Prog Rock Saturday: Nursery Cryme

Genesis - "Nursery Cryme" (1971) - Atlantic Records

Hello Friends,

I first heard Nursery Cryme in its entirety about two years ago and wasn't terribly impressed.  Sure, some of the Peter Gabriel wordplay and melodies seemed interesting but listening to it sort of felt like a homework assignment and I thought to myself, I'll get around to this later.  Honestly, I figured it was something I just wasn't going to get.

Sometimes when it comes to listening to music the stuff has you singing along before the final chorus often seems great at first, but over time it may leave you feeling a little flat or slightly underwhelmed.  

I guess one of the great things about Prog Rock is that once you get past all its weirdness, its virtuosity and and its bombastic nature is that, in general, good progressive rock will reward the patient listener.  Something you might have heard and cringed at two years ago you're now drunkenly singing along to at high volumes on a Saturday night causing record skips with your high leg kicks and spilling beer all over your dog!

Its like a Eureka moment.  That moment when everything clicks in and you get it.  When the guitar solos don't seem so serpentine and the lyrics don't seem so fucking strange.  This is pretty much what happened with Tiki T. and I when we pulled out Genesis's third record, Nursery Cryme this past Saturday night!  

Things start out relatively quietly with the eleven-minute "The Musical Box" opening up the album.  Some gentle guitars, keyboards & flute accompany Gabriel's high-pitched and particularly vulnerable-sounding vocals about a young Victorian boy's ghost being awoken by the sound of his old musical box ("play me my song, here it comes again.")  The thing is its his sister who has woke up his spirit and she's the one who is responsible for the boy's death (she beheaded him with a croquet mallet... hence the inspiration for the album's cover art!)  If that wasn't weird enough for you, the boy's conjured ghost is now horny as hell and he makes lustful advances at his sister ("I've been waiting here so long... Why don't you touch me?  Touch Me? Touch Me Now? Now? Now?...") before the song builds to a fantastic guitar solo crescendo/climax and ends.

The pretty and quiet ballad "For Absent Friends" brings things the listener back down to Earth for the next two minutes.  Nursery Cryme would be the first Genesis album with new drummer (and sometime vocalist) Phil Collins and guitarist Steve Hackett.  "For Absent Friends" features some very melodic, Renaissance-ish type guitar-picking by Hackett with some very pastoral-sounding vocals by Collins singing about a couple of old widowers who walk to church in the cold to remember they're departed loved ones.  Its something that sounds unusually sweet and harmonious-- almost like a Revolver-era McCartney tune--  but not necessarily out of place on the record.

This tranquility doesn't last long as Gabriel returns in his most manic state telling us the tale of "The Return of the Giant Hogweed".  WTF?  Actually, this is another song that grew on us.  The song seems to literally be about a Giant Hogweed that some scientist brings to London's Royal Gardens from Russia and it takes over the landscape in apocalyptic fashion. "Still they're invincible, Still they're immune to all our herbicidal battering."  Its funny because a lot of Genesis's Prog Rock counterparts (Yes, ELP, King Crimson) would be singing about something totally fantasy-based (Starship Troopers, Tarkuses & Larks Tongues in Aspic). Here, Gabriel & company, with their over-the-top theatrics may sound like they're from outer space but actually the lyrics and concepts behind the songs come off sounding very sincere, very naturalist, some may say childlike, others might say proletariat.  Whatever, when it comes to songs about weeds (non-marijuana types) this one's right up there with Guided by Voices's "Weed King."

Side One is bookended by two Lewis Carroll-inspired epics.  Side Two has four songs which tie in to the whole Nursery Cryme theme which seems to be stories that are closer in spirit to a Brothers Grimm fairy tale than anything by Mother Goose.

"I heard the old man tell his tale..." opens the awesome "Seven Stones" featuring Peter Gabriel at his most delicate & sincere in another cryptic song about a ship lost at sea, perhaps?  Maybe there's a "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" thing going on here?  There's also some fantastic Mellotron playing by Tony Banks, which reminds us of something that might have been done by early King Crimson.

On the three-minute, uptempo, "Harold the Barrel", Gabriel's vocal acrobatics are on full display in a song seemingly about a restaurant owner who's about to jump off a ledge! ("You must be joking!  Take a running jump!").  A song like this wouldn't be completely out of place on Abbey Road.

Also clocking in at under three minutes, the delicate & pastoral "Harlequin" sounds as if Peter Gabriel is doing his best Jon Anderson impression.  Actually, with the quiet guitar lines noodling throughout and the harmonizing vocals, you could probably fool your friends and tell them this is some sort of Crosby, Stills & Nash outtake!

Things return to a more epic scale on the album's closer, the eight minute, "The Fountain of Salmacis" about a mythical Hermaprodite-- a creature containing both Male & Female sex organs!  SWEET!  Just when you thought these cats couldn't get any weirder!!

"Both have given everything they had.
A lover's dream had been fulfilled at last,
Forever still beneath the lake..."

A perfect, weird and proggy ending to this almost perfect, weird & proggy album*!

RATING: 4.5 Dense Forests of Tall Dark Pinewood out of  5

* Jamie Lee Curtis would probably agree!

Pebbles volume 4

Pebbles, volume 4 (1979) - BFD Records 

Hello Friends,

Tiki T. and I have recently started collecting the Pebbles LP series courtesy of the BFD & AIP Record labels.  Awesome compilation records, first released in the late 70's, subtitled as "Artyfacts from the First Punk Era".  

They're a good companion to the more popular NUGGETS series-- records filled with 2 or 3 minute punk masterpieces mostly from the years of 1966 thru 1969.  Bands consisting of pimply-faced kids in basements and garages scattered throughout the country.  Some bands (and band members) would go on to bigger and better things, but most would only end up playing local teen centers, VFW Halls, dive bars and local college radio stations.  Only a few would be fortunate enough to open for a touring national act like Herman's Hermits, The Jefferson Airplane or The Animals.  A handful would be fortunate to record a 7" or two and then call it a day fading off into rock & roll obscurity.  

One-Hit and No-Hit Wonders. Footnotes in the Rock & Roll History Books.

Some of the greatest rock and roll songs ever written may have only been heard by a handful of ears. These records provide a time capsule into an honest and less-cynical past.  Behind every band, there's a story; some are triumphant; some are tragic; many are uneventful... but who doesn't love a good rock & roll story?    

Tonight we've got the fourth Pebbles LP on the turntable, better known as "The Surf One".  Eighteen tracks that are a bit of a departure from the usual Pebble LP as these songs are all unified by a surf rock theme! Honestly, its not our favorite Pebbles LP thus far.  Its fun but not as weird or grungy or dangerous as previous Pebbles' entries! Surfs up kiddies!

Side One
1. "Summer Means Fun" - Bruce & Terry.  Sounds like an early Beach Boys record and there's probably good reason for that as "Bruce" was longtime Beach Boy Bruce Johnston and "Terry" was Terry Melcher-- producer extraordinaire, son of Doris Day, friend of Charlie Manson. 
2. "Anywhere the Girls Are" - The Fantastic Baggys. P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri's surf & hotrod L.A. studio band.  Sloan and Barri would write and sing backup on some Jan & Dean records in '63 & '64. 
3. "R.P.M." - The Four Speeds. A hoppin' little hot rod number by another L.A. studio band featuring Gary Usher.  Most notable because this track features Dennis Wilson on drums. (This was the B-Side to The Four Speeds only single, "My Sting Ray".)
4. (bonus track) - Jan & Dean Coca Cola commercial. Yawn!
5. "Masked Grandma" - The California Suns.  A sequel of sorts to Jan & Dean's "Little Old Lady from Pasadena" (but a little bit meaner!) We like the kazoo solo, I guess.
6. "Top Down Time" - The Dantes. More surf's up, hot rod doo-wop.    
7. "Custom Caravan" - The Pyramids.  Another Gary Usher-penned hot rod tune featuring some pretty good drumming!  Actually, The Pyramids were in reality a complete band and not just some studio geeks hanging out trying to record the next big hit (like a lot of the songs on this collection!)
8. "California Sun '65" - The Rivieras.  South Bend, Indiana's own, The Rivieras gave the world this jukebox classic complete with a driving rhythm section, twangy lead guitar, a fun organ.  Ramones did a decent cover of this.  You could almost hear Joey Ramone singing on this version.
9. "New Generation" - The Trashmen.  From the other Midwest surf capitol, Minneapolis, Minnesota.  This is probably the most Garage-sounding track on the LP.  I guess there's something to be said for landlocked surf bands!  This wins our pick for best on the album!  A true teen anthem! We especially like the sound affect at the end of the lyric, "You couldn't wake them Sunday with a hydrogen bomb..."   

Side Two
1. "Pamela Jean" - The Survivors.  Written by Brian Wilson.  Arranged by Brian Wilson.  Sung by Brian Wilson. But this is NOT the Beach Boys (actually, it probably is!)
2. "Sacramento" - Gary Usher.  Usher, who co-wrote a number of early Beach Boys hits with Brian Wilson, including the phenomenal "In My Room", co-wrote and co-produced this song with Brian.  Its no surprise that it sounds a lot like the early Beach Boys.  (But what the hell on this record doesn't?  I mean, come on, we're itching for something a little slimier, grimier and sleazy!  This is a decent song but where's the twang?  Where's the Dick Dale-sounding stuff?  Heck, at this point we'd settle for some second rate Santo & Johnny!)
3. "Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby" - Sharon Marie.  Oh hey, guess what kids?  This song was written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love in 1964 and recorded by Brian.  It was later reclaimed by the Beach Boys on their 1967 record, Wild Honey.
4. "Hot Rod High" - The Knights.  Another Gary Usher hot rod/surf rock studio band.
5. "School is a Gas" - The Wheelmen. More. Gary. Usher.  This one a re-working of The Hondell's "School is a Drag."
6. "Image of a Surfer" - Lloyd Thaxton.  Kind of a novelty, spoken-word song by L.A. fixture/disc jockey, Lloyd Thaxton aka the poor man's Dick Clark or the West Coast Murray the K.
7. "Beach Ball" - The City Surfers.  Co-written by Jim McGuinn.  Fun Spector-sounding beach song that wouldn't sound out of place in a Flintstones episode!
8. "London's A Lonely Town" - Dave Edmunds.  This seems to be a very un-Pebbles-like entry!  Overproduced, slick-sounding rockabilly from circa 1976.  Not a terrible song, but definitely doesn't fit in with whole Pebbles-theme! 
9. "The Fun We Had" - The Ragamuffins.  Bittersweet ending to the record written, arranged and sung (in glorious falsetto) by California impresarior, Gary Zekley, who wrote "Sooner or Later" for The Grass Roots and "Superman" for The Clique (later covered by R.E.M).

Like I said, a bit of a let down after some other great Pebbles' LPs.  That being said, the weather is great, the girls are in their summer clothes and we're headed down to the local malt shop for a classic car show.  Tiki... where's my Pomade?

RATING: 3 ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bird-bird-bird-ba-ba-bird-is-the-word out of 5

Ladies Invited!

The J. Geils Band - "Ladies Invited" (1973) - Atlantic Records

Hello Friends,

Shitty cover.  Shitty title.  But a damn fine record between the grooves! 

The band's fifth LP has more of the same blues-inspired, Rock 'n' Roll party tunes!  Nearly every song is a solid R&B rager and the perfect soundtrack to a late night keg party (preferably in the woods!)  Side One has opening fist-pumping triumvirate of, "Did You No Wrong", "I Can't Go On" & "Lay Your Good Thing Down".  

Things get a little bit slower on the soulful ballad, "That's Why I'm Thinking of You" (which sounds like a Sticky Fingers outtake) and the side ends with the blistering rocker, "No Doubt About It" featuring some fine Magic Dick jaw work!

Side Two is more of the same with the diminutive hipster Peter Wolf leading the pack. "The Lady Makes Demands" sounds like a groovy E Street Band tune backed up a young American Rod Stewart (which, by the way, kinda describes a lot of early Geils.)

"My Baby Don't Love" is another great Stonesy-sounding ballad.  

Its a mystery to us how the song "Diddyboppin'" wasn't one of those ubiquitous tunes heard at keggers and suburban High School football parking lots throughout the mid-seventies. (At the very least, it should have made an appearance in "Dazed & Confused"!)

"Take A Chance (On Romance)" is more fist-pumpin' fun!  Damn, I feel like throwing a keg party in the woods just so I can play this record on repeat all night! 

The album's final song, "Chimes" is a dark, little ballad that recalls The Classics IV "Spooky"-- but a million times better! Wolf sounds strung out and soulful; literally howling like an all night drug-prowling wolf.  The music is lumbering and particularly sleazy.  Great Magic Dick solo and a fantastically spooky guitar solo by Geils.  Its like the album is saying, "Hey kids, party's over!  You don't have to go home, but you can't crash here!"

Once again, all of the songwriting duties on Ladies Invited were handled by Wolf and keyboardist, Seth Justman.  The shitty cover art can be blamed on some artist named Antonio and is supposedly a rendering of Faye Dunaway who Wolf was dating at the time (and who he would marry in 1974). Good for him!

RATING: 4 Woofa Goofa Mama Toofas out of 5