sinatra coming out with that song on some middle of the road radio station. Because that song does not mince words."

Lou Reed

Me and my brother bought Rock N' Roll Diary back when I was 13. He kept the double vinyl in his room and I put in on tape - old school file-sharing. It damaged me in a many ways.

1. It convinced me that the the Velvet Underground were only Lou's backing band.
The Velvets' half of this album downplays Cale's experimentalism, excises Nico altogether and never lets Moe tucker sing a word. It's blatant revisionism but it's beautiful.

2. It made me believe Lou Reed's solo career was dull, dull, dull.
Based on the weakness of the (supposedly ill-chosen) solo half of this set, especially when compared to the cold-blooded brilliance of the Velvets' half (which actually has "Walk on the Wild Side"!), I've never given Lou's solo career a proper chance. I know, I know, I know....

(if 1 and 2 seem contradictory remember how hard is is to unlearn teenage learning.)

3. It tainted my view of the Stooges, the MC5 and the New York Dolls.
Those band's debut albums, all played in my Punk 101 class taught by my music critic brother-in-law, did impress me and I've never begrudged those albums' their deserved stature. But hearing "I'm Waiting For My Man", "White Light/White Heat", "I Heard her Call My Name", "Pale Blue Eyes","Beginning to See the Light" , "Sweet Jane" "Rock and Roll", "Heroin"and "Femme Fatale*, in a motherfucking row made those other underground legends sound like mere noise-mongers and fashion-plates (NTTAWTT).

* Live Lou version.

4. It separated me from my peers forever.
There was always a few kids who liked the Clash or whatever else but the Velvets were the first band I liked that none of my peers had ever heard of. From here on in I was doomed to share in the obscurity of the things that I loved.



I've posted this album because this collection is out-of-print (it may have never been on CD) but it is my hope that every reader here interested enough to take it does, and will continue to, support the Velvet Underground and even some of those strange twist and turns of the surviving members' solo careers.

Times Square OST (1980)

Quite the soundtrack here for this cult punxploitation film from 1980. It's said that the guiding hand of RSO Records chief Robert Stigwood, who wanted Times Square to be the next Saturday Night Fever, forced the inclusion of some of dreckier tunes herein. As for the rest of it, it's a great cross-section of English and American punk/new wave/proto-punk et al.





Side one
1. Suzi Quatro: "Rock Hard" (Mike Chapman, Nicky Chinn) – 3:18
2. The Pretenders: "Talk of the Town" (Chrissie Hynde) – 3:16
3. Roxy Music: "Same Old Scene" (Bryan Ferry) – 3:54
4. Gary Numan: "Down in the Park" (Gary Numan) – 4:20
5. Robin Gibb and Marcy Levy: "Help Me!" (Robin Gibb, Blue Weaver) – 3:37

Side two
1. Talking Heads: "Life During Wartime" (David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz) – 3:40
2. Joe Jackson: "Pretty Boys" (Joe Jackson) – 3:27
3. XTC: "Take This Town" (Andy Partridge) – 4:08
4. Ramones: "I Wanna Be Sedated" (Joey Ramone) – 2:29
5. Robin Johnson: "Damn Dog" (Billy Mernit, Jacob Brackman) – 2:40

Side three
1. Robin Johnson and Trini Alvarado: "Your Daughter Is One" (Mernit, Norman Ross, Brackman) – 2:10
2. The Ruts: "Babylon's Burning" (John Jennings, Dave Ruffy, Malcolm Owen, Paul Fox) – 2:34
3. D.L. Byron: "You Can't Hurry Love" (Edward Holland, Jr., Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland)– 3:04
4. Lou Reed: "Walk on the Wild Side" (Lou Reed) – 4:12
5. Desmond Child and Rouge: "The Night Was Not" (Desmond Child) – 3:08

Side four
1. Garland Jeffreys: "Innocent, Not Guilty" (Garland Jeffreys) – 2:13
2. The Cure: "Grinding Halt" (Robert Smith, Michael Dempsey, Lol Tolhurst) – 2:49
3. Patti Smith Group: "Pissing in the River" (Patti Smith, Ivan Kral) – 4:41
4. David Johansen and Robin Johnson: "Flowers of the City" (David Johansen, Ronnie Guy) – 3:58
5. Robin Johnson: "Damn Dog" (Reprise - The Cleo Club) (Mernot, Brackman) – 2:40



Leave us some words on this OST, and it's strange mix of artists.

Speaking of COMMENTS, that's where you'll find the Times Square link

*

For more Pretenders go here, for more Talking Heads go here, for more Joe Jackson go here, for more Ramones go here, for more of Ruts go here, for more Lou Reed go here for more Patti Smith go here.


Basically, everything to do with this film and it's soundtrack is so far out of print that even the damn cassette pictured above goes for $50.00 on Amazon!

V.A. Punks on Drugs

"I can't understand why anybody should devote their lives to a cause like dope. It's the most boring pastime I can think of. It ranks a close second to TV."
Frank Zappa

"Frank Zappa is probably the single most untalented person I've heard in my life. He's two-bit, pretentious, academic and he can't play his way out of anything. He can't play rock n' roll because he's a loser. And that's why he dresses so funny. He's not happy with himself and I think he's right"
Lou Reed

After Lou Reed (more here) and all that smack-talk it's time to post this dodgy compilation, which even by Lou's standard has a pretty seedy track list:

1 New York Dolls - Pills 2:55
A fine 1973 demo.
2 Urban Dogs - Cocaine 2:23
UK Subs' Charlie Harper plus the Vibrators' Knox do a bracing version of Dillinger's reggae classic (itself an adaptation of an old blues song).

3 Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - Chinese Rocks 2:55
Y'all know this one from L.A.M.F. - The Lost '77 Mixes.
4 Fallen Angels - Amphetamine Blue 2:32
The Vibrators' Knox plus half of Hanoi Rocks makes for a near perfect pop song.

5 Simpletones - I Like Drugs 2:09
The first band of Jay Lansford of the the Stepmothers (more here) and Channel 3(more here) offers up a classic early SoCal pop-punk song.
6 Chron Gen - L.S.D. 1:55
A UK '82 chant-along rocker.
7 Family Fodder - My Baby Takes Valium 3:26
Tinkly-synth post-punk from their Playing Golf (With My Flesh Crawling) single
8 Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - One Track Mind 2:35
Thunders once said "I'm addicted to sex, my guitar and White Russians" but with songs like this who would believe him?
9 Urban Dogs - Speed Kills 1:20
Glad someone here said it.
10 UK Subs - Killing Time 2:19
A blazing track from the Harper-Garrat reunion of 1988.
11 Creaming Jesus - Smoke (Skin Up For Jesus) 2:05
(How did this crappily-named tuneless goth-metal band merit inclusion?)
12 Eater - Waiting For The Man 2:26
Eater were close to the bottom of '77's barrel but this Velvet Underground cover is charming.
13 Heroes, The - Too Much Junkie Business 2:24
Former Heartbreaker's Walter Lure and Billy Rath do their former boss's classic.
14 Adicts, The - Get Adicted 2:03
The Adicts drug of choice is stuttering, hooky punk rock as this song from 1982' Songs of Praise attests.
15 UK Subs - DF 118 2:04
Charlie Harper gets four tracks here(!), including this track from Occupied
16 Broken Bones - Secret Agent 2:52
Some more metallic UK hardcore here from the album Dem Bones.
17 Action Pact - Suicide Bag 1:54
Female vocals like fellow Uk 82'ers Vice Squad but lacking the strong personality of Bekki Bondage. From Complete Singles Collection.
18 Newtown Neurotics - The Mess 4:14
"Good pop on a bad budget" is how these eighties UK punks accurately described themselves. From Beggars Can Be Choosers
19 Slits, The - New Town (Live) 3:57
All-female reggae-punk, the Slits were (and are) a genre unto themselves. From In The Beginning
20 Only Ones, The - The Beast (Live) 6:09
The Only Ones (more here) never recorded a bad song. From The Big Sleep.



Punks on Drugs CD

The Only Ones: L.O.T.

The Only Ones actually debuted in 1977 with Lovers of Today, a single on their D.I.Y. label, Vengeance Records.The A-side, "Lovers of Today" is a little more of the times, with it's faux-kinky picture sleeve and the brazen polymorphous perversity of the lyrics. The intermingling of unrestrained lust and opiates certainly manifests Peter Perrett's Lou Reed fixation, but Perrett had moved past imitation and into a melodic space all of his own. The B-side, "Peter and the Pets", is actually an old song by Perrett's Reedy early seventies band, England's Glory.The song's are flush with power, melodically and instrumentally, and should remind you that you need to go out and buy an album to support these survivors,






MRML Readers: Is Peter Perrett a Lou Reed knock-off or did the student surpass the master?)

V.A. Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan Volume Nine

This thirty volume series features artists covering Bob Dylan songs. All of the tracks are recordings of independent origin (ROIO) and hence officially unreleased.

This volume features songs that had not yet been on any volume up to this point and includes such MRML beloveds as, Elvis Costello, John Wesley Harding, Lou Reed and Robyn Hitchcock (as well as a smattering of unusual visitors like Joan Osbourne and Stephen Stills).

01 Wiggle Wiggle – John Wesley Harding (5-25-91, The Catalyst, Santa Cruz, CA)
02 The Man in Me – Cracker (4-29-05,Twilight Criterium Music Fest, Athens, GA)
03 Disease of Conceit – The Waterboys (11-3-89, Warfield Theater, San Francisco, CA)
04 Foot of Pride – Lou Reed (6-8-93, Paradiso, Amsterdam, Holland)
05 Well Well Well – Ben Harper (8-2-05, Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN)
06 Man in the Long Black Coat – Joan Osborne (5-4-96, Lakefront Arena, New Orleans, LA)
07 I Threw it All Away – Elvis Costello (10-14-84, Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA)
08 If You See Her Say Hello – Jeff Buckley (8-13-92, Knitting Factory, New York, NY)
09 Simple Twist of Fate – Elliot Murphy (3-16-04, Kulturzentrum Cobra, Solingen, Germany)
10 Abandoned Love – Chuck Prophet (4-16-05, King Tut’s, Glasgow, Scotland)
11 Tears of Rage – Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett (1-31-03, Grand Lido Braco Resort, Jamaica)
12 Lord Protect My Child – Susan Tedeschi with the Persuasions (10-28-06, Nokia Theater at Times Square, New York, NY)
13 Ballad of Hollis Brown – Stephen Stills (7-25-95, Hard Rock Cafe and Casino, Las Vegas, NV)
14 The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll – Christy Moore (11-12-06, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, England)
15 With God on Our Side – Buddy Miller (5-4-03 Rhythm & Roots Festival, Kilkenny, Ireland)
16 Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands – Robyn Hitchcock (3-26-05, Maxwell’s, Hoboken, NJ)



Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan Nine link is in the comments

Speaking of comments, don't forget to leave some words about these volumes.

Thanks to Jeffs98119 for compiling these and obatik for the images.

Rock & Rule OST

So if Cheap Trick can be a suitable exemplar for seventies excess in the field of music then Rock & Rule can be seen as similar exemplar for film (even if it wasn't finished until 1983). Sure it wasn't Heaven's Gate but this cartoon (a retread of Nelvana's earlier rock n' roll fairy tale The Devil and Daniel Mouse which I saw on CBC TV on Halloween 1978) almost bankrupted its studio and ended an era in film, in this case the era of adult-orientated animation. The whole weirdly fascinating movie (which seems to be out-of-print) can be viewed on YouTube.



The film's soundtrack (it's greatest road block to re-release) featured Cheap Trick, Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry, Lou Reed and, in their sole appearance on MRML, Earth Wind and Fire. Like the film, it's promising and frustrating. The main players here, all key early punk influences with that one blatant exception, all had wildly erratic outputs in this era and this soundtrack is perfectly erratic. Cheap Trick are perhaps the most erratic band is music history, frequently switching from perfect power-pop ("Come On, Come On") to passable covers ("Ain't That a Shame") to joyless filler ("I'm the Man" one of their three songs herein). The Debbie Harry tracks are nice but forgettable, the Iggy track is pointless and while the first Lou Reed song "I'm Mok" is one of those expository songs common to old soundtracks, the second, "Triumph" is just that and it's one of his best solo rockers.

(Image of the Marvel Comics adaption borrowed from the Vinnierattole's excellent blog, make sure to read his history of the movie.)

Rock & Rule OST

V.A. Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan Volume Sixteen

One helluva mix of artist old, new and somewhere betwtixt and of studio outtakes and live recordings of artists such as The Waterboys, Nico & Lou Reed, The Jayhawks, David Bowie and Bruce Springsteen (and since there's gotta be some Deadweight; the Jerry Garcia Band).

01 Nobody ‘Cept You – The Waterboys (Piano demo, 1986)
02 Abandoned Love – George Harrison (Demo, 1984)
03 Lay Down Your Weary Tune – Tim O’Brien (Jul 7, 1999, The Station Inn, Nashville, TN)
04 Tangled Up in Blue – Jerry Garcia Band (Nov 26, 1988, Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, CA)
05 Subterranean Homesick Blues – Dave Van Ronk (Apr 9, 1995, Bottom Line, New York, NY)
06 My Back Pages – Roger McGuinn (Apr 26, 1985, Mohawk Valley, Utica, NY)
07 You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere – Jayhawks (Apr 29, 1995, Slim’s, San Francisco, CA)
08 Hard Rain – Staples Singers (Apr 19, 1968, Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA)
09 Oh Sister/Knockin’on Heaven’s Door – Cat Power (Jul 20, 2000, Maida Vale Studio, London, England)
10 Blind Willie McTell – Southside Johnny (Feb 27, 1994, WXRK Studios, New York, NY)
11 All Along the Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix (Jul 4, 1970, Middle Georgia Raceway, Atlanta, GA) [replaced in my library with the official track from Electric Ladyland]
12 Tryin to Get to Heaven – David Bowie (Studio outtake, 1997)
13 Wedding Song – Walkabouts (Unreleased demo, 2001)
14 Don’t Think Twice – Nick Drake (1967-1968, Tamworth-in-Arden, England)
15 I’ll Keep it With Mine – Lou Reed and Nico (Bedroom tape, 1970)
16 It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – Bruce Springsteen Band (Jan or Feb 1972, Challenger Eastern Surfboard Factory, Highlands, NJ)



Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan Volume Sixteen link is in the comments!

Speaking of comments, don't forget to leave some words about these volumes.

Thanks to Jeffs98119 for compiling these and to obatik for the images.

• For V.'s 1-15 of Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan go here
  

• For slugline's impressive spreadsheet of the whole series go here

• For stewART's excellent alternate cover art go here

Guns, Heroin, Cadillacs etc., etc., etc.

“God’s got an answer in that jukebox,
I pick the wrong song every time.”
Art Bergmann

I turned down a Cadillac ride from Vancouver to Seattle with Art Bergmann and a one-time muse of Guy Maddin. The prospect of a cross-border raid (to which my not-yet-ex was pointedly dis-invited) led by the man who’d screamed out his response to the musical question, “What is your reason for entering the USA?” with the chorus; “Guns and Her-o-i-i-in!” was unnerving. I’m not opposed to celebrity-stalking or name-dropping but the set-up stank. So to avoid becoming an unwitting drug mule or a voyeuristic tag along, I declined.

It was 1991 and it was what must have been, by the standards of Art Bergmann’s career, a good year. In the years previous, the Vancouver punk legend had played with the Schmorgs, the K-Tels, the Young Canadians, Los Popularos and, after giving up the band name Poisoned, he'd put out two solo albums. In 1991 he’d released a stinging, yet wide-appealing, self-titled solo album that got the push from Polygram (even the terrible music store where I worked got a play copy and slick posters). And while those used CD shops of Vancouver (of the type that sprouted up across North America in the 90’s) were full of Art Bergmann play copies that he’d pawned himself, his name was still spoken of reverently in critical circles. While Art sang on "Bound for Vegas" that he was, “a never-was trying to be a has-been on the comeback trail”, he was being lauded as “Canada’s Paul Westerberg”. Art did share a gruff vocal style, an unflinching honesty and a crippling addiction with Westerberg but rather than cleave to a mid-western rock n' roll style, Art adhered to the gutter junkie-poet archetype typified by Lou Reed. Reed's former collaborator, John Cale, even produced Art's solo debut solo –though he supposedly hated the results.

(For more Art history see the sad, yet wonderfully thorough tribute site, For the Love of Art or the new and excellent-looking artbergman.com or even this frequently Googled post of mine.)

Art built a reputation for furious live shows (I saw Poisoned rip through a set at Verna’s a tiny basement club just outside of Winnipeg’s notorious Murder’s Half Acre) where he honed the songs herein. And what songs; “Remember Her Name” with it’s heart-chilling chorus that pays to tribute to Marianne Faithful, the tortured ballad, "Guns and Heroin"and the vindictive pop kiss-off that is, “God's Little Gift” - a song which the mercurial Dylan of '66 might sympathize with.

Irritatingly, the quality of music production declined seriously in the 80's and Art's muse was occasionally bloodied by studio hacks - listen closely and it stops mattering.

So take this ride with Art (the former-muse spoke well of him), and find out how often he chose the exact right song. Guns and Heroin, a compilation of Art's solo material from 1986-1995, is not available in stores at any cost; it exists only in MRML’s hard drive. It was cherry-picked from the following releases: the Poisoned S/T e.p., Crawl With Me, Sexual Roulette, What Fresh Hell is This? and Vultura Freeway.

Download Art Bergmann - Guns and Heroin (1986-1995)

(MRML recommends WinrRAR for unpacking your downloads)

The first two Art Bergmann solo album are available from Itunes, Bearwood Reords is now advertising a forthcoming CD of the demos for the first solo album that Cale supposedly ruined, Other People's Music has a later recording entitled Design Flaw for sale and the K-Tels/Young Canadians compilation No Escape is available Sudden Death Records.

Chuck Prophet: Live in Norderstedt (2012-04-20)

If you were to invite me to your abode, dear MRML reader, you can probably can ascertain from what you've read in these pages these four years past what would be my first order of business; going through your CD's/Records/Tapes/8-Tracks and your what-have-you's. Now, former Green On Red guitarist and current under-recognized singer-rock-song-writer Chuck Prophet has yet to honour me with an invite to his place of dwelling, yet I have some idle speculations about some of the items I would find, were I allowed to flip through his milk-crates of un-alphebetized, well-worn vinyl L.P':

The Rolling Stone: Exile on Main St.
Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde, Desire
The Modern Lovers: Self-Titled
David Bowie: Ziggy Stardust
Graham Parker: Squeezing Out Sparks
X: Los Angeles
Bill Anderson: His Greatest Hits (2XLP)# 
Hank Williams: 40 Greatest Hits
The Only Ones: Special View*
Flamin' Groovies: Shake Some Action
The Kinks: Village Green Preservation Society
Nick Lowe: Pure Pop For Now People
Glen Campbell: Greatest Hits 
Elvis Costello: My Aim is True plus at least one more, say Taking Liberties
Lou Reed: Everything up until Mistrial (possibly minus Metal Machine Music and Coney Island Baby)

Sure my guesses are based mostly on listening to a lot of Chuck's new album, Temple Beautiful but I can't be all wrong. Can I?

* For some reason I imagine that Chuck would have the American versions...





So are takeaways from today are; Chuck Prophet has a great set of influences, his new album Temple Beautiful is one of the year's must-purchases and that the man is a great live performer as this excellent-quality soundboard recording from earlier this year proves.

CD 1 = Set 1

01. intro (Miro Berbig) -> Fear Is A Mans Best Friend
02. Just To See You Smile
03. Storm Across The Sea
04. Balinese Dancer
05. Look Both Ways
06. Castro Halloween
07. The Left Hand And The Right Hand
08. Willie Mays Is Up At Bat
09. White Night, Big City


CD 2 = Set 2

01. Credit
02. Sonny Liston's Blues
03. Temple Beautiful
04. Hot Talk
05. Automatic Blues
06. American Man -> band intro
07. Count The Days (Stephanie Finch)
08. Would You Love Me?
09./10. Summertime Thing
11. Little Girl, Little Boy
12. You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)
13. I'm Not Talking (Yardbirds)
14. Always A Friend
15. Shake Some Action (Flamin' Groovies)






Leave us your take of Mr. Prophet and his work in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find BOTH parts of Live in Norderstedt)

Behead Chuck Prophet No Lord Shall Live

Support the artist

Yep Roc


Homepage


iTunes


Amazon

Only Ones: T.I.T.W.

The Only One's fourth single, 1979's Trouble in the World, is taken from their final album, Baby's Got a Gun. As the splendid picture sleeve may imply Peter Perrett's now channeling Jim Morrison AND Lou Reed (AND hanging out with Johnny Thunders - Perrett played with his fellow addict, on Thunders' solo album, So Alone. Here's the two of them stumbling through the "I'm Not Your Stepping Stone.")



While "Trouble in the World" contains all those Only Ones trademarks; the gritty vocals, the supple rhythms and those the sneaky guitar solos, it never seems to outshine the better LP tracks, like "The Happy Pilgrim" or "Oh Lucinda". Looking at their measly handful of singles, it almost seems as if their record company sabotaged them after the failure of "Another Girl, Another Planet".


The Only Ones - Trouble in this Life


"Your Chosen Life" is a non-album track and is a little listless.

What's in the Bag? Part 3

(Figure One: STILL The Bag)

"Alright let's wrap this turkey up before I puke."
Bob Ezrin, on producing Lou Reed's Berlin album

Well, this is the final series in a post where we exhumed the musty old bag full of not-so- much that I dug out of the garage (further context and pictures can be found HERE and HERE) for whomever is still following this little digression (bless you!)

(Figure Ten: The Coins)

Pounds, Pences, Francs and Centimes whose source has been lost to the ravaages of time.

(Figure Eleven: The Medal)

Help Spanish-speaking readers: Despite being able to grasp that its for humanitarian volunteers, I have little idea of the significance of this item (never mind how I got it!)

(Figure Twelve: The Pointies)

The pen is a gift from my father circa the eight grade, the letter opener is, I believe, from a Nepal-based missionary and the pseudo-switchblade knife is part of a reward I got for helping to clean out the basement of an Army Surplus store in in 1983. (Sad to say I lost the WWI looking helmet!)

(Figure Thirteen: The Berlin Wall)

My brother visited Germany in the late eighties and, as many did, he chipped off some bits of this notorious landmark for his historically-minded sibling. (Of course, I've never considered the authenticity of these bits, so I'm braced for any skepticism from my German readers).

(Figure Fourteen: The Insert)

Yeah, I was a Billy Bragg fanatic and so I kept this insert from Don't Try This At Home (which I bought together with the VHS of Mr. Bragg Goes to Washington.)

(Figure Fifteen: The Book)

Admit it, back in the day you had a little red (or black) book with all those numbers, half of which you duly copied down knowing you'd never use them. Of course you may have had better taste than to decorate yours with a "Nice Price" from your CD of The Clash's Cut The Crap, A Didjits sticker, A Mag Wheels Records sticker (I think...) and the explanatory sticker from Billy Bragg's The Internationale mini-LP.


As for a soundtrack to this excavaction, I can offer you examples of the two genres that dominated my listening in the mid-to-late nineties; pop-punk and country & western:









Thanks for all your COMMENTS, and for indulging me, If you have any strange excavations of your own - let me know!

Mess-ieur Wreckless

Wreckless Eric has stuck to his guns. Those guns, his chugga-chugga guitar and his garbled vocals, are like old flintlock muskets: crude, noisy and deadly at close range.

Following the premature death of the Len Bright Trio, Wreckless Eric, by then dry and living in rural France, put out Le Beat Group Electrique with Catfish Truton (drums) and André Barreau (bass) in 1989. LBGE bit were almost as grimy and roughshod musically as the LBT but with less noise-for-noise’s-sake and more sharp song-writing. Eric sounds like a ramshackle Buddy Holly on tunes like "Tell Me I'm the Only One", while "Sarah" is Dylan-esque put-down that sounds somewhere between the early Beatles (hopped-up in Hamburg era) and Van Morrison (circa his early work with Them). At one point, he channels Lou Reed on “Just For You” but not until putting a Wreckelss pop spin on mental illness, with the ironically chipper-sounding "Depression".


Listen to this album, all 32:17 of it, and you'll be struck by how fearless Eric is; he remains unbowed and well-armed.



{Thanks to MRML readers for the landslide of comments in favour of greater Wrecklessness.
Now please leave us a comment on Le Beat Groupe Electrique or your angle on Wreckless Eric's highs and lows or whatever the hell else strikes you.}


Download Le Beat Group Electrique S/T L.P.

(MRML recommends WinrRAR for unpacking your downloads)

(Sigh. Ever get the feeling you were born in the wrong place, at the wrong time?)

The F.V.'s: Mr. Tambourine Man (1981)

The A-side of UK punk/new wave band The F.V's lone single from 1981 is a less-than-reverential run-through, some might use the word evisceration, of "Mr. Tambourine Man". This take on the song uses even less of Dylan's words than The Byrds (even seemingly adding a verse at the end) but adds some gang vocals and some quirky keyboard stabs, sorta like a cross-between early XTC and later Sham 69. (Somewhere Dylanologist Clinton Heylin is retching.)


(The b-side kicks along nicely as well and reminds me of Canadian punk band, The Diodes)

I'm a sucker for the brute energy that suffuses this era but the other reason this great little obscurity fascinates me is as another connection between Dylan and punk rock. Dylan's mid-sixties work and its influence on Lou Reed, then Patti Smith and then Joe Strummer (and to a lesser degree John Lydon) makes him a crucial punk progenitor in my book. Of course, as an adolescent, I often listened to my tapes of London Calling and Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits back-to-back, which might explain this strange obsession.

Mr. Tambourine Man 7" link is in the comments.

Speaking of comments, give us you quick review of this version of Mr. Tambourine Man.

*

The scan, the rip and the first post on this mysterious release (any further info from our readers would be greatly appreciated) are the work of Razor at Short Sharp Kick in the Teeth. If you haven't been to his blog you are missing one the great historical undertakings this out-of-control internet thing has to offer.

Mike Scott & The Bootlegs: Isis (Demos, 1978)

(The above photo is of Another Pretty Face)

Mike Scott came to public attention as leader of new wave band Another Pretty Face, whose "All the Boys Love Carrie" achieved NME single of the week in 1979. Of course, he gained significantly more attention in  the eighties as the leader of The Waterboys (whom Scott describes as "myself and whoever are my current traveling musical companions.")

Before all that, Scott, along with a  band called the Bootlegs, recorded a set of demos in 1978 that betrayed a love of artists like David Bowie, Lou Reed (see "Pale Blue Eyes" here) and Bob Dylan. Intriguingly, Scott & his bootlegs choose to cover "Isis" a dense epic Dylan co-wrote with psychologist Jacques Levy for the 1976 album, Desire. Rather than use the laid-back Desire arrangement (not to be confused with pummeling live versions of the Rolling Thunder Revue tours), Scott & co. treats "Isis" like an outtake from the Highway 61 sessions, though they do add very un-Dylan-like 'ba-ba'ba's'' to stand-in for the harmonica.




Mike Scott & the Bootlegs
Taybank Studio, Ayr, Scotland 1978-09-04

1. So Hard to Explain
2. The End
3. Death in Venice
4. My Mafia
5. Pale Blue Eyes
6. Ask the Angels
7. C'mon Everybody (partial)
8. Isis
9. What Can I Do (cut)

İzleyin: Bob Dylan - Like a rolling stone

So tell us what you make of the different version of Isis and of Mike Scott's work in general in the COMMENTS section (where you'll find the MS & B Demos).



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Wreckless Eric: Le Beat Group Electrique (1989)

Wreckless Eric (more HERE) has stuck to his guns. Those guns, his chugga-chugga guitar and his garbled vocals, are like old flintlock muskets: crude, noisy and deadly at close range.

Following the premature death of the Len Bright Trio, Wreckless Eric, by then dry and living in rural France, put out Le Beat Group Electrique with Catfish Truton (drums) and André Barreau (bass) in 1989. LBGE were almost as grimy and roughshod musically as the LBT but with less noise-for-noise’s-sake and more sharp song-writing. Eric sounds like a ramshackle Buddy Holly on tunes like "Tell Me I'm the Only One", while "Sarah" is Dylan-esque put-down that sounds somewhere between the early Beatles (hopped-up in Hamburg era) and Van Morrison (circa early Them). At one point, he channels Lou Reed on “Just For You” but not until putting a Wreckelss pop spin on mental illness, with the ironically chipper-sounding "Depression".

 

Listen to this whole album, all 32:17 of it, and you'll be struck by how fearless Eric is; how he remains unbowed and well-armed!


Tracklist

A1     Tell Me I'm The Only One 3:10   
A2     Wishing My Life Away      4:02   
A3     Depression     2:56   
A4     It's A Sick Sick World     1:39   
A5     Just For You     4:45   
A6     Sarah     3:17   
B1     The Sun Is Pouring Down 5:00   
B2     I'm Not Going To Cry     2:08   
B3     You Sweet Big Thing     3:50   
B4     Fuck By Fuck     1:16   
B5     Parallel Beds     4:05   
B6     True Happiness     5:00

Hope you  enjoyed the re-up and feel free to leave us a COMMENT! about Mr. Eric and LBGE!


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