Song Of the Day: June 25, 2005
In the summer of 1982 my brother Matt gave me a TDK AD-90 cassette marked “New Wave, Vol. 5,” consisting of songs he’d taped off KJHK, the radio station at the University of Kansas. “Let me know what you think.” He said. I took it with some skepticism; though my brother had rarely steered me wrong, I was pretty convinced at this time (I was 15) that there wasn’t any worthwhile contemporary music being made, and that whatever was on this tape, it probably wasn’t as good as the Dave Clark Five, or the Hollies. Although I’d already discovered and enjoyed things like the Pretenders, and even the Embarrassment from nearby (well, an hour and a half drive, anyway) Wichita, I was pretty convinced that there couldn’t be much else out there, and that rock music was a spent force as of about 1967.
This tape quite literally changed my life. I heard for the first time the Clash, the
Specials, the Cramps, Pere Ubu, the Only Ones, and many more. I asked for more, and my brother continued to supply tapes; eventually I believe there were 11-12 of them. I heard almost every important band of the late 70s/early 80s on these tapes, as well as quite a few insignificant ones. These cassettes were perhaps my biggest formative influence musically, as well as a dearly loved source of entertainment.
The tapes were flawed, however. One serious problem was that they’d been recorded on a cheap jambox that had only one speaker, and one stereo channel of all of the tapes (which were basically mono anyway) was largely hiss. But the most significant problem, was that Matt very rarely bothered to record the announcer’s voice, so I was generally left to my own devices as far as trying to figure out who the artists were. In many cases this was fairly easy, and in others quite difficult. I’ve come across many of them accidentally. I cannot adequately explain the giddiness I’ve felt when a likely looking record came in to Love Garden, and I dropped the needle on it to the sound of some long-lost tune from one of these tapes. However, a few have remained unidentified for years, and I am absolutely haunted by them. The tapes have long since disappeared, but bits of certain songs still flash in my mind.
A couple of years ago, I decided to try to re-create these tapes to the best of my memory. The idea was that they would be a Christmas present for Matt. (I sort of always thought that despite the sound quality, he always regretted giving me these tapes and letting me play them to death and lose them.) I decided to do some detective work in order to procure as many songs as possible. I posted vague descritions of some of the songs that I could never establish the identities of on the Audities Newsgroup and the Trouser Press message board. Someone kindly identified one of the songs as "Detroit Tonight" by the Necessaries.
Frankly this project involved dredging up a lot of material that was not nearly as good as I remembered it, but this track proved to be a big exception. It's not an Instant Pop Classic, but more of a slow grower. It was a great song to be young to; the images in the lyrics identified with my adolescent ennui and throbbing hormones, and at the same time suggested a bigger, more exciting world out there somewhere.
7 Comments:
great story. thanks.
Of course, in the top left corner in the hat is none other than Arthur Russell.
HS
Your welcome! - and I must say that the CDs of those tapes I'll treasure forever...
"Pyle...what stinks!"...
- your humble big brother
more home movies...
Thank God for KJHK in the 70s. For many of us old-farts music died around 1970. The Beatles were kaput; Brian Jones left so the Stones stopped Rolling; disco was on the horizon - and, I'm sorry, - but Creedence Clearwater Revival and Three Dog Night are NOT my idea of rock 'n roll...
So music stumbled along for 4-5 years with very few interesting moments here and there (Floyd, Zeppelin, etc.) - but overall - the Dream was Over...
As someone who religiously listened to the radio 24x7x365 - I never bothered to even make the attempt anymore for fear of hearing the latest Elton John record and becoming violently ill...
One day I was at a party in Larryville and the host was a KJHK DJ by the name of Blake Gumprek (sp?)and he was playing a record that piqued my interest. To the point that I distinctly remember getting up off my stoned ass, walking across the room, and trying to read the label as it was going around-and-around (as was I)...
This sound was definitly something new which I hadn't heard before (which was rare for anything released prior to 1970) - and I was dying to find out what 60s band had slipped through the cracks on me...
What it was was "More Song About Buildings and Fruit" by a band called Talking Head.
Hmmmmmm...your readers might say - well that isn't that radical! But, believe me, at the time, it was like a breath of fresh air in a sea of mediocrity...
I told Blake what an interesting sound that was and he filled me in on the band's history and mentioned genres like "punk", "new wave", and "industrial". He told me to listen to his show and others on KJHK...
After that - I actually started to listen to the radio again (KJHK) and, discovered that there was some wonderful music being made -as long as you stayed off KY102...
The sad ending to the story is that KJHK was later hijacked by a bunch of suits and was/is no longer the driving force in the area it once was...
Thanks for this one.
I was in college in new York in the late 70's and loved the Neccessaries. Their original single, "You Can Borrow My Car" can be found as an mp3 from a French Pop/Punk/mod site.
Chris Spedding had a short stint in the Neccessaries in the late '70's; and the bass player was Ernie Brooks from the original Modern Lovers. They deserved better and I would love to get this entire album on cd-if only it could be released.
I first saw them playing at Columbia University in 1979 and didn't know Spedding was in the band (I was a huge Roxy Music fan and had been steered to Spedding through his work with Ferry), I was shocked as this band took stage and realized "Holy Crap! That's Chris Spedding! On a Farfisa!????" He left soon after, but they continued to make great music.
Wow, this brings back some memories!
(I realize that it's been a year since the original post, but maybe someboy will still read this)
The photographs on the cover of this record (and also its other incarnation, Big Sky) were taken by my older brother. The weird room where they are standing, wallpapered on both walls and the ceiling, was in my grandmother's house in Union NJ. I was in high school around this time, my brother was in college in NYC and made friends with the Necessaries. At the time I thought they were all just the coolest guys in the whole world. At that time I also couldn't understand why a band that was so good and had such terrific songs wasn't super-successful like the Rolling Stones.... of course I understand the music industry a little bit better now!
The heads in the photo are:
top left, Arthur Russell
top right, Ernie Brooks
btm left, Jesse Chamberlain
btm right, Ed Tomney
Sadly, both Russell and Chamberlain are deceased. Ed Tomney, after a
few years in a band called Rage to
Live, left rock-n-roll and now does
music for art projects, tv shows and film scores. Ernie Brooks is still active as a bassist.
See also comments posted at:
http://www.kbdrecords.com/2006/07/25/the-necessaries-you-can-borrow-my-car-7/
And if you need any more early-80s
songs ID'd for you, let me know!
The Necessaries...underrated genius. Of all the stuff that could have been reissued from that era, it is hard to believe nobody went to Sire and collected the songs from Event Horizon and Big Sky. Well-crafted and feeling. I'd love to hear this stuff again!
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