Every town with a relatively healthy scene, has had, at one time or another, their own Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers disciples, right? And not all Thunders; a little heavy on the Heartbreakers. Somewhere between punk rock and the Stones; guitar heavy and a little sloppy. Sometimes it may not have even been intentional. The Rockin' Dogs may not have been into the Heartbreakers, but they sure sounded like them. Even the lead and background vocals sound like the Thunders/Lure of yore.
Listen to the guitar, particularly from the 1:00 mark on. [Mp3 link below] The fills (by Dave Ellison?) sound like Thunders, James Burton and CCR-era John Fogerty mashed together. I saw them a few times and they were (pardon the term) awesome. Both guitarists, Dave Ellison and Sam Wilson, were well versed in rock n' roll licks, from all eras, and they weren't afraid of being a little sloppy. I never thought that I'd hear them again. Thanks to Che Underground, I now know that they were pretty much as I remembered, sloppy and rocking out.
Che Underground is a blog about the San Diego's scene within a scene of the 80's, primarily bands associated with the Che Cafe (a venue at UCSD). Hosted by Matthew Rothenberg (former member of Noise 292 and 3 Guys Called Jesus), posters include Ellison, Tom Ward (Gravedigger V, Nashville Ramblers, etc), Bart Mendoza (Manual Scan, the Shambles), Ray Brandes (Telltale Hearts, Town Criers), Dave Klowden....basically a who's who of SD 80's bands. There's a lot of lost music being digitized and posted by Matthew, so stop by and give him an "atta boy".
Rockin' Dogs - Candy Rock mp3 at Che Underground
Rockin' Dogs - Baby Baby Baby mp3 at Che Underground
Rockin' Dogs - Back of Your Heart mp3 at Che Underground
Rockin' Dogs - Always On the Run mp3 at Che Underground
Che Underground home page
8 comments:
Hey Tom... Thanks for putting us up! I've been reading your blog a little since Matthew linked to it on the Che Underground page.
On that song Sam's playing the lead...mine's the less distorted sounding guitar. Sam wrote that one, but Im doing the lead vocal – with Sam singing the bridge and coming in on the choruses and the last verse. We've got a few more that might go up soon.
Im gonna email you so we can catch up a little...it's been a long time!
I really, really love how Sam and Dave's (heh! Sam and Dave) guitar work contrasts. You guys were an amazing front line.
Yeah Dave! More Rockin' Dogs! Hey was "Cherry Rock" a live recording? Whatever, it smokes.
Thanks for clearing up the guitar credits. Do I remember correctly that you used to cover "Baby Please Don't Go" and if so, was it Billy Lee Riley's version that inspired it? (I've meant to ask you that for, what, twenty years....)
And Matthew, you're a damn saint in my book. Thanks for CU.
Thanks, Tom and Matthew...
Candy Rock ...we did that and the others at Acusound studio on El Cajon Blvd (the cheapest studio in San Diego, I think). We had a very limited budget, so the songs were pretty much done in one take (maybe two). Only the vocals were overdubbed. We tried to make it as "live" sounding as possible... we panned my guitar to the left and Sam's to the right, since that's the way we always stood on stage.
Baby Please Don't Go was from Ted Nugent's version on Double Live Gonzo. :) Nah...just kidding. It was the Billy Lee Riley version... I used to have lots of the Sun rockabilly reissues on Charley Records. That made a good cover song...we should have recorded it!
Dave,
Why don't you just scare me? Fucking Double Live Gonzo!?!? And I was worried you'd say Amboy Dukes!
I had the same Charley comp and remember being impressed when you guys played it because hardly anybody I knew was listening to Billy Lee Riley at the time. (Those Charley compilations were so great. I had a bunch too.) And that would also explain one of the reasons why you were so well versed with R n' R licks.
One regret of mine is only hearing you play pedal steel once (when you and my brother backed Jean Caffeine).
I'll bet you and Tim went to Cal Jam 2 and saw Ted Nugent. Haha...
My wife's best friend lives in Austin and I always mean to ask her if Jean Caffeine still plays around there. What is she up to these days?
I didn't mention how much I like your site! I've been grooving to Fela all day here at work. What a kook...I'd never even heard of him, but I think he's great.
Tom, I've been checkin' your fine site over the past years, and have yet to comment... however you've now posted info on one of the greatest bands ever to come out of SD. The band I speak of is none other than the infamous "Rockin' Dogs", of course! When they had it together... they were untouchable with their crazed feral-dog sound! As you may know, I went to high school with 'um... on many a weeknight I would go listen to them practice at the storage unit... they had moments of true rock'n'roll brilliance... 'never could tell what might happen during the course of the night! Years back Dave gave me a cassette copy of the demo recordings they made in the studio... it was great stuff... "Candy Rock", and my favorite, "Red Blue Dress". I once mentioned to Dave that I had a copy, he asked for it back so I handed it over... Man, if I had it now I could make a bootleg in Sweden and quit my job! Hey Dave remember the time the "Bottom Line" played on the quad at Poway High? Just after the band covered "Beat on the Brat" by the Ramones, the administration pulled the plug... good times they were!
John S.
Post a Comment