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Pop Rock Nation

Author: David Middleton

  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #36: Shag Motor Pony

    Sad Cafe's "Run Home Girl" single

    SAD CAFE  “Run Home Girl”  b/w  “Feel Like Dying”  (A&M Records #2111, 1978)

    What do the words “Manchester, England” mean to me?  (Football hooligans and songs from Hair aside.)  Probably the same things you’re thinking:  Factory Records, Joy Division, Crispy Ambulance, New Order, The Smiths, The Buzzcocks, The Fall, Happy Mondays, John Cooper Clarke, Tony Wilson, 24-Hour Party People, that damn “Blue Monday” 12-inch, The Stone Roses, The Verve, The Hacienda, the whole “MADchester” proto-rave scene that seemed to dominate MTV before the grunge (and the E) took hold.  Oh, OK…and that band with the two snotty brothers who verbally gob all over each other constantly…what was their name?  I forget.  Anyway…

    Radio-friendly adult-contemporary soft-rock wasn’t exactly pouring out of Manchester in the late ’70’s, but a shiny little slice of it can be found in Sad Cafe’s woefully underrated catalog, exemplified here by this single taken from their 1978 LP, Misplaced Ideals.  I probably would’ve never heard of this record had it not been for a late-night radio call-in show that invited listeners to win prizes by answering trivia questions.  I can’t recall what question I answered, but I remember being invited to show up the next day at a local record shop to claim my prize, which was a fresh (and very sweet-smelling, if I remember correctly) copy of Ideals, plus this single (for some unknown reason).  And claim it I did.

    Sad Cafe's "Misplaced Ideals" LP (US artwork)

    Side A, “Run Home Girl,” is glossy, sexy, sax-driven, and chock-full-o’-hooks like all good ’70’s AM-radio classics should be.  It reached the lower echelons of Billboard, and, several weeks after my victorious contest win, briefly became a pop radio staple, keeping its momentum throughout 1979.  Back then, the glistening guitars of “Girl” sounded ace blasting from a dashboard on a hot summer day (while sucking on a lime Slurpee, of course) alongside tracks like “Rich Girl” and “Smoke From A Distant Fire.”  Today, I hear elements of this track in young groups like Phoenix, who are mining the lesser-exploited aspects of ’70’s pop for a new generation.

    The real payoff here, however, is the flipside, “Feel Like Dying,” a deeper cut also taken from the Ideals LP.  With its lugubrious, Mick Karn-style bassline and all-night-jazz-club piano, “Dying” starts off in that sorta bluesy, cigarettes ‘n’ whiskey after-hours-bar mode that Frank Sinatra made fashionable, then suddenly builds up and explodes into a splashy wet-wash of blistering guitar and sax, then drops you back down and lets you drift out to sea, breathless.  Slap this on your next late-night-spliffs-&-cocktails mix between some Daryl Hall and some Boz Scaggs and you’ll see what I mean.  Purely great.

    (Unfortunately, there’s no clips of either of these tracks anywhere on the ‘net, but you can take in some of the Cafe’s other classics here.)

    Sad Cafe’s singer/songwriter/frontman/mastermind Paul Young (not to be confused with “Every Time You Go Away” Paul Young) moonlighted in Genesis’ Mike Rutherford’s successful side-project Mike + The Mechanics while simultaneously recording and performing with Sad Cafe throughout the ’80’s and ’90’s.  Though they scored several more hits in the UK, stateside success eluded them, and Young died of a heart attack in July of 2000.  Sadly, the Sad Cafe is now closed.

    NEXT WEEK:  It was the ugliest slab of puke-like purple vinyl I’d ever seen.  And I had to have it.

  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #35: Ass Burgers

    Rage Against The Machine's "Bullet In The Head"

    RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE  “Bullet In The Head”  b/w  “Darkness” (Epic Records #35-74927 promotional single, 1993)

    Now-legendary L.A. alterna-agit-punk-rap-funk-metal-core alchemists Rage Against The Machine rose like a phoenix from the ashes of the eternally-youthful (and forever broke) late-’80’s Revelation Records leftist hardcore scene in ’92, signed to Epic Records, released a stellar multi-platinum debut LP, took their face-melting show on the road with Perry Farrell’s first Lollapalooza tour and never looked back.  Critics balked.  How could de la Rocha, Morello & Co. hold the machine in contempt, much less rage against it, while simultaneously massaging the giant American corporate schlong to wargasm by selling their souls to a major?

    One word:  Platform.  The little toupeed, four-eyed midget spouting misinformed Biblical shit at the top of his lungs every Saturday from the town square sidewalk won’t get heard by anyone.  But the giant, towering behemoth on the big stage with the loud PA system and the pummelling electric guitar and thunderous bass will be heard by all.  At a time when students shelled out $20 for Che Guevara T-shirts, the RATM boys knew all too well that revolution sells.  Not only will it be televised, the networks will shuck for ad space.  The time was right.  Let’s get the word out.

    Rage Against The Machine's self-titled 1992 debut LP

    Married to Japanese corporate giant Sony, Epic Records (who over a decade earlier had begrudgingly released The Clash’s budget-priced 3-LP Socialist manifesto, Sandinista!) squeezed out this little promo 45 in ’93, probably to fan the flames of RATM’s blazing Lolla showcase.  Side A is their notorious smackdown, “Bullet In The Head” from ’92’s eponymous debut LP.  According to the sleeve art, the track clocks in at 4:67.  Very cute, guys.  Just close your eyes & smell the mosh pit.

    Play \”Bullet In The Head\” by Rage Against The Machine

    I probably should’ve warned you…these clips are full of F-Bombs.  But you knew that already, so hopefully you covered Junior’s ears.  (He hears nastier stuff daily on the playground, I assure you.)  Anyway, as great as “Bullet…” is, side B holds the real gem here with the non-LP “Darkness” (also known as “Darkness Of Greed”).  This soft/LOUD/soft showstopper later became widely available on a rarities comp, but for a brief and shining moment, I wore the crown of Mixtape King through mere possession of this promo.  Get your crowd-surf on…NOW!

    Play \”Darkness\” by Rage Against The Machine

    Since the days of this earth-shattering debut, RATM released more stunning LPs (including one of covers), got banned from this and censored from that, and broke up and reformed several times.  Tom Morello took his guitar pyrotechnics to the very successful Audioslave (as well as projects such as The Nightwatchman and Street Sweeper Social Club), while Zach de la Rocha’s long-talked-about collabs with ?uestlove and El-P never fully materialized.  But their style, sound, intensity and hands-on activism still remains as a heavy influence to today’s youngsters.  So I’m warning you, always keep one eye glued to the RATM website, ’cause you never know when or where they’ll turn up, amps cranked and fists raised.  And you won’t want to miss it.

    NEXT WEEK: I cry tears in my coffee.

  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #34: I Died In Burst Of Lemon Piper

    The Seeds' "Pushin' Too Hard"

    THE SEEDS  “Pushin’ Too Hard”  b/w  THE STANDELLS  “Dirty Water”  (Collectibles Records #3028, early-’80’s reissue)

    Though yet another questionably licenced oldies-bin cheapie, this two-fer practically reads like page one of Garage Rock 101:  Lesson One.  Woe to Ye Puny Mortal Punkf who’ve ne’er Deigned Immerfe Thyfelvef unto Yon Hard-Drivin’, Pot-Fmokin’ Clafficf.  I Pity the Soolf.

    Originally released on Crescendo in late ’66, A-side “Pushin’ Too Hard,” a “gassy” barnstormer by L.A.-based rockers The Seeds (led by the still-sometimes-active-yet-very-reclusive Richard “Sky Saxon” Marsh), crept to #36 by early ’67.  And at a time when the charts were dominated by acts like The Association and The Supremes, mind you.  But teens had sent proto-punk classics like “Wild Thing” and “96 Tears” to the top of the pops in months previous, so the doors (and The Doors) were wide open, and the ’60’s were in full-swing.

    Watch The Seeds lip-sync \”Pushin\’ Too Hard\” on Casey Kasem\’s SHEBANG! (1967)

    While you’re YouTubin’ it, stop by here for a low-res kinescope of Saxon & Co.’s ’66 appearance on the Kaye Ballard/Eve Arden vehicle, The Mothers-In-Law.  A true brain-burner if there ever was one.  Our next guests were once prominently featured on The Munsters, but we’ll save that for another time.

    The Standells' "Dirty Water"

    Now, try not to let the Massachucentric subject matter fool you;  this band did not hail from Beantown.  Side B backtracks to the Summer of ’66 with “Dirty Water” by Sunset Strip mainstays The Standells.  Originally pressed on the Tower Records label (a Capitol subsidiary, no relation to the failed retail chain), “Water” spent 9 weeks on Billboard, peaking at #11.

     (The little video linker suddenly crashed, but you can see The Standells roll their eyes, pick their noses, and lazily mime “Dirty Water” on TV circa 1966 by going here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBD8SObQYD0)

    When I was a kid, I (along with many others, I’m sure) mistook this for a Stones track.  Years later, my junior-high pals & I were rocking again to “Dirty Water” as redone by British new-wavers (read:  neo-garage-rockers) The Inmates.  Since then, it’s become the flagship theme song for MA’s legendary Tewksbury Comets Action Paintball Team.  Great rock never dies.  (And don’t even pretend to be a rock guitarist if you don’t know that killer opening riff, pal.)

    As for the song’s subject matter, I’ll let Money Mike fill you in on how much he loves that dirty water.

    NEXT WEEK:  I get a bullet in the head.