Wednesday, January 12, 2011

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

Pussy Galore Historia de la Musica Rock CD coverLike 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."

Neil Haggerty and his Flying V from the booklet to Historia de la Musica Rock
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!"

5 comments:

TAD said...

R: Ah, this is pretty fookin' hilarious too -- my favorite is #84, the "Youth" package -- wonder why they couldn't squeeze Crippled Youth in there too?
& what's on the Aphrodite's Child best-of anyway? "All the Seats Were Occupied" & "Infinity," I'd bet....
Oh, & it's about time Pete Best got a "best of"....

rastronomicals said...

Tad

Thanks for swinging by of course.

Believe but am not sure that the "Youth" disc was intended as a dig at PG drummer Bob Bert's former employers, Sonic Youth.

Course, Musical Youth wasn't included, either, so maybe they just didn't want to go too heavy on the noise-rock thang, never mind that "Sonic" is the biggest "Yoot" EVAR.

I remember Y & T's had a used copy of Aphrodite's Chariot's 666 up for sale for a long time. I looked at it a few times, then one day went in with the intention of finally buying it. . . . and it was gone.

Same exact thing happened with a Jon Lord solo album, Elephant something?

Yeah, Best best, didn't even put that together; I was focused on the incorrect form of the name "Peter," very HdlMRish also.

New adjective for the day, "HdlMRish."

TAD said...

R: If you find a copy of 666 at Goodwill 4 a coupla $$ it might be worth it just for Historical Intrest. If you havta pay much more I wouldn't bother. The coupla times I heard it (back around 1978) I remember thinking it was Mildly Intresting But Not Good, if you know what I mean. "All the Seats Were Occupied" was a 17-minute album-closing epic that eventually re-used all the musical themes heard previously on the 2-record set. "Infinity" featured sensual moaning by Greek actress Irene Papas -- which ... is at least of historical intrest: she got the moans down on record 5 years before Donna Summer....
AC's best-of probly also has something called "Rain and Tears" on it -- it was supposedly a big hit in Europe.
Yours in obscurity, -- TAD.

Anonymous said...

Rude Buddha is real. Look up "Rude Buddha - Hollow Man" on youtube. Good song. They started in Charlottesville, Virginia in the early 80s then (I think) moved north to NY.

Anonymous said...

Crippled Youth was so good that they made the list TWICE. Bwwwwwwwwwhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.