If I had to make a list of top ten pure rock records (discounting new wave, goth, blues, etc.), this record would have to be on it. I think it's easy to underestimate the record today, but when it come out it was new, vibrant, dynamic, and different. The sound alone is amazing. I find it amusing that there were wome people who thought that Tom was a new wave guy.
My sister bought a copy of this record soon after it came out, and I remember sitting in her room listening to it on her crappy stereo system. Even then, I admit that it sounded good. This record had quite the impact, I have to think, even if you are sick of the tunes from so much overplay. Oddly, I disconnected with Tom after this record for ages.
The follow up the the debut is pretty good. Songs people might know are Too Much Ain't Enough, Listen to Her Heart, and I Need to Know. The album is deeper than that though, despite the review on Allmusic. I think this is a great record. Sure, it sounds like the first one, but it makes sense as a logical sequel.
I sometimes write draft posts in advance, and this is one for which I had jotted some notes down over 4 years ago! And then, we got that awful news that Tom had died, and then that he was still alive, and, finally, that he had slipped away. That was truly devastating news.
Some who know me are often surprised to learn that I like Tom's music. I really do. I think he wrote some solid, honest, and unpretentious rock and roll songs. I could never say enough good things about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. And, he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. I also admired his fight with the record label over album pricing.
Petty was another emotional death in a long line that includes Lou Reed, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Prince, Grant Hart, Walter Becker, and John Lennon, a senseless tragedy that still bothers me. I listened to Full Moon Fever after I got the news, and, yes, it made me very sad. There are so many aging rock stars, and I suppose that so many of these heroes of mine will depart over the next few years.
I recommend that everyone watch the four-hour documentary, Running Down a Dream. I would never have believed that a documentary that long would work, but it does.
What I originally wrote here in a draft post, months and months ago, was: I didn't know anything about Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers until I heard Damn the Torpedoes, a record my sister bought when it came out. I had to go backwards to find out what I had missed. I'd call it honest rock and roll, though some call it music of the heartland. I guess many would place Petty in the same crowd as Springsteen, Seeger,
and maybe even John Mellencamp, although I think he is far better than Seger and Mellencamp.
I find it interesting that the band was
initially far bigger in the UK than in the US. I guess the same thing happened
with Cheap Trick, who were huge in Japan before getting any recognition
in the US. This record contains a bunch of great songs, like American Girl, Breakdown, Hometown Blues, Strangered in the Night, etc. It's great. I have a Canadian pressing (and a copy on CD).
Yes, this is another LP I picked up for $1.99 from a thrift shop. By the way, the Opportunities 12" single, from a few days back, was also from a thrift shop. I should call the band the Thrift Shop Boys. From Wikipedia:
The album was unusual in that it reversed the typical process by which pop/dance acts released singles. Instead of releasing an album of regular-length (3–5-minute) songs, then releasing lengthy remixes of those songs on subsequent singles, Introspective was released as an LP consisting of songs that all lasted six minutes or more. Tracks released as singles like "Always on My Mind" and "Domino Dancing" had been issued as shorter, more radio-friendly mixes prior to the album. None was released as a radio single in the same form as it appeared on the album. It was also the case for the two other singles "Left to My Own Devices" and "It's Alright". [source]
The songs are all very long. This is a pretty good record.
This record is entitled Actually or Pet Shop Boys, actually. I actually couldn't tell you which is right. I found this one in a thrift shop for $1.99 as well. There were some big hits from this record, like It's a Sin, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Rent, and Heart. It's not bad, in a pop kind of way.
The first time I head West End Girls, I was dismayed, even horrified, especially since so many of my friends loved the song. I hated it. I thought it was disco reborn in 1986. Hadn't we had enough disco to last a lifetime by then? The answer is yes.
One day, many, many, many years later, I stopped into a thrift shop and found a minty-fresh copy of the LP sitting in the bin. I paid my $1.99 for it and left. My opinion of the track had mellowd over the years, and now I don't mind it. It's far better than I remembered. It's still not top-shelf music for me, but I can honestly say that I like the track.
Other popular tracks from album are the afore-mentioned Opportunities, plus Love Comes Quickly and Suburbia.
"Perth County Conspiracy, also known as 'Perth County Conspiracy (does not exist)' was a Canadian folk music group established in 1969 and active during the 1970s comprised of roughly 30 members who lived on a commune near Stratford, Ontario. The core musical members (originally Cedric Smith, Terry Jones, Richard Keelan, Michael Butler, and Michael McConkey but members would come and go over time) would continue performing and touring during planting and harvesting seasons. Their music is characterised by its message-oriented lyrics and unconventional arrangements."
I found this record on the side of the road a few years ago. It was in a record-sized milk crate along with two or three unremarkable records. It's kind of a strange package, with inserts, rather than a full jacket, but I have seen other photos showing a real jacket. Mine has a smallish insert. as seen in the photo above, along with a sheet listing toys for sale with prices, with this address:
G.M.T. Toys, c/o James Cairns, R.R. #3 Embro, Ontario, Canada
A beaver will run you $3, while a northern dump truck is $10. The rocking horse with felt on the head is $33.00. "All toys shown here are constructed of white pine and hardwood dowels."
The other insert in my copy has an essay with thanks given to Milton Acorn, Michael Ondaatje, and Woody Guthrie, I assume because they share some of the songwriting credits. Now that's an odd but interesting collection of people. I have books by Milton and Michael on my shelves.
It also encourages people to send inquiries to Box 173 Stratford, Ontario.
This is a very strange record, The RarestRecords Youtube channel (video link below) says this about the record.
Here is a real gem for collectors of `Acid Folk` a privately pressed LP by Canadian Folk band `The Perth County Conspiracy Does Not Exist` released after they left Columbia and decided to go it alone pressing up their own records (not sure how many were pressed but they came with a hand printed picture taped on the front and various hand made inserts so logic would say not many). The music is very reminiscent of the Incredible String Band and is interspersed with little sketches (very 1960`s hippie) sounds great to my ears. Hard to value as copies have sold for all sorts of strange prices recently (£40 - £140).
The value is weird. When I found this LP, there were copies for sale on Discogs for $300+. Prices now range from about $20 to $265, but it seems you would need to spend $50 plus shipping to get a copy in good shape. An original pressing of the band's first record will cost you big time.
Discogs says this, which I did not know when I bought the record: "Limited to 1,000 copies. First 100 copies contain signed postcard." My copy does not have a signed postcard. Allmusic says this:
"From beginning to end, The Long Goodbye is pure Pere Ubu: surprising, unexpectedly tender, and above all, thought-provoking. Even by their standards, this is a wild and challenging album -- coming full circle rarely sounds this exhilarating." [source]
This record contains a genuine and honest-to-god hit song! And, there was a Canadian pressing, which I have. From Allmusic:
In a press handout that accompanied the original release of Pere Ubu's Cloudland, David Thomas quipped "We'd never been asked to write a pop record before. I guess it never occurred to anyone." Given the sonic Dadaism of much of Pere Ubu's work, what's most startling is not that it took so long for someone to suggest they make a pop record but that they were able to comply so successfully. [source]
The Tenement Year is the sixth studio album by American rock band Pere Ubu, and their first album after reuniting following their 1982 break-up. 'Classic lineup' members Tony Maimoneand Allen Ravenstine, along with fellow Cleveland scenester Jim Jones and Henry Cow percussionist Chris Cutler found themselves playing with David Thomas for his 1987 album Blame the Messenger, and, discovering they sounded much like Pere Ubu, began incorporating a few Ubu numbers while touring for that album. Eventually, an official reunion was pursued, original drummer Scott Krauss was contacted, and thus the new lineup was completed and the old mantle assumed. The Tenement Year found the group veering in a loose, freewheeling, and decidedly more pop-oriented direction than in the past, though the pop leanings would become even more pronounced on subsequent albums.
This LP received no domestic release in Canada either, so I have a US pressing from 1980. How Allmusic could have awarded this record only 3 stars is beyond me. From Wikipedia:
Mayo Thompson of The Red Krayola joined as guitarist for this album and slanted the proceedings further towards deconstruction and abstraction, and away from the primal rock that former guitarist Tom Herman had facilitated.
The LP was not released in Canada in any format, and it wasn't released in the USA until 1999 (on CD). I think Dub Housing must have freaked the record company out, so there wasn't another domestic release in Canada until The Tenement Years in 1988. On the downside, there's Jehovah's Kingdom Comes, David's calling to the Jehovah's. What? At least it wasn't Scientology, but they are both phoney, like all religions. That track is fantastic, but the message is bullshit. All of the tracks are great. By the way, my copy is from The Netherlands.
"Released in 1978 by Chrysalis Records, the album is now regarded as one of their best, described by Trouser Press as "simply one of the most important post-punk recordings."[source]
Wikipedia:
To define their music, Pere Ubu coined the term avant-garage to reflect interest in both experimental avant-garde music (especially musique concrète) and raw, direct blues-influenced garage rock. Thomas has stated the term is "a joke invented to have something to give journalists when they yelp for a neat sound bite or pigeonhole".[10] Their music has been called art-punk and post-punk.[11][12] Their songs imagined 1950s and 1960s garage rock and surf music archetypes as seen in a distorting funhouse mirror, emphasising the music's angst, loneliness and lyrical paranoia. Sometimes sounding like a demented nursery rhyme sing-along, this already bizarre blend was overlaid with Ravenstine's ominous EML synthesizer effects and tape looped sounds of mundane conversation, ringing telephones or steam whistles. Their propulsive rhythmic pulse was similar to Krautrock, but Thomas's yelping, howling, desperate singing was and still is peculiar when compared to most other rock and roll singers.
I admit that I missed the origins of Pere Ubu. I am too young, and it took me a while to find them, but I am glad I did. They rank highly in my list of favourite acts.
I find it difficult to find the words to describe how much I love this record. I guess you get it or you don't. To me, Pere Ubu might be the best American band ever.
I can not overstate just how awesome and groundbreaking this record is. It's phenomenal.
From Discogs:
An early anthology containing several tracks from the band's first four singles--except for "Untitled", an early version of "The Modern Dance" that was previously unreleased. (As for the songs not on this compilation, "The Modern Dance" and "Street Waves" were included on the "Modern Dance" album, while "Final Solution" and "My Dark Ages" wouldn't be reissued until 1980.) "Heart of Darkness" is edited for time.
The brief ascription fro Allmusic says this about Pere Ubu:
Influential art punk band whose experimental sound harnessed self-destructing melodies, scattershot rhythms, and industrial-strength dissonance.
I have been working from home for eight weeks during this COVID-19 pandemic. I neglected this blog, which is OK because no one reads it anyway.
Curiously, the album jacket breaks the word soundtrack into two words. I have seen both, but I think that soundtrack is used more frequently. I have not seen this film. About this sound tracks, Allmusic says only this:
Eyes of a Stranger was a huge hit, at least in Canada. I still like that song. This is a very good record. You should check out the whole record, if you don't know it.
