Chuck Prophet – ‘Strings In The Temple’ – Temple Beautiful With Strings (Yep Roc)

Chuck Prophet – ‘Strings In The Temple’ – Temple Beautiful With Strings (Yep Roc)

“If you’re to believe what you read, today’s San Francisco is under siege by predatory tech nerds and drones, plutocrats, wiz kids and opportunistic real estate developers. People have reacted in different ways to this onslaught. The Occupy Movement for one. You may have heard of people laying down in front of google buses in protest or smashing google glasses on the sidewalk.

There’s also the path of art… In 2012, I released Temple Beautiful – an open love letter to San Francisco and its history and characters. After two years of performing the songs across the U.S and the globe, in late 2013, my band and I delivered the 12 song cycle Temple Beautiful with a string octet (scored and conducted by Brad Jones) in our hometown of San Francisco.

We had one chance to get it right. And this film is a document of the twists and turns in the road that brought us to that one-night-only sold-out performance at the Great American Music Hall (Itself a former bordello and a deco SF institution).

The songs performed that night include characters like Willie Mays, martyred supervisor Harvey Milk, Cain & Abel porn kings Jim & Artie Mitchell, mythic oddball “Red Man,” preacher/Svengali Jim Jones, politician-turned assassin Dan White, and Emperor Norton, with cameos by Laffing Sal, Carol Doda, Bill Graham, and Fatty Arbuckle. Locations also play a key role, including the Castro and Mission Districts. One song is devoted to the White Night Riots, sparked by the light sentence received by the assassination of Milk and Mayor Moscone.

Some will have you believe that technology is the new culture. Then again, how can technology equate culture? Can Rock and Roll build community? Can songs connect people to the world? These are the questions explored in Strings In The Temple.”

– Chuck Prophet

That’s the background sorted and with a new imminent studio album, ‘The Land Time Forgot’ (review very soon) the former Green on Red man is still the hot ticket and as productive as ever making music that relevant and above all bloody good. Yep Roc has made available as a digital download this epic and quite beautiful performance containing some exquisite songs and overall performance. Chuck is one of those rare talents that never turned in a bad record.  Sure some are a class apart like ‘Brother Aldo’ from his solo offerings or ‘Here Comes The Snakes’ from the old band but this is an accompanying piece for the album ‘Proper’ and with bells and whistles or should that be with strings and bells?

The title track is a honky tonkin’ Rock and Roll thing of beauty from the dirty slide guitar to the T rextasy strings and the handclaps and xylophone makes it something really special and sounds like the best of times being had by everyone and the fiddle players are really taking this home and from the generous round of applause, this audience is really witnessing something special.  In direct contrast, a pin could be heard dropping on ‘Museum Of Broken Hearts’.

 

You get to appreciate just what a talent Prophet is on records like this as he turns his hand to several styles yet always maintains the Chuck Prophet vibe and whoever rallied the troops and did the arrangments here has really elevated this set to the next level.  ‘White Night Big City’ is a cocky strut and can only be outdone by the impeccable cover of ‘Shake Some Action’ who’d have thought such an awesome Rock and Roll track would sound so cool with strings holding down the lead. Genius!

To wrap this bad boy up the softly sung balladeer that is Chuck Prophet leaves us with ‘No Other Love’ and I get lost in the moment as the strings wrap themselves around the slide guitar as Chuck hushes his lyrics the listener’s way and its not a tear in my eye just a spec of dust, honest. All that is left is the audience to give a huge round of applause before the record is done.  Simply brilliant stuff and now I can’t wait for the new studio album which is coming so very very soon.  Ladies and gentlemen get yerself some Chuck Prophet and do it now! You don’t need to take my word for it because Yup Roc has made the performance available on youtube (check it out below)

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Author: Dom Daley

Flamin’ Groovies – ´Now’/‘Jumpin’ In The Night’ (MVD Entertainments)

Flamin’ Groovies – ´Now’/‘Jumpin’ In The Night’ (MVD Entertainments)

Reissued on CD by MVD on 10th July and 7th August respectively

 

 

Finally, I can get my mitts on a decent quality cd of The Flamin’ Groovies’ ‘Now’ album. While they never recaptured the heights of ‘Shake Some Action’ (though 2017’s ‘Fantastic Plastic’ is a fine attempt), ‘Now’ is still worthy of a place in your collection. In common with Dr Feelgood, they clearly had problems in writing enough songs, so both albums are half-filled with cover versions. Some work better than the originals, some not so much.

 

Starting with their major influence, The Byrds, ‘Feel A Whole Lot Better’ is the sound of a band playing a song they love. It doesn’t need changing, so they didn’t. ‘Between The Lines’ showed that they could still find their chops. It has that undefinable something. ‘Ups And Downs’ is a cheesy, upbeat tune, but they make it sound fun. Cliff’s ‘Move It’ was always going to be a great choice, and I still love it.

 

‘Take Me Back’ is one of two classic Groovies songs on here. Wistful and beautiful, with that perfect jangle of guitars. Dave Edmunds’ production got the best out of the songs. ‘Don’t Put Me On’ is the second; almost on a par with ‘Shake..’, it could only be the Groovies. It’s hard to explain to anyone who is unfamiliar with them just why their best songs are so great, iconic even. If you’ve tried writing songs, you’ll know that there is magic here.

 

‘All I Wanted’ is another good, original song, very Beatley, unsurprisingly. ‘Good Laugh Mun’ and ‘Yeah, My Baby’ were co-written with Edmunds, who understood their sound perfectly. Two Stones songs in a row is a tad ambitious; ‘Blue Turns To Grey’ suits them better than ‘paint It Black’, and the album ends on a perfunctory ‘There’s A Place’.

 

A year later, and ‘Jumpin’ In The Night’ starts well with the title track. It drives along nicely, and reflects their live sound. ‘Next One Crying’ is a Stones-style original, while ‘First Plane Home’ is back in Byrds territory. ‘In The USA’ is a straight ahead Chuck Berry fest, while James Burton’s ‘Down, Down, Down’ is not the strongest choice of song. ‘Yes I Am’ is a better original, as is ‘Tell Me Again’. ‘Please, Please Me’ is the obligatory Beatles cover, though ‘Werewolves Of London’ is weirdly very good, better than the original. McGuinn’s ‘It Won’t Be Wrong’ and ‘5D’ work well, but I could do without ‘Absolutely Sweet Marie’ and David Crosby’s ‘Lady Friend’. The overall sound is too light, and it runs out of gas halfway through.

 

The best of each would make a good album, but for me, ‘Now’ has the sound and personality of the Groovies.

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Author: Martin Chamarette