Friday, January 29, 2010

Mark Lamarr's Ace Is Wild (26 Hot Rockin' Hit Picks From The Vaults Of Ace)

To those not knowing Mark Lamarr, is a highly successful British comedian-presenter that his knowldge on 50's rock n' roll - rythm & blues is among few all over the world in this devil's music. To my knowledge now and possession there are two more FANTASTIC compilations such as this under the titles of: "Mark Lamarr Presents - Mule Milk 'N'Firewater" and "Mark Lamarr's - Roc-King Up A Storm". Don't know why these three comps are not in stock these days and that's a shame. What they got in their little digital hearts are the most excellent tracks from a period when rock n roll was at a top form! Highly energetic, ultra savage and a "can't stop my ass shakin'" kinda feel that if you not jump up off your sit when you blast 'em through your stereo, sorry man you're DEAD!
On this CD, Mark digs up on Mississippi's Ace label vaults.
It includes legends like: Huey 'Piano' Smith And His Clowns, Joe TexFrankie FordEarl KingH-Bomb FergusonFrankie Lee SimsThe Blue Dots, The Emeralds and Floyd Dixon....

Play it at your next party lads. A guaranteed titty shaker!



Download

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Las Vegas Grind Compilations Volumes 1,2 & 3

"If the Las Vegas of Frank Sinatra is a little too classy, a bit too swank for your taste, you might want to pay a visit to the land of Las Vegas Grind. The lights aren't so bright there and the liquor is cheap. The air is redolent with warm Brylcream and sweaty polyester -- the smell of conventioneers nervously enjoying the kind of entertainment they could never get away with back home. Just remember to bring a wad of one-dollar bills, and don't forget there's a three-drink minimum."

 
The aforementioned describe was taken from allmusic.com for the Strip Records (a Crypt's sub label) " Las Vegas Grind " compilations. Truly there's no better way to describe the sleazy atmosphere you're gonna find in there!
It sounds like Exotica but it's too filthy and dirty to be in that genre! It has all the best elements of rock n roll (rockabilly, rhythm & blues, surf, swing and soul) and all these under the neon lights of a strip bar and the lap dance of of a strapping girl! Don't know who post them on the net but i thank him anyway cause it cost me less time to rip them and upload them my self! 



Las Vegas Grind Part 1 

Las Vegas Grind Part 2 

Las Vegas Grind Part 3 

Link Wray - Early Recordings


There's nothing ever in rock n roll, more thunderous, chaotic, rumblin' and dirty than Link Wray! Be sure that NO words are plenty to describe a performance like "Rumble", "Ace of Spades", "Run Chicken Run" or "Fatback"! What we got here is the very essence of rock n roll at his most primal and savage!  The sound of the wild that captured at his best and finest! The purest, hardest and toughest sides of this music called Rock N Roll created ONLY in Link's hands! This semi-Indian lad was and still is (hands down!) the only one that deserves the exclamation of the WILD! The baddest motherfucker of them all! Compared to him Iggy is a wimp and Lemmy is a linnet! These sides are spooky, snotty and fire-burnin' like no other shit in this world! This compilation must be THEE best of all in the market these days. Sure, Norton's "Mr Guitar" is the most comprehensive, but this THE SHIT man! From the front cover, drenched in yellow with BIG and RED just like the devil, LINK WRAY letters behind this leather dressed from head to toes rebel figure...Fuckin' Wow! First put out from the legendary label of Chiswick, i guess it was 1978 the chronology of my birth's that this CLASSIC hit the streets with his menace! To this day remains the best place to start and finish if you can (or better - if you dare...) your adventure with this switchblade rebel! Every single note on this recording contains energy in the most rawest and primitive condition you might hear in your whole life man! Throughout his recording career many producers or a&r guys tried to clean this animal, but Link's just like a pure-blood dog...You might close it in your apartment and make it for a while treat your guests like a good puppy but once it smells the fear in your eyes and the speed pumping heart  in your chest it bulks and bites you right there in the carotid! Along with The Sonics the first and only TRUE PUNKS EVER....Goodnight.

Download




Monday, January 25, 2010

Little Richard - The Hottest Beat In Town (Bootleg LP - Demand 0035)

This Bootleg LP is one of the coolest ever in rock n roll history! Recorded of course LIVE at the "Mad Russian" 9 & 11 October 1968 - Boston Massachusetts. The first time i confronted this overwhelming blast, was at a Norton Records' printed mail order catalog! I always trusted Billy's & Miriam's taste! You see, when you read something like this "Torrid 1968 live whammy loaded to the tits! We once had the pleasure of blastin' this LP at Esquerita's pad and SQ gave it his personal okey doke!" you can do no wrong,huh? Late 60s was a tough period for almost all rock n roll icons of the first era. The British Invasion and the starting of the (yaaaack!) "hippie-pseudo-psychedelic-folk-prog whatever" made they're existence more and more difficult. Little Richard especially tried his best with Soul music (in my opinion with excellent results - check for the Okeh recordings, almost all tracks produced and arranged by Larry Williams and Johnny Watson!), found and lost his God (he did it several times in the future) and was at this moment a step before his second coming! Of course I'm talking about the three albums that cut with Reprise. Anyway, as you can hear in this file, never lost though his flamboyant persona and the sweating result on this bootleg, made this record by far his best live recording!

Deleted

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Rockin Bones Fanzines - The Complete LEGION OF THE CRAMPED archives

Much talk about the Cramps the last months due to the sadly loss of Lux Interior. I don't think that i have to repeat the usual obituaries about him. I don't like it and there are plenty around the net or the printed press ranting n' ravin' about his excellence. To tell you the truth if you ever make it here, means automatically two things:
1. You know who Lux was and what he did.
2. You own at least the first three CLASSIC albums by them. If you don't I'm sorry for you. All you can do to break even is to go at your local record store and with a shame written all over your face buy them!
The mastermind behind this was Lindsay Huttond (also known to the rock n roll fans allover the world  for his other "child", The Next Big Thing). The Rockin Bones pressings began with the blessings of the band in April 1980 and ended after 7 issues in late 1983. The reason that stopped the publishing were the Cramps themselves.... One note that might raise lotsa eyebrows here is that at first Lindsay has the company and the help of one...Steven Patrick Morrissey... One more reason to dig Morrissey is the other fact that he spent some time as the president of the New York Dolls Fan Club! Anyway, as i said to a previous post I'd like to give credit to the cat that pdf these historical documents but i don't know who (he/she) is. May the evil powers of rock n roll be with him/her and protect him/her from the squares!








The Ecuadors featuring Chuck Berry - "Say You'll Be Mine/Let Me Sleep Woman"


The first time i heard about this....or maybe i read about this, was in a Kicks Magazine (i can't remember which issue and I'm too lazy now to get up off my sit and go to my library n' check it...). I remember almost clearly though that my self got immediately excited from the words the great Billy Miller (of Norton Records/Kicks Magazine) put on paper about this gem! Since I'm a fool about obscure or at least, not well known R&B groups of the 50's this thing got at first my attention and very soon became one of the top priorities in my "want lists". The fact that Chuck Berry wrote both two songs on this single and also crancked he's guitar loudly - stretch me so much that for years and years checked on every box, comp or bootleg you might guess. I told you, Chuckster is a HUGE hero of mine. To tell you the truth I'm still looking for an original 45 copy (Argo 5353). This brilliance came out on November of 1959 by the sub label of Chess, Argo. The Ecuadors as far as i know were a vocal group that accompanied Chuck and his band during the Chess Sessions of July 1959. There are claims of the Chuck Berry specialists, that can be heard also on tracks like "Betty Jean", "Childhood Sweetheart", "Broken Arrow" and "Too Pooped To Pop". Anyway, the first appearance on a digital format, was a couple of years ago on the EXCELLENT at all Box Set under the name "Johnny Be Goode - His Complete 50's Chess Recordings" and from there i ripped them for your download pleasure @ 320 Kbps. Do yourself a favor and go buy this...No serious record collection that claims its rock n roll identity has no Chess recordings of the MAN!  




Saturday, January 23, 2010

Interview : Frank Secich (Blue Ash, Stiv Bators, Club Wow)

Ok! I'm very f*ckin' excited! I mean, look what we got here! An interview with Frank Secich! A true rock n roll legend - the way we liked our "heroes" here at White Trash Soul! Like Walter Lure, Frank was the man behind the man! If Walter was the true star of the Heartbreakers, Frank was the true star of  Stiv Bators' band during his Bomp! - era career.  And I'm talkin' about Stiv cause unfortunately his best band, the Blue Ash remains until now one of the best kept secrets of rock n roll! No shit! Blue Ash's "No More No Less" is a Power Pop gem, up there with the Flamin Groovies' "Shake Some Action"! This interview remained for a long time in the vaults of my buddy Vex and it was a huge crime! Reading it you might know why! I'd like to thank Vex for his patience and to welcome him in this blogs' team (OK at the time we're just the two of us...)! Enjoy!

PS: Of course this interview arranged & taken from Vex! Check his excellent band Vex & The Voxtones @ http://www.myspace.com/vexandthevoxtones


First of all I wanna thank you for giving me this interview and also I'd like to
congratulate you on expanded Blue Ash's “No More No Less” cd release, on Not Lame and Kool Kat. Last time we messaged, you told me that this release was all over the place. It was even presented in one of the latest Rolling Stone magazine editions.


Hi Vedran, thanks so much. We're having a lot of fun with the "No More, No Less"
reissue. There is a bonus CD of 13 never before released "live" in the studio
tracks if you order from Not Lame and a "live" audience taped cd from 1974
concert where we opened for the Raspberries if you purchase NMNL from Kool Kat
Musik. Yeah, it was even reported as one of  the ten best selling albums in New York
City in the Oct. 30th issue of Rolling Stone. It's selling great everywhere which has
kind of caught us by surprise but it's a good feeling to finally see that album
reissued.
 

Are you guys planning to reunite and play some reunion tours again, or even to
record some new stuff? I think that would be brilliant!


Yes, we're back together to play a few dates now. We're playing the International Pop
Overthrow which is coming to Youngstown for the first time November 14, 15 & 16th and
I've just booked a concert at the Barrow Theater in Franklin, Pennsylvania in January
17th. We'll see how it goes and maybe do some other dates. We're doing a lot of choice
old covers and even some obscure originals as well as our well-known songs. There may
just be a new album in 2009.
 


You started playing way back in the late sixties when you was a member of a Mother
Goose Band.


Actually, future Blue Ash members Jim Kendzor, Jeff Rozniata and myself started our
first band "The City Jail" in 1966 when I was 15 and Jim was 14 and Jeff was
13 years old. I actually have a film of the "City Jail" from that time that's
was taken by Jeff's father. It's only one song and we're doing "Fortune
Teller" by the Stones. It's pretty funny (I'm playing a Harmony guitar) but it's
kind of cool. Mother Goose came after that in the summer of 1968. When I was in the
original Mother Goose Band it was John Hanti (organ), Marty Magner (lead guitar),
Dave Magnotto (drums) and me on bass. We were basically a psychedelic/soul cover
band. We played the entire summer of 1968 at a vacation resort town called
Geneva-On-The-Lake, Ohio at a teen club called the Electric Zoo. The Mother Goose
band used all Vox equipment. We had a line of 3 Super Beatle amps, a Vox Jaguar organ
and a great Vox PA. It looked cool on stage. That was a fun gig for 17 year old guys
in a band. When I left "Mother Goose" in 1969, Stiv Bators was my replacement and
they turned into a very different band.
 

Can you tell our readers how, when and where did the Blue Ash story started?

Blue Ash started in June of 1969. I had just quit the Mother Goose Band because I
didn't want to be in a cover band anymore. I started writing a lot of songs and had
an idea for a different kind of band.I wanted to do the kind of music we grew up with
in the mid-sixties: The Beatles, Kinks, The Who, Byrds, Moby Grape, Small Faces, Beau
Brummels..... that kind of vibe. I asked Jim Kendzor if he wanted to start a new band.
He was up for it. I also asked my old friend Chuck Borawski to play bass. Chuck was a
well-known artist in our area and we grew up in the same neighborhood. In late June,
Jim & I travelled to Nashville to take in the scene there and see if it was worth
locating there to find other musicians. We didn't care much for Nashville and went
back to Ohio. However, we did write one good song there called "Don't Go To
Nashville!" which we will have to record someday. When we got back to Ohio, I
asked Bill "Goog" Yendrek to play lead guitar and we got David Evans from Warren, Ohio to be our drummer.

 There were many cool bands from the Ohio area back then. Cyrus Erie, Circus,
Raspberries to mention few. Would you consider it a scene or it was only a bunch of people that shared same passion for cool music?


Yes, it was quite a scene. I have said many times that "Cyrus Erie" was one
the best bands that I have ever seen as were the "Holes In The Road" who were
phenomenal! In the late sixties Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown and Pittsburgh had
amazing scenes. There were tons of places to play and bands were never short of
work. Many people came out of that scene, Eric Carmen, Raspberries, LAW, Glass Harp
with Phil Keaggy (whio is now the famous Christian star and world reknowned
guitarist) famous LA session player Bill Brodine, Myron Grombacher  who was Pat
Benetar's drummer, James Gang, Circus, Left End, Ben Orr, Marti Jones, Stiv Bators,
Dead Boys, Pied Pipers, Sound Barrier, Maureen McGovern, Chrissie Hynde, Devo, Rubber
City Rebels, Freeport & many others too numerous to mention. I found a picture
recently of a bunch of us musicians from the old days hanging out at a club. There
were seven of us the in the picture from the late 60's and all seven of us would
later be signed to DIFFERENT major labels. What are the odds of that? Like I said it
was a fabulous scene.
 

Did the release of “No More No Less” gave the band some media exposure at the
time, because, for me, that album definitely is a masterpiece of a genre?  


Thanks so much for the compliment. We are all very proud of that album. With the
release of "No More, No Less" we went from a regional band to a national
band. NMNL received great reviews all over the country. We were literally in hundreds
of magazines and newspapers all over America and we got uniformly good
reviews. Unfortunately. we didn't get great airplay around the country. We had good
airplay and sold well in Boston, Detroit, Miami, Cleveland and a few others places
but we never got much radio play in New York or L.A. which was needed then to break a
record properly. http://www.myspace.com/officialblueash

Which bands would you consider the main influences on yourself and the Blue Ash music
in general? I guess one of the obvious influences gotta be the Beatles because of Blue Ash's
“Anytime at all” cover.


The Beatles were a huge influence on Blue Ash,  Others would be the Kinks, Rolling
Stones, The Who, Buffalo Springfield, Searchers, Easybeats, Animals, Byrds, Lovin'
Spoonful, Small Faces, Moby Grape, Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry & Buddy Holly.

One time you told me that Blue Ash was a support act on the infamous Iggy and the
Stooges gig that was later released as a Metallic KO album. Do you still remember that gig and was it as chaotic as it can be heard on the album?


That was at the Michigan Palace in Detroit in early 1974. I remember there was a band
on before us (I can't remember their name) that just got pelted with eggs. I remember
them bolting off stage and telling us not to go out. Undaunted as we always were,
Blue Ash went out and played one of our greatest concerts ever. I. personally think
we never sounded better than that night. We got a tremendous response. The Stooges
went on after that and all hell broke loose. It was so funny! Iggy really
"egged" them on so to speak. It was a great and legendary night as evidenced
by the Metallic KO LP.

 

Blue Ash will always remain as one of the cult and very influential power pop
bands from the early/mid 70's period, in the ranks with both Raspberries and Big Star. Also
Abracadabra was covered by legendary british power poppers The Records. Would you agree with that fact and what's your opinion on Records’ cover and other Blue Ash covers that you have heard?


Stiv and I both bought "Starry Eyes" as a British indie import in late 1978,
I believe. So we were already early fans of the band. When we were in New York
promoting "It's Cold Outside" in the early summer of 1979. Stiv went to visit
someone he knew at Virgin Records in New York and he played him the Records’ first LP
which was about to be released. He also played Stiv the version of "Abracadabra
(Have You Seen Her?)”. I was thrilled about it. I think it's a great version. Later
that summer out in LA, Stiv and I met the Records as they were filming their
appearance on the Midnight Special at the NBC studios in Burbank. Some of the other
covers I like are the Finkers "Tonight's My Lucky Night", The Infidels &
Billy Sullivan both did "Everywhere I Go" and Michael Monroe's "A Million
Miles Away" which was actually a Blue Ash song before Stiv Bators did it too.
Simon Chainsaw & The Forgotten Boys did a killer version of that too.

What is your opinion on “Front Page News”, what is the story behind that album
and was that the album, that started the decline of Blue Ash?


There is no one on this planet who dislikes "Front Page News" more than I do.
I consider it the ultimate piece of crap. I never wanted it released. We signed a
contract that we never should have signed and lost all control over the project.
Strings & horns were added to the songs without our permission. I didn't want to even
do half the songs. They even brought in a studio bass player who played on half the
tracks. The producer had his wife sing my harmonies. When we heard the final mixes
about a week before it was released we went nuts and demanded they change it. They
fixed it up and it was a little better but I still despise that album. It makes me
ill to even talk about it. That's what I think about "Front Page News".

After Blue Ash you joined your long time pal Stiv Bators again.

After the "Front Page News" debacle and when the Dead Boys started breaking
up in late 1978 Stiv came to visit me. He was very interested in doing something
different. He wanted to record a version of "It's Cold Outside". We also
started writing songs together and the first one we wrote was "The Last
Year". In November of 1978 we went to Kirk Yano's After Dark Studio in Cleveland
and recorded demos of those songs with Jimmy Zero and Johnny Blitz from the Dead
Boys. Stiv then went to LA with his then girlfriend Cynthia Ross from the B-Girls (who
were signed to Bomp!) and played the demos for Greg Shaw. Greg then offered Stiv and
I a recording contract.


What was Stiv like, as a person? Can you share a story or two?

He did so many funny things that used to crack me up that it's hard to know where to
start. The funniest thing I ever saw him do happened the night we met the Rolling
Stones. We were invited by Anita Pallenberg to Keith Richard's 36th birthday party in
New York in 1979. It was a private party at the Roxy Roller Disco. Our guitarist
Cheetah Chrome was there first and fell and broke his wrist while roller skating.
Stiv, Jimmy Zero & I arrived a little later. As soon as we got there Anita introduced
us to Keith and Ron Wood which was great. Keith was everything you think he'd be. One
of the coolest guys in the world. Mick Jagger was at the party too but we didn't get
to meet him at first. Later on in the evening we saw Mick standing in the middle of
the room talking to Bobby Keyes and a Jamaican guy. Stiv started walking toward them.
I looked at Zero and said we'd better go with him because he's going to do something.
Stiv walks up to Mick from behind and taps him on the shoulder. Slowly, Mick turns around with the most condescending look I've ever seen. Then Bators says "where's the bathroom?" Jagger goes....what????? Then Stiv loudy says " I SAID, where's the bathroom?" There
is now dead silence in the room. Mick shakes his head and points "It's over there
around the corner". The three of us then went to the bathroom and once inside fell
about the room. pissing ourselves and laughing. I told Stiv "I can't believe you
fucking did that". Mick was his hero and he just had to do something like
that. That was Stiv! The Stones were always our idols and that was a great night and
memory.

Many hardcore Dead Boys fans will never accept the fact that Stiv transformed
from his wild street punk antics into jangly garage power popper, covering Choir's "it's cold
outside" and playing vox phantom guitar. How come he did that?


Stiv always loved the "power pop" sound. Greg Shaw used to call Stiv "the
thinking punk's Eric Carmen"! He also called him the "Anti-Elvis". The
punk fans weren't very happy about Stiv's power pop output. I always gave Stiv lots
of credit for that. He never backed down. It was sort of like Dylan going electric
but on a smaller scale. At some places people would even boo if we did "It's Cold
Outside". He took a lot of shit for that but he was always proud of the Bomp!
singles and "Disconnected". He also picked up a lot of new fans with those
songs.

Who were the members of the Disconnected band AKA The Stiv Bators Band and where did they play before?

The members of the Stiv Bators Band were me on bass, George Cabaniss on guitar, David
"Quinton" Steinberg on drums and Stiv on vocals. David was from Toronto and
had previously played with the Mods. George Cabaniss was from Akron's "Hammar
Damage Band" and had replaced Cheetah after he broke his wrist at the Stones
party. George would later in the 80's play with Marti Jones in "Color Me
Gone" which put out a great album on A&M Records.


Did you guys immediately relocated to L.A. to record the album and was it easy to
record it?

 

During all of 1979 and 1980 we were basically centered in L.A. but we were also touring
a lot as the Dead Boys. We were very busy. We recorded  Disconnected in August of 1980 in LA. "Disconnected" was a lot of fun recording. We did it in a studio called "Perspective" in Sun Valley, California. One of the highlights of the "Disconnected" sessions was
recording "I Wanna Forget You (Just The Way You Are)". I wanted to have a big
bombastic 1812 Overture Napoleonic Wars cannonade for the ending of the song. We had
a friend of ours called Kent Smythe bring in tons of fireworks which Stiv and I lit
off in the studio and starting recording. The only problem was that the studio
immediately filled up with smoke and Stiv and I started suffocating and we literally
had to crawl for our lives on the studio floor until we got the the control room.
Inside the control room all the other guys had tears in their eyes from laughing. We
spent the rest of the sessions that day clearing the smoke from the studio. To top it
off when we played it back it sounded like shit. All pop and thuds.We couldn't use
it.

During your L.A. period you met and worked with Greg Shaw and his BOMP! Records.
Would you agree with the fact that Greg's enthusiasm and love of music helped promoting many power pop, garage and punk rock bands through his label and zine?


Greg was a one of a kind guy. I could never repay what I owe him. He revived my
musical career after Blue Ash. Greg was also the first national writer who took an
interest in Blue Ash and promoted us heavily at the time. His knowledge of Rock &
Roll was second to none. His record collection was the greatest I have ever seen. His
writings and love and enthusiasm for power pop, garage and punk changed thousands of
people's lives for the better. He is greatly missed by me as a friend and a mentor. I
recommend everyone picking up the Bomp book "Saving The World One Record At A
Time" at http://www.bomp.com

You even recorded a Paul Revere and the Raiders song "Him or Me" for Greg's tribute album, right?

Patrick and Suzy at Bomp asked me if I'd get a group of Ohio musicians together and
record a cut for the trbute album to Greg that they we putting out. I picked "Him
Or Me (What's It Gonna Be?)" the old Paul Revere and the Raiders song. I asked a
lot of my old friends to be on the recording: Bill Bartolin from Blue Ash, John Koury
& Pete Drivere from the Infidels, George Cabaniss & David "Quinton" Steinberg from the Stiv Bators Band, Dave Swanson from the Rainy day Saints, Jimmy Zero from the Dead Boys and Billy Sullivan from the Raspberries reunion band .We had a lot of fun and it turned out great. It's out now and the album is called "He Put The Bomp!". There is also a book that goes with the album.

After Stiv moved to Europe to form Wanderers and The Lords of the New Church, you
formed a band with other Dead Boy, Jimmy Zero. It was Club Wow. What is the story behind that band?


Jimmy Zero asked me to join his new group called Club Wow in January of 1982. Club
Wow was a fine band . The members were Billy Sullivan on lead guitar, Jeff West on
drums, Jimmy Zero on rhythm and me on bass. We were together for three years 1982-85
and we made many recordings. There is a my space site for Club Wow. We tried hard for
a few years to get a major label deal. We got close but it never happened. I hope
someone will release those songs someday. There are some good tunes there.

Now you are in a band The Deadbeat Poets and you recorded an album “Notes from
the underground” not so long ago. Can you please tell our readers more about the Poets?
There are two ex-Infidels in the Poets with whom you already worked before as a producer,
right?


The Deadbeat Poets are my old friends Terry Hartman from Cleveland, John Koury & Pete
Drivere from the Infidels and me. We started recording in 2006 and released our first
album "Notes From The Underground" last fall in the USA & Japan. I think Terry
is one of the best songwriters to ever come out of Ohio. You can find out tons about
the Poets on http://www.myspace.com/deadbeatpoets. There will be new Deadbeat Poets
recordings in 2009. It looks like we will be doing another UK Tour and touring Norway
in 2009 too.

How do you feel being back on the stage or in the recording studio again, after
so many years?


It's very strange. For 13 years from 1990 until 2003 I had quit the music business
and never even picked up a guitar. Since then I have had Blue Ash reunions, formed
the Deadbeat Poets, had a number of albums released, got to tour the UK and play out
a lot again. I'm having a blast with it.

I think our readers would like to know your all time top 5 bands, albums, books
and movies.


Top 5 Bands: Beatles, The Who, The Byrds, The Kinks & Bob Dylan with Hawks/Band
1965-66

Top 5 Albums: Rubber Soul (American version), Blonde On Blonde, Between The Buttons,
Turn! Turn! Turn! & Highway 61 Revisited

Top 5 Books: Fathers And Sons, Crime And Punishment, The Count Of Monte Cristo, The
Idiot & Tarantula

Top 5 Movies: Orpheus, The 400 Blows, The Oscar, The Magic Christian & A Hard Day's
Night

And now the last question, and it is kinda important to me because you are of
Croatian origin and in many occasions you told me how you'd like to visit Croatia someday. So when will you decide to visit this part of the world and play with either Deadbeat Poets or Blue Ash?


I would love to come to Croatia one day. Hopefully either the Deadbeat Poets or Blue
Ash could tour in Europe this year. My father's family (Secich) is from a little town
called Draganic and my mother's family (Abranovich) is from Bjelovar near the
Hungarian border. I still have tons of relatives in Croatia and I have met some of
them who have travelled here. I know it would be a great time.

All the best,

Frank





PS: This interview is dedicated to Blue Ash lead guitarist and songwriter Bill "Cupid" Bartolin who passed away on October 3rd 2009.



 

Friday, January 22, 2010

Bo Knows Instro! You betcha!

Along with Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Link Wray to this blogger, Bo Diddley was one of THEE pioneers of Rock N Roll! Quite simply without these cats....boom bam - NO rock n roll at all!
I don't know who did this compilation to give him the credit (boy, he deserves it!), but it's amazin' cause it has the majority of the best instrumentals Bo wrote and recorded during his long time presence in this full of squares world! The jungle groove and the "cut n' shave" is here at his all GLORY even in this low bit rate (128 Kbps). The only thing i did - is a new cover for your i-pods and an upload for your download pleasure! Ladies and Gentlemen Big Bad Bo via a Link Wray pathway!

Instro-Bo!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Interview : Walter "Waldo" Lure (The Heartbreakers, The Waldos)

This interview was printed in Greek for our old fanzine "Gang Bang" (Issue No. 10), about 18 months ago (if my aged memory serves me well...).


The reason i re-post it here is simply. I send it via email to many friends around the globe when we talked about a new Johnny Thunders related 'zine (that unfortunately never happened), and the plethora of these people told me that is a shame to remain hidden in some old magazine's dusty pages.


Waldo was kind enough to answer to all of my questions extensively and with no displeasure...So, this is it:

I read somewhere that you knew Johnny Thunders n’ Jerry Nolan, before you’ll be a member of the Heartbreakers. How come and you join the band? You were in some other bands before the Heartbreakers?


I knew of Johnny and Jerry from the NY Dolls actually but I knew of Johnny from years earlier. All throughout the late 1960's, I used to go to a lot of concerts in and around New York City, especially at the Fillmore East. Every weekend I'd be there at the late shows usually to see bands I wanted to hear. I would always see Johnny at these shows also - he was always dressed up with the latest expensive British rock star clothes ( thanks to either his girlfriend or his side business) . He would stand out in the crowd and it never failed that I would go to a show and he would be there. Either he lived at the Fillmore and other places or we just liked the same music. I didn't know his name at the time until I finally saw him in one of the Dolls early shows a few years later.

How you and Johnny wrote all these songs? Tell me more about the procedure of the Heartbreakers’ songwriting.

Johnny usually wrote his songs by himself and just brought them to rehearsal where we all worked them out. Jerry and I decided to form a team because he would sometimes start a song like Can't keep My eyes or Take a Chance and wouldn't be able to finish it - he also didn't like writing lyrics that much. So he'd come to me to help him finish the song and write some lyrics. Songs like One Track Mind and Get off the Phone were written completely by me but we'd share the credits - he wrote most of Can't Keep except for one verse. The one song we actually wrote together in a rehearsal studio was All By Myself - he started a drum beat and I started some chords and he started singing All By Myself and then I just finished the Lyrics later.


There are many people saying that the best line up of the Heartbreakers was the first one with Richard Hell on bass. There are no many recordings with him in the band and the younger fans like me, have the wonder how the band has sounded with him? Personally I don’t really dig his solo works so, I want your opinion about this.


Hell was not really a great bass player although he was surprisingly adequate for someone with little experience learning it. He always wanted to be a poet and just got into rock n roll to get his writings published. There are some tapes that I have of him with the band that aren't all that bad in the early days. I agree, his solo works were pretty nondescript. He was never a rock and roller at heart. He did have a lot more presence on stage than Billy Rath and he was more widely known at the time as he had just came from the band Television which had a fairly large following. But that measure of fame he had was also bad for the band because he had a big ego and thought he should be in charge of the Heartbreakers and give all the orders. John wouldn't take it and Jerry and I stuck with Johnny after Hell made his little coup attempt. Musically, Billy had much more talent on Bass.


Why “L.A.M.F.” hasn’t got the best mix at the time it came out? I think the last reissue of the album (“77 mixes”) is the best. I read somewhere that there was“post production anarchy” and “each member practically did his own mixes for every song”… What really happened and why it took so long for the album to have the right sound?


No one will ever know why LAMF never got the sound we were looking for - we tried over and over again with different producers and studios and it would always come out the same. That muffled sound. Jerry tried on his own and so did Johnny. I always thought that the Remix by Johnny in the '80's sometime released by Jungle Records ( I think it was called LAMF Revisited) sounded much better than the original but John was also adding things to those mixes - he changed a few solos and did some late overdubs. The lousy sound was the main reason Jerry left the Band - he didn't want it released.


Is it true also that Jerry Nolan agreed with Jon Savage’s review (on Sounds magazine) about “L.A.M.F.” and told the rest of the band that if the album be released without “a proper mix”, then he saw no reason to remain a Heartbreaker?


I don't know that Jerry ever read Jon Savage's review but he could have influenced what Jon wrote - Jerry was very vocal about his dislike of the album mix but so were the rest of us as well. Jerry had 2 months to remix it on his own and never got anywhere with it. We were forced to make a decision by the record company. After trying to remix it countless times, we were in early October, 1977 and we had to get it out in time for the Christmas sales season. if we didn't release it by then the record company would have dropped us anyway. So we had to decide, go with it or find a new label. 3 of us chose to release it and Jerry quit. I don't know who was right to this day - the record sounded lousy but I doubt we could have fixed it anytime soon - everyone tried and it still sounded the same. I think the problem was in the translation from tape to vinyl because it always sounded good in the studio on tape but lousy on vinyl.


When Jerry quit the Heartbreakers during the UK tour with the Sex Pistols, you “hired” Rat Scabies, Paul Cook and Terry Chimes as replacements. In the recent released Heartbreakers' box, we found recordings with Chimes on it. There are others with the other two? By the way, how much unreleased material does exists in the vaults?

Jerry quit after the Sex Pistols tour - it was nearly a year later in Oct, 1977 that he quit - the Anarchy tour ended in Dec., '76. He quit just before the Heartbreakers first solo tour after the album release. We auditioned Rat Scabies but he never played any gigs with us because he couldn't really play rock at the time - just punk stuff. Paul Cook did one or 2 gigs with us at the beginning of the tour before we got Terry to play the rest of the tour with us. We would have like to keep Paul but he was obviously already occupied with the Pistols. I don't really know how much stuff is still unreleased. Jungle Records in London would probably know better than I do. I have a copy of the Heartbreakers with R. Hell demo we did in 1975 that I gave to Jungle but I think they're negotiating with hell about it's release. Hell doesn't have a copy and he's a pain to deal with. There are plenty of bootlegs out there and odd gigs here and there but it's really all the same songs done over and over.

Is it true that exist more than 300 plus available mixes of “L.A.M.F.” and if so, have anyone thought to release them in a box similar as The Stooges’ “Funhouse” Complete Sessions?

I don't know how many mixes of LAMF are around but I doubt it's as much as 300. Jungle should have most of them as I think Leee Childers sold most of them to Jungle back in the '80's sometime. There wouldn't be much difference between them anyway.


I know that “London Boys” and “Too Much Junkie Business” are actually Heartbreakers songs. Did you have more songs for a second LP that never saw the light of day?

Yes, London Boys and Junkie Business were written during the later heartbreaker days - I wrote the music for both and the Lyrics for Junkie. Johnny always put his name on the credits for Junkie because he was jealous that he didn't write it. I actually stole the music for it from the Dolls version of Pills so John thought he had written part of it.


Is “London Boys” a fantastic and hilarious song-reply to the Sex Pistols (also fantastic) “New York”? If yes, how the two Pistols that played in Johnny’s “So Alone”, took the whole thing? …Or it was an answer just to Johnny Rotten?

Yes, London Boys was written as a reply to the Pistols New York. I wrote the music and John wrote the words ( John was dying to write the words because the Dolls were mentioned in "New York" - this was probably the only time John and I actually wrote a song together). The Pistols ( at least Paul, Steve and Sid) loved it just like we liked their song about us. I never heard if Rotten liked it or not - he was always a bit temperamental and had a fragile ego so even if he liked it he probably would never admit it. The song was really about Rotten because he was the one who wrote the lyrics to New York - the other Pistols all got along good with us.


There had been a forum talk that it took place on the net, about the best live LP by the Heartbreakers. Personally I dig all three recordings the same (“D.T.K. - Live at Speakeasy”,” Live at Max’s”, “Live at the Lyceum”), but I want your opinion since you were in all those three documents.

I'd probably have to say that Live at Max's was my favorite because we were still together as a band then - Live at the Lyceum is a good production but as you can see in the video - we looked more dynamic in the shots from earlier tours then we did that night. The sound was good but I look at it more as a money paying gig then a real Heartbreakers show. We already had broken up for several years by that point and we all looked a bit older and more tired from all the years of bad behavior. it's too bad no one ever recorded the Rainbow show in London that we did at the end of the LAMF tour - that was a great show as well as the one in New York at the Village Gate in August of 1977. Live at the Speakeasy I didn't think was that good - Johnny was just starting to abuse the audiences back then and he got a bit carried away. He copied this behavior from Rotten but didn't do it as well.



There’s a lot of confusion about your career after the Heartbreakers. With the Heroes you released just one single on Skydog if I am right and another one with the Blessed on Daven... Please tell us more about them cause no matter how hard I tried, I didn’t find enough information about those projects…

Billy Rath and I recorded 7 Day Weekend and Junkie Business for Island records in early '78 as a single and we were still calling ourselves the Heartbreakers but it never got released. Skydog managed to get their hands on it somehow and released it a few years later when I was playing in the Band I named the Heroes. I had started the Hurricanes for a year or so in the late '70's and then changed it to the Heroes - there were several lineup changes over the years and then finally settled on The Waldos sometime in the mid '80's. The Blessed single was a separate item entirely. I started playing with them around 1977 or '78 when I was back in NYC for a few months. They were a band of 16 - 18 year old kids who became quite popular in the NY scene because they were young and cute and played funny music. A lot of the Warhol crowd was making them the latest fad. Their guitarist left so they asked me to fill in on a gig and I said I'd love to do it. I even dressed like a schoolboy when we did the show to make it look more ridiculous. It was fun so I kept doing it for a few years when I had time off from the Heartbreakers. We did the single at a friend's studio and released it but it never sold that much and pretty soon the band was breaking up and I couldn't devote myself to it full time. The next deal was the Waldo's single in 1990 and the CD in 1993. All the while Jungle was releasing more and more versions of the same recordings of the HB's.


You have worked also with the Ramones on two albums,”Subterranean Jungle” n’ “Too tough to Die”. What’s your memories from the da brudders , cause I know those times there had been a lot of tension between the members, especially between Joey n’ Johnny..


Yes I played on every song on Subterranean Jungle, about 7 songs on Too Tough to die and 3 on Animal Boy. They were looking for a new sound so they asked me to play on those records. They always liked my guitar playing and were trying to get a mainstream hit single - sorry to say my playing didn't help them get one but neither did Phil spector's production so I'm not the only one who tried to help them. It would take too long to describe all the tensions between them - suffice it to say that they didn't get along that well then which was before John took away Joey's girlfriend - it got worse after that. John was the dictator but Dee Dee and Joey had the talent, especially Dee Dee. He came up with most of the song ideas although Joey was always trying new stuff too. Dee Dee was also the druggie and Mark at the time was drinking alot so the others were always looking for signs that they were getting high or drunk again. Mark used to hide bottles of vodka in the trash can in the studio bathroom and Dee Dee would find it and rat him out to John to take attention away from himself who was hiding his drugs somewhere else. It was quite a comedy sometimes.

You help a lot Sonny Vincent and Rick Blaze. How  was it working with these two punks? It seems like a great combo you and them…

I really didn't do all that much with Sonny Vincent - I just played on that one record. Rick Blaze paid me to play on his record and also do a live show or 2 with him at CBGB's. I was just doing it for the money and the fact that they liked my stuff. Rick is a bit neurotic and I never got to know Sonny that well.


Ok, let’s go now to the Waldos! I wrote about them in our magazine that the “Rent Party” sounds to these ears like the never made 2nd album of the Heartbreakers! I fuckin’ love that record! How the name came out and why you didn’t release a new Waldos album since then?

The Waldos CD came out in 1993 or 1994 and I was very proud of it. My bass player, Tony Coiro was really the driving force behind it and unfortunately he died in late 1995 of liver cancer. The other guitarist also started having serious problems with alcohol and even ended up in jail for a year or so. The band basically broke up after Tony died and I was really thinking of retiring from music because everyone I played with seemed to be dying on me - I think I lost 3 or 4 in the previous 3 years and 3 more in the following years. Todd Youth of Murphy's law convinced me to do a gig and call it The Lures ( see question # 16). The band was me, Todd, a Japanese bassist from the Hip Nips ( EZ ) and Joe Rizzo on drums. It sounded good so I kept on doing it. At the same time, Sammy Jaffa from Hanoi Rocks and now with the NY Dolls asked to play some gigs as The Waldos with me, Sammy, another Japanese guitarist ( Takto) and Joe Rizzo on drums. So here I was playing with 2 separate bands but basically playing the same songs with a few differences. Todd eventually left NYC and so I kept playing with the Waldos only Sammy left after awhile so I got the other Japanese Bassist to replace him and that is the current Waldos. We don't rehearse as much as I did with the original Waldos so I don't write as many songs as I used to - that's probably why we haven't recorded anything new after the first CD. Also the fact that it didn't sell all that much and that there are less places to play in NYC now have sort of made me depressed about the whole music scene in NY.

Long Gone John told me when I interviewed him 10 months ago, that he had in mind to re-release the “Rent Party” with bonuses and a different front cover. What happened? It will have unreleased songs in?

Long Gone John was going to release it - we even met in NYC to talk about it. He wanted me to make a DVD from old videos I had at home and also get some new photos for the cover. I sort of agreed but then realized that he wasn't offering any money for all of this and he also never gave us any royalties from the original CD. He did pay for most of the recording expenses but we never heard from him after - I had no idea if he made any money from the CD or not. I was also speaking to Little Steven's label, Renegade Nation, who wanted to release the CD also. They were offering some money to do it but I wanted more for me to be able to get the DVD done - it takes quite a bit of time and money to edit down hours of old videos to make a decent DVD. So that deal seemed to fall through also. Now I might get it released through a Swedish label I've been talking to - I'll see them when I play Stockholm later this month.

 What are your plans for the near future? A new record maybe?


My immediate plans are to play the gig in Stockholm this month and hopefully get the CD released on a Swedish Label. After that I'm not sure. There is more interest in people wanting me play mini tours in the US and Europe but they take time to do and I don't have unlimited vacation time from my job to go off and play tours that don't pay very much anyway.



One last question...You have played in the past numerous times at CBGB’s. What’s your opinion for the closing of the club? Why the city of New York didn’t make the place a part of the city’s culture?


The closing of CBGB's was a sad event but not entirely unexpected. CB's had really lost it's cachet in recent years as the home of new, indie rock but it did have a lot of historical value. New York City rarely designates cultural sites for preservation which is sad - they recognized that the place was an institution but wouldn't do anything to save it. The determining factor in the end was money - that is the god that New York worships and the people who owned the building found they could get more money by selling it to some retail chain store then by keeping it as an artistic destination. The City will eventually regret it but it's too late to change anything now. Culture in America does not have as much power as it does in Europe and certain countries in Asia which is unfortunate because we have lost alot over the years and future generation will never know about it.

" Those who don't know history are condemned to repeat it" I think it was GB Shaw or George Santayana or Oscar Wilde who said it but I'm not sure. Are we done…?

Yes Walter, thank you very much!