a musical history – by Terence Ruffle

Like I’m sure many other Beach Boys fans did, I eagerly awaited the reissue of “Pacific Ocean Blue” by Dennis Wilson. I’ve had a very clean copy on Mini disc, taken from an original pristine 1977 cassette tape, for a number of years. I love the album, the songs, and I love Carl Wilson’s backing vocals.

This music is of course unmistakably the work of a Beach Boy. But certainly a sight more left field. And of course Dennis has this strangely Gothic, Operatic slant on certain songs (see “Cuddle up” as an example prior to POB) which fascinates me. [Read more →]

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(This is the final part of a two-part story. Part one is here.)

We, that is the Accidents, did get to meet the Flamin Groovies, in 1977, at Essex University.

Radio Birdman supported them, though we didn’t know alot about them then.. They sounded a bit “country” to our ears at the time (????!!!???) so we really didn’t give them a chance. I love Radio Birdman now of course, “Aloha Steve and Danno” being an all time classic single, amongst the other classics I first heard via the New Race album. That album, “The First and the Last” being one of my all time favourites, which I got on cd for the first time recently, an expanded version. [Read more →]

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I believe I’ve seen the Ramones in excess of 27 times. I simply can’t comprehend that Joey, Johnny and, my personal favourite Dee Dee, are dead. If I had to choose just one band to take to heaven, a desert Island, or where ever, it would be Da Brudders, hands down. To say they totally rock out would be a massive understatement! Johnny’s guitar, Joey (and Dee Dee’s) vocals, the lyrics, the simple nursery rhyme-like fluidity of the song. The sunny, Beach Boys type melodies, the melancholic tunes, the raw aggressive more-punk-than-the-rest songs. But most of all, that adrenalin, amphetamine charged raw power. [Read more →]

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Listening to Eric Carmen singing ” All by Myself” I think yes, I could call this Powerpop. So what exactly is Powerpop? It’s said that Pete Townsend coined the phrase to explain the Who’s sound, but I wonder what he really meant?

I suppose some might say “All by Myself” is a power ballad, and they’d probably be right, but by virtue of the fact that Eric Carmen was in the Raspberries, I think it could still be cast as Powerpop. And the bombastic instrumentation and arrangement, coupled with the sweetest of vocals and melody, not to mention the Beatlesque orchestration.
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I first met Wade at a Rock bar in Pompano beach, South Florida, in the summer of ‘89. He had a kind of cowpunk look about him, very modern post punk, post Hanoi Rocks – cowboy style but definitely punk rock.

For the most part his guitar sound sucked, but his playing was real good. He had a strange old Fender combo. It was cream coloured, just like Jed’s Band Master amp that I used with the Accidents.

Wade had two guitars, a Gibson Les Paul and a cranky old Fender Jaguar – which he’d drag out to play this whacked-out surf instrumental. [Read more →]

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