If there was ever a better argument for pot legalization than this scene from the creepy 1987 cult movie “River’s Edge,” I have yet to see it. This is probably the scariest … and funniest … variation of the “buying pot from the weird older guy” scenario that many of you may or may not have experienced in your wayward youth. By the way, that’s Keanu Reeves in the background.
Alt-country legends the Bottle Rockets do a slammin’, very heavy cover of Neil Young’s deep album cut from the bleak masterpiece “Tonight’s the Night.” All I can say is, “Damn!” And also, “Why haven’t the Rockets ever officially released a cover of this?”
Before the Tuff Darts recorded their first album for Sire, Robert Gordon left the group and arguably had greater success as a rockabilly singer. This cover of Jack Scott’s “The Way I Walk” with 50s guitar legend Link Wray is a masterpiece of swagger and menace. Wray’s guitar on this track must rank among the sickest solos ever recorded. In 1994, this was used during the pre-credits sequence of Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers.”
A common misconception is that Lou Reed was the Prince of Darkness in the Velvet Underground. While Reed is pretty dark, many would argue that John Cale was the real dark one in the VU. Don’t believe me? Look at the Velvet Underground’s output once Cale left the group. With Cale, the Velvets recorded “Heroin,” “Venus in Furs,” “White Light/White Heat,” “Sister Ray,” and “The Gift.” Post Cale: “What Goes On,” “Jesus,” “Sweet Jane,” “Rock and Roll.”
Cale can dress things up beautifully with orchestral arrangements and lilting vocals (his best known song is arguably his cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” from the “Shrek” soundtrack) . But during the mid-late 1970s, Cale let his freak flag fly with some brilliant, disturbing, and very heavy stuff. “Chickens–t” is from Cale’s lesser-known post-Island records period, more specifically the 1977 EP “Animal Justice.” A wonderfully malevolent and sinister hard rock masterpiece.
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