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Spiders from Mars Review
by Joe Viglione
[-] https://www.allmusic.com/album/spiders-from-mars-mw0000105021A rhythm section for David Bowie on one of the classic rock albums of all time, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars, should have known better. Maybe Woody Woodmansey and Trevor Bolder deserved a better fate. They weren't the greatest musicians on the planet, but they did provide back-up to one of the legends; their performance in Boston in 1972 with Bowie (and very few people in the audience) was historic. There are elements of things that could've worked here, but musicians who have climbed the mountaintop should not fall this hard. "Fallen Star" sounds like a Bad Company outtake, and it is one of the stronger tracks, but Bolder's "Red Eyes" is painful, as is "Shine a Light," the composition by vocalist Pete McDonald and guitarist Dave Black. Bowie/Ronson they are not; Hunter/Ronson they are not. Bassist Trevor Bolder's "Prisoner" is actually pretty good, it works better than the post-Ian Hunter Mott albums like Shouting and Pointing. The problem with "Prisoner" is that it's almost there -- it needed a singer who doesn't overdo it, which is exactly the problem with Mott. Replacing a David Bowie or an Ian Hunter is not that simple. Trevor Bolder and Pete McDonald co-write another Bad Company-style tune, "(I Don't Wanna Do No) Limbo," another song that is halfway there. Serious production is missing from this outing; a Tony Visconti or Bob Ezrin might've slapped these guys around and come up with a record worthy of the name Spiders from Mars. "Stranger to My Door" is very Bowie-esque with some "Changes"-style piano; it contains elements of the Guess Who's "Sour Suite" and works much better than "White Man Black Man," a cheap re-write of a Three Dog Night hit about racial harmony which preceded this album by a few years. Bolder's "Rainbow" is another song that starts fine and falls apart before you know it. "Can It Be For" is more pseudo-progressive wandering.
Here's an interesting 3 CD release
The Complete Billion Dollar Babies
https://evenspotspeaks.blogspot.com/2014/06/2001-billion-dollar-babies-complete.html
Euclid's axiom states "The whole is equal to the sum of all the parts and is greater than any of its parts." That being said, you have no idea how dreadful this album is. Where a George Harrison can rival the Beatles with All Things Must Pass, three ex-members of the Alice Cooper Group have no excuse for forcing this difficult set of songs on the world. The title track, "Battle Axe," with a Bob Dolin composition ("Sudden Death") stuck inside of it, is bombast, some fragments of the Killer album's tune "Dead Babies," but not much else. Co-guitarist Michael Bruce is the lead singer, bassist Dennis Dunaway and drummer Neal Smith remain, and with the addition of guitarist Mike Marconi and keyboard/synthesist Bob Dolin they cannot survive the loss of Alice Cooper, and even Glen Buxton. The production is as weak as the Spiders From Mars album, where David Bowie's rhythm section decided to pull the same stunt a year before this. The tune "Winner" says the "billion dollar babies got the world," referring to this band, but the truth is, Alice Cooper is the billion dollar baby, and without the star, a song like "Too Young" doesn't come across. Michael Bruce re-recorded "Too Young" six years later on his Rock Rolls On disc, but this version is better. At the risk of sounding as redundant as this band, "Too Young" doesn't come across, but is better than its eventual remake. Big Brother & the Holding Company and the Doors at least came up with competent and interesting albums after their respective stars evaporated. Why Billion Dollar Babies, or Spiders From Mars, for that matter, didn't find an interesting character to back up is a pity; maybe Rob Grill from the Grass Roots or even Spanky McFarlane from Spanky & Our Gang or, even more obscure, Signe Anderson, original vocalist from the Jefferson Airplane. Putting a paradox together and making some rock history is certainly better than being a bad footnote, and that is all a song like "Shine Your Love" warrants. Equally depressing about this outing is that Bruce, Dunaway, and Smith recorded Easy Action, an album that borrowed from garage rock and British punk. Those elements are absent from this homogenized metal. "I Miss You" falls flat, a modified Barrett Strong "Money" riff goes nowhere. The ballad "Wasn't I The One" shows the flaws in Bruce's voice. This would be a great tune for Ian Hunter, as it sounds like early Mott the Hoople without the production and without the charisma. Alice Cooper should actually cut this track; it adds a little density that was missing in his adult contemporary hits like "Only Women Bleed." Producer Jack Douglas co-writes the other substantial track here, "Rock n' Roll Radio." and that track is produced by the band and Lee DeCarlo "in association with Jack Douglas." Having their engineer, DeCarlo, co-produce was as much a mistake as having Michael Bruce front this band. They should have sought out Chad Allan, Cindy Bullens, Sky Saxon, Captain Beefheart, Dana Gillespie, Little Joe Cook, someone, anyone, with personality to bring some life to this turkey.
WHO'S BEEN TALKING
JOHNNY THUNDERS
https://www.ebay.com/itm/194710091039?epid=18046059132&hash=item2d55a0351f:g:T1kAAOSwM0Jh1s-r
Performer Notes:
- Johnny Thunders was always hit or miss in concert; like fellow underground icon Nico, he could be brilliant and sublime or utterly boring on-stage depending on what he had injected or absorbed at any given moment. If you happened to have witnessed either artist in both good and bad shape, it was easy to detect when and if either one would have the magic. Now here's the good news: despite the VHS feel to this multi-camera shoot from Club Citta in Osaka, Japan (taped on April 3,1991 -- yes, the very month he died), Johnny Thunders is very much on and rips through 22 songs that sound good and -- dare it be said -- professional. To understand the difference, you have to have seen Thunders when he was, say, unprofessional. Some nights he was toast, but here he is a rock star and is taking his craft seriously. The DVD opens with a solid "In Cold Blood," the Jimmy Miller-produced song that launched a new phase of his career in Europe just eight years before his passing. It slips right into a medley including "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" and on to about 25 songs over 22 tracks that are a really fabulous, if lo-fi, documentary on this unique but quintessential rock & roll figure. On "Louie, Louie" and "Hang on Sloopy," the most natural of medleys, he is his Keith Richards best -- the look, the wardrobe, and the great guitar sound that he didn't have when the New York Dolls first played Boston in 1973 and everything was cranked up to 11. A new song entitled "Society" has him strumming the electric, and with the addition of Jamey Heath's saxophone the crisp band sounds like Lou Reed's mid-'80s ensembles. The tragedy here is that in just 15 years' time from when this was recorded -- when Iggy Pop's Stooges and the New York Dolls would gain the respectability and massive audience they deserved, his untimely death kept that adulation and appreciation from Thunders himself. Truly a pity. There are many Johnny Thunders videos out there, but this collection of solo material, covers, and one Dolls song, "Personality Crisis," is a keeper despite the blurry and foggy footage and grainy texture. Actually, there's a second bit of New York Dolls as Thunders' reinvention of Bo Diddley's "Pills" -- "Too Much Junkie Business" -- actually dissolves into a superb "Pills," covered with much of the same abandon as the new-millennium New York Dolls, tight and displaying more of a Rolling Stones-style presentation. This DVD has lots to offer the Thunders fan and anyone who appreciates life-on-the-edge underground rock & roll. Described as "rare live footage from the last ever recorded concert," the DVD also includes a 12-page biography by Betty Chienne. It's a nice testament to a truly twisted life. ~ Joe Viglione
Format: CD (1 Disc)
Studio/Live: Live
Release Date: 10 January, 2011
Label: DREAM CATCHER.
Dimensions: 14.1 x 1.4 x 12.5 centimeters (0.06 kg)
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