BROADCAST #44
AIR DATE: 10-30-07

Fanatics! Welcome to this awesome and by turns, awful broadcast. It’s a mix of great, amusing and abusive tracks that I hope will fill you with joy and nausea. I made a CD of this show and played for a few drives in the car and I think it works pretty well. When we pre-taped the show weeks ago, Engineer X was appropriately enthralled and disgusted and I reckoned we had hit all the marks. I am in beautiful Vancouver Canada at this moment. In a couple of weeks, I will be back with you all live and I have a great show in the works for that night. I have been acquiring a lot of interesting music lately and I think it’s going to make the November and December broadcasts really happening, I can’t wait to get all these jams out to you. The first pressing of Fanatic! Vol. II is almost gone out here on the road and the 2nd printing is underway. We’ll have it on the 213 site in late November and I’ll put information on how to get it on the Harmonyinmhead.com site. Ok, I’ll leave you Fanatics to it, here’s some information on what we heard tonight. Have at it and STAY FANATIC!!! --Henry

For you Fanatics who can’t live without hearing this show again or if the original broadcast time is too hard on your sleep cycle here’s the re-broadcast schedule: USA: Fridays: 0200 – 0400 hrs. PST / UK: Fridays: 1000 hrs. – 1200 hrs./ Continental Europe: Fridays 1100 hrs. – 1300 hrs. / Australia: Fridays 2100 hrs. – 2300 hrs.

E-Mail address for me: Henryontheradio@aol.com

Misfits – Halloween I: From the 12 Hits From Hell CD. I don’t think it would be right to start out our pre-Halloween broadcast with any other song but this one. One the great bands of our time. It’s not a lot of fun getting old but there are some advantages to be long in the tooth and one of them is to have seen some shows from a time they call “back in the day” whenever the hell that was. I do believe I saw a show or two that can be considered from this mythical time. I know of people who saw a great many shows back in the day and their stories are enough to make you wild with jealousy. What makes me mad at myself is that I could have seen a few more shows than I did back then. One thing or another precluded me from getting to them, a lot of times it was work. Anyway, I did get to see The Misfits around the time they released Walk Among Us and they were some great shows, believe me. I think the first time I saw them, in 1981, they opened with this song. What a band!

Dokken - Breaking The Chains: From The Very Best Of CD. Can you imagine the poor bastard who had to look at the Dokken catalog and try to whittle it down to only one CD for the purposes of making a best-of?! I wouldn’t want that job. When every song is a killer, just the way Don Dokken wrote them. I think Greg Ginn was either in class with Dokken or went to the same school with him. We used to say things like, “Greg, have you heard the new Dokken album, it’s pretty damn good!” He’d get all bent out of shape. “No Greg, really. I didn’t want to like it but man, it’s really happening!” Many years ago, Dokken played at The Key Club. A pal of mine was working the box office at the time and on my request, he hooked me up with some tickets and I took the woman I was seeing at the time to the show. I don’t know if she totally understood our mission that night but I think she got it enough to have a good time. This was the song we were staying for and when Dokken did it, I sang along as loud as I could next to this huge Metal man in a trench coat. He put his arm around me on the choruses and we sang our hearts out. Me and the woman didn’t last all that long and when I play this song, I don’t think of her but it was a great night all the same. Hey Greg! Dokken’s rokkin’!

Slayer - New Faith: I held you under the water for the previous track, now you get a reward. This track is from the very awesome God Hates Us All album. This is one of my most played Slayer rekkits. What can I say about Slayer that hasn’t already been said? What a band. Talk about no sell out. They have more integrity than ten Emo bands!

Roky – Stand For The Fire Demon: Yes! What a great song! I was looking through all the indexes of the songs we’ve played on our show and I was happy to see that I had not played this song yet. What a songwriter The Rok is, a true American treasure. Tonight, we are not going to listen to the live version readily found on The Evil One album, it’s great but the live version found on Casting The Runes CD is so much heavier and you can hear Roky’s raw power vocal and his ridiculous band. Man, this guy had some bands. Shredding guitar players, amazing rhythm sections. He’s as good as anyone who has ever hit stage in America. I am so glad he’s back out there onstage and rockin’. There was a long time where I thought Roky’s future was very bleak indeed but luckily, he’s got some good people around him, namely, his brother Sumner, who is chiefly responsible for the return of Roky. Did this song blow your mind or what?!

Men Without Hats - Pop Goes The World: From the never talked about Pop Goes The World album, their highly anticipated follow up to the other albums they released. I remember in 1987, I was driving by Tower Records in Los Angeles and there was a line leading down the street from the store for about 15 blocks. I parked and asked some of the people in line what all the fuss was about. They looked at me like I was crazy. One man, breathless, pointed in the direction of the record store and yelled in a hoarse voice, “Men Without Hats! New album!” then all the people around him started pointing at their heads and shaking their heads “no”. I understood what they were getting at. No hats. I got it. I asked them if Men Without Hats ever wore hats, like in cold weather. This only made them smack their heads with their hands and yell, “No hats!!! NO HATS!!!” Then all at once, the thousands of people in the line stated chanting at me, “NO HATS! NO HATS! NO HATS!” It was really intense. Ok. Their last album was called No Hats Beyond This Point. No. I have not heard it either. Apparently this is not an authorized release and the band is pissed. Also there is a live album called Live Hats that the band isn’t happy with either. You get these hatless men mad and it might not be all that safe to dance. Word.

Stooges – Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell: Well, yeah, of course The Stooges. Music right for any occasion and since they put “hell” in the title of the song, all the better. This is from the band’s 3rd album Raw Power, something you Fanatics already know. This song is also known as Hard To Beat. I don’t think we have played much or anything off this album on our show. It’s not that I don’t like the album, it’s just that tracks from this album get played all the time so I try and go to other less obvious tracks. It’s so great to know that somewhere out there, The Stooges are playing.

Sussi & Leo - Smoke On The Water: I now officially forget where I got this CD, The Road Show. Sussi and Leo are an elderly couple from Denmark. From their photos in the CD booklet, they look friendly enough. Sussi sports a come hither smile, a lot of leg and a Stratocaster and Leo looks a kindly, gentle man who you would trust with your children and kittens and holds a pipe, giving this Fanatic the impression that there’s a lot more to the man than just his kick ass Rock & Roll band. Then there’s the music. It’s live, ya’ll and people are digging it. Why? Perhaps there is not a lot of live music where they live and people will take anything. It could very well be that a Sussi & Leo show is considered a great night out. I’m in a position to judge?! You have to admit, if that really is Sussi playing, that’s not the worst tone you have ever heard. A Stratocaster looks good on a woman, it just does. I am sure the men of Deep Purple have heard their song done in every possible style and instrumentation, in any country where’s there’s electricity but I wonder if any of the band has heard this version. So many times, I have contemplated bringing this CD to the station and every time I was about to walk out the door with it, I stopped and put it back on the shelf. I just could not bring myself to go through with it. It didn’t seem fair, like slugging a catfish with a billy club when it innocently comes to the surface of the river or punching your dad in the face as hard as you can while he’s blowing out the candles on the cake at his 80th birthday party. Where the hell am I going with this? Think of all the people who bought this CD on the way out the show so they could re-live the magic of the Sussi & Leo live experience over and over again. Think of how you just endured three minutes and thirty seven seconds of these two elders up way past their bed time. You’re starting to get the concept behind tonight’s broadcast now, aren’t you? They say in Hell you can have any food you want in unlimited quantity but only after it has passed through the gastro intestinal tract of Barbara Bush. Roger that. What, you think I make this stuff up?! You want to go to their site? Well, do ya? Then go, bitch!: http://www.sussi-leo.dk/

The Beach Boys - Monster Mash: from the Beach Boys Concert album. I have bootleg versions of the band doing this song but they are not as good sounding as this one. I figured since I was mean to your mind on the last track, I would let you up for a little air or at least try to take your mind off the Barbara Bush image which is no doubt going to rob you of some of your well-being.

Wesley Willis – Black Flag: From the Shake Your Piggy Bank CD. We lost the great Wesley a few years ago. He was one of the most righteous true believers of music and real artists I have ever met. He was 100%. I miss the guy. He really knew how to rock! His music whipped the snow leopard’s ass with a belt! “Rock over London! Rock on Chicago! Visine, it gets the red out!”

Todd Tappin - Last Night: Many years ago, around 1989, my lawyer had a small office across from Hollywood High on Highland, right below Hollywood Blvd. She sometimes worked with singer/songwriters on publishing agreements and the like. One of her clients was this guy Todd Tappin. Whenever I would see him he kinda had this “how’s your little band?” thing happening when he talked to me. I thought it was hilarious. Anyway, Todd sucked. Todd sucked so hard I rescued one of his tapes from the trash and many years later, made it into a CDR. My only regret is that I didn’t get a copy of his other tape with his cover of Rock On, how great would that have been? So, tonight you get an angry Todd who has caught his woman a’foolin’ around last night and asks the question, “Did you make him feel alright, LAST NIGHT?!” Enough rappin’ about Tappin!

The Fall – There’s A Ghost In My House: Holy fuck, MES almost sounds approachable on this R. Dean Taylor, Holland/Dozier/Holland composition. This was an unsuccessful single for Taylor who released it in 1967. As you can see, Taylor was in extremely heavy company. He was brought to Motown to write and although this single didn’t do anything, he had success writing for other Motown acts. It’s interesting that The Fall picked this song to cover. This single was released 04-27-87 on Beggars Banquet in 7” and 12” formats, two different sleeves for the 7”. The Fall were almost popstars during their Beggars era. Well, they were as close as they were ever going to get to being popstars I think it’s fair to say. During this time, The Fall cranked out songs seemingly without taking a break to sleep. A lot of albums, a ton of b-sides, all of it good too, I think. The Fall do a lot of covers and more than once, they used a cover song as a single. On the Frenz Experiment album, released in February of 1988 the band covered the Kinks Victoria and released it as a single on 01-11-88. I must say, on Ghost, it’s interesting to hear MES so in-harness and showing up for the choruses on time and singing so well. It’s almost as if he’s taking a break from himself. Perhaps his wife at the time, the very talented Brix Smith, who was also in the band momentarily tamed the man. You think? Nah! Have you ever heard The Very Things do this song? You can find it on their appropriately titled Motortown album. If you need some Fall information you can always go to the Unofficial Fall Site and immerse yourself in all things Fall: http://www.visi.com/fall/.

Nitro – Double Trouble: From the O.F.R. album. The three letters stand for Out Fucking Rageous. If you can, try and find some photos of the band online and check out that hair. Years ago, I was introduced to Nitro when someone lent me the CD knowing I was going to love it and love it I did. I managed to secure a copy fairly easily and since, have passed on the magic of Nitro to more than a few. If you want to see what they looked like when they made this album, put “nitro band” into your browser and go to images and see what happens. You see that photo and you HAVE to hear the band. Here’s the Wikipedia write up on the band: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitro_(band). In the liner notes, the band tells you to play this fucker LOUD, like it’s going to help. I just found a copy of vocalist Jim Gillette’s solo album Proud To Be Loud and at some point, I’ll have to bring in at least one track.

The Velvet Underground – Sister Ray: Had to do it! Tonight is the night, Fanatics! Engineer X is loving this broadcast! From the VU’s monster album White Light/White Heat album. This song is a dense wall of sound with two musicians who brought out true greatness in each other, John Cale and Lou Reed. The VU never made a record like this one again and neither did Cale or Reed as solo artists. It’s easily one of the greatest albums of all time. There are a lot of bands who make some brain smashing noise albums these days and that’s fine by me but the fact that VU made this record in 1968 is so impressive to me. The first three VU albums are all very different and all amazing in their own way. Come to think of it, I have a really great live version of What Goes On that I will have to bring in next month. Whip it on me, Jim!
Lucifer – Nightmare: From the band’s self-titled debut. I don’t know if they made any other albums than this one. I forget which one it was but a member of the band wrote me a couple of years ago when we were playing something off this album. I don’t remember the contents of the letter, I think he was glad that we had put the band’s music into the mix. It’s the vocals that really do it for me. If you liked this very satanic song, you will like the rest of the album. I know I do! Look what I found! A Lucifer site! http://www.lucifer666.com/bio.html. Go to the Bio section and scroll down for all the lyrics. If the soundtrack for Hell sounded like this, I would go now! Hail Satan!
High On Fire – Devilution: From the Blessed Black Wings album. It’s too bad that the great band Sleep broke up but at least two good things came from the break. One was a band called Om, which has Al Cisneros on bass and Chris Hakius on drums. Their first album Variations On A Theme is good. Their 2nd album Conference Of The Birds is great. The other good thing to happen is High On Fire that features guitarist Matt Pike. I like all of their albums and the new one, Is This Communion is a monster, I got it the other day and have been playing out here on the road. I already have two songs from it I want to play when I get back in November that you will hopefully like very much. The other night I was in Houston and saw they were a few nights behind me so I rocked the album pre show in tribute. http://www.highonfire.net/

Plans For Neptune - Cheater: From the Auditions Are Chaos cassette that was getting copied around here and there a few years ago. I don’t know anything about the band but it seems to be a vocal/guitar only mix. Perhaps the singer was taking it home to study it? I don’t know how this song came about of the origins of the tape, which has three more songs by this band with the same kind of mix. The motherfucker means it!

Fats Waller - There's Going To Be The Devil To Pay: From the Early Years, Pt. 2 (1935-1936) CD. It’s Fats! What a great song and perfect for our wonderful, challenging and at times annoying and infantile broadcast tonight. Fats played piano nonstop, smoked, drank, toured and then keeled over and died in 1943 AT 39. Before he left the room, he left behind a staggering amount of amazing recordings. There is no Fats performance you can find where it sounds like he didn’t write the song himself. Like Sinatra, he owned every song he put himself into, great piano player and singer as well. One of the great things about discovering Waller for me learning about and checking out all the players who inspired him like James P. Johnson and Willie “The Lion” Smith. These were very happy discoveries for me and I have spent many great hours listening to all three of these guys. Great, great stuff.

The Misfits - Halloween II: Closing the show with another track from the sadly unreleased 12 Hits From Hell album by The Misfits. I am sure many of you Fanatics remember last year’s epic broadcast where we played 25 Misfits songs in a row! This album was a big part of it. If you want to know more about the legendary 12 Hits album, go to http://www.misfitscentral.com/ and look it up. If you want to know a thing or two about The Misfits, this is your site. Amazing amount of information to be found. There’s no way we’re going to do a show related to Halloween and NOT play Halloween I&II!