Pussy-Whipped in Rhode Island

Only the addition of big honkin' guitars could've ever gotten the redux of this sappy 66' love dirge across Tim Warren's desk and into the annals of BFTG. If the original version - presented here- seems a tad dandified it's because Rhode Island's Malibus hadn't yet gotten around to futzin' w/ the AM formula by way of some cowbell and a liberal dollop of germanium-fueled excess.

Yup, these kids actually put a lot of effort into murdering their nice little ditty for subsequent re-release on 'Planet' records. Is the version which appears of BFTG vol 1 superior? Beats me, but plenty of people with funny haircuts tend to think so. Personally, I think they're both aces (and you ain't even seen my haircut).One things for sure, these kids sure grew a pair between cuts.

Let this be a lesson to you romantic types out there w/ your silk handkerchiefs and your "feelings" - You may catch more flies w/ honey than you do w/ vinegar, but you can catch even more w/ crap.

Cry - Malibus

David's Current Mood: Anger.

Ok, so you are Jack Ely, the singer of Portland Oregon's own watered-down Wailers, the Kingsmen. Now, you ain't no sap. You've been kickin' the shit just long enough to know that playing this Rock and/or Roll junk in some crappy little band is just never going to cut the mustard. Taking matters into your own adolescent hands, you drop your band mates like a two-dollar pistol (or, if it pleases you, a twenty dolla' ho) for the life-affirming embrace of college (Yuck!)

There you are, on the fast track w/ your keggers and your Cardigans, when a certain Boston DJ blows the dust off one of your previous band's old singles and Bang! You ex-band mates got America by the short-hairs w/ their hit version of Richard Berry's 'Louie Louie', and you got 'Advanced Calculus' and your dick in your hand.

But not to fear! Your old band would always take you back right? Wrong! They are, after all, the mighty Kingsmen, and even though you sneered your way through their hit single, they tell you, in a decidedly kingly fashion, to hit the bricks before they crown ya.



So, picking yourself up and dusting yourself off, you do the only thing a musician of that time could do, you form your own goddamned Kingsmen, and when that doesn't pan out you rustle up some 'Courtmen' and cut your own 'Louie'(b/w a catchy little instro dubbed 'David's Mood') on the McCoy's old alma mater, 'Bang!' Records, and what happens next?

I'll give you a hint: THEY SPELL YOUR FUCKIN" NAME WRONG ON THE DISC!

Still...I guess it could be worse. I mean, you could be Pete Best. Poor Pete.

David's Mood - Jack Eely & the Coachmen

"A Teenage Tiger Lookin' for a Feast."

I must confess, its been several days and I'm still rather bummed about this Lux Interior business. Besides the fact that never again can I set my Elgin movement by a Cramps tour (Much like the Hale-Bopp Comet & Brigadoon, it was only ever a question of 'When' the Cramps would come around again), I'm left w/ the lingering suspicion, given a litany of ham-fisted obituaries, that the Cramps cultural significance has already been reduced to a kitchy slurry of panties, pumps and pancake make-up. How soon we forget that a certain six-foot-four cross-dressing golem was, in addition to all those things (and more), a bonafied musical archaeologist.

Take Ronnie Cook's 'The Goo Goo Muck'. That this Bakersfield, California ode-dee-doo-dah-day would have disappeared down the toilet of obscurity is certain, had not some wax-dipped skeleton from Ohio uncovered in this singles grooves, a statement of the average nubile teen's more libidinous intentions.

Much has been made of the Cramps proclivity to 'borrow' chords and progressions from yesteryear (or in the case of the 'Muck', a flat-out cover), but as the Cramps never hid their influences, and in fact, have openly championed the re-discovery of erstwhile useless artists and genres of music, then that makes them some of the least selfish and indeed most self-less musicians to ever drink wine out of a stranger's shoe or otherwise shove their head through a bass-drum.

Cut in 65'on the left coast's predominantly soul-centered 'Astra' label, if you can find another record besides 'Muck' which so perfectly typifies the 'modus-operandi' of the American teen...well, then I'll eat my Wighat.

XOXO - RB

P.S. "I'll get you baby w/ a little luck..."

The Goo Goo Muck - Ronnie Cook & the Gay Lads

The Scotch - Ronnie Cook & the Gay Lads

"Life is Short, Filled With Stuff..."

I had the pleasure of playing w/ the Cramps several years ago @ Irving Plaza in NYC. After a brief exchange w/ Lux and Ivy (I make no pretext of having known him - though I like many other people in NYC have seen his dick waaay too many times to be considered strangers) I watched as Lux proceeded to lay on the floor backstage w/ a camera taking pictures up the skirts of the opening act (Unbeknownst to them) during sound check. Stage hands kept tripping over him during the entire set, but he did not waver from his purpose, which I can only assume resulted in some memorable photographs. Bottom line - in a world of artifice, where nothing is done w/o an ulterior motive and authenticity is bought and sold like any commodity, Lux was just as weird and offbeat offstage as he was w/ spotlights on him and a microphone shoved in his mouth. The Cramps weren't just an act, they were a state of being.

R.I.P. Lux Interior 10/21/46 - 02/04/09

Sooooo Wild!

Here's some bonafide Rock o' billy from northern New Jersey of all places. That might seem strange for a genre pursuant of cotton plants and medicine shows, but it would please you to remember that the Mason Dixon line actually passes through Jersey (Technically 'around'-albeit Southern Jersey.

To put it in perspective, we're kinda like Pennsylvania - Yankee by geography, Southern by affectation. Shit, we even got our own species of hillbilly (see: Piney).

Anyhoo, Boonton NJ's 'Castle' label featured such cool customers as the 'Southlanders' and 'Ray Arlo' of 'She's My Steady Date' fame (I'm sure Devil Dick will be getting to that disc sometime soon). Rounding out the trio of 'Castle' releases, 1959's 'So Wild' was written by the 'Pete' portion of 'Pete & Jimmy' otherwise known as Peter Navaez and subsequently published by R'n'R demi-god Alan Freed (And just who the hell are you to deny the Moondog?)

As if 'So Wild' weren't enough to pad a whole post, I've also included the sentimental flip 'Bye & Bye' for a solid twin-spin. Better get to it before the Pineys eat ya!

Don't make any sudden moves...just back away from the post slooowly...




So Wild - Pete & Jimmy w/ the Rhythm Knights

Bye & Bye - Pete & Jimmy w/ the Rhythm Knights