05/19/07
AMERICAN BEAT
IAN HUNTER/Welcome to the Club-Live: As long as kids want to yell “Cleveland Rocks” and hair bands are kept alive in cable’s gaping maw, this seminal live Hunter double album is sure to be his monument as well as his tombstone. Loaded with solo and Mott songs/hits, as well as Mick Ronson in the background as his Leon Russell, Hunter was charged up and knew how to deliver after years of waiting for it to happen. This release is bottomed out with some extra tracks that weren’t in the original release and all of the energy in tact. A relic from back in the days when acts were allowed to develop before they exploded.
24052
GARY US BONDS/Dedication-On the Line: While he was looking for something to keeps his hands busy, Springsteen fixated on reviving the career of one of his childhood musical heroes, and EMI and Bonds were glad to have him do it. Going so far as to contribute 7 songs to the second album, Springsteen flexed as a producer revving up Bonds’ beach music for the new times. Bruce and Miami Steve can be heard singing on here as well with Steve proving his garage rock fixation isn’t a flavor of the month effort these days. Certainly, this is of special value to any self respecting Springsteen fan.
24102
BRITNY FOX: Admit it, when they were developing Britny Spears, it went in one ear and out the other and you thought it was some spin off of this hair band from a few years prior. They were part of the 80’s invasion of hard rock glam bands that launched with auspicious debuts and soon trailed off somewhere into the ether. A hit driven set that even found them borrowing from earlier critic’s darlings, Slade, they were taught the right moves and parceled out just enough of them to let them live out their summer days adding to the canon of mall parking lot rock history. Bet they could put on the wigs, get out the Ben Gay and go on a successful tour with Whitesnake today!
24132
GRAHAM PARKER/Real Macaw (24082); Another Grey Area (24032): I was really betting on Parker to be the era’s angry young man of choice. He seemed like the one that would go the distance and there seemed to be no expense sparred in making it happen. After some blistering sets on Mercury, he moved over to Arista where it seemed like they gave him an open check book. In addition to his pub rocking mates on board, he was accorded producers like Jimmy Iovine and Jack Douglas and great session cats that were on some of the biggest rock records of the era. So how did the other guy get it? Listening to “Mercury Poisoning” 30 years later, the answer is now obvious, Parker was for music geeks. The other guy was ok with outer directed songs about dissing his model girl friends when he was done with them. Whether “Mercury Poisoning” or “Between You and Me”, Parker wrote angry songs that spoke to the disenfranchised. Parker’s records still crackle. It’s good for him that he grew out of his angry young man phase to make some dandy mature records, but it’s also great this material lives on.
Volume 30/Number 200
May 19, 2007
MIDWEST RECORD
830 W. Route 22 #144
Lake Zurich, IL., 60047
CHRIS SPECTOR, Editor and Publisher
(c)2007 Midwest Record