2255. Sailor: Greatest Hits
2256. Dédé Saint Prix: Mi Sé Sa
2257. Saints: (I'm) Stranded
2258. Saints: Casablanca
2259. Saints: All Fools Day
2260. Salt-N-Pepa: A Salt With a Deadly Pepa
2261. Sam & Dave: Double Dynamite
2262. Sam & Dave: Soul Men
2263. The Best of Sam & Dave
2264. Samantha Sang: Emotion
2265. Santa Esmeralda: The House of the Rising Sun
2266. Sky "Sunlight" Saxon & Purple Electricity: "Private Party"
2267. Boz Scaggs: My Time
2268. Scenics: Underneath the Door
2269. Schoolly-D
2270. Schoolly D: Saturday Night
2271. Schoolly D: Smoke Some Kill
2272. Schoolly D: Am I Black Enough for You?
Mixworthy: "A Glass of Champagne," #2255; "(I'm) Stranded," #2257; "When Something
Is Wrong With My Baby," #2261; "P.S.K. 'What Does It Mean'?" and "Gucci Time,"
#2269; "Signifying Rapper," #2271.
One last Roxy Music postscript: a good indicator that you're completely out to lunch
when it comes to artist A is if artist B's cheesy imitation--in this case, Sailor's
"Glass of Champagne"--sounds better than the real thing. I'm usually the humourless
drudge who prefers the original, but in this instance I'd take the fake...Salt-N-Pepa
are a perfect example of the way my hip-hop timeline is almost always in a state of
permanent erosion. When "Whatta Man" and "Shoop" were on the radio, I remember think-
ing how much more alive and interesting they seemed than "Push It" or A Salt With a
Deadly Pepa. A couple of months ago I bought a dollar copy of Very Necessary, and
"Whatta Man" sounds even more dated to me right now than "Push It" did in 1993. I've
made this point already as I work my way through this, but I bring it up again be-
cause Schoolly-D is the exception that proves the rule. I hardly ever listen to him
anymore, but on the rare occasion when I do go back to his first LP, "P.S.K." and
"Gucci Time" sound as weird and as menacing as ever. The slow-motion drugginess of
both the production and Schoolly's delivery are primarily what keep those songs vital
for me, and the shock-value of what then amounted to a breakthrough in lyrical filth
still counts for something too. I'm aware that Schoolly wasn't the first to go down
that road, but he did generate a lot of debate at the time by upping the ante signif-
icantly. These days, I can listen to 50 Cent celebrate anal sex on mainstream radio
while driving to work in the morning. I'm glad to say I still feel a degree of shock
when stuff like that is done convincingly enough, which it is in 50 Cent's case. Not
appalled--I'm even more glad I haven't reached that stage yet, which'll be a good
time to stop paying attention altogether--but still somewhat shocked.
________________________________________________________________________________
2273. Jack Scott: Burning Bridges
2274. Scratch Acid: Beserker
2275. Screaming Bamboo: World of Tomorrow
2276. Scritti Politti: Songs to Remember
2277. Scritti Politti: Cupid & Psyche 85
2278. Scritti Politti: Provision
2279. "Wanna' Meet the Scruffs?"
2280. Scruffy the Cat: Boom Boom Boom Bingo
2281. Sea Level: On the Edge
2282. The Searchers' Smash Hits
2283. The Golden Hour of the Searchers
2284. The Searchers
2285. Searchers: Love's Melodies
2286. Secession: A Dark Enchantment
2287. The Secrets
2288. Seeds: Raw & Alive
2289. Seeds: Fallin' Off the Edge
Mixworthy: "Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)," #2277; "My Mind," #2279; "Take
Me for What I'm Worth," #2282; "Don't Throw Your Love Away," #2283; "Pushin' Too
Hard," #2289.
I'm guessing the Scruffs album is hard to find--couldn't have been more than a few
thousand pressed. An enthusiastic entry in Christgau's '70s book is the only reason
I know about it. They're OK--you'd be far better to get acquainted with the Shoes,
but "My Mind"'s good enough to list...I haven’t heard "Wood Beez" in years, but it
was a favourite when I started catching up with pop music in the mid-80s. There was
also Billy Bragg's "Levi Stubbs' Tears" and ABC's "When Smokey Sings" from that time,
plus Al Green's much less convincing "Mick Hucknall's Got My Back"...Going by the
back cover of Fallin' Off the Edge, it looks as if all the Seeds LPs were reissued
domestically by GNP Crescendo in the late '70s. My copy is a punched-out remainder;
no recollection of where I got it, but my guess would be the original Cheapies store
on Yonge Street, which carried a lot of American cutouts for under five dollars. I
don't think I ever would have passed up any of the others given the opportunity, so
Fallin' Off the Edge must have been the only title to make it up here. My copy of
Raw & Alive is on Pickwick, a junky reprint label rivalled only by Birchmount in
its ubiquity through the late '70s and early '80s.
________________________________________________________________________________
2290. Senders: Seven Song Super Single
2291. 7 Seconds: New Wind
2292. Severed Heads: Dead Eyes Opened
2293. Severed Heads: Come Visit the Big Bigot
2294. Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols
2295. Sex Pistols: The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle
2296. Sex Pistols: Blank Tapes [Winterland bootleg]
2297. Sex Pistols: Better Live Than Dead
2298. S'Express: Original Soundtrack
2299. Shadrock: Bottom Line
2300. Shadrock: "D.J." 12-inch
2301. Shaggs: Philosophy of the World
2302. Shalamar: Three for Love
2303. Shalamar: Go for It
2304. Shalamar: "Dead Giveaway" 12-inch
2305. Shalamar: "Don't Get Stopped in Beverly Hills" 12-inch
Mixworthy: "Holidays in the Sun," "God Save the Queen," "Anarchy in the U.K.," and
"E.M.I.," #2294.
I'll take the easy way out with the Sex Pistols and link to something I wrote 10
years ago on the occasion of their widely ridiculed reunion tour; I'm not any more
eager to try writing about them today than I was then. I think it takes a lot of
energy and a certain kind of clearheadedness to write well about the Sex Pistols,
an ability to burn through everything around the edges that muddles their story
and place yourself squarely in that moment; Jon Savage does it in England's Dream-
ing, and in a very different way so does Marcus in Lipstick Traces. I came late to
the moment, so no matter how much of an impact they had on my life anyway, it always
feels like a moment apart. I even left them off a punk CD-700 I made last week for
the woman whose radio show precedes mine. (The CD, a belated wedding gift, was the
first history-of-punk compilation I'd made in a number of years. Now that I'm manip-
ulating computer files rather than taping from albums, I'm too lazy to put things
in chronological order; I just click through alphabetically by artist, skipping back
and forth across time and place.) I can't rationally account for their omission, but
for whatever reason, not having them on there felt right...Everyone should hear the
Shaggs once: it's an experience, and it'll ensure that any jokes about them that you
come across will make sense. Twice is a very personal decision that must be carefully
thought through on a case-by-case basis.
________________________________________________________________________________
2306. Sham 69: Tell Us the Truth
2307. M.C. Shan: Down by Law
2308. M.C. Shan: Born to Be Wild
2309. Shangri-Las: Teen Anguish Volume Two
2310. Del Shannon: The Vintage Years
2311. The Best of Del Shannon
2312. Shannon: Let the Music Play
2313. Shannon: "Do You Wanna Get Away" 12-inch
2314. Shannon: Love Goes All the Way
2315. Helen Shapiro: The E.P. Collection
2316. Artie Shaw: The Complete Gramercy Five Sessions
2317. Artie Shaw and His Orchestra: The Beat of the Big Bands
2318. Marlena Shaw: Sweet Beginnings
2319. Woody Shaw: Master of the Art
2320. Shocky Shay: No Joke
2321. Pete Shelley: Sky Yen
2322. Ricky Van Shelton: Loving Proof
2323. Archie Shepp: Four for Trane
2324. Archie Shepp: The Dedication Series/Vol. XVII: Further Fire Music
Mixworthy: "Give Him a Great Big Kiss," "Train From Kansas City," and "Out in the
Streets," #2309; "Runaway," #2310; "The Man I Love," #2317. I haven't designated
anything as spent in a long time, but "Leader of the Pack" and "Remember (Walking in
the Sand)" are pretty close. They're too ingenious, though, and I like the Shangri-
Las too much, to send them packing.
Shannon's "Let the Music Play" is a heroic landmark to disco historians: its appear-
ance during the doldrums of the early-80s backlash gives it a desperate, raging-
against-the-dying-of-the-light quality similar to something like Mott the Hoople's
"All the Young Dudes." All of which I admire, but it also has the kind of gothic,
minor-key sound that I almost always find off-putting...Here are some details on
Pete Shelley's Sky Yen. I used to have a rule that I had to play anything I bought
at least once from start to finish, so I must have made it all the way through Sky
Yen, too, but only after first bolting down all windows and doors and sealing off
all exits...I wrote in Radio On how I really liked M.C. Shan's cameo on Snow's "In-
former." Shan seemed to disappear from view immediately thereafter, so I'm guess-
ing there was much less enthusiasm in Compton and Bed-Stuy.
________________________________________________________________________________
2325. Vonda Shepard
2326. The Sheppards
2327. Bobby Sherman's Greatest Hits Volume 1
2328. Robin Shier Quintet: Depth of Field
2329. Shinehead: Unity
2330. Shirley and Company: Shame, Shame, Shame
2331. The Shirelles' Greatest Hits
2332. The Shirelles' Greatest Hits Vol. II
2333. Shirelles: Lost and Found
2334. Michelle Shocked: Short Sharp Shocked
2335. Shoes: Black Vinyl Shoes
2336. Shoes: Present Tense
2337. Shoes: Tongue Twister
2338. Shoes: Boomerang
2339. Shoes: Silhouette
Mixworthy: "Island of Love" and "Never Felt This Way Before," #2326; "Little Woman"
and "Julie, Do Ya Love Me," #2327; "Shame, Shame, Shame," #2330; "Soldier Boy," "Will
You Love Me Tomorrow," and "It's Love That Really Counts," #2331; "Boys" and "I Met
Him on a Sunday," #2332; "Boys Don't Lie," "Not Me," "Capital Gain," and "Nowhere So
Fast," #2335; "Tomorrow Night," "Too Late," and "Now and Then," #2336; "Yes or No,"
#2337; "Curiosity," #2338; "Running Wild," #2339.
Twenty-three hundred albums in, a multi-artist mixapalooza...I came across a piece
on Bobby Sherman in one of the entertainment glossies a couple of days ago, and it
said he's been working for the L.A.P.D. the past few years. Darryl Gates, Rodney
King, Mark Fuhrman, O.J. Simpson, N.W.A., Bobby Sherman--yeah, that sounds about
right. He's been working in a non-uniformed capacity, which is too bad, because I
can't think of anything that would make for higher drama than turning on Cops one
night and seeing Danny Bonaduce getting cuffed by Bobby Sherman. Here Come the
Bloods, Bobby's book on his years with the force, is supposedly quite good...When
Wanda Jackson passed through Toronto a few weeks ago, a local writer had a piece
advocating for her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (an institution
I haven't mentioned for ages--I was strangely fixated on it during the early stages
of this inventory). To prove her point, she did what I and everybody else does when
addressing a perceived HOF oversight, be it Cleveland, Cooperstown, or otherwise:
she listed a few of the more glaringly weaker candidates already in there, most of
whom I mentioned myself when writing about the issue as it related to Tommy James.
One of the artists she listed was the Shirelles, though. Huh? The idea that Wanda
Jackson should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ahead of the Shirelles has to be
the silliest thing I've read in a long while. The Shirelles' Greatest Hits is, along
with the Ronettes' debut, probably the single greatest album to come out of the the
most vital pop genre during the years between Elvis's induction and the arrival of
the Beatles (whose earliest albums, for very good reason, included two excellent
Shirelles covers). I've listed five songs by them, overlooking a couple of their
most famous ("Baby, It's You," "Dedicated to the One I Love") and a bunch of really
good ones. I don't know a whole lot about Wanda Jackson--all I have is a budget
compilation that may or may not be rerecorded--but I'm pretty sure she's not re-
membered for much beyond "Let's Have a Party," which as rockabilly goes is just OK.
She's important historically as an early white female rock and roll singer, but so
was Pumpsie Green, the first African-American on the Boston Red Sox, the last major
league team to integrate. I've never come across any suggestion that that's enough
to get him into Cooperstown...If you want to argue that the Shoes should go into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I might be with you. (Or might not, because I still
haven't figured out the criteria--and hopefully I won't bring the subject up again
for another thousand albums). You can see that they're pretty important to me by
the 10-song maximum; when I last listed my 10 favourite albums for Jeff Pike's
Tapeworm a few years back, Black Vinyl Shoes was one of them. I've had the idea
off and on since I first started writing about music that somewhere along the way
I'd write something worthwhile on the Shoes; ideally a book, but if not, a substan-
tial historical piece for one of those Mojo-type magazines. (If you're wondering
why anyone would ever want to read or publish a book on a band you've never heard
of, I'll just say that I saw books on both Big Star and Suicide while browsing last
Christmas. The comparative fame of the Shoes exists somewhere in between the two--
less famous than Big Star, more famous than Suicide [or at least I think they are--
we're dealing in hard-to-quantify microfame here...]--and they're better than both.)
That strange Shoes/Chantels/Minor Threat proposal I made to Ian MacKaye was my first
overture in that direction, and I recently resuscitated the idea after downloading
Bazooka, the band's never-released 1976 demo album, and finding out that everything
that amazes me about them was in place from even before the beginning. As pop ob-
sessives go--artists who developed and refined a signature sound to almost mystical
lengths--I'm not kidding when I say the Shoes are within shouting distance of Phil
Spector and Brian Wilson. That was one side of their story, and the other was that
they were the nine millionth new-wave band circa 1978 hoping to stumble onto a fluke
hit--they were also the Knack and the Cars and the Vapors, the difference being that
those groups got lucky and the Shoes didn't. So I'm positive there's a great story
there, especially as three-fourths of the group was still hanging in there for 1984's
European-only Silhouette, by which time they were a complete anachronism. (They seem
to have stuck it out much longer than even that; while searching for a scan of Black
Vinyl Shoes, I was surprised to learn of two early-90s releases, Stolen Wishes and
Propeller, that I was completely unaware of. Obviously I'll try to track them down,
but the truth is that I'm a little wary.) Incidentally, my copy of Black Vinyl Shoes
is a promo on PVC that I think I bought at Around Again. Someone had it backwards:
rock critics are supposed to have the good sense to keep their future cult albums,
while only trading in their white elephants for cash. Perhaps I have Peter Goddard's
copy...Sorry for the delay these past few days: the usual end-of-year school stuff,
plus an unfortunate relapse into an online Scrabble addiction I have. I hope to be
posting daily again.