Tony Stewart was finally impressed by this Dutch band that nearly became a big, international band. Now, I guess most people remember them by the song “Radar Love”. Too bad as they have more to offer than that song. Read on!
Golden Earring / Marquee
Concert review by Tony Stewart
Until Monday night, Dutch band Golden Earring had never impressed me. But we`re all entitled to a change of underpants and I`d now like to tell you they`re a hot rock quartet. First picture yourself there. It’s hot and crowded and beery and sweaty. Assorted bodies are tippy-toeing over the backs of others; and it pongs y’know. Earring have set up quad speakers. Suddenly the wicks lighted and your head is physically jolted to the side. Sure, they were loud, brash and unmercifully unfeeling as they shook that Soho club two feet off the ground. “They’re better than last time,” mumbles an expert. “Well,” squeaks his girlie companion, “they’re supposed to have improved”. Their bass player, Rimus Gerritsen bludgeons his instrument with so much aggression that the creases in your trousers drop out, and you adjust your jock-strap. Caesar Zuiderwrgk clobbers his drums just like a mechanical docker hammering nails into a tea-chest. Nobody dared to wear shades. Certainly the Golden boys are a ferocious bunch — but timid souls, you’ll love it; cross my heart. But you need the impression of Monday ever firmly in your mind to realise they’re a club band, the closest thing to R’n’B I’ve heard in the ’70s. The bass and drums drive, without being too dainty or considerate, while Barry Hay sings in a not unsimilar way to Bryan Ferry. Occasionally he sucks a sax or flute, performing reasonably well on both. What they lack in originality (and they seem to have borrowed a good few records from the ’60s) Earring compensate admirably for with enthusiasm, and some weighty guitar breaks from George Kooymans. Much of the material came from their forthcoming album, “Moontan” and was basically straightforward rock ‘n’ roll, R’n’B, and energy. But their sounds man pulled some neat tricks by spinning the music round the four speakers.
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I should listen to this album some day as it is produced by my favourite producer of all time. The one and only Bob Ezrin can`t do much wrong. I know this album is a legendary one from Lou Reed, so I don`t know why I never got around to it. Some day soon. Read on!
Reed`s city of decadence
Album review by Nick Kent
Lou Reed – “Berlin” (R.C.A.)
JUST WHEN you think your ex-idol has slumped into a pitiful display of gross terminal self-parody, Lou Reed comes back and hits you with something like “Berlin”. It’s a creation which leaves you so aesthetically bamboozled you just have to step down and allow him a brand new artistic credibility for pulling off such a coup in the first place. Lou Reed, the phantom of rock, transforming himself into the official narrative poet of third-world disintegration? The Lawrence Durrell of the concept album? Tell us more. Why, certainly. “Berlin” is a grandiose, heavily orchestrated tale of nihilism, depression, detachment suicide — how’s that for starters? It builds itself around the relationship of Jim and Caroline, two members of a speed-freak exile colony set-up in Berlin. (It’s set in Berlin because, of course, it’s oh so decadent out there and anyway it gives Lou the chance to re-shape that old bizarro cocktail lounge ditty of the same name that awkwardly graced his first solo effort as the album’s opening cut.) From there on “Lady Day” is full of pomp and possesses anonymously paced-out quality bolstered up by the chorus. “Men Of Good Fortune” is particularly effective — slow and brash, allowing Reed to mouth Jim’s own defiantly nihilistic philosophy of life. “Men of good fortune often cause empires to fall/While men of poor beginning often can’t do anything at all/The rich son waits for his father to die/The poor just drink and cry/And me? I just don’t care at all.” “Caroline Says I” is dangerously camp — “Caroline says that I’m just a boy/She wants a man not just a toy.” The orchestration is particularly clumsy here, too, all but obscuring a particularly ferocious jam between Messrs. Dunbar, Bruce and Hunter, who all play immaculately throughout. “How Do You Think It Feels?” features another exceptional Reed vocal performance even though the arrangement is far too busy. The side finishes with “Oh Jim”, which featured Reed strumming rhythm and singing almost like Buddy Holly — “Oh Jim howd’ya treat me this way — hey hey hey.” It sounds not unlike the Velvets’ classic “Some Kinds Of Love” in feel. Side 2 features the triumvirate of tracks starting with Caroline Says II, the refrain of which — “It’s so cold in Alaska” — is based on an old Velvets’ song, called, I think, “Alaska”, which was recorded but never released on an album.
“The Kids” is a long tortuous piece mapping the final stages of disintegration in the relationship between Jim and Caroline — “And I am the waterboy — the game’s not over yet… I’m just the tired man/No words to say.” The real piece-de-resistance, though, is “The Bed” — a harrowingly beautiful track of suicide that will literally leave the listener numb. Bob Ezrin’s production here, as throughout most of the record, is quite exceptional. In every sense, “Berlin” is as much his achievement as it is Reed’s. Finally there is “Sad Song”, where schmaltz — “A Picture-book. She looks like Mary Queen of Scots” – mingles with vicious detachment — “I’ve got to stop wasting my time/Someone else would have broken both her arms.” The track ends with Reed droning “Sad Song” counter-pointing a choir with strings. I’ve yet to reach any truly concrete grand conclusions about this album, partly because it’s perhaps too early, and secondly because its epic intentions conflict with what I’ve always looked for in a rock album. But that’s just my problem anyway, because “Berlin” is no way a rock ‘n’ roll work and Ezrin’s cinematic approach to the production make it so that the record’s immediate effect is more akin to watching, say, “Last Tango in Paris”, than checking out something like a new Rolling Stones’ album. Right now I can only make gestures towards that conclusion — I’m certain, for example, that “The Bed” is absolutely the finest thing Reed’s accomplished since his days with the Velvets and may even transcend those heady heights. At the moment I find “Berlin” intriguing enough to come back to, if at times more than a little harrowing to sit through. Leonard Cohen once stated that his “Songs From A Room” would become more popular as more people started cracking up. Well sorry, Len, but Lou Reed and “Berlin” are going to capture that prized market right out of your clutches without even a flick of the proverbial limp-wrist. But then what else can you expect from a man who was writing songs about main-lining smack during the Summer of Love?
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Mike Appel was absolutely right on the money in this article written by one of the more unknown journalists from those golden times years ago. Read on!
Was Bob Dylan the previous Bruce Springsteen?
An analysis of stardom as related to the psychological needs of the audience
By Steve Turner
“RANDY NEWMAN is great but he’s not touched. Joni Mitchell is great but she’s not touched. Bruce is touched… he’s a genius!” Manager Mike Appel is talking in the dressing rooms of the Spectrum stadium in Philadelphia. His artist Bruce Springsteen has just finished a 4O-minute opening set and Chicago are tuning up in the room next door. “When I first came across Bruce it was by accident,” he says, “but when I heard him play I heard this voice saying to me… Superstar. I couldn’t believe it. I’d never been that close to a superstar before.” Not wanting to miss the chance of being Albert Grossman for the ’70s, Appel took acetates of Springsteen straight to Columbia Records in New York. There he played them to John Hammond… the man who signed up Bob Dylan… and Louis Armstrong… and Bessie Smith… and Billie Holiday… and Tommy Dorsey… and Woody Herman. Also they were played to then-president Clive Davis. According to Appel they only needed to hear one track before signing him up. Springsteen`s a hungry, scrawny-looking guy. There’s definitely something very Dylany about his whole being, about his curly licking hair and his scrub beard… and, I must say it, about his songs. It’s a comparison a lot of people are going to draw because of the connections with Hammond, the looks, and the highly influenced style of writing. By this time the man himself must be regretting the resemblances because the surest way of killing a man these days is to liken him to the late Bob. Too many people have been primed to walk into those boots and only to find they didn’t fit. After all, no one wants “another” of anything we once had, because we still have the original in our collections. The other fault with PBD’s (Potential Bob Dylans) is that people choose them on looks and sound alone, thinking that’s what made BD into BD. It wasn’t. BD filled the psychological need of a generation. Where there isn’t a psychological need there’ll be no BD or indeed, no PBD. The Beatles too came at just the right time in history and filled an awaiting psychological vacuum. To think it was their music, or worse still their lyrics, that made them the phenomenon they were is to be totally naive. We were the phenomenon… our need for them was the phenomenon… and they passed the audition to play seven years in the starring role of Our Psychological Need. Now the 1,000,001 intricacies which make up a moment in history have changed. It may never happen again as it did between ’63 and ’70. To expect another Bob Dylan or another Beatles is like expecting a reunion 10 years after any event to be exactly the same as the event itself. No way. History itself would need to be reconstructed for such a thing to happen. Nevertheless, BD or no BD, Springsteen is a good ‘un. His songs are crammed with words and multiple images. “He’s very garrulous,” agrees Appel. On stage he’s powerful and confident… there’s a charisma there that doesn’t occur with many people.
His allegiance to Dylan is evident in the songs. They’re mostly stories of a crazy dream-like quality. Where Dylan had peddlers, jokers and thieves, Springsteen brings us queens, acrobats and servants. Where Ginsberg gave us hydrogen jukeboxes and Dylan gave us magazine husbands… Springsteen has ragamuffin gunners and wolfman fairies. Compare his use of adjectives too. Dylan used “mercury mouth”, “streetcar visions” and “sheet metal memory”… Springsteen comes up with “Cheshire smiles” and “bar-room eyes”. Another notable likeness is in their use of internal rhymes. Some of Springsteen’s numbers almost come over as direct parody. Just for the record, other PBDs of the last couple of years include Kris Kristofferson, John Prine and Loudon Wainwright III. Both Kristofferson and Wainwright are the property of Columbia Records… who recently lost the services of Bob Dylan. Now, I don’t want to start drawing conclusions but… Bruce Springsteen is 23 years old and comes out of New Jersey. He first started playing music at age nine under the influence of Elvis. At 14 it really hit him. “It took over my whole life,” he remembers. “Everything from then on revolved around music. Everything.” Two years later he was playing regularly at the Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village. “I was always popular in my little area, and I needed this gig badly… I didn’t have anything else. I wanted to be as big as you could make it… the Beatles… Rolling Stones.” For the next eight years Springsteen played in bands… Steel Mill… Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom… and finally his very own 10-piece band which he named after himself. After two years the numbers began dwindling… 9… 7… 5… until… it was Bruce Springsteen — solo artist. Then: “I just started writing lyrics, which I had never done before. I would just get a good riff, and as long as it wasn’t too obtuse I’d sing it. “So I started to go by myself and write these songs. Last winter I wrote like a mad man. Put it out. Had no money, nowhere to go, nothing to do. Didn’t know too many people. It was cold and I wrote a lot… and I got to feeling guilty if I didn’t.” At this time he met up with Appel who in turn took him along to meet Columbia’s John Hammond. Appel is a fast talker and took it upon himself to sell Springsteen. Hammond listened and began to take a dislike to this salesman. In contrast Springsteen just sat, very quiet, in the corner of the office. “Do you want to get your guitar out,” asked Hammond. Springsteen did. He began playing “Saint In The City”. “I couldn’t believe it. I just couldn’t believe it,” recalled Hammond. In Hammond’s opinion, Springsteen is far more developed now than Dylan was at the corresponding point in his career. He feels that Dylan had worked hard at creating a mystique even before he signed with Columbia but Springsteen is… just Springsteen. His first album for Columbia has been “Greetings From Asbury Park N.J.” Reviews have been ecstatic. It marks a strong contrast from the way John Prine was handled. In his case it was the publicity handouts that had the ecstasy… in the hopes that they could set the Press on fire. “In the tradition of Brando and Dean” was how they sold him. With Springsteen Columbia are restraining themselves and relying on understatement. Mike Appel believes totally in Springsteen. “I’ve sunk everything I’ve got into him,” he tells me. “And if he doesn’t make it…?” Appel demonstrates by holding his nose and flapping around in an imaginary ocean.
The original music paper this article came from (pictured at the top) is for sale! Send me an e-mail if you are interested. Send it to: geirmykl@gmail.com The offer should be 20 $ (US Dollars) to be considered. (This includes postage). If you order several papers – contact me for a “special” offer. We conduct the transaction through my verified Paypal account for the safety of both parties. If you have a large collection of the following magazines, don`t throw them out, but contact me as I would be very interested in these: Creem, Circus, Hit Parader and Metal Edge.
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There is no doubt that Mr. Ronson was an excellent musician in every way, but his regular gig playing with an even bigger star made it difficult for him to really shine on his own. But there is no doubt in my mind that he was one of the good guys that deserved so much more from life than he got. Read on!
The Ronson creative flame
By Charles Shaar Murray
SUNDAY NIGHT at the Chateau D’Herouville, and Mick Ronson is taking a break from recording his “Slaughter On Tenth Avenue” album to discuss various matters concerning the future of humanity and various similar subjects. As we fade into the conversation, he’s answering a question about whether this is the first of a series of solo albums. “Yes, otherwise there’d be no point to it. I wouldn’t do it just to do one album. I never really thought about it that much, you know. It’s come quicker than I thought, which is probably why I’ve only written three numbers for this album. “I wouldn’t write a stack of stuff for the album and record it simply because it’s my material. I don’t care who wrote the number. As long as I present it properly, that’s all I’m interested in. But I will write more numbers, and on the next album have more of my own numbers, and on the album after that… I`ll be five things, singer, guitarist, producer, arranger and composer. There’s a lot of ground to cover, and I’ll be into doing it. That is if I can do it… I’ll just keep going.” To this day, I still haven’t heard Ronno singing anything but back-up and harmony. “I’m very curious as to how your voice is going to sound,” I asked. “So am I,” responded the ebullient Mr. Ronson. “I’m not the best of vocalists – there’s a lot of good vocalists around. But I’m certainly better than a lot of ’em. And I’m going to get better as I get more experience as a front man. “I’ve been practising a lot by myself. When me and Dave (Bowie) sing together we sound very much alike. I’ll sound like David on some parts, but at other times I’ll sound like different people. “But I’ll be singing well, or else I wouldn’t be singing at all. I don’t want to be doing anything unless it’s perfect. I don’t want any rough edges. It’ll sound rough — but gutsy and tight, but not so tight that it’s as tight as Yes, where every note’s been worked out. Every single note, so that they become like computers on stage. Obviously, the album will be finished and issued before Ronno takes the Spiders back on the road. Would he have rather played a few dates before recording? “I really don’t mind which way round it is. I know what I’m doing on stage, and I know what I’d be doing in the studio. I know what you mean about getting used to the numbers, but that’s a pretty good thing anyway.
“When we get out on the road, the numbers are gonna sound different. They’re going to sound even fuller than they do already. They’ll be heavier – and more exciting than they are now. They always are when you play ’em on the stage, anyway. “If people buy the album and like something, then when they come to see us on the road, they’ll say, ‘The album’s great, but wait until you see ’em on stage’. That’s why I like Jeff Beck on stage. He really seems to put a lot into it, whereas he doesn’t really seem to do it on record. “It’s a nice surprise when you go and see somebody and find that they’re better live. `Hang On To Yourself` was very bouncy on the record, but when we did it live it was really grinding, very heavy. Really chunky.” TALK DRIFTED to the Hammersmith live album, currently in the mixing stages. “It really is live,’ said Ronson. “There’s been no going back and re-doing it in the studio. A lot of groups take the tapes into the studio and then strip it and start correcting the mistakes. They might put a fresh guitar solo on or something.” Now back to Ronson’s own plans: “I ain’t gonna go on stage in the silk tights. Against David’s lightness I was always the heavy one. They’ll all be natural things — you could call it choreography onstage I suppose. Obviously I’m gonna work. There’ll be some theatrics involved – just a little touch. “There’s going to be a touch of everything. I love being on the road. It’s good fun. I enjoy playing to people, I love playing on a stage. Not all the time, though, I couldn’t do it all the time. “Some groups never give themselves the time to be creative, and they have to play all the time because they need the bread. When I was on the road with Dave, and we looked as if we were enjoying ourselves, we really were. “If we’d carried on playing on the road for the next two years and we’d been playing that same stuff, it would’ve been so forced. “But we’re going to enjoy playing, and changing the set around here and there. And the audiences are gonna enjoy it too. All the time, we’re gonna be fresh, and we’ll learn things. The more we play the more we’ll learn.” Is Ronson expecting any wild scenes of teenage hysteria at his gigs? “I don’t know. Anything. I`d like people to appreciate the music, and I’d like them to appreciate the show, and I’d like people to leave thinking that it was really good. I’d enjoy seeing young chicks swooning at me feet same as I’d like to see a college audience standing up and clapping for ten minutes.
“At the concerts I reckon there’s gonna be a very mixed audience. There’s going to be a lot of young chicks there, and there’s gonna be a lot of college-type boys. That’s going to be nice. I hope some mums and dads come. I don’t care who comes as long as they enjoy it, and I’ll make sure that they will. MUCH OF what Mick Ronson says above could well open him up for charges of egotism when laid out in cold (or lukewarm, even) print. That impression is somewhat unfortunate, since Mick Ronson is a long way from being a compulsive trumpet-blower. Indeed, in many ways he’s almost too wary of limelight to be a rock star. The thing is that he has considerable pride in his own abilities as a craftsman, and once he’s well into discussing his own work, he sees no reason to get too coy and modest about what he considers to be some sort of achievement. The trouble is that his conversation tends to give rise to misinterpretation. He’s not a particularly verbal guy, and you never find him elbowing his way into a conversation or being the life of the party. Quite possibly, he felt slightly inhibited when he was part of the Bowie roadshow. Certainly, he was polite and cordial to anybody who approached him, but he didn’t exactly work overtime to attract attention to himself. Basically, he’s a very hardworking musician. He’s really happy when he’s working on his music, and is unwilling to engage in any of the full-tilt ligging which characterises many off-duty superstars. Ronson is very professional, very unpretentious. One thing that fools a lot of people is his accent. He`s from Hull, and he`s got a very strong accent, thick almost to the point of self-parody. Many people, especially people from London, have been so trained by Northern comedians, that anyone who really talks like that gets branded as a joke right from the start. When the person concerned particularly is unused to speaking for publication, he may well find himself satire-fodder. Another problem is that somebody who only recently emerged from under the wing of a well-known act is generally regarded with some suspicion. As has been already pointed out, Ronson’s contributions to Bowie’s work have been much underestimated, and the true extent of these contributions probably won’t become apparant until the album’s out and Ronno’s on the road.
Okay, so is Mick Ronson going to be a star? Personally, I don’t think that he’ll have any major problems. His work with Bowie has already gained him a sizeable following, judging from our mail. It’s some time since we last received a request for nude shots of him, but the sentiment probably still exists. He’s a good-looking guy, he moves very well on stage, and he plays great. In addition to that, he’s got considerable imagination as an arranger, and he’s capable of organising excellent music and getting the best out of musicians. The new album shows his abilities in that direction more than adequately. What’s still in question is his abilities as a vocalist, lyricist and front man. On the Bowie shows, he showed a lot of stage presence and considerable ability to work to an audience. However, he was definitely working behind Bowie, and it still remains to be seen whether he can be a convincing frontman. Personally again, I think he can. What it really comes down to is his voice. If he turns out to have a distinctive and exciting vocal style, then the world will be his oyster. If not, then he’ll have to concentrate on his playing and live show. Still, I’m sure he’s going to work hard on his vocals. Finally, a lot depends on his composing. His melodies are interesting enough, but let us hope that he’s going to come up with some strong lyrics. It’s certain that the venues of the tour will be carefully selected, the album well-packaged and the show pretty luxurious. Tony DeFries is not exactly renowned for skimping on anything, and so if Ronno blows it, it’s going to be definitely his own fault. In Mike Garson, Aynesley Dunbar and Trevor Bolder, he has a fine back-up unit, so it simply comes back to himself. He’s got a ready-made following and the potential to attract a whole bunch of people who were never really into Bowie to begin with, so the lad should do well.
The original music paper this article came from (pictured at the top) is for sale! Send me an e-mail if you are interested. Send it to: geirmykl@gmail.com The offer should be 20 $ (US Dollars) to be considered. (This includes postage). If you order several papers – contact me for a “special” offer. We conduct the transaction through my verified Paypal account for the safety of both parties. If you have a large collection of the following magazines, don`t throw them out, but contact me as I would be very interested in these: Creem, Circus, Hit Parader and Metal Edge.
If you have a music-related web-page where this fits – please make a link to the article. With credits to the original writer of the article from all of us music fans!
My Things - Music history for those who are able to read. 