DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS

"WAVING LIKE NEW"

LOOK SHARP! by Joe Jackson (A&M, 1979)


In the late 70’s the Punk movement had begun to dissipate, and the emerging Angry Young musicians were engaging more style and sly humor.  Similar to his contemporaries Elvis Costello and Graham Parker - both of whom I adored - Joe married inchoate rage with intelligence and taste, and his early albums were irresistible. Look Sharp!, his debut, heralded the arrival of a major new talent, and the iconic cover photo featuring his pointy white shoes turned toward a gleaming shaft of light said it all. As the website Allmusic has stated, this was “the sound of a young man searching for substance in a superficial world,” and he fucking rocked it.

By 1982, he had expanded his repertoire to include jazz on the album Night and Day - and with a flaneur’s easy elan he topped the charts handily. Stepping Out from that album became a fixture on 90s radio.  Jackson’s expanding “manifest destiny” continued into the realm of the classical music in Symphony #1, for which he won the Grammy for best pop instrumental.

The genre that encompassed the many pop oriented styles that emerged after punk rock, often characterized by a humorous approach, was dubbed “New Wave”. (XTC, Devo, and Squeeze, three other quirky favorites, emerged during that time as well). Joe was immersed in Reggae during this period, and that style permeates this recording throughout (check out Fools in Love and Sunday Papers), along with Rockabilly, Soul, and Funk. But, for Joe, that wave of newness was just the beginning in a questing career path that he is still forging to this day.   

1. | "One More Time" | 3:15
2. | "Sunday Papers" | 4:22
3. | "Is She Really Going Out with Him?" | 3:33
4. | "Happy Loving Couples" | 3:08
5. | "Throw It Away" | 2:49
6. | "Baby Stick Around" | 2:36
7. | "Look Sharp!" | 3:23
8. | "Fools in Love" | 4:23
9. | "(Do the) Instant Mash" | 3:12
10. | "Pretty Girls" | 2:55
11. | "Got the Time"

1) I Can’t Keep From Crying Sometimes- Al Kooper 2) It Wouldn’t Happen With Me – Johnny Rivers 3) Come See About Me- Mitch Ryder 4) You Don’t Know- Eliie Greenwich 5) Bring It With You When You Come- Siegel / Schwall Band 6) Goodnight Baby- The Butterflies 7) One Last Dance For The Melody – Johnny Rivers 8) Taking All I Can Get – Mitch Ryder 9) Mean Old Southern- Blues Project 10) Racing In The Street- (Unreleased 1978 Alternate Version )- Bruce Springsteen 11) Baby I Love You- The Ramones 12) Late John Garfield Blues- Live- John Prine 13) Sylvia’s Mother- Dr. Hook and His Medicine Show 14) Shaking With Linda – Mitch Ryder 15) I Have A Boyfriend- The Chiffons 16) Rosalie’s Good Eats Cafe 16) Jesus Is A Soul Man- Johnny Rivers 17) Out In The Streets- The Shangri-las 18) Bossa Nova Baby- Elvis 19) What A Guy- The Raindrops 20) Two Trains Running – Blues Project With Danny Kalb Vocal and legendary Guitar Performance 21) I Get The Blues When It Rains – Jerry Lee Lewis 22) I’ll Never Learn- The Shangri-las 23) The End Is Not In Sight – The Late, Great Russell Smith of The Amazing Rhythm Aces 24) Please Let Me Go Round Again- John Prine and Swamp Dogg

WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?

"CHAMELEON"  by Maynard Ferguson (Columbia, 1974)

I admit that I’m woefully unequipped to discuss Big Band music, or any Jazz for that matter, in great detail. Although, throughout my life I’ve developed a passion for the odd jazz master here and there, and as a matter of personal pride I’ve always strived to be conversant in the subject, at the very least. However, the trumpeter Maynard Ferguson was a blank slate for me. So, when combing through my 8 tracks and I stumbled upon this cart, I decided to give it a spin.

This record depicts big band music at that cusp of time when it was struggling for relevance. Doc Severinson, Johnny Carson’s band leader, (another trumpet player), played what seemed comically bloated and old fashioned - my parent’s music. Maynard Ferguson was Doc’s contemporary who played with him in Charlie Barnet’s band in the late 40’s, and he carried the big band flag all the way to his death in 2006 at the age of 78.

When he made Chameleon in ’74 he was 46 - still vital and searching for a key to the mystic highway. The covers of Paul McCartney’s Jet, the titular funk track by Herbie Hancock, and the sprawling Livin’ for the City by Stevie Wonder all testify to this cool Quebecois’s questing versatility. And it’s good stuff - lustily orchestrated and delivered. As his obit in the Washington Post described Mr. Ferguson’s high register wailing: he was: “…. A gladiator, a combat soldier, a prize fighter, a circus strongman…”

Now here’s where the story gets weird and interesting for me: In 1963, Maynard brought his family to live with Timothy Leary and Ram Dass at their compound in Hitchcock Estates and lived there for three years, recording and taking psychedelics. Then, he went to India and taught Krishnamurti at the Rishi Valley School. And, he always attributed his ability to hit and sustain those high notes from his Yogic breath control. This turned my perception of this artist’s output on its head. Live and learn.

Side One:
1. | "Chameleon" | Paul Jackson, Harvey Mason, Bennie Maupin, Herbie Hancock | 4:35
2. | "Gospel John" | Jeffrey Steinberg | 6:02
3. | "The Way We Were" | Marvin Hamlisch, Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman | 3:25
4. | "Jet" | Paul McCartney | 3:55

Side Two:
1. | "La Fiesta" | Chick Corea | 8:04
2. | "I Can't Get Started" (vocals by Maynard Ferguson) | Ira Gershwin, Vernon Duke | 3:42
3. | "Livin' for the City" | Stevie Wonder | 4:55
4. | "Superbone Meets the Bad Man"

"GERMINATING IN THE SOIL"

THE WEB OF SOUND by The Seeds (GNP Crescendo, 1966)

1966 was probably the high water mark year for Garage Rock: There was Gloria by Shadows of Knight; Psychotic Reaction by Count V; Talk Talk by the Music Machine; We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet by The Blues Magoos, and the Eldorado of the genre: 96 Tears by ? And the Mysterians - just imagine all that Fuzz -Farfisa ripeness! Even yours truly at age 13 had his band The Full House covering all those tunes at the Princeton Hospital Fete that summer.

But the undisputed King of Garage Rock was Sky Saxon of The Seeds (one of the house bands at Bido Lito’s in Hollywood - also home of Love), and this recording The Web of Sound has all the elements of what one critic called “snotty aggression with some heavier psychedelic flourishes” that made garage rock the indelible statement that it was.

The 14 minute “Up in her Room” , with its penetrating bottleneck guitar work by Cooker, has been compared to The Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray”, and the influence of The Seeds, like their east coast counterparts, the Velvets, was enormous. Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper and many other credit Sky and his band to be their inspirations.
Sky, born Richard Elven Marsh to a Mormon family in 1937, had traveled a long distance spiritually when he joined the Yahowha vegetarian cult following Father Yod, taking the additional name of “Sunlight.” Enroute, he masterminded some of the most infectiously growling proto- punk ever, and on this set he leads us through its many mansions with slimy yet sinuous renditions of Tripmaker, Farmer John, and Rolling Machine.

Interesting note: this cartridge is not an 8, but a 4 track - the format that preceded the 8. The carts have no pinch roller, and the tape is engaged by a lever on the player. Ancient technology for the most primitive of wonderments.


Side One:
1. | "Mr. Farmer" | Sky Saxon | 2:52
2. | "Pictures and Designs" | Daryl Hooper, Saxon | 2:44
3. | "Tripmaker" | Hooper, Marcus Tybalt | 2:48
4. | "I Tell Myself" | Tybalt | 2:31
5. | "A Faded Picture" | Hooper, Saxon | 5:20
6. | "Rollin' Machine" | Saxon, Tybalt | 2:32

Side Two:
1. | "Just Let Go" | Hooper, Jan Savage, Saxon | 4:21
2. | "Up in Her Room" | Saxon | 14:45

"SEX AS SPIRIT"

LET’S GET IT ON by Marvin Gaye (Tamla, 1973)


In the 1950’s, Americans with seduction on their minds put Jackie Gleason’s records on the hi-fi; in the 70’s it had to be the late, great Marvin Gaye. Speaking from personal experience, making love to Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get it On was a free passage to a timeless paradise of spiritual transcendence. The luscious, multi-layered, funky, slow jams of sensual worship cradled us lovers in the arms of blissful oneness. 

Clearly, I wasn’t alone in that opinion. Let’s Get it On, inspired by his second wife, Janis Hunter, was Marvin’s most successful album, making it to #2 on the Billboard chart. In terms of an artist achieving his full power, this concept album surpassed the iconic What’s Going On in its popularity, signaling the amazing growth of one of this nation’s premier singer-songwriters. Tragically, Marvin’s life was cut short, at age 44, by bullets fired from a gun he bought for his own father 11 years later, putting a button on a disastrous familial cycle that started with horrific childhood abuse.

Unfortunately, the circumstances of his death might cloud his enormous artistic achievements somewhat, but considering that Marvin’s creativity was driven by a lifelong desire to overcome this early trauma, it’s even more admirable that it yielded such great art for all of us to cherish. Quoting David Ritz: Marvin’s work reveals a “struggle to wed body and soul, in his exploration of sexual passion, he expresses the most human of hungers, the hunger for God.”

I got the message, Marvin. 

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