And while I’m at it, below is the grandaddy of all pro-wrestler records. The Cramps did a good cover of it.
I Thought I’d Seen It All
Check out “Twink” miming with The Pretty Things for a bewildered French TV audience. Ever heard of Twink? I hadn’t, so I poked around on Google. Nicknamed after a British hair product, Twink was a mime, drummer, close friend of Syd Barrett, and general scenester of the London psychedelic underground. He played drums with an early version of T. Rex, with Syd Barret occasionally, on one Pretty Things album, and with the Pink Fairies. In the early 70’s, he was in Hawkwind with Lemmy. His band The Rings were on the ground floor of the London punk scene in ’77. Some refer to their lone single, “I Wanna be Free” as England’s first punk record. It’s not very good compared to what was about to come from the Damned, Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, Clash, and Jam.
What led me to this video was my fondness for The Pretty Things, a very good British r&b band who never made any headway in the U.S. Their guitarist, Dick Taylor, had been in an early version of the Stones. Like the Stones, their forays into psychedelia were not always memorable, as you can hear above. You can hear them at their best here and here. Their raucous version of Roadrunner is my favorite cover of that song.
Just Because
The violin tuning might be my favorite part of this movie.
That Suit Is You
Whatever you may think of these grand-daddies of prog rock (in the unlikely event you’ve thought of them at all), most would agree that these are some of the goofiest stage clothes this side of Angus Young and Gilbert O’Sullivan’s schoolboy suits. Looks like they were going for a Sherwood Forest vibe.
More Girl Pop
This one’s funny.
Girls In The Garage
If you like 60’s girl-group garage pop, here’s a fix. Offical music video version below.
I Sort Of Like It
A freind whose opinion I sometimes trust saw this duo of rock royalty at Music Fest last weekend and liked what he heard. The first song I listened to was pretty bad, but this one has some things going for it: good melodies, harmonies, and chording. It’s too long and proggy in places, and perhaps owes too much to the White Album and Pink Floyd. Whoever made the video has worshipped too long at Terry Gilliam’s altar. It mostly just makes me want to go back and watch the real thing.
Those Wacky Yugoslavians
Apparently their talent for album art rivaled that of their auto industry. There are far more online than I have time to pass along, but here are a few of the best (?).
Pure Evil
Dimitri Shostakovich wrote this (2nd movement, Symphony #10) as a musical portrait of Stalin, who had harrassed him directly and indirectly throughout his career. This is pure malevolence, published after Stalin was safely dead. While Uncle Joe was alive, DS was mostly confined to putting out government approved, “socalist realist” garbage, while keeping much of his “real” work private. Occasionally he could put one over on the Soviets and follow the letter of their requirements while mocking them. One cool thing is that in the finale of this same symphony, he has a theme based on his initials, DSCH, vie for dominance against the Stalin theme from this movement. DSCH wins. Artistic revenge at its finest. “He who laughs last, laughs longest.”
The conductor seems a little too into his hair, and I’m not sure why he appears to be grinning during this grim business. But you’ve gotta give him credit, his musicians are playing the hell out of this. He made his reputation whipping these young Venezuelans into a respectable unit. He’s since gone on to greener pastures in LA.
Mott Returns
One of the great live bands of all time back in action last week in Boston. I’ve sampled through this a bit: at around 1 hr. 6min. there’s a good version of Jerkin’ Crocus that segues into a red-hot One of the Boys. U.S. leg of this tour, their first in 45 years, wrapped up last week with no dates in the south. Sad. They were huge in Memphis before almost anywhere else. But I get it, times have changed.