Todd Rundgren and Utopia
Live at the Electric Ballroom Milwaukee 23/10/78
(Esoteric Recordings Eclec 22446)
Music offers us a rare opportunity to time travel, especially when an artist’s work is so evocative of the period it’s set in, and such a template for the style they exemplify. This archive two CD issue is, according to its brief sleeve notes, a live feed, so no overdubbing or other studio jiggery-pokery interfering with the live Utopia experience.
I know I’m not the only critic who feels that the punk attitude of the late 70’s had a tendency to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Some of the artists who were labelled ‘prog rock’, suffered under punk’s ‘year zero’ policy toward music, and Todd Rundgren, although rightly bearing the stylistic moniker, had far more going for him than many of his overblown, lost-in-translation contemporaries, who spent their young years composing space operas and hymns to the fairy folk.
The jazzy, sweet sounding Supertramp-like ‘Real Man’ is a good opener, leading into the piano backed, strongly melodic FM radio-friendly ballad of ‘It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference’.
‘Love of the Common Man’ brings in those synths that sounded so new and revolutionary in the 70’s, all triumphant chords, with high harmonies and a light, jazzy feel blending well.
‘Trapped’ takes us into Biblical, apocalyptic territory, a hard, ballsy rocker of a song that comes to a screaming dead halt at exactly the right moment.
‘Abandon City’s funky, jerking ‘climbing the stairs’ rhythm has some fine synths and an effects-laden guitar, surprisingly punky in parts, with deft keyboard player Roger Powell namechecked for his efforts.
‘The Verb ‘To Love’’ has a great synth clarion intro, good harmonies, and Todd’s voice has a good ring to it here, building up an impression of romantic melancholy you could lose yourself in.
‘The Seven Rays’ great, exciting guitar intro has a jangle to it, powered along with plenty of neo-classical riffery and changes of tempo that may not have won Utopia any new fans in the days of punk, but produced a pleasing soft rock sound with Arabic touches that would prove a useful touchstone to a host of 80’s AOR artists.
‘Can We Still Be Friends’ has a Steely Dan quality to it, a slow creep and croon that contrasts with the rich, overlaid sound of much of the show.
‘The Death Of Rock And Roll’s exciting get-up-and-go tune, lot of stop/start judders, classical-style vocal and synth keyboard lunacy is enough to persuade you that reports of RnR’s demise is a mere exaggeration, a fitting closer to CD1.
Our second prime cut opens with ‘You Cried Wolf’, with its jangly, funky guitars, glorious harmonies backing up Todd’s sometimes weak lead vocal; a winning track. ‘Gangrene’s duad-heavy, hard rocker, with its strong guitars, has a back-to-basics quality that suggests Utopia may have been cocking an ear at some of these young whippersnappers in their leathers and ripped jeans. Drummer John ‘Willie’ Wilcox is honoured for all his sweating on this one.
‘A Dream Goes On Forever’ is a sweet enough ballad, with its piano intro and refrain of ‘Old Soldiers Fade Away’, but it’s ‘Black Maria’ that takes us back to the hard rock we’re craving, with its nasty, razor’s edge guitar. A nervous, fighting song with a slick, biting style that wins on all points.
‘Easter Intrigue/Initiation’s story telling has Todd’s voice stronger than usual, moving in and out of a reggae style riff, perhaps a bit too free form for this critic, but has the saving grace of a winner’s chorus.
‘Couldn’t I Just Tell You’s swirly, chunky guitar intro leads into a style that would find full fruition in the 80’s, with good harmonies; the best track so far.
‘Hello, It’s Me’ is a disappointment after the previous strong showing, with its dull keyboard chops and watery vocal, with a jazzy riff rather getting lost in the mix.
‘Just One Victory’ closes the CD, its romantic vocal supported by the jangly guitar, good harmonies, clean, skilful guitar solo and triumphal keyboards.
With enough distance in time between music’s heady days of late 70’s and today, it could be time for a clearer assessment of the roots of the FM rock style, with respect to the music itself, rather than the package it ended up in. BUY HERE!
Blue Rondo A La Turk
Chewing The Fat (Cherry Red Records CDBRED621)
In these stale musical times, when a mighty throng of music lovers are prepared to stand in a field and listen to a monotonous voice droning over a pre-set soundscape, a refreshing dip into the waters of a not too distant age is sorely needed. Step up, Blue Rondo A La Turk, and remind us that it wasn’t all just sucked-in cheeks and whining synths back in that long, extended silly season of the 1980’s.
In a lavishly packaged double CD, Blue Rondo’s first LP is re-issued, together with a CD covering the remixes of their finest moments, and an informative bonus booklet showing many memorable images from the band to whom style was at least as important as music. Mixing jazz, salsa and Latin rhythms, with the peacock-populated band decked out in wildly coloured and patterned examples of the Zoot Suit, to say they stood out among other popular bands of the period is putting it mildly.
‘Change’ makes an excellent start, a good urgent rhythm, easy vocal and enough cross-rhythms to grab you by your loud, plaid lapels and shake you. A devilish bit of piano playing shows these fellahs mean business.
The doomy chords that can only mean ‘I Spy For The FBI’ are played over congas, a female voice and some sax adding a nice touch to a masterly version of this classic.
‘Coco’s held-down high bass notes in the song’s insistent rhythm make it another winner, but it’s ‘The Heavens Are Crying’ that captivate, with the staccato beat, ‘Gods of Olympus’ vocal, great, echoing saxes and spine-tingling glockenspiel.
‘The Method’s strolling rhythm and up ’n’ down piano riff engages well, if a little undermined by the disinterested vocal delivery, but the wailing sax saves it. ‘They Really Don’t’ is more what you’re looking for; a loud, shouty sort of piece, very much the popular end of Latin, lots of rattling drumsticks and spitting saxes with, late-ish on, a sax taking lead. Their precise contemporary, Kid Creole, would have respectable success with this kind of record, not to mention other less worthy competitors, and I feel it a crying shame that more folk didn’t get a taste of Blue Rondo’s hot, gamey stew.
‘Sarava’s loose, hothouse strut proves a welcome instrumental break at this point, hugely energetic, steamy atmosphere, leading into perhaps their finest hour, the mysteriously named ‘Klactoveesedstein’. A crazy, frantic multi rhythmic beat spun out with deadly precision, one crescendo of frustration after another, it’s difficult to see why this great song wasn’t a much bigger hit than the frankly insulting number 50 it was left with.
‘Carioca’ proves a lusher production number, all lazy, sexy saxes and languid delivery, building up to a climax, then a release into that brassy sound they used so expertly.
Bonus remixes on this first disc include a Latin-by-numbers treatment of ‘Me and Mr Sanchez’, admittedly still enjoyable, and with plenty of ‘Ay Ay Ay’s for all you Carmen Miranda enthusiasts.
‘Changeling’ has a delicious chiming guitar over a sexed-up rhythm of the original ‘Change’ and ‘Heavens Are Crying’ makes a bid for contemporary popularity, alas to little success. A more hepped-up ‘Sanchez’, with acres of backing vocal improves on the original, leaving us with ‘Klacto Part II’ and ‘The Cities Are Dying’ as closers to a strong and consistent CD reissue.
CD2 offers more alt versions, calling the listener to question just how many versions of ‘Klactoveesedstein’ they really need, but don’t miss the first; a swampy, bluesy treatment lurking here with intent. BUY HERE!
Luke Haines
New York In The ‘70’s (Cherry Red)
Referencing chalk hill figures and hurling himself headlong into a personal project about a certain place and time, it’s tempting to assume that Luke Haines is going down that Julian Cope road, with attendant pitfalls. The difference here is that Haines has chosen to celebrate his own real life totems, each one as legendary as any Neolithic cave painting.
The sparse production here on every track lends the CD an air of Germanic cool, in keeping with the bare, financially straitened period it eulogises. ‘Alan Vega Says’ has a simple guitar figure and a cricket-like chirp in the background, paying much tribute to the similarly named Lou Reed work. ‘Drone City’s sneering synth has all the fearful, shivering atmosphere of Suicide, with an Elvis style delivery and an emergency siren, just in case you were getting comfortable.
We don’t get a proper scene setter until the third track ‘NY In The ‘70’s’, a catch with a low, slow organ sound, duad guitar notes and some typical Reed characters, like the ‘scary transvestites’ this sort of song would be wanting, without. ‘Jim Carroll’ has a good beat, a fuzzy riff, and dry, humorous lyrics, but then, if you know Carroll’s work, you’d guessed that much anyway.
‘Tricks N Kicks N Drugs’ maroons us in a decadent game of Scissors/Paper/Stone, and its druggy catch is one of the more expansive tracks here. ‘Bill’s Bunker’ sees a return to the previous tense atmosphere, an icy-cold synth providing the up ‘n’ down riff to this nervous tale of isolation.
‘Dolls Forever’ sees Haines back in tribute-to-eulogy corner, the notorious NY band glimpsed from across that unbridgeable pond. ‘New York City Breakdown’ has an unexpectedly sweet tune considering its subject matter. ‘Lou Reed Lou Reed’ has an alternating synth riff, cymbals hissing like snakes, all to set the scene for the arrival of ‘the suicide blond with the iron cross’.
‘UK Punk’, the most electronic selection here, proudly wears its monotony and ends with an inspired spy-movie swell. ‘Cerne Abbas Man’ seems an apport from another world, its ‘mythic m’fo’in rock ‘n’ roll’ mantra is however another standout. ‘NY Stars’ at last takes us to Max’s Kansas City, introduces us to this cast of drug fiends and perverts and leaves us with the bar bill. How else would NY behave? BUY HERE!
