Historia de la Musica Rock: The Hundred (and One) Albums in the Pussy Galore Universe

Like I promised the time before.

These albums don't exist of course, but are simply referenced on the back of the booklet that came with Pussy Galore's tribute to/deconstruction of the Historia series from 1990.

In its own way, this list is as funny as the one they provided with the originals. Hard to surpass the humor in reality, if you know what I'm saying, but this list--the entire CD package--is so faithful to the budget bin aesthetic of the Spanish archetypes that you've just got to giggle.

Somebody spent a lot of time with this, it's clear, so I know the mistakes are intentional. My favorite is "Mango Jerry," though "Otis Spawn" is also good. Also love how John Travolta and Ike & Tina both get appearances on two albums, in the same way Roger Daltrey did in the original Spanish series. And they included Aphrodite's Child! No word for that but awesome. Just plain awesome.

Now we can say, had you doubted, that Jordi Sierra i Fabra and Pussy Galore both agree: The Rolling Stones and Aphrodite's Chid are essential.

And was it inevitable that Pussy Galore--named after a Bond girl, of course--would include in their list a band that named itself after the Bond villain Hugo Largo? I really have no choice, given the evidence; I have to suppose it was.

Beyond the humor drawn from the intentional mistakes and the James Bond injokes, the humor is where it was in the originals: in the juxtapositions. I hadn't realized until I compiled the list last week that the Spanish records hadn't actually combined artists on a single platter; but I've long known that Pussy Galore's parody finds most of its humor in the way it slaps radically different artists onto the same (yes, yes, hypothetical) disc. "Nuclear Assault, Shocking Blue" might just be my favorite fusion, though fictional record # 42 is pretty great, too: "Iron Butterfly, The Crests, The Crewcuts, The Undead."


Beyond that which is funny, much of this list is amazingly obscure. After the doo-wop and the paleo-rhythm and blues, much of it is comprised of arcane New York bands from the dawn of punk, crust punk bands, and Youth Crew bands, and scum punk bands and no-wave bands, many of whom I've never heard of in any other context.

Such deep, deep obscurity begs the question as to whether some of these bands might be so unknown that they, technically, as we say in the blogger biz, didn't even fucking exist. Pussy Galore wouldn't lie to us, would they?

Would they?!?!?!?!?



Well, it seems not. I did a little internet verification on some of the ones I hadn't heard of this morning, and almost everyone mentioned appears to have, you know, been real. "Red Buckets" and "L.C.U.," I couldn't find anything on them, but 20 or so of the others that I looked at have some kind of quickly-found mention on the beercan-riddled shoulders of the information superhighway.

If you wanna get an idea of some of the stuff I found while looking, check out this review of a rare early NY-scene compilation that namechecks five of the bands PG go to in their list.

Other than that, dive in:

1.   The Rolling Stones 2.   Red Buckets, Chubby Checker 3.   Bob Marley, Squirm, Crippled Youth 4.   The Fleetwoods, Savage Clrcle, The Chiffons, The Ad Libs 5.   Even Worse 6.   Billy Preston, Solomon Burke, Rites of the Accused 7.   The Headlickers, Sam & Dave, The Association 8.   The Waldos 9.   The Platters, Ultravlolence 10.   lke & Tina Turner, Warzone, Esther Philllps, Blues Image, Jimmy McGriff & Junior Parker, Ludichrist 11.   The Bloods, Duane Eddy, The Fireballs, Jack Scott, 12.   The Beach Boys, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Rude Buddha, Disco Tex & The Sex-O-Lettes 13.   Curia Thomas, The Shlrelles, Lonnle Mack, Brook Benton, Seizure, 14.   Mango Jerry, Johnny & The Hurricanes, Danny and The JunIors, Agnostlc Front, BiII Deal & The Rhondels 15.   Token Entry 16.   Nuclear Assault, Shocking Blue, The El Dorados 17.   Cro-Mags, L. C. U. 18.   Bloodsister 19.   The Platters, Killer Instinct, King Curtis, Lee Dorsey 20.   The Diamonds, The Five Americans, Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs, Porno Dracula, The Manhattans 21.   The Misguided 22.   Rufus Thomas, Martha Reeves, The Nashville Teens, Ism 23.   Sick of It All 24.   Harlots of 42nd Street 25.   Gary Lewis & The Playboys, The Eternals, Ritual Tension

51.   The Impressions, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, NY Niggers, Otis Spawn 52.   Jan & Dean, Shades of Blue, Jay & The Techniques, Patti Labelle & The Blue Belles, The Solitalres 53.   Aphrodite's Child 54.   Brook Benton, White Zombie 55.   The Shlrelles, The Olympics, The Mercers, Jerry Butler 56.   Roger Manning 57.   76% Uncertain, The Dovells, Jlmmie Rodger, T Roe 58.   Circus Mort 59.   Harry Crews, The Lunachicks, STP, Maria Excommunicata 60.   Mike Rlmbaud 61.   Jimmy Mcgriff & Junior Parker, Shirley & Lee 62.   Mike Blooomfield, Otis Spann 63.   The Skyliners, Gene Chandler Joe South 64.   Kraut 65.   Robert & Johnny, The Spaniels 66.   Peach of Immortality 67.   The Kingston Trio 68.   Icon 69.   Letch Patrol, The Flamingos 70.   Billy Bland, The Jive Five, Johnny Crawford 71.   Erasers, Cllfton Chronic, Isaac Douglas 72.   Jimmy Reed, Rat At Rat R 73.   The String-a-Longs, Sonny Till & The Orioles, Bobby Helms 74.   Jackie Wilson, J. Frank Wilson, Damage 75.   Amen Corner, Egoslavia

26.   Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, Verbal Abuse 27.   Stisism 28.   The Drifters, Chronic Disorder, The Bobettes 29.   John Travolta, Fontella Bass, Marv Johnson, The Box Tops, Lloyd Price 30.   Drunk Driving 31.   Murphy's Law 32.   The Orioles, The Dust Devils, The Moonglows, Fabian 33.   M.O.A., D.Y.S., F.O.D. 34.   S.O.D. 35.   M.O.D., Freddie & The Dreamers 36.   The Speedies 37.   Hugo Largo 38.   Virus, Black Snakes 39.   False Prophets 40.   The Jimmy Castor Bunch, The Casuals, Chris Banner 41.   Blodwyn Pig, Joe Simon, Otis Spawn 42.   Iron Butterfly, The Crests, The Crewcuts, The Undead 43.   Butch Lust & Tne Hypocrites 44.   The Capris, Heart Attack, George Freeman 45.   A. P. P. L. E. 46.   Uniform Choice 47.   John Travolta 48.   Ike & Tina Turner, Jimmy Reed, Serendipity Singers, Johnny Rivers 49.   Johnny and The Hurricanes, The Klngsmen, The Excellents 50.   Betty Everett, The Earls

76.   The Olympics, Nausea, The Mystics 77.   B. J. Thomas, The Tokens, Mel Carter, Token Entry, Bobby Freeman 78.   Sanford Clark, The Clovers, Ludichrist 79.   The Fiestas, The Fireballs, The Coachmen 80.   Numb Sex 81.   P. M.S., Wilbert Harrison, The Leaves 82.   Telly Beans, Peter Best 83.   The Cribcrashers, Doctor Clayton 84.   Youth of Today, Reagan Youth, Wasted Youth 85.   Irma Thomas, The Cowsills, The Crow, The Dells 86.   Johnny Ray, The Rotters 87.   The Passlons, Jlmmie Rodgers, Crumbsuckers, The Shangri-Las 88.   The Mellow Kings The Qin-tones, Swingin' Blue Jeans 89.   The Skulls, The Turtles, Frankie Valli 90.   The Paragons, Joe Thomas 91.   The Capitols, Frankle Ford, The Mob 92.   Brook Benton, Gogi Grant, The Happenlngs, King Harvest 93.   The Charlots, Ronnle Dove, Jerry Wallace, Sister Rosetta Tharpe 94.   Bloodsuckers From Outer Space 95.   Robert and Johnny, The Shaved Pigs, The Chimes 96.   Artless 97.   The Capris, The Earls, Don Gardner & Dee Dee Ford 98.   Seizure, Jimmy Reed, Crippled Youth 99.   The Solitaires, Billy Bland, Dee Clark 100.   Sonny Till & The Orioles, The Spaniels, The Undead 007.   Pussy Galore

"A new page in the history of Rock has been written. ¡Bravo!"