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...unless you're Gassoff. Maybe.
Two artists for your listening pleasure today. First up is a dude named David Werner. I guess he was signed to be a stateside version of Ziggy Stardust or T-Rex...but it never took. He was still a teenager when his debut album, Whizz Kid, came out in 1974. By the time it was released, T-Rex had failed to translate on this continent, Bowie was moving away from his glam persona, and David Werner's album got very little help moving units. It was a cutout bin classic through the rest of the decade.
Shame, too, because I'd say that it has aged far better than damn near anything else that came out in '74. All the hallmarks of great glamrock are there: loud guitars, Bowie-ish, androgynous vocals, and even female gospel backing vocals. Great stuff, and take a listen:
Two artists for your listening pleasure today. First up is a dude named David Werner. I guess he was signed to be a stateside version of Ziggy Stardust or T-Rex...but it never took. He was still a teenager when his debut album, Whizz Kid, came out in 1974. By the time it was released, T-Rex had failed to translate on this continent, Bowie was moving away from his glam persona, and David Werner's album got very little help moving units. It was a cutout bin classic through the rest of the decade.
Shame, too, because I'd say that it has aged far better than damn near anything else that came out in '74. All the hallmarks of great glamrock are there: loud guitars, Bowie-ish, androgynous vocals, and even female gospel backing vocals. Great stuff, and take a listen:
"One More Wild Guitar"
"Whizz Kid"
"The Lady In Waiting"
"The Ballad Of Trixie Silver"
One more cool, unknown '70's release for you. This one's a reissue.
"Whizz Kid"
"The Lady In Waiting"
"The Ballad Of Trixie Silver"
One more cool, unknown '70's release for you. This one's a reissue.
The new issue of MOJO has a 4-star review of a reissue of a 1970 album by a fellow known only as Rodriguez (Sixto Rodriguez, apparently, to his madre.) The record is called "Cold Fact", and was recorded with a bunch of the Motown recording crew. It failed to menace when it came out, mostly due to the erratic behavior of Sixto Rodriguez, who (years before Michael Stipe or The Brian Jonestown Massacre) played an industry showcase with his back to the audience, and then walked offstage after an abbreviated performance. Only in South Africa (of all places) did "Cold Fact" really make an impression, going double platinum.
Sixto is alive and well and sane and working as a building manager in Detroit. LITA Records tracked him down, even got him to play some shows in advance of the reissue of the remastered "Cold Fact". Been listening to it for a day or so, and the record sounds fantastic--sort of folk-ish, but very, very dark and very, very angry. It is deceptively quiet music that wouldn't sound out of place on the Serpico or Mean Streets soundtracks, in other words.
In a lot of ways, it seems like what you'd get if someone listened to "Forever Changes", and decided to make a record that picked up where "Alone Again, Or" left off, but with the barely-masked fury of "A House Is Not A Motel" rather unmasked.
Here, listen to this and tell me you ain't hooked:
"Sugar Man"
Sixto is alive and well and sane and working as a building manager in Detroit. LITA Records tracked him down, even got him to play some shows in advance of the reissue of the remastered "Cold Fact". Been listening to it for a day or so, and the record sounds fantastic--sort of folk-ish, but very, very dark and very, very angry. It is deceptively quiet music that wouldn't sound out of place on the Serpico or Mean Streets soundtracks, in other words.
In a lot of ways, it seems like what you'd get if someone listened to "Forever Changes", and decided to make a record that picked up where "Alone Again, Or" left off, but with the barely-masked fury of "A House Is Not A Motel" rather unmasked.
Here, listen to this and tell me you ain't hooked:
"Sugar Man"
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