OCCAM'S GLITTER

I happened to come across the video of Suzi Quatro doing "48 Crash" on some TV show. I've seen it before. Suzi Quatro is not high art. She's not particularly hard as a rocker. She did some softies, and had a handful of hits, though none in the U.S. But watching this video it hit me. On this particular song, and this appearance, she and her band seem to be to glitter what the early Ramones were to rock 'n' roll. That is to say, stripped down. She boiled glam down to the bare essentials. Tight leather, shag haircut, platforms and that glam beat. That relentless, pumping, Mike Chapman Nicky Chinn glam beat that adorns so many glitter hits of that era, notably Quatro's and the Sweet's.

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Listen:
Suzi Quatro - Can the Can mp3 at Tumblr
Suzi Quatro - Devil Gate Drive mp3 at Tumblr

GRACE JONES, YOU'VE BEEN SERVED.

As someone who's had a thing for Suzi Quatro for years, this is somewhat mind-blowing. A cover of the Normal's "Warm Leatherette" from 1980 (not released until 2014). If you're familiar with her 70's output you know that she was best known for the foot stomping glam of "48 Crash", "Devil Gate Drive", "Can the Can" and the like. You may have heard "Stumblin' In" released a few years later and lamented the loss of your rockin' leather clad dream girl. To hear her version of "Warm Leatherette", recorded just two years later, is a revelation. As Lee, of the hosting site Crying All the Way to the Chip Shop, points out "She even ups the ante by changing the original line 'Let’s make love before you die' to 'Let’s fuck before [we] die'." Gads! How would that be as the last words you hear? On your deathbed, Suzi Quatro right there. You'll be thinking that you're headed to heaven, because, shit, Suzi fucking Quatro is there. Then she says "Let’s fuck before we die". You don't know whether you're crossing over and going to heaven, because where else would you hear Suzi Quatro say that, or have one foot in hell, because she says it now, at the end of your life when it isn't possible. It's fucked up. All I know is that the thirteen year old me would have regarded this one a certified nut buster.

I'm not linking directly to the mp3 because you really should check out Crying All the Way to the Chip Shop. He's got good taste and it's a smart looking site.

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Listen:
Suzi Quatro - Warm Leatherette mp3 at Crying All the Way to the Chip Shop Go there to get it.

MUST NOT OVERTHINK BATMAN

I can't really be objective about Suzi Quatro. I admire her gumption. She seems to worm her way into my heart, even with her shit songs. Even when she was on Happy Days as Leather Tuscadero, I cut slack, She wasn't the first women rocker, and she isn't the toughest. But she is among those who played their gender the least. She didn't really play down her looks, nor was she overtly cheesecake. She just played bass and sang.

You have to check out the video below. Watch the whole thing because the party starts at 2:34. Just before the repeat of the chorus, at 2:41 she licks her chops and then tears into a nice fit, hair this way and that, with a pretty respectable scream to top it off, albeit lip synced. I watched it several times because it made me want to party. So what.

One thing that makes the first song down there, a cover of "I Wanna Be Your Man", so interesting is the thought that maybe she didn't record it as some sort of feminist or gender thing. Maybe she recorded it because it was a good rock 'n' roll song. (I could be wrong. I could read up on it, but so can you.) Regardless, hearing it tonight made me want to revisit my favorites of hers, and in looking for some I ran across a hot ass cover of "48 Crash" by the Gymslips, an early eighties UK band. I don't know anything about the band other than the blurb on the hosting blog, and I don't care. I want to party with that song.

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Listen:
Suzi Quatro - I Wanna Be Your Man mp3 at Cover Me
Suzi Quatro - 48 Crash mp3 at VMuzique  Foreign site, caution advised.
Suzi Quatro - Can the Can mp3 at 4Shared
Suzi Quatro - Devil Gate Drive mp3 at A.Tumblr (?)
The Gymslips - 48 Crash mp3 at Farced
The Gymslips - Love Is Not the Answer mp3 at Farced This is good too.

IT'S A SILK SASH BASH

Here's a couple by Suzi Quatro, and a couple by her first band, the Pleasure Seekers. She was fourteen when they formed, and the band included three of her sisters. With that kind of name, and the young age of Quatro, you have to wonder what the hell her parents were thinking. Thankfully, whatever it was, it led to her solo career which produced a few memorable hits incorporating a most awesome glam beat, also used to great effect by Gary Glitter and others. Her early hits were produced by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn, who wrote or produced fourteen hits in the UK top 40 charts between 1973 and 1974. That's all generic pre-listening geek stuff. The non-geek in the room says that the vast majority of her recorded output was tepid. Her first two solo LP's have the lion's share of the keepers. If you're buying, start there. Now dig on this:

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Listen:
The Pleasure Seekers - What A Way to Die mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Pleasure Seekers - Never Thought You'd Leave Me mp3 at Garage Hangover (Direct linking disabled, go there to get it.)
Suzi Quatro - 48 Crash mp3 at Merry Swankster
Suzi Quatro - Can the Can mp3 at 4Shared
Video:
Suzi Quatro - Can the Can at YouTube
Visit:
The Pleasure Seekers at Wikipedia
Suzi Quatro at Wikipedia

DJ'S CHOICE: GO-TO GLAM

A while back, I found myself in my hallway, sheltered by walls on all sides. I was doing something I hoped no one would see. Well into my middle age, head down with a concerned look on my face, I was playing air guitar. It stuck me as odd, to feel embarrassed about it. After all, I only date ladies who are air guitarists. Which reminds me: before I die, I will date a girl who plays air guitar to Suzi Quatro.

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Suzi Quatro was from Detroit, but found fame in the UK at the peak of the Glam years. That was a weird period over there. You could transverse, from art farts Roxy Music, through Bowie, elbow T-Rex out of the way, have a beer with Mott the Hoople and then get after-hours-stupid with Slade. Shit, I just described a night at the Pink Panther. Which is totally apropos.

NOTE: Not "rough and notorious", more like "drunk and horny"
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Pink Panther was a bar that I used to frequent and DJ'd at on a fairly regular basis. I ususally DJ'd with a partner, which made it more like a private record party (that is, with free beer and a captive audience). I had a bunch of partners during the Panther's heyday, but most often it would be my friend, Julie D.

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Julie was a perfect DJ parner, she knew music (we met when she was working at a record store) and loved to mix it up as much as I did, This led to some wacky sets, and it wasn't unusual to play Can, George Jones, Alice Cooper and X-Ray Spex in the same night. "48 Crash" by Suzi Quatro was one of the many songs played with regularity (often followed by Sweet's "Hellraiser", or one of Slade's foot-stompers).

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Taken out of a glam context, these types of songs were perfect what-the-fuck segues and almost always stoked a few people who'd forgotten about them (this was way past the glam era). These days, whenever I hear classic glam it takes me back to the Panther, and the beer soaked nights spinning with my pal Julie. So, this one is for Julie.

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Suzi Quatro - 48 Crash mp3 at Merry Swankster

Suzi Quatro - 48 Crash video at YouTube

Julie D's old bands: Drip Tank at MySpace, Chinchilla at MySpace