MAYBE IT WAS THE SWEATERS

It's somehow fitting the the guy who turned me on to Big Star many years ago (gulp, decades), is the person who first tipped me to a new documentary about them. Frank co-owned a record store, Scratching the Surface, and I've mentioned his influence on me a few times, but I'll sum it up quickly: the Sonics, the Wailers, the Flamin' Groovies, and Big Star are just four of the bands he pushed on me, when I was a young punk rocker in the midst of the ol' classic rock purge (you purged back then too, right?). Like a lot of people, he couldn't understand why Big Star wasn't huge. After all these years, I think I might know why. And it's the same reason why they don't get heavy rotation on my record player.

Besides the fact that they played few live gigs, Big Star were just too good of a band. It's the same reason why a lot of people (myself included) would take the Stones over the Beatles. Not everybody wants a perfect band, or even a polished band. Face it, most of us like bands that release stinkers every now and then, maybe to remind us that they're human, and that the good stuff is just everything coming together in some sort of serendipitous event. That could explain why, while I know Big Star is an excellent band, and I appreciate Alex Chilton's songwriting, I hardly ever listen to them. Come to think of it, most of the people I know of who really dig them are either musicians or music critic types. In other words, schooled. The vast majority of record buyers aren't. Maybe they should have put out a crappy album, or rocked out a little more, or ditched those sweaters. Maybe then the world would have listened.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Big Star - Don't Lie to Me mp3 at MFR
Big Star - Kizza Me mp3 at That's Plenty
Big Star - Kangaroo mp3 at Mecca Lecca
Big Star - In The Street mp3 at All Things Go
Big Star - Thirteen mp3 at Music For Humans
Big Star - Thank You Friends mp3 at Indie Rock Cafe
Big Star - I'm In Love With a Girl mp3 at Star Maker Machine
Big Star - Nightime mp3 at Pretty Goes With Pretty
Big Star - The Ballad of El Goodo mp3 at Pretty Goes With Pretty
Big Star - Jesus Christ mp3 at The Adios Lounge
Big Star - Femme Fatale mp3 at Cover Me Velvet Underground cover
Big Star - Hot Burrito #2 (live) mp3 at The Adios Lounge Flying Burrito Brothers cover
Covers:
Elliot Smith - Thirteen (live) mp3 at Large Hearted Boy
Wilco - Thank You Friends mp3 at Everybody Taste
The Replacements - September Gurls mp3 at Everybody Taste
Six more Big Star covers at Everybody Taste
Video:
Big Star - In the studio at YouTube
Visit:
Nothing Can Hurt Me: The Big Star Story - Documentary site
Like Burning Fire Shut Up In My Bones - The Adios Lounge Good piece about Alex Chilton and Memphis music.
Big Star at Wikipedia

DOUBLE BILL FOR THE AGES

I know, just did the Richard Berry thing, that had the Sonics and the Wailers. But I had to post this. It's a first hand account of a Sonics/Wailers double bill that happened back in the day, written by Frank Gutch Jr. He attended as a teenager, and writes about the show with amazing recall. I'm downright proud to say that Frank was the first person to make me listen to them, over thirty years ago. In my world, the man deserves a medal. (He also turned me on to the Flamin' Groovies and Big Star, among others.) Frank was partners in a record store, called "Scratching the Surface." The San Diego punk scene was just beginning, and his encouragement was essential in getting things off the ground, as was his store, which served as an ersatz hub.

I had lost track of Frank, for easily two decades, when a friend at a record store told me he saw a copy of my old fanzine on Ebay. When I looked at the item description, I knew the seller had to have been someone I knew, the description was so thorough. Out of curiosity, I emailed the seller, only to find out it was Frank. (He had a column in that issue, called "Boss Hoss," after the Sonics' song.) We've been in touch ever since.

One quick note: Because the Wailers share a name with the reggae Wailers, it's nearly impossible to find mp3s of the Fabulous Wailers.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Read: The Sonics vs the Wailers - Battle of the Bands! by Frank Gutch Jr., at Indie Musicology
Rock and Reprise - Frank's older stuff
Listen:
The Sonics - Boss Hoss mp3 at Pretty Goes With Pretty
The Sonics - Psycho mp3 at The Adios Lounge
The Sonics - The Witch mp3 at Blah Blah Blah Science
The Sonics - Walking the Dog mp3 (via MediaFire) at Metal Bastard Goes Soft
The Wailers - Out of Our Tree mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Wailers - Louie Louie mp3 via MediaFire
The Wailers - Mashi mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Wailers - Gunnin' For Peter mp3 at API.Ning
Let's Go Chopping:
Norton Records 45 RPM Juke Box Series -11 Sonics and Wailers singles on vinyl (scroll halfway down page)

LAST CHANCE TO GET BUSY

For the first few years "Harlem Nocturne" had been in my record collection, it was just a cool instrumental. Part film noir soundtrack, part slowed down burlesque, it had one of those uncommon vibes that transgresses tastes. That was before there was a story attached to it.

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I don't even remember who it was who told me the special significance the song held for them. I do remember that it was someone older, who had been at high school dances in the sixties. Though I've known a bunch of rock n' roll elders/mentors over the years, I can narrow it down to someone I knew in the late 70's or early 80's. So, I'll tip my hat to all the likely candidates: Harold Gee, Rick Fortune, Pat Looby, Frank Gutch and Michael Page. Every one of those guys shared valuable "I was there" rock n' roll stories with me, and I could write entire posts on the significance of each of their shared memories. Suffice it to say, they were all like big brothers and are allowed the huge respect that comes with that.

All I remember is being somewhere, a party or a barbeque, when the Viscounts version of "Harlem Nocturne" was being played. In shit-shooting mode, mysto-elder (whoever he was) said that he had always loved that song, because so many bands had played it as their last song at high school dances. Before I could ask why, he told me that when the chaperons signaled to the bands that they had one more song to play, they invariably picked "Harlem Nocturne," because it was a slow dance favorite. To be more specific, it was a proven make out, grab ass inducing, no-brainer, and selected primarily because the band wouldn't get shut down, and the students wouldn't get kicked out, during the last song of the night. It was like sticking it to the teacher, and getting down with your girl, in one fell swoop.

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Years later, when I was pulling records to DJ, I came across the 45, and it became the last song I would play whenever I was spinning at the Pink Panther. Though it was in a different context, the song now reminds me of people slowly filing out of the smokey bar, smelling of beer and cigarettes, chaperons absent, to go home and finish the job.

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The Viscounts - Harlem Nocturne mp3 at WFMU's Beware of the Blog
42 other versions of Harlem Nocturne at Beware of the Blog

WE'RE GOING TO TAKE A SHORT BREAK WHILE WE MOP UP GARY'S VOCAL CHORDS.

Frank Gutch gave me my first fix. He was the owner of Scratching the Surface, a record store that opened just as us knucklehead kids were getting our punk rock wings. Frank was slightly older than us and a long time record store employee cum music geek (and I mean that in a most complimentary tone). No ego whatsoever, he was council to those of us that were, in a matter of speaking, outgrowing Creem magazine. He was into all sorts of music and seemed to have a special fondness for overlooked bands (Big Star, the Flamin' Groovies, etc.). And he was a stealth ring leader as well, offering, by way of encouragement, a sort of DIY transfusion. Having just opened his own record store, he was the bearer of the "yeah, you should do it" attitude that was the catalyst that prompted not only the first punk show in San Diego, but the first punk zine as well.

The zine I speak of was Substitute, a thin (16 pages) fanzine I put out with my friend Jaccqui Ramirez. Frank, writing as Izen Timothy Zorr, was given a column to write about whatever he wanted, and in magazine that was very "now", he chose to write about the Northwest sound of the mid-late sixties. The Northwest sound, the garage era in particular, was one he championed all the time, even naming his column "Boss Hoss" after the song by the Sonics.

The Sonics - The Witch mp3 at The Culture of Me

All sorts of people contributed to early punk scenes, and while some contributions are apparent (and recognized), others are not. Amongst all the other ways Frank contributed to the early San Diego scene (and there's many more than listed), it was he who pushed the Wailers and the Sonics, absolute demi-gods of the Northwest sound, on us unsuspecting punk rock wannabees. And that is a long-winded way of saying, whenever I hear the Sonics, I think of Frank.

Which brings us to "Psycho." Listen to the whole thing or, better yet, consider it essential and download it. But do listen to the whole thing, particularly the fade out. See if you don't go running for a mop.

The Sonics - Psycho mp3 and Have Love Will Travel mp3 at Raven Sings the Blues