Blank Generation - Richard Hell and the Voidvoids

Its 1977, Jimmy Carter becomes the President of the United States of America, Fleetwood Mac released Rumours, Elvis Presley dies, Liv Tyler is born (swoon) and Richard Hell and the Voidvoids release Blank Generation.

Ok, Lets start with the basics.

Punk: "a style or movement characterized by the adoption of aggressively unconventional and often bizarre or shocking clothing, hairstyles, makeup, etc., and the defiance of social norms of behavior, usually associated with punk rock musicians and fans."

Richard Meyers: Aka Richard Hell. Born 1948 in the US. Hell was one of the originators of the Punk fashion look. He was one of the first to spike his hair, wear ripped up written on shirts mostly held together by safety pins andwas an important inspiration on how Malcom Mclaren would make his boy bandm The Sex Pistols look and act. He was also in The Neon Boys, Television, The Heartbreakers and The Voidvoids.

The Voidvoids: A New York based punk band fronted by Richard Hell (See above), best know for releasing the nihilistic punk classic Blank Generation.

Blank Generation: An album recorded by Richard Hell and the Voivoids in 1977. A pivotal Punk album that has influenced music for decades. It is lyrically intelligent and is driven by the spiky guitar of one Robert W. Quine. (Robert worked with them all Brian Eno, Tom Waits and Lou Reed to name but a few. Sadly Robert killed himself with a heroin overdose in 2004 after being left inconsolable after his wife died)

The albums title track is one of Punks seminal tracks. It has often been cited as one of the top 10 greatest and most influential Punk songs. The complex punchy guitar style of the album was more Post Punk than Punk and can be heard at full speed on Love Comes In Spurts and Liars Beware. The album may have been nihilistic but it was not stupid. Lyrically Richard Hell was closer to Patty Smith than to The Ramones or New York Dolls and this easily heard on tracks like New pleasures, Betrayal Takes Two and Another World.

The Voidvoids show that they can appreciate music while still ripping it up with their unique cover of Credence Clearwater Revivals Walking On Water.

Blank Generation, doesn't follow the punk crowd down the road of mediocrity, it is a fresh sonic blast in the face of all that came before and still sound's new an exciting today.

Track Listing

1. Love Comes in Spurts
2. Liars Beware
3. New Pleasure
4. Betrayal Takes Two
5. Down at the Rock & Roll Club
6. Who Says? (It's Good to Be Alive)
7. Blank Generation
8. Walking on the Water
9. The Plan
10. Another World
11. I'm Your Man
12. All the Way

Julie Is Her Name - Julie London

1955 saw the release of Julie London's debut album Julie Is Her Name. The girl with the come hither voice, a husky instrument that lingers on every syllable, Ms London, and the other torch singers of the 1950's,  had men across the world quivering in the well polished shoes and slacks, and the statuesque Julie represented the genre.

The production on the album is sparse with a hint of jazz throughout, and the intoxicating vocals demand the listeners rapt attention for 31 minutes 11 seconds.

Each songs rolls seamlessly into the next, each one a ballad none of them up tempo. Cry Me A River, (not to be confused with the pop shenanigans of one Mr Timberlake) opens the album. The song originally written for Ella Fitzgerald but was not recorded because producers believed audiences would not accept a black woman using the word "Plebeian" Julie got the opportunity to be the first to record it. For the nerd out there it is also on the V for vendetta soundtrack.

The beautiful Cant Help Lovin' Dat Man from Showboat is thrown into the mix, Cole Porters I Love You, Irving Berlins Say It Isn't So are among the many jazz standards that steam their way off the LP.

While Cry Me A River was the big hit from the album and made Julie London as star, my personal favorite is Easy Street, every time Julie finishes a line my legs go weak. The vibrato and breathy delivery is something you just don't find any more. This album says all you ever needed to hear about the torch singers of the 50's

Track Listing

1. Cry Me A River
2. i Should care
3. I'm In the Mood For Love
4. I'm Glad There Is You
5. Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
6. I Love You
7. Say It Isn't So
8. It Never Entered My Mind
9. Easy Street
10. 's Wonderful
11. No Moon At All
12. Laura
13. Gone With The Wind

Troublegum - Therapy?

“Troublegum”, released on February 7, 1994, was the second major-label album by Northern Irish metal/punk rock band Therapy?. It is often remarked that “Troublegum” is Therapy?’s “Black Album”, as it is probably their most accessible work. Frontman Andy Cairns, who formed the band in 1989 with friend and drummer Fyfe Ewing, was particularly interested in subjects such as isolation, psychosis and psychiatry, and his lyrics dealt mainly with the recurring themes of unrequited love, loss and loneliness, a trait which has persisted throughout Therapy?’s career.
1993 and 1994 were the most successful years in the group's history. 1993 saw the release of the “Shortsharpshock” EP, featuring the band’s classic song “Screamager”, which stunned many when it catapulted into the UK Top 40, peaking at 9. “Troublegum” became an instant metal classic on its release in 1994, delighting Therapy?’s old fans and sucking in new ones. “Screamager” also featured on the album and the song earned the band the first of many appearances on the world-famous UK music show “Top of the Pops”. It was clear that their sound was changing, evolving from experimental noise cacophony into something far more accessible even for those wary of a band with the “metal” tag. A seething but sleek slice of angry rock music, with dark and brooding lyrics paired with upbeat riffs and interwoven with masses of feedback and Ewing's phenomenal drumming, “Troublegum” earned the band appearances at a string of rock and indie festivals over the next couple of years, as well as a clutch of Top 40 singles including “Trigger Inside”, “Nowhere” and “Turn”. It remains the band's high point for many fans and it gained them a string of nominations at the annual Kerrang! Awards, celebrating the best of the year’s metal music. It was also rated the top album of 1994 in the 1000th issue of Kerrang!, published in 2004.
“Troublegum” makes for uncomfortable listening in parts, but it’s indisputably a grower and an album that no metal fan should be without.
Various theories have been put forward over the years by fans and critics as to why the group placed the unusual question mark suffix to their name. However, the truth is rather mundane. When designing the band's first home-produced single, Andy Cairns accidentally misaligned the Letraset adhesive label on the sleeve and decided to simply use the "?" icon to fill the space instead.

1. “Knives”
2. “Screamager”
3. “Hellbelly”
4. “Stop It You’re Killing Me”
5. “Nowhere”
6. “Die Laughing”
7. “Unbeliever”
8. “Trigger Inside”
9. “Lunacy Booth”
10. “Isolation”
11. “Turn”
12. “Femtex”
13. “Unrequited”
14. “Brainsaw”

Hotel California - The Eagles

The Eagles released Hotel California in 1976, a concept album, it went on to become one of the top selling albums of all time, and included the karaoke favourite Hotel California and the hits Life In The Fast Lane and New Kid In Town, (surely the inspiration behind all that is Bagatelle)

Don Henley best describes the album himself in an interview for rock magazine Zig Zag

"This is a concept album, there's no way to hide it, but it's not set in the old West, the cowboy thing, you know. It's more urban this time (. . . ) It's our bicentennial year, you know, the country is 200 years old, so we figured since we are the Eagles and the Eagle is our national symbol, that we were obliged to make some kind of a little bicentennial statement using California as a microcosm of the whole United States, or the whole world, if you will, and to try to wake people up and say 'We've been okay so far, for 200 years, but we're gonna have to change if we're gonna continue to be around."

Hmmmm...probably should have called themselves The Egos.....

Hotel California is Thursdays Critical Junction.

Track Listing
1. Hotel California
2. New Kid In Town
3. Life In The Fast Lane
4. Wasted Time
5. Wasted Time (Reprise)
6. Victim Of Love
7. Pretty Maids All In A Row
8. Try And Love Again
9. Last Resort, The

At Folsom Prison - Johnny Cash

The Man in Black breaks an album out from behind the walls of one Americas most notorious prisons to deliver an album which has not only stood the test of time, but has grown in cult status and popularity year on year.

Recorded on January 13th 1968 at Folsom Prison, it is Johnny Cash at his most charismatic. He stands with his wife and band before a crowd of hardened convicts and plays the concert of his life. Giving these men a voice and acknowledging that no matter what they had done to get where they were, they were still part of the human race.

Ok so what of the music on this album. Ably backed by June Carter, Carl Perkins, and The Tennese Three Cash delivers hit after hit. Folsom Prison Blues, Cocaine Blues, Jackson, Long Black Veil amongst many others.

Many poignant songs were sung by cash for the prisoners, Send A Picture Of Mother is the tale of a prisoner being released and the friend he leaves behind. The final song Greystone Chapel. The song was written by Glen Sherley who was an inmate at Folsom Prison. Cash heard the song the night before he was to play at the prison and soon as Cash heard the lyrics:

"There's a Greystone chapel here at Folsom,

A house of worship in this den of sin.

You wouldn't think God had a place at Folsom,

But he's saved the soul of many lost men."

He had to play it the next day.

Johnny Cash is the face and voice of country music his popularity has prevailed for decades. this si the album that put him on the map, and led to him going to San Quentin in 1969 and to him having his own TV show on CBS.

The original recording was released on LP and only contained 16 tracks, the CD re-released has 19 and thats the one we will feature on this weeks Crititcal Junction.

Track Listing:

1. Folsom Prison Blues (J. Cash) – 2:42
2. Busted (H. Howard) – 1:25
3. Dark as a Dungeon (M. Travis) – 3:04
4. I Still Miss Someone (J. Cash - R. Cash, Jr.) – 1:38
5. Cocaine Blues (T. J. Arnall) – 3:01
6. 25 Minutes to Go (S. Silverstein) – 3:31
7. Orange Blossom Special (E. T. Rouse) – 3:06
8. The Long Black Veil (Wilkin - D. Dill) – 3:58
9. Send a Picture of Mother (J. Cash) – 2:05
10. The Wall (H. Howard) – 1:36
11. Dirty Old Egg-Suckin' Dog (J. H. Clement) – 1:30
12. Flushed From the Bathroom of Your Heart (J. H. Clement) – 2:05
13. Joe Bean (B. Freeman - L. Pober) – 3:05
14. Jackson (duet with June Carter) (B. Wheeler - J. Lieber) – 3:12
15. Give My Love to Rose (duet with June Carter) (J. Cash) – 2:43
16. I Got Stripes (J. Cash - C. Williams) – 1:52
17. The Legend of John Henry's Hammer (J. Cash - J. Carter) – 7:08
18. Green, Green Grass of Home (C. Putman) – 2:13
19. Greystone Chapel (Glen Sherley) – 6:02