KIM FOWLEY

Focus on genius Kim Fowley, first up we take a look at the Rev Ola compilation Mondo Hollywood / Kim Fowley's Phantom Jukebox Vol One. Then, BMX Bandit Francis MacDonald reviews a mid 90s live gig with Kim Fowley and his band in Glasgow.

For those totally oblivious to the historic work and cult legend of Kim Fowley, two things are instantly apparent. Firstly, the guy is totally off his trolley and secondly, he has managed to record and produce some brilliant songs in a long a distinguishable career. Rev Ola records, the Creation off-shoot re-issue label followed up their previous Fowley release 'Outrageous' with another Fowley retrospective called 'Mondo Hollywood'. Twenty tracks that cover Fowley's solo work from 1966 to 1969.

Of this collection Fowley recalls, "These selections were recorded by me to get girls, confuse people and have fun. These recordings were one off, hobby, experimental events. In the 'silver sixties' anyone could record. And we all did. It was a great time. You should have been there".

And now you can go there with this psychedelic odd ball collection of solo efforts that includes the time honoured drug induced tales of 'The Trip' sample lyric "Summer's here kiddies, it's time to take a trip".

The sheer eccentricity of 'They're coming to take me away, Ha Ha!'. There's the boogie woogie of 'Music is the magic' with it's Dylanesque vocal from 1967 and the funky 'Born to make you cry', the garage punk stomp of 'Underground Lady' from 1966 "before the Count Five's 'Psychotic Reaction" boasts Fowley.

The operatic 'Pop Art 66' has vocals that sound like they were recorded under water. Fowley was hanging around with Mark Writz at the time who went on to produce the epic cult classic "Excerpt from a Teenage Opera" and Pop Art '66 wouldn't be out of place on that album. He arranges the ultra psychedelic dirge that is 'Lights' and the swirling psych pop of 'Something New and Different'.

'The American Dream' is a flower power ballad like Donavan with it's 'Sunday Morning' by Velvet Underground chime and Lou Reed delivery. The album's most accessible and poppy moment.

The bouncy, garage pop of 'Mr Responsibility' aims to be a Yank Ray Davies of the Kinks in their Village Green Preservation Society but according to Kim ends up sounding like an under-produced Roger McGuinn.

The garage psych of The Seeds is the inspiration for 'Reincarnation' from 1966. Fowley would eventually go on to produce the Seeds.

The melodic sounds of the Rolling Stone type stroll that is 'Gypsy Canyon' and 'Me' complete with Revolver guitar riffs and 'Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby' groove.

All the while Fowleys' wayward wailing but passionate voice flies all over the place with wild abandon like he's leading the charge, electing himself spokesman of the flower power generation and getting himself well and truly fried in the process!

It's not easy listening all the way through, after all this is an experimental album produced by a real maverick with a roving, or should that be raving, eye to try something just a little bit different.

Fowley provides brief sound bites in the sleevenotes and lists the impressive cast of thousands he has worked with over the years from The Byrds in their heyday to the BMX Bandits. This and the previously released 'Outrageous' compilation are essential purchases for the curious and the perverse!

KIM FOWLEY & FRIENDS

- LIVE IN GLASGOW

By Francis MacDonald (BMX Bandits/Teenage Fanclub/Shoeshine Records)

When the legendary Kim Fowley came to Glasgow for a show in July this year, BMX Bandits were excited to be backing a singer, songwriter, producer who had worked with Phil Spector, Gene Vincent and Jonathan Richman amongst others. We were especially looking forward to playing some of his great solo recordings e.g. Bubblegum, International Heroes, Motorboat, California Summertime etc or even Nutcracker or Alley Oop - US Number One hits for B. Bumble and the Stingers and the Hollywood Argyles respectively, and both produced by Fowley.

However, Kim phoned me up before coming to Glasgow with a 20-minute rant about how he would only be performing new songs. He couldn't remember the lyrics. Not even Bubblegum? I wondered a simple four-line verse sung three times?

"How old are you Francis?"

"24"

"I wrote that song 26 years ago at four o'clock in the morning, I'm not going to sing it now!"

He then went on to demonstrate his improvisational song writing skills asking for a subject (RADIO), a musical style (SOUL) and a tempo (SLOW). He began intoning down the phone to me:

"I'm listening to my radio, in the afterglow of a cold beer, cryin' lonely tears…."

It wasn't the greatest melody I'd heard and there was the odd couplet that refused to rhyme, but it had enough buzzwords and phrases to be kind of interesting. I covered the receiver so he couldn't hear me giggling and, when he'd finished, told him what he wanted to hear, "that was great, Kim!"

He arrived for our first rehearsal 2 days before the gig with his co-producer Mike Bennett and Mike's girlfriend Tracey, a singer who would lake part in the show. Kim looked and acted like a madman, a 6 and a half-foot scarecrow vampire throwing tantrums and barking out instructions like, "Play some Bob Dylan chords'- whatever the hell that means or "Give me something like the Doors!"

We'd start jamming and he'd run around improvising hilariously crazed, pseudo-Gothic, nonsensical lyrics to get the song titles he'd prepared earlier such as 'Teenage Suicide' and 'Baby, I lost my Mind'.

After five hours of psyching us out and rehearsing these ditties that would never sound the same twice, we packed up and reconvened at the flat of Mr Jason McPhail, our pal who was promoting the show and, for his sins, was having Kim stay with him. Here he adopted a less hostile personality as he produced sets of lyrics that he'd prepared especially for BMX Bandits to put music to. Kim was to produce us recording these songs before he left Glasgow.

The next day we rehearsed again, Kim cracking the whip once more. Afterwards he went off with Norman Blake to improvise a one take vocal for a Teenage Fanclub recording entitled Festival of Sun - Reading 95. The next night we played the show. BMX Bandits opened with Duglas singing some Fowley songs that Kim refused to perform. Then Kim took he stage:

"Lost in pain? Bored? Or just insane? Horny? Stupid? Ugly? About to die, cry or be satisfied? Only you know the answer to that prayer..."'

And so we launched into our very first vamp while the Vampire himself spouted engaging gibberish, at the same time encouraging audience participation in any shape or form. He had people up singing, dancing, drumming, playing guitar, discussing why it was "time for Scotland to be free", he had a drag queen take the stage to offer fashion tips and he improvised a song around a suggested topic - Crabmeat.

Because of the nature of the show it could have died in the first five minutes but for Kim's brilliance as a performer. Describing it doesn't really do it justice; it was an amazing experience! I would guess that Kim's eccentricity is 99% contrived, he likes to make an impression. But that 1% suggests anything could happen and, sure enough, at the end of the performance things turned a little ugly. Kim threatened to beat up a heckler before deciding just to spit on him and close the set with no encore. I wasn't too upset about this, I wasn't particularly looking forward to the planned encore medley of Feed the World, Papa-O-Mow-Mow and Wipe-out...

Lots of people loved the show, some hated it and some couldn't decide. One weekly music press reviewer tried to dismiss Kim as 'dull' but I saw the selfsame scribe cooing and tittering around the Great Man just after he came off stage, like a six-year-old around Santa Claus. Affected PC ennui well after the event doesn't count, Kim maybe a lot of things but he ain't dull...

The next day we recorded a ten-song session for Radio Scotland including some spontaneously conceived bagatelles like 'Ghosts of Scotland' and 'Goodbye Glasgow' along with some older chestnuts. The next day we went into another studio to record the songs we'd written after our first rehearsal together. 'The Girl Next Door, 'We're gonna (Shake you Down)', 'Help Me, Somebody' and 'Golden Teardrops' were all recorded and mixed with Kim producing i.e. ranting and raving, making us laugh, throwing tantrums, telling us some great anecdotes from his mad rock'n'roll career and generally pushing us to record some of our best ever work. After that final 24 hour recording session he was gone. The rollercoaster ride was over. He did, however, leave us with some useful advice scribbled on the cover of my copy of his 'Outrageous' album: "Smile, Think, Rock, Dream - Kim Fowley'.