The Alpha Band - The Alpha Band
Erland Sommarskog
The good thing with buying records second hand is that for a
bargain price you can try something you don't know much about.
The bad thing with it is that if you like it and the record is
torn (talking vinyl here) you may immediately long for the CD,
or at least a better copy. A waste of money? Not really, if I
spend more money on my next copy, I know what I pay for.
Anyway, The Alpha Band were T-Bone Burnett, David Mansfield and
Steven Soles at least for this record. Cut in just three days in
August 1976, this is a good example of American rock from the
south. Despite the short recording time, this no just plug-in-the-
guitars-and-jam album. The song covers several styles, from the
more country-flavoured "Keep it in the Family" and "Arizona
Telegram" to more rockier pieces. You could compare to The
Eagles or Firefall, but with all that perfectionism polished
away. By this said, that the album is raw or imperfect. It is
just kept simple. The arrangements are made on intuition, not
on endless try-this-try-that. It works.
One track is a little more arranged than the other, and that
is also the track which stand out. But that is probably due to
that I have had it recorded since way back then. The song is
the opening "Interviews", a song which after all these years
I still don't understand. What the hell is one about? In the
chorus line T-Bone Burnett (it's him, isn't it?) sings about
various things that "were sitting in the ground 15 million
years ago". All suggestions welcome.
But there are other good songs too. Another favourite is "Wouldn't
You Know" which states "Everything's bigger in Texas, wouldn't
you know?". And "The Dogs" with it's talk about never have had
the chance to meet a French girl outside France and with an
interlude in Italian (or was it Spanish?).
Another cool thing with this album is that the lyrics are not
the regular cliche stuff, but often are frivolous as the last
two examples. Or simply plain mysterious as "Interviews".
The weak parts? Well, I never been a country fan, so those songs
are a bit pedistrian for me, but the album is definitely on the
flip side. A well-deserved +2.
--
Erland Sommarskog - ENEA Data, Stockholm - som...@enea.se
andrew.j.whitman
(Erland's positive review deleted except for:)
>Anyway, The Alpha Band were T-Bone Burnett, David Mansfield and
>Steven Soles at least for this record.
And for their other two albums as well. My favorite is probably
"Spark in the Dark," from 1977. Actually, Erland's country/Eagles/
Firefall analogy is only partly correct. That element is there,
but there are also elements of rockabilly, Japanese folk songs,
Dylanesque lyrics, _Mad_Magazine_, and biblical imagery.
The Alpha Band was formed out of the ashes of Dylan's Rolling
Thunder Revue, where T-Bone, Soles, and Mansfield all played
prominent roles. T-Bone, of course, has gone on to many
critically acclaimed solo albums, and has produced about
half the musicians on the planet, but Soles and Mansfield
have continued to put out great music as well. If you're
feeling adventurous or bored, you might want to track down
the solo albums that Soles and Mansfield did in the early
eighties for the Christian label Myrrh Records. It's Jesus
music, but it has the same offbeat lyrical style and irreverent
approach that made the Alpha Band albums so delightful.
These days T-Bone, Soles, and Mansfield are part of the loose
affiliation of SoCal-Christian-musicians-who-are-bored-with-
Jesus-music that includes Peter Case, Los Lobos, Mark Heard,
Sam Phillips, Tonio K., Bob Neuwirth, Victoria Williams,
and Maria McKee. Pick up any album by any one of these folks
and you're likely to find the others picking and singing
and producing. For the best of the lot, I'd recommend
Bob Neuwirth's superb "Back to the Front" album, Peter
Case's equally superb ". . . Blue Guitar" album, Mark
Heard's T-Bone influenced "Dry Bones Dance" album, and
Tonio K.'s ranting "Romeo Unchained." All wonderful stuff.
>Erland Sommarskog - ENEA Data, Stockholm - som...@enea.se
Andy Whitman
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio
att!cblpo!ajw or
a...@cblpo.att.com
David A. Pearlman
>In article <22...@scorn.sco.COM> som...@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) writes:
>
>(Erland's positive review deleted except for:)
>
>>Anyway, The Alpha Band were T-Bone Burnett, David Mansfield and
>>Steven Soles at least for this record.
>
>And for their other two albums as well. My favorite is probably
>"Spark in the Dark," from 1977. Actually, Erland's country/Eagles/
>Firefall analogy is only partly correct. That element is there,
>but there are also elements of rockabilly, Japanese folk songs,
>Dylanesque lyrics, _Mad_Magazine_, and biblical imagery.
I'd also rank "Spark..." as the best of the three. There's a great
violin-based instrumental on there that I once played on a friend's
college radio show (years ago). He said he got more positive
"what was THAT?" calls about this track than anything he'd ever played.
Also note that Ringo Starr makes a guest appearance on this album
(for those who care).
There was/is an Alpha Band compilation on Demon Records in the UK.
None of their stuff is in print in the US.
A few years ago, I went to see Roger McGuinn at McCabe's Guitar
Shop in LA (great place that holds about 100 people). Near the end
of the concert, he brought onstage all three members of The Alpha
Band. T-Bone was wearing a tux, and claimed he'd just come from a
Bar Mitzvah. Among the songs they played together was Dylan's
"Knocking on Heaven's Door". Yeah, Dylan Thomas, whoever he was.
dap
--
===============================================================================
David A. Pearlman
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. email: d...@vpharm.com
Andrew Russ
"The Alpha band were T-Bone Burnett, David Mansfield, and Stephen
Soles, at least for this record, in August 1976. "
Funny i should be listening to this while listening to a recording
of the second Rolling Thunder tour in May 1976. It was a 3-hour plus touring
roadshow featuring Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Roger McGuinn, Bobby Neuwirth, and
whoever they picked up along the way.
Anyway, all three of the Alpha band members were playing together in
the Rolling Thunder band, which seemed to be calling itself Guam, or Gwong,
or something like that. Besides T-Bone Burnett, Mansfield, and Soles, the
band included Rob Stoner (bass), Mick Ronson (guitar, post David-Bowie era),
and Scarlet Rivera (fiddle). There may have been more in the regular road
crew; i don't think i mentioned the keyboardist(s) because i'm not sure
who he/they were.
Thunder band included (mostly written by Bobby Neuwirth, i presume),
"Wasted" (line: "The situation's too good to be wasted, but i'm too wasted
to do any good"), "Dear Abbie" (Hoffman--"Steal This Song"), "Is There
Life On Mars", "Catfish" (a Bob Dylan-Jacques Levy tune left off the Desire
album, sung by Rob Stoner, original version recently relased on the Bootleg
Series Vol. 1-3 by Bob Dylan), "Asshole from El Paso", and an early version of
Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London".
It's interesting to hear that at least part of the "Gwaulmg" outfit
put out an album. It sounds, from your description, to be pretty similar
to some of the stuff they'd been playing live during the previous year.
Besides this record, Scarlet Rivera put out an album or two, and
of course there was the Desire LP by Bob Dylan before the tour got under
way and the Hard Rain LP that documented it. Did anybody else, specifically
Bobby Neuwirth, Joan Baez, or Roger McGuinn try to make an album with some
or all of the "Gwong" band? And just for my own curiosity, just what all
albums did Bob Neuwirth put out?
andrew
andrew.j.whitman
There are three Alpha Band albums - "The Alpha Band," which Erland
reviewed, an album whose name escapes me, but which has "Idol" in the
title, and "Spark in the Dark." All of them are excellent.
I assume you know T-Bone's history. Mansfield and Soles each put out
a solo album in the late seventies/early eighties on the Christian
Myrrh Records label. Mansfield still shows up on various folkie
albums. I saw him backing up Loudon Wainwright not too long ago.
Steve Soles is primarily a producer these days. It seems to me that
he gets total or partial production credit for recent albums by T-Bone,
Peter Case, and Bobby Neuwirth.
>Did anybody else, specifically
>Bobby Neuwirth, Joan Baez, or Roger McGuinn try to make an album with some
>or all of the "Gwong" band? And just for my own curiosity, just what all
>albums did Bob Neuwirth put out?
Hey, you get all the answers in one glorious album. Check out Bobby
Neuwirth's 1988 album "Back to the Front" on Gold Castle Records.
The band is T-Bone, Steve Soles, David Mansfield, Rob Stoner, Peter
Case, Sam Phillips, and Victoria Williams. I pulled this one out
this weekend and listened to it for the first time in a while,
thinking that maybe my initial positively ecstatic reaction might
be tempered by time. It wasn't. This is an absolutely brilliant
album. Neuwirth has one of those world-weary, wracked voices that
people either love or hate. Since you like Dylan, you'll do fine.
And his lyrics and his songwriting are absolutely phenomenal.
Here's the way he describes a life out of control: "Keep your eyes
on the road, grab the wheel, hold on tight/We're pickin' up speed
but we're losin' the light." Listening to this guy, you get the
feeling that he's lived it.
Neuwirth's performing and recording days date back to Greenwich
Village in the early '60's, but I don't think he's done much lately.
T-Bone's liner notes for "Back to the Front" state that he didn't
think that Neuwirth would ever make an album. He also reminisces
about how he and Soles and Mansfield and Neuwirth used to pass
guitars back and forth and trade off on performing songs, and
that Neuwirth's were always the best of the lot. Listening to this
album, I'm inclined to agree.
> andrew