 |
| Blackfoot Sue |
A short while back I read David Thompson’s outstanding history of the British glam rock movement, “Children of the Revolution”. Thompson is an author after my own heart; anyone who has glanced at this blog knows that I tend toward the, um, verbose and that I am extremely analytical when it comes to music. In his book, Thompson gives a month-by-month catalog of every album, single, and TV appearance by glam artists through the early 70’s, as glam started from humble beginnings and became for a time the dominant musical paradigm in England. This is just about as comprehensive and exhaustive as you can possibly get, and I greatly enjoyed his book.
Even more relevant to the topic of this blog, Thompson’s book is a treasure trove of extremely obscure British glam acts, few of which ever made even the tiniest splash on these shores. Hell, if T. Rex and Bowie could barely manage to crack the U.S. charts, it’s pretty obvious none of the rest of these bands were going to be able to do so either. I haven’t been able to track down all of the songs listed by Thompson but the few I have really intrigued me.
And none more than Alan Lee Shaw. Shaw is a fascinating figure, another in a long line of really unique individuals who managed to weave their career through several musical movements. Shaw originally befriended legendary 60’s psychedelic drummer Twink in the mid-70’s as Twink was working with former Pink Floyd burnout Syd Barrett in his post-Floyd band Stars. Eventually Shaw and Twink formed the Rings in ’77 as punk exploded in England and released “I Wanna Be Free”, a bracing splash of Sham 69-esque ’77 punk. But prior to this, he released a solo single titled “She Moans” that has to be heard to believed. Starting out with a wild, almost frenetic blast of wah guitar, it then settles into a thundering protopunk rumble that eerily presages his later punk work. According to Shaw himself, his image at this time was very glam, with lots of satin, but musically this has a harder edge than most teenybop glam of the time. A fun song. Shaw went on to form two other seminal English punk bands, the Maniacs and the Physicals, before joining the Damned in the 90’s and eventually Lords of the New Church. “Chelsea ‘77”/”Ain’t No Legend” by the Maniacs are both on YouTube (as are “She Moans” and “I Wanna Be Free”); “Chelsea” a catchy piece of straight-ahead punk, with snotty, stuttering vocals that stride between Roger Daltrey and Johnny Rotten, while “Legend” is catchier, more pop punk musically.
Another oddity is the single “You Won’t Come” by Spunky Spider; clearly the glam penchant for sexually outrageous song titles and lyrics is in full flight here as well as on Shaw’s single. The vocals sound very harsh, almost strident, even snarly at times, and the music is a weird chiming proto-60’s garage-y surge. Not sure how this ever managed to be released, let alone chart. The b-side, “Perchance” has more of a late 60’s heavy blues/psychedelia feel, lurching along on a plodding blues riff.
At the opposite end of the musical spectrum is “Trust In Dick” (there’s that cheeky English sex thing again) by the Winkies, a rollicking, feel-good song that sweeps you along. The Winkies formed in 1973 but were really more of a pub rock band masquerading as a glam rock band. In 1974 they came to the attention of Brian Eno; Eno had recently split from Roxy Music and was looking for a backing band for his tour supporting his first solo album, Here Come the Warm Jets. Alas, Eno’s health problems ended the tour after just 5 dates and the Winkies and Eno parted company. They went on to record their first album, but their interlude with Eno delayed it so that it wasn’t released until 1975 and was thus birthed into the downward slope of the glam scene. The music is not necessarily glam in nature, being more of a melodic 70’s groove rock in nature. “Trust In Dick” is supremely catchy, with a memorable chorus and rollicking music that evokes the Allman Brothers as much as anything. This middle America sensibility finds its greatest flowering in their cover of “Long Song Comin’” by Bob Seger; lead singer Guy Stevens’ yowling vocals make him sound almost like an English Tom Petty, more soulful than glitter rock. “Twilight Masquerade” starts with acoustic guitar and vocals that evince Neil Young. “Davey’s Blowtorch” is another great bar burning rave-up that sounds a lot like early Mott the Hoople. This was a great band that bridged the glam-pub rock divide but unfortunately never truly found an audience in either camp.
Equally catchy as “Trust In Dick” is “Standing In the Road” by Blackfoot Sue. This is one of my absolute favorite forgotten English glam jems, a head shaking, foot stomping dance floor romp. I can imagine this must have been HUGE in the glam discos in 1972! “Sing, Don’t Speak”, the follow-up to “Standing In the Road”, is another great foot stomper that sounds like the platform stomp of Slade crossed with the catchy vocals of Sweet or the Rollers. This band, formed in Birmingham in the early 70’s, only barely survived the glam era, breaking up in 1977, but “Standing in the Road” is as fun as they come and is a welcome addition to my iPod.
Bearded Lady’s “Rock Star” is another strange bird, with its almost Jewish folk music sounding chorus, building from a lightly strummed guitar intro. Singer/guitarist Johnny Warman was the driving force behind this group, supposedly receiving accolades from Bowie himself, high praise indeed! This one is worth checking out.
Iron Virgin was a Scottish glam band whose music snaked uneasily between the stomp of Slade and the big shouted group choruses of the Bay City Rollers. “Rebels Rule”, which was their second single, released in 1974 showcases this interesting sound, and sounds like a cross between “Gudbye T’Jane” and “Ballroom Blitz”. Their first single was a cover of “Jet” by Paul McCartney and Wings; what’s funny is that I always thought that song had a very glam sound to it. IV’s version isn’t bad but doesn’t add anything particularly exciting to the original, and actually I love the rumbling bass on Paul’s version. Their third single, “Shake That Fat” almost sounds like a joke, perhaps the missing Spinal Tap single between “Sex Farm Woman” and “Stonehenge”? A little strange lyrically but actually kind of a fun rip between glam and 70’s hard rock. “Teenage Love Affair” is similarly harder rocking, with an almost Dolls-like groove.
Another mysterious glam obscurity is Spiv, whose “Oh, You Beautiful Child” almost sounds like “Look What They’ve Done To My Song, Ma” as covered by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Very very strange! I can’t find much information on this band (person?) but this song is definitely one you should hear.
With its weird fuzzbox guitar and clanging keyboards, “Morning Bird” by the Damned—no, not THAT Damned—is a strange, well, bird. The big, melodic, singalong chorus sounds like something the Beatles might have whomped together circa 1963—it’s even got that patented McCartney-Lennon “whoooo” (which they in turn stole from Little Richard) of songs like “I Saw Here Standing There”. This is another weird but fun song and again seems like it was one of those get-everyone-on-the-dancefloor songs circa 1973 that makes me wish I’d been old enough to see/hear that happen then.
“Make Me a Superman” by Stumpy has an almost lushness to it, with its hushed, sweet vocals and guitar harmonies (and despite its tinny production typical of the times). Stumpy were a North Country band and this single was released in 1974.
Hewing closely to the Bay City Rollers formula was Portsmouth’s Hector, who dressed in bizarre overalls and striped shirts with matching striped knee high socks, and platform shoes; apparently they were trying for a Dennis the Menace look. The sound was a pounding, crunchy pop, which can be heard in their single “Ain’t Got No Time”; the vocals are a mite warbly, almost chipmunky, but the music is catchy. Even better, primarily because its less trebly and more rocking, is “Bye Bye Bad Times”, which hews closer to “Ballroom Blitz” but with a smoother harmony on the chorus. The lyrics have that bittersweet cry-in-your-beer nostalgia/wistfulness of Slade songs like “Summer Song” and “Heaven Knows”. Their first single, “Wired Up” has a big buzzing guitar intro that reminds me of “Journey to the Center of the Mind” by the Amboy Dukes, and chirpy vocals like “Time” and some weird synth elements too.
A great lost gem of the glam era was Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s aptly named Geordie (Geordie is English slang for someone from this particular region of England). Geordie would retain a measure of fame for providing AC/DC with their replacement vocalist for Bon Scott, Brian Johnson. I love “All Because of You”, which retains the arena stomp of classic Slade and is a catchy pop rock roller coaster. 1973’s “Electric Lady” is another standout, with its out-sized intro and catchy chorus, which builds to a big shout-along. Johnson’s vocals are clearly recognizable even at this time, but also sound occasionally like Dan McCafferty of Nazareth’s. A third song I like—none of this is on iTunes but tons of Geordie songs have been uploaded to YouTube—is “She’s a Lady”, which is a little slower, more rock-oriented (it actually doesn’t sound that far off of what Johnson would eventually do with the Brothers Young).
Another band that achieved some subsequent fame were Arrows. Formed by American Alan Merrill, Israeli born guitarist Jake Hooker, and British drummer Paul Varley, Arrows released several glam rock singles in the early 70’s. “Toughen Up” is a nice hard slice of sweet powerpop influenced rock that hearkens back to the Faces and the Who; it even has a shuffle beat like “Magic Bus”. “Touch Too Much” builds into an almost rockabilly rave-up—the rhythm is lifted straight from “Summertime Blues”--but its chorus is pure Bay City Rollers. But they are best known for writing what would be Joan Jett’s first huge hit, “I Love Rock n’ Roll”, which they released in 1975. Their version is rawer, rougher, closer to 60’s garage rock.
Similarly, North London’s Hello were a Sweet-influenced teeny bop glam band. They had several catchy songs, notably “Another School Day” (I love the feeding back guitar intro on this song) and a cover of the Exciter’s 1963 hit “Tell Him”, but they also achieved bigger fame when their song “New York Groove” was covered by Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley on his Kiss solo album.
He never achieved quite the level of fame (or, thankfully, infamy) of Gary Glitter, but Alvin Stardust was cut from a similar cloth, an aging rocker who reinvented himself as a glam rock icon. His 1973 single “My Coo Ca Choo” is a hoot though, sweet, crooned vocals over rockabilly backing with occasional acidic guitar solos. I love this song; his chorus sounds very Elvis-like, kind of low and drawled and sexy.
“Kick Your Boots Off” by Sisters has vocals that sound like Paul Stanley’s shrieky vocals on post-makeup metal Kiss songs like “Lick It Up”, but the music is stomping and catchy.
Speaking of super-catchy is “Let’s Do It Again” by Crunch; this song is easily as memorable as anything put out by T. Rex, Slade, or the Sweet. The huge drum-laden intro grabs you by the platform shoes and shoves you onto the dance floor. Another terrific gem, as is “Turtle Dove” by the Rats, which is great, guitar-driven fun.
A strange beast indeed are the inter-related bands Stavely Makepeace and Lieutenant Pigeon. “Slippery Rock 70’s” by Makepeace is a strange instrumental, with a rollicking roadhouse piano and a curiously thrumming bass line; man, they sure knew how to make dance music back then! Even weirder is “Moldy Old Dough” by Lieutenant Pigeon, another strange, plinky piano number with martial drums, a recorder solo, and gruff, atonally growled vocals. VERY VERY strange! And yet it was the second best selling single in England in 1972!!! Hope they invested well . . .
1975’s “Neo City” by Colchester’s Plod is a raw blast of glam pop rock; I love the guitar here, very truly. Songs like this show you how very near the Sex Pistols’ sound was to what was already out there already in England.
No, it’s not the MC5 song of the same name, but “Kick Out the Jams” by Tubthumper is another strange, mostly instrumental, fuzzed-out drum-and-guitar bash. This sounds like a “jock jam” to me today, i.e., a song played to get a crowd ramped up. Interesting.
Two very late entries into the glam field were 1977’s Big Wheels Turnin’” a teeny bopper glam singalong confection by Flame that not only postdates the whole glam movement (which had crashed and burned by late 1975) but sounds eerily like the “family group” teen pop of the Brady Kids, the Defrancos, and the Osmonds of the early 70’s. Perhaps not too surprising—glam had a strong teenybop element, and indeed the Osmonds were one of the most popular groups in England in the mid 70’s. The second weird post-glam glam song is “Madman” by Cuddly Toys. Cuddly Toys started as controversially named punk band the Raped in 1977 but by 1978 had reverted to a very Ziggy Stardust influenced glam/new wave image and sound. “Madman” is a curiosity: it was a song written by David Bowie and Marc Bolan as part of a collaboration before the latter’s untimely death in a car wreck in 1977. It sounds like it could be an out-take from Diamond Dogs or Hunky Dory.
Most of these songs, and many others, have been collected into compilations like Velvet Tinmine and other so-called “junk shop glam” collections in England. Not surprisingly, these compilations are as popular there as collections of AM 70’s American hits like Have a Nice Day put out by Rhino Records. Just like Americans love to hear songs like “Seasons in the Sun” and “Afternoon Delight” because they remind them of childhoods spent in the 70’s, English people of a certain age (i.e., over 40) love to listen to these rare and wonderful gems, and for good reason. Most of these songs were catchy, fun, well-crafted pop rock. It’s great that there’s still an audience for this.
No comments:
Post a Comment