First let me state in no uncertain terms, that I am no Deadhead. In fact, I find a significant portion of the band’s catalog entirely intolerable. Caveat aside, and in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s debut LP on which the following song resides, I give you every version that, to my admittedly limited knowledge of Dead recordings, exists of the most rocking song that they ever put to wax; Cream Puff War, a song that even a certified Dead hater could love.
A note: the versions listed as March 3 and March 18 are the same recordings, but I was unable to decipher which was the actual date, and forgot to edit it to one file.
Seriously, THIS is as good as it gets. Thirteen minutes of vintage Funkadelic, running through a medley of I Got A Thing, What Is Soul, I Just Want To Testify, I Was Made To Love Her, Friday Night August 14th, Music For My Mother which degenerates into a full blown Psychedelic Gospel and includes nods to The Right Time and It’s Your Thing, while George in the throws of the holy ghost and some seriously heavy blotter writhes on the ground, whistling and speaking in tongues. Yep, it’s that kinda show. I dunno how a band can be this loose and tight at the same time.
R.I.P. Paul Kantner, the driving force behind Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship, bands who, to this day, have not really received their due as radical innovators of revolutionary Rock, well beyond their fame as hippie hitmakers; a transition in which Kantner (and Grace Slick) was the driving force (and Hugo Award nominee!).
Today is a Balin/Kantner composition, featuring Jerry Garcia on the plaintive guitar melody, that has only become more popular and recognized over the years. Saxophonist Tom Scott’s version was a beat digger staple before Pete Rock and CL Smooth sampled it for the basis of their 1992 single They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.), which has become an acknowledged classic of the Golden Age of Hip-Hop. Funny that one of my favorite sixties ballads, would also lead to one of my favorite Hip-Hop jams. More recently, Experimental collective, Ulver have paid tribute to the song with a beautiful cover, securing the song’s legacy with a new generation.
The Hampton Grease Band’s sole album, 1971’s sprawling double LP, Music To Eat, stands as the finest document of Post-Psychedelic, long form, Southern Fried Experimental Cosmic/Comic Jazz Rock spew, to dare walk the line between The Mothers of Invention and the Allman Brothers. Not surprisingly both acts were also fans of the Grease Band’s complex structures and twisted humor, with Zappa signing the band to Bizarre/Straight Records (for an unrecorded album, as the group disbanded shortly thereafter), and the Allman Brothers recognizing their talents after sharing the stage at various Atlanta based gigs. So…take music that is somehow undeniably Southern in nature and tightly arranged but exploratory in form, add a healthy dose of the playfulness and wit of early Zappa with the Surrealist/Dada inspired lyricism of Don Van Vliet, underpinned by a band both as tight as either The Mothers or Magic Band, but as comfortably loose as the best, lost to history, juke joint combo to ever sweat it out on the chitlin circuit, and you’ve kinda got an idea of the magic of the Grease Band, and it’s captain, Col. Bruce Hampton.
Here’s a gig recorded at The Atlanta Sports Arena. After a little research, I’m uncertain of the year. According to a clip below, Bruce thinks it’s 1969, and I’ve seen 1970 listed as a possibility, but I received it attributed to 1971. Dates aside, this is clearly a stellar example of the Grease Band’s many skills. (edited with corrected info here) Guitarist Harold Kelling departure turned the Grease Band into a single guitar group, with Glenn Phillips deftly taking the reigns with bursts of Sonny Sharrock levels of intensity combined with melodic sensibility. Playing the smoother vocal foil to Bruce’s raspy, intense delivery, are , I believe, the aforementioned Kelling and drummer, Jerry Fields. The set gives perhaps an even greater look at the influences which spawned the band, with a gamut of sounds even more diverse than the album, including a fairly traditional read of Roger Miller’s, King of The Road, and a balls out Rock Around The Clock. Suffice it to say, fans of Music To Eat, starved for further evidence of Grease Band genius, are gonna wanna stuff themselves sick on this psychedelic smorgasbord.
Also, I’d be remiss to not state my belief that Sun City Girls and the Meat Puppets must have imbibed numerous chemical/natural concoctions while baking in the Arizona sun listening to Music To Eat.
(uncheck the “Download with Secured Download manager” box before downloading)
Also, this 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival set was uploaded to youtube just last week, and may be the best of all. “What do you need Rock festivals for when you’ve got that up in Atlanta?”
Last but not least, a couple of clips from the Basically Frightened, Bruce Hampton documentary…
Post-Grease Band awesomeness, The New Ice Age. Have you ever had sex with Durward Kirby?!
The diversity of the picks and unimpeachability of the selection.
His recall for when and where he bought a record. Absolutely a sign of a true obsessive.
He remembers the people who ran his local department store record section, from his childhood, by name.
This statement about the above mentioned store and his relationship with a certain clerk: “Jane Greene, their counter assistant, took a liking to me, and whenever I would pop in, which was most afternoons after school, she would let me play records in the “sound booth” to my heart’s content till the store closed at 5:30 P.M. Jane would often join me, and we would smooch big-time to the sounds of Ray Charles or Eddie Cochran. This was very exciting, as I was around 13 or 14 and she would be a womanly 17 at that time. My first older woman.” Smooch big time!
That he remembers the Psychedelic Art collective, The Fool.
6. He credits Daevid Allen’s Bananamoon with being Proto-Glam
He gave his vinyl copy of Linton Kwesi Johnson’s, Forces of Nature, to Mos Def, incorrectly thinking he had CD copy, and was looking for a replacement copy.
He discusses the awkward introduction of Scott Walker’s influence.
He refers to Glenn Branca’s music as having “an effect akin to the drone of Tibetan Buddhist monks but much, much, much louder.”, and knows that David Rosenbloom and Lee Ranaldo were members of the ensemble.
He knows that Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, former Fugs, had currently rejoined forces for a new album, and says that the CIA had them on watch as The Fags.
His acknowledgement of his own trendsetter status as the first to record a Velvet Underground cover, pre-VU and Nico release (though the Downliners Sect covered a pre-VU Reed and Cale song, Why Don’t You Smile Now, in 1966)
Anyone who gives it up for Harry Partch gets points.
My only complaint is that he uses the plural, with “s”, when referring to vinyl, an admittedly petty pet peeve of mine, which I will attribute to his being British. But it’s Bowie, so you know it was charming as hell when he said it.
Back when he was known as Ian Willis, playing guitar, not bass, and singing in what was probably the only Rock band named after it’s tabla player, Sam Gopal.
The Easybeats were Australia’s finest proponents of 60’s Garage Beat, Pop and Psych, and Stevie Wright was undoubtedly one of the finest singers to emerge from that scene. With 1966’s slice of pure Pop perfection, Friday on My Mind, The Easybeats cracked the Top 20 in both the US and UK, a feat that no future Easy’s single was able to repeat. Their lack of international follow up success is as confounding as it is a shame, as The Easybeats were clearly one of the era’s best. Thankfully their homeland gave the boys the chart topping success that they deserved with three numbers ones, and a string of successful singles.
The good news is that there is a substantial amount of footage of the band in their prime, which clearly backs their legend. Enjoy.
From the bands 1968 Pop Psych masterpiece, Vigil, which featured the party rocker, Good Times, which has become a staple of numerous bands live sets over the ensuing years.
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