Author Archives: Joseph Neff

An undersung figure in the New York City loft jazz scene of the 1970s, Alan Braufman remains an inspiring figure in the jazz landscape. His latest album is Infinite Love Infinite Tears, available now on pink or black vinyl, compact disc, and digital through Valley of Search. It features Braufman on alto saxophone and flute, Patricia Brennan on vibraphone, James Brandon Lewis on tenor saxophone, Ken Filiano on bass, Chad Taylor on drums, and Michael Wimberly on percussion. It’s an energetic and welcoming set, expertly conceived and executed, very much a tonic for troubled times.

Alan Braufman’s discography is a compact one, offering only five releases a leader. His first, Valley of Search, came out in 1975 through the India Navigation label. The album shares its name with the label run by Braufman’s nephew Nabil Ayers, who released it on vinyl and compact disc in 2018 (copies of both formats are still available). Along with Braufman on sax, the band included Cooper-Moore (then named Gene Ashton) on piano, dulcimer, and recitation, Cecil McBee on bass, David Lee on drums, and Ralph Williams on percussion.

Valley of Search followed up that well-received set the next year with Live at WKCR May 22, 1972, an archival dive into duo exchange with Brafman on sax and Cooper-Moore on piano. The limited edition (250 copies) of the one-sided vinyl is unsurprisingly sold out, but the music lives on as a digital release on Bandcamp.

Released in 2022, Live in New York City, February 8, 1975 is still available on 2CD and 3LP (holding five sides of music). Captured in WBAI’s Studio C a few months after the session that produced Valley of Search, the band for February 8, 1975 retains Braufman, Cooper-Moore and Williams and adds William Parker on bass, John Clarke on French horn, and Jim Schapperoew on bass.

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The discography of the incalculably influential Bad Brains is in the midst of a long-overdue reissue program, and as the releases are coming through Bad Brains Records with assistance from ORG Music, this return to circulation has been a sweet development for both the fans and the band. I Against I, the beloved 1986 album from this stylistically restless outfit returns to availability this week; the options are compact disc, cassette, and black or plutonium color vinyl tucked into its original sleeve or a fresh Punk Note jacket designed by John Yates. Arguments will long persist over Bad Brains greatest achievement, but this album, their third and biggest seller, is surely a contender.

The Bad Brains story has been well documented. One of the few bands to come to punk from jazz fusion, they were a powerhouse of precise energy that barreled forth so furiously that the barrage could register as barely controlled. African-Americans in a scene dominated by Caucasians, Bad Brains stood out and excelled because they remained true to their experience, broadening the punk landscape rather than conforming to its more prevalent norms.

For some listeners, Bad Brains are the only hardcore punk band that matters. I don’t share this viewpoint, but do acknowledge that the list of worthy contemporaries is a short one, and will add that many of the other solid HC bands from the same era took direct inspiration from singer H.R., guitarist Dr. Know, bassist Darryl Jenifer, and drummer Earl Hudson.

Bad Brains weren’t perfect, however. They were enthusiastic about reggae (enough so that they became Rastafarians), and while that was admirable (and as said, helped to set them apart), the band’s excursions into the style, if not terrible, are still pretty far from top tier. I Against I is the first Bad Brains full-length release to not include any straight reggae tunes, which makes it their most consistently satisfying album to that point, even as its stand out moments don’t rocket as far into the stratosphere as those on the self-titled debut from 1982.

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Adam Rudolph and 2024 Pulitzer Prize winner Tyshawn Sorey are two of the very finest composer-percussionist-drummers on the current scene. With Archaisms I and Archaisms II, they’ve combined forces for two of the year’s best releases. The first is a duet recorded on December 16, 2021, the second a percussion quintet captured on February 9, 2023; both are live performances that thrive on inspired, intense interaction and robust compositional strategies. The sets are out now through Yeros7, with Meta Records handling the 180 gram vinyl in North America and Defkaz Records shipping everywhere else.

On record, Adam Rudloph’s creativity spans back to the 1970s where he was co-founder of the Mandingo Griot Society with Gambian kora player Foday Musa Suso; released by the Flying Fish label in 1978, their debut album featured Don Cherry as a guest. Versatility, a common trait in drummer-percussionists, is reinforced by Rudolph’s playing partners. Amongst them are Sam Rivers, Pharaoh Sanders, Jon Hassell, Philip Glass, Wadada Leo Smith, Muhal Richard Abrams, and Andre 3000. In 1988, he began a lengthy and fruitful association (15 releases) with multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef.

Tyshawn Sorey’s recording debut came on Vijay Iyer’s 2002 disc Blood Sutra. From there, the collaborations flowed as he continued conservatory study; he’s currently a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Sorey’s on record with Anthony Braxton, Sirone, Billy Bang, John Zorn, Roscoe Mitchell, Steve Lehman, Myra Melford, Kris Davis, Ingrid Laubrock, Marilyn Crispell, Craig Taborn and many more. Sorey’s also the leader or co-leader on over 20 releases; Uneasy, issued by ECM in 2023 with Iyer and Linda May Han Oh, is a gem.

Sorey’s Pulitzer Prize for Music was awarded for his composition Adagio (for Wadada Leo Smith). Like Rudolph, Sorey has played with Smith, Roscoe Mitchell, Dave Leibman and Bill Laswell. Rudolph is also the leader of numerous projects including Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures and Go: Organic Orchestra; 2019’s Ragmala: A Garland of Ragas, featuring Go: Organic Orchestra with Brooklyn Raga Massive, is a magnificent joining of forces.

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Remembering Karen Dalton, born on this day in 1937. —Ed.

Anytime is a good time to be a fan of the late Karen Dalton, but was especially so in the spring of 2022, as Light in the Attic assembled an expanded 50th anniversary edition of her classic second album, 1971’s In My Own Time, in Standard Deluxe and Super Deluxe editions. Adding six live tracks and three alternate takes to the original release’s ten selections, the additions deepen the portraiture of this frequently overlooked interpreter of song.

Karen Dalton emerged from the 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene, a contemporary of the Holy Modal Rounders, Peter Walker, Tim Hardin, Fred Neil, and most famously Bob Dylan, whose enthusiastic recollection of performing with Dalton, and specifically the beauty of her singing, has helped to solidify her posthumous legacy.

Compared by Bob to Billie Holiday, Dalton preferred to cite Bessie Smith as a more formative influence. In truth, the two observations are complementary. To elaborate, Fred Neil is reported to have said of Dalton: “She sure can sing the shit out of the blues.” That hits the Bessie side of the pairing smack in the bullseye. But Dalton also possess a level of sophistication in her delivery that is in the tradition of Billie.

It’s also hard to deny that there’s a similarity in sound between Holiday and Dalton, though nobody’d ever mistake one for the other. Dalton can also be thought of as a stylistic predecessor to a handful of 21st century folkies; she’s particularly comparable to Josephine Foster, a singular contemporary artist who contributed the closing track to Remembering Mountains : Unheard Songs by Karen Dalton.

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Geelong, Victoria, Australia’s ORB have been honing their brand of heavy rock for roughly a decade. After a new release gap of six years, their fourth LP Tailem Bend is their most expansive undertaking yet. Less doom-laden than prior efforts, the fuzz and pummel are still part of the equation. The band’s first for the Fuzz Club label (Flightless Records continues to handle duties in their native country) is available now on vinyl, compact disc, and digital.

Formed by guitarist-bassist-vocalist Zak Olsen, guitarist-bassist David Gravolin, and drummer Jamie Harmer (all ex-Frowning Clouds), ORB debuted with the 5-track cassette EP “Womb” in January 2015 (reissued by Flightless on wax in 2022), followed in October of the year with the “Migration” 7-inch (offering two versions of the song, one of them featuring the recording input of Aussie mainstay Mikey Young).

“Womb” was issued as a demo prelude to ORB’s first album Birth, which came out in June of 2016 with key North American distribution through the Castle Face label. Trying to assess ORB at this stage minus the influence of Black Sabbath is like attempting to imagine John Waters without a moustache. It’s impossible.

Released in October 2017, Naturality broadened their approach toward psychedelia (and an increased use of synths) without sacrificing the distortion and thud. Hitting the store bins in September of 2018, The Space Between held steady; for much of the set, the outward bound tendencies and the heaviness were more fully integrated. And then came the hiatus, though ORB has been playing live, often with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, in 2021.

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Birdie emerged when Debsey Wykes, formerly of Dolly Mixture, and Paul Kelly, ex-East Village, put their talents together to form a group. Having met as members of the Saint Etienne live band, they became a couple and then focused on Birdie along the way. Their debut album Some Dusty came out in 1999, loaded with high quality sunshiny-soft pop residing on the sophisto side of the indie spectrum. The set is getting a well-deserved vinyl reissue on July 26 through Slumberland Records.

The album’s title should be a tipoff. Obviously a reference to the great Dusty Springfield, the nod signifies Birdie’s love of erudite pop in a ’60s style, lush and bright and with a woman at the microphone. Opener “Laugh” finds Wykes doubling a sturdy but smooth lead with rich backing swells. Instrumentally, the track is piano-driven sunshine pop.

“Dusty Morning” further reinforces Birdie’s orientation, a little trumpet added to an equation that includes Wurlitzer, some crisp drumming and stings arranged by the High Llama himself, Sean O’Hagan, as Wykes’ vocals do double duty again. It’s a lead-in to “Let Her Go,” one of Some Dusty’s standout tracks, a more assertive (but never abrasive) post-’80s indie pop number where Wykes’ singing recalls the work of Bridget Cross in late period Unrest.

Returning from the B-side of Birdie’s first single (released in ’97 on the Summershine label), “Port Sunlight” offers a stronger guitar presence than many of the album’s tracks. This includes the gorgeous “Lazy Day,” where the focus is back on the electric piano, plus sweet surges of Mellotron and the whipcrack rhythming of Wildcat Will a.k.a. Will Blanchard.

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Remembering Vince Guaraldi in advance of his birthdate tomorrow. —Ed.

Originally released in 1962 by the Fantasy label, Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus was the third LP by the Vince Guaraldi Trio and the first by the lineup responsible for the pianist’s highest profile work, which was just around the corner. But the album, recently reissued as a 3LP/2CD set as part of Craft Recordings’ Small Batch series (and disappearing fast), is a considerable achievement that’s distinguished by a true rarity: a bona fide instrumental jazz hit single in “Cast Your Fate to the Wind.” There’s more on this commercial triumph and other aspects of this multifaceted record directly below.

Vince Guaraldi was a solid West Coast guy, having played in bands of Woody Herman (the Third Herd) and Cal Tjader. As vibraphonist Tjader (early on, primarily a drummer-percussionist) was a good fit with pianist Dave Brubeck, the same was true for Guaraldi as a participant in Tjader’s bands, though don’t go thinking that Guaraldi was a specialist in odd time signatures (in fact, neither was Brubeck pre-Time Out). Instead, Guaraldi’s forte (and an eventual nickname) is reflected in the title of an early composition: “Calling Dr. Funk.”

In short, Vince Guaraldi’s playing was as dynamic as it was attractive, possessing a certain energy that could move a crowd (at a party on a record or in performance on the bandstand) but was laced with enough beauty movement to connect with those in a stay-at-home frame of mind. Again, this is all very (but not exclusively) West Coast, as Guaraldi’s musical temperament is well-suited to the “jazz interpretation” subcategory that flourished in the 1950s-’60s and to which Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus belongs.

Jazzing up My Fair Lady (West Coast drummer Shelley Manne), Exodus (saxophonist Eddie Harris), Golden Boy (Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers), Porgy and Bess (Miles Davis), and The Sound of Music (John Coltrane); an impressive and incomplete list, but there can still be a cloud of crass commercialism hovering above these sorts of endeavors, or perhaps better said, there’s a sense of record labels striving to tap into a lucrative crossover market.

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Most bands that stick around for 45 years commemorate the milestone by reissuing a foundational record or two, perhaps with a coinciding tour and agreeing to a few interviews along the way. Hawthorne, CA’s finest Redd Kross celebrate the achievement by releasing a double album of new material. It’s an eponymous set, available now through In the Red Records, and it’s the second of three momentous offerings following the documentary Born Innocent: The Redd Kross Story from last year. The band biography Now You’re One of Us: The Incredible Story of Redd Kross is due this autumn. Redd Kross captures a band that’s not only still active, but wholly relevant.

It’s by now no secret that Redd Kross took inspiration for the recording of their latest from The Beatles, the ninth studio album by the iconic band released in 1968, and their sole 2LP set. Comparing the two album covers makes the connection clear. I’m unsure if it’s cool to start calling Redd Kross’ latest The Redd Album, but here’s hoping.

Through their 45 years, Redd Kross has went through many changes with the McDonald Brothers Jeff and Steven as the constant core. But they are also defined by the roads not taken: they didn’t go hardcore (Steven did play in the spoof hardcore band Anarchy 6 and much more recently in the non-joke HC act OFF!) or metal (while loving KISS) or noise (after the big indie rock breakthrough), and when the door to the 1990s rock mainstream opened, they turned the retro glam dial up. Way up. While on tour opening for Sonic Youth.

The ties to The Beatles are natural. The Beatles is reportedly Jeff’s first album purchase, but the influence can be detected in the irreverent late ’80s Redd Kross side band Tater Totz, which had a predilection for Beatles (and Yoko) covers, plus nods to the Stones, Badfinger, and Os Mutantes. But the Beatles linkage really comes down to how Redd Kross has been consistently catchy across 45 years, even at their most punked up.

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Remembering Albert Ayler in advance of his birthdate tomorrow.
—Ed.

Although some have managed to expand upon his groundbreaking intensity and flights of abstraction, Albert Ayler is one of the few sui generis figures in the history of jazz. An uncompromising player with only a small following in his lifetime in music, he cut a record in 1968 that initially seemed to satisfy nobody except for (perhaps) Ayler himself. That LP was New Grass, lambasted as a sell-out by those who favored his prior work, while less adventurous listeners weren’t buying. 

I’ve been contributing to this column for over eight years, but until this piece, I haven’t delivered a full review of a record by Albert Ayler, who’s one of my favorite jazzmen, though I have included him in this site’s New In Stores column and in at least one group review. As this omission is remedied, I feel it should be immediately qualified that the term jazzman isn’t necessarily a tidy fit for Ayler’s brilliance.

Albert Ayler was certainly a man whose work falls inside the boundaries of jazz, so calling him a jazzman isn’t in error, but it still might give those unfamiliar with his work the false impression of a figure, sharply decked-out in a classic tailored suit maybe, who excelled at extending, through live gigs and studio sessions, the core tenets of Modern Jazz.

While innovators are surely jazzmen and vice versa, Ayler remains one of the ever-evolving form’s major freedom-seeking iconoclasts. In short, he’s best placed in the avant-jazz category, which means that for long stretches after his death in November 1970 (presumably by suicide, as his body was discovered in the East River of NYC) his music was difficult to obtain. This was especially true at the end of the 1980s, which is when I first learnt of his existence.

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Featuring guitarist-vocalist June Millington, her bassist-vocalist sister Jean Millington, keyboardist-vocalist Nickey Barclay, and drummer-vocalist Alice de Buhr, Fanny was a groundbreaking and undersung band, with a profile that’s been raised in recent years, partly through Real Gone Music getting their four early ’70s releases for Reprise back into circulation. Worthwhile albums all, but the band’s sharpest, most rocking stuff was cut live in a German studio. After years of blowing minds on YouTube the material has finally hit vinyl and compact disc as Live on Beat-Club ‘71–’72. Available now, it belongs on any shelf dedicated to standout achievements in rock music.

It’s been clear for a long time that Fanny was a great band. Not a producer-molded girl-group, but an aggregation of individuals who were adept on their instruments and talented as songwriters and who worked hard at realizing their band reality. It’s also obvious from the historical record that a whole lot of people at the time who were rock inclined either didn’t know what to make of them or were (consciously or un) threatened by them.

Four records for Reprise, Fanny (1970), Charity Ball (1971), Fanny Hill (1972), and Mothers Pride (1973), established a penchant for pop hooks and the ability to rock hard without migrating into hard rock territory proper. They could dish out the boogie (smartly), not the thud and the bombast. But without precedent, nobody at Reprise (notably an artist friendly label) had the backbone to let Fanny call the shots in the studio.

Traveling to Germany from England to record for the television program Beat-Club, Fanny was presented with a hands-off approach, so that they turned up loud and played with raw edge and enthusiasm. First cut “Charity Ball” is raucous enough that hard rock isn’t inappropriate as a descriptor, but Fanny’s really hitting the sweet spot where boogie crunch overlaps with rockin’ soul (it’s those vocal harmonies).

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Born in Israel and based in New York City, guitarist Eyal Maoz has played with, amongst others, Asaf Sirkis, John Medeski, Eric Arn, Tim Berne, and John Zorn. With the Infrequent Seams label’s July 12 release of The Coincidence Masters on CD and digital, Maoz adds Greensboro, NC’s genre-bending avant string-titan Eugene Chadbourne to his list of collaborators. A full-on improvisational plunge recorded without amplifiers, the duo’s excursions are frequently abstract yet consistently welcoming.

Eyal Maoz has released two discs on John Zorn’s Tzadik label, Edom (2005) and Hope and Destruction (2009). Additionally, he’s a member of Abraxas, a band assembled to record selections from Zorn’s second book of Masada compositions, The Book of Angels, on two CDs, Abraxas (Book of Angels Volume 19) (2012) and Psychomagia (2014). Abraxas also recorded Gevurah (2019) from Zorn’s third Masada book, The Book Beri’ah.

It was in neo-klezmer outfit The Lemon Juice Quartet (alongside bassist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz of Abraxas) that Maoz first began to draw attention. He’s also heard on Open Circuit (2012) as a member of 9Volt alongside trombonist Rick Parker, drummer Yonadav Halevy, and alto saxophonist Tim Berne, and on the eponymous album Hypercolor (2015) as part of a trio with bassist James Ilgenfritz and drummer Lukas Ligeti. To spotlight Maoz’s range, he also played on Zohove (2015), a surprisingly terrific cassette of inventive Led Zeppelin covers by the group Beninghove’s Hangmen.

There are also Maoz’s duos to consider. The first, Elementary Dialogues (2007) found him partnered with drummer Asaf Sirkis, while the second, Kost Nix (2022) was a two-guitar affair with Eric Arn that was recorded live in Vienna in 2021. Naturally, The Coincidence Masters has a few characteristics in common with Kost Nix, though the inspired energies of Maoz and Eugene Chadbourne are ultimately quite distinct. The set finds Chadbourne in excellent form.

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Set to reissue over two dozen Motown albums from the 1960s and 1970s monthly through 2024 and into next year, Elemental Music’s Motown Sound Collection is now in full swing, with three selections available July 12; a mono edition of Together by Marvin Gaye and Mary Wells, I Hear a Symphony by the Supremes on green vinyl, and the groundbreaking Cloud Nine by the Temptations. Context and considerations follow below.

The first in a series of albums to feature Marvin Gaye with a woman vocalist as duet partner, Together, Gaye’s fifth album to that point, was his only team-up with Mary Wells (LPs with Kim Weston, Tammi Terrell, and Diana Ross would follow), whose relationship with Motown ended shortly after this album’s release.

Wells and Gaye were both scoring hits on the singles charts at the time, so combining them on record was a promising strategy that brought success through the duo’s clear chemistry. Culled from the album, “Once Upon a Time” b/w “What’s the Matter With You, Baby” was a double A-side hit, with each song making the pop top 20 and the R&B top five. Together was also Gaye’s first full-length to make the pop album chart as he had three LPs released in 1964. When I’m Alone I Cry and Hello Broadway are the others; Together is the best of the bunch.

Although its contents are essentially polite pop-R&B elevated by the vocal talents of the pair and the instrumental input of the Funk Brothers (and an absence of strings), Together stands apart from Gaye’s albums to that point, which largely followed an adult pop avenue merging into the Middle of the Road and partly influenced by success of Nat King Cole. Rather than an executive decision, it was Gaye who pursued the MOR path. It’s hard to argue with success however, as his duo with Wells helped to steer him toward the youth market. In short, Together is the place to begin for non-completist Gaye collectors.

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With the fresh release of Live from the Ash Grove…Plus! by Liberation Hall Records, the already voluminous discography of versatile Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins just grew larger by one LP and CD. Available now, the set combines acoustic and electric performances that capture the man in solid, crowd pleasing form. If not an essential acquisition, the record’s pleasurable vibes are far from scrapings from the barrel’s bottom. Its purchase will increase the sturdiness of any Hopkins shelf.

Founded by Ed Pearl in 1958 in Los Angeles, the Ash Grove was a folk club, so it makes sense that Hopkins played there solo and acoustic. Additionally, beginning with his late 1950s “rediscovery” by Samuel Charters and Folkways Records, much of Hopkins’ output landed solidly in the folk blues zone, to the point that he’d become something of a staple on the folk circuit across the ’60s and beyond.

This reality comes through with clarity in Ash Grove’s sourcing two different performances from the venue, the first from September ’65 and the second from November ’70. This covers only a portion of Hopkins’ residencies at the club, but these inclusions still suggest a tougher, more energetic and intense Hopkins at the beginning of the five-year stretch who transitioned to a deceptively “laid back” yet appealingly garrulous comportment at the dawn of the decade.

The latter show is represented by eight songs (likely the entirety of a short set) plus spoken intros and it covers the whole of side one. As he chats up the audience, Hopkins’ comfort is palpable and his abilities are essentially undiminished. Overall, the short set really drives home the folky atmosphere; if this wasn’t the Ash Grove, it could’ve been any number of coffeehouses or folk clubs still operating in 1970.

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New York City’s Lame Drivers began kicking up dust in the mid-2000s, but it’s been far too long, nearly a decade in fact, since they released a full length record. With the release of Become an Island, the band puts the kibosh on that discographical gap, working up a fine batch of tunes blending power pop with old school indie and shades of punk and new wave in the mix. It’s out now, with Portland, OR’s Jigsaw Records handling the compact discs and San Diego, CA’s Bleeding Gold Records pressing it up on vinyl in a limited edition of 100 copies. That’s ten tracks on the wax and four on the accompanying download.

Consisting of Jason Sigal on guitar and vocals, Joe Posner on bass, and Jeff Wood on drums, Lame Drivers conjure a sound that’s been called “slacker-core indie rock.” It’s a tag that effectively reinforces a seeming collective desire to make music that pleases them rather than streamline their songs in an attempt to momentarily grasp that big brass ring of widespread success.

With its opening title track tapping into the eternal fount of Big Star, flaunting similarities to Teenage Fanclub, the assorted bands of Paul Chastain and Ric Menck including Velvet Crush and even the terribly undersung Burke, VA outfit Poole, Become an Island displays no signs of rust after a long sabbatical; especially nifty is the revved-up pace in the song’s back half.

Lame Drivers’ range is quickly apparent in “My Problem,” as the cut’s melodic rock core sports a punky edge, late ’70s style. This is fitting for a band that has covered (and played with) Midwestern punk royalty The Gizmos. Lame Drivers has also covered Wire, Mission of Burma, and notably, “Drugs in My Pocket” by The Monks (the ’70s spoof punk UK band of ex-Strawbs, not the ’60s proto-punkers), the latter part of a 2023 WFMU marathon premium compilation CD Next Stop, Nowhere: 100 Percent Authentic Fake Punk, just to establish the band’s good taste and knowledge base.

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Celebrating Bruce Johnston on his 82nd birthday. —Ed.

Existence is unutterably strange. It’s a fact. The world is filled with miracles and marvels and inexplicable occurrences that defy all rational explanation and that stand, in fact, as rebukes to the very conception of rationality itself. Take the 45 rpm record I hold metaphorically before me. Soon I will place it on my metaphorical record player. It’s by a band called The Beach Boys. Perhaps you’ve heard of them. Boy, could they sing!

But I’m not here to write about the baroque vocal skills of the band that gave us “Good Vibrations,” or how the Beach Boys gradually shed their squeaky-clean image to become hirsute, coke-snorting, acid-gobbling hippies. I’m here to talk about their choice in covers; specifically in the case of the metaphorical single that is now playing on my record player. The A-side of the 1968 single, entitled “Bluebirds Over the Mountain,” was written and recorded by rockabilly artist Ersel Hickey in 1957. The B-side is entitled “Never Learn Not to Love,” and is a blatant (as in he took everything from soup to nuts) Dennis Wilson steal of “Cease to Exist,” a song written by one Charles Milles Manson, of swastika carved on forehead and Tate/LaBianca murder spree fame. Both tunes ended up on The Beach Boy’s 1969 LP 20/20.

The BB’s cover of “Bluebirds Over the Mountain”—which Bruce Johnston brought to the band—is a calypso flavored rock tune of the tamest sort, and not exactly what I would call either catchy or hit material. Mike Love, Carl Wilson, and Johnston all sing, with Love handling lead vocals on the verses and bridge and Wilson and Johnston sharing lead vocals on the choruses, but they lack spunk, and seem to be merely going through the motions. (Check out “Heroes and Villains” and “Sloop John B” for some real vocals.) Indeed, the best thing about the mediocre “Bluebirds” is the guitar work of ringer Ed Carter, a former member of R&B band The Shufflers turned member of the Beach Boys’ backing band, which also included great Daryl Dragon, who was later promoted to captain of Captain and Tennille.

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