SOUNDS
N-R SOUNDS
N-RBlam! Can't miss the beat. It starts here, with the following list and lowdown on music creatures who count. Half a dozen different schools of cool are represented in the all-purpose grooves guide called Who's Cool In Music.
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RON NAGLE * Somewhere between
scoring the gut wrench sound effects for The Exorcist and
penning tunes for (among others) Babs Streisand, this San Fran
Renaissance Man got tagged "a cynical misanthrope" (BAM
mag) and "the best undiscovered writer around" (Jack
Nitzsche). Cool proof of both: Nagle's 1970 lp Bad Rice
(Warners; reissued on Edsel). Faith healers, a boy seduced by
his nanny, and a kid who "kicks in [his mom's] head with
his wing-tips" people an album that fuses pre-punk rage with
Pet Sounds romanticism. Kissin' cousin: Nagle and Scott
Mathews' dark humored, Spectorian debut as the Durocs (Capitol
lp, 1979).
ANITA O'DAY * On her (Fifties) Verve sessions, a stylist supreme who transforms class ("Love For Sale") and corn alike ("Strawberry Moon") into prime movers. Lush and drowsy, the voice is late afternoon cool, and when she digs the good word from that kicky bluebird in "Ain't This A Wonderful Day," the lady's a champ, jack. See INK.
ROY ORBISON * Of course the voice is paramount: growling, keening, vaulting to the heavens. But don't shortchange the songs, perfectly tailored for that magnificent vocal instrument. Byzantine plots, melodrama, heartbreak larger than life-if Spector's records were "little symphonies for the kids," Orb's were little operas. On "In Dreams," Crying," and the ineffable "It's Over" (elegy for the end of the world as we know it), R.0, wallowing in the depths of earthly sorrow, at the same time transcends and soars above it.-Ken Barnes.
BUCK OWENS * Never one to pass up a trope ("I've Got the Hungries for Your Love and I'm Waitin' in Your Welfare Line"), the Hee Haw superstar responded to pop's acid-rock craze with "Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass" (1969).
GRAM PARSONS * Rock 'n' roll's trailblazing country-rock alchemist years before the Eagles turned it into a mewling, self-conscious embarrassment. Two decades dead, the bitter-sweet Byrd/Burrito lives, on forever young reissues.-R.S.
G.P./Grievous Angel (Reprise CD). Farther Along: Best of the Flying Burrito Bros. (A&M). The Byrds box (Columbia). Sacred Hearts & Fallen Angeles (Rhino).
GENE PITNEY * Rock as opera, long before the Who turned it into a bad joke. From '62 to '64, the Connecticut Yank was stalked by pain, anguish, and Kleenex on such boss weepers as "Only Love Can Break a Heart," "It Hurts To Be in Love." Horse opera: "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance."
ELVIS PRESLEY * Distinguished by ultra-coolish behavior throughout his career, the man who shook up the Western world also took the time to record "No Room to Rhumba in a Sports Car."
The King of Rock & Roll: Complete '50s Masters; From Nashville to Memphis: The Essential '60s Masters; Walk a Mile in My Shoes: Essential '70s Masters.
P.J. PROBY * Bombastic Texas balladeer whose British success rivaled the Beatles ('64-65). Lennon said Proby "sounded like Elvis in a bottle." Fell from grace when he split his skintight breeches from knee to crotch during a London concert. Lennon and McCartney wrote "That Means a Lot" for him.
PSYCHEDELIC FURS * Not necessarily "psychedelic," this current Brit outfit does utilize a light show, mindbending sax runs, and an acid sense of humor to get its point across.
Psychedelic Furs; Talk Talk Talk (Columbia).
PSYCHEDELIC MUSIC * In the Eighties, as in the Sixties, it follows punk rock like the seasons. Now, as then, most of the people tossing the term around wouldn't know the Blues Magoos from the Blues Brothers. At its best, "acid rock" was a bracing blitz of jangling mood music - LPs like The Grateful Dead (Warners WBS 1689, to distinguish the group's first album from their other eponymous efforts); Moby Grape and the Byrds' Fifth Dimension (both CBS); Spirit (Epic); Quicksilver Messenger Service and QMS' Happy Trails (Capitol), and the Blues Project's Projections (Verve). Psychedelic by association: Captain Beefheart's Safe as Milk (Buddah). Also see: Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators; Country Joe & the Fish Electric Music for Mind and Body; Cream's Fresh Cream; Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
These days, psychedelic rock is championed by bands like the Unclaimed, the Salvation Army, the Plimsouls (all L.A.), and Britain's Barracudas, whose Drop Out with the Barracudas (EMI import) is a cosmic must. The import sampler A Splash of Colour (WEA) gets you the 'cudas, plus the Marble Staircase, Mood Six, and the Earwigs. Groovy!
PUNK ROCK (SIXTIES) * They came from garages, from the suburbs. Wearing paisley and fruit-boots, brandishing handles like the Standells, Seeds, Shadows of Knight, and Chocolate Watch Band. inspired by the Rolling Stones and other aggro units, legions of snotty kids grabbed guitars and took aim at the Top Forty. Some hit with irresistibly imbecilic records: Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction," the Leaves' "Hey Joe," and "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)" by the immortal Electric Prunes.
As practiced between 1965 and 1967, punk rock was the twilight of primitive American rock 'n' roll: brash, undisciplined hard stuff. (While punk's Seventies namesake was British-born, England birthed but two punk clans in the Sixties: the Pretty Things and the transcendent Troggs of "Wild Thing" fame.)
Though the Standells' "Dirty Water" and "It's a Happening Thing" by the Magic Mushrooms may never again scale the tunedecks, Sixties punk is alive and well on record. The Nuggets compilation, released by Elektra in 1972 and later by Sire, offers such immortals as the Seeds, Standells, Strangeloves, and Amboy Dukes in one bonanza double album.
Then there's Wild Thing, a TV mailorder package featuring the Gentrys, Bobby Fuller Four, ? & the Mysterians, Troggs, Human Beinz, and Swingin' Medallions (Lakeshore Music, 930 Remington Road, Schaumberg, Illinois 60195). And The Seeds (GNP); the Sonics' Boom and Original Northwest Punk (Etiquette); the Pretty Things' Vintage Years (Sire), and the not quite-legal Pebbles anthologies, available in hipper record shops.
Nuggets Volume 1 (US) and Nuggets Volume 2 (The World).
PUNK (SEVENTIES-EIGHTIES) * New York started it ('76), London came in swinging, and L.A. mopped it up. When it was all over (any week now), punk had kicked rock out of its tie-dyed Seventies torpor, produced hundreds of tuff sides, and fallen flat on its face.
Punk's failure to completely rearrange the face of American pop is hardly its own fault. Squares still rule the world, and if they prefer musical wallpaper to wild ideas, so be it. Rumors persist about virulent outbreaks of the crazy rhythm in places like D.C., but more and more, punk '82 sounds like less, and less, and less. The music's finest minutes are probably behind it, but they're here for good.
Box set crib sheet: No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion.
New York's Finest: The Ramones Hey Ho! Let's Go! The Anthology; Dictators Go Girl Crazy! (Epic); Heartbreakers L.A.M.F. (Track import); Johnny Thunders' So Alone (Real Records import).
English Version: The Clash, Give 'Em Enough Rope, The Clash (Epic); Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols (Warners); Sham 69, Tell Us the Truth (Sire); Vibrators, Pure Mania (Epic); Punk and Disorderly (Poshboy).
Oz: Saints (I'm) Stranded; The Essential Radio Birdman 1974-1978.
California: Adolescents (Frontier); The Alleycats Nightmare City (Time Coast); Angry Samoans, The Unboxed Set plus Inside My Brain and Back from Samoa (Bad Trip); Black Flag, Damaged (SST); Circle Jerks, Group Sex (Frontier); Channel 3, Fear of Life (Poshboy); Dickies, Dawn of the Dickies; Fear, The Album (Slash); Gears, Rockin' at Ground Zero (Playgems); Germs, G.I. (Slash); Hell Comes to Your House (Bemisbrain sampler); The Last, L.A. Explosion! (Bomp); UXA, Illusions of Grandeur (Poshboy); X, Los Angeles (Slash); Avengers (White Noise); Young Canadians, Hawaii (Quintessence); Various Artists What? Stuff (Bomp).
THE RAMONES * Forest Hills' four great guys, championing rock 'n' roll's three greatest chords. Gabba gabba hey! See "Punk (Seventies-Eighties)."
JOHNNIE RAY * Elvis may have invented white rock 'n' roll, but there was someone ahead of him. In 1951, Johnnie Ray, a lean, tormented torch singer-with a hearing aid-fell to his knees sobbing when he sang his double-sided hit "Cry" and "Little White Cloud That Cried," and teenagers went wild. His fame was quick and fleeting. By 1956 rock 'n' roll left him in its wake, despite the fact he had cut his teeth in R&B clubs in Detroit. Pre-echoing Presley's status as a circus clown led by Col. Parker, Ray danced to Columbia Records' A&R chief Mitch Miller's baton, cutting such creaky pop as "Walking My Baby Back Home." When he died of a liver ailment in 1989, J.R. was a forgotten man, his only recent mention being in "Come On, Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners: "He was the one our grandmothers pined for."A.F.
THE RAYBEATS * Ventures and Venusians meet for discreet instrumental sessions. Surf music from the Twilight Zone.
PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS * "Oregon's answer to Liverpool" wore tricornered hats and pantyhose. Kicks just keep getting harder to find.
JONATHAN RICHMAN & THE MODERN LOVERS * Idiot-savant hipster of the Seventies. "Hey There Little Insect," "Abominable Snowman in the Market" - he writes 'em, sings 'em, and is not embarrassed. Hear the Sex Pistols learn JR's "Roadrunner" on The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle.
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers (Beserkely).
NELSON RIDDLE * He made Sinatra swing and touched TV with class, theming both "Route 66" and "The Untouchables." And he did the beaut title piece to Kubrick's Lolita.
ROCKABILLY * From '54 to '56 they prowled the shadows cast by Presley, crazed rednecks hefting fat guitars and waterfall pompadours. Crazy, man, crazy.
Craziest: Johnny Burnette Rock 'n' Roll Trio - Tear It Up (including "Honey Hush," "Train Kept A-Rollin," "Rock Billy Boogie" (Solid Smoke).
Rockabilly Stars, Volumes 1-2, featuring Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Link Wray, Collins Kids, Ronnie Self (Epic); Original Memphis Rock & Roll, with Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich (Sun); Ray Campi, Rockabilly, Wildcat Shakeout (Rollin' Rock); King Federal Rockabillys (Hank Mizell, Mac Curtis, Charlie Feathers); Put Your Cat Clothes On (Billy Lee Riley, Warren Smith, Jerry Lee Lewis, Harmonica Frank Floyd) (Philips UK import); Gene Vincent; The Bop That Just Won't Stop (Capitol). The Sun Story; Rock This Town; The Collins Kids' Rockin'est.
ROLLING STONES * Once upon a time. Dead from the neck down since '67.
The Rolling Stones; 12 X 5; Now!; Out of Our Heads; December's Children (And Everbody's); Aftermath; Between the Buttons; Singles Collection; Metamorphosis (London).
NINO ROTA * Who but an operawriting teenager could grow up to orchestrate Fellini's fractured flicks? His compositions for 81/2, La Dolce Vita, and Juliet of the Spirits set rinky-dink standards. Life is a carnival.
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