A Bunch of Bob Dylan Albums Part 2 (John Wesley Harding/Nashville Skyline/New Morning)

Here's part 2 in a series of quick rundowns of the scattered Blob Dylan albums I own...



Bob Dylan: John Wesley Harding

1967

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. John Wesley Harding  2. As I Went Out One Morning  3. I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine   4. All Along the Watchtower  5. The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest  6. Drifter's Escape   7. Dear Landlord  8. I Am a Lonesome Hobo  9. I Pity the Poor Immigrant  10. The Wicked Messenger  11. Down Along the Cove   12. I'll Be Your Baby Tonight


It actually took me awhile to really get into this one...On first listen only the title track, "All Along the Watchtower," "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" and "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest" really stood out...The whole thing is sparse, dry, grey and has this vague sense of impending biblical doom...Like the lyrics are etched in a slab of granite...Real sober stuff...But after listening to it for years I've discovered it's a mood that no other record in my collection has, so it's become a go-to album for certain weighty, overcast days...When you need a good, ambiguous moral lesson...Right around the point where you hit "Down Along the Cove" and "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight," there's almost an odd sense of relief, like you've finally emerged from the brimstone and hellfire and all the suffering is gone...Like he's suddenly just stumbled onto Side One of "Nashville Skyline"...Definitely a weird album but interesting as hell...




Bob Dylan: Nashville Skyline

1969

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Girl from the North Country  2. Nashville Skyline Rag  3. To Be Alone with You  4. I Threw It All Away  5. Peggy Day  6. Lay Lady Lay   7. One More Night  8. Tell Me That it Isn't True  9. Country Pie  10. Tonight I'll Be Staying Here with You

I liked this album so much more than I thought I would... Dylan's voice suddenly changes into a sweet, croon and he does a gentle, slick, good-natured country-pop record...This contains the only successful Bob Dylan duet where he teams up with Johnny Cash for a re-recording of "Girl from the North Country"...When they stop trading verses and finally sing together there's a slight bit of stumbling but it's 75% smooth...Either Johnny was quick on his feet or Bob was taking it easy on Johnny...I'm almost thinking the latter (contrast this with ever other duet he's ever done ever)...Man, I hate those old fogey duet records, but I would loooooovve it if Bob suddenly did one. Can you imagine Bob tripping up Lady Gaga or Josh Groban? Anyway, "Nshville Skyline" is fluffy and slight (with a 27-minute track listing) but I'm saying these attributes are virtues in this context...I don't know if I could make it through 45-50 minutes of this style but 27 minutes is incredibly perfect and refreshing...This would be a great Bob Dylan album for folks who don't like Bob Dylan... "Tell Me That it Isn't True" kinda rules the universe...



Bob Dylan: New Morning

1970

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. If Not for You   2. Day of the Locusts  3. Time Passes Slowly  4. Went to See the Gypsy  5. Winterlude  6. If Dogs Run Free  7. New Morning  8. Sign on the Window  9. One More Weekend  10. The Man in Me  11. Three Angels  12. Father of Night

Is it wrong that I rank this right up there with "Blonde on Blonde"? This record absolutely blows me away...I cannot even begin to understand why this album is considered minor Dylan...I consider this album to be Dylan's greatest vocal performance, where there's hints of the classic Dylan voice, the sweeter Nashville Skyline style and a new third variation that I can only describe as a sandblasted soul man...Listen to "Sign on the Window"...That part where he sings "That must be what it's all about..." is one of the best deliveries I've ever heard...The way his voice cracks and scrapes just punches you right in the friggin' beergut...I love the ultra-dry recording, all the mic popping, the stumbling pianos...The title track and "Day of the Locusts" are still my two favorite Dylan songs...There's a few filler-ish tracks ("Three Angels," "Went to See the Gypsy," "If Dogs Run Free") but honestly, even the filler is fascinating...

Alright...We'll pick this up later this week, with a batch of albums that I like significantly less than these ones...Oh, boy!
       

Sacred Things Part 1

Here is a partial list of things that are sacred to me...It's a crazy world, but these items bring a sense of profound calm to me whenever I see or think of them...They are my happy place...There's definitely a  pattern, since they're mostly related to childhood in some way, other things are just totally random....I'm leaving out any glurgey items (true friendship, your wedding day, the first time I boned your mother...). We here at the Friday Night Record Party are staying true to our rigorous belief in shallow materialism...

Anyway, here is the first list of things that are sacred to me...

GPK #  113a: Alice Island

 Taco Night

The Five Doctors

 
The 2011 Samuel Adams Harvest Collection (special mention: Bonfire)

 Actual bonfires (particularly bonfires of the"King Horse" variety where Neil Young is playing in the background )...

3-Comics in a plastic bag that you used to be able to buy at the grocery store

The Origin of Teela (See also: Munchkins hatching from eggs in the Wizard of Oz (not pictured)

Bright red Princess Leia T-shirt

Faygo (in particular the Cranberry flavor they used to put out around Christmas in the 90's...)

The Ramones

 

Walrus Man

Spiral Notebooks

 

The Miser Brothers

Sifting through piles of used records (If I'm at your house, I will spend the entire time sifting through you music collection...Your privacy/personal space is not a sacred item on this list)

ALF on Mount Rushmore

Kurt Vonnegut books with the big "V" design on the covers... 

Those little catalogs that used to come in Star Wars toys...
 

Kiss Alive! (It's mandatory that it's played on vinyl...Kiss Alive! on CD, while still good, is not sacred...)

Iron Maiden Album Covers (Same deal as Kiss Alive!...Vinyl Only...Although Iron Maiden cassette tapes certainly have a large amount of charm to me...)

 Grainy, non-remastered, pan and scan versions of Godzilla Vs Megalon

Mix Tapes (see also: Those big bricks of blank cassettes you'd get for Christmas that you couldn't wait to fill with Black Sabbath or the Misfits)


There...I'm feeling strangely at peace again...I'll abandon the list at this point, but I may resume it at a later point when the world feels overwhelming...What are your sacred items? The things that open a gateway to your happy place?

A Bunch of Bob Dylan Albums Part 1 (Times They Are a-Changin'/Bringing It All Back Home/Highway 61 Revisited/Blonde on Blonde)

I remember right around this same time last year, my goal was to finish the Bob Dylan section by the end of 2014...As is the case with most of my goals,  it didn't happen...But know what? I'm doing it this year! However,  I've been kinda dreading the Dylan section. It's the same feeling I had when I was about to tackle the Beatles section...Here's an artist who's been discussed to death!!! (Yes, the official cause of death for all four Beatles and Bob Dylan was determined to be endless discussion...)

So what could I possibly contribute to the conversation that everyone else hasn't? My opinions on Bob Dylan are basically the same as everyone else...I think the early stuff's great! Big surprise! When I read other record review sites I always skip the Beatles and Dylan sections...There hasn't been a single new or novel thing said about either artist in decades!!! But I didn't want to skip the Dylan section because it goes against the prime directive of this blog...To listen to all the albums I own in alphabetical order...So I decided to just do a very quick rundown of each Dylan record I own...Maybe a few rambling sentences that lets you know what I think of each one (spoiler alert: I think they're great!)...

Oddly enough, I don't own the first few Dylan albums from his acoustic folk period. Why? This will probably sound blasphemous to most music fans but I'm just not really that interested in acoustic folk...Not even by Bob Dylan...Plus I've heard most of the songs 10 thousand times!!!!! If I loan out a copy of "Freewheelin'" and don't get it back, it's not a biggie cos I can replay the entire album in my head...So without any further ado... Here's the first in a series of quick rundowns of the scattered Bob Dylan albums I own...



Bob Dylan: The Times They Are a-Changin'

1964

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. The Times They Are a-Changin'  2. Ballad of Hollis Brown  3. With God on Our Side  4. One Too Many Mornings  5. North Country Blues  6. Only a Pawn in Their Game  7. Boots of Spanish Leather  8. When the Ship Comes In  9. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll  10. Restless Farewell

I find this album kinda tedious...The title track is Earth-shakingly fantastic, but the rest of it is the most dour, preachy acoustic folk meanderings I've ever heard... As monochrome as the cover...I found a vinyl copy of this in the dollar bin at Eastside Records and rarely put it on...And when I do I usually skip around a lot...This could have been a good 45 though! Imagine the title track backed by "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" (where he rhymes "table" with "table" a record three times!!)?  I'd also accept a follow-up single containing "One Too Many Mornings" b/w "Boots of Spanish Leather".... Skip it unless you live in a coffee house and have no sense of humor whatsoever...        


 Bob Dylan: Bringing It All Back Home

1965

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Subterranean Homesick Blues  2. She Belongs to Me  3. Maggie's Farm  4. Love Minus Zero/No Limit  5. Outlaw Blues  6. On the Road Again   7. Bob Dylan's 115th Dream   8. Mr. Tambourine Man  9. Gates of Eden  10. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)  11. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Now this is where I really get into Bob Dylan. This and the next two records are among my all-time favorite albums...He really hammers home that he was the greatest lyricist on the planet at this point ...The album is split between acoustic material and electric judas material and both forms are equally powerful..He's equally adept at humor ('Subterranean Homesick Blues" and 'Bob Dylan's 115th Dream" (which is one of my favorite Dylan tracks) as he is at the serious stuff (the absolutely stellar "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding")...And "Mr. Tambourine Man" is one of the few Dylan songs in the "overplayed" category that I can still listen to...It still contains a world of mystery after my 10,000th listen...That's serious craftsmanship...I consider this and Highway 61 to be the best introductions to his vast discography...Do yourself a favor and just buy 'em both on the same day and binge binge binge..



Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited

1965

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Like a Rolling Stone   2. Tombstone Blues  3. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry  4. From a Buick 6  5. Ballad of a Thin Man  6. Queen Jane Approximately  7.      Highway 61 Revisited  8. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues  9. Desolation Row  


I love the hell out of this album...It's almost all electric and it has this wiry energy, where the band is just sloppy and cracking as Dylan blows his harmonica recklessly and delivers reel after reel of motormouth poetry...There has never been a better cross-country driving record....Personal favorites: "Queen Jane Approximately" and "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"...One thing that's rarely mentioned  is how damn funny Bob was at this point..."The sun's not yellow, it's chicken!" is one of the best lines in any song ever...End of discussion...




Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde

1966

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1.  Rainy Day Women #12 & 35  2. Pledging My Time  3. Visions of Johanna  4. One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)  5. I Want You  6. Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again  7. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat   8. Just Like a Woman  9. Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine  10. Temporary Like Achilles  11. Absolutely Sweet Marie  12. 4th Time Around  13. Obviously 5 Believers  14. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands

Epic double album. It's weird, because although it's often lauded as his best album, I don't personally know a single person who worships this album as much as I do...To me, this is easily his best, but I'm somewhat hesitant to recommend it until you're absolutely foaming at the mouth for more Dylan after becoming addicted to "Bringing it All Back Home" and "Highway 61 Revisited"...I could get lost in this album for hours...Every song is a whole little city that I want to live in...Is "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" too long? I don't know. I never want it to end, so the answer is no...So many favorites here: "Visions of Johanna," "One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later)," "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again," " Absolutely Sweet Marie ," " 4th Time Around"...All drop dead classics.  It should be noted that this is where the "generic Dylan" voice first occurs as far as I can tell...The nasal, breathy, rising "hehhHHH heh heHHHH..." that you do when you're imitating Bob Dylan... I will admit this album has a few songs I actively dislike such as the dumb "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" and the repetitive blues joke "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat"...But everything else is of such staggering quality that the low points aren't really worth a mention...

Well, that's all the Dylan I'm willing to talk about today...We'll check out another handful in the next post...

Dwarves: The Dwarves Are Younger and Even Better Looking

Oh yea...Another NSFW cover...It being Dwarves week and all, I should probably just advise everyone to avoid this blog until it's all over...Every single aspect of the Dwarves existence is NSFW...Plus I'm running out of SFW pictures...

Here's one...

...and I don't think this one would raise too many eyebrows...

Here...This seems like a pretty reasonable picture to look at while working...

But below you'll see a little red photo with a topless woman skateboarding...This is not alright to look at while you work since it might make you and everyone around you suddenly bust out your shlongs and start jerking them uncontrollably...So get ready to scroll real fast in 1...



2.....



3...!!!!

 Dwarves: The Dwarves Are Younger and Even Better Looking


Disc One: 1.Unrepentant  2. We Must Have Blood 3. I Will Deny  4. Demonica  5. Everybody's Girl
6. Throw That World Away  7. Hits  8.The Ballad Of Vadge Moore  9. One Time Only  
10. Pimp  11. The Crucifixion Is Now  12. You Gotta Burn  13. The Dwarves Are Young and Good Looking


Disc Two:  1. Let's Take A Ride (Bonus studio track)  2. The Wicked (Bonus studio track)  3. Haunt Me (Bonus studio track)  4. Theme From The Vicelords (Bonus studio track)  5. Star 69- A Million Miles (Bonus studio track)  6. Ask Me Why (Bonus studio track)  7. Come Gunnin (Bonus studio track)  8. Lord of the Road (Bonus studio track)  9. One Time Only (Alt Version)(Bonus studio track)
10. Throw That Girl Away(Bonus studio track)  11. Unrepentant (live radio broadcast bonus track)
12. We Must Have Blood (live radio broadcast bonus track)  13. Everybody's Girl (live radio broadcast bonus track)  14. Demonica (live radio broadcast bonus track)  15. Smack City (live radio broadcast bonus track)  16. You Gotta Burn (live radio broadcast bonus track)   17. Back Seat of My Car (live radio broadcast bonus track)  18. Dairy Queen (live radio broadcast bonus track)  19. Drug Store (live radio broadcast bonus track)  20. Fuck 'em All (live radio broadcast bonus track)
21. I Will Deny (live radio broadcast bonus track)  22. Surfing the Intercourse Barn (Spoken word track)


This thing is pretty fucking swank...A gate-fold, two-disc reissue of the Dwarves' 1997 album "The Dwarves Are Young and Good Looking." Mine is on translucent green vinyl that I picked up last year at the very packed Dwarves/Queers/Masked Intruder show...

I love this damn album...I can remember hearing "Everybody's Girl" back in the 90's on some Epitaph sampler and was very surprised to find out it was the Dwarves...It's perfectly presentable, lovable Ramones-ish pop-punk which might not even raise a single gray hair at Grandma's  85th birthday party (as long as no one pays too close attention to the lyrics)...But the whole album is similarly fleshed out and devoted to pop-hookiness without wholly abandoning their trademark leer...No 30 second hardcore blasts about wanting to get AIDS here...Just surfy pop hooks with the occasional metal chug thrown in for good  measure... It wouldn't be too big a stretch to imagine some of this playing on the radio back in the 90's...

This leads to a very large handful of the band's best songs..."There Must Be Blood" is an instant classic... A thoroughly amazing punk/metal anthem that kicks an absurd amount of ass with a chorus so potent that once you hear it, it permanently warps your brain..."Everybody's Girl" still holds up as one of the highlights of the 90's pop-punk movement...To me, this album represents the ultimate refinement of what they hinted at on the earlier "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" and "Sugarfix" albums...Where the band 100% gets over the whole "ha ha, we're saying 'fuck' over happy music" thing that you heard on "Fuck Around"...An album full of "Saturday Night"'s...And it's often glorious...

The only tracks I'm not too nuts about are the spaghetti-western chomo epic "Demonica," the incredibly slight "Hits,"  and the blasphemous blues of "You Gotta Burn"...And they're not bad songs at all...It's just that the rest of it is so damn strong...

The bonus disc is over twice the length of the original album and one of the best (and most thoroughly listenable) bonus-discs I've ever encountered in a reissue...It's packed with solo Blag material, Dwarves B-Sides, and Outtakes from the "Young and Good Looking" era that are just as good as the main album..."Let's Take a Ride"? "Wicked"? This is essential stuff for Dwarves fans...

Then there's also a very cool 11-song live radio show from 1997...The band plays "Young and Good Looking" almost in its entirety while throwing in roughly one song each from their previous albums...It's all a bit fried from overload but overall the sound quality is much better than you'd expect from a Dwarves live performance...The album ends with a 5 minute spoken word piece by Blag played over some surf-rock...Probably not for everybody but pretty entertaining... Considering their go-to subject matter (sex and violence) there's this impulse to view Blag as some sort of knuckle-dragging caveman but every once in awhile they'll do something like this that puts their art into sharp relief...Sometimes when I hear the Dwarves, I kinda get this surreal, Burroughs-esque cosmic/comic bacchanalia vibe that (when paired with sharp hooks)  probably explains why I was drawn to the band in the first place...I think they're more interesting than they initially appear to be...

I'm tired of hearing the tickety-tack of my keyboard...Let's listen to some Dwarves...Here's "One Time Only"...Enjoy...

Dwarves: Blood, Guts & Pussy

Uh-oh...NSFW cover alert coming up...You know the drill...If your kids are in the room or if your titty-hatin' boss is hanging over your shoulder you might want to scroll real fast until you see the naked chicks and midget scroll by...Until then, here's a few pictures of SFW things..

"Nope, Boss...Just googlin' how many days until our Lord and Savior returns to Earth and wipes out that titty-filled internet once and for all..."

 "Hey, kids...Let's turn off that 'Amazing World of Gumball' and watch one of the children's shows that I used to watch as a kid...Hey! Why are you kids leaving the room so fast? Oh well...Guess I'll have to look at titties and midgets on the internet...Ain't that right, Hon?"

"Nah, Hon...I was just kiddin'! Look, I'm just looking at screengrabs of my favorite Julia Roberts film! Hey! That gives me a great idea! Why don't you run to the store and pick up some popcorn and we'll have a Julia Roberts movie marathon!"

Okay, now that everyone's gone...Get ready to scroll real fast cos there's going to be two NSFW covers in a row coming up...Unless you're home alone reading this...Then yank your wire all you like...I'm not watching...

Alright, here we go, in 1...


2...



3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


 

Dwarves: Blood, Guts & Pussy

1990

Sub Pop Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Back Seat Of My Car  2.  Detention Girl  3. Let's Fuck  4. Drug Store  5. Skin Poppin' Slut  6. Fuck You Up And Get High  7. Insect Whore  8. Flesh Tantrum  9. SFVD  10.
What Hit You  11. Gash Wagon



Hey! I'm full of blood! Hey! I have a gut! Hey! I'm a pussy! This record must be a concept album about me mE ME!!!!

I like the little dwarf guy they always have on their covers...He never seems to age...He always looks exactly the same....This album came out in 1990 and he still often pops on their covers looking not a day older....

Or maybe it's a different dwarf...Maybe all dwarfs look the same to me...Does that make me dwarfist? Anyway, that guy's awesome...Long live the dwarf...

Oh yea, one thing I should mention before I tackle this "Blood, Guts & Pussy" album, the track listing for the CD and vinyl versions are different...They're pretty much the same, except the CD ends with  "Astro Boy" and "Motherfucker"...The vinyl version lacks those two tracks, but adds "Gash Wagon"...I wish they would have made room for "Motherfucker" but"Gash Wagon" is pretty great too...Still hard to top that "Surfin' Bird" section on "Motherfucker"...

If I had to describe the music (which I guess I have to, since I bothered to put up a blog post about it), I'd say it's essentially full-tilt hardcore coated with a layer of very scuzzy rock n' roll...The guitars are about an inch away from your face and the vocals are kinda in the Stiv Bators/Iggy Pop or a really horny and feral Joey Ramone (Although, I sorta think Blag is distinctive enough to be his own category at this point...There's a sort of sandblasted leering that's pin pointedly Blag when you hear other artists attempt it)...As far as lyrical content and generally grimy ambiance goes, you'd probably have to turn to GG Allin for anything more truly antisocial, but performance-wise it's very polished and well-played...The songs are all clear, catchy, and concise (very concise, considering the album's 14 minute running time)...

And the album just fucking rules the universe..How can it not? The premise is sound, it's always delivered at full speed  and if there is a bad song (and there isn't) it wouldn't stick around long enough for you to notice. Plus here's a very representative sampling of the lyrics being spit out on the mic:

"I am the best fucking fuck in the whole fuckin world,
Dog eat dog, boy eat girl,
I'm the duke of fuckin earl..."

or this lyrical chestnut:

"Give me AIDS, fuck me,
I just wanna get laid,
Give me AIDS, yeah yeah

There's bite marks on my dick,
I've got AIDS and aches and pains,
Shooting up drugs is the life for me,
I've got my HIV..."

So yea, probably not the album to put on for Grandma's 85th birthday party but man, for a quick fix of adrenaline it can't be beat...This is shit will liven up your own Friday night record party for sure...And the album's influence on band's like the Nobody's is incalculable...Great fun...Maybe just be aware you're probably going to paying full-length price for an EP running length but ultimately how can you put a price on the potent entertainment housed in the grooves of a fucking Dwarves LP? And tell me the cover alone isn't worth the measly bucks...

Here's "SFVD" by the Dwarves...Enjoy...

Dust: Hard Attack

Dust: Hard Attack

1972

Kama Sutra Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Pull Away/So Many Times  2. Walk in the Soft Rain  3. Thusly Spoken  4. Learning to Die  5. All in All  6. I Been Thinkin'  7. Ivory  8. How Many Horses  9. Suicide  10. Entrance


The In-Laws have gone back home after a two-week visit so I'm cracking my dragging knuckles and getting back to the serious bid-niss of blogging...As anyone who's been to my apartment knows, my record collection was kinda scatted all over, but yesterday we consolidated it and it's now all in one place...Check it out...

On the opposite wall is about an equal amount of compact discs...And can you believe I still often find myself saying, "I don't have anything to listen to?" To me, the highlight of this photo is that on the far left you can see "Dogs Playing Poker"...

But I didn't invite you here today to check out my apartment, I brought you here to check out "Hard Attack" by Dusssss...

I like this much more than the debut...That cover, man, that COVER!!!!

 An icy Frank Frazetta cover depicting a pride of dwarfs hoisting high their mighty battle-axes preparing to brain the craven orcs who would dare sneak into their village to steal away a few dwarven wenches...Have at thee, villain! HAVE AT THEE!

This is one of those albums where you see a cover so glorious staring back at you from the used vinyl bin that you can't help but pick it up no questions asked...Usually this is a fairly pricey record but I found a slightly scuffed cover for cheap...Plays fine though...

And does this album ever rock..."Pull Away" kicks off with wussy acoustic guitar and you think for a moment, "Oh, wuss music..." but no...Suddenly the guitar goes "DAH DAHHHH!!!!" and the drums go "Thoodlythump" and before you know it you're rocking mightily...As I was listening to this the other day, I realized that it's worked its way to the top of my all-time favorite hard rock albums of the early 70's (yes, I have an official list of my "all-time favorite hard-rock albums from the early 70's"...I need to get out more, you say?).  To me "All in All" and " Learning to Die" are some of the best hard rock the 70's had to offer...These are the songs that made me sit up and take notice of what a whirlwind drummer Marky Ramone is...My God, he's just incredible on these, you'd swear he had at least 4 or 5 arms to get in all these warp speed fills in...

And the slower stuff that brought down the last record actually works this time...The one and only bum track on this album is "How Many Horses" which is an endless, Disney blues that honestly doesn't bother me that much...I normally just skip it or daze out to it as I stare at the record cover until "Suicide" comes on and snaps me out of it..."Said it wahhhz sooh-ah-sahhhd! Yay yay yay-uh!" Derr! Da da derr!! Big fat riffs! I like big fat riffs!

 This is the band's final album and you can't help but wish there was just a bit more...Still, set aside that longing and appreciate what's here...Just a big, ass-kicking chunk of fuzzy, hairy-chested 70's-ness...Coming from guys so young, I'm not even sure the chest hair was even there yet...It's really not so surprising these guys were so successful with subsequent endeavors considering they sounded like they were ready to rule the world when they were still mere high school kids...F-ing respect...If you have a big bone-ola for any combination of Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Mountain, Blue Cheer, Uriah Heep, or MC5, I'd pick this up if I was you...Lots of good stuff that radio hasn't worn out yet (and probably never will, since every classic rock playlist was set in stone somewhere around 1998)....

Here's "All in All" by Dust...Enjoy...

Dust: Dust

Dust: Dust

1971

Kama Sutra Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Stone Woman  2. Chasin' Ladies  3. Goin' Easy  4. Love Me Hard  5
 From a Dry Camel  6. Often Shadows Felt  7. Loose Goose


This was a largely unknown band whose work has recently been reissued most likely due to the band having members who went onto bigger things...Most notably (for me anyway) is Marky Freakin' Ramone...But this dates from the early 70's, so it sure as hell can't be bubblegummy pop punk...But what is it then?

Why, it's puff-chested, hair-blowing in the wind, man rock...With flailing guitars, propulsive drums and lyrics about gypsies,  ladies, women and soo-ah-saaaahhhhd!!! Delivered in as macho and blustery a manner as possible...If you're being really charitable, you might be able to lump some of it into the same "proto-punk" category as MC5's "High Time" or maybe even a cleaned-up Blue Cheer...There's some pretty intense energy being thrown off here...Still, I'd say "proto-metal" might be the more accurate description if we're tossing around "proto"s....

You may ask yourself, "Would anybody care about this stuff if it didn't have Marky Ramone and the Producer from Kiss playing on it?" I think I can safely say "Yes" if you're into the whole 70's hard rock thing...The first time I heard it on youtube, I had no idea who was in the band, but I do remember asking, "Who is this drummer?!?!?!" It was only after reading a few comments that I saw Marky's name come up and I was like, "No fuckin' way!" I found their second album on vinyl, but could not find this first one, until someone finally got around to reissuing a twofer CD that had both albums...

For whatever reason, the CD starts off with their second album, then the debut is sequenced afterwords...It might have something to do with the second album being noticeably better, but this first one is no slouch either...They're definitely at their best when they set aside any aspirations to becoming bluesmen or sensitive soft rockers and narrow their focus on actively kicking your ass as thoroughly as possible...Which luckily, they stick to most of the time...Songs like "Stone Woman," "Hard Love," and the instrumental "Loose Goose" was probably some of the most butt-kicking material you could get your hands on back then...A pretty notable exception though is the weird, proggy 9-minute epic "From a Dry Camel " that would probably have ruled the universe if they would have dropped that dumb "one hump or two?" lyric...Awesome doomy riff though and an intriguing atmosphere all around...

This is a great find for when you're hungry for some 70's radio rock but you've already burned through all the usual hard rock bands...

Here's "Hard Love" by Dust...Enjoy...