Concerts for the People of Kampuchea

Concerts for the People of Kampuchea

1981

Atlantic Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Baba O'Riley (The Who)  2. Sister Disco (The Who)  3. Behind Blue Eyes (The Who)  4. See Me, Feel Me (The Who)  5. The Wait (The Pretenders)  6. Precious (The Pretenders)  7. Tattooed Love Boys (The Pretenders)  8. The Imposter (Elvis Costello & the Attractions  9. Crawling from the Wreckage  (Rockpile)  10. Little Sister (Rockpile with Robert Plant)  11. Now I'm Here (Queen)  12.  Armagideon Time (The Clash)  13. Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick  (Ian Dury & the Blcokheads)  14. Monkey Man (The Specials)  15. Got to Get You into My Life (Wings)  16. Every Night  (Wings)  17. Coming Up  (Wings)  18. Lucille (Rockestra)  19. Let it Be (Rockestra)  20. Rockestra Theme (Rockestra)



I picked this up at FYE...I had no idea what it was but my eyes popped out of my head when I saw who was on it..A good number of these bands rank among my all-time favorites, and it only cost 3 bucks, so I figured it would be a safe bet...

I failed both history and especially geography, so I wasn't especially sure what  Kampuchea was...Actually, I still don't really know...Let me look it up...

Oh yea! Pol Pot! Screw that guy! What an evil asshole...I think I'll draw all over his face spitefully...

 

There! Now I feel a little better...Now that I look at the record again, there is an explanation of the cause on the inside gatefold, but I usually avoid looking at it because...God, there's no way to talk about this without sounding incredibly shallow, but here goes...I hate looking at pictures of starving children while I have one hand in a bag of Doritos and a beer in the other..It makes me feel helpless and guilty...Alright, I said it!  Let's get down to the record...

I kinda wish the ratios were a little better on this...Some bands only get one song while others get an entire side to themselves...Let's break this sucka down side by side...

Side One:

This one is all Who...Don't get me wrong, I love the Who, but I kinda wish Rockpile or the Specials would have gotten an entire side instead...Mainly because there's already a million live Who records out there...And besides, this is Kenney Jones era Who...I might be singing a different tune if this was prime Keith Moon Who...Really, I like Kenney Jones just fine...I always liked this era when they would play the songs off their later albums...They seem more at home on them for some reason. As a result "Sister Disco" is the most interesting thing for me here, despite its dissonant beginning (or maybe because of its dissonant beginning....I like dissonance!).

Side Two:

See this is what I mean by the ratios being off...I'm sure everybody on Planet Earth would disagree with me, but I would have much rather had one Pretenders songs and three Elvis Costello songs instead of vice-versa...It freakin' kills me to listen to the Attractions rip through a blazing version of "The Imposter" and then it's over...Again, the Pretenders are fine and all, but c'mon...

...Hey, waitasecond...I think I just heard the Pretenders toss off a Howard the Duck reference in "Precious"...

Alright...They've earned their three songs....

It's cool that we at least get two Rockpile songs. Their take on "Crawling Through the Wreckage" is a rollicking good time, but to be totally honest I don't especially care that much about the Robert Plant guest spot on "Little Sister." I know he's more famous than everybody else so blah, blah, blah, but I would have rather had another Dave Edmunds or Nick Lowe vocal...Maybe some "Teacher Teacher" or "A Knife and a Fork" or something... Not exactly sure what their setlist was that night, so...

Side Three:

This is probably my favorite side...Each band only gets one song, but what bands and what songs! 

It starts a little rough for me...A lot of people can't understand this, but I'm not a very big Queen fan. Even though I greatly admire his mustache, I find Freddie Mercury's vocals to be a little too "musical theater" for my tastes... I do find their imagery and camp sense of humor somewhat appealing though, and I do have a tremendous nostalgic connection to their Flash Gordon soundtrack...

That said, it's weird that Queen only gets one song...From what I remember Queen was just as big as the Who and Paul McCartney back then...Then again they might have only been that popular in my household...I didn't exactly have my finger on the pulse of the nation back in 1981...I was too busy watching Captain Kangaroo...

...but at least they get a long song, with an extended crowd solo...

To me, this side is all about the other three bands...We get scorchers from the Clash, the Specials and Ian Dury and the Blockheads! 

I can remember seeing Ian Dury and the Blockheads for the first time on an old videotape I bought back in the 90's called "British Rock: The Legends of Punk & New Wave" that I used to watch non-stop all the time...

I'll never forget watching Ian walk out, all stiff gait and grimy suit, with a voice that sounded like he smoked every cigarette in existence, barking out "HIT ME WIFF YOUR RHYTHM STICK!"  Oh yea, I remember also being blown away that their sax player played two saxes at the same time...Damn! 

They do "Hit me With Your Rhythm Stick" here, too...Kind of smooth and disco-y except for Ian's gruff shout (but of course I love it for exactly that gruff shout)...Anyway, side three is where it's at, Dad... 

Side Four:

This is the Paul McCartney side...Three songs with Wings and three with Rockestra...After alright-ish versions of "Got to Get You Into My Life" and "Every Night" we get to the real highlight of this side...I love "Coming Up" so much, and this is my favorite version...Whenever I put this on I'm forced to put on my boogie shoes...Impossibly upbeat, funky, stiff-disco and a simple and effective chorus...Yes, yes, yes...

The other three songs feature Paul fronting a 20-man band consisting of about a gazillion other superstars, most of whom appear earlier on the record (Pete Townsend, Kenney Jones, Bruce Thomas, etc)...The Rockestra photo inside the album cover never fails to crack me up...13 guitarists on stage staring at one another... 

The experiment is mostly useful for proving that your ears can only distinguish  between so many instruments at one time...If I didn't see the pictures I would have probably guessed there's about 8 musicians playing....I bet it was awesome to see, though...However, I do feel a little gypped that Ian Dury doesn't get to do lead vocals on "Let It Be." Now that would have been a night to remember...

 So, if you find yourself digging through the crates at your local used record store and run across the "Concerts for the People of Kampuchea," I'd check it out for sure...There's a ton of great music and the entire thing is a hell of a good time. It's hard to believe they've never released this on CD...Tell me an extended version with 15 or so discs featuring the complete sets (and an extra disc with the movie) wouldn't rock your world...So get it on, Atlantic records (or whoever owns the rights) and make it happen...Do I have to think of everything around here?

Let's check out "Crawling From the Wreckage"