By request, I restored the dormant Ron Nagle-Ry Cooder songs that were on this blog. Then I decided I might as well add something special, the "61 Clay" original demo.
Mr. Nagle continues to be sought after for his ceramic work, while crackpots still simmer over his "Bad Rice." Some seek it because Ry Cooder played on two tracks. Others, because it was produced by Jack Nitzsche. Fact is, the main reason it's a great album is because the songs were written and performed by Ron Nagle.
Check the very third post on the blog, from March '06 for the two "Bad Rice" songs. Here's...
RON NAGLE 61 CLAY DEMO
Showing posts with label Ron Nagle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ron Nagle. Show all posts
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Saturday, April 29, 2006
RON NAGLE -Mystery Trend- DUROCS
The three phases of Ron Nagle's negligibly-appreciated rock career are zipped for your inspection.
The Mystery Trend? They were one of many West Coast groups exploring hard rock and psych. How to compete with the Alarm Clocks, Peanut Butter and Airplanes and Prunes out there? Good question. Cashing in on that trend remained a mystery to these guys. Nagle wrote most of the music and lyrics, but didn't sing nearly enough.
The thickly annotated CD booklet delves into the history of this elusive group while the disc itself contains just about everything the boozin' bloozin' band did (which until now, was mostly unreleased). You get 21 tracks on the CD. 2 are zipped here as samples.
Next?
Ron Nagle his own self.
Somehow he got a solo deal with WB. Somehow the now-legendary Jack Nitzsche produced it and Ry Cooder played on it (on two tracks I posted some months ago, still archived). Truly ill art-work and tepidly trepidatious reviews didn't help Ron join Randy Newman and Van Dyke Parks on the "let's keep putting more of the guy's albums out till something happens" list at Warner.
Stereo Review opined, "Nagle's hard-edged voice (like Neil Young's) is not really pleasant to listen to...The songs are really the album's strongest point, a couple of them rather political without being propagandistic, and most of them with sharp insights." But..."this sort of thing has been done before and better, of course, by Gary Wright and Dennis Linde to take two extremes." The reviewer went on to complain about the "muddy" sound.
Included in the zip is a ballad showcasing Ron's "not really pleasant" voice straining over the pathos as "Frank's Store" burns to the ground. This artful slice of mundane life documents a poor dumb soul and the worthless dump that was all he had.
"Family Style" is a stumbling romp about mother picking up coins with her vagina, mysterious Uncle Frank (not Jimmy Kimmel's Uncle Frank), and a brother stepping on a parakeet. It's just your typical dysfunctional family. Remember, this is 1970! No wonder people thought the guy was ill and left him and his LP "Bad Rice" alone.
Ron Nagle traded his rice for popcorn. He started producing sound effects for movies. A March 23, 1977 newspaper review for "The Sorcerer" noted the sounds of "the buzzing of honey bees, the squealing of pigs in a slaughterhouse and a girl's stomach rumbles were recorded by rock composer Ron Nagle...Director Billy Friedkin asked Nagle to do the work after he had such happy returns from another film for which Nagle did special effects, 'The Exorcist.'"
A few years later, Nagle and a cohort gave rock one last try and became "The Durocs," taking their name from a species of (chauvanist?) pig known for large genitalia. (No kidding, this is even mentioned in the Capitol press release).The samples (side one's five tracks) should help you decide whether to add DUROCS to your want list as you cruise the bargain bins. Sorry, I burned the CD a long time ago, didn't write the track titles down, and can't find the album in my sty. I did nose around but all I got was a stye in my eye. And God knows the truffles I've seen.
The last Durocs track is a cover of Gene Pitney's "It Hurts To Be In Love" which they give the wall-of-ham full-boar treatment.
Give the duo points for opening the album with pig grunts and an opening track referencing themselves and how the gals should go "hog wild" for 'em. Perhaps one day Nagle's solo "Bad Rice" will be get a CD release with a suitably commercial cover. Probably not this one:
Nine-ish Nagles
Update: the rapidshare.de link has died of old age.
Re-upped:
RON NAGLE 61 Clay w/ Ry Cooder
RON NAGLE Marijuana Hell w/ Ry Cooder
The Mystery Trend? They were one of many West Coast groups exploring hard rock and psych. How to compete with the Alarm Clocks, Peanut Butter and Airplanes and Prunes out there? Good question. Cashing in on that trend remained a mystery to these guys. Nagle wrote most of the music and lyrics, but didn't sing nearly enough.
The thickly annotated CD booklet delves into the history of this elusive group while the disc itself contains just about everything the boozin' bloozin' band did (which until now, was mostly unreleased). You get 21 tracks on the CD. 2 are zipped here as samples.
Next?
Ron Nagle his own self.
Somehow he got a solo deal with WB. Somehow the now-legendary Jack Nitzsche produced it and Ry Cooder played on it (on two tracks I posted some months ago, still archived). Truly ill art-work and tepidly trepidatious reviews didn't help Ron join Randy Newman and Van Dyke Parks on the "let's keep putting more of the guy's albums out till something happens" list at Warner.
Stereo Review opined, "Nagle's hard-edged voice (like Neil Young's) is not really pleasant to listen to...The songs are really the album's strongest point, a couple of them rather political without being propagandistic, and most of them with sharp insights." But..."this sort of thing has been done before and better, of course, by Gary Wright and Dennis Linde to take two extremes." The reviewer went on to complain about the "muddy" sound.
Included in the zip is a ballad showcasing Ron's "not really pleasant" voice straining over the pathos as "Frank's Store" burns to the ground. This artful slice of mundane life documents a poor dumb soul and the worthless dump that was all he had.
"Family Style" is a stumbling romp about mother picking up coins with her vagina, mysterious Uncle Frank (not Jimmy Kimmel's Uncle Frank), and a brother stepping on a parakeet. It's just your typical dysfunctional family. Remember, this is 1970! No wonder people thought the guy was ill and left him and his LP "Bad Rice" alone.
Ron Nagle traded his rice for popcorn. He started producing sound effects for movies. A March 23, 1977 newspaper review for "The Sorcerer" noted the sounds of "the buzzing of honey bees, the squealing of pigs in a slaughterhouse and a girl's stomach rumbles were recorded by rock composer Ron Nagle...Director Billy Friedkin asked Nagle to do the work after he had such happy returns from another film for which Nagle did special effects, 'The Exorcist.'"
A few years later, Nagle and a cohort gave rock one last try and became "The Durocs," taking their name from a species of (chauvanist?) pig known for large genitalia. (No kidding, this is even mentioned in the Capitol press release).The samples (side one's five tracks) should help you decide whether to add DUROCS to your want list as you cruise the bargain bins. Sorry, I burned the CD a long time ago, didn't write the track titles down, and can't find the album in my sty. I did nose around but all I got was a stye in my eye. And God knows the truffles I've seen.
The last Durocs track is a cover of Gene Pitney's "It Hurts To Be In Love" which they give the wall-of-ham full-boar treatment.
Give the duo points for opening the album with pig grunts and an opening track referencing themselves and how the gals should go "hog wild" for 'em. Perhaps one day Nagle's solo "Bad Rice" will be get a CD release with a suitably commercial cover. Probably not this one:
Nine-ish Nagles
Update: the rapidshare.de link has died of old age.
Re-upped:
RON NAGLE 61 Clay w/ Ry Cooder
RON NAGLE Marijuana Hell w/ Ry Cooder
Thursday, March 09, 2006
RON NAGLE - Bad Rice
With a peculiar front cover...and a gruesome back cover of a creepy guy with a missing tooth...few had reason to pick up BAD RICE. (Unless they heard a track or two on a Warner Bros. "loss leader" compilation album, as I did).
Ron Nagle's disc was ahead of its time for many reasons; the use of Ry Cooder, the kind of strange lyrics that, more than a decade later, kept Warren Zevon from view for a while, and a rocking style that was almost parody. Was "61 Clay" some kind of homage to "Highway 61" or just a raucous goof on every "leaving home" bad boy song? It comes from a guy also singing tunes about arthritis, fantasizing about leaving the wife and kids, a woman able to vaginally pick up spare change, and someone stepping on a parakeet.
Submitted, or rather uploaded, for your approval are the first two tracks from the album (the two featuring Ry Cooder): 61 CLAY, a crunching rocker, and MARIJUANA HELL. The latter begs the question, was Ron's intent joint-in-cheek or did he really think marijuana was the weed of evil? The song can be enjoyed either way.
If you're wondering what happened to Mr. N...he became one of America's premiere ceramic artists. Music's been a sidelight, He's written songs and music for various artists and films, but hasn't issued another solo album. Before the solo album he co-led The Mystery Trend (psych rock available on a compilation CD by that name) and after BAD RICE he turned up as half of the pig-named Durocs (one Capitol vinyl circa 1980). Nagle, evidently heavily drinking during BAD RICE, supplied the album notes for the British vinyl re-issue but didn't have that much to remember about the songs. If you have a choice, don't buy that soggy Brit pressing, try and find the original WB vinyl. It is sharper and was cut LOUDER.
Re-upped after the original rapidshare.de links died of old age:
RON NAGLE 61 Clay w/ Ry Cooder
RON NAGLE Marijuana Hell w/ Ry Cooder
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