SOUNDS
S-Z SOUNDS
S-ZBlam! Can't miss the beat. It starts here, with the following list and lowdown on music creatures who count. Half a dozen different schools of cool are represented in the all-purpose grooves guide called Who's Cool In Music.
S-Z
SADE * Neo-classic cool, as in understated, effortless and sexy. She sounds like she looks (transcendently sensual), but could swing just as easily if she were Hazel or Gertrude. Three Epic cds, including 1986's Promise, which includes "The Sweetest Taboo." Whew. B.M.
DOUG SAHM (SIR DOUGLAS QUINTET) * The most important C & W synthesist since Bob Wills, Sir Doug (assisted by keyboardist Augie Meyers) fused San Antonio R & B, Mexican norteño, Western swing, blues and rock into one of popular music's few Whole New Things, first served on the ' 65 single "She's About A Mover." Menus change, but the meal's always the real deal.R.S.
Best of .
Update: SIR DOUG REDUX: PLEASE SIR, MAY I HAVE SAHM MORE
When we wrote him up in the 1993 edition of Too Cool, Doug Sahm was still alive and kicking his Texas groove thing on solo sets and with the Texas Tornadoes. He’s gone now, but, if anything, the uniquely compelling, jaw-droppingly diverse range of his work resounds even more, especially in light of three recent CD releases.Surely anyone visiting this site knows there’s far more to the laconic roots icon than the ’60s hits ("She’s About a Mover" and "Mendocino"). Now there’s The Complete Mercury Recordings of the Sir Douglas Quintet (available only through www.hip-oselect.com), which rounds up Sahm’s Sir Douglas Quintet +2 = Honkey Blues, Mendocino, Together After Five, 1+1+1=4 and The Return of Doug Saldana (plus bonuses like "Suzy Q" and a stomping "San Antonio Rose") on five discs. Throughout, Doug & co. stir up it up, simmer and serve a multi-course repast of blues, country, tejano, bubblegum, psych (co-mingling with free jazz on Honkey Blues), you name it. At $99, the box is worth every peso.
Lest anyone think such an idiosyncratic approach could be delivered only by its creator, check out the reissue of Mott the Hoople’s eponymously titled 1970 debut to hear what Ian Hunter does with Doug’s "At the Crossroads." Then pick up the latest by Southwestern shape-shifters Los Super 7, Heard It on the X. There, ex-Mavericks vocalist Raul Malo does a truly swinging take on DS’ pantheistic, Big Sur, Cali-en-excelsus anthem "Song of Everything" (also from Honkey Blues). The way he reads the word "groove" is one of the coolest things I’ve heard in years. -G.S.
SAM THE SHAM AND THE PHARAOHS * Rock'n' roll might have been a revolution, but Sam went to great lengths to prove it could be every bit as cornball as vaudeville. 'You can't turn me off," torched Sam, "'cos you didn't turn me on!"
Pharaohization (Rhino; featuring "Wooly Bully," "Ju Ju Hand," etc.). D.W.
JACK SCOTT * Once Presley parted the waters, rockabilly ran off in two directions. Conway Twitty went over the falls in a torrent of rococo self-pity ("It's Only Make Believe," "Lonely Blue Boy"). Scott swam for cool water with stark, equally dramatic sides that flashed hick soul ("My True Love") and hip affirmations ("The Way I Walk Is Just The Way I Walk"). Colossal.
SEX PISTOLS * Every year that separates us from their legacy makes them seem that much more prophetic. You have to dig that Trump, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Party Naked and "greedworks" hadn't happened yet when J. Rotten opened up their first American lp by screaming "Cheap holiday in other people's misery." Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols (Warners); The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle (Virgin import). D.W.
THE SHANELS * Formerly the Chanels. They smoke Luckies and drink Bud. They wear black leather and gold lamé. They harmonize on old Coasters hits and wear black-face and pompadours. Japan's foremost doowop group is out of this world.
Import LP (Japanese Epic): Mr. Black (featuring "Sh-Boom," "Zoom," and "Shama Lama Ding Dong").
DEL SHANNON * His unbridled emotions--paranoia ("Stranger In Town"), vengefulness ("Hats Off To Larry"), obsession ("Keep Searchin'")--were chilling, all the more so in the sunnier '61-65 timespan. He was the first Yank to cover the Beatles ('From Me To You," 1963); what could be more appropriate, considering he practically invented Merseybeat and folk-rock in the same song, 1962's "Little Town Flirt." Come to think of it, he practically invented synth-pop too ("Runaway's" musitron solo is surely the ancestor of all subsequent synth doodlings). He rocked when few would or could rock with him. Though the fervidly inventive early Sixties were far from the unjust musical desert promulgated by hordes of superficial hack historians, they were short on rock hits. His were the exceptions. And he left a sufficient body of simple but oddly tormented, compelling music, in his heyday on through his last recordings, to merit a historical place far more substantial than that of a "Runaway" success story.K.B.
FRANK SINATRA * Proto-cool. No chump, this Chairman takes his sugar to tea, swings at photographers, and whispers in presidents' ears. Ring-a-ding-ding.
Come Fly with Me; Sinatra's Sinatra; Nice 'n' Easy (Capitol); It Might as Well Be Swing (with Count Basie); Francis A. & Edward K. (with Duke Ellington); Watertown; Trilogy (Reprise); The Capitol Years; The Reprise Collection box set.
THE SONICS * Seattle tough guys (see Sixties Punk). You want drug songs? Singer Gerry Roslie eschewed wine, water, and other solvents in favor of straight "Strychnine." All this in 1965.
SOUTH AFRICAN ROCK 'N' ROLL * Township rock ruled eons before Paul parted the fronds and brought it back to Graceland. When Kwela, the local tinwhistle blues 'n' boogie jazz, hit in the mid-Fifties, its popularity encouraged Benoni Rocket, the Pretty Dolls and other acts, awash in Yankee R & R 78's, to test their tonsils on the new sound. Result: a nonsensical shuffling of the lyrics to "Be-Bop-A-Lula' and similar hits that created tracks of staggering surrealism. Get down with this stuff and you'll think you're on a palm-wine bender. Cassette only: Flying Rock (Global Village). D.B.
PHIL SPECTOR * The first tycoon of teen copped the inscription off his dad's tombstone for his first hit ("To Know Him Is To Love Him," 1958). The road grew wild and wiggy, with the Ronettes, Darlene Love, Crystals, the Righteous Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, John Lennon ("Instant Karma," "Happy Christmas," "Cold Turkey"), and the Ramones (End of the Century). He hits you and it feels like...
Back to Mono box set; Phil Spector's Greatest Hits (WarnerSpector); Christmas Album (WarnerSpector); Phil Spector Wall of Sound, Volumes 1-6 (Phil Spector International UK import).
STEELY DAN * Mistakenly tarred as members of the criminal Seventies-rock burnout, Fagen & Becker in truth pushed the most potent lyric pills since mid-Dyl. Sleek ball-bearing grooves hide a rogues gallery of creeps 'n' cons who come on more twisted than Vegas at dawn. in "Haitian Divorce" Babs ditches Clean Willy for "the Charlie with the lotion and the kinky hair." "Kid Charlemagne" buys confidence, sells satori out of a spotless kitchen. MCA cds: Countdown To Ecstasy / Can't Buy A Thrill, Royal Scam / Katy Lied, Pretzel Logic. Side trip: Donald Fagen's The Nightfly (Warners), a balmy evocation of Camelot culture that floats on ironic optimism ("I.G.Y.") and bops between raindrops. D.W.
BILLY STEWART *At a soulful 300 lbs., he didn't need no doctor or 12-step program to come to grips with his avoirdupois ("She even said I was her pride and joy/ And that she was in love with a Fat Boy"). Really big: his stuttering, un-standardized version of Gershwin's "Summertime" (1966), one of the world's wickedest covers and the obvious thread between Nappy Brown's and Van Morrison's glottal gumbos.
SURF MUSIC * Hendrix was wrong. That stuff about "You'll never hear surf music again" ("Third Stone From the Sun") dropped no science. Nowadays, those lean instro wipeouts rip with freshness. Heavy metal, of which Jim was the progenitor, decays on the beach.
Wet sets (cds): Cowabunga: The Surf Box (Rhino). The Surfaris Play/ Fun City USA and Pipeline/ Two Sides of the Chantays (Rooster imports). Surfin' With the Astronauts/ Competition Coupe (Bear Family import). The Lively Ones, Surf Rider/ Surfin' Drums (Ace import). King of the Surf Guitar: The Best of Dick Dale and Surfin' Hits (Rhino).
Wet Ink: The Illustrated History of Surf Music- John Blair (Popular Culture, Ink; 1-800-678-8828 to order).
SWAMP DOGG * As Jerry Williams, he produced Gene Pitney, toured with Ben E. King and Sergeant Barry ("Green Berets") Sadler. As Swamp Dogg, he's toured with Jane Fonda, won raves from the New York Times and cut such uncut gems as "California Is Drowning and I Live Down by the River" and "Eat the Goose (Before the Goose Eats You)."
The Excellent Sides of Swamp Dogg Vol. 1 and Vol. 2; I'm Not Selling Out/l'm Buying In (Takoma); Rat On (Elektra); Swamp Dogg's Greatest Hits??? (Stone Dogg); Total Destruction to Your Mind (Canyon); Best of; 13 Prime Wieners
THROW THAT BEAT IN THE GARBAGECAN * After, what--5000 Velvets-ripoffs from Steve "never heard 'em" Wynn's Dream Syndicate to any dork on your block--finally an unashamed Reed inspired pastiche band (Sixties garage, deadpan Lou vocals, gonzo late Seventies punk energy levels when required) that derives from the AM, Top 40, bubblegum side of things. Per Chiz of the Memphis 'zine Way Out, these Germans are "led by the singing of lead guitar wiseacre Klaus Cornfield and Beatle-haired gal Lotsi Lapislasuli," and play "beautiful songs through tiny amps." -Metal Mike Saunders.
import lps: Large Marge Sent Us; Tweng LP (September Gurls).
THE TRASHMEN * Some have argued that the greatest rock 'n' roll song is also the stupidest. Behold the "Surfin' Bird" and those who gave it life.
Bird Call box set. Featured on Golden Summer surf music anthology (United Artists).
T.REX (MARC BOLAN) * It never really was about boppers or androgyny. In the midst of early Seventies pomp and prog-rock, way pre-Pistols, M.B. stripped the r 'n' r chassis down to basic moving parts to give it an overdue tuneup. Inspirational Verse: "I have never kissed a car before/ it's like a door" - "The Slider." R.S.
Electric Warrior; T. Rextasy: The Best of T. Rex 1970-1973 (Warner Bros.)
TRIP SHAKESPEARE * At a time when pop iconoclasm is defined by Prince's butt cheeks, this quartet of Twin City surrealists is the genuine article. Anchored to the formidable songwriting skills of bros. Matt and Dan Wilson (along with bassist John Munson and drummer Elaine Harris), the Trippers gather the precious shards of psychedelia and refract them through a scintillating, pun-dappled prism of dangling metaphors and dangerous dreams. The group's gorgeous gift for harmonic convergence and melodic alchemy brings the feverish fun of their song-stories to life: small moments, keenly observed, become the substance of resonant epiphanies celebrating the sensational weirdness of reality.
Trip S's handful of albums yield nary a clunker, with a spread of musical style and lyric substance that suggests a grand unifying theory binding the infinitesimal to the infinite. "Your mouth is my apartment in the evening," declare the Wilsons in "Your Mouth," their slithering ode to a sensual soulmate. In the harrowing "The Nail," the narrator, on a mysterious mission, travels from Min nesota to California. Somewhere in transit, lost along the highway, "running from the truth," he dreams that "times have changed," a reverie no doubt born of "the nail in my head-" In the hilarious "Slacks," the brothers argue over who actually wore the magic pants in a failed attempt to seduce the "one-eyed lady from France," while Mrs. Braintree, the "chilly Northern woman" of the ethereal "Snow Days," is invited to "go down to yonder bus stop" where there's a "blessing on the ground." The dreaded subject of "Toolmaster," we are told, is returning to "the creamery" to "start up the old machinery," a prospect greeted with a mix of loopy horror and curious desire.
On albums like Are You Shakesperienced (Clean), Applehead
Man (Gark), Lulu and Across the Universe
(both A&M), Trip S decant a magical, mordant and mesmerizing
elixir, daring us to drink deep and laughing, both with and at
us, as we reel, intoxicated, through their hall of mirrors. D.S.
JOE TURNER * The eternal Kansas City star shook, rattled, and rolled (1954), flipped, flopped, and flew, and begged for prime time from his "TV Mama."
T.V. SLIM * Downhome Louisiana blues-rocker who used intense personal experiences as a smallscreen repairman, both sexual ("T.V. Man") and sociological ('Don't Knock The Blues"), to turn life into art. 'Lady called me up the other day on the outskirts of town/ Said she had a picture but she didn't have no sound/ When I got there and I walked through the door/ I began to work on that set right on the floor." D.B.
Appears on More New Orleans Party Classics; 'Flat-foot Sam' (Moonshine lp).
UNTAMED YOUTH * The next square who reviews 'em as "roots'
or "retro" gets a Moon-equipped knuckle-Manwich. The
Rill Thing is a more apt designation for what this hi-volt combo
from the Show Me state puts down. The gods whose grooves they
hammer home are the stars on a hundred forgotten 45's, their sacred
texts "Surfin' Hearse' and "Go Go Ferrari." They're
best live, but their Nineties lps Some Kinda Fun and More
Gone Gassers (Norton) surge with power; do not run other appliances
when playing these in your home. Groovy older cousins: THE SKELETONS
(In The Flesh, ESD cd), world's hippest cover band bar none.
Untamed Youth: Untamed Melodies, Youth Runs Wild, An Invitation to Planet Mace.
VELVET UNDERGROUND * Variety called them "a three-ring psychosis." "Not since the Titanic ran into that iceberg," opined the L.A. Times. As created by Warhol, New York punk's parents were evil mothers.
V.U. (Peel Slowly and See) box set; The Velvet Underground & Nico (Verve); Loaded, Live at Max's Kansas City (both Cotillion)1969 Live (Mercury).
TOM WAITS * Born late, he finally brought his beatnik lust home. scoring Coppola's glowing "cocktail landscape" One from the Heart.
Heart Attack & Vine; The Heart of Saturday Night (Asylum).
WAS (NOT WAS) * They came out, walked the dinosaur, felt better than James Brown. Guest vocalist Mel Torme's "Zaz Turned Blue" was a collision of beauty and freakery at the corner of Smart & North Whack. They're workin' double shifts down at the Burning Idea Factory.
Was is: Born To Laugh At Tornadoes (feat. "Zaz"), What Up, Dog? and Are You Okay? (Chrysalis).
MARY WELLS * Before giving in to that schizo in "Two Lovers," Motown's toughest broad told cream puffs in no uncertain terms where to get off ("Bye Bye Baby," 1961).
THE WHO * Forgive them Tommy, Quadrophenia, the reunions, the latter-day bloat. Cherish them for three singles that rocked the world, instilling an element of danger that opened new possibilities of chaos and disorder within the rock'n' roll framework. in the beginning, the earth had been shaken by the deepest Muddy/Wolf/Bo blues, early Elvis, Little Richard. Long after this revolutionary trinity (the fathers, the Sun, and the wholly gross), the Kinks caused tremors with their first two hits. Then came the Who, debuting in January '65 with "I Can't Explain," not a million miles away from the Kinks' "All Day And All Of The Night' and relatively tame until guitar break #2. Suddenly guitars and drums threatened to teeter off the rails, Townshend and Moon restoring equilibrium just in time for a safe return to previously scheduled song structure. A tantalizing glimpse into the abyss.
The portentous opening chords of "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere" signaled a new magnitude of abandon to come. Roger Daltrey raged and strutted while guitars Shrieked and shuddered, beeped and divebombed. It was unprecedented, profoundly disturbing, galvanizing; electric instruments weren't supposed to sound like this.
Everything on My Generation was infused with the anarchy of "Anyway's" instro excess. The ominous two-chord riff, the pissed-off, pilled-up, incoherent, contemptuous vocal, the old bondage-up-yours message-all were pushed to the brink by bass, guitar, and especially the deranged drums until, sound and fury extinguished just before meltdown looms, it simply stopped. Nothing left to say. Nothing left to do. The subsequent tragedy of the Who. -K.B.
The Who Sings My Generation,The Who Sell Out, (A Quick One) Happy Jack.
MAURICE WILLIAMS * It could be argued that his definitively cool "Stay" (1960) said everything that rock 'n' roll would ever have to say about desire, in a minute and 37 seconds. On numerous cd anthologies, including The Doowop Box, Volume 1.
JACKIE WILSON * Soul in a tux. In the late Fifties/early
Sixties, the classest black act, with a big boss line of living
hits: "Lonely Teardrops,'' "Baby Work Out," "Am
I the Man."
Along the way, helped invent Van Morrison and Otis Redding.
O.V. WRIGHT * Texas soul cryer who missed the brass ring when his label deemed him "too ugly to tour." That didn't stop the Stones and Otis Redding from covering his "That's How Strong My Love Is," or a Tokyo bar from naming itself The O.V. Room (on the jukebox: O.V. only). His "Eight Men And Four Women" is the hippest love-on-trial song, and "Nickel And A Nail" ends with 0 wailing "I can spend the nickel, nail won't spend." -B.B.
So Wright: The Soul of O.V. Wright; 0.V. Wright: The Complete Recorded Works by the Boss of Southern Soul (Japanese MCA box). Starter kit: That's How Strong My Love Is (Hi UK).
YACHTS * Their '79 debut (Yachts, Radar Records) effortlessly tosses words like dross and tantamount into the music mix. Clever. Cole Porter punk.
ZACHERLE ("THE COOL GHOUL") * The real Count Floyd. Founded fiend-rock in '58 with "Dinner with Drac." (See also "Monster Mash," "Werewolf of London.") Igor?
"Drac" available on Abkco single, and on American Dream - The Cameo Parkway Story (UK import).
THE ZOMBIES * Breathy Brit combo ('65-69) "starred" in Otto Preminger's Bunny Lake is Missing by appearing on TV in the background of a barroom scene that lasted four seconds.
Nice priced twofer: Time of the Zombies ("Tell Her No," "Time of the Season," "She's Not There") (Epic).
ZZ TOP * On the surface a Coral Waxed Canned Heat for the Eighties. Under the hood, an ultra-funky combo unbeatable at low yo-yo stuff, with an innate sense of the humor inherent in honky blues ("LaGrange," "Little Hippie Pad," "Cheap Sunglasses"). Modern mojo for the masses. -T.H.
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