Month: January 2015

This home-made two-hour CD I made is the second collection of my favorite British blues recordings. It was the Brits who turned me (and millions of others from my generation) on to our very own homegrown genre of music: The Blues. Crank it up!

1) The UK blues super-group The Blues Band originally consisted of ex-Manfred Mann members Paul Jones (vocals & harmonica) and Tom McGuinness (guitar), drummer Hughie Flint from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, vocalist, ex-John Dummer Blues Band Dave Kelly (vocals & slide guitar) and ex-Wild Turkey bassist Gary Fletcher. When their first LP debuted the press headlines ran “From ‘Doo Wah Diddy’ to ‘Diddy Wah Diddy’”, highlighting the Willie Dixon/Bo Diddley song chosen for inclusion here.

2) Jeff Beck’s powerful guitarwork propels The Yardbirds cover Elmore James’ “I Must Have Done Somebody Wrong”: “I Ain’t Done Wrong”.

3) Humble Pie, another British “super-group” boasted Steve Marriott (ex-Small Faces) and Peter Frampton (ex-Herd) on guitars and vocals, plus Greg Ridley (ex-Spooky Tooth on bass and Jerry Shirley (ex-Apostolic Intervention) on drums. Here is their re-arranged cover of the Willie Dixon/Muddy Waters blues classic “I’m Ready”.

4) Ian Anderson and Mick Abrahams of Jethro Tull perform a blues duet on “Some Day the Sun Won’t Shine For You” from 1968’s This Was LP.

5) Before Eric Clapton recorded Freddie King’s “Steppin’ Out” with his bands The Powerhouse and Cream, he cut this version with John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers.

6) The last single recorded by Fleetwood Mac when Peter Green, the group’s founder, was still a member of the band was his haunting “Green Manalishi (with the Three-Pronged Crown)”.

7) Willie Dixon’s song “You Need Love” was first recorded by Muddy Waters. This version by Steve Marriott and The Small Faces (renamed “You Need Loving”) was covered by Led Zeppelin as “Whole Lotta Love”.

8) “Porcupine Juice” was one of three terrific instrumentals recorded by Santa Barbara Machine Head. That’s future Deep Purple founder Jon Lord on organ and future Faces and Rolling Stones member Ron Wood on that wild lead guitar.

9) The most unusual twelve-bar blues on this disc is “For Example” by The Nice. Keyboardist Keith Emerson became even more famous after he co-founded Emerson Lake & Palmer.

10) Tom Jones and Jools Holland perform a rollicking version of Cab Calloway’s classic blues hit “St. James Infirmary”.

11) Jellybread was led by piano whiz Pete Wingfield, whose “Eighteen with a Bullet” was a hit in 1975. That’s his vocals and playing on the blues-rock classic “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu”.

12) Eric Burdon never lost his love for singing the blues as evidenced by this recent recording of Blind Willie Johnson’s “Soul of a Man”.

13) Freddie King’s great blues instrumental “The Stumble” is well-covered by Peter Green from back in his John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers days.

14) My favorite version of the eerie Screamin’ Jay Hawkins blues classic “I Put a Spell On You” is by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. “Stop it! Stop it! Please — PLEASE!”

15) The Pretty Things were rough and raw during their early days, as evidenced by their hit “Rosalyn”, a song later covered by David Bowie on his Pin-Ups LP.

16) Before the membership of the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation solidified, they cut “Stone Cold Crazy” when Rod Stewart and Peter Green were briefly part of Aynsley’s group.

17) Koko Taylor’s Chess Records hit “Wang Dang Doodle” gets covered in a lively version by the Welsh band Love Sculpture. That’s Dave Edmunds on guitar and vocals.

18) UK pop star Lulu recorded “Drown in My Own Tears” with Jeff Beck on guitar for the Martin Scorsese PBS television series The Blues.

19) Jeff Beck strikes again, giving support and inspiration to Paul Rodgers on the Willie Dixon/Muddy Waters blues classic “I Just Want to Make Love to You”.

20) Where would the blues be without great train songs? Savoy Brown (formerly the Savoy Brown Blues Band) hit with their great 1969 blues composition “Train to Nowhere”.

If you spent any time on the streets of Hollywood in the 1960s or 70s, you were bound to eventually run into Kim Fowley.

Who was Kim Fowley? That answer depended upon whom you asked. His indentification varied greatly: pop Svengali, hit record producer, hip scenester with his tap on the latest music trends’ pulse, womanizer extraordinaire, dark overlord, talent scout, songwriter, monster, friend, chameleon, singer, opportunist, self promoter…

You get the picture. He was all that and more — a real, bonafide Hollywood character.

Kim was easy to spot in a crowd. He was rail thin and very tall. He moved through crowds with an elegant grace, his heavy-lidded reptilian eyes always on the prowl…

Living in Hollywood, I saw Kim from afar a lot, often in the company of the “Mayor of Sunset Strip”, little Rodney Bingenheimer. They made a real Mutt ‘n’ Jeff pair.

I first met Kim at a rock festival at Devonshire Downs in the San Fernando Valley, ca. 1968. The Doors had finished their set. Next up was a band called Solid State. Kim Fowley was the festival’s master of ceremonies (a service he later provided for John Lennon at the Plastic Ono Band‘s first public appearance in Toronto). He gave hip advice and peppered the crowd with dryly hilarious bits of pop wisdom in between acts. I sensed a distinct lag in Solid State’s coming to the stage, despite the fact that they seemed all set up. I was close enough to the stage to hear that their drummer had gone missing, caught in Valley traffic. Kim stepped up to the mike.

“Is there a drummer in the house?”

I leaped on to the stage. Kim handed me a pair of drumsticks and said, “Go.” I was suddenly playing before a crowd of several thousand people, providing the rhythm for a band I had never met, whose music I had never heard. It was absolutely exhilarating. After a couple of songs there was a line of drummers waiting to take their turn at the stool. Kim gave each one a shot (I thought I was great at the time but, in hindsight, I probably sucked. But man, what a rush!).

As I became more and more of a part of the Hollywood music scene, I heard more and more Tales of Kim. He produced a few hits you might have heard: His first pop hit was “Cherry Pie” by Skip & Flip (warmly covered later by the great Australian band Daddy Cool). “Alley Oop” was a #1 record for the Hollywood Argyles. Fowley produced The Murmaids’ “Popsicles Icicles” (a #3 hit written by a pre-Bread David Gates, whom Fowley had picked up hitchhiking) as well as “Bumble Boogie” (#21), a driving rock version of Rimsky-Korsakov‘s “Flight of the Bumble Bee”, followed by “Nut Rocker”, a rocked-up boogie piano version of Tchaikovsky’s “March” from his “Nutcracker Suite” (UK #1; US #23 — a big influence on Keith Emerson who later recorded it with ELP) both recorded by a session band under the moniker B. Bumble and The Stingers.

The long fingers of this pop Zelig touched The Byrds, the Beach Boys, P. J. Proby, Cat Stevens (Kim wrote the B-side to Cat’s first single), Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Gene Vincent, Alice Cooper, Leon Russell, Kris Kristofferson, Helen Reddy, Warren Zevon, KISS, Ariel Pink, Sky Ferreira and Slade, among many others.

Kim Fowley recorded solo LPs as well, all of which found their way into my record collection. When he wanted to, Kim could sing with a classic rock voice similar to Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & The Raiders.

Kim is perhaps most well-known for putting together, mentoring, producing and (reputedly) having sex with The Runaways.

Fowley recruited the Runaways in 1975 by placing an ad in Who Put the Bomp magazine (I became the magazine’s art director when it shortened its name to BOMP) and ended up producing the band’s 1976 self-titled debut album and co-writing their biggest hit “Cherry Bomb”. This all-girl group would become an icon and inspiration to girl rockers everywhere. Included in this tight rocking unit were future stars Cherie Currie, Lita Ford and Joan Jett. The Runaways, a movie that was made of their rise-and-fall story, painted Fowley as a dark villain.

Kim was nothing if not always eminently quotable. He described himself thus: “I’m everybody’s worst nightmare and somebody’s wet dream. I’m a horrible human being with a heart of gold, or a piece of shit in a bag of diamonds. I’m a bad guy who does nice things, as opposed to a nice guy who does bad things.”

His (accurate) description of the Sunset Strip scene:

“The Sunset Strip is a civilization for the broken-hearted, the mistreated, the overlooked, the underloved and the doomed.”

I got to see some sides of Kim up close when I ran into him in my Sunset Boulevard bank one day. I introduced myself and told him I was in a band. He immediately dropped whatever he was doing and took interest in me. We went up to his office (same building; the entire structure later became the headquarters for the L. A. branch of Motown Records) and he gave me a few 45s. “Learn these songs and get back to me.” They were singles he had produced. The records had gone nowhere but he still believed in the songs — and, for some reason, in me (despite my pleading that this was “our big chance”, my band lacked interest in learning or recording Kim’s material. I’ve still got the singles).

I had heard of Kim’s reputation as a rock Lothario who had (literally) bedded thousands of women. I saw first hand how that worked.

Going through my bank’s lobby and even inside the elevator we encountered several attractive women. Kim asked each and every one: “Do you have a husband or a boyfriend?”

If the answer was “Yes”, he returned his attention to me. If the answer was “No”, he immediately sexually propositioned them. Kim was playing the odds. If, in the course of a day, he asked 200 women to sleep with him, and just 10% said “Yes” (it was pre-Aids 1960s and 70s, a very easy time to get laid), that was another twenty woman under his belt, so to speak. Kim had no problem with rejection (he never pushed himself on anyone, as far as I could see), as there was always another pretty girl (and potential bedmate) just around the corner.

I grew up, built an art career, made movies, got married, moved to Pasadena and had kids. I’d see Kim rarely. When I did, it was usually at music-related events. The last time I saw him was about a year ago, at an art show opening at the Nucleus Gallery. As I recall, it was a group show on zombies in art (of course I had works in the show). We caught up with each other. He was still a serious hustler. I watched as he skillfully wheedled promises from a number of people who approached him. Like David Bowie, Kim was adept at changing his physical persona. On that night, his once gigantic thicket of massive curly hair now cut short and slicked back, he looked like a hip version of Karloff’s Frankenstein monster, as if the monster had wised up and had become a driving force in the music biz.

Kim eventually succumbed to bladder cancer, an ignoble end to a storied career, but which apparently didn’t affect his lusty sense of humor, as evidenced by these sick bed photos:

So, of all the labels that graced upon or were heaped upon Kim Fowley, which was the most accurate?

I can only think of one that I think all who knew him just might agree upon:

Unforgettable.

RIP, my strange amigo.

I am shocked and deeply saddened to learn that four renowned French cartoonists (Stephane “Charb” Charbonnier, Georges Wolinski, Bernard ‘Tignous’ Verlhac and Jean Cabut), plus several of their colleagues at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and police officers were gunned down in a brutal attack by cowardly Islamic extremists.

My heart goes out to their families, to the French cartoonist and comic artist community, to the people of France and to lovers and promoters of freedom everywhere.

Here is a link to the news story of this unthinkable tragedy:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2900519/Cartoonists-mocked-Islam-refused-threatened-Quranic-law-killed-Charlie-Hebdo-massacre-terrorists-asked-name.html

This is a very sad day.

I recently compiled a two-hour CD of my favorite British blues tracks. Then, I drew a cover for this collection (see above) and burned a CD for my own listening pleasure.

Here’s the track list (plus commentary; think of these as liner notes):
1-2) Water and Junior’s Wailing are the opening tracks to Reflections, the first LP by Steamhammer. Martin Pugh, their lead guitarist, is featured on Rod Stewart’s first solo LP. He later joined the Yardbirds’ lead singer, Keith Relf, in the blues-rock/progressive band Armageddon.

3) Lost Woman is the Yardbirds’ blistering interpretation of Snooky Pryor’s blues number Someone to Love Me. Note the incredible interplay and weaving of sound between Jeff Beck’s guitar and Keith Relf’s harmonica.

4) Watch ‘n’ Chain by the Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation is a delightfully percussive variation on the old blues song Can I Do It for You by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy. Dunbar has maintained a spectacular career, drumming for Jeff Beck, Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Jefferson Starship, Journey and many, many more. That’s Victor Brox on those gruff, low vocals.

5) Ex-Yardbirds lead guitar player Jeff Beck has always had at least one foot in the blues. This is just one of his versions of Rollin’ and Tumblin’, first recorded by Hambone Willie Newbern. The hot vocals on this version are by Imogen Heap.

6) Eric Burdon and The Animals have always loved the blues. Except for their pop hits (and even a few those, too), nearly everything the original band recorded were blues numbers, including this Ray Charles classic, I Believe to My Soul.

7) After their first LP, Mick Abrahams split from Jethro Tull to form the blues-rock band Blodwyn Pig. Long Bomb Blues features a solo Mick on guitar and vocals.

8) Unassuming blues guitarist and vocalist Rory Gallagher is lionized around the world — but especially in his native Ireland. His first band, Taste, recorded Railway and Gun on their second album.

9) The first two LPs by the Rolling Stones were practically all blues covers. The band has maintained a love for the blues all throughout their career. Ventilator Blues is from their classic two-LP set Exile on Main Street.

10) Originally called the Climax Chicago Blues Band, the Climax Blues Band rock out here with the sizzling, Bo Diddley-ish Shake Your Love.

11) Before Eric Clapton recorded Robert Johnson’s Crossroads with Cream, he and The Powerhouse (Steve Winwood and Pete York from the Spencer Davis Group on vocals and drums, respectively; Paul Jones and Jack Bruce from Manfred Mann on harmonica and bass, respectively; Ben Palmer from Clapton’s first band, The Roosters, on piano) cut that song and two other blues numbers for the Elektra sampler What’s Shakin’.

12) 54146 is a fine acoustic blues by Tony (TS) McPhee of The Groundhogs. It was The Groundhogs who backed American bluesman John Lee Hooker on his first UK tour.

13) The Supernatural, a haunting instrumental by John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, features the evocative playing and elegantly sustained feedback of the UK’s finest blues guitarist, Peter Green, later the founder of Fleetwood Mac.

14) Hear Me Calling by Ten Years After is sung and played by its composer, guitarist Alvin Lee. A powerful cover of this song is on the glam band Slade’s first live LP.

15) The Muddy Waters/Willie Dixon Chess Records classic I Just Want to Make Love to You receives an exciting revamp from Foghat, a group born from three members who left the Savoy Brown Blues Band.

16) Now for something naughty: Penicillin Blues by the Scottish band Stone The Crows, a reworking of I Think You Need a Shot by Walter Davis. Those deliciously raspy vocals are by the one and only Maggie Bell.

17) Baby Please Don’t Go was the first hit by Irish blues-rockers Them, a group headed by singer/sax player Van Morrison. This version of the Big Joe Williams song features Jimmy Page on lead guitar.

18) Perhaps the most unusual blues on this collection, We’re Going Wrong by Cream features ethereal falsetto vocals by their bassist (and the composer of the song) Jack Bruce.

19) Procol Harum is known for its classical music influences (as displayed in their first hit, A Whiter Shade of Pale) — but Robin Trower, their lead guitarist and composer of the lively Whisky Train, has never shied from his blues roots.

20) When it comes to bare simplicity, few bands outdo the blues-rock band Free. Songs of Yesterday is from their second LP. Their vocalist, Paul Rodgers, eventually went on to sing lead for Bad Company, The Firm (with Jimmy Page), Queen and many others.

21) Scottish rockers Nazareth kick butt here with their breakthrough blues hit Bad Bad Boy. That’s Dan McCafferty on those raw, raspy vocals — a big influence on Guns ‘n’ Roses’ Axl Rose.

22) Streetwalkers were born from the split-up of the band Family. Their unique lead singer Roger Chapman usually included a blues or two on each Streetwalkers LP and continues to do so with his solo career. That’s the Jeff Beck Group’s Bobby Tench on back-up vocals here on Otis Blackwell’s Daddy Rolling Stone, a song also recorded by The Who.

23) My favorite British blues recording is Howlin’ Wolf’s Smokestack Lightning as interpreted by Manfred Mann. The mood is thick and the playing and dynamics are great.

Happy New Year! Oops! Wrong year up above on the zombie baby’s banner!

It was great to see our friends Mick and Cynthia (Zamperini) Garris on TV this morning representing Cynthia’s dad, the incredible Louis Zamperini, in the Tournament of Roses Parade.

Louis was the parade’s Grand Marshal.

Just before my three-mile run I heard a mighty roar. I looked up and saw a B2 Stealth Bomber flying right overhead. The B2 usually begins the Rose Parade with a low zoom up the length of Pasadena’s main street, Colorado Boulevard.

I stopped and watched in awe, then began my run and immediately ran into (not literally) long time Disney artist (and official Disney Legend) Floyd Norman, my neighbor, friend and fellow CAPS (Comic Art Professional Society) member.

Floyd and I chatted for awhile, and a huge red-tailed hawk flew over us.

Then I took off on my run (in an attempt to stay in shape I run three miles of hills every other day). After my run while I was doing my cool-down walk I saw two of the bright green Pasadena parrots fly past me.

I suddenly heard an unfamiliar bird call. I knew it wasn’t a mockingbird because it kept repeating. I finally spotted the source of this odd song: it was a red-whiskered bulbul, a beautiful bird native to Hong Kong and tropical Southeast Asia that is now beginning to thrive in the Los Angeles area. I saw a mating pair of them perched in the holly bush by my dining room window about two months ago.

All in all, it’s been a pretty interesting morning and great beginning to the new year here in Pasadena.

May the joys and wonders of life continue!