Stephen
W. Terrell’s (MUSIC) Web Log: eMusic March
* Animal God Of The Streets by Kim Fowley.
I met Kim Fowley — producer, songwriter, Rock ‘n’ Roll Svengali, Sultan of
Sunset Strip — at one of the first South by Southwest festivals I attended back
in the mid 90s. He was in the Austin Convention Center wearing a fairly
psychedelic coat of many colors and was in the company of a sexy young singer he
claimed to be “The Next Janis Joplin.” (I listened to her cassette tape when I
got back home. She was not the next Janis Joplin.) I don’t even
remember how our conversation started, but he was pitching this singer to me so
intently you’d have thought I was some major producer. A film crew approached us
and Fowley focused his pitch on the camera. Fowley ranted, the Next Janis Joplin
slinked around looking sexy. I decided, what the hell, I held up the tape with a
stern expression, nodding my head, as if I were the muscle in the entourage. I
don’t know where that camera crew was from, but I’d give to have that
footage!
So that’s my Kim Fowley story. It has nothing to do with this
album. Or maybe it has everything to do with it. His inspired quasi-political
babblings of “Is America Dead?” definitely is the same voice I remember ranting
about that singer at the convention hall.
Animal God was released in
1975, shortly before he was recruiting The Runaways. But it was recorded a few
years before. (In “Is America Dead?” he mentions the fact that Woodstock was the
year before., and he’s not afraid to use the word “groovy.”) The music is good
stripped-down blues rock informed by psychedelia.
The first track “Night of
the Hunter” sounds almost like Steppenwolf. And “Swamp Dance” is sweet and
swampy. I’m not sure why Fowley attempted a cover of Link Wray’s “Rumble.” But
“Hobo Wine” — a pretty close relative of ” Drinkin’ Wine-Spo-Dee-Oo-Dee” sounds
like something from a jukebox on skid row. I mean that in a good way, of
course.
* 1950s Gospel Classics by Various Artists.
Here’s another happy find. This 25-song collection is a treasure chest of
some great, if very obscure, gospel belters and guitar pickers.
There’s
Professor Johnson, who’s got a Henry Green, Rev, Robert Ballinger, Deacon Leroy
Shinault and the Rev. Anderson Johnson, who does a tune called “Death in the
Morning,” which either is a precursor to or a crazy bastard son of “O
Death.”
Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s fans will immediately recognize a couple of
her tunes here. Green does a version of “Strange Things” (though he does it as a
dirge, not upbeat like Tharpe) and “God Don’t Like It,” which is done twice here
by Anderson Johnson. If anything, his version, featuring his slide guitar, is
even more jaunty than Sister Rosetta’s. On one take, Johnson ends it with a
disclaimer: “Now I wasn’t talking about anyone, I was just singing my song.” So
despite the hell-fire lyrics, he’s letting us know he’s not really
judging anyone. He sings it with a smile on his face and love in his
heart.
* Bankers and Gangsters byBlack 47. Just in
time for St. Patrick’s Day, a new Black 47 album. Sometimes Larry Kirwin gets a
little heavy-handed when he gets going on the politics. The title track here for
instance isn’t all that inspired. And nothing here matches my favorite 47 song,
“Forty Deuce” — the story of real gangsters.
But there are a few standouts
here. “Izzy’s Irish Rose” is a fun look at a Hebrew/Celtic romance (and has a
tasty little Irishfied blast of “Hava Nagila.”) “Celtic Rocker” is a
light-hearted look at the subculture that has grown around bands like The
Dropkick Murphys, Flogging , The Young Dubliners, and, yes, Black 47.
And
then there’s “Long Lost Tapes of Hendrix.” Check my Terrell’s Tune-up column
this Friday for more on that.
* Descending
Shadows byPierced Arrows Even though Dead Moon is gone,
two-thirds of the band — Fred Cole and his bass player and wife of 40-plus
years, Toody Cole — are back with another fine group, Pierced Arrows. The Arrows
released an album called Straight to the Heart a couple of years ago on
Tombstone.
And now comes their sophomore effort — and it’s no
slump,
The good news for Dead Moon fans is that the new trio sounds like
a continuation of Moon’s basic guitar/bass/drums sound. I suppose hard-core
followers could argue over which drummer is better, Loomis or new guy Kelly
Halliburton (no relation to Dick Cheney), but I don’t see a major difference.
The important thing is there was no cheesy attempt to update or “modernize” the
sound. And Fred is still writing some memorable songs.
See my full review
in Terrell’s Tune-up a couple of weeks ago.
* The Second Stop Is Jupiter by Sun
Ra.Herman Poole “Sonny” Blount, better known in this solar system as Sun
Ra (1914-1993), not only played cosmic jazz but also dabbled in doo-wop and R
& B in the 1950s and a little funky soul in the ’60s and ’70s. And danged if
Ra didn’t make that sound cosmic too!
Norton Records recently released
three CDs of his material. Interplanetary Melodies and The Second
Stop Is Jupiterfeature recordings from the mid-1950s, while Rocket
Ship Rockspans the late ’50s through early ’70s. I picked up the two of the
three a couple of months ago, but just got my hands on Jupiter
lately. I reviewed the whole shebang a few weeks ago in my Tuneup column. Read
it HERE.
Plus
* “New Mexico”
by Johnny Cash. A few weeks back Leslie Lithicum of The
Albuquerque Journal had a fun column about songs about New Mexico. I was
ashamed to realized that I had never heard this one. Luckily, eMusic had it on a
Sun Records collection. It’s a classic chunka chunka Cash tune about a young
cowboy who is recruited for a job here, has a miserable time and gets ripped
off.
No, this is one the Tourism Department never will use in ads: “Go back
to your friends and loved ones, tell others not to go/To the God-forsaken
country they call New Mexico.”
* The tracks from The Sheik Said Shake by Hipbone Slim &
The Knee-Tremblers that I didn’t get last
month. It’s just good British psychobilly
blues from the Dark
Dimension.
My
favorite in this batch is “Buried Next to You,” a slow-grooving meditation on
eternal love. I don’t know whether this is an original or otherwise, but I can
easily imagine Charlie Feathers singing this one. And there’s “One-Legged Rock,”
which takes up where Terry Allen’s “Peggy Leg” left
off.
Now
I’ve got to get my hands on the new one by Hipbone — The Kneeanderthal Sound
of…