road runner (thrice)

spirit of '76

In which Rotten, Jones and chums throw up - not without some revolutionary affection - on the spirit of 1956, if not Boston's JR or 1776. Stern and bow, like time travelling pirates from William S. Burroughs' "Cities of the Red Night". Rather aptly too, since it appears a couple of previous posts on the original '74 demo (once) and the definitive Modern Lovers version (twice) have mysteriously been erased... Ah, those witch trials and the puritan spectacle of the ducking stool.

A pox on you, sir.



Spooky. Thank you, John and Jonathan.

▼ SEX PISTOLS: ROAD RUNNER (WESSEX STUDIOS REHEARSAL SESSION, OCTOBER 1976) from "Box Set" 3 x CD (Virgin On The Ridiculous) 2002 (UK)

white line fever #1

"undertakers to the industry – if they're dead - we'll sign 'em".

A curiosity. From the early compilation - SEEZ 2 - from 33 Alexander Street, London W2; that original little shop of horrors. An entirely different take to the one which made its way onto their debut LP on Chiswick.

Lemmy: bass, vocals;

Eddie Clarke: guitars;
Philip Taylor: drums.

Written by Ian Kilminster.
(originally catalogue # BUY 9, but previously unreleased)

▼ MOTÖRHEAD: WHITE LINE FEVER from "A Bunch Of Stiff" LP (Stiff) 1977 (UK)

agitated: another porky prime cut

RT 008.

Recorded on May 25th, 1975, and released on Geoff Travis' UK label some three years after these Clevelanders finally disbanded; by which time Nick Knox was firmly installed in the percussive seat of psychobilly cheerleaders, The Cramps.

Dave E. (McManus): vocals; Nick Knox : drums;
Brian McMahon: rhythm guitar; John Morton: lead guitar.

Written by Brian McMahon. Recorded By Paul Marotta.
Artwork by John Morton.

▼ THE ELECTRIC EELS: AGITATED from "Cyclotron b/w Agitated" 45 (Rough Trade) 1978 (UK / US)

music city and the wild things

Occasionally, some unexpectedly fine stuff feeds its way under the wire and into my mailbox. Such is the case with Max and the Wild Things, a self-proclaimed "3-piece NewCountryPunkWave band from Nashville".

Not only is it encouraging to find concrete evidence that Tennessee continues to distil raw proof talent of the calibre of a first rate Jack Daniels, it is also unexpectedly heartening to hear it hailing from Music City and not Memphis; unparalleled purveyors of prime sound from Alex Chilton and the Box Tops to Elvis Aaron Presley and Sam Phillips' Sun Records.

Originally a sibling two-piece from West Swanzey, New Hampshire, the brothers Traynor have teamed up with drummer, Brendan Leahy for their debut EP: "Hands Down Mans Down". The following cut, while not on that release, more than admirably captures the visceral slap and punch of Max and the Wild Things in live performance. Expect to hear more from this quarter, here and elsewhere.

Welcome to 1979, the recording company responsible for getting it all down,
has been described as a "refuge from 2008", utilizing only analogue equipment manufactured in the mid-seventies as the perfect antidote to compressed digital orthodoxy. Job well done.

Aidan Traynor: banjo, guitar, vocals; Cole Traynor: bass, vocals;
Brendan Leahy: drums.

Written by Aidan Traynor.
Recorded live at The Basement by Welcome to 1979.

▼ MAX AND THE WILD THINGS: WITHOUT A SOUND (LIVE)

MAX AND THE WILD THINGS@MYSPACE

after the stooges...

above and below: 1970. camp, subjects and photographers unknown.

Hey Keith ?

I never got to summer camp as a kid. It is - or was - a uniquely American phenemonon.

However. This is as close to a soundtrack, short of Charlie Brown, as is feasible.



▼ THE DAMNED: I FEEL ALRIGHT from "Damned Damned Damned" LP (Stiff) 1977 (UK)

a teardrop explodes

who ate all the pies ?

dig•i•tal•is |ˈdɪdʒɪˌteɪlɪs|
noun
a drug prepared from the dried leaves of foxglove and containing substances (notably digoxin and digitoxin) that stimulate the heart muscle.

ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from the modern Latin genus name of the foxglove, from digitalis (herba) ‘(plant) relating to the finger,’ from digitus ‘finger, toe’ ; suggested by German Fingerhut: ‘thimble or foxglove'.

When they appeared on the same stage as the Clash in the UK in 1977, Alan Vega and Martin Rev famously prompted howls of derision and an explosion of glass too close for comfort. That was a shame; although I suspect Ian Curtis and his triad of electronic subversives might have provoked a similar neanderthal response at that juncture.

To be expected, if not quite alright.

That first wave of brown shirts were not on ball for informed or distressed 'digitalis', as Jayne Casey would later observe. Sadly, it was their - the bondage trousered sheep's - loss.

More spastically muscular and incisive than Helios Creed and Damon Edge's Chrome, brittle New Yorkers, Suicide, fully deserve to be remembered for more than just their superlative 45, "Cheree" or the much covered, "Rocket U.S.A.".

There. I prohibit you - siblings and motherf@ckers - to remonstrate or otherwise disagree.

Produced by Craig Leon and Marty Thau.

▼ SUICIDE: FRANKIE TEARDROP from "Suicide" LP (Red Star) 1977 (US)

a fine fellow

I am standing in the off sales at the counter - in conversation with the proprietor through the open grill - when the bell over the door behind me tinkles and a hand settles none too lightly on my shoulder. All sense of good humour evaporates in an instant.

A mendicant with a melting face appears just to my right and covers his brow apologetically as I wheel about to confront the cause of this impertinence. The purchased bottle is reassuringly heavy should provocation warrant my lashing out.

"What say you, sir, " I demand.

"Have you no manners at all, you impudent fellow ?"

The scoundrel is scarcely more than a midget, luminescent eyes set in a tiny wizened countenance not unlike a monkey's. Awash with madness and decrepitude. He opens his mouth to offer some imbecilic retort but succeeds only in drooling incoherently. Silver threads of spittle lace the upturned chin.

Quite disgusted, I brush him aside and make for my exit.

"Good day to you, sir," I sneer.

Crablike, the awful creature sidles to the door and holds it ajar. If only I had my cane, I mourn. A damn sight more efficacious than the ungentlemanly swing of a loaded bottle.

He accompanies me out onto the street, persisting still in his ridiculous attempt to engage me in what must pass for banter in the lower orders.

What new foulness is this ?

He rolls back his coat sleeve and and raps on what is evidently some loathsome wooden appendage; a prosthetic of unfathomable crudity.

"Hnnnn... See ?" he croaks, and wags the painted fingers at me in a positively Dickensian gesture. "Fuckin' see ?"

"What's this ?" I snarl. "I'll have no truck with such nonsense. Be off with you,
I say. At once!"

It is not yet dark, else I might bludgeon the grotesquerie to the pavement and make my ill temper manifest. As it is, I feel compelled to stay my hand. Given
the woeful disparity of his circumstance, I can ill afford witnesses.

Still...

I lean into him and bare my teeth.

"Fuck off, then," I tell him. "I don't give a pickled rat's arse."

He stares at me uncertainly. Well. We do what we can.

tarry for a while

ta•rot |ˌtarəʊ|
noun ( the Tarot)
playing cards, traditionally a pack of 78 with five suits, used for fortune-telling
and (esp. in Europe) in certain games. The suits are typically swords, cups, coins
(or pentacles), batons (or wands), and a permanent suit of trump.
• a card game played with such cards.
• a card from such a set.

ORIGIN late 16th cent.: from French, from Italian tarocchi, of unknown origin.

Loose cards from the Pierpont-Morgan Visconti tarot deck, commissioned in the 15th century by Filippo Maria Visconti, the Duke of Milan and generally attributed to the miniaturist, Bonifacio Bembo.

The face cards reputedly feature members of the Sforza and Visconti families - the ruling Renaissance dynasties dating back to the XIII century - in period costume and key settings.

From Wiki:

"The name "Visconti-Sforza tarot" is used collectively to refer to incomplete sets of approximately 15 decks, now lcated in various museums, libraries, and private collections around the world. No complete deck has survived"

detail from "the path of life" by hieronymus bosch.
(1485 - 1490) shutters to "the haywain triptych", oil on wood.

uchenna bright: bass;
jen tobin: vocals and guitar.

Released on the Eternal Amateur label through Bowery Poetry Club Records.

▼ THE FOOLS: THE DREAM from "Lost And Found" CD (Eternal Amateur) 2009 (US)

PREVIOUSLY: FOOL'S ERRAND

pink military cadet school

photograph by richard kern.

Jayne Casey: vocals;
Dave Balfe: bass;
Bill Drummond: guitar; Ian Broudie: guitar;
Budgie: drums.
Recorded at the M.C.V.U. 4 track studio (Teac 3340S), Liverpool, July 1978.
Produced by Noddy Knowler.

▼ BIG IN JAPAN: NOTHING SPECIAL from "From Y To Z And Never Again" 12" EP (Zoo) 1978 (UK)

the pig's whisker

london 'swings'. splice ice lollies and tizer fizz.

A Robin Williamson composition; perhaps the most outstanding of those previously unreleased demos produced by Joe Boyd, and finally issued in 1997. Much of the material here was ultimately re-recorded for 1968's magnificent "5,000 Spirits or the Layers of an Onion" and "Wee Tam & The Big Huge" - released through Elektra - but these original versions offer serious competition to their more lushly arranged definitive counterparts.

Spare and hauntingly elegant in execution, Boyd was not compelled here to contend with the exotic layering of instruments which would later play an integral part in the String Band's sound.

Also captured in these sessions is the eerie, "God Dog" - released by Shirley Collins with sister, Dolly - and "Lover Man", which Mike Heron allegedly penned for - or simply gifted to - fellow Scot, Al Stewart.

For the uninitiated, Pig's Whisker Music is the label founded by Williamson and wife, Bina to promote and distribute their joint ventures.

▼ THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND: SEE YOUR FACE AND KNOW YOU from "The Chelsea Sessions, 1967" CD (Pig's Whisker Music) 1997 (UK)

the greatest story ever told

WHITE SOCK ! [mass hysteria]

Go tell it on the mountain. The circus is still in town; and that means clowns, brothers and sisters. Jugglers and clowns.

I want to throw up. Over and over until there is wholly f@cking nothin' left.

blue gene, baby

im•ped•i•ment |ɪmˌpɛdɪm(ə)nt|
noun
a hindrance or obstruction in doing something.

ORIGIN late Middle English : from Latin impedimentum, from impedire (see IMPEDE).


I am more drawn to the crippled gait of Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps, I must confess, than the music it propelled. There is something mildly heroic in its caliper splinted drag; the insistence of a three legged pit bull to get right in one's face.

Ian Dury, of course, summed it up perfectly in his unrequited poem set in song, "Sweet Gene Vincent".

Knotted and twisted by poliomyelitis contracted at the height Britain's post-war (1949) Polio Epidemic, he formed his first band, Kilburn and the High Roads in 1971. The year Vincent died. It is hardly surprising Dury - the child and teenager - should have idolized Vincent. The leather clad American made it easier to stand apart and face the taunts. He demonstrated that it is the thing which burns within that makes the man, that impediment is merely that: a hindrance to be stared down and overcome.

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. Their stature alters through the years. We are speaking of role models here; the great, the gifted, and the defiant. He - or she - might be a poet; an idiot; a thief. The f@cking Green Lantern even.

Fathers tend not to possess the stuff out of which heroes are built. They are all too obvious in their failings.

Bukowski detested his. Most of us do, for a while at least. Often unflinchingly.

▼ IAN DURY: SWEET GENE VINCENT from "New Boots And Panties!!" LP (Stiff) 1977 (UK)

▼ IAN DURY: MY OLD MAN from "New Boots And Panties!!" LP (Stiff) 1977 (UK)

you dirty f@cker...

william grundy, the younger.



This is not the first time we have featured Dan Treacy's Television Personalities, nor is it likely to be the last.

Manchester born, Grundy - the scion of a factory owner - began broadcasting for Granada Television way back in 1956 just when Elvis began sticking it to one and all. The first brilliantined tv presenter to introduce the Fab 4 to a British audience, no less - some six years later - let it be clear from the start that Grundy was no Ed Sullivan.

A graduate in Geology, the one shared characteristic lay in personality. Like that of an upturned stone; seemingly chiseled on the outside but wet and uncommonly slimy underneath.

As host of Thames TV's 'Today' show, of course, he prompted a nationwide scandal in December, 1976 with his baiting of the Sex Pistols. It was Jones and not Rotten, fittingly, who infamously turned the on air blue.

Cue "the filth and the fury".

Grundy was suspended in the ensuing outrage. For a fortnight, on full pay, one presumes. The tabloid press fanned the flames and 'Today' ultimately bit the bullet, choking on its own bile. Hilariously, it became public knowledge that the Pistols found overnight notoriety only as the result of a last minute folly, when camp lovelies Queen pulled their scheduled appearance.

A royal fiasco: a silver jubilee Catherine Wheel of choreographed sparks more than chance encounter. In those original closing moments, as the studio lights dimmed and the captions slid into a commercial break, Grundy seemed genuinely stunned. Only just resigned, perhaps, to his role in the show's descent into chaos and the woeful looming specter of accountability.

An experienced presenter at the peak of his game, it must have infuriated him to have so visibly lost all semblance of control. Jones, on the contrary - while Rotten looked on bemused - was clearly delighted. Glen Matlock merely seemed baffled.



And God save one and all.

"Where's Bill Grundy Now ?" was a little piece of reverential genius, though not quite in the same league as the "O-Level" EP also name-checked.

The incident derailed Grundy's career. A broadcasting pariah, prime time turned its cheek and then its back as Grundy failed in his appeal for clemency. William Grundy died in Stockport, Greater Manchester in 1993 as the result of a post-traumatic cardiac arrest.

"Oh, shit...", he was seen to mutter.

Recorded at I.P.S. Studios, Shepherds Bush.

Total cost @ £22.50

Mastered at John Martin of Reading.
Total cost @ £34.00

▼ TELEVISION PERSONALITIES: WHERE'S BILL GRUNDY NOW ? from "Where's Bill Grundy Now ?" EP (Kings Road / White Label) 1978 (UK)

A DAY IN HEAVEN

wind currents

"...though the prevailing direction is actually from the north-northwest.
In contrast to the shamāl is the less frequent qaws from the southeast.
The wind regimes of Najd and the Rubʿ al-Khali are complex,
particularly during spring. The winds may come
from any point of the compass and vary in intensity..."
- Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Anouar Brahem: oud;
Ustad Shaukat Hussain: tabla;
Jan Garbarek: tenor & soprano saxophone.

Produced by Manfred Eicher.

illustration by ib.

▼ ANOUAR BRAHEM; JAN GARBAREK; SHAUKAT HUSSEIN: QAWS from "Madar" CD (ECM) 1994 (Germany)

شکوه آزادی با ماست

شکوه آزادی با ماست

"It's a silence the lonely know
in the fire the rainbows grows
you can push it down my friend
it will come up ten fold again

we will erase your name, we will show no restraint

how much blood must be shed
on the streets of unrest
we will bleed as long need be
that river will remove you from history

we will erase your name, we will show no restraint

you have robbed us for many years
but we have saved every last tear
we have suffered all of your hate
and now we march down to your gates

we will erase your name, we will show no restraint

Freedom, Glory, Be Our Name
Freedom, Glory, Be Our Name

you think your power is secure
when you startle us with the threat of war
but fear has its limits too
we are no longer scared of you

we will erase your name, we will show no restraint

we will burn your temple to the ground
we will tear all your prisons down
your gallows will be set for burning
just before one last hanging

we will erase your name, we will show no restraint

Freedom, Glory, Be Our Name
Freedom, Glory, Be Our Name

now we give you one last chance
to do what's right and to let us dance
or the hand of fate will become a fist
a force your thugs can not resist

The fields where soldiers practice their killing
can be a spread of green grass
where the boisterous rainbow children may dance
while the one who beams with
ultimate command
will merely be a smile"*

(*Written by Shamloo)
- Shoukoeh Azadi Ba Mast

“Freedom, Glory, Be Our Name” is dedicated to the people of Iran and the citizens of the world who stand with them.

The Freedom Glory Project is the collective aim of "Iranian-American musicians, artists, and filmmakers united in keeping the struggle for freedom alive", instigated by Johnny B. of Electric Black, born in Iran and raised in New York City.

"One week after a sea of people with raised fists poured
into the streets of Tehran, frustrated with a stolen election-
and decades of domination - four distinct Iranian
recording artists came together in New York City."

The Freedom Glory Project are:
Johnny B; Raam; Ali Eskandarian; Esfand ; Nariman Hamed; Doug Wright.

Written by Johnny B.
Poetry read by Shoja Azari.
Produced By:
Freedom Glory Project and Andre Fratto

Engineered by Amos Halfi
Recorded at Skyline studio

▼ THE FREEDOM GLORY PROJECT: FREEDOM, GLORY, BE OUR NAME

THE FREEDOM GLORY PROJECT (VIDEO BY NARIMAN)

air raid

"testing, testing: 1-2-3-4..."

I was somewhat dismayed earlier today to find that Warden's World has mysteriously been deleted.

If you are out there, Warden... What's up ? Have you gone FTP or switched to a custom domain or what ?

Written by Erc Burdon; Vic Briggs; Barry Jenkins.

▼ ERIC BURDON & THE ANIMALS: SKY PILOT (PARTS I & II) [STEREO] from "The Twain Shall Meet" LP (MGM / POLYDOR) 1968 (UK / US)

fritz goro; gargantuan

chicago, 1954.

ghet•to |ˌgɛtəʊ|
noun ( pl. -tos or -toes)
a part of a city, esp. a slum area, occupied by a minority group or groups.
• historical the Jewish quarter in a city : the Warsaw Ghetto.
• an isolated or segregated group or area : the relative security of the gay ghetto.

verb ( -toes, -toed) [ trans. ]
put in or restrict to an isolated or segregated area or group.

ORIGIN early 17th cent.: perhaps from Italian getto ‘foundry’ (because the first ghetto was established in 1516 on the site of a foundry in Venice), or from Italian borghetto, diminutive of borgo ‘borough’.

Photojournalist, Fritz Goro died at home in Chappaqua, New York as the result of cancer related illness in December, 1986. He was, the New York Times recorded, eighty-five years old.

A veteran contributor to "Life" magazine and specialist scientific journals from the late 1930's in the USA - and credited with the invention of macrophotography - some of his most outstanding images, nonetheless, were solid social reportage.

A native of Bremen, Germany, Goro (né Goreau) was editor in chief of "Munich Illustrated", a weekly publication, by age thirty, but emigrated with his wife, Grete - a sculptor - after the National Socialists seized control of the press in 1933. His arrival at the offices of "Life" in 1936-7 coincided with major scientific advances which would ultimately reach their apogee with nuclear fission and the development of the atomic bomb.

The fall-out of his last days in Germany haunt, too, his pictorials of Chicago slums in the 40's and 50's with their echoes of European ghettos, and in his portrayals of American boardroom politics.

Under the patronage of Gerard Piel, then science editor at "Life" and chairman of the board of "Scientific American" - the most prestigious of popular American science periodicals - Goro made a unique art of lending pictorial form to abstract theory and esoteric physics; enabling the layperson insights more commonly denied.

He not only covered the Manhattan Project, literally endangering his long term well-being by shooting directly at Ground Zero, but "His image of a fetus in an artificial womb inspired Kubrick's 2001."



"view of fetus in an artificial womb", june, 1965.



"view of different intra-uterine devices", june, 1965.

As Piel observed in hindsight, ''it was his artistry and ingenuity that made photographs of abstractions, of the big ideas from the genetic code to plate tectonics.''

all images originally appearing in "life" magazine.

johnny ace and the mystery .22 bullet

chicago, 1954. photograph by fritz goro for "life" magazine.

Classic Doo Wop from Memphis born, John Marshall Alexander, Jr. who allegedly committed suicide on Christmas day, 1954 in Houston, Texas during a break between sets backstage at the City Auditorium.

From Wiki:

"Big Mama Thornton, another witness to the shooting, said in a written statement (included in the book The Late Great Johnny Ace) that Ace had been playing with the gun, but not playing Russian roulette. According to Thornton, Ace pointed the gun at his girlfriend and another woman who were sitting nearby, but did not fire. He then pointed the gun toward himself. The gun went off, shooting him in the side of the head."

▼ JOHNNY ACE: PLEDGING MY LOVE from "Pledging My Love b/w Anymore" 45 (Duke Records) 1954 (US)