I've Always Been Crazy

Waylon Jennings - "I've Always Been Crazy" (1978) - RCA Victor

Hello Friends,

There's two great bits of trivia in regards to the life and career of Waylon Jennings.  The first is, did you know that Waylon Jennings gave up his seat on Buddy Holly's plane the night of the infamous crash which killed Holly, Richie Valens, the Big Bopper, etc.?

The other is that he sang the Dukes of Hazzard theme song!

This is a great, late 70's outlaw country record by the world-weary and coked-addled Jennings.

It kicks off with the great title track, "I've Always Been Crazy" where Jennings confesses:

I've always been crazy and the trouble that it's put me through
I've been busted for things that I did, and I didn't do
I can't say I'm proud of all of the things that I've done
But I can say I've never intentionally hurt anyone


Awesome!

Also on the record is a cover of a Tony Joe White song ("Billy"), a Shel Silverstein-penned tune ("Whistlers & Jugglers"), a medley of Buddy Holly hits, a Merle Haggard cover ("Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down") and a cover of Johnny Cash's early hit, "I Walk The Line" (which in Jennings's hands takes on a whole new, more somber tone!)

A must listen if you're into the boozy & druggie outlaw country movement of the late 70's.

Extra points for Jennings's coked out stare on the album's cover!

RATING: 4.5 close watches on this heart of mine out of 5

Hi-Fi Holidays: Psych-Out Christmas

Various Artists - "Psycho-Out Christmas" (2013) - Cleopatra Records

Smoke 'em if you got 'em tonight friends!

Great LP compilation of some really twisted xmas tunes.

Seventeen whacked-out songs to help make your late night holiday chill-out sessions a bit more merry & bright.

SIDE A
1. Intro - Christmas Monster Party (Len Maxwell)
2. Christmas Time (Is Here Again) - Elephant Stone
3. It s Christmas Day - The Cosmonauts
4. Silent Night - Quintron & Miss Pussycat
5. Jul Song - Dark Horses
6. What Child Is This? - Sleepy Sun
7. No More Christmas Blues - The Vacant Lots
8. Time of the Season - Sons of Hippies
9. Santa Claus - The Fuzztones

SIDE B
1. Christmas Tears - Eli Cook
2. Little Drummer Boy - The Movements
3. Jingle Bell Rock - Quintron & Miss Pussycat
4. Frosty The Snowman - The Candy Store
5. Run Rudolph Run - Psychic Ills
6. Mele Kalikimaka - Dead Meadow
7. Jingle Bells - HE 5
8. White Christmas (Guitar Stooge Version) - Iggy Pop


There's some melody-laced Beatles-influence (Montreal's Elephant Stone); VU-inspired guitar rock (California's The Cosmonauts); whacked-out exotica-tinged noise rock (Quintron); warm and cozy dream pop (England's Dark Horses); Pink Floyd-inspired psychedelic jams (California's Sleepy Sun); shoegazing-indie rock (Burlington, Vermont's The Vacant Lots and Sarasota, Florida's Sons of Hippies); and some good ol' fashioned three chord garage rock (NYC's legendary Fuzztones covering a Sonic's classic!)

And that's just Side One!

Side Two contains even more eclectics with some OKAY modern blues courtesy of Billy Gibbons Eli Cook; some more noisy space rock (The Movements, Quintron, Dead Meadow); some Phil Spector-inspired pop (The Candy Store); and some more retro-sounding garage rock (Psychic Ills & HE 5).

Everything comes to stunning conclusion thanks to Iggy Pop's crooning take on the Irving Berlin Classic, "White Christmas".  

Yowsa! For a second we thought the record was playing on too slow a speed, but that's just Iggy's inimitable baritone (plus whatever drinks we've been ingesting!)

There's plenty of guitars, spacey keyboards, weird sound effects and beats to keep your after hours holiday party rolling deep into the nigh.  This record is a must hear especially for fans of Pink Floyd, space rock, The Flaming Lips, Spiritualized and early 90's indie rock.

As Merry Monster MC Len Maxwell states in the intro to the LP, "you should not play this record when the sun is up!"  Agreed!  Who plays records during the day anyways?

RATING: 4 it just doesn't feel like christmas until iggy pop sings white christmas out of 5

Glen Campbell & Cher - "Jingle Bells" (1969)

Hello Friends,

Here's another clip we found from Glen Campbell's Goodtime Hour Christmas Special from 1969 performing a funked-up version of "Jingle Bells" with the one and only Cher.

In all likelihood, Campbell was under a mountain of "christmas snow" before filming began!

Enjoy!

Pebbles volume 3: The Acid Gallery

Pebbles, volume 3 aka "The Acid Gallery" (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 third Pebbles LP on the turntable, also known as "The Acid Gallery".  Eighteen tracks that are out there!  Waaaaay out there! Enjoy!  

Side One
1. "Diamond Mine" - Dave Diamond & the Higher Elevation.  Dave Diamond was a rock DJ hailing from South Dakota who made his mark in the late 60's playing records by then burgeoning psychedelic bands.  (He was the first DJ to play "Light My Fire" by The Doors!) This spoken word psychedelic poem sounds a bit muddled and doesn't really make a whole lot of sense but it kicks the record off in quite the trippy fashion!  (Dave Diamond passed away in May of last year!  RIP Dave! We hardly knew ye!)

2. "Suzy Creamcheese" - Teddy & His Patches.  Great acid punk from San Jose garage band doing their interpretation of Frank Zappa & the Mothers. 

3. "Suicidal Flowers" - Crystal Chandelier. Awesome fuzztone on this Doors-inspired song courtesy of a little known garage band from either Texas or Providence, RI. 

4. "Swami" - William Penn V. Fucking fantastic San Francisco British Invasion-influenced acid rock.  Opened up for the likes of Jefferson Airplane, Them & Paul Revere and the Raiders. Mickey Hart played drums with them for a while before joining The Grateful Dead.  They were supposedly about to sign a record deal with Fantasy Records before disbanding and becoming another rock & roll footnote!

5. "I'm Allergic to Flowers" - Jefferson Handkerchief. What a band name!  We don't know a thing about the Jefferson Handkerchief except that they released this one novelty single in 1967 in order to poke holes in the whole "Flower Power" movement!

6. bonus track "Prana (excerpt)" - Unfolding.     

7. "Flight Reaction" - The Calico Wall.  Psychedelic garage punk from Minnesota band! Great trippy & paranoid song about fear of flying... Chorus: "And I swear I'll never fly again!"

8. "Loose Lip Sync Ship" - The Hogs.  Weird tune, heavily influenced by Zappa.  Starts out as a great garage instrumental, then moves into a druggy doo-wop spoken word section, before winding up as an abstract space jazz hymn!  Fun Fact: The Hogs were better known as The Chocolate Watchband!  

9. "The Reality of (Air) Fried Borsk" - The Driving Stupid. More whacked-out psychedelic garage rock, this time from the state of New Jersey.  The acoustic stomp-blues part is fine, but the screeching, screaming vocals seem to be a little overboard!  This band's biggest "hit" was called "Horror Asparagus Stories", included on Side Two!  Oh boy! 

Side Two
1. "I'm Five Years Ahead of My Time" - The Third Bardo.  Releasing just one single in their short career, New York's The Third Bardo were certainly about quality and not quantity with this killer psychedelic classic!  We're hearing more than a little Roky Erickson on this one!  

2. "Voices Green and Purple" - The Bees.  West Coast acid rock.  This time hailing from Los Angeles.  Not much else is known about The Bees.

3. "Spider and The Fly" - The Monocles.  This is the sound of good clean-cut neighborhood kids from Colorado forming a garage band and then discovering drugs! Yowsa! 

4. "Let's Take a Trip" - Godfrey.  L.A. Disc Jockey Godfrey takes on this Kim Fowley classic.  Sounds a little bit square compared to the original which was the original ode to psychedelics! 

5. "Faces" - T.C. Atlantic.  Minneapolis in the house!  Decent garage band that really never made it out of their home state of Minnesota. Nice fuzzy guitars and snaky vocals!

6. "Soggy Cereal" - Mike Condello.  Oh boy.

7. "Dom Kallar Oss Mods" - The Lea Riders Group.  Fantastic garage rock straight from Stockholm, Sweden and doing it up right!  This was the title track of the 1968 Swedish documentary about streetwise Stockholm teenagers, "They Call Us Misfits". 

8. "Horror Asparagus Stories" - The Driving Stupid.   "My father was a big ol' toad / He lived in a hole in the middle of the road"... it seems this collection is leaning a little too much to the Dr. Demento side of things!

9. "Like a Dribbling Fram" - Races Marbles.  Oh boy, Bob Dylan is turning in his grave! (and he's not even dead yet!) Canadian band with their take on Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" that sounds like an 1960's Weird Al on psilocybin.

And "Weird" would be the best way to describe much of this record!  But, like we always say, "Weird is good", friends, and there's plenty of weirdos on Pebbles volume 3! 

RATING: 3.5 commie cereal, soggy cereal, they're one in the same out of 5

Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard - "It's All Going to Pot" (2015)

RIP Merle!

Just say no Kids!

Actually, Willie is looking pretty goddamn spry. 

Maybe he's onto something!

Elton John - "Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters" (1972)

Probably our favorite song by Elton John.

We're pressed between this and Lou Reed's "Perfect Day" as to which is a better overdose song used in a movie.

Enjoy!

Kay Starr - "(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man With The Bag" (1950)

Now this is more like it!

A little Kay Starr will really get the Christmas cocktails flowing!

(Although, listening to the lyrics, this song may be about waiting for your Christmas cocaine dealer to arrive!?!  Let it snow?)

Old Mr. Kringle is soon gonna jingle
The bells that'll tingle all your troubles away
Everybody's waiting for the man with the bag
'Cause Christmas is coming again

He's got a sleigh full, it's not gonna stay full
He's got stuff to drop at every stop of the way
Everybody's waiting for the man with the bag
'Cause Christmas is coming again

Turkish Delight

Midnight Express Soundtrack (1978) - Casablanca Records

Hello Friends,

On the turntable tonight, we've got Giorgio Moroder's soundtrack album to Alan Parker's 1978 movie about a hash-smuggling American who gets caught and jailed in a Turkish prison.

Spoiler alert: Its no picnic!

Based on the (mostly) true account of Billy Hayes, the film's script was written by none other than Sir Oliver Stone.  

Very synthy & dreamlike, Moroder's soundtrack is at times haunting and powerful.  There's a couple of vocal tracks that end up sounding kind of dated and cheesey, but the 8-minute opening track alone ("Chase") is worth the price of admission.

Its so good, in fact, that it won the Academy Award for best original score for that year!

Nice job, Giorgio!  You have yet to let us down!

And remember kids, just say No!

o-o-oh billy!

RATING: 4 dreams that keep my soul alive out of 5

Prog Rock Saturday: Procol Harum

Procol Harum - Procol Harum (1967) - Deram Records

Hello Friends,

We're skipping the light fandango tonight on Vinyl in the Valley!

Our first album to kick off another Summer of Prog Rock Saturdays is Procol Harum's self-titled, debut LP.

Now this is definitely more of a proto-prog record than the more traditional progressive rock of the likes of Yes, King Crimson or Genesis.  The songs here are relatively short and digestible, and the musical arrangements are interesting, but not overly complex.  

Most of the songs here follow a traditional blues structure, but with heavy Classical influences and lots of big, almost otherworldly, organ sounds playing throughout.  The lyrics, too, seem to be coming from another world with loads of psychedelic, mythological (demonic?) and death-inspired imagery.

One can even make a solid argument that Procol Harum's first single and most well-known song, "A Whiter Shade of Pale", is one of the earliest examples of what would eventually become progressive rock.

"Her face at first just ghostly, turned a whiter shade of pale..."

A great song, that may or may be about a girl dying from a drug overdose or the band playing a closing number at a slow dance in some haunted netherworld, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" is to the late sixties what Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" was to the late 30's & early 40's.  Its instantly recognizable and familiar.  There's no doubting from what era the music comes from when you hear those first few notes.  If we were making a movie and wanted to flashback to a hippie party in 1967, we'd probably use "Whiter Shade"; just like if we wanted to film a slow dance scene between a WWII GI and his girl the night before he ships out, we no doubt would use a few bars of "Moonlight Serenade".

Good thing we're better at slinging back drinks than we are at making movies, kids!    

"She Wandered Through The Garden Fence" is a whimsical blues that sounds a little like Steve Winwood recording a song on Piper at the Gates of Dawn (which, incidentally was released just a month before this LP!)  Actually, there's a lot points on the record where the singer and pianist, Gary Brooker, sounds A LOT like Traffic-era Stevie Winwood!

Death makes another appearance on "Something Following Me", a slow, soulful blues tune about a guy wandering around 42nd Street as he keeps seeing his own "engraved marble" tombstone following him around.

The borderline-annoying "Mabel" actually sounds like something Ray Davies might have perfected a few years later on Muswell Hillbillys.  "More slide-whistle!" said no one, ever.

Side One concludes with the five-minute psychedelic death trip "Cerdes (Outside the Gates Of)" which features unicorns, mermaids & some downright dirty Hammond organ playing and guitar soloing (courtesy of Matt Fisher & Robin Trower, respectively.)  "Cerdes" is the Goofus to "White Shade of Pale"'s Gallant.  Its dark & trippy, loose & foreboding and features non-sensical lyrics like:

Phallus Phil tries peddling his pewter painted pot
But Sousa Sam can only hear the screams of Peep the Sot
Who only sips his creme de menthe from terra cotta cups
And exhales menthol scented breath whilst spewing verbiage up

Yowsa!  We'll have what he's having!

On Side Two the weirdness continues, kicking off with the sludgy, "A Christmas Camel", a song about amazon brides, Santa Claus, Arabian sheikhs and "madmen in top hats and tails impal[ing] themselves on six inch nails." Hey kids, DO NOT put this on your next Christmas Cocktail Party playlist!

The great, "Conquistador" is next.  Here they are performing it on German TV in 1976.

The psychedelic "Kaleidoscope" and blue-eyed soulful "Salad Days (are here again)" follow and the record concludes with the satanic sounding instrumental, "Repent Walpurgis". A great, organ-heavy instrumental featuring some more bleeding Hammond organ and note-shredding guitar soloing.  

This leads us to a couple of questions, were Procol Harum the first rock & roll band to employ both piano parts and organ parts into their songs?  Seems like a simple enough idea now, but at the time that lineup (guitar, bass, drums, piano & organ) had to be a pretty far out concept!

Also kids, there's got to be something Satanic with this band, right?  From the weird, ghostly cover art to the fucked up lyrics throughout, these guys have definitely conjured a demon or two at some point, no?  Even their name, Procol Harum, loosely translates to "Beyond these things" in Latin aka the devil's language!  On 1969's A Salty Dog LP, they would even record a song called, "The Devil Came From Kansas".

Well, we're convinced!

Hail Satan!

RATING: 4 Vestal Virgins Who Were Leaving For the Coast out of 5 

13th Floor Elevators: Easter Everywhere

The 13th Floor Elevators - "Easter Everywhere" (1967) - International Artist

Hello Friends,

The year 1967 marked a turning point in music and culture, especially in these here United States.  There was no shortage of good music either.  Bands began pushing the envelope with sounds and instruments.  1967 had debuts from The Doors, The Grateful Dead, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Moby Grape, Big Brother & the Holding Company, The Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd & Leonard Cohen.  Frank Zappa & The Mothers released Absolutely Free.  The Kinks gave us Something Else.  The Beach Boys cut & pasted together, Smiley Smile. Cream, Disraeli Gears. The Who Sell Out.  The Stones' Their Satanic Majesties Request. And the grandaddy of them all, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Released just one year after their amazing debut, The 13th Floor Elevators released Easter Everywhere, another psychedelic masterpiece.  Like the times themselves, there's a definite evolution here as well.  Not only was the band continually expanding their minds through living the Rock & Roll lifestyle, but by '67 they were more worldly & world-weary.  Also, by most reports, they were probably ingesting more psychedelics than your average, run-of-the-mill Texas garage band!  Just say no, kids!

The band has broadened their sound as well, playing a slightly more developed version of their signature psychedelic blues with more folk, jazz & Eastern influences thrown in.  For their sophomore effort, the rhythm section would also be updated.  Bassist Ronnie Leatherman and drummer John Ike Walton would be replaced by Dan Galindo and Danny Thomas, respectively.  Of course, each song on the record is enhanced by Tommy Hall's ubiquitous and fluttering electric jug playing! 

Frontman Roky Erickson is in especially fine form.  His barbaric yawp never sounded better! With whacky stream of consciousness lyrics, he's equal parts Syd Barrett & Jim Jones. William Blake & Charlie Manson.  Whimsically menacing.  Almost like a crazed Bob Dylan leading a religious cult while ingesting healthy doses of lysergic acid.

Things get kicked off with "Slip Inside This House" which typifies everything that's to follow on the record.  Blistering psychedelic rock with equal parts drugs & blues. Erickson's manic philosophy invites the listener in to "slip inside this house as you pass by". At over 8 minutes, it sounds more like a Sermon than a follow-up to "You're Gonna Miss Me".

"Slide Machine" was written by frequent Elevators pal & muse, Powell St. John.  Now we're not exactly sure what a slide machine is except that "it sweeps bones right off the road" and the image of a slide machine headed our way with Stacy Sutherland's angry fuzz guitar and Hall's maniacal jug is enough to scare the crap out of anyone, stoned or otherwise!

"She Lives (In A Time of Her Own)" is a fantastic little 3 minute psych-pop gem which sounds like it would have sounded perfectly at home on their debut record, The Psychedelic Sounds of The 13th Floor Elevators.

On Surrealistic Pillow (also 1967), The Jefferson Airplane asked "Don't You Want Somebody to Love"?  On Easter Everywhere, Stacy Sutherland channels both the Airplane and The Byrds (two West Coast-influences) on the lamenting and fuzzy, "Nobody to Love". 

Side One wraps up with a grungy, desperate-sounding version of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue".  Erickson channeling Dylan is equal parts triumphant and heartbreaking!  

Side Two opens up with another rollicking psychedelic thrill ride, "Earthquake" (think "Roller Coaster" from The Psychedelic Sounds Of).

This rager is followed by one of the band's most raw and vulnerable-sounding songs, "Dust". A quiet and mostly acoustic ballad with cryptic, haiku-type lyrics is about as close to a "love" song as the band would ever get!

In a much cooler alternate Universe, "I've Got Levitation" would have been Easter Everywhere's "hit" single. Once again, it sounds a little like The Byrds or even more like The Monkees on LSD.  (It also contains the lyric, "The waves of higher bodies soon dazzling in my ears / Will center my vibrations with the music of the spheres" inspiring the name of the box set!)

Clementine Hall (Tommy's wife) would co-write and harmonize on the gorgeous-sounding, "I Had to Tell You" which has Roky sounding a lot like Michael Stipe. (Just listen to the way he sings, "I'm feelin' fine" at the end of the each chorus!) Clementine was no Yoko however, as this song is fantastic, as is the song she co-wrote on the first record, "Splash 1".

The album's last track is, unfortunately, the album's only weak song.  "Postures (Leave Your Body Behind)" provides a Motown-influenced backdrop to Roky's meandering lyrics about out-of-body consciousness.  Its all rather new age-y.  It probably would have worked much better against noisy, fuzzy guitars, feedback and drums that sound like they might be tumbling down a set of stairs.

As part of the MUSIC OF THE SPHERES BOX SET, this updated & remastered vinyl edition of Easter Everywhere is presented as a double LP with both Mono & Stereo versions of the record.  I'm sure somewhere else someone has done a pretty thorough breakdown of the differences between the two versions.  What we basically notice is that the Mono version has a fuller sound with a deeper bass mix and more prominent jug-playing.  (Imagine the Saturday Night Live sketch with Christopher Walken telling Will Ferrell/Tommy Hall, "More Jug!") 

Easter Everywhere would be the Elevators' penultimate release as well as their masterpiece.  In that much cooler, alternate universe that we mentioned earlier, The 13th Floor Elevators are so much more than just rock & roll footnotes.  If there was any justice in the world, it would be Roky Erickson's meddlesome mug gracing posters in teenagers' rooms in the late 60's and 70's instead of that creep Jim Morrison!  Lizard king, my ass!

RATING: 4.5 Three-eyed Men Are Not Complaining They Can Yo-Yo Where They Will Out of 5

 

Bobby Bare Jr. - "North of Alabama By Mornin'"

Hello Friends,

"North of Alabama by Mornin'" is the lead off track on Bobby Bare, Jr.'s 2014 release, Undefeated. 

Distorted, twangy guitars.  Clever and soulful songs about drinking, being on the road, break-ups and America.  There's funny songs, sad songs, and (our favorite) funny-sad songs!

This one seems to be about piling your band and your gear into a crappy van and driving cross-country to make your next gig!

Kinda reminds us of LA Turnaround, a fancy nickname for trucker's speed that was used and abused by touring country musicians in the Seventies because they would take enough of it in order to drive from Nashville to Los Angeles without stopping for sleep!

Now that's how you hustle!

Movie Night: Beware of Mr Baker

Hello Friends,

Grab your popcorn and pull up a stool, its Movie Night again on Vinyl in the Valley!

Tonight we're watching a documentary on the extraordinary rock & roll life of Cream drummer, Ginger Baker, Beware of Mr. Baker.

Hey kids, how many times have you wondered to yourself, "Hey, I wonder what happened to Ginger Baker after Cream and Blind Faith broke up?  What's he been up to?" 

WHAT? You've never pondered the fate of one of rock's greatest drummers?  Whether you have or not, the 2012 documentary, Beware of Mr. Baker, is here to answer all of your questions and get you caught up to speed!

Basically, Ginger Baker was one of rock's greatest drummers.  Technically speaking, he was vastly superior to Moon or Bonham.  The problem was he was a huge dick on a steady diet of drugs and booze!  Pissing bandmates off and burning bridges right and left!  In the Seventies, after the dissolution of both Cream & Blind Faith, Baker retreated to Africa and became good friends with Fela Kuti, whose band he would often be found sitting in with. Every couple of years, Baker would come out of hiding in order to pay some bills with a new band or a reunion of some sort.  Usually, because of his short-fused temper and codgery demeanor, these would be short-lived as well!

Directed by Jay Bulger, the film centers around the director's quest to go to Baker's South African compound and get a tell-all interview that documents all the ups and downs of his career.  At one point the director even gets knocked in the noggin by Baker's can! 

Good interview footage with Clapton, Jack Bruce, Carmine Appice, John Lydon, amongst others.  Its an interesting little film about an oft-overlooked rock icon who peaked, historically, over forty years ago and whose influence is still felt today!

We give this one two raised cocktail glasses!

We'll see you next time, friends, until then the Tiki Bar is closed*.  

(* not really)

It ain't easy livin' like a gypsy, tell ya honey how I feel

Aerosmith - "Live Bootleg" (1978) - Columbia Records

Hello Friends,

Tonight we've got a great double-live album on the turntable that captures one of the 1970's best hard rock bands at the height of their creative powers while in the the throes of drug addiction and overindulgence!  Sounds like a recipe for some great rock & roll!

Contrary to the LP's title, "Live Bootleg" is not a bootleg at all. Actually, it was kind of joke by the band and the record label to spoof the bootleg format which was usually plagued by bad photocopied artwork & really crappy sound quality!

Not only is Live Bootleg one of the 1970's best live records (its right up there with Alive!, Live at Budokan, Live at Leeds, If You Want Blood You've Got It and The Last Waltz), but it also would prove to be the high point in the band's career.  In our opinion, 1977's Draw the Line would be the last great, sleazy Aerosmith LP.  1979's Night in the Ruts isn't very good, 1982's Rock in a Hard Place is missing Joe Perry & 1985's Done With Mirrors is abysmal!  We all know the story how Aerosmith resurrected their career in the mid-80's thanks to MTV and Run DMC, but none of that stuff can hold a candle to their first five studio albums!

And unlike a lot of the other great live albums of this era, Live Bootleg captures the band at their most raw and strung out.  The album is not littered with polished-sounding overdubs or glossy production.  This is the band warts & all and by 1978 Aerosmith was a hot mess!  (And if you listen closely you can even hear some fans throwing M80's at the stage!  Apparently in the seventies, this was a "thing.")

The album begins, like most Aersomith shows in '77 & '78, with the sound of Norman Bates' knife music and kicks right into the opener, an amped-up version of the cowboy sex anthem, "Back in the Saddle".  

"Sweet Emotion" follows and then a sped up, seven minute version of "Lord of the Thighs". Side One ends with "Toys in the Attic" which, according to the liner notes, is a "folk song about the band's state of mind!"  Nice!

Side Two gives us "Last Child", "Walk this Way" and the underrated classic, "Sick As A Dog". It also contains a hard rocking cover of the Beatles' "Come Together" that the band would later record for the Sgt Pepper's movie.  Can't believe these guys didn't get more acting roles!

Side Three kicks off with the obligatory, "Dream On" followed by the bluesy, "Chip Away The Stone"-- the album's lone single as well as the only Aerosmith song on the LP that wasn't previously released on record!  There's a "nice and ratty" version of Draw The Line's "Sight for Sore Eyes" as well as great, great versions of "Mama Kin" and "S.O.S. (Too Bad)".

Side Four actually takes us back to two early recordings from a live performance at Pall's Mall in Boston in April 1973: the blues-standard, "I Ain't Got You" and a cover of James Brown's "Mother Popcorn".

If you look at the liner notes on the record you would not see the song, "Draw The Line", however in true bootleg fashion the song is included here in all its raucous glory!



The bad boys from beantown wrap things up with a rollicking version of The Yardbirds' "Train Kept A Rollin".  House lights come on and our ears are still ringing! But I just couldn't tell her so...

Live Bootleg is a fantastic listen from start to finish!  Capturing the band at their hardest, most cynical, strung out and sleazy! Even though the band would stick around and actually flourish over the next several decades, it's the band that you hear on this record album that's a reminder to what a great rock & roll band Aerosmith actually was!

RATING: 4.5 Keepin' Touch with Mama Kins out of 5