Tim Brough's Black Leather Bookshelf

The Spirits of the '70's
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Offering conclusive proof that the 70's were more than disco balls and The Captain & Tenille, this punky soundtrack to the movie "CBGB" mixes in classic New York punk and new wave, along with some classic proto-punk and the late owner of the club, Hilly Kristal, singing a country inflected ditty called "Birds and The Bees." It's enough to make you sappy for the old, ugly pre-Disneyfied Times Square.

The mix is pretty cool, as well. While you get some of the more obvious (IE famous) bands to break out from the CBGB stage (Blondie, Talking Heads), you also are offered some of the better bands that got brought into the big label league, only to fall victim to an audience (and more often than not, record labels) that just didn't get it. Those bands include delights from The Dictators, Laughing Dogs, Tuff Darts and others. Then there's the notorious of the bunch, like Wayne (eventually Jayne) County and Johnny Thunders. There's also quite a few others that fell somewhere in the middle, building a well known reputation but never equaling the talk with the sales (New York Dolls, Television, Dead Boys).

If it seems to you that the bands I'm pointing out are all pretty darn different from each other (Dead Boys' nihilistic punk is not the same as Blondie's power pop is not the same as Television's arty guitar compositions), then you're right. The tiny stage of CBGB's was a place that hatched all sorts of Bowery Bands, and while the DIY ethic was often the same, the bands could often be miles apart. So having the likes of the MC5 ("Kick Out The Jams"), Iggy and The Stooges ("I Wanna Be Your Dog") and The Velvet Underground ("I Can't Stand It") along for the ride shows that the roots of the NYC Scene came from just as many sources as the sounds the new bands were making on their own.

There are a few nods to the aftermath of the time, including Joey Ramone's posthumous "I Got Knocked Down (But I'll Get Up)" from 2002 as something of a footnote to the period. The neighborhood that fostered musicians and junkies is now gentrified and the original club closed. Kristal died in 2007, a year after the bar closed over a rent dispute. At one point, some jokers in Las Vegas wanted to open a club that carried the namesake amid all the rest of the phony glitter. There's real gentrification for you. But as Richard Hell sings, "I was saying let me outta here before I was even born!" which about sums up the heart of this whole soundtrack. While the trendier of the 70's NYC luminaries were headed for Studio 54, a whole batch of young ne'er-do-wells were smashing their way out in the opposite direction, preserved here on the "CBGB" Soundtrack.

Ya, we know
3 Out Of 5 Stars

The second and (from the sounds of reports) final solo from Joey Ramone is a solid and unlikely tribute to the late singer. From the liner notes, it also sounds like this was a tough record to release, with barbs at producer Daniel Rey for an "eight year long tug of war" over Joey's vocal tapes. Was the battle worth it? For us fans, heck yeah.

"Ya Know" sounds like a half-ways decent Ramones album from the period after "Too Tough To Die" that began seeing them struggling with weaker material. Indeed, some of these songs might have spruced up the likes of "Animal Boy" or "Brain Drain," as references seem to point to various gestation years. The most blatant is the Elton John cop in "Rock and Roll is The Answer," the worst is the country weeper redo of "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)." Given that these were all stapled together from home demos, the friends in attendance (Andy Shernoff of the Dictators, Jean Beauvoir of the Plasmatics, Joan Jett, Holly Vincent of Holly and The Italians and more), this sounds like a coherent, full album. Vincent's duet on the Phil Specter-like "Party Line" is a super standout, and "New York City," which has an all-star cast behind Joey, is a love letter to NYC that rocks like the best of any Ramones platter.

Some of the songs retain their demo quality, with La la's and Ba-ba's sounding like open spaces for unfinished lyrics ("Make Me Tremble") and the closer, "Life's a Gas" is only really half a song. At the same time, when you hear the wind shimes that fade the song out and know that these were things in Joey's life that brought him peace, it's hard not to forgive the album's final handlers for giving us, as fans, everything that was left in the vaults. Almost as good as "Don't Worry About Me" and missing by a cover version (Joey's kicking version of "Wonderful World" on DWAM), "Ya Know" is everything a Ramones fan could expect. A rambling staggering piece of purity. Just like the guy himself.



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Let the Day Start
4 Out of 5 Stars


Perhaps the best known song in The Call's expansive excellent library was the title song on "Let The Day Begin." It came closest to cracking the Top 40 (that and only "The Walls Came Down" ever charted the top 100, giving The Call exactly two charted singles), and it became the theme song for one Al Gore during his bid for the Presidency.

It is deservedly an anthem from the decade. Yet why couldn't The Call capitalize on all the acclaim? That is a question better left for philosophers and pop trivia addicts. But for some reason, The Call never exploded in the way many of their biggest fans (like Bono, Peter Gabriel, Martin Scorsese and Harry Dean Stanton) predicted they would. Stanton even contributes a harmonica solo on "For Love" and Scorsese would soon cast lead singer Michael Been in "The Last Temptation of Christ."

"Let The Day Begin" is filled with the kind of big songs that The Call is best known for, like "You Run" or the storming "Same Old Story." As usual, Been's lyrics are loaded with Christian allegory, some blatant ("For Love"), some not so much (the beautiful "Uncovered"). His reach was always high, and while his success never seemed to make his grasp, his music rarely missed the mark. "Let The Day Begin" is a big 80's album - and sounds it - standing with The Call's best works.

Day 10. A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 11. A song from your favorite band

To fall asleep I have often used Kenny Loggins' CD "Return to Pooh Corner." It's Kenny singing songs as lullabyes.

From the Favorite band: The Ramones!

Ok - I normally hate these note thingies, but when it come to music - I'm all there...
Courtesy of my pal Greg Bloom.

1) turn on your mp3 player
2) go to Shuffle songs mode
3)Write down the first 25 songs that come up...song title and artist-- NO editing/cheating, please.

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Thursday Night, 7/9/09

1) Matisyahu - Warrior
2) The Eagles - I Can't Tell You Why
3) Queen - Pain Is So Close To Pleasure
4) Dwight Twilley - Hold On
5) Lucinda Williams - Well Well
6) Cream - Spoonful
7) Marshall Crenshaw - Maybe Tomorrow
8) Kate Rusby - Cobbler's Daughter
9) Bee Gees - He's a Liar
10) Eurythmics - Who's That Girl
11) Paul McCartney - Gratitude
12) Tears For Fears - Head Over Heels
13) Prince - Diamonds and Pearls
14) Elton John - Heartache All Over The World
15) Cheap Trick - This Time You Got It
16) Alan Parsons - I Don't Want to Go Home
17) Judas Priest - Hot Rockin' (Live)
18) Stan Ridgeway - I wanna be a Boss
19) Devendra Banhardt - Hey Mama Wolf
20) Echo and The Bunnymen - Pictures on My Wall
21) Living Colour - Love Rears Its Ugly Head
22) Spider - Better Be Good To Me
23) Elvis Costello - Complicated Shadows '09
24) Ramones - I Just Wanna Have Something To Do
25) Seal - Here I Am (Come and Take Me)