THE KINKS KONTROVERSEY KONTINUES!!

For the uninitiated: One of the nagging rumors that has persisted over the decades regarding YOU REALLY GOT ME concerns who rightfully let loose the LOUIE LOUIE derived, blisteringly protopunk , now iconic  guitar solo. One would assume the KINKS' lead guitarist Dave Davies, but LED ZEPPELIN's Jimmy Page (and John Paul Jones for that matter) was a well known session player and arranger in the years before he joined THE YARDBIRDS, and took part in the recording of many British 60's classics (and beyond a doubt, he DID play rhythm guitar on a couple of tracks on the KINKS first lp.) Over the years, the story that it was actually Jimmy wailing the lead steadily took hold.

Ray Davies for that matter (NOT always on the best of terms with Dave generally, in case you've lived your life under a rock) has stated emphatically time and again that it was indisputably his brother, even detailing a telling instance where Jimmy actually was in the studio as Dave dubbed his very similar break to their subsequent hit ALL DAY AND ALL OF THE NIGHT and snickered at it's hamfisted nature.

As an obsessive KINKS fan but only a marginal ZEP fan my sympathies lie in a predictable direction (tho, make no mistake, Jimmy's work on hits such as Them's BABY PLEASE DON'T GO is JUST amazing.) Then, it suddenly struck me- I have a way to independently double check this gnawing myth, thanks to the recordings of one Larry Page.

One of their army of managers, publishers and hangers on during the initial wave of the KINKS popularity (he also handled the TROGGS during their big years), Page had had already had a career as a performer and bandleader before switching to business side of things in the early sixties. Nonetheless, as Ray's viability as a songwriter increased he struck on the idea of recording an album's worth of instrumental versions of the KINKS songs with his orchestra (though pictured on the cover, no KINKS played on the recordings.) Deciding to title it KINKY MUSIC, just WHO do you think it struck him to ask to play some lead guitar? That's right, Jimmy Page.

SO. It seems simple. YOU REALLY GOT ME is on this disc. The probable guitarist is Jimmy Page. Just throw it on, compare with the hit single version, and we'll have this DAMN thing settled ONCE and for ALL.

Well, perhaps not. I'd have to admit that it's actually pretty damn similar. I was expecting to hear a sort of 'virtuoso' version of the Davies lead to be played by Page, but danged if it don't actually sound sloppier, less of an imitation than seemingly just a crappier try of the same groups of licks (with even a snatch of ALL DAY AND ALL OF THE NIGHT's bit thrown in.) Surprisingly even the tone is kinda close, only a certain lack of OOMPH distinguishing it from the 'real' solo's verve. For comparison:

Huh. Well, that clears nothing up. I'd kinda hoped for a substantial stylistic difference or at least tangible details that might state definitively how it wasn't Page and help put this thing to rest. But although I'll always go along with the Davies brothers version of events I'd hafta admit if anything I am LESS certain than I was before.

Sorry I Kouldn't Klear this up.

Krap.

WINNING IMMORTALITY VIA THE TWO PRONGED ATTACK OF SUBLIME AND ABSURD

EDDIE CARMEL was an exceptional human being. Born in 1936, he began suffering from the effects of gigantism (acromegaly) as a teen, and as he grew to immense size the 'Jewish Giant' reluctantly fell into a moderately successful career as a human oddity: stints in the circus and sideshows, random tv appearances, and even some rock and rollin' with a combo called FRANKENSTEIN AND THE BRAIN SURGEONS and a 45 called "Good Monster." (I know, I'm looking, I'm looking...) But this potential cultural footnote lurched into the permanence of collective consciousness not once, but twice via routes tantalizingly polar in qualitative notoriety. First, a few years before his death in 1972 he was captured in a portrait by Diane Arbus, entitled 'Jewish Giant, taken at Home with His Parents in the Bronx, NY' (see below.) Typical of her work, though it captures expressions of heartfelt love on the face of each family member, it is haunting in the unspoken struggles and sadness at which the image mysteriously but knowingly hints. Immortal- frozen forever in one of the best known pieces by one of history's greatest photographers.


And then, there is THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE. Regularly and deservedly mentioned in the top echelon of the most hilariously terrible b-movies ever filmed, Eddie brought the necessary alarming heft into his role as the mutant pinhead 'thing in the closet.' Hidden until the very last minutes of the movie, and covered in cheap yet horrifying makeup, his startling entrance registers an unforgettable shock even to those who have endured the wretchedly sleazy reels which have preceded. The outlandish work has steadily grown in popularity ever since it's hesitant, belated release in 1962, and seems likely to remain discussed whenever schlock is the subject of nodding conversation. Once again, Immortal- but at completely the opposite end of the spectrum.

As such he stands devastatingly in opposition to the 'opportunity only knocks once' paradigm, encouraging proof that even the strangest of us have not only a chance to make our mark, but MULTIPLE chances in an array of instances which can be wildly divergent.




I'll wrap this up with the complete THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE (though i HIGHLY encourage watching the ENTIRE thing--it's truly hilarious from start to finish, and the buildup to Carmel's entrance makes the delirium all the more delicious-- you can cut to his entrance at 1:19) Here's to ya, Eddie- Immortal and inspiring.








 Almost forgot, here's a link to some AWESOME behind the scenes stills from the film at my tumblr---

http://truckstopstruckstop.tumblr.com/search/eddie+carmel





AND! Here is one side of Eddie's 45!!

TODAY LIVERPOOL, TOMORROW DER WELT!!

During the initial years of the first wave of Beatlemania in America it became commonplace for the band to be derided as amoral, homosexual, or even worse, Communist by the more stuffed shirted of this country's 'right' commentators. All of this looks past the far more insidious truth which has slipped by the collective awareness somehow  unnoticed for several decades--that the Fab Four- JOHN, PAUL, GEORGE & RINGO, had sympathies far less concerned with Marxist demagoguery and far more obsessed with Master Race World Domination. With significant stretches of their early career spent in Hamburg and surrounding cities, it is hardly surprising that they fell sway to prevalent radical ideologies.



Skeptical? Well take a gander at the proof. First, sample this recording of one of their biggest hits, I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND, remade with a new vocal track retranslated  to better please the Hit Parader Youth:

But this wasn't the only of their hits remodeled to better please the Deutschlander fans- try this anthem on for size, which even managed to crack the charts on this side of the Atlantic, thanks no doubt to it's nearly profane phoneticisms to red white & blue ears. Sample as well the accompanying footage of the lads merrily romping around the beloved 'Vaterland.' "Ja,ja,ja," indeed:

And as if this all didn't make it plain enough, consider this telling footage of their reaction to a gigantic mob assembled to greet their 1964 tour to Australia (The unfamiliar fifth member is JIMMY NICOL, brought in to temporarily fill in for an ailing RINGO):

But lest one thinks that this leaves STARR off the hook, gaze upon the final footage of this clip, where he greets a crowd from his hotel widow once having rejoined the band after returning to good health:

Ladies and gentlemen, the evidence speaks for itself.

ELVIS BUKOWSKI

August 16th. CHARLES BUKOWSKI's birthday in 1920. ELVIS PRESLEY's death day in 1977. Please note "Elvis Lives" from THE LAST NIGHT OF THE EARTH POEMS, one of his very best books. Read here: (CHARLES BUKOWSKI--ELVIS LIVES.) For now, I offer this comparative consideration:

1. "Hound Dog"...........................................................................LOVE IS A DOG FROM HELL

2. "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"....YOU GET SO ALONE THAT AT TIMES IT JUST MAKES SENSE

3. "Return to Sender".............................................................................................POST OFFICE

4. "I Was Born 10,000 Years Ago".........................................................................Dinosauria, We

5. G.I. BLUES..............................................................................................WAR ALL THE TIME

6. "Heartbreak Hotel"............................................................THE ROOMINGHOUSE MADRIGALS

7. VIVA LAS VEGAS................................................LONGSHOT POMES FOR BROKE PLAYERS

8. JAILHOUSE ROCK..............................................................Doing Time With Public Enemy #1

9. GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS! ...........................................................................WOMEN

10. 50,000,000 ELVIS FANS CAN'T BE WRONG.......................................The Genius of the Crowd

Happy drinking, be it mournful or celebratory.

Imitation is the Most Sincere Form of...Holy SHIT!! Get My Lawyer on the Phone!!-- #1 in a Series

The climax of HAROLD & MAUDE (1971)--

The end of QUADROPHENIA (1979)--

That both Harold and Jimmy survive, having purged their aesthetic morbidity and empty mod restrictiveness respectively, makes the plagiarism of such a significant plot device all the more galling. (In QUADROPHENIA Jimmy is shown walking away in the opening scene.)


Mind you, that these are both films of significant merit and weight. The level of thievery & borrowing that surely occurs within the dreck manufactured by hollywood hacks could be safely assumed to be staggering.

What in the 'FUCK' do HEY JUDE and LOUIE LOUIE Have in Common??

Yes, they were both worldwide #1 smashes. Yes, they are both definitive examples of the irresistable glory of one-four-five's attractiveness, even in it's simplest forms. (More on that at a later date, rest assured.) But the most tantalizing trait shared by both monumental recordings is that both feature in their respective aural background dins audible expletives blurted out during the recording but deemed sufficiently buried and unnoticable enough to have been left on the released versions.

First we have the KINGSMEN classic Louie Louie. While later pondering the lunacy of the congressional hearings centered on whether the song's lyrics were obscene during the hit's heyday (hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted, but did a single politician think to simply ASK Richard Berry what the words were??!) one of the band's members noted that in the song you can actually hear the drummer blurt out "FUCK!" over a supposed mistake right before the second verse, around the 53 second mark or so (though, as with Hey Jude, the actual accident triggering the cursing is not really apparent.) That had not been noticed however, even as the entire country reeled over deciphering what the supposedly dirty lyrics were.

Next we have Hey Jude by the BEATLES. Preceding the repeated coda at just before the three minute mark John, again over an error that is not truly apparent, scowls out "fucking hell." It occurs right after the last "let her under your skin..." and in fact the immediate "OH!" that happens may be Lennon tripping up, and his grumbling coincides with the final lyric "then you begin..." Slightly less noticable than the Louie Louie's profanity (but impossible to ignore once you know about it!), the master recordings seem to bear out verification. Perhaps embarking on too many multiple takes of a song of such epic length seemed inconsiderable?







It would be rich to get the FCC's take on all of this...