R.I.P
R.I.P. – Ronnie James Dio
May 17th
My first exposure to Ronnie James Dio was a killer 1975 single by Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow called “Man On The Silver Mountain.” I had no idea who was singing the song, but I knew I liked it. This guy had pipes as they say. The Heavy Metal genre rarely produces singers you think of as skilled vocalists. I don’t say as an all inclusive statement or to denigrate Metal. I’ve been a Metal fan longer than I can remember. It’s just that you don’t find that many Metal lead singers consistently in demand once they leave their first band. They are generally thought of as entertainers; at least by know nothings like me. Ronnie James Dio was no Prince of Darkness, but as much as I preferred the original Black Sabbath with Ozzy Osbourne out in front, Dio was the better singer in my humble opinion. He was constantly in demand whenever he became a free agent. This guy not only could bring it, but he was a great entertainer. Watching him was part oral interpretation and rock theatre.
Ronnie James Dio passed away yesterday, May 16th, 2010, after battling stomach cancer for several months. He would have been 68 years of age this July. I remember seeing him perform with Heaven & Hell on some concert channel about a year or two back and came away duly impressed. He wasn’t a large man, but that voice was booming. He took his craft very seriously and was hugely successful in a genre many folks said wouldn’t last. My Black Sabbath days sort of petered out around 1978 I’m afraid. It was around that time I discovered AC/DC. I still love the first five Black Sabbath records, but I sort of lost my way in the late 70′s. When Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath parted company Ronnie James Dio stepped into the breach. It was a no win situation, but Dio did a great job. Sabbath was able to not only maintain, but grow while he was at the microphone from 1979-1982. Black Sabbath’s 1980 album Heaven & Hell and 1981′s Mob Rules revitalized a listing Sabbath and energized the fan base. That’s not some insignificant trick. Like many bands with Sammy Hagar, Phil Collins or Steve Hogarth syndrome, Dio wasn’t so easily received. The fact is he won a majority of them over. He was that good. He even popularized the now fabled “devil horns” gestures you invariably see at rock shows these days.
Dio was “discovered” singing for the band Elf while warming up the legendary Deep Purple in 1969. Ritchie Blackmore took note of him and when he left Purple he went out and recruited him for Rainbow in 1975. For the next four years he sang for them until joining Black Sabbath in 1979. After Sabbath he formed his own band, Dio, in 1983 which hit the ground running with the singles “Holy Diver” and “Rainbow in The Dark.” If there was ever any doubt whatsoever, now it was clear he had his very own fan base. WBCN played some Dio, largely because they played Black Sabbath, Rainbow and Deep Purple before it, but they didn’t really hang around the “core” of the WBCN library. I think program Director Oedipus did his very best to play almost anything and everything, even things he may not have liked himself, but Dio wasn’t as radio friendly as the Springsteens, Mellencamps and Henleys of that time. You don’t even hear much Sabbath anymore on Classic Rock radio unless the song is “Paranoid” or “Ironman.” That is, unless Alice Cooper is spinning the wax from his home in Arizona on Saturday nights. We’ll have to leave that discussion for another time.
I am sorry about the passing of Ronnie James Dio. The man was a dynamo and a titan of his industry. Even though I didn’t follow his career the way I might have if I was five years younger I have really grown to respect his talent. I hope he rests very peacefully.
Rainbow – Man On The Silver Mountain.mp3
Black Sabbath – Heaven and Hell.mp3
Buy or download The Beast of Dio from Amazon here.
R.I.P. Alex Chilton
Mar 21st
A couple of days ago, on St Patrick’s Day, Power Pop legend Alex Chilton suffered a heart attack and died in New Orleans, Louisiana at age 59. I don’t think a lot of you who read this blog are old enough to even begin to think about the thinning of the ranks that goes on once you start talking 50 years old and up. My own father was dead at 54. I don’t have any health problems or family history that leads me to believe that I’m going anywhere anytime soon, but stories like these give you pause just the same. 59 years is much too young to have your ticket punched. Alex Chilton was an almost mythical figure with a cult like following. When 80′s Indie darlings The Replacements immortalized him by naming a song from 1987′s Pleased To Meet Me after him his legend grew even more. I’m not even sure I completely understand it myself, but I can tell you that it does exist. A musician friend of mine on Facebook trumpeted the news yesterday. I hadn’t even heard yet. Shows you how plugged in I am sometimes no? I must have had NCAA basketball on the brain.
Alex Chilton first rose to prominance as the lead singer of a Memphis, TN Pop & Soul band called The Box Tops. Technically that band was called The Devilles for a time, but they chose to change their name to avoid confusion with another band. In mid 1967 The Box Tops covered a song by a relatively little known artist named Wayne Carson Thompson called “The Letter.” The song clocked in at under two minutes, but it was an International smash and finished as the #1 song of 1967. #1. Does that register? We’re talking about competition that included Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. It was preceded by Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode To Billie Joe” and followed by Lulu’s “To Sir With Love” at #1 on the Billboard Charts. Man that was a long time ago! What great songs. I know I have mentioned this in past posts, but “The Letter” was my first 45 RPM. I played that thing so much I thought my father was going to resort to violence at one point to get me to move on to something else. When that something else turned out to be Tommy James & The Shondells’ “Crimson and Clover,” we didn’t talk much after that.
The Box Tops had a number of hits including “Soul Deep, Neon Rainbow, I Met Her in Church, She Shot a Hole in My Soul and Cry Like a Baby.” I knew every note of every song after buying their greatest hits record a year or two later. “The Letter” was a song with a lot of imagery and sound effects of airplanes. The gist of the story was that the some guy’s gal had written him a letter and he was now headed home to see her. The song was so short there wasn’t a lot of time to think about anything…where had he been? Had she dumped him and he subsequently left town? It really didn’t matter. Alex Chilton, at 16 YEARS OF AGE (hello Stevie Winwood), with a little coaching and an alleged 30 plus takes, laid down a gravelly ode to the power and anguish of estranged love and the drop everything adrenaline of being taken back into the fold. I wouldn’t know myself (unfortunately I was banished forever whenever that happened to me), but that must be the ultimate. Back home again. Lonely days are gone, I’m a goin’ home, ’cause my baby she wrote me a letter. Everybody who lived in the 60′s knew the words to that song. You had to. Even though we complain about tight radio formats today, it was worse back then. We’re talking AM radio here. AM radio. Just think about that. The Box Tops version of “The Letter” (it has been covered many times…most notably by Joe Cocker on his 1970 masterpiece Mad Dogs & Englishmen) was voted #363 on Rolling Stone’s famous 2004 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of all time. Not too shabby.
By 1970 The Box Tops’ run was over. The group was full of teenagers being fleeced by management, according to our friends at Wikipedia, and they weren’t writing much of their own music. Alex Chilton had other ideas so the band eventually dissolved. Chilton began performing solo, but eventually teamed up with performers Chris Bell, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel to form Big Star in 1971. The group only lasted three years, but the reverence afforded their work is amazing. Some of you may be familiar with the song “In The Street,” co-written by Chilton with Chris Bell, from their first album in 1972 titled #1 Record, as the theme song to the hit TV show That 70′s Show. I only recently read that band’s name, Big Star, was sort of “borrowed” from a local super market chain in Memphis at the time called Big Star Markets. Not only that, they snagged that chain’s logo too, which was an over-sized neon star with “Big Star,” also in neon, written inside of it. They allegedly dropped the “Star” (going with a neon star with just the “Big” inside of it) so that the chain couldn’t pursue them for copyright infringement. Very interesting fun fact no?
In 1974, after releasing two albums (eventually a third was finally released in 1978 followed by a Live record in 1992), the first installment of Big Star was no more. The legend, however, lives on despite miserable sales at the time. They were allegedly plagued by signing a record deal with Stax subsidiary Ardent Records. Apparently the label didn’t know how to market them. I don’t know if they can be credited with inventing Power Pop, but they are certainly in the discussion. “September Gurls,” from 1974′s Radio City, is probably their most famous song, and serves as a pristine example of the Power Pop Blue Eyed Soul genre. Many famous bands, such as R.E.M. and The Replacements, began citing Big Star as a major influence and Alex Chilton became a bit bigger than life it seemed. I didn’t follow his solo career very closely, I’ll be the first to admit, but he spent a lot of time in New York mentoring, working with and producing younger musicians such as Rockabilly legends The Cramps. I’m sure that has a lot to do with why his legend doesn’t seem to want to die all these years later. Ironically, the reunited Big Star was scheduled to play the famous Austin, TX music festival South by Southwest on March 20th when he died.
Paul Westerberg, as the lead singer of The Replacements, croaked “I never travel far, without a little Big Star” in their song “Alex Chilton.” I thought that was very cool and I’m sure it means a lot to this day to his surviving family. Rest in peace Alex. You left us way too young.
Big Star – September Gurls.mp3
The Replacements – Alex Chilton.mp3
The Replacements – Alex Chilton.mp3 YSI
Buy or download Alex Chilton’s Top 30 from Amazon here.
R.I.P. – Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse
Mar 9th
I’m a little late to the draw here, but over the weekend a relatively little known artist named Mark Linkous, better known as Sparklehorse, took his own life in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was 47 years young. That is a real shame. It was allegedly set off by a text message. How would you like to be the sender? No thanks. I hope it was worth it. Reports say it was roughly 1:20 PM in the afternoon when this all happened so we’d like to believe this wasn’t some alcohol or drug fueled spur of the moment decision. Then again most of us don’t lose our composure over a text message. I’m not passing judgment here though. It may a Wonderful Life, but each of us has our own crosses to bear. I’m turning 50 years young myself next Monday. I never ever dreamed of being this old and yet here we are. Now life gets interesting.
My first exposure to Sparklehorse was in 1995 when I came across a copy of Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. I heard the song called “Rainmaker” on the radio just one time before I jumped on board the Sparklehorse train. I instantly added it to my mixed cut cassette tape empire because I liked it so much. The title of the record was a mouthful and a pain in the neck to deal with, but I’m sure it was intended to draw attention to the release. On that count it seems like it was successful. I was, and still am, impressed with Sparklehorse. It’s a real shame Mark decided to pack it in, but it was not the first time he displayed a certain instability. In 1996 he nearly lost both legs after overdosing on a lethal combination of drugs while on tour with Radiohead. He recovered after spending some six months in a wheelchair and, as it turns out, lived another 14 years.
Sparklehorse was essentially a one man outfit. It was a setup not unlike Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails except that the Sparklehorse sound bordered on Stoner Indie music. I don’t know if that category exists, but it does now. Mark’s music was sometimes hard to pin down and describe. It had some of that jangly Alt Country Wilco feel to it at times, but it could be as spacey as, say, Catherine Wheel too. I loved it because it was way off the beaten path. Sparklehorse didn’t get a lot of radio airplay so whatever audience it had built up was based word of mouth. Their music was mesmerizing to listen to because they didn’t have to adhere to any genre or record company directive. It’s not the kind of thing you throw into your CD player to get you pumped up for an event, but it had its place among the reflective late night set. It’s not going to rock you to your feet, but it was easy to get lost in the trippy feeling embedded in the melodies. I don’t know a thing about recording vocals, but I’m assuming he is singing through some kind of device that alters his voice a tad. It’s dreamy and hypnotic at times.
Nobody has any concrete answers for suicide. I’m pretty sure everybody contemplates it at some point or another, but reason and good sense usually rule the day. Everybody has demons, but most of us keep them at bay. I wish everybody could. Mark was obviously very talented and I wince every time I hear about suicide, but it’s particularly galling when someone with so much to offer the masses makes that decision. This guy is going to be missed, plain and simple and it sure doesn’t seem like it had to be this way. I hope whatever afterlife may exist makes Mark a happier man and I’m really sorry he felt like he had to go now. Rest in Peace.
I’m leaving you folks with a couple of Sparklehorse favorites. You can track them down on 1995′s Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot, 1998′s Good Morning Spider and 2001′s It’s a Wonderful Life. I’m also tacking on their wonderful cover of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here. That one is from a 2001 Promo only called Chest Full of Dying Hawks which may be hard to locate. I hope you like them.
Sparklehorse – Wish You Were Here.mp3
Sparkelhorse – Wish You Were Here.mp3 YSI
Buy or download It’s a Wonderful Life from Amazon here.
R.I.P. – Bon Scott (Died 2-19-1980)
Feb 19th
I don’t like to post twice about the same band if I can help it (particularly when the band is not a favorite of The Giant Panther’s), but I did want to mention that today is the 30th anniversary of the death of one time AC/DC lead singer Ronald Belford “Bon” Scott. Born in July of 1946 in Scotland, Bon was found asphyxiated in a car in the East Dulwich section of London, England on this date in 1980. You want to throttle the greats; Bonham, Moon, Morrison, Bolan, Hendrix, etc for living recklessly and cutting short such promise, but the truth is it could be any of us, particularly when we’re young and have the illusion of invincibility. If you’ve ever overestimated your body’s ability to absorb alcohol in a given situation you know very well what I’m talking about. One minute you think you have it covered, the next…
At 33 chances are at least some lessons have been absorbed by mere mortals, but nobody I know really knows what it’s like to be a rock star. The pressures, the temptations, the travel, the lack of sleep and or diet, the one upmanship…who knows if he would have survived if someone had carried him out of that automobile, but it’s still a shame all these years later. That goes for Janis, Kurt and all the rest too. The Lennons and the Vaughans you can almost get a handle on, but not the self inflicted ones. Those are crushers. It can very frustrating, but what in life isn’t?
No need to delve into details, history or a discussion of lead singers or anything else…I just wanted to post a couple of songs I’m still a big fan of to this day by a man who sure looked like he was having a good time while he was here with us…maybe too good a time as it turns out. I was trying to figure out a way to keep this post within my own love, romance, Valentine’s Day monthly guidelines here and then it hit me…Bon Scott was once in a bad called the Valentines! Mission accomplished.
AC-DC – Rock ‘N’ Roll Singer.mp3
AC-DC – Down Payment Blues.mp3
AC DC – Girls Got Rhythm.mp3 YSI
Buy or download Bonfire from Amazon.com here.
R.I.P. – WBCN 104.1 FM "The Rock of Boston"
Jul 15th
Wow. 41 years. March 15, 1968. That was my eighth birthday. I don’t know where to actually start so I’ll do my best to keep this as brief as possible. Short version? WBCN-FM is going off the terrestrial dial for good on August 13, 2009. It was born on March 15, 1968. The Boston Concert Network is taking a powder. Its valuable real estate right of the dial is going to be assumed by sister station WMBX, better known as Mix 98.5, and its god awful “Hot Adult Contemporary” format (what is THAT exactly? Tried and true hits distilled down to the very bone over the past four decades and repackaged as new to the clueless casual music fan masses until they change the channel?) are Movin’ On Up in classic George Jefferson style. Hoo-ray for them. My periodontist listens to Mix 98.5. I can’t tell you how much I miss hearing The Spiral Starecase or The Sanford Townsend Band between cleanings. The mid dial 98.5 frequency will be handed off to talk radio. Psyched! Another talk show in Boston! This is a very sad day for those of us who worked at WBCN in one capacity or another. The station had vacated its long time 1265 Boylston Street address behind Fenway Park sometime ago, but what a history. I was only there four years, but I can tell you some wild stuff went down inside those walls. It was never boring. What it was could be described as exhilarating.
I was a 22 year old line cook at TGI Friday’s on Newbury Street when I got the call up to the big leagues. I had filled out paperwork to answer the vaunted Listener Line early in 1982 after graduating from Emerson College. Having wondered what happened to the fastest four years I’ve ever experienced, I thought it might be a good idea to work at the local rock station since I had visions of being a DJ once upon a time. What a rocket scientist huh? The position was strictly volunteer, but I felt like I was on my way. Silly rabbit. As fate would have it I was assigned a four hour shift during the Mark Parenteau show. Mark was a tall, lanky, golden voiced fun loving guy that worked the afternoon drive show. Mark had jumped ship from rival WCOZ in the late seventies to join a stellar WBCN lineup that included Charles Laquidara, Ken Shelton and Carter Alan. I got to know these people pretty well during my time there. I lived and breathed the station nearly 24 x 7. Mark invited me, after a couple of weeks of working the Listener Line to join his intern staff.
Over the next four years I worked with about five or six other interns until I was the senior guy on his staff. Trust me, that wasn’t anything to write home about. He had his share of turnover, but that wasn’t the issue. I was too happy to come in and work for free and watch the stars come and go. I’d work two of the five shifts and maybe more depending on the schedules of others. I had a couple of crappy paying jobs, but generally I just loved being around The Rock of Boston. I was paid to work remotes and edit comedy tape for Stitches Comedy Club, but it was peanuts. Larry “Cha-Chi” Loprete, one of the nicest men you’ll ever meet (he still does Breakfast With The Beatles every Sunday morning at 8 AM which you can listen to live or stream later on via the web at www.wzlx.com), used to throw me a bone every now and then with a free ticket or poster or whatever he could. There were plenty of personalities in that building who looked down on young “college” kids like me, but Larry wasn’t one of them. I didn’t dwell on the ones that did. I just loved the radio. I still do even though it doesn’t resemble anything remotely to what I grew up with. Even so, the news that WBCN is leaving the airwaves hits the psyche hard.
Nothing ever came of my affiliation with the station, but I don’t regret working there. I had a ball. The station held off WCOZ (Kick Ass Rock & Roll) and later Classic Rock Station WZLX to hold its own in a tough market, but the peak of the station was probably 1980-1986. Nobody could touch them and all the artists surfaced there at one time or another. On any given day I would see somebody famous. I’m not much of a stargazer though it might not sound like it. I refused to mug for photos (i.e. pop into the outskirts of a group photo at the last minute) or ask for autographs. I was just happy to be there. I figured something good would come of knowing these folks eventually. It never did. It’s hard to describe without airing dirty laundry, but suffice to say they don’t call it the go go 80′s for nothing. It was a good time. The death knell, to me, for WBCN was when they farmed out The Big Mattress morning show in favor of The Howard Stern show. WBCN used to be about the underground and free expression. It was never about strict playlists either. It was all about personalities, current events, breaking new bands, promoting comedy, controlled mayhem, attitude and (mostly) new music.
I know I shouldn’t be surprised when stuff like this happens. There have been so many changes in the world since I was a kid (including this here blog to name just one), but there are institutions and then there are institutions. Nobody that I know was left at the present day WBCN (which is scheduled to soldier on in digital format only on the web…thanks alot…can I please pay for that too?) and I couldn’t name a single on air personality. I stopped listening in the late eighties, which I’m well aware is part of the problem, but a listing WFNX is lucky nobody has come along to knock them off their perch as well. They seem to have more freedom, but they are also victims of tired programming. It just seems like no station has its autonomy anymore and the FM dial has been rendered all but useless. Computerized playlists and repetitive programming is what really Killed The Radio Star. We survived MTV. The decision to allow companies to own more than one radio station in a single market was a crusher too. Mega conglomerate ownership ruined the individuality of programming. DJs loathe to be told what to play as a rule, but with no latitude whatsoever? Why be a DJ at all? Classic Rock stations are what’s left behind after other stations like WBCN take all the risks. Now what? Who breaks future Classic Rock in Boston? It won’t be WFNX, though I have noticed they’ve been sneaking Classic Rock into their format without so much as an announcement lately. Their alternative/Indie bread and butter is not going to change too much. This should be very distressing to rock artists as well. WBCN was a shell of its former self at the end, but it still had the most famous call letters in Boston’s long and explosive rock history. Rest in Peace.
That was REAL short huh? Oh well. I’m leaving you with the very first rock song that was ever played on WBCN as it began its 41 year run. It’s from a little known power trio called Cream.
R.I.P. – Michael Jackson
Jun 26th
This is kind of a tough one for me. I was never a big Michael Jackson fan, though I own The Best of The Jackson Five and a copy of Thriller. It’s definitely not time to talk negatively of the deceased, but I can’t think of anything past 1984, when he was absolutely the King of Pop, that I can point to that pumps me up about Michael Jackson. He was, however, right there with the titans of that mid 80′s era alongside Prince, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and U2. Those were the five biggest acts of the 80′s as far as I can tell. It goes well beyond record sales and concert revenues…these five acts overshadowed all comers. Jackson’s 1982 album Thriller catapulted him into the stratosphere, as if he wasn’t already famous and successful enough. It remains one of the best selling records of all time to this day. By the time MTV began playing his Thriller video, complete with a reading from the venerable Vincent Price, Jackson had no place on this earth to hide from his fame. His legendary moon walk is probably one of the most mimicked dance steps of our generation. A TV performance of “Billie Jean” on the 25th Anniversary of Motown special was flat jaw dropping. Michael Jackson was an incredibly talented performer. One of the greatest the world has ever seen. He apparently died of cardiac arrest today at age 50. What a shame. Even though his music is not necessarily our charter I felt like it was important that The Giant Panther should acknowledge his passing.
There were rumblings that Jackson was thinking about making a comeback and that several shows had been scheduled for London in the fall, but I wasn’t much interested in that potential spectacle. His eccentric behavior and insistence on maintaining a childlike persona seemed to eventually derail any scintilla of sanity in his world. Here was a striking young African American male with the world at his feet and somewhere along the way he just seemed to come unglued. They call Joan Rivers the Queen of Plastic Surgery or some such thing, but Michael Jackson had to lead the league in completely unnecessary surgeries. As far as I was concerned, Jackson was a good looking man, but he obviously didn’t see it that way. I have to believe the stress of being Michael Jackson just overwhelmed him. He sold a lot of records after Thriller and was still in the news, mostly for all the wrong reasons unfortunately, but he never did attain those heights ever again. We can’t imagine what it was like to be the son of an allegedly abusive father and a pop star by eight years old or whatever it was. The Danny Bonaduce story doesn’t even scratch the surface here.
I was an AM Gold guy in the late 60′s and early 70′s. I got on quite nicely with The Love You Save, ABC, I Want You Back, Rockin’ Robin, I’ll Be There and Never Can Say Goodbye. I started to lose it when he had the hit “Ben” about the friendly rat and as popular as Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough or Rock With You were I couldn’t stand them. I was never much for so called “Dance Music.” My ears perked up when I heard Eddie Van Halen’s solo on “Beat It,” but I still wasn’t completely sold. “Billie Jean” was a brilliant pop song though. I remember we played it on WBCN, a rock station, and that was amazing. Like Prince, Michael Jackson’s music was color blind and crossover format friendly. I even liked “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” but I was back on the outside looking in when P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) became a hit. WBCN played this record until nobody could stand it anymore. It had the same type of “Legs” as ZZ Top’s Eliminator, Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual, Prince’s Purple Rain and John Mellencamp’s Scarecrow. Whether it was four, five or six singles radio just kept playing all of these records for over a year…almost until the artist’s next record came out!
I guess what I came to say is that Michael Jackson was a true icon. Larger than life. A supreme talent. I didn’t always like his music, but I was clearly in the minority. His legal troubles, the opulent Neverland Ranch, the multiple facial reconstructions, the rumors about his sexual preferences, the endless stories about his financials and mental status, the inexplicable marriages, and the bizarre footage of him hanging a child out of a hotel window? You can have all that stuff. At the end of the day the world lost a world class entertainer at a very young age and it is kind of a shame the way it all ended for him. He seemed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb, but that doesn’t change what he accomplished. I hope he can rest in peace now. He’s earned that much. Best wishes to the surviving members of the Jackson family and all of his heartbroken fans.
Before I go I wanted to mention Farrah Fawcett’s passing as well. She was 62 years old. The sex symbol of the 1970′s, Farrah ended up overcoming her “handicap” of being gorgeous and went on to prove herself a serious actress when nobody thought she had it in her. Charlie’s Angels and one fantastic poster might have put her on the map, but she took it from there. I’m glad she is no longer suffering and will remember her fondly until my turn comes.
R.I.P. – Lux Interior
Feb 8th
I’m not going to say I was a huge Rockabilly, Psychobilly or even a turbo Cramps fan, but the death of Eric Lee Purkhiser recently was a real shame. Eric, or Lux Interior as he was better known, was a real pioneer. His band, The Cramps, were a ground breaking act in that their brand of in your face Halloween horror rock sort of merged with an Elvis Presley tinged glam humor and created a real force in the 70′s. They incorporated garage, punk, rockabilly and surf music in their act, but it was the energy that people responded to if the legend is true. I never saw The Cramps myself and I regret it now, but I did respect what they did. My friend Rick turned me onto Human Fly (I spell that F-L-Y), Goo Goo Muck and Bikini Girls With Machine Guns around 1990. I recently turned my friend Marc onto those songs and he was wildly enthusiastic. Thanks Rick. That literally makes my day.
I’m not going to go into a long diatribe on the effect Lux and his wife Poison Ivy (Kristy Wallace) had on my life, but it’s kind of cool, if the story is true, that they met while Ms Wallace was hitchhiking in some spike heels and Lux picked her up. I don’t know if it is also true that she helped fund the band initially with money she had made as a dominatrix, but why spoil a great legend if it isn’t? Rockabilly has long battled the stigma of sounding dated. Think Lenny & Squiggy and greasers with cigarettes twisted up in their white tee short sleeves. I have to admit I didn’t want anything to do with The Stray Cats when they burst on the scene in the early eighties, but I did like Robert Gordon’s (My Girl is) Red Hot (You’re Girl Ain’t Doodley Squat). But Rockabilly was wildly important and probably still is. There is SUCH a fine dotted line from Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins & Elvis Presley to Bill Haley & Gene Vincent & Johnny Cash to Chuck Berry and on to The Rolling Stones. I know it sounds kind of ludicrous, but there is your road map with a half dozen artists missing. I recently downloaded a CD called Red Hot Rockabilly For Ice Cool Cats and it hit me; as much as I hate to admit being wrong about this genre all these years, I’m a Rockabilly fan. I used to walk around saying I hated Country music and as I’ve gotten older I realize that’s not even close to being true. I still struggle with Jazz, but I’ll go see it live any time. I guess I’ve learned not to be so rigid and judgmental in my old age. I’m still not much for today’s Top 40, but I’m always listening to something a little out there. You’d think I’d be listening to The Cramps (speaking of out there) right now wouldn’t you? No, that was earlier, the correct Jeopardy response would be Who is My Bloody Valentine? Just gettin’ in the mood for another quiet Valentine’s Day I guess…
Lux Interior was more than a front man and entertainer. He was an icon to millions and a trailblazer. Headlining in the 70′s at CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City right along with Patti Smith and Television is a long way from Sacramento and Akron. This man will be missed. Rest in Peace Eric.
R.I.P. – Miriam Makeba
Nov 10th
I know I’m not the only one who wakes up one day, turns on the radio and is numbed by news of the passing of a famous person. This morning was one of those days for me. Let me admit for the record I don’t have any feel for the body of work Miriam Makeba produced over her long career as a recording artist. I’m not much for World Beat music, but aside from being a bit of a Top 40 snob, I’d like to think I am very open minded when it comes to “popular” music. If I own anything to be embarrassed about, and I definitely do (hello Ohio Express and every bubblebum pop record I hung my hat on in the late 60′s), I’m more likely to embrace my phases more than distance myself from them these days. I was weened on AM Gold (call it 1967-1972 if we have to pin it down) and proud of it. WABC-AM in New York was a monster station in my child hood. Even the school bus driver had it playing in my small New Jersey town of Millington when I was doing the K-4 shuffle.
I loved bands like Steppenwolf (a legitimate rock band hiding among the one hit wonder fluff of the day), The Grass Roots, Three Dog Night, The Monkees, The Box Tops, and the early Bee Gees. To this day I’m not ashamed of my fondness for these bands. Slowly but surely the FM dial took over and bands that were shifting the charts toward heavier sounds like The Doors, Cream, Grand Funk Railroad, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Velvet Underground, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Traffic, Led Zeppelin, Mountain and scores of others needed a place to go. What was cool and still deemed AM friendly were bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Free, The Kinks, Chicago, Sly & The Family Stone, The Byrds, The Mamas & The Papas, Procol Harum and The Moody Blues. The reason I mention this is because radio was so wide open there was room for diverse artists like Miriam Makeba, Desmond Dekker, Jean Knight, Mungo Jerry, Alive & Kicking, Edison Lighthouse, The Zombies, Tommy James, Hugh Masekela, Chaka Kahn, Ray Charles and the like. Today many of these artists would never see the light of day. It was literally a free for all. I liked it a lot better then. Today you can barely get new and interesting Indie artists played anywhere let alone on the face of new music here in Boston WFNX-FM. It’s discouraging.
African born Miriam Makeba’s 1967 single “Pata Pata” was a spectacular example of a song with global appeal. Jamiacan born Desmond Dekker’s 1968 single “Israelites” was another masterpiece from that era. Cameroon singer Manu Dibango’s 1972 single “Soul Makossa” is yet another one that comes to mind. All of these songs got massive radio play back in the day and were ingrained into my brain at an early age. I had almost forgot about Miriam Makeba until one day I was watching the recently cancelled show Las Vegas a couple of years back. That show was famous for resurrecting James Caan and for the parade of ridiculously attractive women; Vanessa Marcil and Molly Sims in particular. If memory serves it used to show on Friday nights (loser alert) at 10 PM and though it may appear that I am friendless I used to videotape (yikes) it so I could watch it later. Since we are getting held up at gun point by cable companies anyway…DVR is a fantastic invention. So I’m mindlessly wasting yet another hour of my life watching Las Vegas when, at the end of one of the episodes, Miriam Makeba’s Pata Pata comes on. I had totally forgotten what a great song that is. I hadn’t heard it in years. Of course I went and downloaded it within minutes and actually play it on my computer jukebox fairly frequently when reading other sites.
I guess my point here is unfortunately musicians die every day. I can tell you this one touched me with one single song. It’s such a feel good song I can’t even express it in words. It’s kind of funny coming from a guy who listens to Nine Inch Nails, Stabbing Westward and even Marilyn Manson from time to time, but this song will always have a place in my heart. People love to used the phrase “one hit wonder” as if it is something to be ashamed of. How ridiculous. Making ONE great song is something I always wished I could do. It’s like a .203 career hitter homering in his only World Series at bat (who is 1976 New York Yankee reserve shortstop Jim Mason). It’s something to be celebrated. Miriam Makeba has had a full life of performing music I’ll probably never hear, but she made her mark on this music lover. She was performing when her heart gave out at 76 yesterday. Rest in Peace Miriam. You earned it.
Miriam Makeba – Pata Pata.mp3 YSI
Buy or download The Very Best of Miriam Mekeba at Amazon here.
