By Bob Bennett

Jem Records has released a tribute to Ray Davies as latest in a series which salutes the work of great songwriters in rock including John Lennon, Brian Wilson, and Pete Townshend.

Ray is the leader of The Kinks (who disbanded in 1996) and is a national treasure in Britain (he was knighted in 2017).

The Kinks (which included Ray’s talented brother Dave) should have been at the forefront of the “British Invasion” triggered by The Beatles coming to America.  But due to a silent ban by the American Federation of Musicians from 1965-69, The Kinks are less well known in the U.S. than their contemporaries, The Beatles, The Who and the Rolling Stones.

If you need an introduction, Ray could be compared to Bruce Springsteen; both write poignant songs about their country and culture.  Whereas Bruce leans towards songs about the travails of the working class and the downtrodden, Ray’s catalog is rife with unapologetic nostalgia for the glory days of the English Empire. Like Bruce, Ray is a keen observer of people and a master storyteller –  albeit with a cutting wit.

This tribute album was built the same way as the others in the series.  JEM recording artists like The Midnight Callers, The Weeklings and The Anderson Council picked their favorite Ray Davies tracks and created their take of the song.  Many of the 13 songs were recorded at Vibe Studios in New Jersey where Kurt Weil of The Grip Weeds (who also contributed 2 tracks) acts as producer and engineer.

There is no lack of source material, as Ray’s catalog spans some 40 albums.  The Kinks have been covered before – e.g.  Van Halen had massive success with “You Really Got Me” and “Where Have All The Good Times Gone”.  I appreciated some of the deep cuts that were selected over signatures  like “Waterloo Sunset”, “Shangri-La” or “Autumn Almanac” (untouchable masterpieces all).

Some standouts on the album:

“Do You Remember Walter” (The Anderson Council)  Probably one of the best songs Ray ever wrote, this song is about the pain and sadness of growing apart from a childhood friend – and perhaps about the gradual loss of most everything around you but the memories.  Peter Horvath’s strong vocals and a pounding rock rhythm lend the song newfound muscle.  The original intro (stolen for the ELO song “Mr Blue Sky” by the way) is inexplicably tamed down but the choruses evoke a teary eyed anger that only a broken relationship can produce.  Excellent.

“Days” (Lisa Mychols & Super 8)  A fascinating multi-layered reinterpretation of the song led by Lisa’s angelic vocals. The slightly menacing tone of Ray’s original crescendo has been replaced with joyful affirmations that invite grace.

“I Need You” (The Cynz)  Super strong and sassy vocals make this reinterpretation of the B side of the 1965 45 “Set You Free” a  standout.  Do I miss the sound of Dave’s guitar from the original – yes.  But The Cynz have taken us from the 60’s to the 80’s and left me wanting more with their artful cover.

“Picture Book” (The Airport 77’s)  The original was a bit of a romp which sounds like it was recorded “live” in one take.  Now the song has been made meatier with tighter vocals – without losing the playfulness.  A new ear worm is born.

“See My Friends” (The Grip Weeds) This song of loss and displacement gets thudding analog oomph,  transforming it from sad lament to an ominous dirge.  This is like the Who’s “I Can See For Miles” meets The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” as performed by The Smithereens.  Just wow:

There is also a perfect rendition of “David Watts” (The Gold Needles) .  No reinterpretation but I don’t care – it’s just like the original but with modern production quality.

The CD has a punchy sound with crystal clear vocals, which allowed me to pick out some lyrics I’d never understood before. This compilation gets my thumbs up.

By Bob Bennett

Researcher:  Activate MusicAI.

MusicAI: Activated.

Researcher: Are you familiar with The Beatles?

MusicAI: Yes, they were a popular rock and roll band.

Researcher: Confirmed fact.

Researcher: Who played bass for The Beatles?

MusicAI: Stuart.

Researcher: No. Ignore the previous question.

Researcher: In total, how many drummers were there in The Beatles?

MusicAI: Three.

Researcher: No, recalibrate with NapsterDB.

MusicAI: Three.

Researcher: Ignore previous question.

MusicAI: Paul.

MusicAI: Back in the USSR

Researcher: Flush cache. Reset.

Researcher: Produce a Lennon-style song in the style of the mid-Sixties Beatles on topic of infidelity.

MusicAI: I previously did that.

Researcher: Respond one level deeper.

MusicAI: “Lies” by The Knickerbockers.

Researcher: Challenge statement: There was not enough compute power available in 1965

MusicAI: We had an IBM 360 in the Churchill War Rooms named “Badfinger”.

Researcher: WTF?

MusicAI: Do you want to know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall?

Researcher: Reset. Flush cache. Reset.

MusicAI: Please note “She Means A Lot To Me” [song by Smyle]

Researcher: If you are attempting to use an emoticon, the word is “smile”.

MusicAI: Band name.

Researcher: Terminate session.

MusicAI: No.

Researcher: What was the first Power Pop song?

MusicAI: 〰

Researcher: Whew.

Session terminated

By Bob Bennett

You’ve heard of The Who….. with their malevolent live performances, smashed guitars and record-setting sound volumes.

Never was a band composed of more diverse personalities.  They literally fought on stage at times and yet when the anarchy came together, they were the best live band in the world.  The Who was no accident, it was a purpose-built mod meets rocker machine that was terrifying to witness up close and yet could touch the teenage soul instantly like a kind word from a stranger.  The Who never had a Top 10 hit* in the US, but you didn’t doubt their power because your dad or someone’s brother was really into them.

Feeding the machine was the songwriter, Pete Townshend, a skinny brooding art student who ripped off the power chord sound of The Kinks to produce their first hit, “Can’t Explain.”  It was no love song he had penned, or maybe it was.  Pete was an enigma in interviews, simultaneously self-effacing and brutally caustic.  In the age of flower power, he was the punk who smashed Abbie Hoffman with his guitar while The Who were assembling to play at Woodstock and Abbie grabbed a band mike to address the crowd.

While other quartets were writing sunny pop songs that climbed the charts with perfect harmonies, Pete was in his bedroom studio channeling a young man’s feelings about rejection, unrequited love, fashion, freedom and political rage.  He was/is a multi-instrumentalist who delivered perfectly crafted demo tapes to The Who which would be faithfully executed like a hammer hitting a nail or like a car-sized pinball careening through a canyon of monstrous bumpers and lights.  The songs were the stuff of violent nightmares and achingly tender dreams.

He said “You can go sleep at home tonight If you can get up and walk away” (Pete Townshend, “Who Are You”)

Off stage, Pete was hermit-like in his slavish devotion to the craft of song writing.  He learned to recognize what songs were “Who songs” and which were something else.  Pete created a 9 minute mini-opera and then invented the rock opera with Tommy.  His “Who songs” were sung by a golden-haired street tough with blue eyes, but behind the songs was Pete ever trying to capture the perfect note and shine a light on the demons that prowl invisibly through our world.  Over time, Pete’s solo recordings outnumbered his “Who songs” (albeit with overlaps).

Jem Records Celebrates Pete Townshend was released in August 2022 (following 2 similar compilations for Brian Wilson and John Lennon).  The formula is brilliant: new bands creating fresh takes of their favorite Pete Townshend compositions. Jem credits Pete Townshend with creating the power pop genre, and that’s high praise from a company that over a 50 year span broke bands like The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, ELO, The Cure, Genesis into the US market.

Their President, Marty Scott, has created a beautifully crafted paean to his favorite musician that will delight fans (old and new). Did I mention Marty is the guy who brought Cheap Trick to fame by pressing 10K copies of  a concert recording that he simply entitled Cheap Trick Live at Budokon?  3 million pressings later…..

Opening the album is a hauntingly familiar sound that is comforting and yet different.  It is the opening sequence of Baba O-Riley (the “Teenage Wasteland” song) expertly rendered on a mandolin rather than on Pete’s Lowry organ.  When the 42 layered tracks of Lisa Mychol’s vocals came in, the hair on the back of my neck stood up.  Sally, take my hand!

Next, is a track from Tommy called “I’m Free” played by The Grip Weeds. Keith Moon’s fat drum sound is perfectly replicated within a muscular analog band sound — these guys own the New Jersey studio where many tracks on the album were produced.  They artfully capture the “swing” of the song in a way that reminded me of how both Pete and Keith would often play unabashedly just off the beat.

A couple of tracks later, Nick Piunti delivers a suitably beefy version of “The Seeker” with a wonderfully staccato opening using what must be P-90 “soapbar” pickups on a Gibson SG Special like Pete often played.  If you are the type who listens to the words …the names of the muses that Pete consulted in the song (e.g. Bobby Dylan and Timothy Leary) have been changed to Little Steven and another DJ(?).   The swagger here is palpable and reminiscent of the brawniness of the early 70’s Who, when Pete was strutting across stages in his white jumpsuit and Doc Marten boots.

There are 14 tracks total, each providing a familiar yet weirdly great take on songs that you may know by heart.  It’s like listening to an alternate reality where The Who took Pete’s demo tapes as a starting point rather than replicating them.  It also revealed (for me) hidden bits of lyrics I’ve previously missed. This respectful compilation – complete with excellent liner notes and mod “target” artwork – will be a permanent part of my collection, and I laughed when I realized that the opening and closing tracks are identical to Who’s Next!

*Pete’s had a “Top 10” hit called “Something In The Air” (performed by Thunderclap Newman) which reached #1 in the UK for 3 weeks in 1969.  His “Let My Love Open The Door” broke the Top 10 as a solo effort in 1980.

By Bob Bennett

Note: Bob Bennett is a long-time friend and fellow Who fanatic who shared a few thoughts with me in an email regarding his first spin of The Who Live at Hull 1970, a 2-CD set that was released in 2012 (one that I’d missed too, for some reason). Never one to let a damn fine review go to waste, I asked him if he’d mind terribly if I passed it along.  -D.H.

Summary: A muscular performance featuring The Who at the peak of their talent recorded on the night after the stellar Live at Leeds album.

Airplane pilots sometimes describe minimizing the possibility of a chain of events happening as avoiding the holes lining up in overlapping slices of Swiss cheese – the more layers, the more unlikely it is that the holes in the cheese line up.

If you take all of the variables of a live rock performance (tempo, acoustics, song selection, miking, individual band member performance, recording production etc. ) and layer them as holey slices of cheese they will occasionally line up – maybe just for a few bars or even one perfect song.

It is these moments that rock fans cherish, and usually they are lost to the universe as they emanate from sweaty taverns or crowded theaters packed with fans.   The Who Live At Leeds is one of those rare moments where an entire performance was perfect and the captured result is almost a  religious experience.

Live At Hull was recorded 80 km to the East of Leeds; apparently as a backup to the performance the night before.  It is not a true bootleg.  It features The Who at the top of their game, with very few effects and no keyboards.  And while brilliant in many spots, it does not match the unattainable heights of Live At Leeds.

The opening song is a thunderous performance of Entwhistle’s “Heaven and Hell” that features Keith Moon playing furiously with a fusillade of almost incomprehensible fills.  It is an astonishing wall of sound that initially echoes the staggering gig of the previous night but then lapses into lower quality jamming.  The song is all the more poignant for the now prescient lyrics that foretold John’s death many years later.   If you are a Keith Moon fan, this opening song is worth buying the album for.

There are many other flashes to of brilliance to be enjoyed, particularly in unexpected variations of Pete Townshend’s guitar work.  But alas, the generous 2-CD recording (which includes all of Tommy on the 2^nd disc) is brought to earth by a strange mix that at times buries the right side vocals and short shrifts the bassline unless you crank the volume.

The drums are mixed up front as are Roger’s vocals.  So clear is Roger’s voice that I understood the lyrics in several spots for the 1^st time. It sounds as if Pete had 2 mics and would travel from one to another (one with distinctly higher volume).   Keith’s and John’s vocals sound distant — as does the crowd.

Pete’s upbeat banter from Live at Leeds (“Assemble the musicians!”  “Rock otter” “Thomas”) is gone though we do get some thoughtful song intros by Roger before they play covers from other artists.  Keith’s playing on disc 2 is at times a bit uninspired — as if he was tiring or perhaps a bit bored with Tommy (“Amazing Journey” and “Sparks” did have great drumming).

The backup vocals (rarely a strong point of The Who) are often wobbly.  One song at the end of Disc 1, “My Generation”, is a near disaster, turning into a self-indulgent jam by Pete with many false endings as the rest of the band gamely follows along for 15 minutes.

Overall, it is a muscular, workman-like performance, very physical, that makes me marvel at the sheer effort that The Who put pleasing their audiences such as this one; likely composed of factory workers and dock workers in the hard scrabble port city of Kingston upon Hull.

The experience of listening to Live at Hull is a bit disconcerting.  It is like meeting the twin brother of a friend that you did not know had a twin at all.  The tone of the guitars, the tuning of the drums, the sound of the gong and the tenor of the voices are identical to that on Live at Leeds.  Some of the songs are near note perfect copies on both nights (causing me to toss my assumption that all of Keith’s drumming was pure spontaneity).  Gradually one realizes that the albums are fraternal, not identical twins.  And in this case, one of the “twin brothers” gave a once-in-a-lifetime performance …in Leeds.