Monday, August 25, 2014

The Prisoners - "Hurricane, The Best of The Prisoners" (CD, Big Beat - 2004)

The Prisoners were among the best (if not THEE best) European garage outfits of the last 25 years or so, period! And if this post would have to end for some reason on the previous quote, it would have been as well completed and justice given!
Really now, I don't know what else to say about them except of the same old cliché that luck was never on their side, as in (m)any of the cult heroes in the history of rock & roll... And that many of the 90s Britpop heroes had them as an obvious blueprint and icons. The Charlatans, The Stone Roses, The Inspiral Carpets, The Shed Seven and The Ocean Color Scene are for sure some among them. None of them though had the guts and the gusto The Prisoners had. I mean, look at The Strypes... Are they an imitation of a lower quality or what?! OK they're not, actually they're quite good but I had to abuse a little the current trends, you know...
Heavy influenced by the Pretty Things of the "Emotions" era and the Kinks (of course!) with a nice ad of Booker T & the MG's, were as much mods as garage revivalists.  Great songwriting skills, danceable rhythm section, raw sounding guitars and heavy Hammond grooves are (in) the Prisoners' DNA. And Graham Day's one of the best and most faithful Marriott students ever. There's a whole lotta soul in here, I'm not joking. These guys really knew where to look for inspiration in the midst of a decade full of bad taste. And as usual Ace/Big Beat guys, did a hell of a good job with this cause that's indeed band's "finest moments all wrapped up on a single CD". Forget Paul Weller, this is still Britain's best kept secret, this is the real shit! Then came the Prime Movers and the James Taylor Quartet...

Pic taken from Ace website

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - "D.T.K. - Live at The Speakeasy" (LP, Jungle/SMS - 1982 ~ Japanese press )













I was thinking on my way home that Billy Rath died on the same day as Elvis Presley and almost immediately came a second thought about the last chapter in Legs McNeil/Gillian McCain brilliant book, "Please Kill Me"... For those haven't read it yet, Chapter 44 is closing the book and has Jerry Nolan on his last legs, terribly sick and lonely right after Johnny's death, thinking about the past. In between many things, he remembered he attended a young Elvis show (he was ten at the time) that changed his life ever since... What a strange coincidence..? What a stunning afterword... Well, that's probably the most haunting, otherworldly rock & roll writing ever put on paper and for sure my favorite... Read it and you'll understand what I'm trying to say now... My partner, JP was informed about Billy's passing from our blog. Then mailed me this as a White Trash Soul tribute. I couldn't have think something better, buddy!

Jerry & Billy at Hotel Stadt in Västervik, Sweden 25/7-84 - Taken from The Waldos Facebook page

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Broken Heart... RIP Billy Rath

Official Facebook page 'bout Johnny Thunders movie, "Looking for Johnny" have posted this a couple of hours back: "Thank you for the music and for being part of our film. Billy Rath RIP." There's nothing else on the web at the moment, but the aforementioned page is sadly, accurate enough... We here as well known Heartbreakers aficionados, want to express our sorrow to Billy's family and thank him for being part of one of the most important ever bands in rock & roll! R.I.P. 


Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Little Richard - "The Rill Thing" (CD Reissue, Collector's Choice Music - 2009)

Don't know why took so long to the public to figure out how cool were many Blues and R&B legends in their late 60s/early 70s comeback LPs, but I guess never too late. I was obsessed with it! The first bunch that I lay my dirty hands upon were Muddy Waters' "Electric Mud", "London Sessions" and the Johnny Winter (RIP) produced "Hard Again", about twelve years back. From then it was a non stop downhill, he-he! So, as you might guessing I'm on the other side of the river. I totally disagree with the purists or the artists themselves (like in Howlin' Wolf's 1969 Cadet "Album", for instance...). I mean, why Elvis "68 Comeback" regarded as brilliant (which is) and not Bo Diddley's "Black Gladiator" or Little Richard's "Rill Thing"? Cause both originators have tried to update their sound and for me at least, they succeeded. So, where Big Bad Bo got psychedelic funky, the Georgia Peach got swamp rock! Although Reprise (RS-6406, 1970) tried to push it as a comeback album, Little Richard was in fact 'back' many years before, cutting brilliant (though sadly unsuccessful) rhythm & soul sides for labels like O-Keh, Vee-Jay, Modern and Brunswick. "The Rill Thing" was a loan King Little Richard gave to his tribe, especially on Creedence Clearwater Revival and it was time to get the requite for this. Recorded and produced by him at (the now legendary) Muscle Shoals in Alabama, the sounds captured on tape found the real king of rock & roll in heat. His voice was mighty loud as it was on his Specialty hits and the music was greasy, swampy and funky soulful! “Dew Drop Inn” and the album's (now multi-sampled) opener “Freedom Blues” were written by Richard and long time friend, old lover and influence Esquerita (on credits shown as Esgrita!) if that says something (it does!)... The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" funkified surprisingly enough by the man who gave inspiration to Lennon and McCartney partnership and although at first crabs, after two or three listens fits perfectly to the other album's tunes.
Don't know why really, this one still brings mixed emotions. I'm finding it as a truly exceptional and equal creation to this man's legacy! An album for sure drug fueled by cocaine and guilty pleasures but as well, an album of its time and place. Try play it betwixt and between "Sticky Fingers" and "Bayou Country" and you will understand what I'm saying...

Rolling Stone No.59 / May 28 ,1970 - taken from Arouse Your Passion blog

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Darlene Love with 'Miami' Steve Van Zandt work on a NEW album!

R&B legend Darlene Love works on a new album with  'Miami' Steve Van Zandt (E-Street Band, Undergound Garage, Silvio Dante of the Sopranos)!!! Of course the recordings will be out of Van Zandt's garage rock & roll label, Wicked Cool Records. Photos from the recordings taken from the Wicked Cool's Facebook page. Can't wait!!!