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Re: (TV) Better Late Then Never: Mojo & Record Collector from Jan. 2000



Phillip


re:Sandinista.     Maybe you bought after seeing the Punk Top Ten programme
on C4 last week
where Joe Strummer talked about how proud he was of the album?
----- Original Message -----
From: Philip P. Obbard <pobbard@yahoo.com>
To: <tv@obbard.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2000 7:05 PM
Subject: (TV) Better Late Then Never: Mojo & Record Collector from Jan. 2000


> Hi all,
>
> I meant to write this up before, but got lazy. Ok, now I'm back.
>
> In last month's MOJO magazine (a UK music magazine), they've got an
article by
> Jon Savage (of ENGLAND'S DREAMING fame/infamy) called "How to Buy New York
> Punk". In it, Savage lists his most essential NY Punk albums with short
> write-ups of each. His list:
>
> The New York Dolls' debut
> Richard Hell - Blank Generation
> Blondie - Plastic Letters
> Patti Smith - Horses
> The Ramones' debut
> Television - Marquee Moon
> Various Artists - No New York
> Heartbreakers - LAMF
> Suicide's debut (specifically the 2CD reissue with the live CD)
> Talking Heads - Fear of Music
>
> His write-up of MARQUEE MOON:
> "After a failed trip to the studio with Brian Eno in 1974, Television shed
> Richard Hell and delivered this masterpiece in early 1977. Intricate,
> musicianly, yet propulsive (thanks to a great rhythm section), MARQUEE
MOON
> captured the period's covert impulse to a dark psychedelia: "You know it's
all
> like some new kind of drug / My sense are sharp and my hands are like
gloves."
> Missing in action: the great 1976 single, 'Little Johnny Jewel', which has
been
> lost for 20 years."
>
> Ok, so the Eno/Williams session was probably in 1975, not 1974, and
"Little
> Johnny Jewel" was issued in 1975, I believe, not 1976, but otherwise...
ok.
>
> His write-up of BLANK GENERATION:
> "With the current unavailability of Hell's best work (the songs cut with
Neon
> Boys in 1973/4), this is the only way to discover what the rep is all
about.
> With a great, integrated band - including demon guitarist Bob Quine - Hell
rips
> through his early, 'teenage news' repertoire with a vigour that only dips
in
> the disc's last third. 'Love Comes in Spurts', 'Down at the Rock 'n' Roll
> Club', and the re-recorded 'Blank Generation' are definitive."
>
> Not sure I agree that Hell's best stuff is the Neon Boys material, but
OK...
> still, elsewhere, Savage doesn't seem to know that no less than 2
'un-muddied'
> versions of Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers' LAMF have been issued
since
> 1977 (LAMF Revisted and LAMF: The Lost '77 Mixes). Pretty shabby
fact-checking
> for a 'historian'...
>
> As footnotes, he also includes Pere Ubu's TERMINAL TOWER, Suicide's second
> album (the 2 CD reissue with the 1975 demos), and the Electric Eels' THEIR
> ORGANIC MAJESTIES REQUEST. He finishes with, "Most urgently, there is a
need
> for a good singles collection, like Rhino's now out-of-print BLANK
GENERATION -
> THE NEW YORK SCENE 1975/8. And will someone please reissue 'Little Johnny
> Jewel'?"
>
> I just saw NO NEW YORK on CD (pricey Japanese import) the other day. I've
never
> heard any of these bands - is it worth hearing? Opinions, anyone?
>
> Also in the January 2000 MOJO, their "Buried Treasure" feature is about
the
> Undertones fourth LP, THE SIN OF PRIDE, which got me to go back and listen
to
> this album some more. Apparently, the running order was changed by the
label a
> few times, which explains why some of the bonus material on the CD reissue
is
> better than the LP! (I also found a great Undertones site,
> http://theundertones.net/undedisc.htm, which has a copious discography
listing
> one of the possible original running orders for SIN OF PRIDE). My favorite
> Undertones album is still POSITIVE TOUCH, but SOP is filled with some
great (if
> muddily produced) material.
>
> Ok, onto Record Collector, another UK magazine, for January, 2000. They
have a
> list of the "Top 200 Albums" of the century. Obviously, a flawed list,
since
> Television makes no appearances, though contemporary debuts by Patti
Smith,
> Pere Ubu, and the Ramones do appear, along with Blondie's PARALLEL LINES,
and
> some UK punk (Sex Pistols, Damned, Buzzcocks). And lots of stuff I can't
even
> bring myself to mention... as we've got a frequent Record Collector
contributer
> on this list, I have to ask: what the hell happened??!?!
>
> And why am I listening to the Clash's SANDINISTA! over and over? Why did I
buy
> it earlier this week? Why didn't they drop like 15 of these songs?!?!
>
> --Philip
>
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