genre: psych
country: us
quality: lossless (flac, cue, log, scans)
time: 1:10'45" size: 427 mb
misc.: 1995
Kim Fowley is less important for what he's done than what he gets away with. Once described as "the king of rock'n'roll pimps," Fowley is a master manipulator of artists and creator--as writer/producer/entrepreneur--of hit records that are both crassly commercial and smugly subversive. Fowley first scored big in 1960 with the million-selling "Alley Oop," by the Hollywood Argyles. His career in the '70s involved orchestrating the careers of the Runaways, Quick, Orchids and Venus and the Razorblades; in more recent years he has successfully infiltrated the MOR world, working with Helen Reddy and Steel Breeze. In Fowley's defense, he was the first person to record Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers.
Fowley periodically used to convince record companies to issue his own solo records. Over a dozen albums--ranging from psychedelic organ instrumentals to passable glitter pop--have been released since 1967, although he has refrained from making a new one for some time. Sunset Boulevard, like many of his records, is consumed with Hollywood pop decadence. Fowley's minimal singing talent--more like dry sing-speak dripping with cynicism--doesn't stop him from essaying a long Springsteenish piano ballad called "Black Camels of Lavender Hill" or copying the Music Explosion in his own song "Control."
 Snake Document Masquerade (does that sound like a Captain Beefheart title or what?) is his twisted idea of a new wave concept album, a vision of '80s pop apocalypse that gets by on sheer audacity. Musically, it's a limp mélange of disco, reggae, punk-funk and electronic meditations distinguished by the spacey rap "1985: Physical Lies" (modeled on his own 1966 acid-rap hit, "The Trip") and robot sex fantasy "1988: Searchin' for a Human in Tight Blue Jeans."
There's plenty more where that came from: the paisley gimmickry of his 1967 LP debut, Love Is Alive and Well, Outrageous(1967; cheap Steppenwolf imitations) and the punkier Animal God of the Streets (1979). His glam-era International Heroes(1973) features the near-hit single of the same title, a clever variation on "All the Young Dudes." ~ (David Fricke)
01. "Animal Man" 2:49
02. "Wildlife" 4:10
03. "Hide And Seek" 2:10
04. "Chinese Water Torture" 0:45
05. "Nightrider" 2:23
06. "Bubble Gum" 2:30
07. "Inner Space Discovery" 4:02
08. "Barefoot Country Boy" 2:04
09. "Up" 3:55
10. "Caught in The Middle" 5:49
11. "Down" 4:48
12. "California Hayride" 1:22
13. "One Man Band" 2:12
14. "Ode To Sweet Sixteen" 1:26
15. "Good Clean Fun" 2:17
16. "Search For A Teenage Woman" 2:16
17. "Energy" 2:04
18. "Baby Rocked Her Dolly" 2:20
19. "Motorcycle" 2:22
20. "Kangaroo" 3:55
21. "Lights The Blind And Lame Can See" 1:55
22. "Good To Be Around" 2:14
23. "The Great Telephone Robbery" 6:29
24. "I'm Not Young Anymore" 4:27
Musicians on Outrageous:
Kim Fowley: - keyboard, percussion
Mike Allsup: - guitar
Eddie Hoh:- percussion [courtesy of A&M
Records)
Mars Bonfire - guitar
Jimmy Greenspon: - keyboard
Joe Schermie: - bass
Orville "Red" Rhodes: - steel guitar
Wayne Talbert: - keyboard (courtesy of Pulsar
Records]
Carmen Riale: - bass
Ben "Blues" Benay: - harp, guitar
Joe Torres: - percussion
Guest Artists on Good Clean Fun:
14. Harlowe
16. Rodney Bingenheimer, Mayor of the Sunset Strip
19. Motorcycle John, Harlowe S. Cow
21. Motorcycle John, background sung by Richard S. Thomas Frost
22. Background sung by Frog Prince
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