Jacknifed Jean Beauvoir
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This
six-song EP is even shorter when any Plasmatics fan realizes that the
four new songs recorded by Svengali manager Rod Swenson and
producer/engineer Dan Hartman are augmented by live versions of two
songs from the previous 1981 release, Beyond the Valley of 1984.
Guitarists Richie Stotts and Wes Beech set a solid, crunchy tone behind
Wendy O with two new drummers: Tony Petri on the two live tracks,
"Masterplan" and "Sex Junkie," and Joey Reese on the studio material.
Keep in mind that's four drummers in the two-year span between Stu
Deutsch on New Hope for the Wretched and Alice Cooper drummer Neal Smith
on the studio material on Beyond the Valley of 1984 (that 1981 album's
two tracks recorded live in Milan don't identify if the drummer is one
of the four -- and if you add the drummer from the Capitol Records debut
in 1982, the Coup D'Etat album, it brings that total to five). Chris
"Junior" Romanelli replaces Jean Beauvoir, whose image and musicianship
was pretty irreplaceable. Still, Dan Hartman does a great job of
capturing a solid hard rock sound and Wendy O is truly significant as a
more-than-competent metal vocalist. It's a transition from the previous
attempts at punk and smart reinvention. Beauvoir would come back five
years later with his excellent solo project, Drums Along the Mohawk,
followed two years later by Jacknifed. His presence and musicianship
could have added to these four studio sides, though they hold up well on
their own. There's not much difference between Wendy O's snarling on
the doomsday song "12 Noon" or "Doom Song," which is yet another
doomsday song, this one with Richie Stotts' brilliant, slashing guitar
lines. The metal arena gives Stotts a chance to shine, and he is an
underrated talent, as was Wendy O. The combined energies of these
individuals always took a back seat to Swenson's imagery and public
relations. The material by Stotts and Beech is fun and fits the bill,
though a separate live album would have been preferable to the cutting
and pasting. Still, Metal Priestess holds up and is a worthwhile
addition to the small but influential Plasmatics output. It was later
combined on CD with its sister release from 1981, Beyond the Valley of
1984.
- Joe Viglione, All Music Guide
beyond the valley of 1984
Pro Reviews
EXPERT RATING:
From AMG Reviews
This
time Rod Swenson, Svengali behind the Plasmatics, takes over the
production, allowing at least more of a focus. Jimmy Miller he's not,
but rather than get in the major producer's way, which is what Swenson
did on 1980's New Hope for the Wretched, he at least has the opportunity
to expand the sounds on this 1981 disc by letting his ideas flow
unobstructed by professional help. Opening with a dark prayer called
"Incantation," which slams into "Masterplan, this, indeed, was a band
tailor-made for DVD. The album cover looks like Mad Max meets Terminator
2 in the desert, Wendy Orleans Williams needing the chance to be the
Marilyn Manson of her day rather than Swenson's puppet. "Masterplan
still has the thin drum sound from the first record, only this time Stu
Deutsch has been replaced with original Alice Cooper drummer Neal Smith.
It is pure punk, a live version showing up this same year on the Metal
Priestess EP, but not as cohesive as this version. On "Headbanger,"
Wendy O communicates more comfortably, and the band's keyboard and
guitar phasing makes it one of the most produced, and best, tracks on
the record; Richie Stotts' guitar solos are amazing here. The band
really had merit, the upside was that Rod Swenson knew how to promote,
the downside was that his involvement comes off like the record version
of an Ed Wood flick. Recruiting the Angels of "My Boyfriend's Back" fame
for backing vocals on "Summer Nite," and giving Wendy O'Williams a
tender moment was a great idea; too bad Jimmy Miller didn't have this
material to work with. Neal Smith's drums get the sound they deserve,
and the tune comes off like a new wave answer to "Leader of the Pack."
Good chorus, and it should have been a huge MTV hit; Fee Waybill
would've been a perfect foil for the tune. "Sex Junkie" has Wendy O
sounding like a female Alice Cooper, that personality missing from New
Hope for the Wretched gets a chance to at least emulate the man who
pioneered this genre. As with New Hope for the Wretched, the abilities
of Richie Stotts and Jean Beauvoir were totally underutilized, and maybe
Bob Ezrin and the entire original Alice Cooper group is what this act
needed. Why did they just go for a little name recognition with Cooper's
drummer when they could have simply hired his former band? "Sex Junkie"
also found itself re-released later in the year from a concert tape to
augment the four Dan Hartman studio songs on Metal Priestess, but the
version here has the more sinister Alice Cooper-style vocal which gets
sort of lost on the live take. Williams even slyly references the
artist's Killer in the song "Hit Man," which, like "Plasma Jam," was
recorded live in Milan. Rather than be the mess that "Hit Man" and
"Living Dead" are, the instrumental "Plasma Jam" gets the band to show
it actually has chops, Stotts guitar a blazing on this one, it is pop
metal that didn't give the Jeff Beck Group any sleepless nights, but is a
decent groove with appropriate Black Sabbath riffs as the tune melts
into a slower tempo. "Pig Is a Pig," like "Nothing" on the previous
side, is good headbanger rock, and probably what endeared her to Lemmy
of Motorhead. These B movie recordings would have been hugely successful
had they the video to go along with the stunning visuals of the album
covers. The moral of the story: a porno filmmaker should've stuck to his
craft.
- Joe Viglione, All Music Guide
Jacknifed Jean Beauvoir
Jean
Beauvoir has the image and the sound down on Jacknifed, and the one
time Plasmatics bass player/Ramones producer abandons his hard rock day
gigs for very Prince-sounding dance music here. This album has a lot in
common musically with bassist Fernando Saunders' Cashmere Dreams,
although... [+] Expand
Jean
Beauvoir has the image and the sound down on Jacknifed, and the one
time Plasmatics bass player/Ramones producer abandons his hard rock day
gigs for very Prince-sounding dance music here. This album has a lot in
common musically with bassist Fernando Saunders' Cashmere Dreams,
although Saunders is able to create separate identities for his songs,
while Beauvoir has a sameness which is a slight drawback. The excellent
hooks in "Jimmy" and "Spend Your Life With Me" get lost in the double
frosting that is the keyboard/drum overabundance. Emulating Prince's
vocal riffs and mini-howls doesn't help either. Where Jonzun Crew
guitarist Tony "Rocks" Cowan will experiment with sound and vocal
technique making his material so different it oftentimes sounds like
someone else from track to track, Beauvoir finds his groove and sticks
with it. The title track has a nice Tommy Lafferty solo, and that
identifies another problem with the disc. Jean Beauvoir pulls an Emmit
Rhodes/Paul McCartney/Todd Rundgren by playing most of the instruments
himself. The aforementioned knew the inherent dangers of limiting your
flavors, and did their best to compensate. There's no compensation here.
Also, they played to their audience -- adding a Ramones-style rocker or
something along the lines of a metal/dance version of "Dream Lover"
from New Hope for the Wretched or "Sex Junkie" from Beyond the Valley of
1984 would have been hooks for his fan base to latch onto, and would
have added a much needed other dimension here. The lyrics are hip and
show another side of the multi-talented Jean Beauvor -- "I cop a score
of 90/talking, talking about intelligence/I think I'm high and mighty"
-- the emphasis seems to be on the word "high" in "Gamblin' Man" which
sounds like a song of regret in the midst of narcotic-induced dilemma.
Former Plasmastics lead guitarist Richie Stotts had a demo floating
around including a song "The Man With the X Ray Eyes" -- had the two
collaborated on this album, and included the best of both worlds, it
could have gone from good to great. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide [-]
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