A Tribute to Tribute Albums

After the excellent Hal Willner post on Koen's blog, I got to thinking about tribute albums.  The avalanche of various artist tributes (to performers, composers, and influential albums) -- where did it begin?  I believe that it was inspired by Willner, who orchestrated tributes to Monk (1984), Weill (1985) and Disney soundtracks (1988).  

As Richard pointed out to me, the tribute album has a long history in jazz, but this was largely unexplored territory for rock performers.  Part of Willner's genius was inviting rock musicians and singers to collaborate with jazz and avant-garde performers. 

The earliest rock tribute album that I can find (other than Willner's projects) is 1987's Beyond The Wildwood - A Tribute To Syd Barrett.  This was the first of a baker's dozen of tribute albums released by the British label Invisible Records during the next five years.  

In 1988, Jon Langford assembled Til Things Are Brighter (a Johnny Cash tribute), CBS released A Vision Shared (a tribute to Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie), and the NME issued Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father (a tribute to the Beatles' album compiled by Roy Carr).  

1989 brought tributes to Buddy Holly, Shonen Knife, The Sonics, and Neil Young.  The latter included an enduring classic, The Pixies' version of "Winterlong". That song exemplifies some of the strengths of the tribute album: an unexpected pairing of composer and performer, a deep cut plucked from obscurity, and a stellar performance. 

Some tribute albums also served as fundraisers for worthwhile causes.  The Red Hot Organization issued its first release (a Cole Porter tribute) in 1990.  The Sweet Relief Musicians' Fund has benefitted a number of songwriters with health crises and medical expenses.  Profits from the NME's Sgt. Pepper tribute went to a helpline for children.

I  think  1990 was the first year with more than ten new tribute albums.  That number more than doubled in 1994 (the year that Jon Tiven got involved), and tribute albums increased exponentially through the rest of the 1990's. 

To mark the 2020 release of Angelheaded Hipster (Hal Willner's final tribute album), Ira Robbins of Trouser Press wrote an essay which warned that "when major labels commission (tribute albums), they corral momentarily popular acts" and "now-forgotten bands" to "interpret an important oeuvre".  This led to such misfires as Stone Free, Working Class Hero, and Ecomium (a Led Zep tribute that opened with 4 Non Blondes).

Today I'm sharing a tribute to the tribute album: some of my favorite cuts from tribute albums of the 80's and 90's.   Separating the wheat from the chaff, as it were.  Hope you enjoy.

TISH! That's French! Vol. 4

TISH! THAT”S FRENCH! Vol. 4

No expenses were expensed in coming up with the latest installment of TISH! THAT”S FRENCH!

This FOURTH volume contains a lot of suggestions from regular JONKY visitors/commenters, so merci to everyone who suggested a track or a group—especially Bucephalus who hooked me up with a ton of compilations & turned me onto a lot of new artists, AND songs including; À Celle Qui Dure by M. 

I’m currently putting the final touches on Volume 10, which seems like a good place to stop—so no more suggestions, please.

I discovered THE CHAINSAWS all by myself in the cut-out bin sometimes in the 1990’s & even someone with my limited grasp of French can get the gist of J'ai Perdu Mon Phallus.

One can always count on Nouvelle Vague & Eartha Kitt, and Louisiana native Lucinda Williams to fold a little French into their music, & it’s no surprise when jet-setters like Grace Jones, Bill Wyman, & R.E.M. use the language of love in a song.

But there are also born-and-bred French persons in the shape of Jacqueline Taieb, Les Rita Mitsouko, Jaures Stalingrad, & Yves Simon.

 

IN THE MIX Vicki Peterson Edition Vol. 3 - THE BANGLES, Action Skulls, PSYCHO SISTERS, & More!

IN THE MIX Vicki Peterson Edition Vol. 3 

IN THE MIX Vicki Peterson Edition Vol. 3 starts off with one of the first songs Vicki wrote with her Banglemate Susanna Hoffs: Hero Takes A Fall.  There are other studio & live tracks from The Bangles including Ask Me No Questions which Debbie Peterson sings lead on.  Also included are tracks from Vicki’s duo with Susan Cowsill; The Psycho Sisters, and two Giant Sand tracks for which Peterson provided background vocals.

It features cuts from her wonderful album with John Cowsill, Long After The Fire, & their previous project, ACTION SKULLS with Lost In Space’s Billy Mumy of Barnes & Barnes fame!

In the years The Bangles were apart, she recorded with Continental Drifters.  There are a couple of live performances, as well as Vicki performing with The Records’ John Wicks at a 2014 concert.  

Here's a link to check out, or buy Long After The Fire:  https://vickipetersonandjohncowsill.bandcamp.com/album/long-after-the-fire

Gnarly Guitarists: C.C. Adcock

 

Sometimes you hear a song before you're ready to really listen to it.  Such was the case for me with the music of C.C. Adcock.  Two decades ago, I received a sampler CD from Yep Roc Records which contained a song from C.C.'s album Lafayette Marquis.  At the time, it didn't resonate with me.

But last year, C.C was one of the artists recommended by Peter Lubin for our American Explorers project.  I fell in love with C.C.'s song Poke Chop.  Digging a bit further, I read about the Louisiana supergroup Lil' Band Of Gold and was even further smitten with C.C.'s song Runaway's Life.  

C.C. Adcock's first recording credit was on a 1990 compilation album called L.A. Ya Ya, where he backed Top Jimmy and King Cotton.  C.C.'s self-titled solo album was released in 1994.  The Lil' Band Of Gold (with Steve Riley, Warren Storm, David Egan, Pat Breaux, C.C. and other Louisiana swamp pop and zydeco musicians) released three albums.  The last one, 2012's Lil' Band O'Gold Plays Fats, is a set of Fats Domino songs sung by Robert Plant, Lucinda Williams, Jimmy Barnes (Cold Chisel), Tim Rogers (You Am I), and others.  

C.C. Adcock has contributed to TV and film soundtracks, and is also a producer who has worked on albums by Doyle Bramhall, James McMurtry, the 2022 comeback album from Tommy McLain, and last year's Clifton Chenier tribute album. On those last two projects, C.C. worked with Elvis Costello, Van Dyke Parks, and the Rolling Stones.  

IN THE MIX Susan Cowsill Edition Vol. 2: LUCINDA WILLIAMS, PSYCHO SISTERS, & HOBART BROTHERS!

IN THE MIX Susan Cowsill Edition Vol. 2

On this installment, our hero is joined by fellow Crescent City music legend LUCINDA WILLIAMS on the first song.  How do you follow that?  With some PSYCHO SISTERS tracks; Heather Says, & Never Never Boys.  Susan’s partner in that group, VICKI PETERSON was also her bandmate in CONTINENTAL DRIFTERS, who were captured live on NYC’s WFUV, and at NJ’s Court Tavern.

SUSAN’s solo tracks this time around are limited to her cover of Glen Campbell’s Galveston, & the absolutely adorable Itty Bitty.  Of course there are more tracks with her siblings including Hello, Hello--the song from their 1969 live album that introduced me to Susan when I was a kid.

There are more recent live tracks by THE COWSILLS taken from The New Orleans Jazz Festival, Huckabee’s, and the benefit concert for their brother Billy.  There are also studio tracks, an a cappella track, and a Non-LP cut by the band; You (In My Mind)--a song that brother JOHN COWSILL recorded with his wife VICKI PETERSON on their Long After The Fire Album.  

Jon threatened to smash my dinner plate, & saw off my corner of the table, if I didn’t include Ballad of Sis (Didn't I Love You), so it’s here.  It’s actually one of my favorite tracks, as things turn out.  It’s credited to Jon Dee Graham, Freedy Johnston, & Susan Cowsill—better known as THE HOBART BROTHERS & LIL’ SIS HOBART.  Anyone who’s washed dishes in a restaurant knows exactly where their name comes from.

Finally, there’s a song from a live performance with DWIGHT TWILLEY at Rockabilly's in Houston—a show that’s well-represented on Volume 3!

 

It's Time (Again) for Power Pop!

A recent article on Bandcamp profiles a number of recent power pop performers, and makes a few excellent points on the genre.  The author (Ben Salmon) opines that power pop "has consistently surged as a reaction to some other musical impetus. The First Wave (The Raspberries, Big Star, Todd Rundgren) pushed back against the complexity and indulgence of prog and psychedelic rock in the early 1970s. 

"A decade later, the Second Wave (The Cars, Cheap Trick, Nick Lowe) provided a less aggressive alternative to the rise of punk. And the Third Wave (Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet, Fountains of Wayne) offered a reprieve from the self-seriousness of ‘90s grunge and alt-rock."

The current wave "is power pop rooted in the Beatles (it always is, really); but it’s also deeply influenced by Sugar’s distortion pedals, Buzzcocks’ propulsive pace, and Guided By Voices’ philosophy that melody wins out over fidelity every time."  

The author places the newest generation of power pop in opposition to "a landscape of music that’s been pitch-corrected and snapped to a grid, over-compressed, edited into oblivion and robbed of character" and "an industry ruled by platforms that prioritize short songs and front-loaded hooks for shrinking attention spans."  Well said!  I've only heard two of the artists mentioned in the article, but will check out the others.

This seems like as good a time as any to share a collection of some of my own favorites from the Nineties, the Noughties, and beyond; beginning with the aforementioned Third Wave's reaction against grunge and what was once memorably labeled "complaint rock".  Maybe not all of it will meet your own definition of power pop, but to me these are all examples of accomplished songcraft, ringing guitars, soaring vocal harmonies, and clever perspectives on the eternal lyrical themes of love found and love lost.

ELSEWHERE ON THE BLOG:  more music from Hypnolovewheel, New Pornographers, Oranger, P.Hux and Redd Kross.  

IN THE MIX Susan Cowsill Edition Vol. 1 - Psycho Sisters, Redd Kross, Cowsills, Continental Drifters & Solo!

IN THE MIX Susan Cowsill Edition Vol. 1

SUSAN COWSILL has had a long and incredible career, and despite the tough childhood outlined in the documentary about her family's band THE COWSILLS, she seems to have turned out to be a wonderful person—and is definitely an amazing singer.

She makes no secret of her love of Linda Ronstadt and possibly the best compliment I can pay her is that she’s every bit as good a singer/harmonizer.  Aside from covering Warren Zevon’s Mohammed's Radio, there aren’t many similarities between them, other than singing ability—and an unerring ability to choose material that’s perfect for them.  

Mohammed's Radio was on a digital single that also contains the lead off track It Might As Well Rain Until September—a GOFFIN/KING song that was written for Bobby Vee, & instead released as a Carole King single because Don Kirshner loved her demo of it.  King is an intensely personal & emotional singer, & COWSILL easily matches the original on both counts.

SUSAN’s versions are as dear to me as the originals of songs a vocalist has to be fearless (or foolish) to cover like Sandy Denny’s Who Knows Where The Time Goes, Brian Wilson’s Don’t Worry Baby, & John Lennon’s Julia.  Julia is a live recording with another artist I’ve given the IN THE MIX treatment; The Bangles’ VICKI PETERSON.  

PETERSON is Susan’s partner in PSYCHO SISTERS—and they both seem to love to collaborate.  They were both also in CONTINENTAL DRIFTERS, who are represented here by two live-in-studio tracks from an appearance on NYC’s WFUV, and two album cuts.  VICKI PETERSON is married to Susan’s brother, JOHN COWSILL and the couple recorded an album of songs by his brothers Bill & Barry.  SUSAN gets to the heart of Barry’s River Of Love—a song that they left alone--& one Susan started performing with her own band during the four months after Katrina that Barry was missing.

Naturally there are plenty of tracks with THE COWSILLS.  Readers who haven’t dug into their catalogue (which is packed with power pop) would be forgiven for mistaking Is It Any Wonder for The Plimsouls.  The hit versions of Indian Lake, & Hair, are included, as well as an incredible live version of The Rain, The Park & Other Things (on Huckabee's Jukebox). Recorded 52 years after she was added to the line-up, it proves that Susan and her brothers are the vocal counterparts of Dick Clark.

Jonder will be happy to see her duet on REDD KROSS’ Love Is Not Love—which could be a lost track by THE COWSILLS—and has become one of my favorite songs on this edition—but it has a LOT of competition.

Because of the high quality of her work, the songs on this collection could be randomly shuffled & it would still flow, but I spent much more time than usual on the track order.