BROADCAST #25
AIR DATE: 06-13-06

I thought for tonight, we would do something a little different. For the first hour, we’re going to play only one band and tonight that band is The Buzzcocks. A frequently played band on this show for sure. Tonight we’re going to do a brief overview of the band by playing tracks from some of their releases on United Artists and before. After that, we’re going to play an album in its entirety and talk a little about the artist. Tonight, we’re going to play John Coltrane’s 1964 classic A Love Supreme all the way through. I know this is very different than how we usually do it but I want to try some different approaches to the show and I am hoping you Fanatics like it. I have some more ideas I will be working on later in the year. Anyway, tonight, we hang out with The Ruts and The John Coltrane Quartet.
     For you Europeans, Australians and New Zealand Fanatics, there is a re-broadcast time of Friday mornings, 0200 – 0400 hrs. West coast time so you all can check out the show and not have to set your alarms to too rude an hour. If you want to download this show, http://www.rollins-archive.com/ is the place to go for that.
The first band up tonight is The Buzzcocks. As you Fanatics know, one of their songs is the name of the show, so you know I’m a fan.
     This is a band I listen to all the time. Sometimes I don’t know if they are really great or if they are one of those bands I heard at a certain time in my life and the imprint was made. Then, I listen to one of their records and it’s obvious—yes, they are that good. They are a great band.
     I am not a good enough writer to do much biographical writing on the band but the extreme short of it is they were from Manchester England, a scene that has given much to the music world. The Fall, Joy Division—how much more do you need?! The band were part of the first wave of the British Punk Rock explosion. With the release of their first single on United Artists, Orgasm Addict, the band became popular for all the right reasons—they had really well crafted songs that walked the line of pop and punk. The two guitars of Shelley and Diggle are brilliant. Also, and please remember, I’m just a Buzzcocks Fanatic, their first album Another Music In A Different Kitchen is one of the finest debut albums I have ever heard. The construction of the songs, the aforementioned guitar work, the lyrics and the production of Martin Hannett—what a record. All these years later, I play it and it’s still one of the best records I have ever heard.
     I listen primarily to their classic United Artists period, perhaps the songs they are best known for are from this period. It is from this period that we are listening to tonight.
     Beyond just how damn good the band is, I have a sentimental attachment to the band. I don’t know any of them but The Buzzcocks were one of those bands I kind of happened onto when the Punk Rock thing came my way and it will probably end up being the best musical experience as a record listening Fanatic that I’ll ever have. All those bands pretty all at once, where you’re hearing band after band and it’s all the best stuff you’ve ever heard.
     It was the music I had been waiting for all my short life. I was into all the hard rock of the time. I saw Nugent, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and it was all really great. BUT, when I heard The Damned, The Ramones, The Buzzcocks, The Adverts, The Clash, Eater, The Cramps, etc.—I knew my life was starting. I am glad I got to see The Buzzcocks when they came through DC back then. That was a huge experience for me. I was front row right against the stage.
     Anyway, before I get all weepy, here’s a breakdown of the music we heard.

You Tear Me Up: This is from the Time’s Up album. Time’s Up is a tape the Buzzcocks made in October 1976 in one afternoon at Revolution Studios in Stockport UK. It was also known as “The Stockport Tape”. I don’t think the band intended on releasing it but it came out as the Time’s Up bootleg LP nonetheless. I remember buying a copy of this LP from a small record store on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington DC in 1979 I think. The guy had a box of bootleg LPs he kept under the counter and would actually look around the store to see who was looking when he pulled them out. It was pretty funny. I bought the record because it was The Buzzcocks. I didn’t know much about what it was. I knew it was the Shelley/Diggle/Devoto/Maher line-up but didn’t know much else. I played it all the time. Years later, the good folks at Mute brought it out, mastered from the original tape. It’s a great look at this great line-up. The session overall is a little loose and rough but it’s very good and if you’re a Buzzcocks Fanatic, you probably already have this. If you don’t and you like the Spiral Scratch EP, then you really need to check this out. 

Breakdown: This is from the Spiral Scratch EP. Recorded 12-28-76 at Indigo Sound Studio in Manchester UK. This session was done only two months later in that time, you can hear that the band has evolved in that time. Devoto has a lot more going in the vocals and the band are no longer jus playing through the changes of the songs. This band was going strength-to-strength very quickly. A few shows ago, I played this entire four song record. There’s not a damn thing wrong with it. It’s such a fine piece of work. Another thing about this record that is significant is that this is the first recording they made with producer Martin Hannett, who was to work with the band on almost all their recordings while The Buzzcocks were on United Artists. I wonder if anyone ever makes the George Martin-Beatles connection with Hannett and The Buzzcocks. I have never read any interviews of his, if there are any and I have never read anything about how he worked with the band. I have a considerable amount of Buzzcocks press clippings and will go through them and see what I can come up with. If I can find something of interest, I will make a Fanatic Footnote somewhere in here. Anyway, this was the last of the Devoto Buzzcocks recordings and now we’re onto the Shelley-lead era of the band.

Boredom: An interesting moment here. You have Shelley doing a vocal on a Devoto-era song. This came out on a CD EMI put out years ago called Chronology. It is unreleased Buzzcocks material and it’s really great. This track, which features a rare line-up of the band, Shelley, Diggle and Maher all at their usual posts but on this recording, done 08-23-77, you have Garth Smith on bass. Garth was in the band from 03-11-77 to 10-07-77 says a Buzzcocks info site. This is the line-up that recorded the Orgasm Addict / Whatever Happened To? single for UA. I don’t think this CD is in print but it’s around and it’s really cool. I didn’t get this when it first came out. I just didn’t know about it so when I found it, it was a great day.

Another Music In A Different Kitchen (UK Release 03-10-78): The first proper studio album by the Buzzcocks. This record on its own deserves to be played all the way though. One of the best debuts from any band anywhere. I got this for my birthday from Ian MacKaye. I had heard of the record but couldn’t find one. In those days, it wasn’t the easiest thing to find import records and there weren’t many places to look and I wasn’t all that good at looking for stores where they could be found. I could have probably found this record a few months earlier if I was a little better at sleuthing them out. I ended up hearing a lot of their singles before I heard this album. I don’t remember if we played the record that night. I imagine we did. I know that it became my favorite record really fast and I played it all the time. When the band signed to United artists, they seemed to simultaneously meet up with producer Martin Rushent. Rushent produced, Another Music, Love Bites, A Different Kind Of and SGS. He produced a few more tracks for band at the end of their time at UA and the band moved on. I think Rushent did a great job with the band keeping the sound innovative and fresh. Perhaps an almost Beatles-George Martin relationship they had. I have never read anything about their relationship but they did a lot of work together in a relatively short about of time. Here’s all the pressings/versions I could find for AMIADK:

Another Music In A Different Kitchen  (UK Release 03-10-78)
     UK
     France
     France (white label promo)
     First UK test press w/ different track order
     UK mispress w/o I Need on Side 2
     New Zealand
     Japan
     Greece
     Portugal
     Sweden
     Germany

Finally, here’s the three songs from this album we listened to tonight:
Fast Cars
Get On Our Own
Fiction Romance

Now we move onto the band’s second album Love Bites (UK Release 09-22-78): This was a highly anticipated album. With all the great singles, chart success and successful shows behind them, the band had to deliver. Love Bites is very different than Another Music. The arrangements are more elaborate and there’s more melody and experimentation. This album was well received in the press and charted higher than Another Music. This record came out only a few months after Another Music. The band were in high gear. It took me awhile to find this album. Again, imports weren’t the easiest to find and I wasn’t the best at finding them. A car would have helped. I used to get smirks from the people behind the counters of the record stores in my neighborhood when I would ask them if any “import records” had come in. They acted like I was trying to ask for porn by using some kind of code. These are people who worshipped The Alan Parsons Project. This is all the different pressings I could find for the Love Bites album:

Love Bites  (UK Release 09-22-78)
UK (embossed, w/ insert)
Fan Club France (1978 original)
France Fan Club re-issue
     UK – Fame re-issue
UK 2 one sided test presses (one on each side)
Japan
Germany
Holland

And the three songs off the album we listened to:
Ever Fallen In Love
Just Lust
Sixteen Again

A Different Kind Of Tension (UK Release 09-14-79): I remember when I first saw this album in the meager import bin at the record store down the street from where I worked. It was basically a day’s pay to get it. I picked it up, looked at the picture of the band, which doesn’t really show you much, just a profile shot, to see if there were any signs of it not being worth many hours of standing on my feet. Perhaps there was something in the song titles to let me know that they were going to deliver the goods as they had done before. I don’t remember how many times I went and looked at the record. No one I knew had heard it or had heard anything about it. Finally, I got it. I liked it but not as much as all the other stuff that had come before it. It took me awhile to get into it but eventually I did. Listening to it now, it sounds pretty good. The band were still looking to push their music forward on all levels. I think by this time, with the IRS deal in America in place, the hype was all around them but they were starting to fray at the edges. A considerable push was given to this record and it was released in more territories than the previous two:

A Different Kind of Tension (UK Release 09-14-79)
UK
Canada
USA
Ireland
France
Italy
Japan
New Zealand
South Africa

We heard these two songs from A Different Kind Of Tension:
You Say You Don’t Love Me
Sitting Round At Home

Singles Going Steady: One of the best records I have ever heard is The Buzzcocks Singles Going Steady. SGS is eight singles /sixteen songs. The are as follows:
Orgasm Addict / What Ever Happened To? (released 11-28-77)
What Do I Get? / Oh Shit! (released 02-03-78)
I Don't Mind / Autonomy (released 03-14-78)
Love You More / Noise Annoys (released 07-07-78)
Ever Fallen In Love? / Just Lust (released 09-08-78)
Promises / Lipstick (released 11-17-78)
Everybody's Happy Nowadays / Why Can't I Touch It? (released 03-02-79)
Harmony In My Head / Something's Gone Wrong Again  (released 07-13-79)

When these singles were coming out, I didn’t know anything about releases dates. I would go to the local records pretty often and check the very small import bins hoping there would be a new Buzzcocks single. It was so cool when there was one. I would get back to my room and fire it up. Not a bad song in the bunch. Eventually, all 8 singles were put together as Singles Going Steady. This record came out in America on IRS. The band toured in the US in 1979 and I saw them play 09-04-79 at the Ontario Theater and they were great. This is still one of my favorite records of all time.
     This is all the info I could find on the different pressings of the SGS album.

Singles Going Steady (Released 09-25-79)
UK Liberty white label test press with proof sleeve
UK Liberty white label test press in a titled stamped cover
A&M white label test press
UK UA Scrapped release w/ black/red labels & glossy sleeve
Australia
Holland pressing
New Zealand
Portugal
Brazil
Sweden
Yugoslavia
Japan

And now after all that Fanatical footnoting, here’s the three songs we played from SGS:
Everybody’s Happy Nowadays
Whatever Happened To?
Noise Annoys

The Buzzcocks singles are very collectable. The UK sleeves are fairly easy to find. The German ones, not as much, the rest are more difficult. I will list all the ones I know for the three singles we just played here. There may be other pressings of some of these, test pressings and acetates but this is all I could find.

Everybody's Happy Nowadays / Why Can’t I Touch It? (released 03-02-79)
     Everybody's Happy Nowadays / Why Can’t I Touch It? – UA (UK) (Green front)
     Everybody's Happy Nowadays / Why Can’t I Touch It?  – UA (UK) (Blue front)
     Everybody's Happy Nowadays / Why Can’t I Touch It?  – UA (Germany)
     Everybody's Happy Nowadays / Why Can’t I Touch It?  – UA (Germany test press)
     Everybody's Happy Nowadays / Why Can’t I Touch It?  – UA (USA)
     Everybody's Happy Nowadays / Why Can’t I Touch It?  – (Acetate Portland Studios)
     Everybody's Happy Nowadays / Why Can’t I Touch It?  - (Ireland)
     Everybody's Happy Nowadays / Why Can’t I Touch It?  – (A label promo)

Orgasm Addict / Whatever Happened To? (released 11-28-77)
     Orgasm Addict / Whatever Happened To? – UA (UK)
     Orgasm Addict / Whatever Happened To? – UA (France)
     Orgasm Addict / Whatever Happened To? – (white label test press)
     Orgasm Addict / Whatever Happened To? – UK (A label promo)
     Orgasm Addict / Whatever Happened To? – UK (demo)
     Whatever Happened To? (one sided promo)
     (There’s also acetates of this single)

Love You More / Noise Annoys (released 07-07-78)
     Love You More / Noise Annoys – UA  (UK)
     Love You More / Noise Annoys – UA (Germany)
     Love You More / Noise Annoys – UA (Holland)
     Love You More – (A label promo)

Next up, and this will be tricky writing for me but I’ll do the best I can. Tonight, we listened to one of the greatest moments created in a recording studio. I’m talking about The Coltrane Quartet’s A Love Supreme album. I can’t just say John Coltrane’s album. It was a band. McCoy Tyner on Piano, Elvin Jones on drums, Jimmy Garrison on Bass and the Heavyweight Champ John Coltrane on Saxophone. Each one of these men are Jazz giants. Elvin Jones, what a monster.
     There is no phase of Coltrane’s all too short career that I don’t like. I do find myself listening to the Impulse period more often than the ones that came before it. Also, I think the peak of this line-up, referred to as the “classic” quartet was with this album. There’s an album the band recorded after the session for ALS called Quartet Plays that is also really great but it’s almost perfunctory in concept when compared to the suite of pieces that constitute ALS.
     Many fans of Coltrane will agree that while there is great work to be found throughout the Coltrane catalog, it’s when he reached the Impulse label in the early 60’s that he really hit his stride and as well, started creating his deepest and most spiritual work. Also, this is when he started working with producer Bob Thiele. As magic as the Miles/Macero hook up.
     I am a XXL sized Jazz fan but lack the writing chops to write about it with anything more than my gut. I feel it but I can’t write about it with any sophistication at all. I don’t know what modal means. I don’t know a note from a chord. I don’t even know how a saxophone works. On that pedestrian level, I am perhaps with a lot of people who love Jazz. I think there’s a lot of people who connected on an emotional level and never looked back. That being said, I definitely know what I like and I know what moves me. As far as a musician who is one of the heaviest and deepest players ever—that’s Coltrane. I don’t think anyone would put up much of a fight with you on that one.
     The word “genius” gets used a lot. It gets used way too much for my liking. Definitely gets used too much in music, that’s for sure. It is my opinion that as far as that epithet goes, you can use it justifiably and often when discussing Jazz. Parker, Tatum, Dolphy, Ayler, Ellington, Ra, Powell, Mingus, Miles, Hancock, Shorter, Brown (Clifford), Little, Ervin, Hawkins, Monk. Have I left anyone out? Of course I have! That’s just it—in Jazz, there is so much staggering talent, it almost restores your faith in the species. Jamal, Blakey, Armstrong, Holiday—whoops, there I go again. Anyway, there’s a lot of evolved thinking in this music and it goes right over my head. I listen with my guts and go from there. I know enough to know when someone is walking through something and when they are coming from the real thing.
     It is from this confined space I can write about Coltrane. I have read a few books about the guy but mainly I have listened. I have listed to every bootleg I have been able to find. I have listened to all the Miles Davis recordings live and studio that feature Coltrane—everything I have been able to listen to, I have, some of the recordings many times over.

A Love Supreme is in four parts. Below is a little write-up on the pieces. You heard it tonight and many of you Fanatics have this album and have played it many times. You have your own way of appreciating it that’s as valid as anyone else’s so please don’t take any of my sentiment with anything more than the smallest possible grains of salt. I am just one of many whom Coltrane and his band speaks to.

Acknowledgement starts out with Coltrane sounding like he’s rising from sleep to greet the predawn darkness alone. Garrison starts to layout the form that will set up the chanting vocal later in the piece. Coltrane immediately throws himself into the piece, not with any kind of frenzy but with a joyfulness that translates vividly. It’s almost as if he is saying, “I have so much to tell you.” It is easy to focus on Coltrane and not hear the other musicians as Coltrane’s presence is so large, although one never gets the sense that he’s trying to dominate the music. One of the great things about this band and this album in particular is that every member of this band was stellar and are reaching with all they have on each track. Play this track some time and focus on Tyner’s playing and you hear some incredible playing. There is an interesting moment in this track where there is vocal. The chanting of “A love supreme.” If you listen, you will hear it 19 times. If you listen really carefully, it’s actually 20. I did a little research on that to see if there was anything to learn. I checked out a section of Ashley Kahn’s book A Love Supreme: The Story Of John Coltrane’s Signature Album. It’s an interesting read. AK says on page 104 that Coltrane’s vocal was a spur of the moment thing and that he did the first chant off mic. If you listen, you can hear it. I have always wondered about that sound. I also wondered why he picked 19 times to chant the phrase. I think I was at some outdoor radio fest in the 90’s and I was playing the CD and actually counted the chants a few times. If you include the off mic one, you get 20. AK says that on the 15th chant, he modulates his voice down and repeats the phrase four more times. Actually he modulates on chant seventeen and repeats it three more times. AK also includes information that Coltrane overdubbed a 2nd vocal onto the track. I always wondered about that as there’s more than one vocal on there for sure. It’s an interesting book. AK also did a book breaking down the Miles Davis Kind Of Blue album. I might have to check that out as that’s a great record I would like to know more about. As you Fanatics probably know, Coltrane is on that one as well.

Resolution is my favorite part of the album. About 21 seconds into Resolution, Coltrane leaps out with a most passionate and brilliant line. The way he lunges into the music, it sounds like he had been waiting his entire life to play it. He soon steps back and Tyner sets out on one of his amazing solos as Jones batters away. Tyner and Jones play like one person. Coltrane comes back in as drums and piano lock up perfectly. This kind of cohesion only comes from a band that plays together all the time and explores tirelessly. Coltrane’s next solo is ecstatic, the peak of it, before he and the band go back to the top is one of my favorite moments in music. This track alone could be an album. It is so fully realized that it almost makes you wonder if they had not worked on this music for years. In a way, they had. The four of them had thrown themselves to completely into music that the

Pursuance features another amazing solo by Tyner. He is one of my favorite musicians ever. I got to see him play once and I don’t know how into the set he was but it was still really good. He didn’t look up from the piano the entire set. Didn’t say a word to the audience as I remember. Anyway, when Coltrane swings back in, he again reaches these great heights that Tyner takes full advantage of to build on what he’s doing, which in return, only enhances and strengthens what Coltrane is doing. The entire time, Elvin Jones is matching Tyner with a busy and brutal workout. Garrison has a way of seeping so deeply into the music that he almost becomes textural, almost bass-ness. Pursuance is another example of how this band was able to take the music beyond music. There is so much life and explosive spontaneity on the Impulse era Coltrane recordings they sometimes make me think this band is a genre until themselves. The combination of these four amazing players is responsible for some of the finest recordings of the last century I think.

Psalm starts with a meditative bass work out and when the rest of the band comes in minutes later, it is one of the more beautiful moments in music I think. Coltrane’s tone, this sound he had chased for years, trying reeds of different thickness, practicing relentlessly—has arrived. It is a huge sound. It is an awe inspiring sound. The way Coltrane was able to seemingly push all of himself, his entire life it seems, through that horn is a thing to behold. Coltrane’s playing on this track is set off magnificently by Elvin Jones who for this track is working out on tympani and mallets, giving the track a heaviness and sense of drama that suits what Coltrane is playing perfectly. It’s the perfect ending to a perfect album.

As most of you know, soon after this album came out, Coltrane felt a change coming on and he put a new band together. Talk about a giant step! Sorry about that. Alice Coltrane on piano, Rashid Ali on drums, Pharoah Sanders on Saxophone, Jimmy Garrison on bass. From the start of the new line-up to the end of his life in 1967, Coltrane’s output is prolific and not for lightweights. Live In Seattle, Live In Japan, Interstellar Space—this stuff either draws you in or sends you on your way. If you have heard this stuff before, you know what I mean. About ten years ago, Alice Coltrane released what I think Coltrane’s last studio recordings, all but one unreleased in the form of an album called Stellar Regions. I was living in NYC when it came out and I brought it back to my hotbox from hell room I lived in and played it. It was my favorite album of the year. When you hear what he was doing right before he died, it’s frustrating like when hear the last recordings of Hendrix. One can get frustrated wondering what would have been if the man had another year. It’s an amazing and beautiful album. We should play that one some time.
     Coltrane is worth some time of your life. His life and his music are worth exploring. He’s like Miles or Ellington—Coltrane created a universe of music. A true visionary. I really hope you enjoyed tonight’s show.

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