Gary Wright: One of the great one hit wonders with Dreamweaver (or actually two hit wonder, because his second (lesser) hit, Love Is Alive is the topic of this brief off-topic story). About 20+ years ago, as a third-year lawyer, I worked at a law firm in Southern California. Another one of the attorneys there and I got invited to a party in the Hollywood Hills by Gary Wright because we were representing him on some small tech start up he had. My folks had his Dremweaver album when I was in my teens, so I knew those two songs and liked them. We were told that Sammy “I Can’t Drive 55” Hagar and Stephen Stills would likely be there as well. We went to the party, being held at this massive mansion with an amazing view of LA. Gary Wright was there, much shorter in stature then I would have expected. Turned out (I) he didn’t own the home, his wealthy girlfriend did and (ii) none of the other big names ever showed up. The funny part of the story though was that he had this closet that was filled with shelves with a stereo that played throughout the house and what looked like thousands of CDs. Despite all of these CDs, all night long he was playing the same CD over and over, entitled Smash Hits of the 70s, which unsurprisingly contained one of his songs, the aforementioned Love Is Alive. I will leave it to someone else on this thread to do the psychological analysis as to why, with all of the great CDs he had in that closet, he was so insecure (maybe?) that he needed to be playing the same CD over and over with one of his songs on it. Fortunately, it had some good tunes on it (including his song, which I do like), so it wasn’t too painful. if you like that one, remind me someday to tell you my funny Dee Snider story!
You better tell the Dee Snider story…now! Gary Wright: autumn ‘76-autumn ‘77 was a year of nomadic flux for me. So I associate Dreamweaver and a lot of the albums listed upthread (for ‘77) with traveling cross-country in my friend’s red ‘67 mustang. And Rush and Frampton Comes Alive. In short, it’s a pretty lean year for me as I never felt the urge to acquire the albums myself.
Prince of the Punks Ha it's like he had the bones of a punk song and (in his head at least) an appropriate snarl, but then he was like, let's throw in some Asbury Jukes horns here, and how about some Beach Boys harmonies there, and why not nod all over the place to the Who (I hear a bit of Substitute in this -- & not only in the back-dated/act is dated bits). I have no idea what order things were written or recorded in, but in my mind it started as a punk-ish song in the early Who/early Kinks mode, then Ray got all Ray-ish and decided to throw in a bunch of non-punk sounds like horns and high harmonies and non-snarly vocals. In terms of Sleepwalker put-down songs, I prefer Mr. Big Man (minority opinion, I know) because, like Powerman, it's putting down someone who gets pleasure from stepping on others. The Prince of the Punks doesn't do anything particularly vicious -- he just wears various (musical/cultural/attitudinal) masks because he wants to "make a little more bread." Maybe Ray is glancing in the mirror here a bit, if only unconsciously. In terms of put-down songs in general, it's no Positively 4th Street or How do you Sleep. It's no Mr. Big Man or Mr. Pleasant, either. If they'd worked a bit harder on it, maybe it could've been a Dedicated Follower of Fashion. Frankly, it's kind of a mess, but a fun mess and a good listen. (I remember hearing some British punk had a hit w/ a song called Glad to be Gay and I thought it was the coolest, most punk rock thing ever. Living in Japan, I couldn't find the track, and when I finally heard it, it was nothing like what I imagined). (Yes! @DISKOJOE , I remember when Cars, Dire Straits, Tom Petty, & the Costello-Parker-Edmonds-Lowe axis were considered part of the punk/new wave movement. A strange time in rock history).
(Yes! @DISKOJOE , I remember when Cars, Dire Straits, Tom Petty, & the Costello-Parker-Edmonds-Lowe axis were considered part of the punk/new wave movement. A strange time in rock history).[/QUOTE] Petty, The Cars, and Costello went on and had lengthy careers, and it quickly became clear that they were not really punk acts. But, if you watch early footage of all of them when their debut albums came out, they were not that much different in look, style, and attitude of others considered punk. It’s a silly label like many types of music that get branded. Punk to me is just rock n roll. I remember watching an early clip of Tom Petty and thinking he was totally going for more of a punk thing in the early days. That’s probably why I like his debut so much. It has that attitude. Then the album cover has him looking tough in his motorcycle jacket, which The Ramones made famous. I like The Cars and their debut can also be seen as a polished up new wave version of The Ramones. They even came complete with a tall and lanky lead man who could almost be mistaken for Joey Ramone. Elvis Costello’s debut may not be very punk, but his second album is closer. He also had the vibe and vigor of punk in his early performances. I think it’s easy to see why these bands in their early stages got lumped in with the punk scene. I don’t agree that punk music is talentless. I’d say it’s quite the opposite. Sometimes it takes far more talent to do so much with so little.
I have been meaning to listen to more of The Only Ones. I only know the debut. They came up in conversation with someone recently. I would also say Hawkwind made a nice transition into the punk era. They lost Lemmy, but gained Robert Calvert as their perfectly weird lead singer. Quark Strangeness and Charm would be included in my favorite albums of 1977.
“Prince of the Punks” I’m not sure what to make of this song. I never paid attention to the lyrics, and I’m unfamiliar with Tom Robinson. It seems like a put down, but I have no idea what Ray was going for. A song about a punk and it fittingly sounds partly based on “Rock and Roll Music”. It makes a good B side to the excellent A side. It’s a bit of a throwback to the recent Schoolboys in Disgrace album. I like it, but it’s never stood out much before.
Yes! & also, at first, I had a hard time telling Rick O and David Byrne's voices apart, because they were both "new" sounding. And Elvis C right off the bat w/ short hair and Buddy Holly glasses -- proud to be nerdy! -- felt very fresh and unexpected. Exactly. & in retrospect, at the time, no matter what the music sounded like, the idea of a song called Glad to be Gay was punk as hell. It was like, well Elton would never have the balls to do this. & there's actually a hint of mid-period Kinks tribute in the song -- [On a side note, took my daughter and a friend of hers to the Mitski concert last night and wound up next to Phoebe Bridgers in the balcony area. The whole huge audience -- including PB -- were singing along with practically every word of every song and, as one passing girl said, "damn, every single person here is gender fluid." The idea of a mainstream song celebrating homosexuality as overtly as TRB did was a pretty radical departure in 1977, and I give him credit for it, and it does make Prince of the Punks feel like a bit of a cheap shot against someone who was nothing like Mr. Big Man]
Oh yeah, that's the other thing about "Prince of the Punks", the chorus rips off "Substitute" but in a fairly boring way.
I’d put The Hard away in the punk category but not The Prince of Punks. But what do I know. Rolling Stone magazine referred to Elvis Costello etc (the artists referenced above by many) as new wave (according to my memory. And so it’s stuck ever since that way in my brain). The Ramones were in the punk camp. Back in ‘77 I was completely unaware of any of it. Heard The Modern Lovers in early ‘78 and loved it. And probably ‘78-‘79 heard a lot of the other stuff…but not the Pistols. I don’t think I heard them until, hmm, maybe early ‘80s at my favorite dive bar in Tokyo, Trouble Peach. (The master had to crawl through the window to get behind the counter. Seated five or six total, all seated on plastic beer crates with thin cushion. Record covers all corroding from being handled by beer-soaked fingers. Heaven! Upstairs was Eat A Peach, more spacious but lacked the intimacy of the smaller space. Ah yes, getting nostalgic just thinking about it. Anyway, I’m quite certain that’s where I first heard The Pistols.)
Funny I used to go to a tiny dive bar in Osaka that had Sex Pistols on heavy rotation in '78. Also, my buddies and I would choose "My Way" for karaoke at various clubs and do the Sid Vicious version, much to the confusion/consternation of other patrons. Saw the Police in both Osaka and Kyoto in '79, as well as the B-52's in a small Kyoto bar and the Knack at a biggish venue (though the Knack might've been early '80).
I agree. “The Hard Way” and “Father Christmas” are probably the closest they got to punk. This may be why “Prince of the Punks” never made much of an impact. With that title you think it would be more of a punk song.
I left Tokyo in ‘76 and didn’t get back until January ‘81. My Trouble Peach buddy sent me a poster advertising the delights of Shimo-Kitazawa four or five years ago. Eat A Peach was still there! (I gather Shimo-Kitazawa is now gentrified. And so it goes.)
Prince of the Punks is an interesting track - it's not very 'punk', other than perhaps the spite in the lyric. But it's a nice Sleepwalker bonus and I love the Beach Boys-esque backing vocals. It wouldn't fit the sound of the album, and I agree with @palisantrancho that it sounds more like a Schoolboys track.
So, my Dee Snyder story, even though I kind of gave the punchline away already, but it’s still a bit funny I suppose: 5 years or so ago, I get on a plane for a flight from LA to New York City with my fiancé. We are in the first row in the economy class section. Before we takeoff, two people sit in the last row of first class on the opposite side of the plane so we can see the back of their heads quite well. I’m not paying much attention, but Courtney pokes me and says “hey you should check that guy out, i think that guys some rockstar you like”. I look up quickly from my phone where I’m responding to emails, see what looks like a rather big mass of blonde long curly hair, and state unequivocally “that’s a girl Courtney” and put my head back down into my phone. A little while later, after we takeoff, Courtney pokes me again. She’s trying to get onto the Wi-Fi and her phone shows a list of the other devices on the Wi-Fi. She says “look, wasn’t there some guy that you liked named Dee Snyder?“ And points to the list on the Wi-Fi of computers and stuff, one of which says “Dee Snyder‘s computer“. I look at the person again and see him from a different angle as he speaks to the flight attendant and clearly it is Dee Snyder! Now I’m not really a fan boy and I wouldn’t typically approach or talk to a rockstar in public, but I’ll admit that my 15 year old self was a big fan of Twisted Sister’s first album, Under the Blade (I told y’all I was a metalhead). So when the plane lands and as we all get set to disembark, I lean forward into first class as he’s taking down his suitcase and say “hey man, I just want to tell you that I was a big fan from the beginning, I remember buying Under the Blade when it first came out”. I say this specifically because I’m sure he gets approached all the time by people that liked We’re Not Gonna Take It, And I want him to know I’m a legit fan from early days, not somebody that just knows his one hit song. He pretty much gives me the cold shoulder, kind of a nod and a grunt and that’s about it (which is one of the reasons I don’t usually consider approaching rock stars, figuring they’re either going to be busy or unfriendly most of the time so there’s no point). Courtney and I get downstairs in the terminal to the baggage claim area and I head towards the bathroom before the long ride into the city. Coming down a different escalator is Mr. Snyder and his wife. He looks over in my direction, raises his arm, gives me the V for victory sign and yells in an incredibly loud voice “Yo! Under the blade!” We then both proceeded in to the men’s room where to hang out at adjacent urinals having a discussion about his upcoming album and tour plans while we were relieving ourselves. He was very friendly. About four months later, we’re back in Santa Monica, and I’m driving in my car with Courtney, my mother and her husband. We pull up at a red light, a few feet further back next to this tricked out, obviously older model Tesla, with all kinds of gold trim and some kind of weird fancy license plate and tinted windows. Courtney jabs me and goes “hey look who it is!” I look over, see a massive head of blonde hair, curly and wild, in the driver seat of the Tesla and reply “who, that girl driving the Tesla?“. Obviously (you can see where this is heading), as we pull up a little bit closer to the Tesla at the red light, the head turns and, sure enough, it’s Dee Snyder. I roll down my window and said “Hey Dee, doubt you’d remember me but we met at JFK a few months ago.”. He smiled, put his his arm out the window, gave me the victory sign again and said “Yo! Under the blade!” Then he hit the gas and sped off, never to be seen again. That’s my story! …which of course has nothing to do with the Kinks!
Avid Martyj, I did mention the song in my first paragraph as something that sounded like Lonnie Donagan. My knowledge of Allen Sherman songs are limited to what I heard on the Dr. Demento Show and I never heard that particular song. It sounds like Lonnie Donagan covered that particular song. Speaking of Dr. Demento, Avid Ajsmith, the word Bologna is pronounced the way Weird Al does in that parody of "My Sharona", which was actually his first single which was his first single, which was actually released on Capitol, which was made after his home brewed version got lots of air play on the Dr. Demento show. The word "baloney" is another form of Bologna, as well as meaning BS.
Speaking of great stories that have nothing to do with the Kinks, how about the one about the exploding whale?:
There's no knowing what would have become of Marc had he not died at such a tender age. I recently read Tony Visconti's (he famously produced T Rex and Bowie albums) autobiography and Tony had to part ways with Marc as Marc's head got too big after his success and he was insufferable.
I stumbled upon this blog where a former writer for the magazine Crawdaddy describes a 1971 interview with Ray Davies. Seven hours after the interview, the writer went to the NYC Kinks show where Ray fell over backwards during Apeman. we were talking about this in the past week or two on this thread...how Ray claims he was slipped some drug before the show. Anyway, I think this is an interesting read in general so thought I'd share: My Back Pages #2: Ray Davies Gets His Kinks Out
Me too... but I consistently make fun of it by pronouncing it the way it's spelled... much to my workmates' dismay
Prince of the Punks The horns are back and it's wonderful! I love this song. If you're going to do a putdown song, this is how you do it...to a certain extent. I think the gay comment is maybe a little too much(looking at it through the lens of the 21st century), but other than that, I'd hate to cross Ray. I mean, Ray wrote Dedicated Follower of Fashion after a run-in with some guy at a party. I think making fun of Tom Robinson was just a taking off point for the lyrics. They obviously don't all apply to Tom (ie I don't think he wore a swastika ever...but there were some punks that did for shock value). Ray is rocking the vocals. The music is great. Love the guitar sounds throughout. Again...horns...perfectly used. And then in come the backing vocals. For the first time in this thread where many have compared past Kinks songs to the Beach Boys and I simply don't hear it...well, this is the first song where I hear the BB in the backing vocals on the 2nd half. Hurrah! I get being bothered by the attack by Ray. Sure, it's harsh. But it's also funny as hell which tempers the meanness. Additionally I feel like Ray has let loose on this one more than any song hovering around this album. This is FUN music to my ears.
True I have to admit to playing and singing it ad nauseum on long holiday car trips to Cowes & Phillip Island.
