WNEW | Where Rock Lives

The Chopping Block: The Clash

I know, I know. London Calling is untouchable, the best album by 'the only band that matters.’ The accolades for this 19-song album go on and on, with even the famously grumpy Robert Christgau giving it an A-plus. And it only adds to the greatness of London Calling that the Clash insisted it be sold for the same price as a single LP.

Still, it is a double album, and all double albums, even ones as supposedly perfect as this one, have their share of chaff.

Enough reverence. Let’s go after this one with extreme prejudice:

I’m going to start out by killing the title track because, in my humble opinion, it sucks. In her review of the 2004 anniversary edition of London Calling, Pitchfork's Amanda Petrusich characterized the Mick Jones' stacato guitar punches as ‘little nails into our skulls.’ I think she meant it as a compliment; I’d like to use it as an insult. Also, I find myself unable to take it seriously ever since the twerps over at the National Broadcasting Corporation used it as the theme song for their coverage of the 2008 Wimbledon tournament. Oh, and did I mention this song sucks?

Their cover of Brand New Cadillac, originally done by British rocker Vince Taylor, ain’t bad. But there’s no way I’m starting this album with a cover, even though 'The Black Leather Rebel' is all but forgotten these days. Chop.

Song number three is Jimmy Jazz and, though it starts off slow and sleepy, I’ll allow its low-key charm, despite the fact that the late, great Joe Strummer seems unable to decide whether to spell the main character’s name ‘J-A-Zee-Zee’ or ‘J-A-Zed-Zed.’

I wouldn’t want to touch the dizzy, frantic Hateful, which is about the conflicted relationship of a drug addict to his dealer. Rudie Can’t Fail is another good one, horn-filled and altogether happy-sounding, unless you stop to listen to the lyrics, which are about living up to adult responsibility. Bummer.

Spanish Bombs might be the best song on the album, even though the chorus is indistinguishable from the verses (except for Topper Headon’s awesome drum fills). It’s also kind of depressing, from a lyrical standpoint, being about various human rights atrocities committed during the Spanish Civil War.

The Right Profile is interesting, in that it’s about the overdosing death of Hollywood pretty boy Montgomery Clift. But damn, it’s a chore to sit through, as those sassy horns go on forever. Chop.

Lost in the Supermarket is a stone classic, thanks to the affecting lead vocal by Mick Jones (though it was written by Strummer). It’ supposed to be about consumerism or something, but who cares? If you don’t smile for the line, ‘I wasn’t born so much as I fell out,’ you need to lighten up. Clampdown isn’t quite as good but it’s still a strong entry. It stays.

Bassist Paul Simonon –- he’s the guy smashing his guitar on the cover –- takes the lead vocal on the reggae-inspired The Guns of Brixton, probably because he wrote it. You can hear the nervousness in his voice, which is kind of endearing. (According to legend, a CBS exec wandered into the recording booth as the vocal was being cut.)

After a false take and some studio chatter, Wrong ‘Em Boyo starts in earnest. Meh. Chop.

Death or Glory may not be the best song on the album, but it certainly is the most inspiring. Over what might be the Clash’s best-ever guitar riff (yes, I’m aware of Should I Stay or Should I Go), Strummer serves up a litany of glorified failures and near misses, only to face them all down with a vow ‘to fight a long time.’ It’s been said that producer Guy Stevens threw a chair while listening to the band bang out this anthem.

Corporate advertising broadside Koka Kola is an extended burp. We can lose it with no problem.

The Card Cheat covers familiar territory –- failing with dignity –- but it sounds positively epic, thanks to Jones’ gospel-tinged piano licks. Whoever decided it should fade out is a moron. Lover’s Rock is just about the only Clash song I can think of that might sound appropriate in a chewing gum commercial. That’s not a good thing. Chop.

Four Horsemen might have sounded good back on side one, but buried here on side four, it sounds superfluous. Come to think of it, so does I’m Not Down.

Revolution Rock has some nice, dirty horns and Strummer exhorting listeners to ‘smash your seats and rock to this brand new beat.’ Too bad it’s about three minutes too long. Chop.

I’d have to be an idiot to chop closer Train in Vain, one of the best straight pop songs of the 1980s (despite being released in December 1979).

Ladies and Gentlemen, the new and improved London Calling:

Jimmy Jazz, Hateful, Rudie Can’t Fail, Spanish Bombs, Lost in the Supermarket, Clampdown, The Guns of Brixton, Death or Glory, The Card Cheat, Train in Vain.

Founding Father: Cosimo Matassa and the New Orleans Sound

Three years ago this week Hurricane Katrina turned New Orleans into a liquid Hiroshima. The city is known as the birthplace of jazz, but it is also one of the birthplaces of rock 'n' roll. It's not heralded nearly so much as Memphis, but it probably should be. Like Memphis, New Orleans was the home of a studio that offered local musicians the opportunity to record and served as their gateway to worldwide fame. That studio was J&M Recording, opened in 1945 and first located in the French Quarter. The "M" in J&M was 18-year-old Cosimo Matassa, one of the more sadly neglected figures in rock history.

J&M was where Fats Domino laid down a body of work that made him one of the most popular of the early rock 'n' rollers. Any mention of Domino has to include mention of Dave Bartholomew, who co-wrote,  produced, and played on many of Domino's most famous records, among them Ain't That a Shame, I'm Walkin', Whole Lotta Lovin', and Walkin' to New Orleans. It was where jump-blues singer Roy Brown recorded Good Rockin' Tonight, later covered by Elvis Presley on one of his earliest Sun singles. It was where Professor Longhair, a longtime New Orleans fixture rooted in the city's more traditional forms of music, made his most influential recordings. Little Richard recorded Tutti Frutti at J&M, and scared the hell out of a generation of American parents with it. Lesser-known artists like Frankie Ford, Smiley Lewis and Huey "Piano" Smith passed through the halls of J&M, and Allen Toussaint frequently produced sessions for his artists with Matassa at the recording console.

After J&M failed sometime in the 1960s, Matassa ended up working for Toussaint's production company. He eventually left the music business entirely, returning to the original Matassa family trade, groceries. (His sons run the grocery business today.) Matassa has been inducted into the Lousiana Music Hall of Fame, but he's still waiting on a call from Cleveland. If they're going to put Sam Phillips and Jerry Wexler in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they ought to put Matassa in, too. But he's probably not overly concerned about it. He told a reporter in 2006, "I tend to wince whenever I hear [people talk about] 'the Cosimo sound,' because I just wanted the sound of the guys playing. All through my career, the one thing I tried to do was be transparent. I heard them in the nightclubs, and just wanted to stay true to the original, to get what they did on record. I didn't try to shape it -- I just did my damnedest not to mess it up."

Video Classics: 'Rock You Like a Hurricane'

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

Hitting #25 on the Billboard charts in 1984, and coming in at #427 on the 1991 Firecracker 500, Scorpions' Rock You Like a Hurricane has become one of the greatest heavy metal anthems of all time, and in these days of Guitar Hero, it can still be heard issuing from telelvision speakers every afternoon all around the country.

Part of the song's popularity can perhaps be attributed to the above video. Depicting the band alternately performing in a cage amidst crowds of cat-like wild women and then being frozen in tubes underground, it received heavy airplay from the young MTV channel, searing the song into the minds of many.

Rock You Like a Hurricane and the entire Love at First Sting album decisively catapulted Scorpions into the ranks of rock superstardom, a position they would enjoy for most of the next decade. MTV even went so far as to christen the band 'The Ambassadors of Rock'. While the band lost some focus in the mid-90's due to changes in membership and drifting in the style of their new releases, they managed to recover their form and some of their reputation with the 2000 release of Moment of Glory, which was a successful (if unlikely) pairing of the hard rockers from Hanover with the Berlin Philharmonic.  After the jump, see a live performance of Rock You Like a Hurricane with the band backed by the full orchestra. Just when you thought heavy metal couldn't get any louder ...

The King of Pop Turns 50

Michael Jackson's music doesn't exactly fit into WNEW's playlist so we wouldn't normally write about him. But, he's a cultural icon and, because he turns 50 today, we're going to take a few paragraphs to give MJ a little birthday ink.

We're going to step over the obvious Multiple Noses of Michael Jackson jokes and presume he's innocent of all that of which he has been accused (because, as far as I know he's not been proven guilty) and focus on what he has meant to pop music.

Save for Elvis Presley and the Beatles, it's not a stretch to say that Michael Jackson's music has had a greater effect on the direction of pop music than any other artist. In the 1970's, he grew from precocious pop idol (with his own cartoon on TV) to disco king with a kabillion-selling album (and it wasn't Thriller).

In the 80's, it was Thriller and even those who weren't fans couldn't escape it. Remember the hype when they debuted the Thriller video on MTV on Halloween? You couldn't turn on MTV without seeing something about him.

It's only been in the past 10 years or so that his personal choices (be they right or wrong, legal or otherwise) have become more important to our perversely nosy culture than the music that originally made him famous. Combine that with his lack of musical output and we see what makes the Michael Jackson story so tragic: that a brilliant performer and pop songwriting genius can be degraded such that his music is now simply a matter for the archivists and the market for anything new is so limited.

Maybe turning 50 means it's time for him to give Quincy Jones a call and take another stab at making music ... regardless of what the tabloids have to say.

A.M. Nuggets: Stevie Wonder Steals Show From Obama At DNC

Whatever you thought of Obama's speech last night, you gotta give it up for this guy who totally stole the show. Stevie Wonder's still go it - here's Signed, Sealed, Delivered from last night at Invesco Field.

The Next Big Thing: Sam Champion

Looking for the next New York-based indie outfit poised for a serious breakout in the coming months? Sam Champion may be a safe bet. After spending some time earlier this summer supporting the Cold War Kids, the four-piece outfit composed of Noah Chernin, Ryan Thornton, Jack Dolgen, Sean Bones began to earn attention for its unique name (more on that later) and catchy-as-hell debut album, Slow Rewind. Now with the release of the band's sophomore effort, Heavenly Bender, Sam Champion is ready to unveil an even more powerful sound and do-it-yourself attitude that could very well earn the acclaim and respect of music fans everywhere.

As first look, Sam Champion appears to be your prototypical indie rockers. After all, they have the New York origin, a current must for any up-and-coming band looking to make it big. Plus, they've shared bills and earned approval from numerous indie favorites -- The Virgins, Elvis Perkins, and The Hold Steady just to name a few. But then you get to the same, Sam Champion, and well, from there, the band is truly in a class of its own. While actually named after their high school principle, the four twenty-somethings are in fact the only band to share a name with a weatherman, and for those in the New York area, a notable one at that.

When it comes to its new album, the band remains unique. In an effort to "take things more in our hands," as they describe it, the band raised all the necessary money needed to complete Heavenly Bender itself, certainly a risky move for a group now only in its third year. The goal was to make "a record we wanted to do," free from the influence of an overbearing producer or label and the worries of "where the money would come from."

While this do-it-yourself attitude is becoming more and more common in the days of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, the venture for the unsigned and for the most part, unknown Sam Champion certainly had the chance to backfire. Only it didn't. In fact, it allowed the outfit to achieve a musical freedom and collective confidence that only adds to the band's already indie-friendly sound. Ultimately, Heavenly Bender offers a band not only musically gifted, but fully capable of bringing these talents to the next level.

Video Classics: 'Like a Hurricane'

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

Anyone listening to Neil Young's 1977 Like a Hurricane can be forgiven if they think the song is pretty much just a framework for Young to showcase his guitar skills. After all, when he originally put the song together two years earlier, he could barely sing at all!  From Wikipedia ...

The song was written in July 1975 after a cocaine-fueled night with friend and La Honda neighbor Taylor Phelps in the back of his car, (a DeSoto Suburban), when Neil Young was unable to sing due to an operation on his vocal cords. Driven by Young's trademark fierce guitars, the song has been played on nearly every tour Neil Young has done since. It has also appeared on the compilations Decade  and Greatest Hits and on the live albums Live Rust, Weld and Unplugged (this last rendition is played almost entirely on a  pump organ).

Certainly, it's Young's instrumental talent that helped make Like a Hurricane the most popular hit from his album, American Stars 'n Bars, and helped it earn its place on both the 1991 Firecracker 500 (at #160) and the 1996 list (where it rose to #105). An edited version (shortened enough to be released as a single) was also released in 1977, but it is the lengthy full version that endures. Rock critic Dave Marsh described the song as "an eight-minute tour de force of electric guitar feedback and extended metaphor (Smokey Robinson meets Jimi Hendrix on Bob Dylan's old block)."

In the video below, Young offers a straight-up, smoky live performance of the original version of Like a Hurricane, with its extensive guitar work.

Have memories of this song or the Firecracker 500? Add your thoughts to the comments below or take a look at Video Classics past...

Rock 101: Chicago

Not everyone is a rock expert, so here is your weekly Thursday primer on the events and happenings that shaped Rock and Roll from J.A. Bartlett of the Hits Just Keep On Comin'...

On his 1971 album Songs for Beginners, Graham Nash recorded a song called Chicago, which began with the following lines:

So your brother's bound and gagged
And they've chained him to a chair
Won't you please come to Chicago just to sing

It's a striking image that has its roots in events of 40 years ago this week.

A political storm had been brewing over Chicago since early in 1968. The Democratic National Convention would be held there in August, and old-line pacifists like David Dellinger planned to attend, to protest the Johnson Administration's conduct in Vietnam. So did Tom Hayden and Rennie Davis, leaders of Students for a Democratic Society, the most prominent force on the student left. So did radical college professors like John Froines and Lee Weiner, so influential among their students. So did Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panthers, a group founded originally to promote self-defense and justice for African Americans but which by 1968 was advocating black nationalism and revolution. So did Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, veterans of the civil rights and Vietnam protest movements, who were primarily interested in street theater and pranking the Establishment. Chicago's mayor, Richard Daley, knew it, too. A strong ally of President Lyndon Johnson and a proudly provincial local leader, he wasn't about to let a bunch of hippie kids embarrass him, or his president, in his own town.

That Chicago would be a train wreck was clear from the jump. But a train wreck for whom? Would it be the party, badly divided and struggling all week to bridge its ideological chasms inside Chicago's International Amphitheater? Would it be the student protesters outside, or the forces of law and order who opposed them? Battles went on all week, inside and outside, in full view of the TV cameras. Forty years ago tonight, viewers were yanked back and forth from contentious proceedings inside to dramatic scenes outside, an experience brilliantly captured in Rick Perlstein's recent book Nixonland, as the wheels seemed to be falling off the country. Inside, politicians raved and shouted at one another. Outside, helmeted cops beat marchers and dragged them off to jail while other marchers chanted, "The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!"

A.M. Nuggets: Derek Trucks Band On Tour This Fall

If you've seen the Allman Brothers Band anytime over the last 15 years or so, you've probably been witness to the guitar spectacle that is Derek Trucks. Nephew of Allmans drummer Butch Trucks, Derek has been a musical whiz since a very young age, and has played dueling guitars with everyone from Eric Clapton to John Frusciante, to Warren Haynes and the rest of the Allmans lineup.
Though Derek has spent much of 2008 touring with wife Susan Tedeschi in their band Soul Stew Revival, he's now ready to reunite with his own excellent band, the Derek Trucks Band, and hit the road for a big fall tour.
Check out Derek's tour page for full info. Trust me, if you like guitar and you like rock 'n roll music, you'll want to check these guys out.

Remembering Stevie Ray Vaughan

August 27, 1990 was truly one of the saddest days in my life as a rock and roll fan. It was on this day, 18 years ago, that Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed in a helicopter accident.

I met Stevie Ray Vaughan twice during his life.

The first time was almost exactly 25 years ago to the day, August 14, 1983, at a record shop in Boulder, CO. Stevie was in the area for two shows, one at Rosa's in Colorado Springs, and one at the Rainbow Music Hall in Denver. Someone had decided a Saturday morning record store meet-and-greet was a good idea for Stevie, so I borrowed my sister's VW bus and drove the 35 miles from Aurora to Boulder to shake his hand.

There were about 5 or 6 people there, as I remember, plus a few bleary-eyed employees. I bought myself a cup of coffee next door, bought myself a copy of Texas Flood and waited. And waited. And waited.

As I recall, he was scheduled to show up around 10 and ended getting there about 11:30, with a half-finished bottle of Miller High Life in one hand and a Sharpie in the other. He was about as as skinny as a rail and somewhat drunk but certainly friendly. He signed my record -- To Mike, All My Best, SRV -- said "thanks for coming" and that was that. I was 21 at the time and a little too nervous to make any other conversation.

The second time I met him was July 13, 1990, just a little over a month before he died. He was playing the shell at Canadaigua, NY with Joe Cocker. Since I was the program director at a radio station a few hours away, I managed to squeeze a couple of backstage passes out of the local promo guy.

Truth be told, I was a lot more nervous the second time around than I was the first. I had heard about Stevie's collapse on stage, about his rehabilitation. I knew he was sober and that I wasn't.

I had no records to sign or memorabilia to take home. I simply shook his hand. I mentioned the time we met in Boulder, noting he probably didn't remember me. He smiled and said he didn't remember a whole lot from back in those days.

I told him how happy I was that he was to play for us, how happy I was that "he had made it". At that point, he smiled, cocked his head a little, looked me in the eye and said, "Thanks. I hope you make it, too". I remember the chill that went down my spine, as if someone had stripped me naked and thrown cold water at my chest. I stuttered a small thank you, smiled as if we were still making chit-chat and stepped back to make way for the next well-wisher.

Thirty days later he left us. Six months later, I was in rehab. In a way, I guess we both made it.

Video Classics: 'Band on the Run'

To honor WNEW's legendary Firecracker 500, every day we are highlighting the music that populated the 1991 and 1996 lists, with classic videos, live performances and little-known facts about the songs and how they came to be...

Released in 1973, the album Band on the Run became Wings' most-successful album, the top seller of 1974, and remains the most-celebrated of Paul McCartney's post-Beatles albums. The title track has been featured in every McCartney/Wings compilation since and still figures prominently in his live shows. It was a #1 hit in the United States, and #3 in the U.K.  WNEW penned it in at spot #211 on its 1991 Firecracker 500.

Bored with recording in the U.K., Paul and Linda McCartney began shopping around for a more exotic locale to lay down the tracks for the bands' next effort, and finally settle on Lagos, Nigeria. Thus Wings became a band 'on the run', getting way out of town to get a little new work done. Unfortunately, they nearly ended up 'on the run' in other ways during the album's production.  From Wikipedia ...

While there (in Lagos), both the McCartneys were mugged at knifepoint, and were accosted in the studio by legendary musician Fela Kuti for fear that Paul was plagiarizing African music (fears which McCartney quickly assuaged by playing Kuti the recorded tracks).

The single, Band on the Run, was received warmly by critics but took a while to heat up commercially. When it did, however, there was no stopping it. It reached #1 in the U.S. on three separate occassions, eventually going triple platinum. Though McCartney had had some success with Wings previously, the reception of Band on the Run was a major vindication for him, proving once and for all that his value as an artist wasn't inextricably linked to his association with the Beatles.

The original video below contains, appropriately, footage of McCartney and Wings on the road and in concert. After the jump, McCartney (with special guest Dave Grohl) does a short live set from this year that concludes with Band on the Run.

This Week in Rock History: Takeoffs

Rock music has a robust history, so every Wednesday, J.A. Bartlett of the Hits Just Keep On Comin' talks about the biggest and most intriguing moments from years past...

This week in 1991, the debut album by Pearl Jam, Ten, was released. The album languished for several months, and didn't break into the Top Ten on the American album charts until May 1992, eventually stalling at Number Two behind Some Gave All by Billy Ray Cyrus. To date, Ten has sold about 10 million copies.

... in 1990, following a concert at an outdoor amphitheater west of Milwaukee, guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan and four others were killed when the helicopter they were taking to Chicago crashed shortly after takeoff. Vaughan was 35.

... in 1969, two weeks after Woodstock, the Texas International Pop Festival was held near Dallas. The Labor Day-weekend event featured Woodstockers Janis Joplin, Canned Heat, Santana, Sweetwater, Sly and the Family Stone, the Incredible String Band and Ten Years After, plus Led Zeppelin, Chicago, Grand Funk Railroad, Delaney and Bonnie, and B. B. King.

... in 1958, Paul McCartney finally persuaded his bandmate John Lennon to let a guitarist he knew, George Harrison, join their band, the Quarrymen. Harrison was only 15; Lennon had been resisting him for several months, saying that Harrison was too young.

Did we miss something this week? Add it to the comments below...