Dave Mason - David Bowie - Davina - Dead End 5

DAVE MASON

Alone Together (1970)

Levyn sisältö on valjua, mitäänsanomatonta poppia, ja sen tiesin jo kun tilasin MusicStackin kautta tämän LP:n. Minä himoitsinkin tätä vain taide-esineenä. Räiskyvän monivärinen vinyyli, joka on saatu aikaan tiputtamalla väripellettejä kuumaan vinyylimassaan. Kahteen kertaan aukeavat kannet, jotka on leikattu muotoon Masonin pään kohdalla. Pahvitasku vinyylille. Pieni reikä kansien seinään ripustamista varten. Blue Thumb vasta osasikin paketoida levynsä näyttävästi.

DAVID BOWIE

Hunky Dory (1971)

The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (1972)

Young Americans (1975)

Station to Station (1976)

David Bowie oli yksi niistä artisteista, joiden ajattelin tuovan rock-uskottavuutta levykokoelmalleni. Ajattelin hankkia kaikki vuosien 1969-1980 levyt, mutta onneksi kuuntelin ne ensin allTunesista. Eivät Bowien levyt niin hirveän mieluisia olleetkaan. Useista levyistä löytyi jotain hyvää, mutta kokonaisuus tuntui liian raskaalta eivätkä biisit tuntuneet tarpeeksi lähestyttäviltä. Nämä neljä levyä olivat ainoat, joista pidin kokonaisuuksina.

Young Americans -levyn mukanaoloa 1001 albums you must hear before you die -listalla ihmettelen. Esim. Across the Universeen ei ole saatu mitään uutta näkemystä ja mies oli sillä kertaa turhan kaupallinen ja helppo. Mutta minulle kelpaa.


Artikkeliskannaukset:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=10Ahy92iNTy8_XXhe_mbMMktt4F7G-f75

DAVINA

Rock, Shake and Roll (1986)

Joitakin Tapani Ripatin 80-luvulla Ocsidissa soittamia ja kaseteille nauhoittamiani kappaleita olen pyrkinyt haalimaan itselleni joko oikeina levyinä tai mp3:sina. Tämän Davinan kappaleen muistan kuitenkin General Njassan soittaneen Radio Cityssä. "Kivi, pirtelö ja sämpylä", vitsaili Njassa kuuluttaessaan tämän energiapaukun.

DEAD END 5

Dead Ends (1976)

ME 262 / Mercedes Benz (1976)

James Dean pop / Teräsneitsyt (1977)

 



"Of course a lot of bad rock'n'roll was made in Finland in the 1970's. So I'll introduce a few examples.

Except that Dead End 5 wasn't a totally hopeless case. They were at least the loudest rock band we had at that time, and female lead vocalist Annika Salminen was a true miracle, with lung power unmatched by any singer before. The band has already been introduced here, but there's more to tell:

A young university student named Kari Heimonen started working as a manager for cult rock'n'roll band Virtanen (two LP's for Love Records: "Haloo" (1974) and "Uusi jääkausi uhkaa" (1975)). He followed them to their gigs, and started a side job as DJ in a school disco in Virtanen's home town Tampere. Heimonen shocked and amused the audience by dressing in drag and having other wild stage antics.

Another management assignment was Sleepy Sleepers in 1975, until a dispute with the band terminated the job contract. When Virtanen showed signs of inner friction in the autumn of 1975, Heimonen filled their gig calendar all the way to the following summer and moved to Turku.

In Turku he met a new and promising rock band, and seeing a lot of potential in their female vocalist, he became their manager and christened the band Dead End 5. Heimonen moved again, this time to Kerava (near Helsinki), wrote the lyrics for the band's first album "Dead Ends" and followed the group on their tours. However, after the band's records were heavily criticized in the press (mostly because of the lyrics which were considered too aggressive), Dead End 5 turned their backs on the manager. The record company executives took this criticism very seriously, and so Heimonen's lyrics for the second LP "Läpilyönti" were heavily censored.

The first LP "Dead Ends" (1976) included several covers, like the single cut "ME 262" by Blue Öyster Cult, "Francine" by ZZ Top, "Mercedes Benz" by Janis Joplin and "Let Me Go Rock'n'Roll" by KISS. Annika Salminen, drummer Olli Kivinen, bassist Jari Salminen and guitarist Rauno Melos are complete animals on this record. Thankfully they allow the listener time to breathe for a while with the calmer numbers "Yön harsot" and "Peilikuvat".

The lyrics are full of spaced-out metaphors and cringe-worthy ridiculousness, but the brilliance of e.g. the original words for "ME 262" is completely lost. About all Heimonen managed to come up with was the word "metallikotka" - metal eagle. The back cover blurb is also most likely written by him, as it's Heimonen all the way:

"DEAD END 5 is English. It's the street you live in. Your mental state. A nuclear charge in the atmosphere. Your insane self. A supernova in the stardust. It's a HARD ROCK band. It's DEAD END 5.

Today a heavyweight champion from Turku, Finland, arrives. DEAD END 5. Music from the black soil. From the endless night between galaxies. From the asphalt jungle. The steel blocks. The deepest voids in your mind. Metal. Electricity. Aggressive pain in your heart. Fantasies. You wander in the terminal night. DEAD END 5 five individuals, also called humans, from the planet Earth, which is the third planet away from a fixed star named the Sun. The cosmic civilizer has returned. Disturbances in your electro-magnetical field. I am intelligence and feeling. The soul of your life. The light of stars. The rhythm of music. The colour of flowers. The female charm. The spirit of science. Your last moment. DEAD END 5."

The early 1977 single "James Dean pop / Teräsneitsyt" could in a way be called Finland's first punk rock record, as the a-side was a cover of Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop". The second LP, "Läpilyönti" (1977) also had another Ramones song, "Judy Is a Punk" ("Judy et Jackie Punk") on it. The original songs are credited to the whole group, but Annika Salminen most likely had the strongest hand on the sad ballad "Enkelini". Strange that the album was produced by Pave Maijanen, who openly admitted to hating the band's music. "Läpilyönti" is musically a little more toned down than the debut, perhaps Maijanen tried to make it more tolerable for people like him?

After the Dead End 5 episode, Heimonen formed his own company, Rock-Show, and became a rockabilly manager. The 1950's revival took on Finland by storm side by side with punk rock, and Heimonen's first act became the leading Finnish rockabilly band, Teddy & The Tigers.

Anyway, I'm glad that I finally own the "Dead Ends" LP, even if it meant ordering it all the way from Japan! It has some collector's value and it's in a way a rather good record. Supercharged rock'n'roll from a country where rock records weren't all that common at that time.

The other LP I got from Japan will be introduced next."

Noilla sanoilla esittelin Dead End 5:n Dead Ends -LP:n FinnArcticissa. Kyllä, tilasin levyn tosiaan MusicStackissa Snow Records Japan -nimisestä putiikista, ja samaan syssyyn pyysin lähettämään vielä tamperelaisen Triesin esikois-LP:n. Kaksi levyllistä huonoa suomirockia Japanista.

Minulla on ollut kaikki muutkin Dead End 5:n levyt, Läpilyönti-LP ja Kiertotähti-single, mutta luovuin niistä. On kaduttanut siitä lähtien. On minulla sentään CD-R-kopio Läpilyönnistä, kun nimimerkki Jack jakeli sitä Bleeding Ear -blogissaan vuonna 2008.

Jos kiinnostaa, etsikää käsiinne Juho Juntusen päätoimittaman Huuli-lehden viimeinen numero 11/1977. Siitä löytyy Heimosen kipeä kolmisivuinen sarjakuva "Polttava hiekka". Löytyisiköhän Heimosen taidetta jostain muualtakin, vai oliko tuo kertaluontoinen kokeilu?