THIS BLOG IS ABOUT 7" RECORDS ONLY. YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY. EVERY SONG IS CONVERTED TO MP3 FROM MY PERSONAL 45 COLLECTION, AND THERE'S NOT ONE THAT I WOULDN'T RECOMMEND YOU SEEKING OUT. ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDERS WHO DON'T WANT THEIR MUSIC HEARD HERE JUST LET ME KNOW, AND DOWN IT WILL COME. CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE.
This is a very early memory for me – it was really a kids record yet in ’63 sat nicely with the early surf hits, like ‘Surfin’ USA’, ‘Surf City’ and even ‘Wipe Out’ depsite The Ran-dells hailing from New Jersey. A #16 Billboard Pop single, not so surprising – but also peaking at #27 on the magazine’s Black Music charts more of a shocker.
All my pals loved it. Listening these days, I can’t help notice that electronica moment at 1:27, as well as in the opening bit. Extra-terrestrial sounds were finding their way onto vinyl around this time actually. Joe Meek had just gone #1 globally with The Tornadoes’ ‘Telstar’ as well as releasing the UK EP, I HEAR A NEW WORLD.
During the summer of ’67 when ‘the late night DJ was your fireside chat friend’, I would lie in bed with the transistor radio under my pillow, exactly as The Ramones described it in ‘Do You Remember Rock & Roll Radio’, dialing in these far beaming AM stations, usually from Boston. They’d play a nice array of all the hippie underground bands who looked so extreme and oozed the sound of San Francisico’s Haight-Ashbury seemingly dersirable lifestyle. Country Joe & The Fish were certainly tied with Big Brother & The Holding Company for best name, and after slowly climbing up the Bubbling Under The Hot 100 Billboard list for six weeks, ‘Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine’ finally peaked at #95. Not such a great result, but was I ever happy to lay my hands on this single.
Having heard it once during a quiet summer night, it sounded as alien at the time as it actually does now. Then, it was mysterious, now probably just not aging well. But my soft spot for it is still there.
You learn something everyday supposedly. I found out just tonght Corinne saw them at The Fillmore. After all these years, somehow this fact never came up. Bizarre.
There are not near enough Cramps singles with Kid Congo Powers. There are many members who traveled through the band’s revolving door of a rhythm section (which in the early lineups redefined the term ‘rhythm section’ to mean drums and 2nd guitar/avant noise inventor), but very few were real Cramps. Others might contest my statement, including Ivy herself – and if anyone would know, it would be her. But this is my opinion – and other than Congo, Bryan Gregory, Nick Knox, Slim Chance and Harry Drumdini, there were no other REAL Cramps beyond Lux & Ivy. Well maybe Candy Del Mar, maybe.
The shows I saw with Kid were all priceless, for everything else there’s Mastercard or some such smart ass slogan. Hair, clothes, swirling on stage tornado – he will never be topped.
And talk about a lovely person, with a gentle smile and the sweetest sense of humor. Kid Congo is just a higher form of life.
‘She Said’, Kid’s first 7″ with the band, is so Cramps – it almost out Cramps The Cramps. Like the rest of the band, Kid stripped his contribution to the song of every excess not needed and documented the raw, naked power of primal purity.
PSYCHEDELIC JUNGLE was my favorite of the early few albums, a hard and unsteady position to take when you’re tampering with a few of the wonders of the world. But, yeah, if forced to choose in front of a firing squad, I’d go with PSYCHEDELIC JUNGLE.
‘The Crusher’ was one of the two singles from it, and like ‘Caveman’, will time travel you back to their live shows from ’80/’81- or sadly inform you of what you missed.
Have a look back at my L7 post from May 4th, 2010. It ends with the following few lines:
“………a song as good as ‘Drama’, which also has one of the two best guitar solos ever committed to tape. EVER. And the other one is..coming soon.”
Well come it has – the world’s other greatest guitar solo ever committed to tape. Yes, it’s the great Kid Congo Powers break on ‘New Kind Of Kick’, B side to ‘The Crusher’, above. B side!!!!!
If I am unfortunate enough to be inflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease, I hope it doesn’t erase my memory of Kid letting it roll out of him as though he were having a simple drink of water, seemingly something anyone could do. When the band launched into ‘New Kind Of Kick’ live for the first time, I stood in anticipation and wonder: how is he gonna pull this one off. Wow. He showed me.
This particular occasion was at the old Peppermint Lounge on 44th Street, the last week of that club’s lifespan at said location. And thank the heavens above – I have a tape of it. So powerful was that show – I’ve never even needed one listen to relive it’s force.
Listen: Walking With The Beast (Single Version) / The Gun Club GunClubBeast.mp3
When Kid decided to go back to Jeffrey and The Gun Club, I was not happy. And I doubt I was alone. There was no place for Kid in The Ramones or Suicide, so the only other seminal, world great band, The Gun Club, was the logical move. Their album, THE LAS VEGAS STORY, is flawless, scary almost in it’s greatness. ‘Bad America’, ‘Stranger In Our Town’, ‘Give Up The Sun’, ‘Eternity Is Here’ – forget it. And the US tour in support was debilitating to those not ready, even those of us that were. Kid played flawlessly, all the while swigging from a bottle of…..Pepto Bismol.
It doesn’t get any more Kid Congo than that.
I’ll never forget my lucky date seeing that show: 8/8/84. Another one I have a tape of, now a file, and in between, a cd. When I need to be swept into oblivion, I put it on.
Here’s the 7″ version of ‘Walking With The Beast’ and a very different version from that on the album. You need both.
Listen: Ain’t Nothin’ But A House Party / The Show Stoppers Showstoppers.mp3
I truly thought this was a much bigger national hit than it’s Billboard #87 peak (in ’68). I guess the song got well known but the charts never reflected it. Happens a lot. Often records quitely sell and sell weekly until one day – boom – you have a gold record. Example: Screamin’ Jay Hawkin’s ‘I Put A Spell On You You’ (platinum actually), The Ramones 1st album as well The Sex Pistols US debut.
Pretty sure this didn’t quite go gold, but God knows with all the shadey accounting rampant in the 60′s independent label and distribution world.
But what a stomper, Northern floor filler, and every other well coined, over used slogan. Of special interest to me: Solomon Burke’s two brothers were 1/2 of the lineup.
I saw them first on 120 Minutes, that buried after midnight on Sundays MTV show, where they played all the left of center stuff. Their pictures were fantastic, remember all the colors and outfits? The video was a riot. Soon after, they came to NY – they had supported The Ramones in Japan and Joe was raving about them – we couldn’t get there fast enough. What a blast – a Japanese Revillos. We hung backstage later. They just gawked in awe of Joe and I fell I love three times in under 15 minutes, while we both ate more than our share of the red velvet cake the promoter had gifted the band.
‘Twist Barbie’ is absolutely one of the best singles ever. Still sounds brand new.
No one said it better than Seymour Stein: “A band like The Ramones don’t come along once in a lifetime, they come along once”.
Somewhere on the west side, either 14th or 23rd Street, they were recording a few songs. Damn if I can remember where.
As I recall it, there was a single to do between albums for the UK and the band had a song they figured would work. Well not John, but the others that is.
Around 10 pm, the phone rang. It was Joe. Did I wanna go to The Ritz for a drink and oh, could you pick me up? Couldn’t have come at a more boring moment, I was alone for the weekend. Got in the Honda, and headed over.
I remember this as clearly as looking in the mirror. He jumped into the front seat. There was definitely something about the expression on his face, eyes almost bugging and kind of panting, breathing anxiously. “You gotta hear this song, can I play it, it’s a rough mix but you gotta hear it”. Ah – yeah!
In went the cassette. I guess I was luckily the first person to hear it outside of the studio walls. Joe kept watching for my reaction, beaming at the same time. How could he not. The Ramones had just finished recording one of the greatest singles of all time.
I pulled over on 2nd Ave. I had too. This sounded so fantastic it was almost unbelievable. We listened a few more times really loud. It was warm, windows open, perfect until more than a few kids, awestruck at seeing Joey Ramone sitting in this car, started to clammer. God bless him, Joe had time for everyone, autographs, pictures, you name it. It often took us half an hour to go a couple blocks from his place to eat – every walk of life stopped him on the street, fans, foreigners, even cops, always. So after a bunch of hellos, it was time to drive along.
You see, one of The Ramones biggest fans was Joe himself. So he had no problem with my insistence we drive a bit and keep listening. We went round and round town, up the east side, through the park, down the West End Highway, playing this for at least an hour, probably two. No exaggeration.
Does life get any better than a memory like that?
No.
Above: Jukebox Tab signed by Joey Ramone
Below: One of the few clips that actually captures their sheer power.
Lucky Mica Paris, the credibility maintained despite most of her output becoming dated pretty quickly. It wasn’t for lack of effort. Julian Palmer, RnB obsessed A&R guy, tried matching her with US producers, getting even Prince on board, all in an attempt to spread voice and personality to worldwide attention.
Nope. Mica was desperately rooted in that UK version of US soul. Despite being so ahead of the curve and/or completely in tune with the times, the English never quite coined the pure American black sound. UK rap being especially embarrassing, every last bit of it. Okay, some of it’s funny.
No matter, the dated ball and chain ended up framing Mica’s stuff nicely as period pieces. Time heals many things. You see, I for one quite liked a lot of the soggy UK soul attempts.
‘Young Soul Rebels’ has a track humbly reminiscent of Diana Ross’ ‘Love Hangover’ atop a perfectly sterile Soul II Soul drum pattern, all ‘feel the beat beneath your feet’ stuff. My first listen to her trail-off inflection on that initial “fighting for the right to be free” lyric in the chorus and I was sold. Besides, it’s the theme to the film of the same name – which although unseen to these eyes, hopefully is an amusing self celebration of and by UK soul fans. Fingers crossed that image won’t be spoiled by getting a copy.
The Heartbreakers were in London, playing The Marquee around the last week or so of March ’77. It was luckily during a fortnight visit, seeing a band every night type trip, right at the height of punk. The Roxy was in it’s brief existence and having missed them there in order to see The Damned and Johnny Moped at the LSE, I was anxious to get in early. It’s funny when you go 3,000 miles to see a band that’s from your own backyard. They were both everything New York yet perfectly invented for England too. Recalling the show that night still gives me the shakes.
To prove the point about England, they signed to a reactivated (I think just for them) Track Records. Seemingly dormant since the very early 70′s, suddenly Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp were dug up and cleaned off – good as new.
In ’67, when the label began, those two must have been a real threat with both The Jimi Hendrix Experience and The Who on a roster that overnight put Track in the uh-oh we’re all in trouble now league. Thunderclap Newman and The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown didn’t help, while Marsha Hunt, John’s Children, The Eire Apparent and Cherry Smash made stubbornly difficult to find, must-have flops.
‘One Track Mind’, The Heartbreakers second single, had me thinking they could take over the world. My crystal ball obviously needed new batteries. But the guitar tones of Johnny Thunders and especially Walter Lure were a wall of sloppy sound live and for a brief moment I couldn’t get enough.
Walter played for years on The Ramones albums. His signature sound is a giveaway on TOO TOUGH TO DIE, and a perfect foil to Johnny’s.
Michael Alago signed Nina Simone to Elektra in ’92, and I’m pretty sure she made her last studio album as a result. Michael, at that point, was very friendly with her, having been an ardent fan for several years. Nina was living in LA at the time, and during October of that year, she and Michael were together doing pre-production in some studio off Hollywood Blvd.
I was in town for The Cramps as they were preparing FLAMEJOB for my label, Medicine, and had timed the trip around a three day run The Ramones were doing at The Palladium (10/14 – 16, to be exact). It was a fun one.
Both Micheal and I, as well as Johnny Ramone, Arturo Vega (The Ramones’ career long light & design guy) and Monte Melnick (their tour manager), all shared birthdays within days of each other in that exact time frame, so Alago decided to have a pre show dinner party at The Hollywood Athletic Club to celebrate all five, as well as his Nina/Elektra signing.
By then he was having a slightly difficult time getting her to record the songs he wanted. On that particular night, it didn’t help that I was enamored with her Philips period stuff. She and I sat across from each other at this long table. With Nina right next to Joey, she just got into deep details about her time with that label as soon as we asked. It was fascinating info, I was even interested in what she could recall about the actual Philips offices, which surprisingly was a lot. Plus the details of the studios, her engineers and the small, small recording budgets of the day.
‘Four Women’ was a much played single then as now, and after a LOT of champagne on her part, I suggested she re-record it for the new album. Michael at that moment was sort of standing behind her in his constant buzzing around, good host style, and just whipped his head toward me, eyes bugging and frantically hand motioned behind her head to STOP. Panicked and pissed all at once, he kept up this silent communication, but too late, she was now on a ‘Four Women’ roll. Her assistant, like Nina with back to Michael, opinioned that it was timely, and might be a good idea.
So fuck it, I threw in, “and you should make a video”.
Nina announces loudly “Michael, I want to make a video for ‘Four Women’ “.
This was about to go very wrong when he seamlessly circles round behind me and says, “Before you forget, you should get Nina to do your jukebox tab now, and you know Nina, if we redo ‘Four Women’, Philips will just try to reposition their version and not pay you like they still don’t”.
Good move Alago, as that’s all she needed to be reminded of. End of idea, end of dinner and onward to The Ramones show (with signed jukebox tab in wallet), sans Nina.
Let’s face it. The theme song to ABC’s syndicated daily pop show, WHERE THE ACTION IS, titled ‘Action’ by Freddy Cannon, was so good, even The Ramones could have covered it.
I lived for WHERE THE ACTION IS and saw many a great act each day after school. Our local Syracuse affiliate, WSYR-TV, was wishy-washy, and many times pre-empted it with other things. Looking over the complete, chronological list of episodes and guests, I’ve only just discovered missing Pinkerton’s Assorted Colours, The Action and Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich for just that reason. Indeed, I’m a bit crushed having now discovered these atrocities. Scumbags.
But seeing an LA centric act almost daily, given they were basically down the street from the studios, must have been daily bliss. To name a few: The Guillteens, The Ikettes with and without Ike & Tina Turner, The Vejtables, The Leaves, The Seeds, Gary & The Hornets, Love, Dino Desi & Billy, The Buffalo Springfield, Jan & Dean.
Not to mention the RnB stuff: Martha & The Vandellas, Doris Troy, The Royalettes, Mary Wells, Brenda Holloway, The Toys, Maxine Brown, Kim Weston, Carla Thomas, Billy Stewart, Bobby Hebb, Alvin Cash & The Crawlers or Felice Taylor. I still replay The Vibrations doing ‘My Girl Sloopy’ vividly in my memory.
Then there were the black and white segments from England, a real high for we Anglophiles: The Small Faces, Gary Farr & The T-Bones, Them, The Mindbenders, The Zombies, The Moody Blues, The Kinks, Unit 4 + 2, The Who, Wayne Fontana, Marianne Faithfull, The Yardbirds and The Cryin’ Shames.
It could have been awful, and left a nasty void, had John Lydon not delivered as powerful and contemporary a debut single for his new band as this. Do you remember the video that accompanied it? Equally great.
Johnny Ramone always planned to quit before the band got “fat, bald or lazy”. Despite everyone coaxing he and Joey back to the stage after their ’96 retirement, they did leave a timeless image of themselves, just as John planned, by never doing so. Whether by design or not, The Sex Pistols are in the same boat.
Lydon often hung out with Michael and Howard at Elektra around the time ALBUM was released in ’86. What a fucking hysterical guy. No question, he was a great night out.
Once THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY film hit, summer ’78, I started my obsession with his many great singles. How I’d not really paid attention prior is baffling. I never noticed that most of my favorite singles by The Hullaballoos were actually his hits. Never mind, I began the amassing of his Coral and Brunswick output. Now at first this was a bit confusing. Hits that are all referred to as ‘Buddy Holly’ now were actually issued as either Buddy Holly or The Crickets back in the day (’57 – ’59). Not unlike say, The Ramones, turns out he didn’t have anywhere near the placements chart-wise his impact deserved – or that history has proven him to have achieved. In fact, he only graced Billboard’s Top 10 three times, and all in ’57.
Possibly the confusion of issuing records under two names – even more oddly – by the same parent company Decca’s two subsidiary imprints (Coral and Brunswick) contributed.
One of my many favorites is ‘Maybe Baby’. All Crickets singles were issued on Brunswick – while all Buddy Holly’s were on Coral. As a final pain in the ass complication, this Crickets record is on Coral. Go figure.
I couldn’t resist jumping on the Christmas bandwagon, even as I swore I wouldn’t. I guess I’ve been hearing The Waitresses’ ‘Christmas Wrapping’ so much lately. You’d have thought it was given it’s deserved airings when released in ’81, but that was not the case. Seems it’s just oozed into the mainstream, which is just fine. Flawless song and delivery, and some classic lyrics (“Let’s get this winter over with” comes to mind). Like everyone, I have some real holiday favorites: Wizzard, Brenda Lee, The Ramones, The Phil Spector album and Eartha Kitt’s ‘Santa Baby’, but the one nobody mentions is ‘Christmas On Riverside Drive’. Kid Creole & The Coconuts had a perfect two year run back around ’81/’82. The UK ate them up, several singles bobbing in and out of their Top 40, with side projects selling as well (Coati Mundi/Dr. Armando’s Second Avenue Rhumba Band). The whole living color filled tropical sand and palm trees allure was too much for England not to buy into. The live show back then must have been absolutely perfect for the moment. Their seasonal song is unfortunately way below the radar, but captures the greatness of NYC around the holiday to a T. Both singles are from the Ze release, A CHRISTMAS RECORD.
Listen: Listen: Hey Boy Hey Girl / The Chemical Brothers HeyBoyHeyGirl.mp3
How often do you see a 7″ single by The Chemical Brothers? Actually this was the first of two, that I’m aware of. And it’s US only. If ever there was a great night out, it’s at one of their live shows. You almost, like with Kraftwerk, The Ramones, Suicide or The Cramps, need not bother going to see anything else ever again. Well that’s a bit strong, but not far fetched. This also was a favorite call and response number I sparred off with between myself and our daughter Ping when she was about 5, so pretty sentimental. Even though it’s fairly current, and well known, it’s still a great single – and sounds amazingly good in the Seeburg.
One of the often overlooked punk pop classics. I remember Joey always saying how much he loved this band, and how good they were opening a bunch of UK dates for The Ramones in ’77. Not sure what happened, seems they had that initial blast of great singles, and really good debut album, then clunk. Shame. ‘First Time’ is right up there.
I always regretted not making that very long drive – about 3 hours – to see The Rezillos open for The Ramones at Cornell University. Talk about a perfect package. Not long after, essentially the same lineup changed their name to Revillos, I think to side step a recording contract with Sire and move on to Virgin, but I may be wrong. Didn’t matter, the sound, songs, look, speed and humor remained. It was only about three years ago that I saw them at all. They luckily came over to New York and were as great as I’d hoped they’d be back then. Drums still being played so fast they didn’t even sound like drums. Faye dancing silly, but lovable too. And so many good songs. Nowadays they play both Rezillos and Revillos gems. I have a bunch of favorites, and really loved the ‘Scuba Scuba’ video the one time I saw it in 1980 on the big screen at The Peppermint Lounge a week before it closed. The Cramps were playing. I was in a youtube late night loop recently and searched for it. The video was up, but has kinda lost it’s punch, with the now outdated effects. Still, the memory was enough for me to pull the single out. Such a nice clean amphetamine sound.
Did anybody see L7 on Lollapalooza in ’93? It’s as though the event was tailor made for these girls. By now ‘Pretend We’re Dead’ was near anthemic and despite sharing the festival with headliners Green Day and The Smashing Pumpkins, it was becoming tricky to top them.
Stupidly, I paid little attention to their show at The Marquee in NY a year earlier. How could one be so careless? Very regretful. The place was jammed, L7 was on the way up. Alago and I got there late, so by now we were in the back and that was that.
Yes a hot summer’s day at Jones Beach for Lollapalooza sobered me right up. I was suddenly in a panic to get the back catalog on vinyl, fairly routine in the 90′s, although clean copies of ‘Pretend We’re Dead’ weren’t easy, not the sleeve at least.
Even better was ‘Andres’, the first single from HUNGRY FOR STINK. Never will I forget their late night performances to promote it. Suzi Gardner singing lead, pretty handy as I’d become a serious, serious stalker. They played early in the day at Seattle’s Bumbershoot that August – on the big stage, meaning the huge arena on the grounds. Despite a few thousand kids, it still was desolate – for most bands that is. No worries, L7 delivered as though the joint was heaving. Their sheer power was relentless, a quality never lost.
Why they just stopped playing, threw in the towel, is frustrating and baffling. The last NY show was at Bowery Ballroom. Seems everyone went off boil, I couldn’t find one person to join me. The show may be in my Top 10 of life – it was that good.
L7 were just about to become the dependable pillar of punk, clawing up from a quiet patch, the live band you could always go see and never be let down. I dare say they were about the fill The Ramones’ shoes. Damn.
