 PreviousNextUNDER-APPRECIATED ROCK BAND OF THE MONTH FOR APRIL 2011: BOHEMIAN VENDETTAThe folks at Bomp! Records had begun having some success in marketing garage rock and psychedelic rock compilation albums in the Pebbles series and others, so when punk rock came to the fore in the late 1970’s, they decided to have some fun and try to clandestinely introduce young punk rock fans to the glory days of 1960’s punk. They packaged an album that would have been a great addition to Pebbles, put a picture of a punk rock girl on the cover (complete with piercings and safety pins), and chose a suitable double entendre as the album title, Ear-Piercing Punk. The album cover was in day-glo pink, and the song titles and band names were typed on strips of paper in the manner of many genuine 1970’s punk rock compilation albums of that period. The album gave no clue as to its origin except for a “Made in U.S.A.” label; it was released by the fictitious Trash Records, and the only credit on the album was “Ripov Design–Ida No”. There was one clue for 1960’s rock fans though: The second track was “Ubangi Stomp” by the Trashmen, who were responsible for a delightfully peculiar surf rock hit in 1963 called “Surfin’ Bird”. Well, I was totally fooled and was not a bit disappointed when I discovered what was really on the record. The songs include one of Bomp! Records founder Greg Shaw’s personal favorites, “Bottle up and Go” by the Mile Ends (that factoid was included in the liner notes for a compilation album of the Pebbles compilation albums, Essential Pebbles, Volume One). There was also a song called “She Ain’t No Use to Me” by one of the best 1960’s Canadian rock bands, the Ugly Ducklings. I just picked up a reissue of their original 1967 album last year, Somewhere Outside, though I have thoroughly enjoyed their late 1970’s reunion album that I have had for years, Off the Wall. Another is my favorite version of the absolute best anti-prejudice protest song, “Mister You’re a Better Man than I” by a band called the Herde. (First verse: “Can you judge a man, / by the way he wears his hair? / Can you read his mind, / by the clothes that he wears? / Can you see a bad man, / by the pattern on his tie? / Well then, mister, you’re a better man than I . . .”). “Mister You’re a Better Man than I” was written by two of the guys in Manfred Mann, though the better known version is by the Yardbirds, so that is high praise indeed. A wacky version of “Jailhouse Rock” is included by Dean Carter, who also performs the scorching “Rebel Woman”. The album opens with a great version of “I’m a Hog for You Baby” by the Groupies; that might be the coolest Leiber/Stoller (i.e., Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller) song of them all – “Jailhouse Rock” (a big hit song for Elvis Presley, not to mention a movie, Jailhouse Rock) is another of their many, many classics. And there was another song that still stood out, though it was almost tame by comparison to a lot of these other great songs: “Enough” by a band called BOHEMIAN VENDETTA. Bohemian Vendetta came from Long Island, NY. The band leader of what was originally called the Bohemians was Arthur Muglia (also known as Brian Cooke), who sang lead vocals and played organ. His cousin Victor Muglia was the bass player; the other bandmembers were Randy Pollock (rhythm guitar), Richie Sorrentino (drums), and Richard Martinez (lead guitar). This line-up recorded two demo acetate singles, “Irresistible” b/w “Petrified, Like Stoned” (later called “Like Stoned”) and “I Don’t Go that Way” b/w “All Kinds of Lows and All Kinds of Highs”. After neither disc went anywhere, the lead guitarist and drummer quit to be replaced by Nick Manzi and Chuck Monica, respectively. The newly-rechristened Bohemian Vendetta recorded three more songs: “Enough” plus “Half the Time” and “How Does it Feel”. United Artists Records picked up the first two songs and released them as a single in the spring of 1967. “Enough” got some local radio play and even had a spot on Dick Clark’s “Rate-a-Record” on American Bandstand. This was, er, enough to get the band some better gigs; they opened for Vanilla Fudge and also another Long Island band the Vagrants. (The Vagrants had a regional hit song with Otis Redding’s “Respect” before Aretha Franklin’s version of “Respect” propelled them from the charts; bandmembers included Leslie West, later a member of the hard rock band Mountain). Bohemian Vendetta recorded demos of several more songs and came to the attention of Bob Shad’s Mainstream Records. His company was famous for releasing albums by unknown bands for the nascent “underground” FM radio market and is known for their pedestrian production values and minimal promotion efforts. Mainstream Records does have some prominent albums to its credit, however, including the first album by Big Brother and the Holding Company (not long after Janis Joplin joined up) and the first three albums by the Amboy Dukes, Ted Nugent’s early band (including their big hit “Journey to the Center of the Mind”). The Amboy Dukes’ raw treatment of Big Joe Williams’ “Baby, Please Don’t Go” from their first album was included on the original Nuggets compilation album and already features Ted Nugent’s signature guitar licks. Additionally, and incredibly, “Baby, Please Don’t Go” was originally the “A” side of the early single by Van Morrison’s band Them that includes the immortal “Gloria” on the flip. In his book Rock and Roll: The Best 100 Singles, rock historian Paul Williams has said of this record (as quoted in Wikipedia): “Into the heart of the beast . . . here is something so good, so pure, that if no other hint of it but this record existed, there would still be such a thing as rock and roll. . . . Van Morrison’s voice a fierce beacon in the darkness, the lighthouse at the end of the world. Resulting in one of the most perfect rock anthems known to humankind.” Bohemian Vendetta had already recorded demos of most of the songs on the album for Mainstream Records, but Bob Shad insisted that they re-record them in early 1968; and the results did not capture the feel of the demos, which were more representative of how the band actually sounded. Nearly all of their material was written by the band, but Shad wanted them to record the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction”. Their last recording efforts were helping out on an album called Introspection by another Long Island garage rock artist, Faine Jade. The Mainstream Records album, Enough finally came out in the fall of 1968; but Mainstream did nothing to promote the album or its lone single, “Riddles and Fairytales” b/w “I Wanna Touch Your Heart”, so the band broke up in late 1968. If I find a garage rock song on one of the many compilation albums in my collection that I truly love, I will often try to track down a retrospective album by the band to see what else they have recorded. In this case, I found a 22-track CD on Distortions Records called Enough. Unlike many such albums, which are basically a collection of miscellaneous, unconnected songs, the Bohemian Vendetta CD really sounds like an album. Highlights include the early single "Like Stoned" (which has the feel of a Dutch “Nederpop” song with its offbeat tune and unusual vocal style), their last single “Riddles and Fairytales” (both the album version and the 45 version are included), “Charity Killjoy” (which was bumped from the Mainstream Records album in favor of “Satisfaction”), the willfully eccentric “Paradox City”, and of course “Enough”, a plaintive plea from a guy who is fed up with his girlfriend. |
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