Page 96 - Classic Rock (February 2020)
P. 96
REISSUES
Dickies there are a couple of tracks to
The A&M Years CAROLINE interest lovers of the obscure.
San Fernando Valley One is this collection’s title track,
bubblegum punks’ first flush. which was turned into a hit by
You only need Graham Bonnet, the other is
witness the vox- Lovin’ On Borrowed Time, which
pop audience was covered by Gladys Knight
member and Bill Medley for the Sylvester
interviews Stallone movie Cobra. But the
captured in D.O.A. (Lech fact that it turns up here twice,
Kowalski’s chronicle of the Sex in contrasting versions, suggests
Pistols’ American tour) to that Fast Buck didn’t really know
understand how long it took the what to do with it.
majority of punk-curious The fourth CD is two gigs that
Californians to truly get to grips go some way to explaining the
with what the actual fuck was band’s popularity live.
going on. QQQQQQQQQQ
LA’s Dickies, meanwhile, were Hugh Fielder
early adopters (they caught the
Damned’s pioneering ‘77 US Jack Bruce
shows and clearly studied & Friends
Ramones as if it were a holy text) The Bottom Line Archive
who got it more than most. So THE STORE FOR MUSIC
while X, The Nuns and Avengers Jack gets jazzed up.
were still doing whatever the hell New York’s
it was that they were doing in Bottom Line
local clubs, the Dickies were hosted
busy having actual hits in the everyone from
UK. Granted, they were only Ravi Shankar to
ironic punk-paced adenoidal Bruce Springsteen before closing
The Stooges covers of Paranoid, Nights In in 2004. The Bottom Line Archive
White Satin and the Banana Splits
series is performances captured
theme cynically pressed into there, from club owner Allan
The Stooges (50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) RHINO
en-vogue coloured vinyl, but Pepper’s extensive collection.
Download-only expansion of milestone first album, they were hits all the same. And Jack Bruce blended a diverse
here they all are on two CDs range of styles throughout his
with sped-up John Cale mixes. comprising the band’s first two career, and this 1980 show finds
albums. There are also original him in jazz-rock fusion mode,
compositions, many of which alongside drummer Billy
“ ere’s a track from a new album No Fun and epic hallucino-drone mantra are ‘funny’, so while the Dickies Cobham (Mahavishnu
Orchestra), David Sancious on
got it more than most, they
coming soon on Elektra,”
We Will Fall, built on an Indian guru’s
Hannounced John Peel’s dulcet chant. Needing more songs, they knocked didn’t get it completely. keyboards and guitar, and former
tones one August 1969 Sunday afternoon, up Real Cool Time, Not Right and Little Doll. QQQQQQQQQQ Humble Pie/Colosseum guitarist
as he brought in the slavering wallop of Adding sleigh bells and viola, Cale then Ian Fortnam Clem Clempson. The quartet
Little Doll, the first time The Stooges are found his druggy, reverb-swamped mix Fast Buck shared a tight, fluid chemistry,
reinterpreting Cream favourites
heard in the UK. rejected by Elektra’s Jac Holzman, who Night Games – The such as Politician, Born Under
Bludgeoning, nihilistic and horny, these remixed it back upfront with Iggy. Complete Recordings A Bad Sign and Sunshine Of Your
four Ann Arbor degenerates stripped rock Unusually, Rhino mark The Stooges’ half
LEMON/CHERRY RED Love with clipped, funky rhythms
to its bare chassis like ghetto car-jackers century with a digital reissue of its The buck stops before this. and jammed-out instrumental
denuding a high-end motor and hot-wired 40th-anniversary edition, the original Eking out four sections. Post-Cream Bruce
the engine. Iggy let the dirty dog out to album joined by Cale’s mixes (remastered CDs from songs including Post War and
dump on music’s inhibitions, while at the right speed after appearing slow a one-album Theme From An Imaginary Western
guitarist Ron Asheton channelled Who- before), alternative versions (including career might receive similar treatment, and
fuelled aggression into a merciless, extended Ann and No Fun) and Asthma be regarded Clempson whips up a storm of
scabrous churn as brother Scott Attack’s free-form wheeze-up, adding Little as a bit of an extravagance, a solo on Cobham’s Quadrant 4.
pummelled drums alongside Dave Doll and Real Cool Time takes plus another particularly when the album Not for casual fans, but for die-
Alexander’s malevolent bass rumble. We Will Fall. in question caused barely a hards it’s a fine live document
If Led Zep were touting the sprawling Half a century on, The Stooges sounds ripple when it was originally of an intriguing experiment.
blues-rock that would dominate the early more brutally simplistic than ever, released in 1976. QQQQQQQQQQ
70s, The Stooges’ primal nihilism, particularly Iggy’s blank-generation lyrics Classic rockers Fast Buck had Rich Davenport
built up a reputation on the
welcomed by the underground but of teenage lust and terminal boredom Mercury Rev
ignored by the mainstream, predicted the inspired by observing the behaviour of London circuit, but their self-
titled album on Jet Records All Is Dream CHERRY RED
punk revolution to come. kids in a burger bar.
failed to capitalise on it. They Oh, man. This is some treat
Entering New York’s Hit Factory with Imagine if The Stooges had played
John Cale on his first assignment as Woodstock after their album was were clearly musically for the holidays.
competent, but couldn’t seem to A lavishly
Elektra’s staff producer, the band had released. They could have changed nail their style or a clear identity packaged
forged songs from the stage mayhem that rock’n’roll history a few years earlier in the studio. The lacklustre – four CDs plus
enticed Danny Fields to sign them. Cale instead of influencing Bowie to ignite production doesn’t help. limited-edition
loved the band’s anarchic avant-garde glam. By the time, punk caught up with So that’s half the first CD taken (500 copies)
edge as Iggy mounted speakers and their 1969, they were gone. care of, and there’s nothing on seven-inch single, poster, signed
Asheton cranked overkill volume QQQQQQQQQQ the next two and a half CDs of lyric sheet and more – reissue of
savaging I Wanna Be Your Dog, 1969, Ann, Kris Needs unreleased material to make you NY swoon-psychedelic Mercury
change your mind, although Rev’s 2001 fifth studio album GETTY
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