Albums – The Hip Quotient

A Cardboard Hitler on British Soil: His Command Performance for Sgt. Pepper

Dana Spiardi — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 04:00:39 +0000

Betcha didn’t know that Adolf Hitler was almost on the cover of The Beatles’ most revered album. That’s right. When art director Robert Fraser and designers Jann Haworth and Sir Peter Blake began working with the band to conceptualize the cover art for “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” they told each Beatle to compile a list of people they admired. Their idea was to create life size cardboard models of these characters and place them in the background, as an “audience” behind the Pepper band.

The affable Ringo forfeited his choices to the others, who came up with a diverse assortment of characters: Shirley Temple, Carl Jung, Mae West, Edgar Allan Poe, Sonny Liston, Tyrone Power, and Lenny Bruce, to name just a few of the more than 70 people represented. The Beatles’ record company EMI was careful to obtain permission from every living person before reproducing their likeness on the cover. The ever sardonic John Lennon suggested two historical figures bound to cause controversy: Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler. Excluding JC from the cover was a no-brainer: John’s 1966 “Beatles are bigger than Christ” remark had already caused enough of a brouhaha. But convincing him to forgo Hitler took some persuading.

The designers went so far as to create and place a cardboard model of the Nazi leader on the set. A picture from a March 30, 1967, photo session clearly shows a non-uniformed Hitler standing to the right of hand-waving writer Stephen Crane. In fact, Der Führer remained in the final shot, unseen, hidden behind Tarzan actor Johnny Weissmuller, who stands directly behind Ringo.

What was John thinking? Sure, he loved black humor, but this clearly pushed the boundaries of satire. I guess the bigger question is: Why have so many British artists had a fascination with Hitler, with Nazi fashion and, in some cases, with fascist philosophy? It’s intrigued me for years. In my two-part article “Heil, Heil Rock-n-Roll. What’s with Brit Rockers and the Reich?” I attempt to provide some insight — hopefully, without appearing to excuse, justify or make light of truly bad behavior. Click the links below or in the right column to read on.

Heil, Heil, Rock and Roll. What’s with Brit Rockers and the Third Reich? Part one
Heil, Heil, Rock and Roll. What’s with Brit Rockers and the Third Reich? Part two

Click the image below to see the cast of characters on the “Sgt. Pepper” LP.

© Dana Spiardi, March 30, 2015

Andy Warhol: Superstar Artist to the Superstar Artists

Dana Spiardi — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 05:33:29 +0000

Happy birthday, Andy Warhol! Pittsburgh’s most famous native son would have been 86 today. He coined the word “superstar” – and within the art world, he was one of the silvery-shiniest. We’ve seen his iconic paintings of Marilyn, Elvis, Brillo boxes, and soup cans, but did you know he designed as many as 50 album covers, from spoken-word LPs to jazz and rock records – going back as far as 1949? Here’s a look at some of my favorites.

RCA Victor – Progressive Piano, 1952

MONK: Thelonious Monk with Sonny Rollins and Frank Foster, 1954

Count Basie, 1955

The Velvet Underground & Nico, 1967

The Rolling Stones – Love You Live, 1977

John Lennon – Menlove Ave, 1986 (released posthumously)

The Smiths – Rough Trade, 1984

Billy Squier – Emotions in Motion, 1982

Aretha Franklin – Aretha, 1986

John Cale – The Academy in Peril, 1972

And – I’ve saved the best and most intricate for last: The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers, 1971
Here’s the original, which I’m lucky to own. The cover featured an actual working zipper; when pulled down, it revealed a flap printed with Andy’s name on white undies. People complained that the zipper damaged the adjacent album in the record cabinet! My LP is framed and hanging on my wall. The back cover is just as interesting. But who’s the model? My money’s on “Little Joe” D’Allesandro. But then…he never once gave it away.

The sleeve for the Stones’ Brown Sugar/Bitch single featured them covering their private parts with the album.

© Dana Spiardi, Aug 6, 2015

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The Beatles’ White Album – In Need of a Damn Good Whacking?

Dana Spiardi — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 18:45:33 +0000

If you could whittle down The Beatles’ double “White Album” to a single-disc LP, which songs would you include (or toss)?

First some background: The album, released in the U.S. on this date in 1968, is comprised largely of songs the boys wrote while they should have been meditating during their stay at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation camp in Rishikesh, India. It was recorded in an atmosphere of tension and in-fighting, with band members seldom appearing in the studio together or working in collaboration. The presence of Yoko Ono, by now joined at the hip with John, added to the strain. No Beatle wife or girlfriend had ever been part of an Abbey Road session, let alone one as unabashedly opinionated as Yoko.

Today, “The White Album” is considered iconic among fans and critics. Rolling Stone magazine pegged it at #10 on its list of top 500 LPs of all time. Ringo has said it’s a personal favorite of his (despite the fact that he walked out in despair in the middle of a recording session). But initial reviews were mixed. Time magazine said it lacked a “sense of taste and purpose.” Nik Cohn, writing for the New York Times, said that over half the tracks were “profound mediocrities.” In his review for the London Daily Times, Jon Landau felt The Beatles’ used parody in many of the album’s songs to avoid “confronting reality.” Robert Christgau wrote that the LP’s cuts were a “pastiche of musical exercises.”

I played this album till it was nearly grooveless, but when it comes to critical analysis, I believe its content could have used “a damn good whacking,” to borrow a line from George Harrison’s song “Piggies” (a tune I’d cut, by the way). Of course, nixing John and Yoko’s gibberish sound-collage disaster “Revolution 9” is a no-brainer. And I debated over whether or not to include “Martha My Dear,” but I figured the LP needs one overly-sentimental Paul song (he wrote it for his dog, you see).

So, assuming 7 cuts per side, here are my 14 picks for a killer-diller “White Album,” in no particular order (actually, side 1 is nearly perfect as is). Let me know which songs YOU would choose (or remove) to create a single-disc “White Album.” I know it seems audacious, maybe even blasphemous, but go ahead and ponder the idea – just for the fun of it.

Back in the USSR – Paul’s nod to Chuck Berry’s “Back in the USA,” delivered Beach Boys-style.
Dear Prudence – written by John to cheer up Mia Farrow’s sad sister Prudence, a student at the TM camp.
Glass Onion – John mocks the people who search for clues in Beatle songs.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps – George’s masterpiece, with Eric Clapton on guitar.
Happiness is a Warm Gun – Was John writing about gun control or heroin?
Martha My Dear – Paul’s sheepdog song.
Blackbird – Paul’s acoustic song of support for Black Americans and the civil rights movement.
Julia – John’s sad, beautiful ode to his dead mother.
Birthday – good ol’ Paul, a marketing genius.
Yer Blues – John on the verge of primal scream therapy.
Sexy Sadie – John’s thinly-veiled song about the Maharishi (see below).
Helter Skelter – Paul’s blues blaster, interpreted by Charles Manson as an apocalyptical message.
Revolution 1 – John takes the anti-establishment activists to task.
Savoy Truffle – Eric Clapton had a sweet tooth, and George penned a song about it.

Here’s “Sexy Sadie,” one of my favorite “White Album” tracks – for no particular reason other than the fact that I love the wobbly piano music and John’s sardonic lyrics. Growing up, I didn’t know that he wrote this song as a slam against the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whom he accused of making sexual advances toward fellow TM workshop student Mia Farrow. John’s original opening lyric was “Maharishi, what have you done? You made a fool of everyone.” When the Maharishi asked John why he was leaving the camp, he replied, “Well, if you’re so cosmic, you’ll know why.” This video shows scenes from The Beatles’ period of enlightenment in Riskikesh in 1968.

Back to School with Alice Cooper

Dana Spiardi — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 22:20:00 +0000

What a treat for a Scorpio girl born in the Season of the Witch! On August 12, 2011, I experienced Alice Cooper live in concert for the first time – just five months after his induction into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. It’s no surprise that my childhood love of all things spooky — cemeteries, musty old Victorian ghost story books from the public library, late-night “Chiller Theater” flicks starring Peter Lorre (the King of Madness) — would lead to an inevitable attraction to Alice Cooper and his ghoulish stage show.

When his School’s Out LP debuted in 1972, I was a gawky 8th grade girl, wasting away my study hall hours reading the latest issues of Mad, Creem and Circus. The girls were crazy for Cher, but the boys were buzzing about this guy named Alice who employed guillotines and live reptiles on stage. What a gas that he named his boa constrictor Eva Marie Snake. (Even at age 13 I was film-savvy enough to appreciate the pun.)

The School’s Out album had the most interesting packaging. The cover opened up from the bottom like an old-style initial-engraved desk – showing lots of goodies inside – and the vinyl disc was clothed in a pair of girls’ panties! I swear I never wore the flimsy knickers – those were the days of mother-influenced hygiene mania, after all!

And the album’s songs were great. I especially loved the West Side Story parody, Gutter Cat Versus The Jets. Public Animal #9 was another winner – like a wild soundtrack to a 1930s Dead End Kids movie (”License plates are coming out of my ears / I’d give a month of cigarettes for just a coupla lousy beers.”) But my pick of the monster litter was the orgasmic, late-night gem Blue Turk, with its slinky opening bass line, sexy sax, and trippy electric piano. Oooh, Alice growled!

I seized every opportunity to catch a glimpse of the raccoon-eyed Alice in action. Late-night shows such as ABC’s In Concert, NBC’s Midnight Special and the wonderfully tacky Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert provided me with my only video exposure to rock stars way back in those pre-MTV, pre-YouTube, pre-concert-going days.

So, nearly 40 years after discovering the man who invented and still rules the world of theatrical shock-rock, I had a chance to see him right here in Pittsburgh in an acoustically pleasing outdoor venue! None of his gimmicks was new. He recycled the Frankenstein and guillotine bits (alas, no reptile or electric chair!) and wowed the crowd with a 2011 update of his famous black widow outfit . But props or no props, the show was perfectly packaged with just the right mix of teen angst anthems and new material. Alice hasn’t mellowed. The 63-year-old master of macabre still belts out new tunes with names like I’ll Bite Your Face Off. (Okay ladies, no eye rolling!)

So, how could such a naughty boy – who once allegedly threw a live chicken into the crowd and watched as a group of wheelchair-bound headbangers tore it apart – consider himself a born-again Christian? Well, he is, after all, the son of a preacher man. And, as a self-professed recovering alcoholic, he probably feels he owes a debt to some sort of higher power. And I’m down with that.

But how could yer blogger possibly embrace an artist who’s known for his conservative leanings? Well, when it comes to music I’m often ideologically blind. I love Alice’s repertoire — always have, always will. So, I will choose to believe his words from a 2010 interview: “I am extremely non-political…I’m probably the biggest moderate you know. When John Lennon and Harry Nilsson used to argue politics, I was sitting right in the middle of them, and I was the guy who was going ‘I don’t care.’ When my parents would start talking politics, I would go in my room and put The Rolling Stones or The Who on as long as I could to avoid politics. And I still feel that way.”

Thanks, Alice. But if I ever find you endorsing the likes of Rick Santorum, I’ll personally put your head in that guillotine of yours.

ARTICLE UPDATE, April 15, 2018:
I had a chance to meet Alice Cooper at the 3-day Steel City Comic Convention in Monroeville, PA, April 13-15. I brought along my “School’s Out” LP, which he signed “your pal, Alice Cooper.” Alice asked me if I still have the paper panties that were wrapped around the vinyl record; sadly, NO, I told him. He said his mom kept HER pair! Ah, what a gentle soul he is! Gee, am I still going to be blasting “Public Animal #9” in my car if I live to be 80? Yes, of course! Thanks, Alice, for all the years of merry, macabre entertainment!

Here’s one of my favorite Alice anthems: “Elected.” I saw him perform this song twice in 2016. Here, a few weeks before the Big Sad Election of November 2016, he rips it on the Jimmy Kimmel Show. I watched the original video of this song when it aired on ABC TV’s “In Concert” in 1972. Sadly, all traces of it have been removed from the Internet.