Archive Review: The Greasy Truckers Party (1972/2007)

The “Greasy Truckers Party” was a benefit show for Greasy Truckers, an English flower-power group raising money for a number of social causes. Held at The Roundhouse in London on February 13, 1972, the show bill featured the improbable trio of Hawkwind, Brinsley Schwarz and Man. Originally released as a two-album set back in the day, the original eight-track tapes were recently unearthed, cleaned up, and reissued as a proper thee-disc set featuring complete performances from each of the three headlining bands. In a couple of cases (Man, Brinsley Schwarz), the chance to hear the complete set is quite breathtaking – on the original LP, for instance, only two of Man’s five distinctive performances were offered, tho’ that did include the incredible “Spunk Rock.”

Man’s Spunk Rock

Prog-rockers Man opened the show strong with a set that included their impressive twenty-two-minute jam “Spunk Rock.” The song features some incredible interstellar fretwork from Mickey Jones and Deke Leonard, the two guitarists seemingly engaged in some earth-shaking duel as their jagged riffs and razor-sharp leads intertwine like concertina wire. Drummer Terry Williams acts as both a referee and a cheerleader here, his steady, explosive drumbeats providing a constant barrage of rhythm and noise for the two six-string gladiators to build upon. The song’s ever-shifting time signatures, emotions and directions is enough to put many of today’s limp-wristed so-called  “virtuoso” jam bands to shame.

It would be tempting to say that the remainder of Man’s set was a letdown after the high-flying antics of “Spunk Rock,” but ‘tain’t so…the band clearly set the bar high and then attempts to demolish it with an impressive set of material, the band clearly influenced by the sounds emanating from San Francisco over the previous five years. Shimmering guitars and subdued rhythms lead into the scary, riff-driven, semi-psychedelic “Many Are Called But Few Get Up,” which sounds eerily like Volunteers-era Jefferson Starship at their dark, menacing, flower-power-is-kaput best. Once again, Williams’ machine-gun drumbeats provide the foundation for some really spacey and entertaining guitarwork.

“Angel Easy,” the other carryover from the original Truckers LP, is a shorter, more traditionally-structured rocker with distant vocals and a slightly funky rhythmic undercurrent. Whether it’s Leonard or Jones kicking in the notes here, the guitars set the pace for the song to rumble along like QMS on any given night at the Fillmore. The fourteen-minute “Bananas” sounds every bit like the band had been torching some peels on its way to the show, a mild hallucinogenic cloud settling over a rollicking pub-rock rhythm. The song extends for a whopping 14-plus, which lends itself to all sorts of cosmic abuse, lane changes, and slippery mountain curves. The set-closing “Romain” is pure electric booger-rawk, with long sweeping rhythms, bent-wire guitar tones and some of the most brilliantly bombastic drumming that you’ll ever hear.

Hawkwind’s Sonic Poetry

Hawkwind closed the show with its unique psychedelic space-rock, punctuated by Robert Calvert’s bizarro poetry. The Hawks’ set suffered from some initial sound and power problems – a bit of a drag, indeed, for a band whose entire vibe was built upon the manic manipulation of the sonic realm. Nevertheless, by the time that the band gets its set off the ground and launched towards the stratosphere with the lengthy “You Shouldn’t Do That,” the chemically-assisted among the audience were soaring wing-to-wing alongside ‘em, if you know what I mean (and I think that you do). After all, this was ‘72 kiddies, and mind-altering goodies like LSD and ‘shrooms, and even peyote had yet to be bulldozed in favor of the extreme highs-and-lows of coke and ‘ludes (and the coming tragedy of the disco era).

Even if many in attendance had brought their aviator helmets and flight jackets with them, nothing could have prepared them for the lightspeed, white lightning, brightly-flashing magic migraine that was Hawkwind in its prime. This is Lemmy the K era ‘wind, with wings of razor-sharp titanium and the most god-awful sonic roar heard this side of purgatorio. “You Shouldn’t Do That” starts with the sound of full-thrust afterburners and steadily climbs to a crescendo build upon shards of crystal riffage, claustrophobic drumbeats, and switchblade synthesizers. You didn’t have to be as high as a Greek god sitting in a stupor on Mount Olympus to enjoy this stuff, but it didn’t hurt any, either.

Not that the old Reverend would prescribe dangerous substances to his gentle readers, but as one who was around back in ‘72 and…ahem…as someone with a taste for various illicit mind-benders and cerebellum-snacks, Hawkwind was definitely playing my song. “The Awakening” is like falling headfirst into a shimmering puddle of quicksand, as slug-like, squiggly guitar lines and odd bodkins synth-squawks leave a slimy, colorful trail across your skullpan. “Master of the Universe” is a delightful proto-metal spacewalk with stunning fretwork, Lemmy’s incandescently heavy basslines, and steady backbreaking rhythms clearly spawning the entire glut of “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” bands that would stumble into the future from the Roundhouse’s doorstep that night.

Space Rock Pioneers

Of course, Hawkwind was never a band to leave an audience simply awestruck when they had a real opportunity to thoroughly reprogram their collective gray matter (reference: the band’s subsequent Space Ritual LP). Devoid of hope, the dark vibe of “Paranoia” is overwhelming in its desperation, but the short, sweet, shock-to-the-brain that is “Earth Calling” is pure Kafka set to something that approximates music, an alien-encounter with intense-sound-and-emotion unheard of in these parts of the galaxy. The out-of-this-world, hard rocking “Silver Machine” was as close to a hit song as Hawkwind’s merry pranksters were ever going to experience (albeit in a slightly different form). Almost traditional in its rock-and-roll aspirations, the song includes some high-flying synth work among its scorching guitars and driving rhythms nonetheless.

The band’s final tune here, the free-form “Brainstorm,” is a cosmic-orgy of massive proportions, a sheer lysergic-fueled attempt at traversing time and space, a mock-battle where no single instrument dominates, but rather they tend to all meld together into a singular noisy conglomeration of sound and fury. When a random guitar or voice does manage to break out of the musical miasma, it’s only to herd the listener back into the hive with electric cattle-prod efficiency. This is the kind of transcendent, out-of-control moment at which Hawkwind often excelled, and their attempt to rewrite the laws of physics that February night back in ‘72 is duly appreciated.

In the middle of the night, however, tucked between the two dynamic, prog-oriented monoliths, was Brinsley Schwarz (with a pre-cool Nick Lowe). The pub-rockers faced down a hostile crowd, winning them over with their exclusive blend of pre-No Depression twang-rock and blue-eyed soul. Whereas the previous two bands left the audience in awe of their mighty instrumental powers, the Brinsley boys pursued a vision of pure songcraft with actual melodies, choruses, and catchy hooks. “Country Girl,” one of the band’s signature songs, is a gently-rolling Byrdsian outtake with more keyboards and less 12-string, while “One More Day” is a playful mid-tempo country rocker that would have fit right in on any Uncle Tupelo album.

Brinsley Schwarz’s Pure Songcraft

The R&B stomp-and-stammer of the vintage Otis Rush tune “Home Work” benefits from some manic string-mangling, while the Nick Lowe rocker “Nervous On the Road (But Can’t Stay At Home)” offers up swaggering soulfulness, Bob Andrews’ Staxian keyboard riffing, fine vocals and subtle touches of rockabilly-tinged guitar. Blessed with two considerable songwriters in Lowe and Ian Gomm, the band had a wealth of material to choose from. Gomm’s “Range War” is a romping, stomping melodic twangfest that expands upon late-era-Byrds with ringing guitars, rapidfire keyboard-bashing and some truly odd lyrics – something about an Old West fracas with six-shooters and, for some strange reason worthy of Hawkwind’s poetic nightmares, Marvel Comics’ anti-hero the Silver Surfer.

The traditional “Midnight Train” is provided an appropriately raucous reading, with some crafty honky-tonk piano, twangy vocals, and South Nashville chicken-picking. The savvy “It’s Just My Way of Saying Thank You” offers whip-smart lyrics, strutting keyboard-led rhythms, and great live harmonies. A cover of Allen Toussaint’s New Orleans soul classic “Wonder Woman” offers a lively rhythmic soundtrack, Andrews’ finest Booker T-influenced pianowork, and some Steve Cropper-styled wiry fretwork. Brinsley Schwarz’s fourth album, 1972’s Silver Pistol, included two songs from obscure American folk-rock songwriter Jim Ford; one of those is performed here – the blues-tinged, countryish “I’m Ahead If I Can Quit While I’m Behind.”

Paradoxical title aside, the song is a freak-folk ballad featuring Schwarz’s finely-crafted guitarwork, mournful vocals, and weeping rhythms … a heartbreaking hillbilly lament if ever there was one. Lowe’s wonderful “Surrender To the Rhythm” is a fine example of what Brinsley Schwarz did best, a seamless fusion of Nashville-by-way-of-Camden-twang with a rolling R&B backbone, ‘60s-era pop aspirations and an “anything goes,” ‘70s rock mentality that lends a timeless quality to a relatively obscure but vastly underrated pub-rock genre.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Sadly, rather than closing on a high note with the delightful “Surrender To The Rhythm,” the second CD in this set instead crawls out on all fours with the atrocious hippie-cretin blathering of Magic Michael. The sort of free-spirited acid-casualty that the late ‘60s and early ‘70s spit out by the handful, Magic Michael haunted London’s rock underground like a drooling phantom, often gracing the stage during mid-band set changes, offering the audience the measure of his limitless lack of talent.  Michael’s “Music Belongs To the People” is a mindless, improvised mess including members of the audience climbing onstage to “jam” alongside the magic one’s yelping vocals and cacophonic guitar strumming. This insipid, fetid chunk of stoner-era trash wouldn’t cut the mustard at the height of Flower Power’s drug-fueled insanity; in this day-and-age, it’s more painful than a botched root canal by a drunken dentist.

If this all sounds like an odd combination of music that I’ve described for you all well, yeah, it is. Any one of these three bands stands on its own, and all three are distinctly different in both style and ambition. That was the magic of the early ‘70s, however…long before corporate radio and major label homogenization lowered expectations across the board, young music fans had a gluttonous buffet of bands to choose from, and we often ate from the trough with glee. It was a high-flying time for “music-as-culture,” and art often times outweighed commerce. Although it’s unlikely that a performance of the diversity and scope of the Greasy Truckers Party concert could take place these days, the album represents more than a mere cultural artifact – Greasy Truckers Party also captures a magical night of music. (Liberty Records, released November 2, 2007)

Review originally published on the Trademark of Quality (TMQ) music blog, 2007

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: The Greasy Truckers Party

Archive Review: The 101ers' Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited (2005)

Before Joe Strummer became a punk icon with the Clash or the patron saint of rock 'n' roll that he has become since his death, he was just another British musician trying to knock out a hardscrabble living with a local band. In Strummer's case, this band was the 101ers, a better-than-average group of rockers that have found a degree of infamy mostly through being eclipsed by the Clash's considerable legacy and Strummer's significant solo work.

A loose-knit collection of 101ers' material was originally issued on vinyl back in '81 and by various fly-by-night operations in varying forms and formats since. The expanded Astralwerks collection, Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited, provides the final word on this important, if historically slighted band's legacy.

Formed by Strummer in 1974 near the end of the British pub-rock era, the 101ers were much closer in spirit to bands like Ducks Deluxe and Dr. Feelgood than anything that would follow during the punk-rock explosion of '77. Inspired by the music of Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and early Rolling Stones, the 101ers practiced a street-smart brand of R&B drenched, guitar-driven rock 'n' roll that would later inform some of the Clash's London Calling and later musical output. The 101ers never put out a proper album, however, and released only one 7" single, making Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited a ragtag collection of rough-hewn studio demos and rare live tracks.

The 101ers' Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited

Fans of the Clash expecting the spit-and-bile proto-punk of the band's first two albums will be sorely disappointed. Fans of Strummer, though, who appreciate the artist's wide range of talent and musical tastes, will certainly enjoy the raw charm offered by these rare 101ers songs. Especially significant are Strummer's first attempts at songwriting, tentative steps like "Keys To Your Heart" or "Sweet Revenge" that sound surprisingly mature. Blending a classic Chess Records R&B sound with strains of rockabilly and roots-rock, the 101ers weren't a half bad band by any standards, and Strummer's early songs easily stand with similar efforts from notable songwriters like John Fogerty or Bruce Springsteen.

Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited also includes a number of previously unreleased live tracks, including originals like "Keep Taking The Tablets" and "Lonely Woman's Son," one of Strummer's first socially-conscious songs that would later be recreated by the Clash. A number of live cover songs are also included, from the obvious (Chuck Berry's "Maybelline" and Bo Diddley's "Don't Let It Go") to the obscure (Slim Harpo's "Shake Your Hips") and the unusual (the Stones' "Out Of Time"). A glorious performance of Van Morrison's garage-rock standard "Gloria" closes the disc.

The Reverend's Bottom Line

Befitting its pedigree, the sound quality of Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited varies wildly, from rough studio recordings to hollow-sounding, thirty-year-old live tracks (digitally massaged to be slightly better than bootleg quality). The material here all displays a certain undeniable rock 'n' roll spirit, however, the performances filled with raw energy and passion. The 101ers were as much a part of Joe Strummer's considerable legacy as the Clash or the Mescaleros, Elgin Avenue Breakdown Revisited an essential document providing an intriguing snapshot of the artist's early days. (Astralwerks Records, released June 14, 2005)

Review originally published by Alt.Culture.Guide™, 2005

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: The 101ers' Elgin Avenue Breakown Revisited

Archive Review: Goodbye Nashville Hello Camden Town (2007)

Aaah...pub rock. A uniquely British construct – albeit one based on American music styles – pub rock represented a “back to the roots” aesthetic years before punk would rear its (often times) ugly head. Make no mistake, however…punk rock was heavily influenced by the pub rock scene, and the bands of the “Revolution of ‘77” benefited greatly from the trailblazing efforts of their forebears in opening up pubs and clubs to live performances (and rock music).

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though, shall we? As reflected by David Wells’ comprehensive liner notes for Goodbye Nashville Hello Camden Town, a two-CD set subtitled “a Pub Rock anthology,” the origins of the so-called movement lie with the American band Eggs Over Easy. The band had traveled to England in late 1970 to record an album with producer Chas Chandler, but the coming of the new year found them stranded in the country with no record deal. Convincing the management of the Tally Ho pub in the London neighborhood of Kentish Town to allow them to play on normally slow Monday nights, Eggs Over Easy quickly developed a loyal following.

Goodbye Nashville Hello Camden Town

Among the growing legion of Eggs Over Easy fans were several musicians looking for a new direction. Nick Lowe and Brinsley Schwarz attended many an Eggs Over Easy show at the Tally Ho, even sitting in with the band at times; other fans included ‘60s U.K. rocker Zoot Money and members of bands like Bees Make Honey and Kilburn & the High Roads. When Eggs Over Easy’s work visas expired, the band returned to the states, releasing a single album (Good ‘N’ Cheap) in 1972 before breaking up and disappearing into the rock ‘n’ roll ether.

Although Eggs Over Easy would quickly slip into obscurity, the seed that the band had planted with its Tally Ho residency took root and sprouted into dozens of bands suddenly emancipated from the constraints of expectations. Providing an attractive alternative to the prog-rock and singer/songwriter fare of the day, pub-rock represented a welcome “back to the country” vibe, bands like Brinsley Schwarz (with Schwarz and Lowe), Bees Make Honey, Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers, Dr. Feelgood, and others pursuing original mixes of rock, country, blues, and bluegrass, performing in receptive pubs and clubs in and around London. None of the bands got rich, or even made a lot of money, but they enjoyed playing the music they wanted to play while honing their skills, and the top-of-the-card performers made daring, original music based on old standards that hits the ears hard, even 30+ years later.

From start to finish, Goodbye Nashville Hello Camden Town provides a fascinating and entertaining glimpse into the world of pub rock. Kicking off with the title track, Chilli Willi & the Red Hot Peppers sound like Gram Parsons fronting the Flying Burrito Brothers with a British accent, the song’s innocence overwhelming its tentatively twangy instrumentation. The band’s “Choo Choo Ch’Boogie” swings with a Western flair and jazzy undertones, kind of Cab-Calloway-meets-Bob-Wills in good old London town. Pioneers Eggs Over Easy deliver the simple, charming, countryish “Runnin’ Down To Memphis,” the band’s only cut on the anthology.

The Pub Rock Scene

Fronted by Ian Dury, who would go on to become a U.K. punk icon, Kilburn & the High Roads mixed a British Dance Hall sound with Dury’s keen lyrical observations and slightly-skewed sense of humour. Kilburn’s “Billy Bentley” is pretty snazzy while the band’s other cut here, “Rough Kids,” is a horn-driven blast of fresh air with honky-tonk piano and screaming guitars. Bees Make Honey could have just as easily come from Laurel Canyon circa 1971, with laid-back songs like “What Have We Got To Lose” showcasing delicious harmonies while “Indian Bayou Saturday” mixes Levon Helm and The Band with Goose Creek Symphony (?!). Perhaps the best-known pub rock band of them all, Brinsley Schwarz, is represented here by a single tasty cut, the free-flowing roots-rock “Country Girl.”

One of the most interesting aspects of the short-lived pub rock phenomena was its inclusive nature; it was a big tent over a small scene, and everybody was welcome. Because of the honest, sincere nature of the music, old ‘60s rockers like Zoot Money, Mick Farren, Albert Lee, Stray, and McGuiness Flint found a new home within the genre. Session guitar-for-hire Lee, who was also part of the unabashedly country-honk outfit Country Fever, gets to show off his six-string skills with the transcendent “Best I Can.” Money’s “Arkansas” sounds like a throwback to the hillbilly ‘50s, a low-fi production with sparse instrumentation and wickedly somber vocals. Featuring members of Manfred Mann and John Mayall’s bands, McGuinness Flint pursued a guitar-driven rock sound with just a trace of rootsy influence on the band’s rollicking “Ride On My Rainbow.”

Some pub rockers would go on to find significant careers in the coming punk revolution. Aside from the aforementioned Dury and Brinsley Schwarz’s Nick Lowe, the raw, stripped-down sound of bands like Eddie & the Hot Rods (kicking out the jams here with the uber-cool garage rock vibrations of “Do The Monkey Man” and “All I Need Is Money”) or the Count Bishops (best known for their haunting Link-Wray-meets-Screamin’-Jay rave-up “Train Train”) finding a receptive audience for their hard-rocking tunes among the Mohawk-tressed masses.

Brinsley Schwarz, Dr. Feelgood & the Fabulous Poodles

The scene also embraced bands that didn’t subscribe to the typical pub rock band’s rustic country sound. The Fabulous Poodles, for instance, didn’t really fit in anywhere with songs like the boisterous “Roll Your Own” or a spot-on soulful cover of the Amazing Rhythm Aces’ “Third Rate Romance” offering slightly-tilted guitar, off-kilter vocals, and a sound that was more rock than roots. Elevated to royal status by pub rock fans, the influential Dr. Feelgood brought an R&B influence to the genre, although the band’s lone song here, “Roxette,” could pass for a ‘60s-era British blooze-rocker with distorted guitar and some dirty mouth harp work. Raucous ‘50s-styled rockabilly was a favorite route for many on the scene, the Brunning Sunflower Band crossing Jerry Lee with Duane Eddy on the track “Good Golly Miss Kelly” while Matchbox, which would kick around well into the ‘80s, kicks out the spirited and electric “Rock’n’Roll Band” here. Another ‘60s-era holdover, the Pirates, evince an anarchic blue suede sound with their rocking “Gibson Martin Fender” (an off-the-tracks live version, no less).

Out of the 49 total tracks on Goodbye Nashville Hello Camden Town, there are a lot of lesser-known bands included on the anthology that nevertheless made good music and deserve mentioning, such as the Cartoons, Country Fever, Mickey Jupp, and the Kursaal Flyers. Late-period pub rockers like the Tyla Gang or Nine Below Zero made more of a splash amidst late ‘70s/early ‘80s audiences loosened up by the triumphs of punk rock while others, cult favorites like the Downliners Sect or Unicorn, recorded albums that have become a sort of holy grail to collectors who prefer a little well-intentioned obscurity as they dig through the crates.

There are some obvious omissions hereabouts, most notably Ducks Deluxe, who had a unique Chuck Berry-influenced boogie-rock sound and which later provided musicians to both the Tyla Gang and Graham Parker’s Rumour; the Motors, who scored several U.K. chart hits; soulful vocalist Frankie Miller, whose oeuvre would fit firmly into the pub rock milieu; and even Joe Strummer’s pre-Clash band the 101’ers. I would have dropped the third Kilburn & the High Roads song and included a second Dr. Feelgood cut, but it would be easy to have bumped the anthology up to a third disc considering the wealth of material available.

The Reverend's Bottom Line

Given the relative scarcity of much of this excellent music, however, and the unfamiliarity of American rock fans with most of these bands, Goodbye Nashville Hello Camden Town does a fine job of documenting the pub rock genre. The anthology provides newcomers with a valuable roadmap to bands worth checking out and, indeed, many of the bands mentioned here have import albums readily available. If you’re looking for an antidote to the brutal reality of what passes for modern rock these days, or if you’re a roots-rock fan thirsty for something new, I’d heartily recommend checking out the pub rock scene; this anthology is as good a place as any to start... (Castle Music UK, released April 16, 2007)

CD Review: Ducks Deluxe' Ducks Deluxe / Taxi To The Terminal Zone (2001)

Back in the day, some thirty long and gruesome years ago, my high school buddy Thom King published what you’d call today an “alt-weekly” newspaper. Only we tended to publish monthly instead of weekly, and some months were longer than others, if you catch my meaning. Times were tough back then in Nashville for bohemian types, especially those with an axe to grind and a paper to publish.

Ad dollars were scarce, advertisers didn’t even know what the hell an “alternative newspaper” was, and we published the rag out of a funky pre-Civil War warehouse in pre-urban renewal downtown Nashville. Drunken derelicts, gun battles, stolen mail trucks, and rabid bats were all part of our daily routine...

Pub Rock Legends

One of the many perks of publishing Take One Magazine, apart from the “anything can happen at any time” Dodge City vibe on Second Avenue, was the free music. Since fledgling critics such as Thom, Sam Borgerson, and yours truly were cranking out a couple-dozen album reviews each issue, the labels graced us with all sorts of promo discs. There were lots of favorites that would be spun daily on the office turntable, from NRBQ to the Fabulous Poodles, but one of the best and most frequently played was Don’t Mind Rockin’ Tonite by Brit rockers Ducks Deluxe.

Sandwiched somewhere between Glam and the first generation of prog-rockers, and pre-dating the “revolution of ‘77” and punk rock, Ducks Deluxe was lost among the ranks of those bands deigned “pub rock” by the British music press. Alongside colleagues like Ace, Dr. Feelgood, and Bees Make Honey, Ducks Deluxe cranked out timeless music in the vein of Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones. As described by Ducks’ guitarist Martin Belmont, “all these bands played music that was good for drinking and dancing, and had its r’n’b/soul/country/blues/and rock’n’roll roots highly visible.” Pub rock was better experienced live, in the club, rather than on album and the genre died out quickly in the wake of punk, leaving nothing but a fond memory for a lot of music lovers.

Tragically, Don’t Mind Rockin’ Tonite was released by RCA Records in 1978, three years after the band’s demise. The label had pretty much fumbled its promotion of Ducks Deluxe’s first album stateside, and only released Don’t Mind Rockin’ Tonite, a compilation of songs and B-sides from the band’s two original albums, in response to the UK notoriety of Ducks Sean Tyla (Tyla Gang), Nick Garvey (The Motors), and Martin Belmont (The Rumour). Thom and I played the hell out of the album at the time, though, not knowing or caring about its pedigree. The music of Ducks Deluxe (and most of their pub rock brethren) remains criminally neglected stateside. Luckily, British revival/reissue label BGO Records (Beat Goes On) placed both of the band’s two albums on a two-disc set a couple of years back, a mighty twofer that puts Ducks Deluxe and Taxi To The Terminal Zone in the proper light.

Ducks Deluxe’s Ducks Deluxe

Disc one, the band’s self-titled 1973 debut, kicks off with “Coast To Coast,” the band’s first single, a shambling trainwreck of a song, a sort of “we’re here to rock” introduction to the band that best illustrates Sean Tyla’s throaty vocals, Martin Belmont’s Duane Eddy-influenced guitar skills, and the band’s roots-rock vibe. Featuring Nick Garvey’s somber baritone vocals, “Nervous Breakdown” punches the clock, rockabilly style, sounding like a cross between Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues” and Jason & the Scorchers’ manic country blues. The band slows down to a simmering funky groove for “Daddy Put The Bomp,” a Sean Tyla composition that somehow captures all of the swaggering soul and swamp-rock flavor of Allen Toussaint’s New Orleans in spite of the fact that Tyla had yet to ever visit the U.S. at the time he wrote the song.

My personal fave track on Ducks Deluxe is “Please Please Please,” a Beatlesque pop masterpiece as channeled through the Bluecap ghost of Gene Vincent’s guitar. Garvey’s strangled vocals are perfect, a combination of denial and vulnerability, the fractured melody as catchy as anything you’ll ever hear. I played this tune on the radio once as a guest DJ, on New Year’s Eve 1978/79, and it blew the music programmer’s mind; he rang up the station’s engineer and wanted him to pull the plug on me. Shows the sorry fucker’s ignorance – this is an incredible tune, with Belmont’s guitar ringing crystal clear, great harmony vocals, a simple arrangement and a timeless theme of romance and betrayal.

From this point, Ducks Deluxe runs off the tracks, a musical freight-train rocking from side to side at speeds too dangerous for the band to survive with any certainty. “Fireball” is a Velvet Underground-inspired rocker with Lou Reed vocals and “Sweet Jane” riffing backed by Tim Roper’s big beats and solid rhythms. “Don’t Mind Rockin’ Tonite” is a 100mph cross-country flight through Chuck Berry country with Southern rock flavor and circular riffage as big as all of Texas. Tyla’s western fantasy comes to life with “West Texas Trucking Board,” a big sky ballad with Gram Parsons’ zip code written all over it. Tyla’s Dylanesque vox and the band’s tasty “Big Pink” arrangement belie their UK roots; this is pure Americana roots-rock easily a decade (a generation in rock ‘n’ roll) before bounders like the Long Ryders, Green On Red, and the True Believers would discover Grievous Angel.

Ducks Deluxe’s Taxi To The Terminal Zone

Ducks Deluxe closes with another rocker, Bobby Womack’s Southern rock classic “It’s All Over Now,” delivered with Stonesish aplomb, taut guitars, and joyful vocals. When the dust had cleared, the band’s debut album was met with some sort of critical acclaim but faced commercial indifference – the fate of virtually all of the “pub rock” bands of the era. Undeterred, the Ducks added full-time keyboardist Andy McMasters to the mix and ventured into the studio after gigging around Europe to record Taxi To The Terminal Zone.

Produced by Dave Edmunds, Taxi To The Terminal Zone (1975) carries on much in the same vein as its predecessor, that is an inspired mix of blues-flavored boogie, rockabilly filtered through a UK pop culture filter, and shambling three-chord Chuck Berry-styled rave-ups that would serve notice on a generation of punk rockers a few years later. The album’s lead off, “Cherry Pie,” is a tart delight, an early-Stones-styled rocker with wiry guitar and an unrelenting beat. “Rainy Night In Kilburn” is a lovely, piano-led ballad with twin keyboards and Martin Belmont’s quiet, elegant vocals. Belmont’s subtle guitar style shines through on “I’m Crying,” Nick Garvey’s soulful vocals caressing the lyrics, staggering emotion flowing around Belmont’s exceptional leads.

Written by new Duck, pianist Andy McMasters, “Love’s Melody” is an infectious pop confection with an irresistible melody, a big fat ‘60s-styled hook of a chorus and Ventures-inspired riffing by Belmont. Garvey had been a roadie for U.S. rockers the Flaming Groovies a few years previous and the Ducks give that band’s “Teenage Head” a proper work-out, with swirling, sparkling guitars, tough rhythms and muted, scary-as-hell vocals. “Paris 9” is a rollicking raver that evokes Mott The Hoople, with McMasters’ Jerry-Lee-Lewis-on-the-highway-to-hell keyboard riffing, strong harmonies and a big beat.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Sadly, Taxi To The Terminal Zone – named after a line in a Chuck Berry song – went nowhere, and it was left up to the Clash, and the Sex Pistols a couple of years later to turn British rock on its pointy little head. Ducks Deluxe broke up shortly after the album’s release, the members going on to their individual destinies.

I always viewed Ducks Deluxe in much the same vein as underappreciated U.S. bands like the Flamin’ Groovies and the Dictators that never received their due. They live on in legend, however, leaving behind two über-cool albums for those of us that don’t mind rockin’ tonite, or any other night... (BGO Records, released December 10, 2001)

Review originally published on Trademark of Quality blog, 2007

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Ducks Deluxe's Ducks Deluxe/Taxi To The Terminal Zone

Yep Roc remembers pub rock with Eggs Over Easy comp

It’s one of the most overlooked eras of British rock ‘n’ roll. Folded neatly in between the dying embers of the British Invasion and the churlish days of punk rock fury, England’s early-to-mid 1970s pub rock scene nevertheless yielded a wealth of talent in artists like Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, and Graham Parker. Still, the short-lived musical phenomena has remained overshadowed by the louder, safety-pinned younger siblings they helped influence.

For anglophiles looking to expand their knowledge of pub rock, I’d heartily recommend John Blaney’s book A Howlin’ Wind, an excellent oral history of the scene that outlines the evolution of pub rock into punk and new wave. In Blaney’s tome you’ll see bands mentioned like Brinsley Schwarz (featuring Lowe and Ian Gomm, as well as talented guitarist Schwarz), Ducks Deluxe (which gave Martin Belmont to the Rumour and Sean Tyla to the Tyla Gang), the 101ers (with future Clash frontman Joe Strummer), and Dr. Feelgood (with the eternal Wilko Johnson), among many others.

While it’s fairly easy to scare up copies of albums by most, if not all of the aforementioned bands, one notable pub rock outfit remains elusive for the avid collector – Eggs Over Easy. Oddly, they were an American band that relocated to the U.K. to pursue fame and fortune. Eggs Over Easy on vinyl or CD is harder to scratch up than hen’s teeth…and you’ll pay through the teeth to buy a copy once you do find something. Yep Roc Records has us pub rock fans covered, though – on June 24th, 2016 the label will release Good ‘n’ Cheap: The Eggs Over Easy Story, a two-disc compilation CD that will also be released as a three-album vinyl set.

Yep Roc’s Good ‘n’ Cheap collects the entire original Eggs Over Easy back catalog, including the Link Wray-produced 1972 debut album on A&M Records from which this set takes its name, as well as the rare 1980 album Fear of Frying, which was originally released on Lee Michaels’ indie Squish Records label. Good ‘n’ Cheap also includes both sides of a lone single released by Buffalo Records, and a previously-unreleased 1971 session recorded at Olympic Studios in London and produced by Animals’ bassist and Jimi Hendrix manager/producer Chas Chandler. The double-CD set includes a 24-page booklet (an eight-page insert in the 3xLP) with rare photos, show flyers, press clippings, and the definitive story of the band written by notable critic Gene Sculatti. 

Eggs Over Easy’s roots as a band date back to late 1960s Berkeley where singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jack O’Hara became friends with singer and keyboardist Austin de Lone. The two formed a duo and, moving to New York (where both were actually from), they became a trio with the addition of keyboardist and guitarist Brien Hopkins. They played clubs in Greenwich Village and around NYC, developing a loyal group of fans that eventually got them noticed by Chandler. The Animals’ bassist brought them to London in 1970 to record at the Olympic with promises of a record deal.

When the whole thing fell apart, rather than going home, Eggs Over Easy convinced the manager of the Kentish Town jazz club the Tally Ho to let them play on the pub’s slowest night. The band’s Monday night gigs soon began drawing big crowds, inspiring fans like Graham Parker and Nick Lowe and pioneering the pub rock scene. Of Eggs Over Easy’s legendary performances, Nick Lowe remembers in a press release for the album, “there were hippies there, skinheads, Rastafarians. I remember, most especially, a Sikh bus driver with a turban on and his bus driver uniform dancing away. It was an unbelievable scene with people hanging off the ceilings. There was this fantastic feeling that you were in on something extraordinary.”

Yep Roc’s Good ‘n’ Cheap collection will help introduce Eggs Over Easy to American rock ‘n’ roll fans, as well as cement the band’s status as pub rock trailblazers. Now if we could just get a Bees Make Honey compilation CD, life would be all peaches ‘n’ cream!

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Eggs Over Easy's Good 'n' Easy

Dr. Feelgood & Oil City Confidential

Oil City Confidential, filmmaker Julien Temple's award-winning documentary on the influential British pub-rock band Dr. Feelgood, will be released on DVD on November 5, 2013. The third part of Temple's trilogy of films documenting British music in the 1970s, Oil City Confidential is a prequel to Temple's The Filth & The Fury (on the Sex Pistols) and The Future Is Unwritten (on Joe Strummer and the Clash).

Temple's artistic vision differs from that of other documentary filmmakers, using music as an integral tool in his intelligent examination of social and cultural conditions in the U.K. With Oil City Confidential, Temple tells the story of four young men using rock 'n' roll as an escape from the bleak urban environment of Canvey Island, placing their ascent to a modest degree of fame and subsequent influence on the punk generation to follow in proper context with the social landscape. 

Dr. Feelgood was an amazing band, quite underrated and somewhat obscure here in the states, but well worth discovering on your own. Check out Oil City Confidential on DVD and you'll be buying up Dr. Feelgood records in no time! (The Reverend highly recommends the band's 1975 albums Down By The Jetty and Malpractice as well as 1976's Stupidity as the place to become acquainted with Dr. Feelgood's enormous charms.)

Watch the trailer for Oil City Confidential below and click on the DVD cover to buy from Amazon.com