Next to step out of the shadows is Wolf-drummer Daniel Strittmatter who brings us Es geht eine Träne auf Reisen . The title translates as A Tear Goes Travelling in English, although Daniel advises it's probably best not translate the rest of the song's lyrics..Why? Let's ask Daniel..
It is a great song but lyrics are nothing for faint English politically correct baffoons. It is about how the love of a man for a young boy ended in him being killed by a priest on Halloween night - the priest then took the boy himself.
Well wolf-cubs continuing this week's steamy theme - here's a funky number from the Wolfmen's boom-box, as Drummer Daniel tells us when (and where) he caught his first dose of the disco fever...to get the full flavour of this juicy tale it's best to be familiar Daniel's accent...
I mean just listen to the first few bars; I do not know how they got this groove down, absolutely fabulous players on that track - I am not going to go into all the technical or personnel details of the recording (see this instead), but I will tell you my experiences with this track.The drum playing is some of the very best you will ever hear, the finest,purest disco drumming.
The first time I heard it I was just coming back from confession and I passed a record shop as this was blasting out.My hips started to move in marriage-simulating movements, backwards and forwards. I felt that beat in my young groin and temptation rose and it rose.I got so excited that the girl behind the record shop counter noticed. There was this barely 13 year old boy standing there and his trousers, probably for the first time of many times to come in public, started to become tighter and tighter.
She asked me in with a slight movement of her eyes.I am not joking, but she took me then and there, behind the counter and for the first time I knew what the priest meant all these years when saying: "Do it, then repent!"
Ever since that time whenever I hear this track I am thinking of my Catholic upbringing and I thank fate for throwing me into Catholic surroundings to spend my childhood in. Because nowhere is sin more welcomed than there, for repenting is soooo good.
Often I must contain myself when hearing this track in public because since the taboo has been lifted even men, usually men with beards and hairy chests, start dancing with me in the streets often causing havoc to the traffic.
Just the other day on our way to the studio I played Marco this track and he started to wiggle his feet and very smoothly moved around in the car seat, so called car-seat-dancing.
Marc Bolan (born Mark Feld) 30 September 1947 – 16 September 1977
It's another wolf-pack pick as Chris Constantinou writes a white swan...
October 1970 - I was 13 years old and living in Plymouth. I think I'd grown out of my Skin-Suede-Smoothie Period (which was just a passing phase for me) and had been listening to Tyrannosaurus Rex - in fact my first girlfriend was called 'Debora' (check this out) :-)
Tyrannosaurus Rex became T.Rex , teamed up with Tony Visconti and released Ride A White Swan - which I still think sounds amazing ! We worked with Visconti in '85, at his Good Earth Studios, when he produced Adam's 'Vive Le Rock ' album. I remember asking him about 'Ride A White Swan' - I'm sure he said that he'd played bass on it, and even showed me the bass he'd used.
July 20th 1971 - My 14th birthday, and I went to see T.Rrex play at the ABC Theatre Plymouth. A real disappointment - I'd expected them to sound like the records, but it was really rough, and they were quite obviously out of their heads with guitars out of tune and strings breaking etc... If I saw that same performance now, I'd probably love it. I like bands doing things differently for gigs, and you can't really reproduce classic recordings live. why should you want to anyway? Look at Lou reed live for an example of that - especially on tracks like Walk On The Wild Side ....
I love the arrangement of Ride A White Swan, the sound of the recording, the fact there's no drums , the small string section, with a string arrangement (scored by Visconti) that works so well - and all recorded on an 8 track machine.
Ride A White Swan - A Side
Summertime Blues - B Side
A few Swan facts you may, or may not know ..
Ride a White Swan was recorded July 1st 1970, and entered the Top 40 on October 31.
11 weeks later, it reached a peak position of No.2
A novelty record 'Grandad' by Dad's Army's, Clive Dunn stopped it from reaching No. 1
Thursday and Friday of last week saw The wolfmen recording their version of one of the Velvet Underground's most obscure songs, 'I'm Not A Young Man Anymore',which was never officially recorded, and only appears on various bootlegs from the late 60s. It gave everyone an excuse to wear black Levi jackets and wraparound shades - and for Marco to stand in front of a 60s Fender amp with a Gretsch Country Gentleman and do loads of feedback for three hours. Just like Uncle Lou used to back in the day.
The surviving members of the Velvet underground are said to be "deeply honored" and can't believe that, their favorite band of all time, The Wolfmen are covering one of their little ditties, and are expecting to make trillions of dollars in publishing royalties off this one track. (We made that last bit up actually)
It's another hand-picked-classic from The Wolfmen's boom-box, as Marco owns up to some light-fingered pop lifting
Eagle-eared Wolfmen fans (and Chris) should be able to spot this week's bit of thievery - it's Bryan Ferry's '75 cover of The Everly Brother's 'The Price of Love'.
The great Chris Spedding's guitar riff somehow ended up on 'Jackie Says' (dunno how that happened on my life constable - honest!). The Spanish trumpet and twangy guitar intro also influenced the Start of Adam Ants 'Friend or Foe' - another caper I had nothing to do with - swear on my life etc etc... The Everly's version was produced by Chet Atkins, who also added a swampy version of the riff to their track.
The Ferry version, features Chris Spedding, Roxy Music's Eddie Jobson and Roxy Drummer Paul Thompson. It appears on the 'Let's Stick Together' E.P, which also has two other songs on it, the names of which I've forgotten as I never liked them. Chis Spedding's another hero of mine. I had the same SEX shop hi-heeled boots as him, and his guitar playing sounds like a black Cuban heeled, elastic-sided winkle-picker - if you could plug one into an amp that is - which you can't.I know, coz Iv'e tried.
If Yves Saint Laurent and Link Wray had ever formed a band together, they might sound something like this...
The title 'Here Come The Warm Jets' is taken from an activity happening on the sleeve Clue: it was also the inspiration behind another Eno title - 'Golden Hours'
We're starting something a bit diff' on the Bocca blog today, where one of The Wolfies handpicks a favourite uptempo thumper for the weekend, so punching the jukebox buttons today is - Wolfman Marco....
In the first of an irregular series of 'Trax That Made The Wolfmen What They Are Today' I have chosen the original version of 'Needle In The Camel's Eye' by Brian Eno - coz if you haven't heard it then you really should..
It's the opening track of Eno's 1973 album 'Here Come The Warm Jets', his first solo album after he found himself to be one Brian too many in Roxy Music, and had to leave. It's a Glam Rocking song with Velvet Underground guitar by Eno and Roxy guitarist Phil Manzernera, with a chord sequence that could have come from the 'Banana' album. Most people think I got my twangy guitar sound from Duane Eddy and Jet Harris, but this is the track it's really cribbed from.
When we covered this for The Wolfmen's first E.P I didn't change one note of Phil Manzernera's twangy Les Paul solo. I learnt it when I was 13, and it's one of the only guitar solos I ever bothered to work out in my bedroom with the traditional schoolboy beginners axe, the out of tune nylon strung acoustic.
In the days before becoming one of the worlds most overpaid producers Eno was full of quirky art school production ideas, on Needles the drums are double tracked and panned left and right, if you listen you can hear Paul Thompson go out of time with himself. Brian Eno later helped give the world Oblique Strategies, New Age music, and The Joshua Tree. He played oboe in the Portsmouth Sinfonia and for some reason appeared on the panel of 'Question Time', but this song comes from a time when he was just called Eno and wore purple eye shadow. its the best track from his best album and we present it here, for your pleasure.
