English vocals
International relevance: **
Genius, svengali, entrepeneur, exploiter, starmaker, talent predator... Many are the words you can use to describe Kim Fowley but not all of them are positive. And what descriptions are used probably depends on who you ask. People who got in the way of his exploitative behaviour will most definitely have a few pejoratives to share.
Born in California in 1939, he worked
in the sex industry in the 50's before becoming a self-made music
manager, producer and songwriter in the 60's. Notorious for having
created The Runaways in the mid 70's, and all along releasing
bubblegum garage rock albums that walk the thin line between absolute
crap and cheapo excellence. Unfortunately, the darker side of his
mind and genitals too often came to the fore, and he was accused of
unwanted sexual advances and rape by several women who worked with
him. Ask the girls in NQB, the Swedish band that Fowley tried to pull his Runaway trick on (without succeeding), I think they have some stories to tell.
Fowley moved to Finland in 1970, produced the album ”Tombstone Valentine” by Wigwam before leaving for Sweden. He teamed up with young band Contact and produced their debut album ”Noboby Wants To Be Sixteen”. According to one member of the band, much work was done against their will, and hand to heart, it might be more of a Fowley album than a Contact album. Consequentially, he used them as a straight-up backing band on his own album ”The Day The Earth Stood Still”. Probably much to Contact's chagrin, I think ”Sixteen” is their best album, and they sound excellent supporting Fowley's Lou Reed drawl complemented by occasional grunts and groans. You could easily mix the tracks from the two albums and they'd sound great together. Especially if you cut away nonsense like ”The Frail Ocean”, ”Prisoner Of War”, ”I Was A Communist For The FBI” and the eight minute studio jam ”Is America Dead?” from Fowley's album.
But the band sounds absolutely great on most of the tracks. I even like the cover of ”Cadillac” where they manage to sound like T. Rex with Lux Interior of The Cramps in the place of Marc Bolan. And the driving beat of ”Night Of The Hunter” and the self-satisfied autobiographical romp of ”The Man Without A Country” isn't something you'd ever hear from Contact again. Some songs are even downright pretty, like the title track (a distant relative to The Velvet Underground's ”Pale Blue Eyes” and ”I'll Be Your Mirror”) and ”Pray For Rain”.
Despite some duds, this is one of
Fowley's most consistent albums, and you can thank Contact for that.
Perhaps they hated their sessions with this American trashcan Spector
(as outrageous as the more luxurious original counterpart), but maybe
that's the very reason why they have such a spark to them. ”The
Day The Earth Stood Still” is a hidden gem in Swedish progg
history, even more overlooked than ”Nobody Wants To Be Sixteen”,
and a curious but excellent complement to it.
Full album playlist
No comments:
Post a Comment