Namesakes #50: The Primitives

Emerging from the primordial muck, this week's namesakes features our oldest selection of bands ever... prehistorically speaking.

 

THE PRIMITIVES #1

Back in 1964, Lou Reed was working as a songwriter for Pickwick Records (self-described as "a poor man's Carole King"). Reed wrote two songs, The Ostrich (an "anti-dance" single) and Sneaky Pete (which presumably gave its name many years later to a TV show I used to watch starring Giovanni Ribisi). The tracks were recorded with John Cale on viola and Sterling Morrison playing guitar alongside Lou. Later, the three of them would go on to form a band called... The Warlocks. And that was the end of the story.

Except, of course, it wasn't.

THE PRIMITIVES #2

Although they came from the UK, our next band of Primitives had far more success in Italy, after being signed to ARC (the Italian wing of RCA) in 1966. According to iffypedia, lead singer Mal Ryder enjoyed "a lot of personal success, especially among the female public", so subsequent records were marketed as "Mal ei Primitives". 

Drummer Pick Withers left the band in 1969 and returned to England, where he eventually met Mark Knopfler... and that was the end of his story.

Except, of course, it wasn't.

THE PRIMITIVES #3

Tracy Tracy and PJ Court are up against The Velvet Underground and Dire Straits this week... yet I'm still making them the odds-on favourites.

In 1984, guitarist PJ Court lost the lead singer of his band The Nocturnal Babies, so put a poster up in Coventry Library stating "male singer wanted". Ignoring this completely, or perhaps in gender equality protest, Tracy Tracy responded to the ad... and The Primitives were born. A couple of years later, they would Crash into the charts all over the world with one of the greatest pop songs of the 80s...

LES PRIMITIVES #4

French noise-makers from Normandy who released two singles in 1990, and that really was the end of their story. 

Except that they appear to have returned three years later calling themselves Booby Traps... to even less accolade.

PRIMITIVES #5

More French Primitives, even louder than the last lot. They're playing Butlins, Minehead in November, and Glasgow in January, should you be interested. Clearly, their story continues...

 

They all sound pretty Primitive to me... but which one made you want to do a primal scream?

Snapshots #208: A Top Ten Onomatopoeia Songs

Welcome to the quiz that will Boom Boom Shake Your Room... yeah, I didn't use that one because it would have been too obvious.

Being an English teacher, I have a special fondness for the word "onomatopoeia", even though I regularly tell students it's the hardest word to spell... apart from broccoli.

Despite that, I own three songs with that word (or a variation) in their title...

John Prine - Onomatopoeia

Todd Rundgren - Onomatopoeia

Sparks - Onomato Pia

While John Grant also professes his love here...

John Grant - Rhetorical Figure

But how did you guys get on? Let's find out...

10. Brian Body B.

Anagram!

Bobby Darin - Splish Splash

9. Rash.

As in, the kind of rash that makes you itch.

The Hives - Tick Tick Boom

8. Domino without a hat on.

Fats Domino; hats off to Larry...

Fat Larry's Band - Zoom

7. Loaded.

If he's loaded, he must be a very rich man.

Jonathan Richman - Buzz Buzz Buzz

6. A wrinkly.

Anagram!

Link Wray - Rumble

5. Wee and timorous lads.

Wee and timorous beasties, obviously.

The Beastie Boys - Pow

4. Solid service surfers.

Solid silver, silver service, silver surfers.

Silver - Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang

3. Detective drew swooning pop.

The detective would be NANCY Drew. Her swooning pop was Old Blue Eyes...

Nancy Sinatra - Bang Bang 

2. Rugby player, like Shatner.

A hooker is a rugby player.

And who could forget...?

John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom

1. Crude bunch.

They're just so primitive...

The Primitives - Crash

More crash bang wallop next Saturday...

Cover Me Monday #6: Guitar Man

I didn't discover that Jerry Reed wrote Guitar Man until recently. Before I became a fan of his back catalogue, I only really knew Reed from his role as Cledus "Snowman" Snow in Smokey & The Bandit (for which he also wrote and sung the theme tune, East Bound & Down). As well as being an actor, Reed was a successful singer and guitarist, but he arguably found the most mainstream success as a songwriter, scoring hits for Elvis and Johnny Cash, among others. Let's face it, once Elvis has had hits with a couple of your tunes. life probably becomes a lot easier.

Here's Jerry's original version of Guitar Man.

And here's Elvis's version, the one most people recognise.

My first exposure to the song was in the early 90s though, when it was included on a charity compilation of Elvis covers released by the NME, called The Last Temptation of Elvis. There are some mighty fine covers on this two disc set, including The Pogues doing Got A Lot O'Livin' To Do, Fuzzbox with Trouble and You're So Square by The Primitives. The set leads off with Bruce's version of Viva Las Vegas, which is OK... but I always preferred the ZZ Top cover.

However, my favourite track on that compilation was the Jesus & Mary Chain doing Guitar Man. An unusual choice for the band in question, since it's such an upbeat song with a real pop tune... unlike most of their own material. They make it typically JAMC though - lots of feedback! - and while I'm not saying it's better than Elvis or Jerry... it's definitely a contender.

Saturday Snapshots #52 - The Answers

It's been twenty-three hours and zero days since you finished answering (most of) this week's Saturday Snapshots... and, as often is the case, the early bird walked away with the prize. Well done, C! Nothing compares to you lot...



10. Riding through Dublin or Lynchburg (but not Campbeltown) with Bruce's dad.

Dublin and Lynchburg are towns that produce Whiskey with an e. Campbeltown produces Whisky without an e. Back when I was a whiskey/y connoisseur (20+ years ago), I preferred Scotch to Irish, but Bourbon beat them both.

In the song My Hometown, an 8 year old Bruce Springsteen rides through town with his dad. This is a different song with the same title.

Yes, Martin, that is Ryan Adams. But it could also have been Tim Burgess with that haircut.

Whiskeytown - My Hometown

9. Dick Kapital ☠.

Dick Kapital was easy: Richard being Dick, Marx writing Das Kapital.

The skull & crossbones caused a lot more trouble - it's used as a hazard symbol, specifically for poisons and other lethal substances.

Nice mullet/stubble combo, by the way.

Richard Marx - Hazard

8. Earthquake breaks up angelic ork.

Easy, it seems. Anagram.

Carole King - I Feel The Earth Move

7. Short hello in Oo fancies a big dipper.

Stick hi in the middle of Oo and you get Ohio.

A big dipper is a rollercoaster.

Ohio Players - Love Rollercoaster

6. The longest key on your street.

The longest key on a keyboard is the space bar.

Space - Neighbourhood

5. Troglodyte onomatopoeia.

Troglodytes were primitives.

Crash is an onomatopoeia.

Primitives - Crash

4. Washington Butler can see clearly.

George Washington.

Robert Guillaume played the Butler Benson.

If you can see clearly, you have 20/20 vision.

George Benson - 20/20

3. Wilde meat glares at Joan Crawford.

Kim Wilde.

Meat = carne (as in carnivore).

Bette Davis glared at Joan Crawford.

Kim Carnes - Bette Davis Eyes

2. Bad bad (almost) Beach Boy Brown ups the bidding.

Bad Bad Leroy Brown + Van Dyke Parks.

My dad used to be an auctioneer. This song always makes me think of him.

Leroy Van Dyke - The Auctioneer

1. What if Alan Bennett only wrote one monologue?

Alan Bennett wrote a series of monologues called Talking Heads. But if he'd only written one...

(If you've not seen it before, check out the Donald Trump version.)



Erm... Mandinka next Saturday. Or something.