Graded on a Curve: Brownsville Station,
Yeah!

Some albums make such a small and unprepossessing mark on rock history that it’s easy to forget they’re there. And so it is with 1973’s Yeah! by Brownsville Station, the hard-rocking Detroit power trio whose soul claim to fame is that great anthem to juvenile delinquency “Smokin’ in the Boys Room.”

Brownsville Station was one of the lesser bands to emerge from the vibrant Detroit rock scene of the late sixties–compared to the likes of Iggy and the Stooges, the MC5, Grand Funk Railroad, and even the Bob Seger System, Brownsville Station ranks as an almost forgotten footnote.

But Cub Koda, Mike Lutz, and Henry “H Bomb” Weck had some good music in them, and they scored a minor triumph with the covers-heavy Yeah! The late Cub Koda was both a music writer and a walking musical encyclopedia, and he obviously chose the album’s very diverse assortment of covers–by artists ranging from the Velvet Underground to Jimmy Cliff to Hoyt Axton to fellow Detroiters Terry Knight and the Pack–with loving care.

This is party music by a party rock band that doesn’t aim too high but hits the target right in the bull’s eye; these boys didn’t have grand musical ambitions, they just wanted to show you a good time. And they do; all ten of the songs on Yeah! are guaranteed, in their own small way, to help you get your party started.

And Brownsville Station will surprise you too–their take on Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane” is bona fide sweet, and the last thing you would expect from these rock’n’roll animals. And they turn Robert Parker’s horn-driven rock’n’soul classic “Barefootin’” into a T-Rex/MC5 hybrid and unfettered guitar rave up. The axe is straight-up Marc Bolan; the vocals are pure Rob Tyner.

Their take on H. Axton’s “Lightnin’ Bar Blues” is J. Geils with just a touch of the Velvet Underground; all this hard-partying trio wants to do is drink their ripple wine and to be pickled in a 100-proof alcohol after they die. “Take It or Leave It” is a handclap-heavy salute to garage rockers everywhere; “All Night Long,” one of the LP’s two originals, sounds like vintage Grand Funk. It’s not going to make it onto anybody’s list of the Top 100 songs of all time, but it gets the job done.

Brownsville’s take on Jimmy Cliff’s “Let Your Yeah Be Yeah” is pure syncopated fun; the beat is swiped from Marc Bolan, while the choruses could be by Slade or The Sweet. Turns out Glam didn’t just hit Iggy between the eyes–it hit the Motor City like a virus.

Brownsville Station’s cover of Terry Knight’s “Love, Love, Love” comes on like a lost hard rocker from D. Bowie’s Aladdin Sane; that throbbing guitar is as menacing as anything Mick Ronson committed to vinyl. “Question of Temperance” is all heavy metal thunder and a good dumb time; it boasts a giant beat and shirtless vocals in the grand Detroit Rock City tradition.

“Go Out and Get Her” is a slinky garage rocker with neanderthal lyrics (“Try and be a cave man/You know I really think you should”) written by Doug Morris, who just happens to be the current chairman of Sony Music Entertainment.

Morris–who most likely doesn’t include “Go Out and Get Her” on his resume–also produced “Smokin’ in the Boys Room,” which remains (along with Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” and the Dictator’s “Weekend”) one of rock’n’roll’s greatest FUs to both principals and principles. In terms of both style and attitude, “Smokin’” owes a heavy debt to “School’s Out,” but unlike Cooper’s anthem, which is dedicated to everybody, “Smokin’” is a shout-out to the kids we used to call “hoods.”

It makes perfect sense that “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” came out of Detroit. The Motor City was, after all, America’s hotbed of Rock’n’Roll Revolution. But unlike the grandiose fellas in the MC5 who dreamed of dope, guns, and fucking in the streets, Brownsville Station were realists who had the humility to think small; their idea of revolt began and ended with lighting up in the school john. Gimme danger indeed.

Brownsville Station were never a critics band–The Village Voice’s Robert Christgau summarily dismissed them with the words, “They weren’t smokin’ in that boy’s room–just taking a quick dump”–and posterity hasn’t been particularly kind to them either. But I’ll be damned if Yeah! isn’t both a howl and an album worth owning. Take my word for it; Brownsville Station will win you over with their humble pie. Buy it for “Smokin’” and you’ll soon come to love the rest.

GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-

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