Are we sensing a theme here tonight? Here’s X’s adrenalized cover of the Doors’ “Soul Kitchen” produced by the Doors’ Ray Manzarek. As much as I love the original by Jim Morrison and the gang, the accelerated punk remake by X is a true joy, especially with guitarist Billy Zoom’s slammin’ Chuck Berry licks amped up to Indy 500 speeds. From the 1980 album “Los Angeles.”
Live in the studio, here’s the band X with arguably their best and most famous song “White Girl” from their stellar 1981 album “Wild Gift” and album that placed #2 for the year (behind the Clash’s “Sandinista”) in the Village Voice Pazz and Jop poll for album of that year. In this clip, you’ll see producer Ray Manzarek of the Doors working the knobs and nodding his head. From the terrific documentary about X “The Unheard Music.” The song was later sampled in the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s song “Good Time Boys.”
Trivia note: Singer Exene Cervenka used to be married to Oscar-nominated actor Viggo Mortensen. In addition, singer / bassist John Doe has acted in a number of films over the years, most notably as Julianne Moore’s character’s ex-husband in “Boogie Nights.”
I didn’t discover Alice Coltrane’s music until I heard her music on a sampler CD back in the late 1990s. Alice Coltrane played the harp and the sounds that she and her band achieved are truly mesmerizing. After doing some research, I discovered she was John Coltrane’s second wife. While she’s gotten much renown in jazz circles, her work has unfortunately been overshadowed by her husband’s success. An artist truly worthy of further research. From the 1970 album “Ptah, the El Daoud”
“King Heroin” is a powerful song by James Brown told from the perspective of the drug itself. The song reached #6 on Billboard’s Soul charts in 1972 and scraped into the Top 40 of the Billboard Pop singles chart as well. From the album “There it Is.”
The clip here also has an additional two parts of this song that I didn’t know existed and don’t appear to be part of the “There It Is” album where “King Heroin” is from. If anyone out there knows where the other two parts came from (and what they’re officially called), please let me know.
A standout track from Parker’s 1976 album “Heat Treatment.” The song has not only been a part of Parker’s live set for several years, but was also covered by Rod Stewart in 1998. Trivia note: the T-shirt that Parker wears on the “Heat Treatment” album cover was one that I owned and wore when I was 6 years old. I don’t know what that says about me … or Parker for that matter … only that I feel like a rock star as much as anyone would wearing a T-shirt showing symmetrical lions in a pattern.
My favorite Billy Joel song of all-time. From Joel’s underrated 1982 album “The Nylon Curtain,” this was Joel’s attempt to create the ambience of a mid-period Beatles album. While I can’t say he completely achieves this goal, there are moments of brilliance on this album that come close. “Laura” is one of those moments.
This song has haunted me since I first heard it in the fall of 1982, especially given the early 1970s John Lennon-like feel of the arrangements and vocals. Critic Chuck Klosterman came close to describing to what I always thought the song was really going for in that he thought it was “about a relentlessly desperate woman … who is slowly killing the narrator by refusing to end a relationship that’s clearly over. Making matters worse is the narrator’s inability to say ‘no’ to Laura, a woman who continues to sexually control him.” I thought Klosterman nailed this song’s meaning to a T and for any of you hipsters that dismiss Joel on sight, the song is as emotionally complex as anything Elvis Costello or Richard Thompson has ever done. And not just because it contains the only “f-bomb” I’ve ever heard in a Joel song.
However, leave it to Joel to destroy these illusions by revealing to Klosterman in a later interview that “Laura” is actually about a co-dependent family member. While Joel’s intent may override what Klosterman (and subsequently, I) think the song is about, I would argue that Klosterman’s interpretation makes more logical sense and it’s the way I always took this song to mean for the past 30 years.
When I was about 5 years old or so, there was a 4-album set called “The No. 1 Hits of the 60s” that was advertised on TV constantly by a company called “TeleHouse” that retailed for $8.98. I remember the original ads from TV, especially a scene where some long haired guy was hanging from a window ledge while the McCoy’s “Hang on Sloopy” played behind him. Anyway, my Mom bought this box set and as soon as it arrived, I took it upstairs to the record player in my room and checked it out.
One of my favorite songs on the box set was Tommy James and Shondells’ “Crimson and Clover.” I played this over and over again and it wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that this was pop psychedelia at its finest. This wasn’t an “authentic” acid freakout ala Iron Butterfly. This was a pop group trying to adopt the psychedelic sound, but they did it very well … and a lot better than Iron Butterfly. The version here is the exquisite long version that was on the box set my Mom purchased, with the extended acid rock guitar solos and sound effects. Joan Jett did a fine cover in 1982, but it doesn’t top the original.
I discovered the films of Pedro Almodovar at just the right time in America, around 1988 or so. Almodovar was just about to release his American breakthrough “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” and my college film class that fall showed his 1984 comic masterpiece “What Have I Done to Deserve This?” to a bewildered, but otherwise appreciative audience. I loved “What Have I Done …?” so when our college film society showed “Matador” later that semester, I made it a point to go.
If there was ever a film to see with an audience, “Matador” was it. I remember the college theater was about 3/4 full (unusual for a foreign-language film showing on a Sunday night). The opening sequence features a montage of some of the most graphically violent scenes in recent movie history while the lead male character (played by someone named Nacho Martinez … one of the greatest actor names in film history) frantically masturbates while watching it. At that point, the audience started nervously laughing. And the laughs continued throughout. As I walked out of the theater, I thought “Matador” was one of the most deliriously obscene and funny films ever made. It was as crude and as nasty as any John Waters underground masterpiece, but unlike Waters, “Matador” looked like it had a decent budget and production values. I thought, “Finally, someone blended art and extreme sleaze in a wonderfully shot, acted, written, and directed package.”
Almodovar has continued to top himself over the years and won Oscars for Best Foreign Film in 1999 for “All About My Mother” and in 2002 for Best Original Screenplay for “Talk to Her.” Almodovar consistently is one of the most bracingly original filmmakers working today. However, “Matador” remains my favorite. Its combination of high art and NC-17 rated sex, violence, and sleaze is still remarkably potent.
The attached trailer is in Spanish with subtitles in a language that’s not English. However, the trailer does give a pretty good idea of what this film is about. Antonio Banderas plays a pivotal supporting role in “Matador.” If you’re not a prude and are looking for a walk on the wild side, check out “Matador” pronto. Not to be confused with the 2005 film “The Matador” starring Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear.
From Bowie’s most severely underrated album, 1970’s “The Man Who Sold the World”, “All the Madmen” is Bowie letting his psychedelic freak flag fly high. Lots of cosmically heavy lead guitars on this one … with a very trippy middle section. Take it from me … do not listen to this under headphones in an altered state of mind.
With the exception of “Life on Mars?”, my other favorite ballad from Bowie’s 1971 “Hunky Dory” album is “Quicksand.” “Changes” may be the hit, and as great as this classic song is, “Hunky Dory” contains home run after home run. Why “Quicksand” isn’t a staple on classic rock radio is a major and sad oversight.
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