You'd expect punk to be starting to crop up around now, and the next 10 albums, covering 1977 and 1978 do indeed feature The Stranglers and The Ramones. But then, you also get Jackson Browne and Blue Oyster Cult, so it was hardly all-conquering was it? Also, I suspect that there are few early punk live recordings that are worth listening to today. The full list for the next post consists of:
I've also added a new section to these, 'Next Track Off The Rank' which is the first track by a different artist played by Spotify after the end of the album.
SECONDS OUT
Jun-76 and Jun-77
Genesis
It's nice to discover new artists and music, but there's a special relief that comes when the next album in this line of live classics is by an artist you know and like. The pleasure in not having to first break into the feel of the band and just get on with thinking about what this particular album is offering is a good one. Seconds Out is interesting because it comes at an important point in Genesis's evolution. Steve Hackett handed his cards in just as the album was being mixed (Tony Banks apparently quipped that they immediately turned down the faders on his guitar and it's certainly true that the keyboards are the dominant instrument) so this represents the 'Trick Of The Tail'/'Wind And Wuthering' period where they went from Gabriel-fronted, scholarly art-rock outfit to the Collins-dominated rock-pop behemoth that trundled on through the late seventies and eighties. It's not really as simple as that, it wasn't an immediate sea-change and 'And Then There Were Three' and 'Duke' were further staging posts on the road to album-chart friendly fodder like 'Invisible Touch'. It presents a chance to try and get inside Collins' head. What did the Artful Dodger think about delivering Gabriel's often arcane lyrics and stories? By the time they were touring in the eighties, the 'old' songs amounted to a dashed off medley built around 'In The Cage' and the 'Carpet Crawl'. If you were lucky. Here though, you get 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway', 'Firth Of Fifth', 'The Cinema Show', 'The Musical Box' and 'Supper's Ready'. I suppose they had less back catalogue to draw on, and these songs were still reasonably fresh anyway, but it's interesting to hear Collins' take. 'Supper's Ready' is the most revealing. His stage school background serves him well in trying to pull off some of the more out-there vocal moments. Occasionally it sounds like he might just be taking the piss - he sails close to the wind on the spoken parts of 'I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)' - but I think his intentions are pure. 'Lamb' is played absolutely straight and is a superb performance of the song. If anything it's the later, non-Gabriel songs that he goes over the top on. 'Robbery, Assault And Battery' includes a full on nasal Mancunian Frank Sidebottom delivery of the "'Allo son, I 'ope yer havin' fun" line. 'Trick Of The Tail' also awarded them a perfect show closer in 'Los Endos'. It's got great artwork too.
Band Bantz: There's little retained on the recording. The performances are mainly from two concerts in Paris, a year apart, with the 1976 material amounting to just 'The Cinema Show'. Collins does ad lib "Hello Paris in the springtime" near the end of 'I Know What I Like'
Heckles And Coughs: Mainly reactions to unseen antics on the stage.
Next Track Off The Rank: Give A Little Bit by Supertramp. Kind of inevitable really.
RUNNING ON EMPTY
Aug-Sept 1977
Jackson Browne
This one had me wrong-footed for a moment, although the reason was not simply that this isn't a live album in the normal sense. Instead, the production on the opening title track is so clean that I was convinced it wasn't being performed live anyway and I stopped and checked that I had the right album. In fact only around half the tracks on here are performed live, the rest were produced on the road. It makes for an interesting twist on the idea of a live album. This is more of a 'tour' album, capturing the sights, the sounds... the smells (sorry) of Jackson and co on the road without making any attempt to pretend that this represents a single performance (most live albums aren't anyway, but they are generally intended to give you the live concert experience). Apparently nothing on here comes from a previous album, so it kind of counts as a studio album too in that sense. Browne treads a fine line for me, he risks being as dull and predictable as The Eagles, but there is something more genuine about him than them. He also rings the changes quite nicely within the remit of smooth Americana, so 'You Love The Thunder' could easily be a Fleetwood Mac track (I could believe that's Christine McVie on backing vocals) and 'Shaky Town' has a great steel guitar part. The themes are hotel rooms, tour buses, the people around him and the old Colombian marching powder. On this last, I'm sure I'm surprising nobody when I say that I've never even seen a class A drug in my life, but isn't cocaine supposed to make you talk nineteen to the dozen and be very boring? So why are all the songs about it slow and melancholy? There are some nice touches, 'The Road' segues seamlessly from hotel room recording to live performance midway through. The closing version of Frankie Valli's 'Stay' is great too. My only gripe? It's hard to relate to the ennui that Jackson exudes about his life on the road, cruising through the American midwest with his groupies and his blow when you are trudging into a London office at 7:00 am on an icy March morning.
Band Bantz: Wikipedia reckons that even the tour bus gets in on the act on 'Nothing But Time' and you really can hear it rumbling away in the background if you listen hard enough. There's some sniffing and general stoner conversation at the end of 'Cocaine' too. Browne also debuts 'Nothing But Time' as a tribute to the hired help.
Heckles And Coughs; Hard to pull anything out, especially due to the more disjointed nature of how the material is presented.
Next Track Off The Rank: Cowgirl In The Sand - The Byrds
IT'S ALIVE!
AT BUDOKAN
Seconds Out - Genesis (Jun-76 and Jun-77)
Running On Empty - Jackson Browne (Sep-77)
Running On Empty - Jackson Browne (Sep-77)
What Do You Want From Live - The Tubes (Nov-77)
It's Alive - The Ramones (Dec-77)
Live And Dangerous - Thin Lizzy (Jan-78)
Cheap Trick at Budokan - Cheap Trick (Apr-78)
Some Enchanted Evening - Blue Oyster Cult (Jun-78)
Babylon By Bus- Bob Marley and The Wailers (Jun-78)
Live Bursting Out - Jethro Tull (May - Jun 1978)
Live Bursting Out - Jethro Tull (May - Jun 1978)
Live Cert X – Stranglers (Sep-78)
Strangers In The Night - UFO (Oct-78)
I've also added a new section to these, 'Next Track Off The Rank' which is the first track by a different artist played by Spotify after the end of the album.
Jun-76 and Jun-77
Genesis
It's nice to discover new artists and music, but there's a special relief that comes when the next album in this line of live classics is by an artist you know and like. The pleasure in not having to first break into the feel of the band and just get on with thinking about what this particular album is offering is a good one. Seconds Out is interesting because it comes at an important point in Genesis's evolution. Steve Hackett handed his cards in just as the album was being mixed (Tony Banks apparently quipped that they immediately turned down the faders on his guitar and it's certainly true that the keyboards are the dominant instrument) so this represents the 'Trick Of The Tail'/'Wind And Wuthering' period where they went from Gabriel-fronted, scholarly art-rock outfit to the Collins-dominated rock-pop behemoth that trundled on through the late seventies and eighties. It's not really as simple as that, it wasn't an immediate sea-change and 'And Then There Were Three' and 'Duke' were further staging posts on the road to album-chart friendly fodder like 'Invisible Touch'. It presents a chance to try and get inside Collins' head. What did the Artful Dodger think about delivering Gabriel's often arcane lyrics and stories? By the time they were touring in the eighties, the 'old' songs amounted to a dashed off medley built around 'In The Cage' and the 'Carpet Crawl'. If you were lucky. Here though, you get 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway', 'Firth Of Fifth', 'The Cinema Show', 'The Musical Box' and 'Supper's Ready'. I suppose they had less back catalogue to draw on, and these songs were still reasonably fresh anyway, but it's interesting to hear Collins' take. 'Supper's Ready' is the most revealing. His stage school background serves him well in trying to pull off some of the more out-there vocal moments. Occasionally it sounds like he might just be taking the piss - he sails close to the wind on the spoken parts of 'I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)' - but I think his intentions are pure. 'Lamb' is played absolutely straight and is a superb performance of the song. If anything it's the later, non-Gabriel songs that he goes over the top on. 'Robbery, Assault And Battery' includes a full on nasal Mancunian Frank Sidebottom delivery of the "'Allo son, I 'ope yer havin' fun" line. 'Trick Of The Tail' also awarded them a perfect show closer in 'Los Endos'. It's got great artwork too.
Band Bantz: There's little retained on the recording. The performances are mainly from two concerts in Paris, a year apart, with the 1976 material amounting to just 'The Cinema Show'. Collins does ad lib "Hello Paris in the springtime" near the end of 'I Know What I Like'
Heckles And Coughs: Mainly reactions to unseen antics on the stage.
Next Track Off The Rank: Give A Little Bit by Supertramp. Kind of inevitable really.
Squonk
The Carpet Crawl
Robbery, Assault And Battery
Afterglow
Firth Of Fifth
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
The Musical Box
Suppers Ready
The Cinema Show
Dance On A Volcano
Los Endos
Aug-Sept 1977
Jackson Browne
This one had me wrong-footed for a moment, although the reason was not simply that this isn't a live album in the normal sense. Instead, the production on the opening title track is so clean that I was convinced it wasn't being performed live anyway and I stopped and checked that I had the right album. In fact only around half the tracks on here are performed live, the rest were produced on the road. It makes for an interesting twist on the idea of a live album. This is more of a 'tour' album, capturing the sights, the sounds... the smells (sorry) of Jackson and co on the road without making any attempt to pretend that this represents a single performance (most live albums aren't anyway, but they are generally intended to give you the live concert experience). Apparently nothing on here comes from a previous album, so it kind of counts as a studio album too in that sense. Browne treads a fine line for me, he risks being as dull and predictable as The Eagles, but there is something more genuine about him than them. He also rings the changes quite nicely within the remit of smooth Americana, so 'You Love The Thunder' could easily be a Fleetwood Mac track (I could believe that's Christine McVie on backing vocals) and 'Shaky Town' has a great steel guitar part. The themes are hotel rooms, tour buses, the people around him and the old Colombian marching powder. On this last, I'm sure I'm surprising nobody when I say that I've never even seen a class A drug in my life, but isn't cocaine supposed to make you talk nineteen to the dozen and be very boring? So why are all the songs about it slow and melancholy? There are some nice touches, 'The Road' segues seamlessly from hotel room recording to live performance midway through. The closing version of Frankie Valli's 'Stay' is great too. My only gripe? It's hard to relate to the ennui that Jackson exudes about his life on the road, cruising through the American midwest with his groupies and his blow when you are trudging into a London office at 7:00 am on an icy March morning.
Band Bantz: Wikipedia reckons that even the tour bus gets in on the act on 'Nothing But Time' and you really can hear it rumbling away in the background if you listen hard enough. There's some sniffing and general stoner conversation at the end of 'Cocaine' too. Browne also debuts 'Nothing But Time' as a tribute to the hired help.
Heckles And Coughs; Hard to pull anything out, especially due to the more disjointed nature of how the material is presented.
Next Track Off The Rank: Cowgirl In The Sand - The Byrds
Running On Empty
The Road
Rosie
You Love The Thunder
Cocaine
Shaky Town
Love Needs A Heart
Nothing But Time
The Load Out
Stay
WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM LIVE
November 1977
The Tubes
I know nothing of The Tubes going into this, but it's not long before I start to get the picture. The delinquent child of Frank and the Mothers and Rocky Horror. It's all very theatrical and the band are occasionally very convincing in being rather dangerously off their heads. They are at the Hammy Odeon as London lay bruised and gasping in the aftermath of the summer of punk so their outrageous schtick probably fit the bill perfectly. The show appears to be just that - a coherent, planned, scripted show with a proper overture and everything. But, the music is good, varied and well executed, if not entirely groundbreaking. Perhaps most notable is The Beatles 'I Saw Her Standing There' performed with The Damned's 'New Rose' punk riff. I'd also swear that there is a tiny bit of larceny on 'Smoke (La Vie En Fumer)' regarding 'Gimme Shelter'. The 'Crime Medley' at least probably isn't pretending to be particularly original and I'd guess that there were plenty of accompanying visuals to help carry it off. They are slaves to 70's rock concert convention in one sense, there is a drum solo. Rather like the short corner kick in football (some say soccer), the reason why anyone would choose to do it defeats me. They finish off with some good old-fashioned audience participation in 'Stand Up And Shout' followed by what counts as their Big Hit 'White Punks On Dope', so for all the outrage and stagecraft, they reveal that they know they still need to give the punters what they want.
Band Bantz: It's a key part of the show and probably more important than the music. They break with convention at the very start and introduce the band in the introduction. That's just crazily confusing. There is obviously lots going on that 12 inches of black vinyl simply cannot convey and most of it is fairly lewd. The intro to 'Smoke' sees one of them (I have no idea who is who in the band) taking their ease with a gasper - couldn't do it in the 'Eventim Apollo' now, with any kind of leaf. And since they are in London, it means they have to give the worst possible example of an American doing a London accent at the end of 'Boy Crazy'. It is Dick-Van-Dyke-as-Bert-the-Chimney-Sweep level.
Heckles and Coughs: Poor Chrissie from West London is dragged up on stage during 'What Do You Want From Life' and offered a number of irresistible prizes including an imitation Indian beaver coat (they don't have beavers in India so it has to be imitation). She understandably goes for the lifetime supply of alcohol, possibly to get over the experience.
Next Track Off The Rank: 'Hello It's Me' by Todd Rundgren. Really? Well I suppose it's rather calming after all that.
Overture:Up From The Deep
Got Yourself A Deal
Show Me A Reason
What Do You Want From Life
God Bird Change
Special Ballet
Don't Touch Me There
Mondo Bandage
Smoke (La Vie En Fumer)
Crime Medley
I Was A Punk Before You Were A Punk
I Saw Her Standing There
Drum Solo
Boy Crazy
You're No Fun
Stand Up And Shout
White Punks On Dope
31st December 1977
The Ramones
It's also a double album consisting of 28 tracks and coming in at 53 minutes 49 seconds. I'll do the maths for you, working out averages contributes about 73% of my day job, and can tell you that's a smidge over 1 minute 52 per track. If they'd tried hard they could probably have crammed it onto one disc. So efficiency is the name of the game here, and you have to think that the Ramones and their reputation is a triumph of distilling the essence of a musical style and repeating it over and over again. Here it is fairly conventional rock 'n' roll tunes with a pounding drum beat and a white noise guitar riff. Et voila! Punk Rock is invented (or at least isolated, concentrated and bottled) and a place in the popular music pantheon is assured. Throw in some black leather biker jackets, hairstyles that look like they've been poured over your head and a cute trick of assuming identities that make you seem like a family band (the Wilburys nicked it shamelessly) and iconic status is a shoo-in. Of course it doesn't work if you don't do it with commitment, style and panache and the Ramones seem to have all three qualities in spades, so it might be samey, relentless and noisy, but it doesn't outstay its welcome. Anyway, it isn't as if they're doing anything I didn't expect. It's kind of pointless to single much out for all the reasons described above. Track three is 'Blitzkrieg Bop' and you would be hard pressed to tell it apart from the studio version. Some of their subject matter shows a paucity of creativity too. Thematically and musically you couldn't really slip a cigarette paper between 'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker', 'Judy Is A Punk' and, indeed, 'Suzy Is A Headbanger'. They risk losing the audience with boredom when they go on and on and on for a patience-testing 2 minutes and 55 seconds of 'Here Today, Gone Tomorrow', they even let up on the guitar thrashing for it. Listening to their version of 'Do You Wanna Dance' would serve as an equivalent to the set of shelves in the library of my childhood which were labeled 'For people in a hurry'. It provides pretty much the entire Ramones experience in a couple of minutes.
Band Bantz: In the intro to 'I Wanna Be Well' Joey Ramone acknowledges the local Finsbury Park cuisine by saying "Well, after eating that chicken vindaloo...I wanna be well"
Heckles And Coughs: Wikipedia describes the concert at the Rainbow Theatre thus: "the New Year's Eve performance was chosen (for live release) because ten rows of seats were thrown at the stage after the concert and it was considered the best of the performances at the venue." Not many bands would consider the destruction of the auditorium in order that they could be assaulted with the furniture as being an artistic high point, but maybe we must apply different standards to The Ramones. If the sound of the incident is recorded on the album then it is undetectable among the rest of the mayhem that is going on. It may have been a rough gig, but it was probably pretty exhilarating too.
Next Track Off The Rank - Train In Vain by The Clash. Positively pedestrian.
Next Track Off The Rank - Train In Vain by The Clash. Positively pedestrian.
Rockaway Beach
Teenage Lobotomy
Blitzkrieg Bop
I Wanna Be Well
Glad To See You Go
Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment
You're Gonna Kill That Girl
I Don't Care
Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
Havana Affair
Commando
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Surfin' Bird
Cretin Hop
Listen To My Heart
California Sun
I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You
Pinhead
Do You Wanna Dance?
Chainsaw
Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World
Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy
Judy Is A Punk
Suzy Is A Headbanger
Let's Dance
Oh Oh I Love Her So Much
Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue
We're A Happy Family
LIVE AND DANGEROUS
November 1976 to January 1978
Thin Lizzy
Lizzy are buzzy and fuzzy throughout this and no-one is going to argue that their sound is not distinctive. I didn't realize until I started to read around them that going concern Black Star Riders sound so much like Thin Lizzy because, well, they ARE Thin Lizzy. They're probably the ultimate manifestation of cock-rock and I should imagine their gender fan gap is pretty huge (which, admittedly, is going to be true of most of the bands I write about). Titles like 'Massacre', 'Warriors', 'The Rocker' and 'Suicide' tell you exactly where they are coming from. Phil Lynott has a mixed reputation in my mind. When he died in early 1986 most of the narrative around him was that he was this really sweet guy whose rock and roll bandito image served to mask the real Phil. Indeed, one of the most startling and memorable TV moments of my childhood was when he suddenly pitched up on This Is Your Life after Eamonn Andrews had popped out from behind a curtain at the London Palladium (probably) to clobber light entertainment ledge Leslie Crowther with the Big Red Book. Turned out Phil was the Crackerjack and Stars In Their Eyes frontman's son-in-law. One can only guess at what they discussed round the Christmas lunch table. Lynott has been on UK TV screens recently due to re-runs of Top Of The Pops from 1985 when he was dashing off every guitar-rock cliche he could find with Gary Moore on their hit single 'Out In The Fields'. The Victorian military jackets suggested a Hendrix fixation. (plenty more on the TOTP reruns here). However, in these performances, captured over 3 concerts in London, Philly and Toronto, you can tell that they were an exciting live proposition and they are much more than a heads-down boogie band. 'Johnny The Fox Meets Jimmy The Weed' is a slithery blues-funk whereas 'Sha-La-La' gets pretty close to full-on metal. Many of the classics are here too. I'd be lacking in my duties if I did not make the point that I think we can be quite sure of where the 'Jailbreak' will be happening in the town. 'Dancing In The Moonlight' includes the immortal line "I always get chocolate stains on my pants' and Phil lets himself down again by adding the refrain "So get your knickers down" as a reply to "The boys are back in town". That really is THE Huey Lewis that is introduced on harmonica on 'Baby Drives Me Crazy' as well.
Band Bantz: Lynott's voice makes his every utterance sound like a death threat (see also his rather overwrought turn as Parson Nathaniel on The War Of The Worlds) but his interplay with the audience has not worn well. At the start of 'Emerald' he asks "Is there anyboy there with any Oirish in them? Is there any of the girls who would like a little more Oirish in them?". Oh dear. It may have been original in the mid-seventies (although I'm not sure it was ever funny), but it hasn't stood the test of time.
Heckles and Coughs: Before they come on, the faithful are chanting "Lizzy, Lizzy, Lizzy"
Next Track Off The Rank - 'Hush' by Deep Purple. Well, I suppose it fits although it's a song that always surprises me that it's by the Purps in the first place.
Jailbreak
Emerald
Southbound
Rosalie/Cowgirl's Song
Dancing In The Moonlight
Massacre
Still In Love With You
Johnny The Fox Meets Jimmy The Weed
Cowboy Song
The Boys Are Back In Town
Don't Believe A Word
Warriors
Are You Ready
Suicide
Sha-La-La
Baby Drives Me Crazy
The Rocker
April 28th and 30th 1978
Cheap Trick
For me there is great confusion between Cheap Trick and Killing Joke and I've spent a good deal of my spare mental processing power this week trying to work out why. Here's what I've come up with. They are broadly contemporary. I only really know one song from each of them (I Want You To Want Me/Love Like Blood), and here's the clincher, their names consist of two words, a mildly negative adjective and a noun for a slightly abstract concept. I tell you, it's exhausting inside my head sometimes. However, listening to this has at least resolved the confusion (more or less). There's no justification for it musically. Killing Joke are pioneers of slightly echo-ey anthemic 80's rock. A baton eventually taken up by U2, Simple Minds and a few also-rans such as Then Jericho and The Alarm. Cheap Trick are much more on the cusp of Glam and Punk (Gunk? Plam?). This is recorded in their fan heartland of Tokyo.'I Want You To Want Me' was a single release but not the massive hit I remember, only 29 in the UK. 'Surrender' that follows clearly influenced Oasis and Liam Gallagher in particular. There's also a version of Fats Domino's 'Ain't That A Shame' which they take an absolute age to work up to via a good 2 minutes of intro. (more Gallagher-esque "Sheeee-ame" on the pronunciation). Like so many bands around this time, there's a certain showmanship and sense of occasion about how they present themselves, they start with 'Hello There' and finish with 'Goodnight'. Rather literal really.
Band Bantz: The on-stage announcements seem to show an awareness of the language barrier. 'Surrender' is introduced very slowly and precisely.
Heckles And Coughs: The atmosphere is like an international schoolgirls hockey match. High pitched screams which apparently almost drowned out the band.
Next Track Off The Rank: Can't Get Enough by Bad Company, who seem a rather more serious proposition than 'The Trick' (as I'm sure no-one calls them)
Hello There
Come On, Come On
Lookout
Big Eyes
Need Your Love
Ain't That A Shame
I Want You To Want Me
Surrender
Goodnight
Clock Strikes Ten
SOME ENCHANTED EVENING
December '77 - June '78
Blue Oyster Cult
Took me by surprise when it started because there is no fade in, we simply drop into the middle of a bit of tuning up before the band is announced and they launch into 'Are You Ready To Rock'. Also surprising is the reasonably straightforward rock-out nature of most of what they do. It shouldn't surprise me because I know this pretty well. Big brother had a taped C60 of it, so if you're looking for the place where music died due to home taping, look no further than a midlands bedroom in the late 1970's. However, the unexpected thing is that Blue Oyster Cult have a poncey name. With an umlaut. And album titles tended toward the faux-cerebral with fantasy-inspired artwork. So you might expect quite a lot of noodling and general mucking about. But no, this is thoroughly enjoyable and downright stupid in places ('Godzilla'). Admittedly, 'Astronomy' goes on a bit and has clear pretensions to depth, but even that is good fun. They also have a go at the MC5's 'Kick Out The Jams' ("Brothers and Sisters!", not "Melonfarmers!") and any song with the line "Oh no. There goes Tokyo. Go go Godzilla!" is worth spending some time listening to. Does the Japanese ranting in the middle make any sense? Who cares but they're probably just making it up. Of course, Blue Oyster Cult are only known by 99% of the world's population for one thing, which is (Don't Fear) The Reaper, nicely trotted out here to an appreciative audience. They close with a a pretty faithful cover of The Animals 'We Gotta Get Out Of This Place'. Unusually for a live album there is no photography in the artwork. Just an admittedly scary looking Grim Reaper.
Band Bantz: The album tends to give the impression that this is a recording of a single concert in Atlanta (Atlanta seems to get a disproportionate share of live album settings) and it's reinforced by the title of the album too but in fact the tracks come from four different venues including Columbus, Little Rock and, ahem, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. However the opening 'Are You Ready To Rock' involves quite a bit of hollering about how great it is to be back in HOTlanta! The cherrypicking of tracks from different concerts is a refreshing approach, it means you're probably getting the best one each time. It's also refreshingly short. Live albums tend to tempt bands into a double every time, but this gets everything done and dusted in about 40 minutes.
Heckles And Coughs: We don't really hear much from the audience other than that they certainly (Don't F.) the R.
Next Track Off The Rank: Thick As A Brick by Jethro Tull. JT turn up at regular intervals on the Spotify radio based on this album, but they seem quite distantly related really. Maybe this album is untypical of B.O.C's usual output.
Are You Ready To Rock
E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)
Astronomy
Kick Out The Jams
Godzilla
(Don't Fear) The Reaper
We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
(Get a) Grip (on Yourself)
BABYLON BY BUS
25th -27th June 1978
Bob Marley And The Wailers
This has proved pretty problematic for me. Not because of it’s quality, it’s great, but critiquing Bob and the Wailers is fraught with difficulty at the best of times. If you’re inclined to be flippant then it just gets harder, because Bob was IMPORTANT see? He represented something and that something was to do with a black cultural experience informed heavily by the history of oppression through slavery. For someone who didn’t really encounter a black person until they were about 10 years old to hold forth opinions about Bob Marley and his art would seem to be a bit presumptuous. So the difficulty is that I’m second thinking everything and have a nagging anxiety about being disrespectful. I needn’t worry that I’m going to find it ridiculous, this isn’t KISS after all, but if I opined that all that going on about Haile Selassie struck me as perhaps a teeny bit daft then I’d be clearly marking myself out as having succumbed to Imperialist brainwashing. But, for white western men to identify as Marley fans (as many seem to do) smacks of virtue signalling of the most pompous kind.
So maybe listening to this for the last week has been good for me, because I’ve got past thinking about what I should think and the sheer significance of it all and started to just listen to and enjoy the music. Marley has a great voice. I read it described once as embodying the idea of freedom (if a voice could embody anything) and it does have a really soaring, joyous quality. The musicianship is brilliant too. Roots Reggae needs to sound loose and unfettered, but in fact I suspect the band have to be tight as a drum to achieve it. There is also no getting away from it, Bob Marley and the Wailers are intensely political, whilst giving the impression they’re having the greatest time ever. I tend to listen early in the mornings, on the way to daily grind, so Bob’s musings on the ‘Rat Race’ hit home quite accurately. With ‘War’ he gives it to you straight without the need for any metaphorical mucking around. Of course sometimes it does seem to be mostly just about having a good time (“Punky Reggae Party”, “Positive Vibration” and “Kinky Reggae”). There’s also a sprinkling of classics – ‘Exodus’, ‘Is This Love’ and ‘Jammin’ and ‘Steer (I mean Stir) It Up’.
Band Bantz: I will not pretend that I decoded his opening salvo completely. “Greetin’s in the name of His Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie-I – Sha! Ras Tafari. Ever-livin’. Ever faithful. Ever sure…Haile Selassie the Furss” and so on.
Heckles and Coughs: The audience are clearly seen as a vital part of the whole performance. Bob and the Wailers concerts were clearly a shared experience and while he has great backing singers, he uses the thousands-strong choir too.
Next Track Off The Rank: ‘Who Knows’ by Protoje. Never heard of it, but it fits.
Positive Vibration
Punky Reggae Party
Exodus
Stir It Up
Rat Race
Concrete Jungle
Kinky Reggae
Lively Up Yourself
Rebel Music (3 O’Clock Roundabout)
Medley: War/No More Trouble
Is This Love
Heathen
Jammin’
BURSTING OUT
May - June 1978
Jethro Tull
If you're a Jethro Tull fan, and I suppose I have to admit that I am, then this is pretty much everything you could ask, musically at least, we'll come onto Ian Anderson's between-song announcements in the Band Bantz section. This was recorded over the 1978 European Heavy Horses tour and it does tend toward presenting Tull as the hefty folk-rock outfit that they pretty much were at the time. As is so often the case with seventies live albums, there is an intro by some local muso luminary, in this case it's Montreux Music Festival founder Claude Nobs, who in true Eurovision style goes through German, Italian, French and English before introducing "and evening with Jethro Tull". They open with the aptly named 'No Lullaby' - not designed to rock you to sleep. Tull have always been keen on a festive tune, but since this all probably comes from early summer 1978, it's hard to see why Anderson goes from his flute improv section (porcine grunts and all) to 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen'. It's good though, as is the rest of it all, great versions of 'Songs From The Wood', 'Hunting Girl', 'Too Old To Rock And Roll', 'Minstrel In The Gallery', 'Aqualung', 'Cross-Eyed Mary' and an encore of 'Locomotive Breath'
Band Bantz: There's a bit too much if truth be told. Ian Anderson has always fancied himself the court-jester of rock with just a touch too much leaning toward ribaldry. For 'Skating Away (On The Thin Ice Of A New Day)' he suggests that they are all swapping instruments for the song, so we have Martin Barre on Marimba ("Hooray!"), Bassist John Glascock is on Lead Guitar, John Evans is on accordian and Barriemore Barlow is on glockenspiel. Meanwhile David Palmer is supposedly offstage taking his ease, so when greeted back at the end there has to be a mention of "giving it a good shake". Not sure why he insists on making a point introducing 'Jack(s) In The Green(s)' ("They are plural!"), why would we care? In the introduction to Thick As A Brick he suggests that he is trying to weed out the "over-25's". The over-25's!! In 1978 Rock and Roll veterans were approaching 30 years old. Mind you , Anderson looked about 50 even in 1970 when he was doing 'Witches Promise' on Top Of The Pops'. There's more unnecessary suggestion of sexual deviancy on the part of Glascock before 'Hunting Girl', tempting you to think"oh please do grow up".
Heckles And Coughs: They can't get a word in edgewise for Anderson's verbal diarrhoea, but he does at least relent at the end of 'Thick As A Brick' to let them supply the last word. He's all heart.
Next Track Off The Rank: Give A Little Bit by Supertramp. Get lost.
Next Track Off The Rank: Give A Little Bit by Supertramp. Get lost.
No Lullaby
Sweet Dream
Skating Away (On The Thin Ice Of A New Day)
Jack In The Green
One Brown Mouse
A New Day Yesterday
Flute Solo Improvisation/God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/Bouree
Songs From The Wood
Thick As A Brick
Hunting Girl
Conundrum
Minstrel In The Gallery
Cross-Eyed Mary
Quatrain
Aqualung
Locomotive Breath
The Dambusters March
LIVE (X CERT)
June/November 77 and September 78
The Stranglers
For the first few years of their existence, The Stranglers were straightforward and not a little frightening, before they went a bit weird and arty and started doing stuff like 'Golden Brown'. The Stranglers sound here is pretty uniform throughout. Burnel's down-in-the-gut thrumming bass and Dave Greenfield's rippling, ascending and descending keyboards dominate everything. In fact you might be forgiven for thinking they don't have a lead guitarist, because it's not very much in evidence. Some of the subject matter and song titles are rather suspect too. I list them all below but I'm guessing they don't revisit track 6 very often these days. They're promoting the albums 'No More Heroes' and 'Black And White' on this, although the title track of the former is a glaring omission. But there is the over-bracketed (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)', along with 'Hanging Around' and 'Go Buddy Go'
Band Bantz: There's a shout-out for a benefit gig at Middlesex Poly for those detained at her Majesty's pleasure, "featuring 999 and Stray". Hugh explains the the original meaning of Jubilee was about setting people free, "and they're not doing it this year" - as if he's expecting mass royal pardons for all the old lags down in Wandsworth and the Scrubs.
Heckles And Coughs: We're only a few months on from punk rock's year zero and Hugh sounds like he's thoroughly fed up with the whole idea. He berates the audience for spitting at him in the manner of a rather jaded and bad-tempered schoolteacher who is only a couple of years away from retirement. He sounds like he's tempted to keep everyone behind until someone owns up to shouting out "W****r!" during the intro to 'Dead Ringer'. In fact he only just stops short of trotting out the "It's your own time you're wasting" line.
Next Track Off The Rank: 'Virginia Plain' by Roxy Music. I don't think so.
Dagenham Dave
Burning Up Time
Dead Ringer
Hanging Around
I Feel Like a Wog
Straighten Out
Curfew
Do You Wanna?
Death and Night and Blood (Yukio)
5 Minutes
Go Buddy Go
Go Buddy Go
STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT
October 13-18 1978
UFO
When I was compiling this list of live albums, Strangers In The Night by UFO was one of those that someone or other said was the obvious choice of Greatest Live Album Of All Time. Well these things are subjective, but my experience of UFO was nothing more than a passing familiarity with 'Doctor, Doctor', although I would have been hard pressed to name the band responsible for it. However, I will happily agree that this is a cracking live album and I should think that UFO deserve any reputation they have of setting a standard for a certain genre of music. This may be from 1978, but it seems to be a template for much of the heavy rock/metal that was to come in the early eighties. Driving, loud, fast, guitar and drum led rock that would certainly have got the blood pumping without much difficulty. They seem to be both derivative and influential, so the intro to 'Cherry' has a bit of Neil Diamond's 'America' and a bit of Cher's 'If I Could Turn Back Time' whereas 'Lights Out' might have inspired Heart's 'Barracuda'. Meanwhile, 'Only You Can Rock Me' has a fairly standard Keef-style opening riff. Of course, Spinal Tap sequenced and cloned the DNA of every English 1970's rock band and it's hard to think that 'Rock Bottom' didn't inspire Tap's 'Big Bottom', it's certainly overblown enough. They do a decent big rock ballad too, 'Love To Love' has power-grabs a-plenty. Singer Phil Mogg's voice has that slightly operatic cadence that you get with Planty and the double whammy of 'Mother Mary' followed by 'This Kid's' does sound a little like a Zep tribute.
If you're puzzled by the tracklist below, I listened to the 1999 reissue, which has a different running order from the original issue and a couple of extra tracks right at the start, 'Hot and Ready' and 'Cherry'.
Band Bantz: I assume it's lead singer Phil Mogg making the announcements from the stage. He does sound like he's half-cut, but maybe that's just his way and it's an Ozzy-style drawl. Three songs in and the producer isn't happy with the microphones, so he has to fill while they are replaced. He's not that good at it if we're honest, but they're soon fixed and they're off on the Maiden-style gallop of 'Let It Roll'.
Heckles And Coughs: They've all been waiting for the chugachugachuga of 'Doctor, Doctor', and receive it enthusiastically. They request, and get, 'Rock Bottom'. All eleven-and-a-half-minutes of it.
Next Track Off The Rank: (Don't Fear) The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult. As predictable as I am.
Hot 'n' Ready
Cherry
Let It Roll
Love to Love
Natural Thing
Out in the Street
Only You Can Rock Me
Mother Mary
This Kid's
Doctor Doctor
I'm a Loser
Lights Out
Rock Bottom
Too Hot to Handle
Shoot Shoot
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