Robert Johnson, Meet Robert Johnson

Robert Johnson: Lost And Found
by Barry Lee Pearson & Bill McCulloch
University of Illinois Press, 2003

Book review by Phil Milstein

Through the efforts of a succession of dogged blues researchers, there is by now a modest-sized stack of verified information on the life of Robert Johnson. The emergence of this data has done nothing, alas, to stanch the systematic growth of a parallel mass of bullshit information about him — ye olde Crossroads Myth, and all that — that threatens to lap the real facts several times over. These twin views are at such variance that if the two Johnsons were ever to meet, they’d scarcely recognize one another.

Carefully surveying the most current set of valid Johnsonia, including an attempt to reconcile the many conflicts in the testimonies of Johnson’s acquaintances, Barry Lee Pearson and Bill McCulloch aim with Robert Johnson: Lost And Found to not only surgically discredit every last piece of the mythology that’s sprung up around Johnson like so much kudzu, but also to trace the original sources of those myths, and the paths they’ve taken on their way to becoming common misinformation.

They do a skillful enough job of this that something like a flesh-and-blood Robert Johnson begins to arise from the murk, shake off the mud and peel away the vegetation, and stand before us, finally, as a recognizable human being. The authors ought to be content to help bring him along to this point, but the righeous indigation with which they condemn all those complicit in fostering the mythological Johnson results in an often infuriating read.

Pearson and McCulloch ignore the fact that history rarely emerges as a wholly-developed entity. It tends, instead, to grow in stages, beginning with a few scant facts coupled with patches of rumor and legend, and often smoothed over with pure invention. This process is entirely normal and human, and it is only in response to such primordial accounts that the more professional work can take place.

For Johnson, this more accurate version has been slow in coming. Given this vacuum, along with the essentially mysterious quality of his music— how else to explain, for instance, how a fit man in his mid 20s can sound as often as not like he’d just stared, unblinking, into life’s terrible chasm? — and the usual process of romanticization, and it seems perfectly natural for the kudzu to have so flourished.

While I applaud Pearson and McCulloch for their clear demonstration that their subject acquired his musical skills the old-fashioned way, their lack of sympathy for the dynamics of popular mythology strikes me as unmercifully clinical. By so successfully demystifying Robert Johnson, in fact, they have left him more mysterious than ever, as shorn of such stuff we are left with no idea of the source of his dread.

An interview with Jim McCarthy of THE GODZ

Contact High with THE GODZ

By Jack Partain

As a founding member of the Godz, one of the seminal freakout bands of the mid-1960s garage folk scene emanating from the energy of the Fugs and the freedom of legendary avant garde label ESP-Disk, Jim McCarthy holds an interesting place in rock and roll history. The Godz were one of the first bands to explore the devolution of rock & roll and the raw, instinctual music they produced was in direct opposition the high art excesses of popular music that would culminate in albums like Pet Sounds and Sgt Pepper's. Which also means that the band was in direct opposition to the hordes of adoring fans, massive record sales, and critical acclaim that artists like the Beatles and the Beach Boys enjoyed.

But the Godz were on to something, and their influence has vibrated throughout the rumblings of underground music since their first album Contact High was released in 1966. Lester Bangs, one of the first to understand what the band was trying to do, claimed that though the Godz were quite possibly “the most inept band [he'd'] ever heard,” they reminded him of the “vast vacuous beauty” of New York in the 1960s. In his 1972 essay for Creem magazine titled "Do the Godz Speak Esperanto?", Bangs would go on to say: “The Godz were exciting to think about because they promised to break through and become even more outrageous by dynamiting all the stupid standards by which esthetic-minded critics and technique bound musicians sought to raise rock from pygmy squall to art form.” 

The Godz released four albums from 1966-1973. The first two, Contact High and Godz 2, contain the songs for which the band is best known: “Radar Eyes,” “Turn On,” and, of course, “White Cat Heat” (a song in which the band members screech like cats for two minutes over an eerie bass and drum accompaniment) are regarded as classics of proto-neo-psychedelic-punk and roll or whatever you want to call it. The final two albums (Third Testament and Godzeuntheit are almost universally derided as schlocky attempts at mainstream success. The Godz disbanded in 1973 and subsequent attempts at a reunion have proved disastrous.

Jim McCarthy is currently a photographer living in New York. He was kind enough to answer a few questions via email earlier this year. 

 Jim McCarthy

UT: Here's a slightly ridiculous question to start: where did the name 'The Godz' come from, and why the 'z' on the end?

Jim McCarthy: I don't find the question ridiculous, I think the name is ridiculous! It was intentional. When we were trying to come up with a name as cool as the Beatles, we passed through a great number choices. Larry (Kessler, bassist) was the one who said, “Fuck, why don't we just call ourselves The Gods?” and that name stuck. It was after we recorded the improvised tune “Godz,” and the engineer asked for the name of the song, that I told him, “Godz, with a z,” and the rest is history.

UT: How did The Godz form? In Ray Brazen’s “This is The Godz Truth” you say that it came out of personal frustration and being inspired by seeing the Fugs. Is that the gist of it or is there more?

JM: The Godz came about at a time that was personally depressing for me. I had just been released from the hospital and was recovering from hepatitis. My girlfriend and I also broke up and I was crashing on Larry Kessler's couch temporarily. Up to then I was singing in a very good covers band which was originally called the Dick Watson Five, but later changed to the Chosen Few. That group recorded an album of songs from the Broadway show Baker Street, but in a contemporary rock style. An independent production on the United International label that went nowhere, and is now extremely rare.

Larry Kessler

Larry (Kessler), Paul (Thornton, drums) and I had worked together at Sam Goody's record shop on West 49th Street and had been friends for a couple of years. Jay (Dillon, psaltery) was an acquaintance of Larry who was brought into the picture after the idea was born. The Fugs were a definite influence on me because it was after seeing them in rehearsal at the Astor Theatre that I phoned my guitarist and told him I didn't want to sing in a covers band anymore. That was the first step towards the formation of the Godz in my mind.

The music actually came about quite organically in Larry's living room and Bernard Stollman and ESP-Disk were a perfect opportunity to express our feelings at the time.

Paul Thornton

UT: The music of the Godz is almost always described by critics in the same way. Lester Bangs called the band "inept", others have used words like childlike or "like they just picked up their instruments without knowing how to play them...." etc, but how would you describe the music of the Godz?

JM: Even though Paul Thornton had been in the music business previously, and I had been playing professionally for a couple of years, Jay was a painter with no previous music experience and Larry had no experience playing an instrument other than his childhood days playing violin, our approach to making music was entirely loose in structure. In that respect, we were influenced a bit by the artists already recording on ESP, such as Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, the Fugs as well as others. Paul and I would gather at Larry Kessler's place socially to play some music. Because of various substances we were entertaining ourselves with, the music was very loosely structured. So, even though some of us played instruments, we weren't very good. We determined early on that that was not important. What was important was to express our feelings as accurately, and immediately as possible. When Jay Dillon entered the picture, we thought of teaching kids in local schools how to express themselves through music, and I believe we tried it once, but that never really developed into anything substantial for us. Inept? Yes, we were inept and still are, but not without the ability to create. The idea was to not let our limitations stop us from expressing ourselves. It's obvious that we were doing something true, otherwise we would not have so many fans today. Fans who were not even born until much later.

The Godz’ music is as honest as it gets in the music business.

UT: Did the Lester Bangs article in Creem come as a surprise to you?

JM: Total surprise. We had already disbanded a few years earlier. I was working at a clothing store on West 4th Street when while on a lunch break I spotted the magazine on the newsstand. I was a bit confused by the cover, “Lester Bangs on The Godz,” and when I bought and read it, I was ecstatic. Ecstatic and disappointed. Why couldn't this have been written a few years earlier, while we were still together? I think this is probably the most definitive essay about us and our music.

UT: I never saw the Godz live. Can you describe what the band was like live?

JM: Depending on the venue and the frame of mind we were in, the performances varied. I think we probably led off our shows with “White Cat Heat,” just to let people know what they were in for, if they didn't already know. One of our most common occurrences at shows was the inordinate amount of time spent trying to tune-up. If an audience member could survive this, which actually became part of the Godz experience, he or she might feel satisfied. We were constantly going out of tune, assuming that we were in tune to begin with, due to the cheap instruments, condition we were in, and very hard playing. I played so hard I literally destroyed my guitar.

We never really attracted much of an audience outside of some close friends and admirers. The largest crowd we drew was at a concert sponsored by some students at Duke University in Durham, NC. It was a very respectable size audience that seemed to get what we were about, even though the local blues band opening for us did not.

UT: Do you resent the criticisms of the later Godz albums, Third Testament and Godzuhnteit?

JM: That’s a good question. The answer is, no. I myself never considered them to be Godz albums. Jay Dillon had left, and that was a significant change in structure, input, output and what it all meant at that point. We all pretty much knew that the original intent was finished. I think the third and fourth albums were a desperate attempt by the others involved to continue the concept, but it just didn't work the same without Jay Dillon's input. So, no I have never resented the criticisms of those works.

UT: Are the Godz albums “New York” albums?

JM: I think they are “New York” albums because of all of the elements coming together the way they did. We all came from different backgrounds and NYC is what brought us together. I don't think ESP-Disk would have existed in any other town. I definitely think that those works were indicative of the New York scene at that time.

           

UT: Where did the idea for “White Cat Heat” come from? I'm sure you've answered this question a lot, but I haven't found anything addressing this specific topic and would love to know!

JM: One afternoon while we were trying to play music in Larry's one bedroom apartment on the Lower East Side, we were forced to endure the intense calls of Asia, his very much in heat Siamese cat. I don't remember what it was we might have been attempting, but it got to the point where her calling overwhelmed my singing, and I joined her. I think that kinda freaked her out, and she shut up for awhile. Anyway, that became our anthem.

      
UT: The Godz seem to be a band that came out of nowhere, a band with no real precedent in the history of popular music, but yet you chose to cover Hank Williams, and “May You Never be Alone” in particular. What is the significance of that song in relation to The Godz?

JM: Do you really think there's no precedent? I'm not sure about that. Paul Thornton was not contributing original music to the group at that time. We were a very young, impromptu effort. Pretty much a “pipe dream.” Everything was being made up as we went along. Hank showed up because we had done all our original stuff, and decided to give Paul the spotlight. His favorite musician then and now is Hank Williams. As far as I know, there is absolutely no significance in that choice of songs, but who knows what was going through Paul's mind at the time.

UT: Well, since you mentioned it—musically, what do you consider the precedents for the Godz?

JM: Maybe the Goon Show in England, but who knows who might have been doing something similar earlier on, and has never been recognized.

UT: Can you give me some insight as to how the band decided what instruments might be included on which songs? I mean, take “May You Never be Alone,” for instance. How did the band decide how to put that song together with the flute then harmonica? I guess what I'm asking is how did the Godz actually put their songs together?

JM: I guess they just got started by the creator, the others joined in whichever way they felt might be appropriate. We were aware of our musical limitations and tried to vary sounds when possible. As for that song in particular, I guess it was just a matter of me finding a place in Paul's performance that worked. It needed to be bent a bit.

     
UT: Do you think that Godz II is an extension of Contact High or was the band trying to do something different with the second album? I mean, the two albums seem to get lumped together like they're a double album in most reviews and I was just wondering what you opinion is about the differences between the two albums?

JM: I do think that Godz 2 is a natural progression from Contact High, though not Third Testament. It's kind of like a one, two punch. In the beginning we were a little restricted by the limitations of the instruments at our disposal. When our first studio efforts were greeted with enthusiasm by Bernard Stollman at ESP-Disk, he helped us get some additional instruments through support from several companies. This enabled us to be a little more varied in our sounds.

We really did have high (no pun intended) aspirations, and felt we could be widely successful. The problem was we were very anarchistic, and although I think we each had a different notion of what the Godz was about, essentially the first two albums were about bashing out our ideas in spite of our limitations. Our goal was not to sound awful, it was to sound as good as we could, but primarily to get our real feelings across. We were very inept in some ways, but we didn't let it get in our way, we forged on.

In my opinion, the second album achieved the sound that I imagined would be strong enough to compete in the commercial market, while maintaining our individuality. Unfortunately, we were very bad at getting it all together enough to achieve that.

Jay Dillon

UT: Can you describe how the Godz actually stopped being a band (“broke up,” for lack of a better term)?

JM: In 1967, before, during and after the release of Godz 2, we were playing around at various venues in the NY / NJ area. Hallucinogens were commonly employed during these adventures. Experiences varied widely, but Jay Dillon never felt comfortable on stage. He was a very introverted person, and as we all felt, a very integral part of the equation. Some Duke University students in Chapel Hill, NC organized a concert at the Civic Center in Durham. Michael Soldan, a close photographer friend of Jay Dillon's and the band who shot the cover for the second album and allowed us to use his studio to rehearse, drove us down there and back, and even provided the strobes we used on stage. The concert, and accompanying events, were enjoyed by all, except for Jay, who remarked, “I’ll never do that again.” He didn’t.

It was when we got back home that Jay announced he was leaving the band. In my mind, that was the end of it. That was the spring. We kind of went on hiatus for the summer, put out a couple of singles in an attempt at cracking the market, but not much in the way of performances, as I recall. I did drive cross country and back with some friends, hanging out in San Francisco and Berkeley for about a month. When I got back, I wound up getting involved with a woman who I married the following January.

At this point I pretty much considered the Godz to be finished and was thinking of my music in solo terms. I returned to playing acoustic guitar and writing more personal songs. This is evidenced on Third Testament. I really don't remember exactly what I was feeling at that time, except that I felt like I was going along with the program, but not really believing in it. The Multitude was Larry's idea entirely. The whole thing just seemed a little forced to me.

UT: Why have attempts at a Godz reunion failed?

JM: We’re not kids anymore.

       
UT: Is it true that you never received any royalties from Bernard Stollman and ESP? Why?

JM: I can only say that that matter has been settled recently, and I am not at liberty to discuss the details. As to the second part of your question, that's an excellent question.
           
UT: Has your own opinion of the Godz been shaped by the writers and bands that have praised the band in the years after the Godz were a functioning band?

JM: I don’t think so. Well, maybe a little. It’s made me happy to realize that our efforts didn't fall on deaf ears. I'm still amazed at how well known the band is. We could have been totally obscure. As for critics of the first two albums, fuck ‘em. Who cares?

Usually, I'm in agreement regarding opinions of the third and fourth albums. I am well aware of the value of our work and don't rely on the opinions of others for validation, but it's always nice to hear good things about yourself, and it probably does make me feel a bit more proud. Who knows what might have happened if we had that support while we were together.

UT: Finally, which is more rewarding: rock & roll music or rock & roll photography?

JM: Making rock & roll music is more rewarding, but photographing it in action, getting up-close and personal, is extremely rewarding for one who loves the genre. •

Another UT Writers' Playlist

JOE HEDIO

1.    THE KINKS – Kinks  /Kinda Kinks / The Kink Kontroversy (Sanctuary): The first batch of the deluxe Kinks reissue series. Even though I own probably 95.5% of the material, I’m amazed about the remastered sound, especially on Ray’s demos of songs such as “I Go To Sleep,” which no longer sound like crap. Also, a friend of mine donated one of his Kinks rarities for one of the bonus tracks, which is pretty cool.

2.   V.A. - Stray Rays (CD-R): Continuing with the Kinks, this is a CD that Bill, the ModMan behind The Anorak Thing (http://anorakthing.blogspot.com) made for me, which is comprised of choice Kinks covers, as well as songs that Ray Davies wrote that the Kinks never did such as “Little Man In A Little Box” by Barry Fantoni. A lot of musical holes and questions of mine were filled by this CD. Thanks, Bill!

3.  The Ernie Kovacs Collection (Shout! Factory DVD): An excellent collection of the late (he exited the world the same year Mike & I came in) television comic’s work. Not everything works & there are dated spots, but there are many bits of staggering genius. The mind boggles at the thought of Ernie’s imagination coupled with today’s technology.

4.   WINGS - Band on the Run (Deluxe Edition): I got this for a friend for Christmas and I saw the live in the studio DVD and was so impressed that I got my own copy. A great album, with songs like “Let Me Roll It”, which sounds more Lennon than Lennon. Can this be considered a Power Pop Masterpiece?

5.     JOHNNY HALLYDAY – La Roi de France 1966-1969 (RPM): I’ve heard a lot of negative things about Johnny Hallyday, the French Elvis, and I got this with a bit of trepidation. However, the songs on this CD such as his covers of “Black Is Black,” “Hush” and the Small Faces tune “My Way of Giving,” as well as the songs that feature the Darlings of Wapping Wharf themselves as the backup band are pretty creditable and entertaining. I also enjoyed RPM’s compilation of his ex-wife Sylvie Vartan.

6.    JEAN SHEPHERD – Ticket to Ride (Radio Spirits): A 4-CD set of the musings and observations of Jean Shepherd of A Christmas Story fame of Britain and Scotland on the verge of the Swinging Sixties while traveling with the Beatles on their Fall 1964 UK tour (he was interviewing them on assignment for Playboy Magazine). He doesn’t mention the Beatles until near the end, although he does talk a little bit about the Pretty Things, proclaiming them to look and sound “like the Four Andrews Sisters” (I wonder which Andrew Sister looked like Dick Taylor?).

Mike Stax's Playlist of Current Faves

1.       THE DOWNLINERS SECT – Brite Lights – Big City (Hand of Glory, 2011) 7” EP. Are you kidding? I’ve fantasized for almost 25 years about what this unreleased 1964 EP might sound like, but never thought I’d ever get to actually hear it. Miraculously, the long lost master tape surfaced and fell into the right hands, so now it’s been released to the world. It does not disappoint. This is the kind of teenage punk rhythm’n’blues that first fired my obsession, and it never ceases to thrill me. (more on page 200 of the new issue)

2.       THE FLAMIN’ GROOVIES – Jumpin’ in the Night (Sire, 1979) LP. I bought this and dug it when it first came out in ’79, and pulled it off the shelf every now and then for a spin. However, it wasn’t until a couple of months ago that it hit me just how great it is. Like most fans, I suppose I’d always felt it was overshadowed by the Shake Some Action album. That shadow has passed. This is every bit its equal; a brilliantly realized melding of Byrds, Beatles, and Aftermath-period Stones. Top picks: “Yes I Am,” “Tell Me Again.

3.       JONATHAN RABB – Rosa (Three Rivers Press, 2005) Book. Atmosphere is of paramount importance to me in fiction, and in this outstanding crime noir set in 1919 Berlin the atmosphere is so thick it feels like you’re swimming through it.

4.       THE MAGNIFICENT BROTHERHOOD – Dope Idiots (World in Sound, 2010) CD. From Berlin 1919 to Berlin now, and the impressive debut album by these Berlin-based garage freaks. Music Machine and Seeds influence abound in the guitar-keys-bass-drums format, but they put their own inventive twist on the genre with memorable songwriting, strong vocals and a natural sense of chemistry and energy. Fave tracks: “Last Song About You,” “Degeneration.”

5.       KELLEY STOLTZ – To Dreamers (Sub Pop, 2010) CD. Kelley Stoltz is one of those rare songwriters who manage to absorb ‘60s pop and beat influences and make them into something that seems new and fresh. There’s a strong Ray Davies flavor to his best work, that slightly whimsical sense of longing and nostalgia, tinged with darkness and regret—not to mention melodies you find yourself whistling unexpectedly weeks later. Top picks: “Love Let Me In Again,” “I Remember, You Were Wild.”

6.       THE CONTRASTS – She Didn’t Care (unreleased demo, 1966). Blistering fuzz guitar spattered greatness recorded at Gold Star by San Diego teen garage band. CD release on UT Records soon Read their story next issue.

7.       JIM SULLIVAN - U.F.O. (Light in the Attic, 2010) CD. Jim Sullivan lived in La Mesa in the ‘60s, less than a mile from where I sit right now. He disappeared without a trace in the New Mexico desert in 1975. His 1969 album, U.F.O., is a haunted loner masterpiece, sounding a bit like Tim Hardin, but with a more wide open, West Coast vibe, complete with sterling backing from Wrecking Crew musicians. There’s a subtle, eerie depth to Sullivan’s songs that’s hard to resist: “It’s my time to go,” he sings on one track, “I just want the wind to blow / my ashes until they’re completely out of sight.” Sullivan’s strange, fascinating, doomed story is detailed in the liner notes of this beautifully put together reissue. Picks: “Highways,” “U.F.O.,” “So Natural.”

8.       ROY GAINES – Skippy is a Sissy (RCA, 1958) 7” single. I just heard this for the first time (thanks, Greg) and my drool-soaked jaw is still on the floor. Does anything rock harder than this superheated ’58 rocker out of Houston, Texas? I’m thinking not.

Writers' Playlists. part 4

PHIL MILSTEIN

 1.       Jah Wobble: Memoirs Of A Geezer (Serpent’s Tail, paperback). One has to have some belief in Wobble’s significance as a bass innovator to tolerate some of the more indulgent aspects of this book, but, when and if past that, his engaging (and surprisingly earnest) personality and raconteurial skills make for a smashing page-turner.

2.       Coo-Coo Party Time, et al: Seven Ways To Sunday (Thick Syrup box). With their boxed 3-LP debut, Half-Japanese were nothing if not audacious. Following suit, co-founder David Fair has compiled a reissue version of his stunning 1990 album as Coo-Coo Rockin’ Time that includes that album’s songs reimagined by six different acts; in other words, the original slab of genius plus six tribute albums to same, plus companion book.

3.       Red Saunders Research Foundation (hubcap.clemson.edu/~campber/rsrf.html). Documentation of Chicago’s jazz and early R&B scenes so overwhelming in scope and depth that all but the insane can bear to take in more than small chunks at a time.

GREG PREVOST

1. Keith Richards – Life (Hachette Book Co) Keith's bio just confirms what we already knew-he is the coolest.

2. Nashville Teens - "Ella James" single (United Artists #50880) Monster version of Move Monster. Issued in the US in 1969...my fave 45 lately.

3. Dave Davies - Hole In The Sock Of… Album-Bootleg. I keep pulling this out every so often...all his KillerKool mid-to-late 60's singles and unissued album cuts.

4. "Spider" John Koerner, Tony Glover & Dave Ray - Lots More Blues, Rags & Hollers (Elektra EKL-267) Second volume of 2 in the series issued in late '64. The title sums it up. Includes the great Dylanesque "Lady Day" and some killer steel slide by one of my fave slide players "Spider" John Koerner.

5. Donald Duck Adventures - The Gilded Man by Carl Barks (Comic Book). Barks, the inventor of 'Uncle Scrooge' has been an idol of mine since I discovered who he was in the early 70's. This is one of my favorite comics. I managed to collect all of his work over the decades (over 1000 stories).

6. Mad Men - TV Show (A&E) One of the best. The show encompasses every aspect of the early 60's. Sort of an over the edge Peyton Place. I know—a new show—yes, it's GREAT! Highly recommended.

ERIC COLIN REIDELBERGER

1.       Frankie Dymon Jr. – Let It Out (BASF) (LP). An album of black power ruminations from poet/activist Frankie Dymon JR. with music courtesy of Achim Reichel and crew. It fits nicely under the Krautrock umbrella; encompassing poetry, groove based rock, folk & Psychedelia and above all – it’s a freaky trip.

2.       Static Minds – Electricity (Custom Made Music) (CD) Hard rocking North Carolina band mixes the power of the MC5 with the stadium friendly sounds of early Kiss and put forth a stomper of an album that smells of muscle cars and good weed.

3.       Joachim Kuhn – Bloody Rockers (BYG) (LP) German free jazzer brews up a heady mix of the “New Music” and Psychedelic rock, spices it nicely, stirs it in a pot then lets it bore a hole in your brain.

4.       Les Variations – Nador (Pathe Marconi / Magic Records International) Not only one of the finest examples of French post psych heavy rock but one of the finest examples of heavy rock period.

5.       Young Flowers - Blomsterpistolen (LP) Heavy yet meditative and elongated psychedelic blues based rock from Denmark that serves as the perfect musical accompaniment for my writing forays.

6.       Cult Of The Damned (a.k.a. Angel Angel Down We Go) (Movie). This exploitation classic consists of a sadistic Jim Morrison type Psychedelic singer who chooses to wreck havoc on a wealthy decadent family through mind trips, LSD and murder!

DOUG SHEPPARD

1. WILSON PICKETT - Funky Midnight Mover: The Atlantic Studio Recordings (1962-1978) (Rhino Handmade) 6CD box. Finally the early works of the Wicked Man are reissued in the proper mono mixes on this complete overview of his Atlantic years. Not for completists – for soul fans, period.

2. V.A. - With Love: A Pot of Flowers (Ace/Big Beat, UK) CD. Pebbles before Pebbles. Dig the expansion with 14 mostly great extra tracks.

3. NIGHT SUN - Mournin’ (Second Battle, Germany) CD/LP. Legit reissue of German speedfreak hard rock from 1972.

4. THE FABULOUS COUNTS. Way underrated Detroit funk band. The 1969 Cotillion album (Jan Jan) has been reissued, but my dream is an expanded version that rounds up their non-LP Moira singles, plus the singles they cut as Lunar Funk and Bad Smoke.

5. DOUG SAHM - “Crazy, Crazy Feelin’” b/w “Baby, What’s On Your Mind” (Renner) 45. Killer horn-backed doo-wop ballad from 1961 backed with a fine bluesy rocker. Why have Sir Doug’s Renner sides never been reissued?

6. CANYON - “Top of the World (Make My Reservation)” (MagnaGlide/London) 45. Killer bubbleglam from Ashland, Ohio produced by Kasenetz-Katz that actually managed to dent the Top 100 in 1975 and, in UT terms, features two former Es-Shades. Now if I could only find a stock copy with the B-side.

ALEX STIMMEL

1.       Miles Davis - Bitches Brew Live [Sony/Legacy CD 2011]. First off, Miles is sporting the funkiest outfits in the liner notes. Also, the music. The Isle of Wight set has been a favorite since Murray Lerner's Message To Love came out. Paired with essental early electric recordings of Bitches Brew tunes from Newport '69... but by '70 the band was taking things to a lithe, live level that became and remained so unlike what anyone else did, or could ever do.

2.       Death - Spiritual/Mental/Physical [Drag City CD 2010]. Great, recorded-in-a-garage punk from the Detroit trio. Tunes from their sole release, "For The Whole Wide World To See" (also reissued on Drag City), in demo version; rockin' jams (dig "The Masks": ad-libbed lyrics to the verse of "Got To Get You Into My Life" alternated with dirty thrash); sweet and surprisingly tender tunes like "The Change" and "David's Dream". Enjoyable even without knowing Whole World.

3.       The Electric Flag - Music From "The Trip" [Sidewalk LP, 1968]. Off-putting but somehow compelling, this early Moog rock entry and psychsploitation soundtrack pulls of the oddest full band score before swapping in some hot leads by Bloomfield & co. on side 2. Just generic enough the rest of the time that my girlfriend will actually listen to it because it sounds like Christmas music to her.

4.       Those Shocking, Shaking Days [Now & Then CD 2011]. Skull-smashing comp from erstwhile hip hop crate digger label. Smooth & beautiful packaging without, & deep tracks within, all gems from tiny Indonesian presses that'll cost you upwards of a grand to find online. Ranging from JB struts to blissed-out Western style psych, all with a thick veneer of jungle funk. Has not left the CD player.

5.       The Widow's Might [WFMU DJ promo, 2010]. Fall pledge drive promo from the ever-righteous "Sinner's Crossroads" show on WFMU. Every song that Kevin Nutt played in 2010 sent on data DVD - almost 700 tracks of gut-grabbing gospel. Heaven. Literally.

RICHIE UNTERBERGER

1. Kiki Dee - The Fontana Anthology (1963-1968) (KD-001) 2CD. Unauthorized two-CD set of virtually everything she recorded in her first five years has mucho sub-Dusty Springfield pop-soul-girl group guilty pleasure. (An official single-disc comp with slightly different contents has just come out on RPM.)

2. Peter Green - The Peter Green Story: Man of the World (Wienerworld) DVD. Excellent 2009 documentary, still unavailable on DVD in the US. Features plenty of new interview material from Green and fellow Fleetwood Macmen Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and –most surprisingly –a wholly coherent Jeremy Spencer, who'd been hard to trace for decades after leaving to join the Children of God cult.

3. Peter Green - Blues-Rock God. Self-assembled 80-minute CDR of the highlights of Green's 1966-70 work, mostly with the early Fleetwood Mac and mostly with Green as songwriter/lead singer. Tortured white British blues-rock at its apex, especially the long version of his magnum opus "Oh Well."

4. John Walker & Gary Walker - No Regrets: Our Story (John Blake). Book. Overlooked recent autobio from two of the three Walker Brothers tells the whole story beginning to end with straightforward, engaging clarity.

5. Julian Palacios - Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd: Dark Globe (Plexus). Book. The most exhaustive bio of the legend to date. Another 2010 Barrett bio, Rob Chapman's A Very Irregular Head: The Life of Syd Barrett (Da Capo), is also recommended as a livelier read, though it's less intensely detailed.

6. The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector (VIXPIX Films/BBC Arena). Uneven but often compelling documentary, based around ultra-creepy interviews with the famed producer (likely the last he'll give) shortly before he went to prison.

FRANK VAN DEN ELZEN

1.       V.A. – Listen To The Voices: Sly Stone In The Studio 1965–70 (Ace). Having all these revolutionary Sly Stone production rarities in one place is a godsend. Includes a pair of stellar Beau Brummels tracks that most UT readers won’t want to miss.

2.       Bob Dylan – Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos 1962–1964 (Columbia). Having circulated underground for decades, this version, finally, is the ultimate way to experience these early Dylan takes. Next up, I hope, will be a definitive 4-CD set of the complete Basement Tapes.

3.       V.A. – The World Ends: Afro Rock & Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria (Soundway); V.A. – Afro-Beat Airways: West African Shock Waves, Ghana & Togo 1972–1978 (Analog Africa). Soundway and Analog Africa, among others in this field, are certainly having a detrimental effect on my bank account, but with such great music in my hands as a result I don’t mind one bit. Their superbly researched archival works do for African styles what Pebbles and its successor series once did for American garage rock.

BILL WASSERZIEHER

1. Kaleidoscope – When Scopes Collide (Taxim). The great late-’60s band reconvened in 1976 for a one-off originally on Mike Nesmith’s Pacific Arts label. Chris Darrow, David Lindley (as De Paris Letante), Solomon Feldthouse, Chester Crill (AKA Max Buda, Templeton Parcely), etc., apply the Beacon from Mars treatment to Ellington’s “Black & Tan Fantasy,” Leiber & Stoller’s “Little Egypt” and the creepiest “Ghost Riders in the Sky” ever recorded.

2. Plimsouls – Live! Beg, Borrow & Steal (Alive). Argue all you want, but the Plims were the LA band of the 1980s. Nobody rocked it harder or had better tunes. This Halloween ’81 show from the Whisky a Go Go, with the Fleshtones joining them, proves it.

3. Coal Porters – Durango (Prima). Former Long Ryders’ ringmeister Sid Griffin took his latest UK-based band, the Coal Porters, to Durango, Colo., to record this CD with producer Ed Stasium (Ramones, Talking Heads, Smithereens). It’s alt.-bluegrass with a punk-ish knees-up.

4. Stew – The Naked Dutch Painter (Smile). A nine-year-old live album by Stew of the Negro Problem found in a 99-cent junk box. Includes some of the cleverest wordplay since Dylan stole Eric Von Schmidt’s rhyming dictionary in 1961. The 11-minute title track is a hoot, once you sort out the naked Dutch painter’s a woman.

5. Washington Phillips – Key to the Kingdom (Yazoo). Phillips, a Texas gospel singer with a voice like “God driving an ice cream truck,” recorded for Columbia in the late 1920s. A weird mix of musicians ranging from Ry Cooder, Will Oldham and Gillian Welch to Phish and the Be Good Tanyas have covered him, which says something as he cut only 18 tracks and played something that looked like a fretless zither.