Don't Follow Me was first released with a green tinted B&W cover (below) in the US, Canada, Australia, and Japan. Pennie Smith made the portrait of Pearl singing into a vintage microphone. The UK and other European countries got a glamorous color portrait of Pearl in a leather jacket on a motorcycle, and that's the image (at left) featured on the reissue. Peter Ashworth was the photographer. You may recognize some of his other album covers as well as the iconic photographs of Pennie Smith.
The back cover of the reissue finally reveals the musicians' identities. Nigel Dixon of British rockabilly band Whirlwind cowrote songs and played guitar. Steve New, Wilko Johnson, and Mick Jones were the other guitarists. Paul Simonon played bass; Steve Goulding and Topper Headon played drums. Geraint "Otis" Watkins added keyboards; BJ Cole played pedal steel; and Gary Barnacle had the horn. Mickey Gallagher produced. It was a convocation of rockabilly, punk and pub rock players from The Clash, The Blockheads, Dr. Feelgood, Rich Kids, Whirlwind, and The Rumour! All of this talent was united behind Pearl's terrific singing voice, which sounded equally adept at rockabilly, R&B, and country.
The expanded reissue includes the b-sides of the Fujiyama Mama and Cowboys & Indians singles, plus both sides of Pearl's Voodoo Voodoo single and two demos. Pennie Smith also shot the sleeves for those singles.
Liberation Hall has also created a series called Sounds From The San Francisco Underground to showcase soundboard recordings made by Terry Hammer. Terry was a radio DJ who would broadcast concerts by local and touring artists live from Bay Area clubs like Mabuhay Gardens, the Savoy Tivoli, the Boarding House, On Broadway, and the Keystone.
Other upcoming releases on Liberation Hall include The Contractions (live at the Fab Mab) Shakin' Street (live at the Old Waldorf), and a repress of Straight Outta East LA by The Brat. All of them (including Don't Follow Me) will arrive in March, which is Women's History Month. It's an appropriate tribute to Pearl Harbour, Fabienne Shine of Shakin' Street, Teresa Covarrubias of The Brat, and the members of The Contractions. These women prevailed despite sexism and harassment in the music industry of the 1970's and 1980's, and they deserve to be heard!
Nigel Dixon was also in Havana 3am with Paul Simonon, Gary Myrick, & Travis Williams.
ReplyDeleteThe single from their debut album "Reach The Rock" is a favorite of mine, as is “Blue Gene Vincent”. The woman on the cover was the girlfriend of Simonon, who was previously married to our Pearl!
Dixon passed away, & Simonon quit rock & roll for a while, & Gary Myrick carried on with new members, but it wasn’t the same. - Stinky
Myrick' album "Language" from later 80s was quite good, but quite mainstream - so not for everyone.
DeleteNathan Nothin' just shared the Havana 3am album (plus some kind words about jonderblog):
Deletehttps://nathannothinsez.blogspot.com/2024/01/prompted-by-other-blogs-part-12.html
Paul Simonon's brother Nick played drums with Whirlwind (and on Pearl's "Voodoo Voodoo" single)
A great interview with Pearl from a decade ago: http://patternsandtones.blogspot.com/2013/05/pearl-harbour-shes-blast.html
ReplyDelete"I dropped out of high school (at 17) and moved to San Francisco in 1973. I had never been to San Francisco and God knows why my Dad let me do it! I was a bad, troubled kid and I told my parents I was moving there and that they couldn't stop me. They were like 'OK here's your ticket'.
"I had seen San Francisco in Life Magazine and Time Magazine.... I had never been there but I saw that it was the hippie and drug capital of the world, and that's where I wanted to go.
"When I won the Tubes talent contest (in 1976) I immediately also joined Leila and The Snakes. It was the craziest most fun stuff I had ever done in my life... (Our live show) had all different genres of music, from Country and Western to Salsa to Punk to Cabaret to everything.The lyrics were all funny and it was just this intense show that was really, really, really fun."
I forgot to mention that Pearl was living in GERMANY with her parents and brothers when she dropped out of school and left for the City by the Bay! Her father was in the US military, and her mother was a "Filipino Baby" as the song goes!
DeleteGreat update, thanks! By the way, Havana 3 A.M. was a pretty cool band too!
ReplyDeleteWow, what a lineup of musicians! Thanks for the update!
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