For sale ! (Total destruction once again ?)

I'm not selling out , I'm buying in!

(Tacoma lp 1981)

I continue the posting of my Swamp Dogg collection as announced somewhere on this blog. I found this copy at Black & white shop, Nice, France , the day of my wedding trip in the summer of 1999.

"After years of keeping a low profile, Dogg emerged from out of nowhere with this fine record. Instead of streamlined hard soul, this record carries a rock & roll clout that keeps even its most banal moments ("Wine, Women and Rock 'n' Roll") from terminal tedium. Song title highlight: Dogg's duet with Esther Phillips, "The Love We Got Ain't Worth Two Dead Flies." Kind of says it all, doesn't it." (John Dougan, Allmusic.com)

"(...) Dogg’s distinctive mix of Blues, Funk, social awareness, and general kookiness was lost on black and white audiences alike, and most of his albums have never been in print on disc. 1981’s I’m Not Selling Out was worth the ten bucks I paid for it (on LP) if only for the cover shot of Dogg dancing on a corporate boardroom table in white top hat and tails. But the music is even better - ‘Wine Women & Rock ‘N’ Roll’ gets things off to a rollicking start, ‘Dead Flies’ is a killer duet with Esther Phillips, ‘California Is Drowning And I Live Down By The River’ is a hilarious and heartbreaking look at the perils of life in the Golden State, and ‘A Hundred And’ sounds a lot like the music Al Green would have made if he hadn’t gone away from secular music right at the advent of disco. With lots of great guitar licks, and lyrical cream puffs like ‘We’ve got to make some jobs/And make ‘em fast/That’s the only way to get the poor folks/Off their ass’ this is an amazing album that has fallen through the cracks of popular culture." (from Endtroducing… dk presents
The Most Overlooked Albums Of All-Time")

Track listing :

Swamping salutations/Wine, Women and Rock & Roll
It's Just a Little Time Left
The Love We Got Ain't Worth Two Dead Flies
Low Friends in High Places
A Hundred And
Total Destruction to Your Mind
California Is Drowning and I Live Down by the River
Sexy, Sexy, Sexy #3

excerpt form the back cover (with notes from Swamp Dogg) :

...Not the best album of Swamp Dogg, too jazzy... but it contains always some killer titles, and it remains a bit rare.

Listen to : "The love we got ain't worth two dead flies" (with Ester Philips)

Français, françaises, ... je vous ai compris !

(Virgin/Fnac Music 1991)

Porté par une voix puissante, baigné d'un son gorgé d'orgue Hammond sur des riffs de guitares racés on aurait dit le parfait mix entre les 60's rageuses du MC5, les 70's orchestrées et grandiloquentes d'un Polnareff (cf leur cover de "la mouche") et les 80's des Bad Losers.


... Au soir d'une élection présidentielle française quelque peu décevante, qui aura ménagée le suspense jusqu'au bout, le moment me semble assez opportun pour vous citer ce superbe album et ce groupe devenu presque culte.

Suivant un premier lp qui avait fait un certain effet sur la jeunesse étudiante d'alors grâce à un son puissant et un ton résolument ironique et libertin "les seins de ma femme sont plus gros que ceux de ma voisine..." (1989), Insomnies se pose comme une suite plutôt réussie.

En concert, le Cri de la mouche assurait et l'organiste Camille Bazbaz n'était pas l'un des moins doués. Malheureusement, suite au décés du chanteur si je ne m'abuse, le groupe éclate peu de temps après ce deuxième opus.
On entendra parler de Camille un peu plus tard sous une forme solo dans un registre plus chanson française traditionnelle, quoique de bon aloi, avec toujours cette touche d'orgue Hammmond si particulière.
Camille Bazbaz n'est cependant pas tombé de la dernière pluie et en amateur passionné de musiques grooves, soul, jazz, funk, ... jamaicaines, il officie en backing dans certains albums voir en vrai compositeur/producteur/interprète avec Winston Mc Anuff en 2005 (CD "A drop").

Un nouvel album "le Bonheur fantôme" parait le 21 Mai 2007, et il semble que la Jamaique ait été la terre d'exil de Camille ces derniers mois. Deux morceaux en écoute sur son Myspace laissent à entrevoir un groove chaloupé des plus érotiques...

... Le Cri de la mouche continue néanmoins de résonner pour les amateurs de bon son.

Tracklisting :

Plus rien ne passe 2:23
Je vous ai compris 2:49
Labyrinth bar 3:55
Back in Paris 3:26 L
Insomnie 5:44
La mouche 3:47
Tirez les premiers 3:37
Normal 2:51
L'Amour 5:16
L'amour du mal/La question 8:10

Personnel :
Thomas Kuhn, voix guitares
Camille Bazbaz, claviers, choeurs
Alexandre Azaria, guitares, cithare, choeurs
Serge Landau, basse, choeurs
Norbert Monod, batterie, percus, choeurs

Production : Rod O'brien (Londres)

Listen to "Je vous ai compris"


Get the album (on comments)

Shut up !!

WORLD SHUT YOUR MOUTH/
UMPTEENTH UNNATURAL BLUES
JULIAN COPE
(1986 Island Records)

By request, the famous single of Julian. That's right it doesn't appear curioulsy in the anterior album of the same name. That's one of the rare single of Julian that hitted the charts, offering a welcomed highlight on the artist in the early 90's.

See the full discography of Jul' on Trampolene, a (canadian) Julian Cope's fan site.

Listen to World shut your mouth

Get the two sides

Raw sound but flamin' heroes !

THE SLIDE (live 68)

Here is a very fuzzy version of the Flamin' Groovies "The slide", taken from a rare live session of 1968.
Hope you'll enjoy this maestria of raw guitar and raunchy drums, plus a loudy bass, and that you will buy the Sneakers cd where the as much good but studio version of the song came from, or the Supersneakers one where you got the whole thing.

It's "A combination of the Sneakers indie 10" from 1968 and ten tracks from a 1968 gig at a San Francisco club. (The live material had previously been issued on the French import Flamin' Groovies '68 in the mid-'80s.*) The studio tracks from Sneakers decidedly outshine the looser, more indulgent live takes, several of which duplicate Sneakers material. It's the definitive document of their pre-major label days, though, when they fused garage rock with blues, psychedelia, and the Lovin' Spoonful, complete with historical liner notes". ~ (Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide)

(*) also available in 1996 on the french CD "Groove in" (Revenge)

1984 : shhhhhhhhhht !

That's not because Soul is on Action time for some weeks that Julian has not the right to tell :

WORLD SHUT YOUR MOUTH !
JULIAN COPE
(Mercury 1984)

"Musician, writer, historian, and cosmic shaman Julian Cope was born in October 1957 in Deri, South Glamorgan, Wales. He was raised in Tamworth, England, and like many a young artist, suffered through academia as a perpetual outsider. In 1976, upon attending college in Liverpool, Cope found himself part of a community of musicians -- and kindred souls -- including Ian McCulloch, Pete Burns, and Pete Wylie. After various incarnations and not so amicable departures (McCulloch went on to fame with Echo & the Bunnymen), the Teardrop Explodes were formed. One of the more influential bands of the late '70s, the group delivered a volatile mix of neo-psychedelic rock and electro-pop. As the band's success grew, so did Cope's reputation for debauchery, resulting in erratic, drug-addled stage behavior that occasionally led to bloodletting. In 1983, after numerous lineup changes and legendary feuds between Cope and Zoo Records figurehead Bill Drummond, the band ceased operations.

By 1984, Cope's love of hallucinogenics -- as well as a toy car collection that occupied nearly an entire year of his life -- was at an all-time high. Despite his altered state, he released World Shut You Mouth, his solo debut on Mercury Records. An elegant collection of chamber pop and Teardrop-fueled electricity, the album divided critics and fans alike, especially upon the release of director David Bailey's macabre video for the first single, "Sunshine Playroom." (from the notes of James Christopher Monger, on Allmusic).

I'll be glad to propose later the second album "Fried" with its crazy picture sleeve included cover art of the artist in a sandbox wearing nothing but a gigantic turtle shell. And more to come... I really love what Cope is doing in music field and also his crazyness and love for the psychedelic and 70's prog music .

So you could have an eye (or two) on his super book Krautrocksampler published in 1996 by Head heritage and Kargo & Eclat in France in 2005.

See also his Krautock top 50 at Groonrick list on Rateyourmusic.

Jean-Paul is a very Soul man !

and I already talked about his excellent site Otis Redding french site dedicated to the late Otis and the Soul in France in the 60's on a previous blog (le Blog d'Hector). But you got ("gotta gotta !!...") to go have a look on it because it' s incredible and too much ! You will find all the sleeves, all the discographies, and all the Formidable Rhythm'n' blues comps !! Yes, these vinyl ones never reissued ever !!

(...) To make his day, and because we're on the scene, (like a S... Machine), let have an ear on this cool single :

Listen to Whole lotta woman


Get it

Thanks for all your work Jean-Paul !