Walk On By, or There May Be No Holy Grail!
By Mr. Moderator on Dec 16, 2009
Walk on by...
I was listening to the first two dB's albums on my iPod the other night, and I forgot that the CD I burned to my iTunes had some singles tacked on. Years ago I landed a six-pack of early dB's singles, which along with awesome cover art included some songs I'd never heard on the two albums I'd been playing to death in the year leading up to that purchase. Way back when and again the other night I was underwhelmed by the song "Soul Kiss." I remembered how hearing that song became a Holy Grail issue for me when I was 18 years old. I remembered how finally hearing it didn't live up to the advance billing I'd somehow accepted as gospel.
Another Holy Grail that I shouldn't have bothered chasing was that first Buzzcocks ep, Spiral Scratch. It took me about 10 years to finally shell out for that bad boy, and it sucks. The Buzzcocks aren't the Buzzcocks, to me, without Pete Shelley singing lead. I never minded Howard Devoto singing for Magazine, despite never finding that band half as appealing as the Shelley and Steve Diggle-led Buzzcocks, but Spiral Scratch is not an ep I'd ever recommend tracking down and paying top dollar for - or even buying at a reasonable price as a CD reissue with bonus tracks, as I did.
You may disagree with my particular nonrecommendations, but I'm most interested in hearing your own walk-on-by nonrecommendations.
13 comments
Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]
Funny, the New York Times piece I was just referred to characterized this album as a "Holy Grail."
http://www.phawker.com/2009/12/14/it-takes-a-nation-of-millions-to-hold-us-back/
http://www.phawker.com/2009/12/14/it-takes-a-nation-of-millions-to-hold-us-back/
12/15/09 @ 14:30
Comment from: hrrundivbakshi [Member] 
We talked about disappointing holy grails on RTH Chess, but I'll tell my story again for new listeners:
I love vintage AC/DC, as produced by Vanda & Young. I love Vanda & Young as produced by Vanda & Young. I love the Easybeats, which included Vanda & Young. Thus, I *had* to find a copy of "Tales Of Old Grand-daddy" by the Marcus Hook Roll Band.
Why, you ask? Because the Marcus Hook Roll "Band" was basically Harry Vanda and George Young, with a few mates sitting in for fun, invented for the sole purpose of recording some simple, liberating, three-chord rock and roll -- i.e., the blueprint for what they'd go on to foster a year or two later in George's younger brothers' band, AC/DC. What's more, the Marcus Hook Roll Band LP featured Malcolm and Angus Young on guitar on a few tracks. How cool is that!
The rock-nerd back-story pedigree of this album was impeccable: Vanda & Young, burned out from their years as once-successful, now-washed up Easybeats, got drunk one night in the studio and bashed out a couple of tunes, which were sent to some American label on a lark/by mistake. The label thought they were fantastic, and insisted on a whole album's worth of the stuff, which V&Y dutifully cranked out.
Well, long story short: I finally got my hands on a copy, and with the exception of one or two tracks... it sucked! The songs are boring, the Angus and Malcolm contributions are uninteresting, and the whole thing sounds like it was recorded in a couple of hours in between trips out to the liquor store (and not in a good way).
Don't believe me? This is one of the better tunes on the album (and features both Malcolm and Angus on guitar). Yes, one of the better ones!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXVJ8S3Bwdg
HVB
I love vintage AC/DC, as produced by Vanda & Young. I love Vanda & Young as produced by Vanda & Young. I love the Easybeats, which included Vanda & Young. Thus, I *had* to find a copy of "Tales Of Old Grand-daddy" by the Marcus Hook Roll Band.
Why, you ask? Because the Marcus Hook Roll "Band" was basically Harry Vanda and George Young, with a few mates sitting in for fun, invented for the sole purpose of recording some simple, liberating, three-chord rock and roll -- i.e., the blueprint for what they'd go on to foster a year or two later in George's younger brothers' band, AC/DC. What's more, the Marcus Hook Roll Band LP featured Malcolm and Angus Young on guitar on a few tracks. How cool is that!
The rock-nerd back-story pedigree of this album was impeccable: Vanda & Young, burned out from their years as once-successful, now-washed up Easybeats, got drunk one night in the studio and bashed out a couple of tunes, which were sent to some American label on a lark/by mistake. The label thought they were fantastic, and insisted on a whole album's worth of the stuff, which V&Y dutifully cranked out.
Well, long story short: I finally got my hands on a copy, and with the exception of one or two tracks... it sucked! The songs are boring, the Angus and Malcolm contributions are uninteresting, and the whole thing sounds like it was recorded in a couple of hours in between trips out to the liquor store (and not in a good way).
Don't believe me? This is one of the better tunes on the album (and features both Malcolm and Angus on guitar). Yes, one of the better ones!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXVJ8S3Bwdg
HVB
12/15/09 @ 15:26
The Jayhawks - Bunkhouse - their pre-Blue Earth record is considered the "Holy Grail" in the no-depression world. I dont think a CD of this has ever been in print (and still may not be, I got this as a download)
At least I didn't pay for it. I thought it was their least interesting, by-the-numbers alt-country ...and they might be my favorite band of the last 20 years
At least I didn't pay for it. I thought it was their least interesting, by-the-numbers alt-country ...and they might be my favorite band of the last 20 years
12/15/09 @ 16:54
Comment from: chickenfrank [Member]
There's very little that falls under the obscure umbrella for the Beatles, but What's the New Mary Jane does. Years ago it was hard to find a version of it. Now I've heard it. Obscurity deserved.
12/15/09 @ 17:27
Comment from: cherguevarra [Member]
I'm sure I'm alone in this but... The boys of Jellyfish were in a band lead by another writer/singer. I know that die hard JF fans were paying top dollar for copies of that bands album, Beatnik Beech. I was excited to find it for $5 at a WFMU record fair - and the seller said I could have it for $1. Convinced I had gotten the deal of the century, I played the album. Then I decided I wanted my dollar back.
I paid way too much for an import of the 1st Peter Case album on CD. Don't get me wrong, it's a good album, but a month after I bought the Japanese import disc, it came out in the US. D'oh!
I paid way too much for an import of the 1st Peter Case album on CD. Don't get me wrong, it's a good album, but a month after I bought the Japanese import disc, it came out in the US. D'oh!
12/15/09 @ 19:55
Comment from: misterioso [Member]
Not sure this quite reaches Holy Grail status for me, but as a Cars fan from my youth, I had heard about but never heard the elusive pre-Cars album by Milkwood, "How's the Weather" (1973), which included Ocasek, Orr, and Hawkes. Some ten years ago or so a friend who is a big Cars fan found the lp, probably paid good $ for it. Pretty much one prolonged yawn. Plenty of milk, not much wood.
12/16/09 @ 09:55
Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]
Along your lines, misterioso, have you ever heard the early '70s album by the ROCK band some of The dB's were in? I'm totally blanking on their name, but the tracks I finally heard made me real glad that I never tracked down a copy of that album.
Also in that dB's-related Holy Grail bag, I was unimpressed by the legendary Sneakers stuff once that was finally reissued on CD. I wrote its shortcomings off to the involvement of Mitch Easter, a seemingly good guy whose work as a producer and musician I've never quite dug.
Also in that dB's-related Holy Grail bag, I was unimpressed by the legendary Sneakers stuff once that was finally reissued on CD. I wrote its shortcomings off to the involvement of Mitch Easter, a seemingly good guy whose work as a producer and musician I've never quite dug.
12/16/09 @ 10:22
Comment from: Mr. Moderator [Member]
Was the early Stamey-Holsapple band called Rittenhouse Square or Main Line or some other seeming Philadelphia-related reference that I have never heard explained?
12/16/09 @ 10:37
Comment from: 2000 Man [Member]
Holy Grails are funny. When you have one that someone else wants, it seems like it's no big deal, but it seems like when you really want something, they can be unbelievably hard to track down! I think I've mentioned Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music here before (i.e. I say, "Wow - what an unpolishable turd!"). I found it at a record convention, and I remember lester Bangs saying it was all he listened to in his car, with the windows down and blasting. I figured it was probably like The Velvet Underground meets The MC5. Instead it sounds like tuning in an AM radio station with no signal on that channel. You owe me, Lou! I still want my money back!
The other one for me that I always flip through my records and find when I least expect it (I must have it slightly out of alphabetic order) is Lothar and the Hand People's Space Hymn. I couldn't believe when I found it, and even though it had a little water damage to the cover, it wasn't bad and I had read a Goldmine article about how awesome it was and pretty much how I'd never find one. I played it once, like thirty years ago and I remember being incredibly bored with the whole thing. I should play it again and see if it still blows as much as I thought it did when I was a kid.
The other one for me that I always flip through my records and find when I least expect it (I must have it slightly out of alphabetic order) is Lothar and the Hand People's Space Hymn. I couldn't believe when I found it, and even though it had a little water damage to the cover, it wasn't bad and I had read a Goldmine article about how awesome it was and pretty much how I'd never find one. I played it once, like thirty years ago and I remember being incredibly bored with the whole thing. I should play it again and see if it still blows as much as I thought it did when I was a kid.
12/16/09 @ 11:17
Comment from: misterioso [Member]
Sneakers! Good lord. I had or may well still have a Sneakers 2-fer cd. Am I remembering correctly? I guess this gives an idea how blown away I was by it. I think I used to have one of their albums that came out in the late 80s, too. Totally blanking. I rather liked Let's Active but, again, when was the last time I listened to them or even thought about doing so?
12/16/09 @ 11:19
Comment from: cherguevara [Member]
Ditto on the "Sneakers" stuff.
Also, I found this web site - doesn't belong in this thread, but where does it go, then?
PowerPop mania...
http://denniscooper-theweaklings.blogspot.com/2009/01/power-pop-retrospectivesque-1976-1986.html
Also, I found this web site - doesn't belong in this thread, but where does it go, then?
PowerPop mania...
http://denniscooper-theweaklings.blogspot.com/2009/01/power-pop-retrospectivesque-1976-1986.html
12/16/09 @ 14:10
Comment from: misterioso [Member]
2000 Man--that's very funny! I know it is bad form to speak ill of the dead, but I would like to propose that Lester Bangs be posthumously smacked with a large sock full of horse manure. Overrated blowhard.
12/16/09 @ 18:12
Comment from: cdm [Member]
Good point Misterioso.
I would say that by Lester Bangs' writing falls into this category.
It took me a while to track down Psychotic Reactions and when I did, I found most of it really underwhelming.
I would say that by Lester Bangs' writing falls into this category.
It took me a while to track down Psychotic Reactions and when I did, I found most of it really underwhelming.
12/17/09 @ 11:36
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