Kim Fowley Living in the Streets
Label | Munster |
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Format | LP |
Release Date | 29th May 2020 |
Catalogue Number | MR407 |
Additional Info | Released 29th May 2020 |
Living In The Streets (1977) is a compilation of his solo recordings, some of them dating back to the beginning of the decade, taken from several singles, alternative projects and overlooked b-sides. With a career that includes hits as producer (Alley Oop by The Hollywood Argyles), songwriter (Nut Rocker by B Bumble and The Stingers), recordings with Gene Vincent, Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers and countless others, his early management of The Runaways and plenty of glorious failures along the way, Kim Fowley has been a maverick presence in rock and roll history for over fifty years. Living In The Streets is a compilation of his solo recordings, some of them dating back to the beginning of the decade. Born to Make You Cry and Thunder Road - recorded in collaboration with Mars Bonfire - had first appeared on a single on Original Sound in 1970. As had Big Bad Cadillac (a homage to Vince Taylor's Brand New Cadillac) and Man Without A Country, released under the name King Lizard, and recorded in Sweden while he was producing Wigwam's Tombstone Valentine album. Originally released on Chattahoochee in 1973 under the alias Jimmy Jukebox, Motorboat is now regarded as a Fowley classic. That song and its B-side, 25 Hours A Day was written and recorded in collaboration with his good friend Michael Lloyd, who Fowley had been making records with since the mid-sixties. California Summertime and Hollywood Nights were recorded in 1974 at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood and released as a single on the Now label under the unlikely sobriquet of Lance Romance.
Three songs - plus the spoken piece Sex, Dope and Violence - made their debut on the album: Summertime Frog, Love Bomb, and Living in the Streets. All are acoustic and show a certain Captain Beefheart flavor, the former, and some Dylanesque influence, the later. Living in the Streets remains a worthy monument to the seventies recordings of the Dorian Gray of Rock 'n' Roll, the human jukebox: the unstoppable Kim Fowley.