Monday, July 31, 2023

Before I Get Old - The Story of the Who - Dave Marsh

 

Interestingly enough, Marsh starts this 500+ page tale of one of the original British Invasion bands with the introduction of Irish Jack. Jack, living in Britain, is a fledgling Mod who discovers the Detours and later their incarnation as the Who and follows their trajectory as the leading musical proponent of this latest Fab/Gear music/fashion trend. From their initial (almost literal) explosion on the British musical scene, the band garners a loyal following among these new modernists along with other like-minded youngsters and become one of the biggest combos in the world!

From there, Marsh introduces the band members through their early years and their eventual meeting. There are other ventures before the Who, of course, and there is a short time spent as the High Numbers (really trying to cash in on Mod slang and fashion) before they meet managers Lambert and Stamp who steer their way to eventual stardom. The Mods provide their early audience - hundreds pack into small clubs to catch their auto-destruction stage show and hard-edged R'n'B songs - and Townsend learns to capture his own insecurities and turn them into anthems for the new movement.

Marsh includes descriptions of the times, the media (national pop TV shows made many bands in the 60's), the fans and their reactions to the band's success, the managers and their techniques and dreams, and lots more. He's not afraid to interject his own opinion into the tale, and he refutes other people's opinions and reviews, although I can't say that I always agree with him, but then that's why it's an opinion, I suppose. I certainly don't agree with his assessments of Pop Art, but his theory that Pete was making things up as he went along when describing the Who as Pop Art Music (as they attempted to slightly  move away from Mod, although I think it could be argued that Mod was as much Pop Art as anything else, as well) was pretty much on the mark, I believe. 

Some of the behind-the-scenes relationships are some of the more interesting parts of the book - the band's brawls are common knowledge, of course (Roger was even booted from the band temporarily, just as they hit with "My Generation"), but producer Shel Talmy provides some insights - and the others' opinions of his techniques and mannerisms - and manager Lambert's preproduction work on Pete's songs seem to be as important as any other contribution.

Oddly, in talking about the My Generation album, Marsh downplays "The Kids Are Alright" which is arguably Townsend's most important Mod anthems and inarguably one of his most exciting and enduring songs, covered by innumerable artists and a huge smash with the 70's punk scene. He also doesn't think much of the great "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" or their Motown covers (which is more legit, although ones like "Leaving Here" are fab), so I gotta take his opinions with a barrel of salt.

There's a run-though of the band's hits'n'misses, the life-changing record (for the Who) that was Tommy (and all that entailed), Pete's nervous breakdowns (trying to come up with a follow up to Tommy, trying to put together Quadrophenia and the following disastrous backing-tape tours), solo albums, in-fighting and all the rest. Of course, other than a few shining spots, after Who's Next they were never consistently great again, sad to say, and were sometimes fairly atrocious, and after Moon's untimely death, they were never really the Who again.

But, their Kids Are Alright movie was astounding and brought them many new fans (just as Moon passed, unfortunately) and the Quadrophenia movie was actually quite a bit better than the album it was named after. The Small Faces' Kenney Jones was brought in temporarily on drums and the band started referring to their "final tour" in the early 80's, hilariously enough, as Pete'n'Roger are still out there playing and using the name (although some call them The Two now, instead).

The book ends in '82 with the future up in the air and unfortunately, the guys never did much from there - some records, some shows, but nothing that even hinted at their former glories. We've lost John since then, as well, and Pete and Roger are obviously slogging along still because they don't know what else to do - and who can blame them for that?

In any case, the book gives a pretty detailed - if opinionated - overall of one of the greatest rock'n'roll bands of the time, with lots of voices represented and lots of context given. Certainly well worth the (lengthly) read!

RIP Paul Reubens



Paul Reubens, Pee-wee Herman Actor, Dies at 70 After Private Bout of Cancer 
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Goddamit, I'm getting tired of these constant obituaries.

Of course, I was a big fan and by all accounts he was a nice guy too. Glad that he was able to overcome some of his bad press and have a bit of a resurgence as his Pee Wee character and as himself as an actor. So sorry to hear this....

Saturday, July 29, 2023

RIP Beatle Bob



Beatle Bob, St. Louis Dancing Legend, Has Died 
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RIP Harlan Hollander

 


Again, I was never close with Harlan but loved his work with Phast Phreddie and Thee Precisions - damn talented guitarist and was always nice whenever I met him. 

RIP Jim Miller


 (Jim Bottom Left in Trashcan School)

Damn sorry to hear this. We were never particularly close but I certainly respected and dug his various musical projects even if I have been out of touch since leaving LA. His work with Black Angel’s Death Song and Trashcan School helped created some of my fave wild'n'noisy'n'moody music from LA in the late 80's/early 90's.


Thursday, July 20, 2023

recommended gigs

 Friday 7-21-23 - The Unwieldies and Motel Drive at Red Dwarf

Saturday 7-22-23 - Thee Swank Bastards late night at the Golden Tiki

Monday 7-24-23 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Friday 7-28-23 - Shanda and the Howlers at the Gambit

Friday 7-28-23 - Thee Hypnotiques at the Golden Tiki

Saturday 7-29-23 - Thee Swank Bastards late night at the Golden Tiki

Sunday 7-30-23 - the Surfers of Mercy at Red Dwarf's Sunday Brunch

Monday 7-31-23 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Wednesday 8-2-23 - Franks'n'Deans Weenie Roast with the Hardyville Stranglers 

Saturday 8-5-23 - The Psyatics with the Vegasendents and Fur Dixon at the. Double Down

Saturday 8-5-23 - Thee Swank Bastards late night at the Golden Tiki

Monday 8-7-23 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Saturday 8-12-23 - Suburban Resistance, With Liberty, Jet Jaguar, Lean 13 at Founder's Club

Saturday 8-12-23 - Franks'n'Deans, Jerk!, Sloth Fist at the Double Down

Thursday 8-17-23 - Art Gray Noize Quintet with the Psyatics at the Dive Bar

Saturday 8-19-23 - the Unwieldies and Big Like Texas at the Sand Dollar Downtown

Wednesday 8-23-23 - The Minges, Negative Nancys, War Peggy, Crimson Riot at Artifice

Friday 8-25-23 - Shanda and the Howlers, Muck and the Mires, Cromm Fallon and the P200 at Red Dwarf

Wednesday 9-20-23 - It's OK, Suburban Resistance, Crom. Fallon and the P200 at the Dive Bar

Friday 10-6-23 - The Shakewells, the Rebel Set, Isaac The Phantom Rother at Red Dwarf

Thursday 10-12-23 - the Adverts at theDive Bar

Saturday 10-14-23 - Tav Falco's Panther Burns with Rhythm Ace and the Nu-Tones at the Sand Dollar Downtown

Sunday, July 16, 2023

RIP Jane Birkin

Actress and singer Jane Birkin dies, France loses an 'icon' 
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Thursday, July 13, 2023

recommended gigs

 Friday 7-14-23 - The Psyatics, The Shakewells, the Implosions and more at Founders Club

Saturday 7-15-23 - Thee Swank Bastards late night at the Golden Tiki

Monday 7-17-23 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Friday 7-21-23 - The Unwieldies and Motel Drive at Red Dwarf

Saturday 7-22-23 - Thee Swank Bastards late night at the Golden Tiki

Monday 7-24-23 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Friday 7-28-23 - Shanda and the Howlers at the Gambit

Friday 7-28-23 - Thee Hypnotiques at the Golden Tiki

Saturday 7-29-23 - Thee Swank Bastards late night at the Golden Tiki

Sunday 7-30-23 - the Surfers of Mercy at Red Dwarf's Sunday Brunch

Monday 7-31-23 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Saturday 8-5-23 - The Psyatics with the Wolfhounds and Fur Dixon at the. Double Down

Saturday 8-5-23 - Thee Swank Bastards late night at the Golden Tiki

Monday 8-7-23 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Saturday 8-12-23 - Suburban Resistance, With Liberty, Jet Jaguar, Lean 13 at Founder's Club

Saturday 8-12-23 - Franks'n'Deans, Jerk!, Sloth Fist at the Double Down

Thursday 8-17-23 - Art Gray Noize Quintet with the Psyatics at the Dive Bar

Saturday 8-19-23 - the Unwieldies and Big Like Texas at the Sand Dollar Downtown

Friday 8-25-23 - Shanda and the Howlers, Muck and the Mires, Cromm Fallon and the P200 at Red Dwarf

Saturday 9-2-23 - Punk Rock Flea Market at Cemetery Pulp - starting at 2:00 pm

Wednesday 9-20-23 - It's OK, Suburban Resistance, Crom. Fallon and the P200 at the Dive Bar

Saturday 10-14-23 - Tav Falco's Panther Burns with Rhythm Ace and the Nu-Tones at the Sand Dollar Downtown

Wednesday, July 12, 2023

John Fante - Wait Until Spring, Bandini

 


After my recent re-read of Ask the Dust, I noticed that this book happened to be stacked up among many next to my bed (we have stacks of books pretty much everywhere in our house) so I thought I'd give this another perusal, as well.

This storyline takes place in a Colorado winter during Arturo Bandini's youth (he's a teenager when we come across him), detailing his family life with a laborer father (who doesn't get much work at this time, which is why he needs to "wait until spring" - and Arturo also needs to wait until then for baseball to resume), a devoted homemaker mother and two brothers. The father simultaneously loves and resents his family and is a gambler and a drinker, the mother loves the family and is a devout Catholic (they are Italian), and Arturo is an awkward teen, embarrassed by their relative poverty, his old clothes and his adolescent looks, in love with a fellow student who cares nothing for him, and is just trying to get through a confusing life.

The elder Bandini turns their lives upside down when he disappears after an argument about his mother-in-law visiting and doesn't return, which pretty much destroys his wife, emotionally. Through this drama, the kids have to try to navigate the world on their own, with their own trials'n'tribulations.

Although missing the LA aspect of Ask The Dust, this may be the better story, even given that these characters all have their many flaws, as well, and again, no one is particularly likeable. But I can relate to Arturo's teenage awkwardness'n'angst even if I never had to live through the experiences detailed here and was a bit more respectful of my folks that he is here. 

So, good, but not gripping enough for me personally to make me a Fante follower. 


Monday, July 10, 2023

John Fante - Ask The Dust

 

Throughout the 80's I was an embarrassingly huge Bukowski fan - although I've always said that I would never want to meet him in person - and through his recommendations in his writings, I looked into other similar authors and Fante was one of Hank's biggest influences. Buk had Chinaski and Fante had Arturo Bandini as his written alter ego, and they both haunted the streets'n'bars of Los Angeles, often at the same time, even though they never met until much later in their lives. In any case, it was certainly due to Buk that I found Fante. I read this book ages (decades?) ago but my lovely wife never had and was interested in the LA noir aspect of the story so she picked it up since we have no idea where my copy ended up so we have both read/re-read it now.

While Fante definitely has a way with words and some good turns-of-phrases, overall his work doesn't grab me the way that Buk's did even if the subject matter is similar. In this book - if I understand correctly, this is his first published work even through it is the second novel he wrote - we meet Fante as a 20 year old struggling writer who has just moved to LA from Colorado and is going through some tough times. Apparently, this is at least somewhat autobiographical as he falls in love with a woman working at a bar but due to his inexperience with women and her interest in another man, theirs is a troubled relationship. His luck with his writing improves but his luck with Camilla is more than rocky as we follow it through it's inevitable (in a way) end.

There are plenty of good lines, but the characters are not overly likable - Fante insults the woman he supposedly loves, he starts fights (although not physical ones - he seems to avoid that, unlike Buk), he wavers between egotism and insecurity, etc. while Camilla is not much better and the man she loves beats her and the supporting characters are mostly ignorant and forgettable.  So, you don't really root for anyone in the story and it's all just kind of sad.

Fans of Bukowski may want to check Fante out just to see Hank's influences, but I don't know - it just isn't there for me.

Transformer - The Lou Reed Story - Victor Bockris

 


This is another book from our "library" that I apparently read well before I had this blog so I thought that I would revisit it. Bockris worked with Andy Warhol and has written about him, the Velvets, Patti Smith, William Burroughs, and many more - often with some first hand knowledge of the subjects.

Here he does his best to flesh out the image of Lou Reed - or, at least, to give us an explanation and a history of that image. Opening with Lou's shock therapy treatments and subsequent distrust of his parents, Lou's childhood is one of rebellion, gay tendencies, rock'n'roll, writing and art. He tends to create his own world where his father is an ogre, his mother is submissive and he is a victim - most of which is denied by anyone who knew the family. Nonetheless, he manages to get to college where he finds both a male and female muse'n'inspiration and continues to dominate and subjugate his "friends" and continues to create the Lou Reed that we know from the media.

At the same time, he is also writing short stories and poems ("The Gift" is written for his college girlfriend) and, as he continues to work with his guitar, he branches out to songs, as well - at least several of which he later records. He does even find time to put together a rock'n'roll band and also becomes an acolyte of writer Delmore Schwartz, who encourages Lou to write seriously, not dabble in r'n'r.

Over the years, I have learned to not take biographies as the literal truth as they stem from various personal recollections directed through the bias of the author, but I still want to believe in the legends, although I now take them all with a barrel of salt. Of course, we all know about Lou's time at Pickwick and the Primitives and finding Cale at a party cuz he looked right but then discovering that they each had something musically and inspirationally to offer the other. It really came together when Lou ran into a college acquaintance, Sterling Morrison, and they blended Lou literary lyrics, their love for doo-wop, rock'n'roll and free jazz with Cale's more esoteric musical leanings, joined by Moe Tucker and forming the VU.

There's some good stories about recording the debut of the Velvet Underground and the dynamics of the group at that time and, naturally, plenty of gossip about how the relationships failed and how Lou's ego caused him to expel Cale and bring in Doug Yule. The personal anecdotes are the most interesting to me, since I'm familiar with the basic story of the band, but had no idea the extent of Lou's bisexuality (if Bockris is to be believed), for instance, or the extent of his drug use and his manipulations. 

Of course, after Cale left and Yule came in, Lou lost his real musical foil and floundered until he left the band and floundered some more at his parent's house until salvaged by Lisa and Richard Robinson for his first solo album, which basically flopped as it was simply inferior versions of leftover VU tunes. Enter David Bowie and Mick Ronson who helped to fabricate Transformer into a top selling album with one of the most improbable hit singles of all time, "Walk on the Wild Side". Lou being Lou, he followed this up with one of his least commercial albums, Berlin, which flopped. Funnily, Bockris thinks this is Lou's masterpiece while I agree with the masses who found it ok, but nothing special. I know that this is supposed to be Lou's personal statement but regardless of the themes, the songs as songs are just not that strong and are pretty forgettable, compared to much of his other work.

Ironically, his "throw away" albums, Rock'n'Roll Animal and Sally Can't Dance, are an immense improvement on the forgettable Berlin and became major hits (although, frankly, I didn't realize that Sally was that big at the time), which just made Lou all that more depressed since he didn't think much of them, and, according to Bockris anyway, he delved even deeper into drugs as well as a relationship with Rachel, the infamous transvestite that Lou had a long affair with.

But really, after Transformer, Lou's 70's work was sub-par until Street Hassle, a Reed-ian reaction to the NYC punk rock scene, but done his way, of course - that even included a cameo by Bruce Springsteen! There are lots of ups'n'downs from then on, with personal'n'musical partnerships coming'n'going, including a marriage (to a woman), musical endeavors with Robert Quine, his final love interest in Laurie Anderson and much more, while Lou actually makes millions and - gasp - becomes comfortable - as much as someone like Lou can be.

Published in 1994, the book is, naturally, an incomplete story but is an entertaining'n'informative read on Reed. Certainly recommended for fans of the man!

Thursday, July 06, 2023

recommended gigs

Friday 7-7-23 - San Diego legends the Nashville Ramblers with Trevor and the Jones at Red Dwarf

Friday 7-7-23 - Thee Swank Bastards at Mabel's

Tuesday 7-11-23 - The Psyatics with the Pine Hill Haints and Invisible Teardrops at Red Dwarf

Friday 7-14-23 - The Psyatics, The Shakewells, the Implosions and more at Founders Club

Saturday 7-15-23 - Thee Swank Bastards late night at the Golden Tiki

Monday 7-17-23 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Friday 7-21-23 - The Unwieldies at Red Dwarf

Saturday 7-22-23 - Thee Swank Bastards late night at the Golden Tiki

Monday 7-24-23 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Friday 7-28-23 - Shanda and the Howlers at the Gambit

Saturday 7-29-23 - Thee Swank Bastards late night at the Golden Tiki

Monday 7-31-23 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Saturday 8-5-23 - The Psyatics with the Wolfhounds and Fur Dixon at the. Double Down

Saturday 8-5-23 - Thee Swank Bastards late night at the Golden Tiki

Monday 8-7-23 - Thee Swank Bastards at the Golden Tiki

Saturday 8-12-23 - Suburban Resistance, With Liberty, Jet Jaguar, Lean 13 at Founder's Club

Saturday 8-12-23 - Franks'n'Deans, Jerk!, Sloth Fist at the Double Down

Thursday 8-17-23 - Art Gray Noize Quintet with the Psyatics at the Dive Bar

Friday 8-25-23 - Shanda and the Howlers, Muck and the Mires, Cromm Fallon and the P200 at Red Dwarf

Wednesday 9-20-23 - It's OK, Suburban Resistance, Crom. Fallon and the P200 at the Dive Bar