Striktly For Konnoisseurs 1
ISSUE 1
Strictly For Old Konnoissuers will revisit some of the albums from each issue of Kerrang!and bring you a little closer to where it all started, as well as updating you on where the band ended up!
Black Oak Arkansas
“Raunch ‘N’ Roll Live’
Lacking some imagination when it came to naming themselves, Black Oak Arkansas started out as ‘The Knowbody Else’ and were signed to Stax in Memphis Tennessee, before changing their name to that of their home town / State and releasing their debut album in 1971.
Plying pretty standard southern rock, at times it is hard to get on with down to the fact that Jim ‘Dandy’ Mangram’s vocals are somewhat of an acquired taste – although he did look the business – and he played the washboard! BOA bridged the gap between southern rock and satanism when fundamentalist groups claimed they included satanic messages in their song ‘When electricity came to Arkansas’ – possibly from a live performance of the song in which Mangrum utters “dog si eh” and “natas” three times. This album captures them in their prime and is the perfect taster of their music. What truly stands out on this album is Tommy Aldridge (Drums) and illustrates exactly why he was, and still is, one of the greatest rock n roll drummers. Of course Aldridge went on to play with The Pat Travers Band, Ozzy Osbourne, Gary Moore, Whitesnake, Ted Nugent, Thin Lizzy, Vinnie Moore and Yngwie Malmsteen. On this album and on studio albums he really is the engine room of the band and forms BOA into a pretty intense unit at times.
Worth a listen just for Aldridge.
Arthur Lee
‘Vindicator’
Arthur Lee is best known as the lead singer in 60s band LOVE, ‘Vindicator’ is his first solo record, released in 1972 and sees him settle on a blues boogie feel for the best part of the album. Occasionally we tread closely to a Hendrix feel to some of the tracks and the guitar playing is superb throughout courtesy of Charlie Karp in the main. ‘Love jumped through my window’ is one such track and is a good place to start if you want to get a good feel for what the rest of the album is going to be like.
Lee sadly died in 2006 due to complications whilst undergoing treatment for Leukemia in Memphis, Tennessee aged 61.
Marcus
‘Hailing from Detroit Michigan Marcus initially was coveted by Motown records – working on demos with some of the biggest names in the business -before being moved to LA by Ike Turner’s management team and signing with United Artists Records. The result was the all star hard-rock ‘Marcus’ album, which is still on the catalogue today and re released by Rock Candy Records in December 2016. Growing up in Detroit meant he was always open to musical diversity. He hung out with the MC5, opened for Bog Seger and Iggy Pop, but it was his passion for rocking blues that led him to Europe.‘
A stand out track from the album is ‘Black Magic’, with its Sabbath style riff and outstanding vocals from Malone it holds it’s own against other classic rock titans from a similar era. It’s a quality album that more than deserves some attention.
Malone is still recording and playing live, recording his 8th solo album in 2017. He has recently teamed up with Innes Sibun (Robert Plant’s guitarist) and released an album together last year – ‘Come Together’.
Golden Earring
‘To The Hilt’
Formed in 1961 in The Hague (who’d have thought it!) Golden Earring are 25 albums into their career to date. ‘To The Hilt’ is their 11th studio album and follows a critically disastrous release, ‘Switch’ which failed to live up to the success of ‘Montana’, which contained their hit single ‘Radar Love’. What is noticeable about Golden Earring’s sound, is that in general it doesn’t sound like Radar Love. No doubt this has been their battle – especially with the album ‘Switch’.
What we have in ‘To The Hilt’ however is a quality piece of heavy rock with more than a nod to southern rock and blues giants such as Skynard et al. Stand out tracks for me are title track ‘To The Hilt’, opening track ‘Why me?’ and the epic ‘Violins’. All offering up some fine examples of musicianship that set them apart from their peers at the time.
Golden Earring are still going strong and released a new track ‘Say When‘ in October 2019. Of course, ‘Radar Love’ will always remain one of the greatest hard rock songs of all time, but it is more than worth giving ‘To The Hilt’ a spin and imagining, just for a moment, that Radar Love never happened.
MC5
‘Kick Out The jams’
Excuse me for been biased, but ‘Kick Out The Jams’ by the MC5 happens to be one of, if not my favourite album of all time. There are a few classic ‘Live’ albums that are truly awe-inspiring – The Who,’ Live At Leeds’; Thin Lizzy, ‘Live And Dangerous’; Cheap Trick ‘At Budokan’ – MC5’s ‘Kick Out The Jams’ holds its own comfortably amongst those, in fact it drags them round the corner and gives them an additional good kicking – just to be on the safe side! Sometimes you need to remind yourself that this was recorded in 1968 in their hometown of Detroit and that it was their debut album!! It gives a good indication of the band’s philosophy that their debut album is a non-studio affair – capturing the raw energy that history proved was difficult to bottle in the studio albums. With so much musical water under the bridge since then it is clear that they had, and continue to have, such an incredible impact and influence on a whole host of musical styles and purveyors of.
From Brother J C Crawford’s opening testimony you are thrown full force into the sonic wall that is the MC5 at their finest. Raw, brash, on the edge and intent on converting every single one of you to be a part of the sonic revolution!!
Brothers and Sisters
I wanna see a sea of hands out there.
Let me see a sea of hands.
I want everybody to kick up some noise.
I wanna hear some revolution out there, brothers
I wanna hear a little revolution.
Brothers and sisters, the time has come
For each and every one of you to decide
Whether you are gonna be the problem,
Or whether you are gonna be the solution.
You must choose, brothers, you must choose.
It takes 5 seconds, 5 seconds of decision.
Five seconds to realize that it’s time to move.
It’s time to get down with it.
Brothers, it’s time to testify and I want to know,
Are you ready to testify?
Are you ready?
I GIVE YOU A TESTIMONIAL, THE MC5 !!!!’
Wayne Kramer and Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith showing just how the twin axe attack should be done and laying down the foundations for numerous bands to apply that exact same approach over subsequent years. Their influence on punk and metal is well recorded, with Lemmy claiming that Motorhead were born from his desire to be ‘Fast and vicious, just like the MC5’ and often including a cover of ‘Sister Anne’ in their live set.
Closing track ‘Starship’ (co-written with Sun Ra) is a sonic voyage from which you would never want to return. If you’ve never listened to the MC5, then this is the album that will take you into their world. A true testimonial……..are you ready to testify brothers and sisters? Always.