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As promised, here's the rundown of tracks from my entry in the CDP's CDP Worldwide Mix-Tape Trade 8. The title of my mix CD is "For Malachi Ritscher." You can read more about Ritscher here and you can read about the history and theme of the mix here.
1. "Ban the Game" by Men Without Hats (from the album Rhythm of Youth) Not many people would use the word "poignant" when referring to Men Without Hats. For most folks, the band's name evokes images of midgets at a Renaissance fair. But "Ban the Game," the first track on their 1982 debut album, is quite the poignant tune and I thought this was a good way to introduce the program.
2. "The Mob Rules" by Black Sabbath (from the soundtrack to the film Heavy Metal) Although Ozzy-era Sabbath is laden with political themes, this was seldom the case with their Dio-era material. "The Mob Rules" is something of an exception. The idea that "when you listen to fools, the mob rules" is a reminder that mass hysteria generally yields the worst of what the world has to offer. In the wake of 9/11, this kind of polarized groupthink brought our worst prejudices to light and ultimately led us to the invasion and occupation of two countries. (I used the Heavy Metal edit because on Mob Rules, there's about half a second of the song "E150" that bleeds into the beginning of "The Mob Rules" and it's pretty much impossible to edit out. I wish the sound quality of this particular track was a little better.)
Allen Ginsberg
3. "The Sunflower Sutra" by Allen Ginsberg (from the album Howl and Other Poems) Both for his own time and well beyond, few voices of protest and activism are as thought-provoking and insightful as that of Allen Ginsberg. Laden with vivid imagery and ethereal symbolism, "The Sunflower Sutra" is a work that evaluates and celebrates self-awareness while chronicling his personal struggle to make the world a better place. (Had I not been going for the whole "three word title" pattern, I might've included "America," which is one of my favorite Ginsberg works.)
4. "No Fucking War" by 7 Year Bitch (from the album Sick 'Em) 7 Year Bitch was one of the most underrated punk bands of the 1990's. They were heavy as hell and something of a standout from the "riot grrrl" and grunge ensembles of their time. Selene Vigil belted out songs with the bulldozer-like ferocity of a female Cronos (and that, friends, is the highest of compliments from yours truly)."No Fucking War" was 7 Year Bitch's song of protest against Operation Desert Storm, but the lyrics became even more relevant during America's second foray into the Persian Gulf. With George W. Bush leading the new charge, the line "Bush, pull out like your father should have" (originally aimed at George HW Bush) turned a simple double entendre into an irony that was profoundly unfortunate.
5. "Two-Sided Politics" by Suicidal Tendencies (from the album Suicidal Tendencies) Some Cold War-era musings on alienation and injustice going on here: I'm not anti-Reagan, Reagan's anti-me /And I'm not anti-government, government's anti-me/And I'm not anti-politics, politics is anti-me/And I'm not anti-anything, I just wanna be free. Well…It still rings true, doesn't it?
6. "Pen Cap Chew" by Nirvana (from the box set With the Lights Out or possibly from the Pay to Play bootleg) It's not so much of a pacifist's anthem, but there's definitely some political awareness in the line "Kill a politician and then wear his clothes." Part Robin Hood, part Bolshevik revolutionary….all Cobain. The spoken word lead-in is an outtake I pulled from side four of the LP version of From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah. It's not really relevant to the song, but it's funny because Bob Larson is a yutz. I originally spliced these tracks together for another mix CD many years ago.
7 Year Bitch
7. "Levi Stubbs' Tears" by Billy Bragg (from the album Talking with the Taxman About Poetry) So beautiful and so sad, all at the same time. This song is about trudging through life despite the worst kinds of trouble and tragedy: "When the world falls apart, some things stay in place."
8. "The Call Up" by The Clash (from the album Sandanista!) Sandanista! should make each and every list of the greatest rock albums of all time, now and forever. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that this album is still woefully underappreciated despite innovation, musicianship and content (both artistic and political content) of the highest caliber. Think of "The Call Up" as something like the punk equivalent of Phil Ochs' much-celebrated draft evasion anthem "Draft Dodger Rag."
9. "Canons of Christianity" by Phil Ochs (from the album Phil Ochs in Concert) Phil Ochs is not just one of my favorite artists; he is one of my favorite human beings. I think a lot of people believe Phil ultimately took his own life because he lost his sanity. I prefer to think that Phil stayed sane while the rest of the world went crazy. "Canons of Christianity" nicely sums up the problems wrought by religion's best of intentions.
10. "Over the Edge" by The Wipers (from the album Over the Edge) If you've never heard any stuff by The Wipers, do yourself a favor and buy the 3 CD box set that includes is This Real?, Youth of America, and Over the Edge. This is a great song for those days when you feel like everyone is pushing your damn buttons. (I had hoped to include the song "Youth of America" in this mix and then use the Hole cover of "over the Edge" but with "Youth" clocking in at almost 10 minutes, I wouldn't have been able to contain this collection in a single disc.)
11. "Cult of Personality" by Living Colour (from the album Vivid) My head almost exploded when I first saw Living Color perform on Saturday Night Live back in 1989. I still remember seeing how annoyed my mom was with the performance and pretty much deciding right then to go buy their album. She was less than thrilled when I brought it home. I think I missed the whole point of the song "Cult of Personality" back then but as I've grown older, I can appreciate it in a different context. Any way you look at it, this song is tremendous.
12. "Worried Man Blues" by Woody Guthrie (from the album Muleskinner Blues: The Asch Recordings Vol. 2) The quintessential poet and songwriter of the American Left, Woody fought for a better world and shared his vision far and wide. His voice and music remain the heart and soul of the continuing struggle against corruption and injustice. it was one of my favorite moments as a parent thus far when I heard baby Z. -- at about the age of 2 years old -- singling along with Woody's "Muleskinner Blues."
13. " Ένα το χελιδόνι" ("Ena to helidoni" or "A Solitary Swallow") by Mikis Theodorakis (from the YouTube video "ΝΟΕΜΒΡΗΣ 1973-ΠΟΛΥΤΕΧΝΕΙΟ") The YouTube video collage "November 1973 – Polytechnic" chronicles the 1973 uprising by students of the Athens Polytechnic in opposition to the fascist dictatorship of Greece's military junta. "Ena to Helidoni" was originally written during the Greek Civil War of 1946-1949 but it became symbolic of the struggle against the junta during the years of the dictatorship. The voice at the beginning of this track is Maria Damanaki, who was a leading voice of the students during the uprising (Damanaki has long since given up radical politics in favor of a career with ruling-class organizations and institutions). In the excerpt included in this track, Damanaki proclaims, "Everyone united in the struggle for democracy and national independence; Long live the people's struggle!" The gunshots immediately following the song are taken from audio of the junta's brutal suppression of the students on 17 November. My friend Anthony once described the juxtaposition of the song with the sound of gunfire as "chilling" (or words to that effect." I edited the audio a bit to bring these elements closer together. Thanks to Anthony for the translation help.
14. "Commerce of Grief," an excerpt from a presentation by Arundhati Roy In her September 18, 2002 talk "Come September, writer and activist Arundhati Roy commented on the dangers of jingoism and militarism that flourished in the wake of the September 11 attacks. In this particular excerpt, she explores the hypocrisy of killing innocent people to avenge the deaths of other innocent people.
15. "Search and Destroy" by The Stooges (this version from the soundtrack to The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou) I wish I had a coherent explanation for including this song, but I have to settle on the explanation that it just felt right. All of this talk of death and destruction probably brought this tune to my mind.
16. "Gimme Some Truth" by John Lennon (taken from the soundtrack to The U.S. vs. John Lennon) John Lennon, much like the rest of us, wanted the one thing that's the hardest to get.
The great Phil
Ochs
17. "Ringing of Revolution" by The Weakerthans (from the album Return of the Read Menace) Somebody gave me a compilation of stuff by the Weakerthans some years ago and to be totally honest, I never got past this song, which was the first track. This is a dynamite cover of the epic tune by Phil Ochs (without Phil's cinematic, spoken-word prologue, mind you) and after hearing this, I figured the bar was set too high and that I wouldn't appreciate anything else by Yhe Weakerthans on the level that I loved this particular performance.
18. "Black Wind Blowing" by Billy Bragg and Wilco (from the album Mermaid Avenue, Volume 2) The Mermaid Avenue albums, collections of Woody Guthrie's heretofore unpublished lyrics, contain some of the best music ever recorded. The song "Black Wind Blowing" reminds me of something that I often say about the state of the world today: "Things have to get a whole lot worse before they ever get better."
19. "Power to the People" by Huey P. Newton (excerpted from a public address) Brother Huey, much like Paul Robeson, Phil Ochs and so many others like him, had a brilliant vision of a better world that was compromised and marginalized through sustained campaigns of repression and harassment from elitists and their proverbial "running dogs." He was the epitome of the doctrine of revolutionary suicide: "I, we, all of us are the one and the multitude."
20. "Until the End" by The Nightwatchman (from the album One Man Revolution) I used to refer to Phil Ochs as the last great songwriter of the American Left… Then I heard Tom Morello's material from his "The Nightwatchman" project.
21. "for Malachi Ritscher" (original composition) This is an original "sound collage," created using my Epiphone Les Paul, Karera bass guitar and the keyboard simulator from Apple GarageBand. The spoken content was performed by K. and Z. (Z.'s line took about 37 takes.)
It was complete serendipity that I ran across a fabulous blog while surfing the 'net a week or so ago. I am not sure what I was looking for the day that I happened on The Communist Dance Party (probably looking to get some more commie tchotchkes for my burgeoning collection, I'm sure), but the style and humor of The CDP really struck that proverbial chord for me. It's in a similar vein with Cold Bacon, which has been a favorite of mine for several years now. CDP features a great mix of pop culture and personal reflection, making it interesting, funny and insightful all at the same time. Really. Plus, there are mix tapes. I've said it here before, folks: I love mix tapes.
The CDP Worldwide Mix-Tape Trade is an opportunity for CDP readers (I think we're officially called "CDPeons") to exchange mixes (on cassette or CD) via mail. Ryan Zeinert, the brains and the brawn behind the whole CDP endeavor, matches up participants and sets the guidelines and deadlines for the event. Although I missed the first seven trades, I was able to get in on Worldwide Mix-Tape Trade 8. Life is good.
Of course, given the magnitude of a global initiative such as this, there's no way that it would be so easy as to just create a simple mix and send it on its way. Each trade event involves a theme of some sort and this time around, it's "Three Little Words." So, the overall theme of the mix tape needs to be a three word phrase. I took the guidelines a little further and made sure that every song in my mix has a three-word title. I know that may seem kind of obsessive but I really want to make a big splash instead of just coming across like a CDP greenhorn.
Malachi Ritscher (1954 - 2006)
It took me a day or so to come up with my three-word theme. I think I was just trying too hard at first. At some point, something led me to recall the story of Malachi Ritscher, the artist and activist who committed suicide in 2006 by self-immolation. Ritscher killed himself as a protest to the war in Iraq, choosing to exit life in the same manner as the Buddhist monks who died while protesting the conditions in South Vietnam during the war. Ritscher explained his actions through a note published shortly after his death. His epitaph stated in part: "if I am required to pay for your barbaric war, I choose not to live in your world." Recalling this story a week or so ago, I thought to myself, "I really hope people don't forget about this man." Somewhere along the way, I got the idea to make my CDP mix tape into a commemoration of Ritscher's life and death. So, the working title for my mix is "For Malachi Ritscher."
The mix is almost complete and at present it's somewhere around 20 tracks of music and spoken word. I am waiting on a CD that I acquired from eBay just the other day (bought for the very purpose of adding one specific track to this very collection, mind you). I am also thinking about including an original composition to the mix and I have already started laying down a basic track for that particular song. I'm not the greatest of musicians, so it'll likely be more of a sentimental effort than anything to crow about.
When it's all done, I'll post my track listing, notes and artwork (yes, artwork) here on greeklish.org. Expect stuff from the likes of 7 Year Bitch, Allen Ginsberg, Woody Guthrie, Mikis Theodorakis, Billy Bragg and others. I'm hoping that the subject matter isn't too heavy for those who will receive the mix because I feel like Ritscher's legacy merits contemplation and celebration. Related stuff Mixtape Mixdown: 25 Favorites
If Chris McCoy is preaching the gospel, then brothers and sisters…I’m a believer. His 2006 CD Colder Chicago Sept. Hymns (Beachhouse Records, 2006) is a testament to his abilities as a lyricist and musician. I first heard samples from the album on McCoy’s MySpace page and was immediately reminded of Frank Black’s first solo album…and yes, you’d better believe that is a compliment. The comparison extends beyond songwriting and musicianship into the ethereal smoothness of Chris McCoy’s vocals. Truth be told, somewhere in there you might also hear a latent edge in his singing that is reminiscent of Live’s Ed Kowalczyk.
All of my quasi-esoteric comparisons aside, one of the best compliments I can bestow upon Colder Chicago is that it’s the kind of album that I’d love to fall asleep to. It’s a strange thing to say about a record for sure, but I have an unusual tendency to at least partially gauge an album on what kind of dreams it might evoke when I doze to it. It’s a paradox of sorts as the music of Colder Chicago makes it relatively easy to fade blissfully away while simultaneously bidding me to pay close attention for what the artist might offer up next. McCoy & Co. lay down some surreal tracks in which shimmering guitar work features rather prominently. All this "dreaminess" is not to say that I haven’t given Colder Chicago an attentive listen during my waking hours, mind you. The CD has actually become a staple in my listening repertoire these days. Here’s a side note to all that: The first time I listened to the disc I was driving around with my 6 year-old daughter and it wasn’t long before she was singing along with one of the songs. I don’t think she really nailed the lyrics though, because I distinctly remember her singing about cookies at one point. But she did like what she was hearing, I’m sure of that.
Colder Chicago kicks off with "Awake & Under" which effectively communicates to the first-time listener the great things that lie ahead on this album. The underlying guitar riff has a triumphant feel that seems to unwittingly channel the ghost of Phil Ochs (from some of Phil’s more upbeat tunes). The song features a well-timed break of feedback that would make Thurston Moore proud, splitting the track into a distinctly acoustic introduction and a triumphantly symphonic finish. No doubt this is a fantastic way to start an album as it brilliantly sets the tone for the remaining set. Subsequent tracks like "XXVI” and "No Devil" capture something of a post-Pixies vibe with a pleasant blend of strong, clear leads that are complimented nicely with subtle effects and background melodies.
"Tonight, This All Is Over" is a particularly intriguing track which is built around a tango-like piano ostinato and a gently driven backbeat. It fits well in the overall tapestry of the album while standing out as a unique gem unto itself. Had McCoy and The Gospel released singles for Colder Chicago, "Tonight" would’ve been a nice follow up to "Awake & Under."
"Take Me Home" and "Westgate" round out the collection of 9 tracks on the album and in some respects it’s actually difficult for me to think of these as anything but two distinct parts to one tremendous song. The hypnotic organ/keyboard melody in "Take Me Home" comes to a fitting end as the loop careens into a brief yet noisy coda. Call me crazy but it really does remind me of the "Star Gate" sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey with "Westgate" representing the other side of an otherworldly journey.
All in all, Colder Chicago Sept. Hymns is an evocative and enjoyable listening experience. With so much to offer, it’s my sincere hope that Chris McCoy and The Gospel will embark on a revival someday soon and add a few more chapters to their scripture of sound.
Purchase individual songs or the complete album through CD Baby.
They say that when one door closes another one opens…or something like that, anyway. I really have come to hate cliches these days. My locus of control is pretty internal, so I don't really look at life as a series of events that involve a person or "being" doing things for me, whether it's something proverbial or concrete. So because a big project of mine recently folded, I am going to make sure and take a good look at my prospects before I decide which doors to walk through. In the meantime, I've taken advantage of some much-needed down time to revisit some things that make me happy. Here's a short list:
The New Duncan ImperialsSticky (Pravda Records, 2000): Everyone should buy this album. I am a longtime fan of NDI, so I pretty much enjoy the hell out of everything they do. Sticky is completely different animal from their earlier stuff, though. The content is still as riff-heavy and as "balls-out" irreverent as their early material but there are some experimental tracks ("Remove Bones from Face Before Inserting in Bird") and out-and-out silliness ("I Like Carp") mixed in to boot. It's a 30-track masterpiece that might well be appropriately dubbed as NDI's White Album.
Sticky features some of my favorite NDI tracks ever, including "Waste Your Time" and "The Freshman 15." And I've said it before but it bears repeating: "Power Tool" is one of the best rock riffs ever. If I ever get famous in any way whatsoever, I am totally going to do for NDI what Nirvana did for the likes of The Wipers and the Vaselines by telling anyone and everyone about them until they get the popularity and acclaim they deserve.
Bollywood films and playback songs: Last week I was thrilled to find a new Indian and Pakistani grocery store less than 2 miles from our house. The shop has a huge supply of DVDs and during my very first visit there, I scored a cheap copy ofHum Apke Hain Kaunwhich was a big deal because I have been trying to get my hands on this film for some time. Recently I've revisited the films Sholay and Pakeezah as well as listening to a heavy rotation of my favorite Bollywood playback songs from Lata Mangeshkar, Chitrah Singh and others.
Pretty much every chance I get, I am watchingthe trailer for The Legend of Bhagat Singhon YouTube. It's still one of my favorite Indian films of all time and that's partially because the actual story ofBhagat Singhis so compelling by itself but also because Ajay Devaugn portrays Singh so effectively. My only major issue with Santoshi's biopic of Singh is that the musical numbers somehow don't seem to fit well with the story. It's still worth seeing if you're interested in Indian history or revolutionary movements…or both.
One of these days I will put together some notes and reflections on Sukhdev Thapar's 1931 letter to Gandhi. Sukhdev 's correspondence famously brought to light some of the most profound differences between the two major camps in India's independence movement.
Erythrós Press and Media: I am currently working on a complete overhaul ofour site. We've sold a lot of books since our launch in 2008, we're just now covering costs on almost all projects and we're looking at publishing some new titles later this year. Hopefully, I'll be in a good position to finance a new run of flags as we've sold all of our replicas of theSoviet Banner of Victory. Response to the banners as well as the overall reception for Erythrós Press and Media has been overwhelmingly positive.
Last weekend I was driving around listening to W.A.S.P.'s 1992 album The Crimson Idol. I've had a second-hand copy of the album for a while now and I must admit that up to, I had never managed to get through the whole CD, start to finish. After listening to the entire 2 CD set Double Live Assassins last week, I decided to give The Crimson Idol another shot. Towards the end of the album, I discovered the song "Hold on to My Heart." If there is a better heavy metal ballad, I have never heard it and – after listening to this song at least 20 times since Saturday afternoon – I can't imagine what a better one might sound like. This is just power ballad perfection.
One of my favorite series from greeklish.org is last year's "Mixtape Mixdown: 25 Favorites" series in which I counted down the tracks from my mix CD of all-time favorite songs. For a few months, I have been thinking about compiling a new CD of "forgotten favorites" to showcase some prospects for a new compilation of my 25 (or maybe 30) favorite songs. I am sure that "Hold on to My Heart" will be a contender for the revised list.
It probably won't be much of a surprise to a small number of folks that the song "Mean Man" will be in the running as well. Hell, that song is top ten material, for sure. Maybe even top five! Horns up!
A few years ago, the band Slayer released a career retrospective box set called Soundtrack to the Apocalypse. I kind of lost interest in Slayer a short time after I started college many years ago but I still remember seeing the box set in record stores right after it was released. I was intrigued by the rather lofty title of the collection, but not enough to actually spend a crapload of money to buy it at the retail price (After reading the Amazon.com reviews for it, I think I made the right decision). Anyway,a few months ago, I was picking up our yard the morning after the remnants of Hurricane Ike had blown through Ohio. I had just purchased Venom's most recent album Hell on CD a day earlier, literally hours before the windstorm hit. As I cranked the volume on my portable CD player, I looked the dark sky above and all of the destruction around me and I thought, "If any there was ever a band that could write a soundtrack to the apocalypse, it’s got to be Venom." It's the freakin' truth.
Over the last few years, I have acknowledged my admittedly strange affection for Venom a number of times on greeklish.org. I've also written a bit on my penchant for mixtapes now and again. But after over two decades as a Venom fan and the creation dozens upon dozens of eclectic mixtapes and CD compilations, it is almost unbelievable that I have never even tried to compile an Ultimate Venom collection. Until now, that is. Indeed, I have finally created the true "soundtrack to the apocalypse."
I tried to make Ultimate Venom a single-disc compilation, but there is just no way to contain the awesomeness of this band, so I ended up with a 2 CD set at the end of it all. I have pretty much every major Venom album at my disposal, including the Tony Dolan stuff, but I limited my selections for Ultimate Venom to the Cronos-fronted albums because it's his voice and lyrics that have made Venom a legendary force in heavy metal. In addition to all of the studio albums, I also have the Venom box set MMV (one of my favorite Christmas gifts ever!) as well as a bunch of live CDs and videotapes. As much as I love the live performances, I pretty much stuck to the studio albums for this compilation because the production quality on the live stuff is somewhat less than stellar.
Before spelling out my track listing for disc one of Ultimate Venom, I have one last caveat for folks that are not really hip to Venom or to heavy metal in general: Venom is an act. It's like watching a scary horror movie or hearing a dirty joke. It's just not the kind of thing that anyone should take too seriously. The band members themselves have acknowledged this time and time again in their self-deprecating jokes about being "the worst band in the world" and their attempts at "killing music." Now if you’re easily shocked or offended, then Venom isn't the band for you. But if you don't mind being a just a little uncomfortable now and again and you're up for a good creep-fest, by all means, check ‘em out.
Hail Venom! Ultimate Venom, Disc One: Life Death, Immortality
Cronos, still rocking hard after 30 years!
I went all-out on this compilation, coming up with some special artwork for the CD labels (more on that in the track listing for Disc Two) and giving each CD in the set its own title. Disc One is called Life, Death, Immortality after a line in the lyrics of "Burstin' Out": Hell has granted me three wishes/Life, death, immortality. The line seems to be drawn from the full title of Edward Young's 18th century Christian apologetic, Night Thoughts on Life, Death and Immortality. I have a small cache of antiquarian volumes of Night Thoughts. I started collecting them after I read a story about Robespierre's love for the work. He was supposedly so taken with Night Thoughts that he slept with a copy of the book under his pillow during the French Revolution.
Track listing
1. Intro 2. Bloodlust from the 1997 album Cast In Stone (Ltd. Edition Bonus CD) 1996 was a great year for me. Thomai and I got married, which was the best thing that happened that year (of course). '96 was also a year in which there was a kind of "reunion fever" going on in the music world. The biggest reunion of them all was the Kiss "Alive/Worldwide" Tour, which featured a return to glory (and makeup) for all four original band members. It was a huge deal for sure and it certainly lived up to its hype, although it's too bad that the band couldn't stick it out and stay together indefinitely. Around the same time of the much-anticipated Kiss reunion, Venom announced its own reunion of the vintage lineup, featuring the complete power trio of Cronos, Mantas and Abbadon. I think I first found out about the reunion when I saw the cover of a UK metal magazine called Terrorizer. The news was almost every bit as big as the Kiss reunion to me.
Cast In Stone was the only post-reunion studio album featuring the original lineup. In addition to a powerful collection of new tracks, the first issue of the CD included a bonus disc full of new versions of Venom classics. All too often, bands fall short when they try to "update" their best work for re-release, but the bonus disc for Cast in Stone is so fierce and so tremendous that I think it's safe to say that Venom really outdid itself with the new versions. After decades of listening to heavy metal, I honestly consider the "Intro" track from the bonus disc to be the greatest heavy metal intro track ever. Slayer's introduction to Hell Awaits is a close second, but the magnitude and complexity of the Venom track makes it so much better. There is so much stuff going on in the track, from the air-raid sirens to the haunting chants, rolling thunder and mysterious voices...It's the perfect crescendo that concludes with the demonic intro: "Ladies and Gentlemen! From the very depths of Hell...VENOM!" What a great way to start an album!
From the "Intro" track, Venom slams into "Bloodlust," which originally appeared on the Black Metal album. It's a savage, driving track that was always one of my favorites. I know Venom used to end their live sets with this song, but I always thought it would be a great way to kick off a show.
3. In League With Satan 4. Welcome To Hell from the 1981 album Welcome To Hell I think the first time I ever heard "In League with Satan," I was listening to the compilation album The Singles: 80-86. I was totally freaked out by the drums that start out the track because they sounded to bizarre...almost unearthly in a way. It was kind of like they're being played backwards, but they weren't being played backwards at all. Really difficult to explain. The song itself reminds me of the 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which was something of a mainstream, goth-meets-gore creepshow. "Welcome to Hell" is just a straight-out great Venom track that sounds something like Black-Sabbath-influenced punk rock.
5. Black Metal 6. Countess Bathory from the 1981 album Black Metal Black Metal was the first full-length venom album I ever bought. I think that was back in 1989 or so. That metallic scraping, static-like noise at the beginning of the track really makes the song stand out to me. I always kind of figured that is the sound you would hear if you were actually going to Hell or something like that. "Countess Bathory" was the second Venom song I ever heard. The first time I heard the song was when I was watching the Ultimate Revenge: Combat Tour Live home video. The clip on that compilation was from Venom's Seventh Date of Hell concert video. "Countess Bathory" has one of simplest Mantas solos ever. I'm not sure how many distinct notes are played in the solo, but I am guessing it's less than 10. The underlying riff throughout the song is probably one of my favorite metal riffs of all time.
Venom's 1995
Album Possessed
7. Satanachist from the 1985 album Possessed 8. Nightmare (12" Mix) from the 1985 album Possessed (bonus track from UK reissue) In the liner notes to Dave Grohl's 2004 Probot album, he said this about Venom: "Few bands have ever sounded truly haunted." I bet Dave was thinking about the intro to "Satanachist" when he wrote that. I first heard both of these songs on the Alive in '85 home video. Buying that video is a great memory for me. This was way back in the days before Internet shopping and I had to place a special order through a local video store. The day I went to pick it up, the clerk got it out from behind the counter, looked at the cover and then he looked at me as if to say, "Really?" Really, dude. I played the bejeezus out of that video and then one day I loaned it to someone and he moved away. It was a long time until I could score another one. I landed my new copy in about 1998 or so. It was the one of the first things I ever bought off eBay.
9. Burstin' Out from the album Cast In Stone [Ltd. Edition Bonus CD] I think I was a junior in high school the first time I heard "Burstin’ Out" and when I listened to the lyrics, I was like, "Ew. Should I be listening to this?" That was something like 20 years ago and I’m still listening to it.
10. Possessed (Remix) from the 1985 album Possessed (bonus track from UK reissue) "Possessed" is an incredible creep-fest of a song that includes some kind of weird introduction featuring a child's voice mumbling something unintelligible through some kind of heavy echo and reverb effects. I think it's one of the kids featured on the album cover photo. Possessed has the distinction of being dubbed Venom's worst album ever by critics. But what do "critics" know, anyway?
11. Sons Of Satan from the 1981 album Welcome To Hell "Sons of Satan" is a tremendous, jarring juggernaut of a song. The song actually kicks off Welcome to Hell, which was their 1981 debut album. It's got a lot of fantastic elements, including a fiery, tremolo-laden guitar solo and some classic moments courtesy of Cronos, such as his cry of "Crank it up!" right before the solo and his "Wooo-ooo!" before the final cacophonic flourish.
12. The Chanting Of The Priests from the 1987 album Calm Before The Storm This a great song off of what is likely my least favorite Venom album. I think it was their first and only single off the album. There's a good live version of it on the Eine Kleine Nachtmusic album.
13. The Evil One from the 1997 album Cast In Stone "The Evil One" is the first track on Venom's only post-reunion album. This song was a great way to resurrect Venom as a band and as an act, as the song captures all of the elements of vintage Venom material while offering a bigger, bolder and more furious sound. Just a terrific song.
14. Witching Hour from the 1981 album Welcome To Hell "Witching Hour" is my favorite Venom song ever and the first Venom song I ever heard. I wrote a whole lot about this song in my "25 Favorites" series a while back.
15. Too Loud (For The Crowd) from the 1985 album Possessed I have always loved "Too Loud (For The Crowd)" because they opened the 1985 Hammersmith show (presented in the Alive in '85 video) with this song. The studio version includes clips of the on-stage banter from the concert.
The track listing for Disc Two is coming soon! Consider yourself warned.
I had a night on the town with both K. and Z. tonight while Thomai tended to some other business. On the way to dinner at BW3, I put on a mix CD that I threw together early this morning. The CD was supposed to be a collection of ska favorites, featuring a fair amount of stuff by The Specials and The Selecter. I also included some stuff by Sublime and a few ska covers by The Clash. Now, I also added in some of my favorites by Rancid even though they're more of a punk band because the influence of ska really shines through in a lot of their stuff. So, there we were, driving to dinner in the minivan as I was cranked the Rancid songs while the girls danced and sang along in their seats.
We got to the restaurant and had some dinner and about an hour later, we made our way back to the car. As the girls got settled in their seats, Baby Z. piped up: "Daddy, can you play Radico again?"
I thought for about a second and then I understood: "Do you mean 'Roots Radicals'?" and she yelled, Yeah!" Then I said, "Oh my god. This is like a dream come true. Yes. Yes we can play it again." And we did. And we totally rocked out.
Rancid performs "Roots Radicals" Live at Summer Sonic 2001
The other night, I spent about an hour writing a blog article on my excitement over purchasing the W.A.S.P. CD Double Live Assassins. It probably doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but the story behind the purchase was almost a quarter-century in the making. Here's a bit from the original draft of my article:
Sometimes it takes me a really long time to get around to doing something. The other day – from what seemed like completely out of nowhere – it occurred to me that I have wanted the first W.A.S.P. album ever since it came out in 1984 but I have never gotten around to buying it. By '84, I had discovered Quiet Riot, Ratt, Mötley Crüe and the like. I read about W.A.S.P. in Circus and Hit Parader, but the band received absolutely no airplay on any of the radio stations in Lexington, including WKQQ which played more metal than the other local stations back then. Plus, we didn't have cable when I was a kid, so even if MTV ever did play any of their videos (and I doubt this happened very often), I wouldn't have seen them anyway. But I was pretty intrigued by W.A.S.P. based only on what I had read about them along with what probably amounted to several hours of staring at the record cover at the Record Bar shop in Turfland Mall. Tipper Gore and the PMRC were on the march around that time and it was getting more difficult for suburban kids to get their folks to spring for metal records. Besides, my folks had already been kind enough to buy Metal Health, Condition Critical and Out of the Cellar for me. I don't recall ever specifically asking either of my parents to buy the W.A.S.P. LP for me, but I would like to think that I knew better anyway.
So, several anecdotal paragraphs later, I was all set to post what had turned into a 750 word article on W.A.S.P. and the tremendous talent behind behind the band, frontman Blackie Lawless. I was just adding in some hyperlinks to some important references (including several Wikipedia articles) when I came upon a surprising line in the Wikipedia bio on Lawless:
In November 2008 he endorsed John McCain in the Presidential election saying, "I will vote for McCain, not because I believe in all he stands for, but as a mandate against Obama, to keep him from becoming President."
And I was like, "Oh, crap." But then again, I did say the same thing about voting against McCain. Then I read on...
"Yes, I will cling to my guns and my religion, and continue to believe in the Constitution, the Cornerstone of our society and trust that this is STILL a "Government of the People, By the People, For the People"
And I was like, "Um...Really?"
Really.
Blackie Lawless
The quotes were from Blackie's November 2008 open letter to KNAC.com entitled "Read in Case of National Emergency." Now, I knew that I probably needed re-tool my original draft after I read the excerpt in the Wikipedia piece. But then I pulled up the full text of Blackie's letter and I was completely blown away. I mean, it is just the most insane piece of insanity I've seen for the whole, entire election cycle (Apologies for the redundancy in that last sentence; I'm just trying to make a point here.) As a whole, Blackie's letter is something like a mixed bag of paranoid rants, McCain campaign talking points and Michael Savage-like blather. The piece is so broad in its scope that it essentially spirals into a muddled sinkhole of poorly-constructed nonsense. Hell, at one point in the letter, Blackie can't even seem to decide whether to call Obama a communist or a fascist. That's Political Science 101, folks. But then again, not every songwriter is as politically astute as, say, Phil Ochs or Tom Morello.
And by the way, I'm still waiting for a coherent, succinct, election-year critique of socialism that doesn't include the words "Marxist," "un-American" or "sucks." Still waiting.
So at the end of it all, despite some professions of a misgiving or two, Blackie decided to cozy up to the Republicans. Well, I'm sure the Repubs were really gunning for the old-school, aging headbanger vote, right? I mean, you can't win an election by limiting your appeals to moose hunters, secessionists and Glossolalists.
All kidding aside, if you don't know anything at all about W.A.S.P., then the irony of all this is probably lost on you. So, consider three things that I have known about W.A.S.P. and Blackie Lawless since I was about 12 or 13:
1. Their first album was called Animal (Fuck Like a Beast). 2. Blackie Lawless drinks blood from a skull during live W.A.S.P. shows. 3. The members of W.A.S.P. once asserted that the name of the band is actually an acronym for the phrase "We Are Sexual Perverts."
Call me crazy, but when John McCain whipped the wingnuts at the Republican National Convention into a jingoistic frenzy, I don't think there were many W.A.S.P. fans chanting the lyrics to "Killahead" in the crowd. And I doubt that Blackie's band would be welcome to play their song "The Headless Children" at the reception for Bristol Palin's upcoming shotgun wedding. After enduring years of harassment by the quasi-fascists of the PMRC, it's just unbelievable that Blackie would put all his faith into a political party that has embraced the likes of zealots like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Pat Buchanan and David Duke. To paraphrase Sarah Palin, "Say it ain't so, Blackie!" Where the PMRC merely lobbied for legislation to overhaul the recording industry, McCain's running mate Palin actually contemplated the implementation of real, unilateral censorship when she was the mayor of Wasilla. And remember, her political career is just getting started. To me, the prospect of a Palin presidential administration is a hell of a lot scarier than any heavy metal lyrics I've ever heard. The idea that McCain and company might have somehow been friendlier to civil liberties than Obama is so backwards, I wouldn't know where to begin with that one. Let's just say that I'm pretty sure that the ultra-conservative, theocracy-craving "base" that McCain championed would be more than happy to throw some old-school metal albums on their book-burning bonfires.
With Blackie's open letter, he's pretty much joined the ranks of Alice Cooper, Dave Mustaine, and Lars Ulrich. See, all of these heavy metal heroes are all still enormously talented, but they've changed into completely different people as they've "grown up". They've forgotten the power of radical ideas and why it's important to shake things up now and again. Alice and Dave have been completely consumed by religion to the point that it has significantly changed their legendary acts – and not for the better, either. Mustaine won't even perform "Anarchy in the U.K." any more because it has the word "antichrist" in it. (Sorry Dave, but I liked you better when you were evil.) And Lars Ulrich, who launched his multi-platinum career through a heavily copied demo tape (one might even use the term "pirated" to accurately describe the tape), made it his personal business to lay waste to the Internet-based file sharing community when he realized that kids were sharing Metallica songs on a royalty-free basis. Lars killed Napster almost single-handedly, but the idea still lives on. In fact, the file-sharing community is still going strong on the 'net and it's even bigger and better than ever these days...And depite all that, Lars is still a freaking multi-millionaire. Go figure.
About year ago, I was struggling with some political differences that I had run into with a longtime friend and another friend of mine gave me some important advice: "Don't sacrifice a friendship at the altar of politics." I guess I need to consider that when it comes to music, too. Especially if it's music that I really like. After all, I haven't trashed my collection of Rush albums even though I have some serious political issues with Neal Peart's overt affinity for Randian objectivism. I really do think that W.A.S.P and Blackie Lawless have put together some great music over the years, so I'm not going to just give up and stop listening to their stuff just because Lawless has written some backward and inaccurate garbage that is completely devoid of political sense, facts and logic. At the end of the day, I think I'll just treat Blackie's letter like a bad concept album or a lame power ballad and just ignore it. I have read quite a few reactions to his tirade on other blogs and I think a lot of metal fans aren't taking it too seriously. My favorite reaction was on the blog Life in a Bungalo where the site's author wrote, "I think I prefer members of WASP drunk in swimming pools." Anyone who has seen the film The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years gets that joke. (Seriously, I laughed for about 20 minutes when I read that line.)
"I Wanna Be Somebody" by W.A.S.P. (1984)
In fact, I'm going to snag some more W.A.S.P. stuff just as soon as I can. I finally bid on an affordable copy of the first W.A.S.P. album on eBay early last week, but a day or so after I paid for it, I got a note from the seller stating that the disc is completely cracked and it won't play. I went down to the local used record store the other day to see if they had it in stock. They didn't have it, but to tide me over, I got a copy of W.A.S.P.'s 1998 CD Double Live Assassins. I've been listening to it for a couple days now and it's pretty tremendous. I have always loved live albums and I don't mind getting acquainted with a band by hearing a concert recording. After all, my first major exposure to Kiss was when I heard side 3 of Alive II and that was enough to turn me into a Kiss fan for life. With any luck, I'll still be listening to both Kiss and W.A.S.P. when I'm an old man.
By the way, here's yet another piece of evidence which supports my belief that headbanging is hereditary: The other night, I was checking out W.A.S.P videos on YouTube in hopes that would placate my "jonesing" for a full-length album of W.A.S.P. songs. I cranked up the video for "I Wanna be Somebody" on YouTube and after just a few choruses, I heard Baby Z. singing along as she played next to me: "I wanna be somebody/be somebody too!!" Awesome.
A few years ago, there was a show on VH1 called "When _ Ruled the World." It was a pretty good show, as every episode featured stories, interviews and footage about a band or some other pop-culture phenomenon during their respective peak years. As a longtime Kiss fan, "When Kiss Ruled the World" stands out in my mind as one of the better episodes in the series. Back in the mid to late 1990s one of my favorite bands was a Chicago-area act called The New Duncan Imperials and for a while there, NDI really ruled the world as far as I was concerned. I guess a lot of cool stuff comes out of Chicago.Around 1994 or so, NDI videos were in heavy rotation on our local cable access channel. Some of the guys at the station were big fans of NDI and at one point, NDI even played a huge, three-hour extravaganza concert that was broadcast live from the Miami Valley Cable Council studios. To this day, that show is pretty much the best thing I have ever seen on public access television.
Clips from NDI's Video Trash including the full video for "Motel 666"
NDI had a decent following in Dayton some years ago and Gem City Records used to keep their stuff in stock so it was easy to buy their full-length CDs . They played quite a few dates in eastern Indiana and western Ohio area back in the 1990s. I saw them live for the first time at Canal Street in Dayton in the summer of 1994 (I think) and Thomai and I caught them at shows in Dayton, Columbus, and Indianapolis over the years that followed. Once, we even drove from Dayton to Broadripple and back in one night just to catch NDI. They were touring with Mojo Nixon at the time and we even managed to get a spot in the front row for the entire NDI set. Pigtail Dick signed my Harmony Les Paul before the show that night. Unfortunately, all I had with me was a very old purple Sharpie and the ink has long since worn off the guitar. I had the same guitar autographed by all the Melvins in 1995, which is a tale for another day. Hopefully I can get Pigtail Dick (or maybe even the whole NDI crew) to sign the guitar again someday.
There is really nothing like a New Duncan Imperials show. It's a high-impact act with all kinds of visual stimuli to accompany all the great music. There's all kinds of props and effects and some of them – like the mechanical "Velourabeast" head – are there to help tell a story, while other things – like the leaf blower that's been converted into a giant toilet paper streamer gun – are just part of the show because they're flat out hilarious. Plus, there's always all kinds of giveaways at the shows (the band and fans alike lovingly call this stuff "free shit") including stuff like, matches, frisbees and t-shirts. The interaction between the band and the crowd is really the cornerstone of the NDI live show experience. I have seen Pigtail play wailing guitar solos while standing on the tables at Canal Street and I remember standing under Goodtime as he bodysurfed over the crowd at the Broadripple show. Those things are really, really good memories for us.
NDI has always been about much more than funny lyrics and catchy songs. There is some fantastic musicianship in their work. Pigtail Dick is fantastic with singing and all sorts of crazy on-stage theatrics and he is an accomplished guitarist as well. Truth be told, he's really one of my favorite guitarists of all time. His licks are some of the most intense and blistering pieces imaginable, effectively fusing old-school country western influences with blues and punk. And nobody plays a riff like Pigtail. Skipper is just a terrific bassist and he's extremely witty and talented on the mic as well and once in a while he breaks out a kind of unusual instrument called an "oral piano" (that's what it's called on the CD liner notes, anyway.) All the proof you need about Goodtime's drumming abilities lies in the fact that his drum kit is basically three pieces – unless you count the gigantic kettle drum, of course. The fact the GT gets such a massive, Tommy Lee/Eric Carr quality sound out of such a small kit speaks volumes about his work as a performer.
Cover art for my mix CD When NDI Ruled the World
When I heard NDI released a new album called End of Phase Oneand that they are preparing to launch a tour celebrating their twenty year anniversary, I pulled together my entire collection of NDI CDs, tapes, vinyl and video tapes and decided it would be as good of a time as any to create the ultimate NDI mix CD. It took me a really long time to pick all my favorites and pare them down to fit on one CD, but I finally settled on a decent mix of my favorites from their major releases while also including some obscure gems from EPs, singles and videos. I call my mix CD When NDI Ruled the World and I think the selections in the mix show why NDI was such a big deal to me all those years ago and why I still love to listen to them today. My cover art for the CD features the members of NDI standing in the forefront of K. Yuon's painting A New Planet.
Here's the track listing, with a bit of info about the songs:
1. Motel 666 2. Pensacola 99 from the album Hanky Panky Parley Voo! Released back in 1990, Hanky Panky was NDI's first full-length album. I can't say for sure if this was the first NDI album that I ever bought, but I do know that the video for "Motel 666" was the first NDI song/video I ever encountered. The song is quirky and heavy at the same time and the video really captures that. "Pensacola 99" has all the elements of an NDI classic, including some raunchy lyrics, a memorable riff and wailing guitar.
3. Feelin' Sexy from the Feelin' Sexy EP The Feelin' Sexy EP was NDI's first actual record and it was released in 1990 before Hanky Panky. I absolutely love this tune and I picked the EP version over the Hank Panky version because of the EP version features an absolutely blistering guitar solo.
4. Rockin' Daddy from Video Trash I'm not really sure if the title of this song is really "Rockin' Daddy," but the words feature prominently in the chorus. This is a really unusual live performance NDI did for a local news station in Canada. Check out that "oral piano" I mentioned above because Skipper plays it in this song.
The Hymns of Bucksnort
5. Got Our Shit Together 6. Pitch A Fit from the album Hymns of Bucksnort The 1991 album Hymns of Bucksnort is my all-time favorite NDI album. "Got Our Shit Together" is kind of like the a ridiculous anthem for overconfident people. "Pitch a Fit" is a song that NDI opened with now and then during some of the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vegas shows, but the best thing about this version is that they play a low-volume rendition of the entire theme from "What's Happening!!" (one of my favorite TV sitcoms ever) at the end of the song. It's played on either an accordion or that oral piano-thing with an "a cappella" bass line. Sweet.
7. Waste Your Time 8. The Freshman 15 from the album Sticky The 2000 double CD Sticky has a really different sound from a lot of the older NDI albums and the evolution and improvement of both their skills and their production is really evident through and through on the entire album. "Waste Your Time" is a song I would definitely want to cover if I had a band of my own.
9. Overserved (Danny Bonaduce Show) from the album Fried I think the Fried collection of B-sides and oddities was released in the late 1990s and I am guessing this track was cut in 1995 or so. It doesn't get any weirder than having NDI perform a live acoustic set with Danny Bonnaduce playing rhythm guitar while Skipper yells out the chords for him.
10. Lenkkimakkaraa! from the album The Best of Mikhael Jackson The Best of Mikhael Jackson was released in 1993 and it's a "greatest hits" of sorts that features a couple of rare and previously unreleased tracks. This song was supposedly written after NDI's huge tour of Finland (no joke!) in honor of some kind of Finnish sausage-related delicacy.
11. Good Men Are Pukin' from the album Live, Rare and Bad Live, Rare and Bad is a 1992 collection of B-tracks, commercials, live stuff and other odds and ends. "Good Men Are Pukin'" is a straight-up classic, especially because you can hear Pigtail shouting out instructions to Skipper about his effects pedals before and after the main solo.
12. Female Voodoo 13. Can't Hardly Wait from the album Fried More terrific rare tracks from Fried. The live version of "Female Voodoo" is one of my favorite Pigtail Dick solos. It's got an Ace Frehley kind of simplicity about it in that there aren't many notes, but the playing is just absolutely fierce.
Back cover for the Queen of Venus single
14. Dollywood from the Queen of Venus 7" single A truly weird song from 1992. Every time I finish listening to it, I want to immediately play it again. We took a trip to Gatlinburg in 1999 and I couldn't get the song out of my head the whole time we were there.
15. Tilt-a-Whirl from the album Loserville Tilta-whirl kicks off the 1993 album Loserville, but NDI used to close shows with this song and absolutely tear the house down. I love the guitar effects for the solo -- heavy fuzz, a wha-wah pedal and maybe some kind of flanger-like effect going on there.
16. I'm Your Boogieman from the album Fried K.C. and the Sunshine Band's material sounds much better when it's NDI playing the stuff.
17. Queen Of Venus 18. Fan It And Cool It from the album Loserville "Queen of Venus" is probably what you would have gotten if H.G. Wells had written some songs for the Guess Who. "Fan It and Cool It" is a great sing-along song.
19. Power Tool from the album Sticky In one of the radio interview clips on Live, Rare and Bad, Pigtail tells a DJ, "There are worse things that you can call us besides 'riff rock'...but not many worse things." Here's one of the most tremendous NDI riffs ever. And it just keeps going and going and going...
20. I Never Got Anything Off Of You from the album End of Phase One End of Phase One is NDI's most recent album, released just this year. "I Never Got Anything Off Of You" features a driving riff that is reminiscent of another great song from Fried, "Takin Out the Trash."
21. "Oh My God We're Fucking!" from the single Oh My God We're Fucking! Not sure of the release date of this single, but I'm guessing it was 1996 or 1997. One of the funniest NDI songs ever. It's even better when it's performed live and you don't have a clue of the premise of the song until the first chorus hits. Hilarious.
22. Driving Nails In My Coffin 23. If She Wasn't On Blocks from the album The New Duncan Imperials Live One time I called into Gary Burbank's awful "Stump the Band" radio show and I stayed on hold for over half an hour hoping to get his in-studio to play "If She Wasn't On Blocks" on the air. then the show ended and they hung up before they got to me. In my book, that's compelling evidence that Burbank's show absolutely sucked.
24. It's Popular from the album In-A-Gadda-Da-Vegas "It ain't good, it ain't bad, it's popular." It's funny because it's true. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vegas was released in 1995.
We're in a Band! (EP)
25. We're An American Band from the album We're in a Band! One of the best ideas for a concept album ever. We're in a Band was NDI's 1994 EP that featured five cover songs and all of them had the word "band" in the title. "We're an American Band" was another of NDI's encore tunes from their live shows and I remember that they closed the first show I ever attended with this song.
26. Jägermeister performed live at the Miami Valley Cable Council Studios This is hands down my favorite NDI performance ever. It's a massive, in-your-face encore from their epic set at the MVCC studios back in 1994 or 1995. It's just a phenomenal ending to any NDI set, complete with a dazzling guitar solo and an hilarious Pigtail Dick story that goes absolutely nowhere. Burning this audio to CD from my old, grainy VHS copy was a blast. I had to get a little creative in my efforts to remove some of noise from the aging video tape, but then again, if I cleaned it up too much then it wouldn't be nearly as cool
This is the final chapter of my "25 Favorites" series of articles. I don't get a tremendous amount of feedback on our site most of the time, but one thing I know for sure is my dad has read each and every chapter up to this point. So, this one's for my dad... 5: "Let Me Know" by Kiss (from the 1974 album Kiss) lyrics It might have been in the spring of 1984 that I got my first Kiss albums on vinyl, courtesy of one of my older brother's friends. For several months, I had been playing and re-playing the same handful of songs that some classmates had taped for me off selected sides of the Alive! and Alive II double-albums. Those tapes were pretty much all I listened to for quite a while back then. When my brother's friend heard that I had become a Kiss fan, he offered his old LP's to me, telling me that he had planned on throwing them out anyway. I still remember the day he brought them over. If I recall correctly, he wrapped them up in brown paper and included a handwritten note to me about "carrying on the tradition" or something like that. When I unwrapped the package, I found Double Platinum, Destroyer and the eponymous first album Kiss. It was a good haul, for sure. I had heard a few of the songs from the scraps of the Alive albums I had on tape, but I was really looking forward to hearing the rest of the material right off the LPs. Up to that point, I had spent a lot of time in record stores at the mall, staring at Kiss album covers and wondering what the songs on those albums sounded like, but now thanks to my brother's friend, I would get to experience the albums for myself. Incidentally, I recently learned that my brother's former pal is now some kind of evangelical minister. Wow.
Kiss is just a fantastic album and in a lot of ways, I think I liked it so much when I was younger because it was just so different from what I had heard from the band up to that point. The album has an unusually heavy and dark glam sound with some pretty prominent elements of late 1960's and early 1970's pop. In my opinion, there isn't a single bad song on the whole album. Even "Love Theme from Kiss" rocks. But as much as I liked the album as a whole years ago, a couple of the songs would become all-time favorites as time went on. "Let Me Know" was one of those songs. I'm not really sure what Paul was shooting for when he wrote this particular tune. I know that both Gene and Paul have referred to themselves as "frustrated Beatles fans" on a number of occasions and I think this kind of shines through in the "catchy" feel of "Let Me Know." One of the great things about the track is that Paul and Gene share lead vocals on this one, so it isn't easily pegged as a "Gene Song" or a "Paul song." The song has some great, classic "Ace" solos and ends with what I think of as one of the best codas in rock.
I used to listen to this song over and over again when I was 10 or 11 years old and I would imagine that I was in a Kiss cover band (I actually thought that I had created the concept of a Kiss cover band back then). One of the songs I imagined my "band" playing was "Let Me Know" and I had the whole video for the song figured out in my mind. To this day, I still picture those scenes I dreamed up every time I hear the song.
I am guessing that I got Houses of the Holy on vinyl around the summer of 1989 or so. I was working at a fast food restaurant and there was a record store down the street that I would visit on breaks and after work. I think Houses of the Holy was probably one of the last Zeppelin albums that I bought and I put it off for as long as I could because I figured my parents would be upset about the album cover. I really don't think it ever became an issue, though.
I had mixed feelings about some of the songs on Houses of the Holy. I was already well-acquainted with many of the songs on the album, mostly because I had listened to the soundtrack for The Song Remains the Same and watched the film version of the performance so many times. To me, the studio tracks from Houses of the Holy just didn't rock as hard as the respective live versions from The Song Remains the Same. Of course, D'yer Ma'ker had received a lot of local airplay as part of the "Get the Led Out" blocks that were featured on Dayton's WTUE back in the late '80s/early '90s and that song was a favorite of mine for quite a while. But "The Ocean" was kind of like a "new" song to me when I finally picked up Houses of the Holy. John Bonham's weird "rap" at the beginning of the track caught my interest early on and I think that intro kind of fueled my appreciation for the song, because I always turned the stereo volume up really loud to hear the rap and then when the main riff kicked in, it was all just too good to turn down. The hard, driving riff of "The Ocean" is, in my opinion, one of the best and most underrated guitar riffs of all time. It's really something of a surprise that I haven't heard a lot of accomplished rock and metal guitarists cite this song as one of the "greats." The rhythm section meshes unbelievably well with the riff throughout the song and Robert Plant's vocals are simply amazing, including his vocalizing throughout the song's huge and multifaceted second guitar solo. The second guitar solo is, by the way, one of my absolute favorite solos of all time. It is without a doubt some of Jimmy Page's best work. (For a long time, I had always thought of this piece as incredibly complicated until I recently came upon a nifty YouTube tutorial that shows how to play the main solo. It really impressed me to see someone play this solo so effortlessly.) I remember reading something about the production of "The Ocean" – possibly in Hammer of the Gods – which portrayed the production of the song as needlessly excessive and over-the-top. To me, there's nothing terribly flashy or pretentious about the song. In my opinion, "The Ocean" is just a perfect song in every respect. 3: "The Unwelcome Guest" by Billy Bragg and Wilco (from the 1998 album Mermaid Avenue) lyrics
As I mentioned earlier, I absolutely love the Mermaid Avenue albums. I have felt a strong connection to the albums since I first heard them back in 2001 or so. I heard the first volume shortly after a trip to San Francisco and I remember how "California Stars" really struck a chord with me because Thomai and I had enjoyed such a wonderful time there. I played the album quite a bit and I was really impressed with the entire album as a complete work for a while. But as my political awareness and world view began to change, I felt particularly drawn to Woody Guthrie's sentiments in "The Unwelcome Guest."
The song took on a new meaning for me in 2004. My friend Bert passed away in August of that year and his wife put together a very nice and simple memorial gathering. The gathering occurred at a funeral home instead of a church and the "ceremony" was largely secular in nature, with little to no discussion of religion and the like. Instead, people just took turns telling funny and happy stories about Bert. In between segments, Bert's wife would play some of his favorite songs. I remember leaving the service and thinking a lot about things – as one might tend to do after a funeral service – and I started thinking about what song I would want to be played at my funeral. (Oddly enough, this is exactly the kind of topic that Bert and my other friends and I would discuss over lunch back in the good old days.) It wasn't long before I came up with "The Unwelcome Guest" as my "funeral song." It is an emotionally powerful song and I hope that when I'm gone, the people I know and love might hear this song and think fondly of me. I think of Joe Strummer's rendition of "Silver and Gold" in a very similar way.
2: "Dazed and Confused" by Led Zeppelin (from the 1969 album Led Zeppelin) lyrics
Led Zeppelin, kind of like Houses of the Holy, was one of the last Zeppelin albums that I added to my collection. I think I got Led Zeppelin as a used LP by 1989 or so. I really wanted a complete collection of Zeppelin albums on vinyl, as I preferred LPs to cassettes back then. I can't really remember why it took me so long to buy the LP other than the fact that maybe I wasn't that familiar with a lot of the songs on the album because the local classic rock station didn't play many cuts from that particular album very much up to that point. Now, I had already heard the live version of "Dazed and Confused" on the soundtrack for The Song Remains the Same and I was pretty well enamored with Jimmy Page's use of the violin bow in the solo. The half-hour live version of the song was monolithic and fabulous in its own right, but I found the original studio version to be stunningly hard-hitting. It quickly became one of my all-time favorites. In fact, I used to "count down" my favorite songs of the week every Friday night during my early high school years. I would write the titles of 10 or 20 of my favorites in descending order and play them all back to back. It sounds weird, but it passed the time when I was a lonely 15 year-old.
Robert Plant's soulful vocals are angry and bluesy at the same time as they lapse into Page's winding and dreamy solo. The violin bow is also present, but with a slightly different sound (probably because the original version was performed with a Telecaster – I think – and what sounds like some heavy fuzz whereas the performance on The Song Remains the Same features a Les Paul and what sounds like comparatively minimal distortion). In any case, the solo captures a very distinct and innovative "early Page" guitar sound that includes hints of the "vintage" sound of edgy, pre-metal rock. There are some wild twists and turns to the solo, including a positively blinding stretch of licks before the band snaps into the riff to bring the song full circle. It's really a phenomenal accomplishment in sound.
1: "Black Diamond" (Live) by Kiss (from the 1975 album Alive!) lyrics
Well, this is it. Back when I made my original "20 Favorites" compilation in 2002, "Black Diamond" was my number one favorite. The truth is that this has been my absolute favorite song for many, many years. I have previously mentioned that my first Kiss tapes were collections of songs from selected sides of Alive! and Alive II. A friend of mine had an older brother who had these albums as LPs, and after some prodding and begging from me, I eventually ended up with side three of Alive II (minus "I Want You," for some reason) A short time later, I was able to cajole some selections from Alive! off the same guy. The Alive! tape included all of side one of the LP and just half of side three. Side three cut out about halfway through "100,000 Years," right in the middle of Paul working the crowd after Peter's long drum solo. For years and years, I wanted to hear the rest of the Alive! album but I could never really find anyone else who had a copy to share. I really liked the studio versions of "Black Diamond" from the Kiss and Double Platinum LPs, but I was curious about how this great song would sound live, especially as part of the monumental Alive! album. It would be years before I got to hear it, but it was well worth the wait. My folks weren't so hot on Kiss, so when I was a kid, I did not have the opportunity to buy albums directly from record stores. By the time I reached high school, I was pretty crazy about Kiss and I was able to hook up with folks who would loan me their albums so I could tape record them. One time, a guy loaned me The Originals (a triple LP re-release of the first three Kiss albums), Love Gun and Alive II and I taped most of them over the course of a day or so. It was like scoring an instant record collection. Also around this time, I came upon folks who were actually willing to sell me their Kiss LPs and that was absolutely a big deal. This was before I ever landed a part-time job, but I did have a small amount of cash that I had been squirreling away for years and years and the Kiss albums seemed like the best way to spend it. But it was kind of like buying stuff on the black market because prices were high and sellers weren't interested in negotiating. I ended up with some good stuff. One girl even gave me her copy of Dynasty, complete with the original poster intact and that was pretty darn cool. Then again there were jerks like the guy who wanted $25 or $30 for a beaten up copy of Kiss (which I already had anyway) and a 45 of "Lick it Up." He thought for sure that I would pay and he was pretty pissed when I turned him down. I think that in the course of a few months, I had paid around $40 for my entire collection of Kiss LPs, which was almost the entire wad of cash that I had been hoarding since I was in grade school. The money went fast, but I still think it was well spent. I still have all those old LPs.
I remember finally landing a complete copy of Alive! on LP for some ungodly amount of money from a junior in my Health class (the class was for sophomores only – Go figure.) I remember the day I brought my copy of Alive! home and played it for the first time. It was pretty exciting for me to finally have the complete album for myself. And really...Alive! is still my favorite album of all time to this very day. That night, I remember listening to the album alone in my room and getting to the point in "100,000 Years" where my tape had cut off for so many years and when the song kept going, it was like reaching some kind of invisible boundary and finally breaking through. "Black Diamond" followed "100,000 Years" and it was every bit as great as I had expected.
There are so many things that really do "it" for me with this song. Paul's soft introduction is kind of like an intriguing prologue for a sad tale. The tale itself is told by Peter Criss once the song really gets going and it is this particular performance that always drives it home to me that Peter is more than just a drummer. He is, in fact, a very talented songwriter and a phenomenal vocalist and his passionate singing really shines through on this track. Gene's backing vocals work well, too.
Years ago, a friend wanted me to make a compilation of songs featuring some of my favorite guitar solos and I included the live version of "Black Diamond" because of the multifaceted solos that showcase Ace Frehley's signature licks. Paul's rhythm work is pretty good as well, including some bridge-like licks.
One thing I had wondered after years of listening to the studio versions of the song is how Kiss would end the live version of "Black Diamond", because the original version features a gradual slowing of the track (with a single power-chord coda) and the Double Platinum remix just loops back into Paul's intro with a fade-out of the track. In the live version, the power-chord ending is included, but it is punctuated nicely with the stage pyrotechnic explosions, ultimately creating a bombastic ending to an epic performance. The live version of "Black Diamond" off the Kiss album Alive! is truly – once and for all – my favorite song of all time. I have burned my entire collection of favorite songs to CD as a 2 disc set called XXV Favorites. The front cover artwork for the jewel case is a detail of Frida Kahlo's 1933 painting "My Dress Hangs There." The disc labels feature larger detail images from the same painting and the back cover work is an old sepia-tone photograph of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Ask me nicely and I might share a set with you.
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