Southern Victory

 I had written about this awhile ago, so long ago that the blog didn’t survive to the current platform, Blogger.  So I can revisit it without repeating myself.

 As most of us know, the US Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865, ending in a Union victory, which is why there is no Confederate States of America today.  Living in Northern Virginia, I have occasion to travel to DC and Maryland and back fairly often, and never cross a border doing so.  Though the events of January 6 suggest that some people, a very militant but clueless minority, are threatening to repeat the same idiocy a second time.

 Naturally, some authors have written fiction – alternate history – in which different things happen.

 Newt Gingrich, the infamous former Republican politician from Jawja, wrote a trilogy of books which speculates what might have happened if Lee didn’t engage Union forces at Gettysburg in July 1863 but simply continued further through Pennsylvania.  This is Gettysburg, Grant Comes East, and Never Call Retreat.  Worth reading once but not much more compelling than that.

 A science fiction writer who seems to specialize in alternate history, Harry Turtledove, has a standalone book, Guns of the South.  In this story, white supremacists from South Africa somehow managed to develop time travel, return to the US Civil War, and equip the Confederate forces with AK47s, which the Confederates refer to as “repeaters”.  Needless to say the Union forces, using muzzle-loading black powder Colt 1861 rifles, can’t compete, and the South wins the war and continues as a separate country.  Later, the Confederates and the South Africans bump ugly against each other, among other things Robert E. Lee takes over as President from Jefferson Davis, the South Africans’ time machine is destroyed, and the Confederates attempt to keep some of the technology brought by the South Africans – including the nitroglycerine pills that treat Lee’s heart condition.  Anyhow.  If time travel was ever invented, I doubt it would be the South Africans who do it.

 Turtledove followed this fairly implausible scenario with a much better one not requiring time travel – and which wound up being 11 books in total, referred to as the Southern Victory or Timeline 191 series.  In real life, Britain and France sat out the Civil War and remained neutral.  In 1862, McClellan managed to acquire Lee’s battle plans, dropped on the ground by mistake by a Confederate courier, and matched Lee to a draw at Antietam.  This battle persuaded Britain and France to remain neutral throughout the entire war, and the US won.

 In this timeline, the courier retrieved the plans, Lee defeated McClellan decisively at Camp Hill, and the British and French finally decided to actively support the Confederates.   Lincoln was forced to agree to an armistice, and the Confederates won, surviving to be a separate country.  Fast forward to 1881, the US President is James G. Blaine (actual secretary of state to James Garfield and Chester Alan Arthur), the Confederate president is James Longstreet.  The Confederates, having already acquired Cuba and Haiti, now purchase Sonora and Chihuahua states from a cash-strapped and desperate Mexican government  These are Mexico’s northernmost states, which border Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, and have a Pacific coast port at Guaymas.  Blaine attacks in Kentucky, but that invasion from Ohio goes nowhere.  The British and French harass the US, which only gets a minor victory in Montana.  Most of the characters are historical:  General Custer, Theodore Roosevelt, Samuel Clemens, Longstreet & Stonewall Jackson, Frederick Douglass, Schlieffen (the German architect of the famous WWI plan to attack France, a German advisor to the US here) and Lincoln, who survived the Civil War and is now a Marxist, succeeding at bleeding off enough Republicans to make the Socialist Party a strong competitor to the Democrats, likewise dooming the Republicans to a marginal third party.   The Civil War is called the War of Secession, whereas the 1881-82 war is called the Second Mexican War.  This first book, which sets everything up, is How Few Remain.

 There is a WWI series:  Great War: American Front, Great War: Walk In Hell; and Great War: Breakthroughs.  There is an interwar series:  American Empire: Blood & Iron; American Empire: The Center Cannot Hold; and American Empire: Victorious Opposition.  Finally, the WWII series:  Settling Accounts: Return Engagement; Settling Accounts: The Grapple; Settling Accounts: Drive to the East; and finally Settling Accounts: In At The Death.

 Historical Characters:  Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Count von Schlieffen, George Custer, Longstreet & Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Al Smith, Herbert Hoover, Calvin Coolidge, General Patton (CSA), Franklin Roosevelt, Eugene Debs, Upton Sinclair, Huey Long (Governor of Louisiana), Guderian;

 US (Fictional) Characters.   Flora Hamburger, Socialist US representative from New York City; Hosea Blackford, Socialist US Senator from Dakota; Sam Carsten, US Navy seaman; Chester Martin, Toledo steelworker and US private; Irving Morrell, US tank officer; Jonathan Moss, US pilot; George Enos, US Navy seaman (WWI), Sylvia Enos, his wife, and George Enos, Jr, also US Navy seaman (WWII); Abner Dowling, US officer, adjutant to General Custer; Cincinnatus, black truck driver in Covington; Leonard O’Doull, US medical officer (WWII); Nellie & Edna Semproch, coffee house owners in Washington, DC; Armstrong Grimes, US private (WWII), son of Edna Semproch. 

 Confederate (Fictional) Characters.  Jake Featherston, Confederate artillery sergeant; Clarence Potter, Confederate intelligence officer; Anne Colleton, South Carolina plantation owner, plus brothers Jacob and Tom, both Confederate officers; Roger Kimball, Confederate submarine captain (WWI); Scipio, Anne Colleton’s black butler; Jefferson Pinkard, Birmingham steelworker and Confederate soldier; Hipolito Rodriguez, Confederate soldier from Sonora state, and his son Jorge Rodriguez, also a Confederate soldier; Professor Fitzbelmont, Confederate nuclear physicist; Cassius, black rebel and son of Scipio (WWII) and many more. 

 Canadian Characters: the McGregor family in Manitoba, Canada; the Galtier family in Quebec.  

 Some of the WWI characters continue through to WWII, other WWII characters are the children of WWI characters.  Many characters die off in WWI, between the wars, and of course in WWII.  However, it’s not a GRRM narrative:  most characters survive, and with few exceptions most deaths are not all that surprising.   

 Throughout the series, events in Europe are mentioned, but none of the narrative takes place there.

 WWI.  Having been on the receiving end of an embarrassing loss in the Second Mexican War, the US finally decides to balance out the CSA’s alliance with Britain and France, with its own alliance with Imperial Germany.  The country introduces conscription, and lines up for an upcoming rematch with the Confederates.  Sure enough, in 1914, the Archduke is assassinated, but this time around Woodrow Wilson is the CSA President, Theodore Roosevelt is the US President, and the US is involved from the beginning, aligned with Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire.  The CSA aligns itself with the historical Entente powers.

 The main battle fronts are along the Roanoke Valley between West Virginia and Virginia; in northern Kentucky at Covington (across from Cincinnati); up in Canada; and some other fighting in Texas and on the oceans.  By now most of the characters are fictional, with some historical characters like Custer, Roosevelt and Wilson thrown in.

 After bloody stalemate and trench warfare,  the US finally develops not only tanks – called “barrels” throughout the series – but also the proper doctrine of using them, thanks to General Custer.   A Mormon rebellion in Utah is suppressed, British and Canadian forces are worn down, and eventually the US slugs the Confederates to an armistice.  Overall, the Central Powers are victorious, thus Germany remains Imperial and the Nazi Party never materializes.  Red rebellions among Marxist-inclined blacks erupt throughout the south, drawing off Confederate forces.  Moreover, blacks who had been performing manual labor for the Confederate Army, also join the rebellion, embarrassing Jeb Stuart III, who had vouched for his own servant and protected him from scrutiny, despite suspicions of Stuart’s artillery sergeant, Jake Featherston, as articulated to intelligence officer Clarence Potter. This prevents Featherston from being promoted and upsets him big time.

 The Japanese fight US naval forces in the Pacific, though no strategic impact is made, except for taking the Sandwich Islands (aka Hawaii) away from the British and getting Pearl Harbor in the bargain.  As part of the peace terms, the US takes Kentucky away from the CSA, as well as Virginia north of the Rappahannock (river north of Fredericksburg).

 Interwar period. Carston attends officer candidate school, many of the military characters return to civilian life, but most importantly, disgruntled Jake Featherston starts a reactionary party, the Freedom Party, to work towards rebuilding the CSA.   By the end of the second book, after the 1929 market crash, Featherston wins the election, consolidating power throughout the third book.  He gets the Confederate constitution amended to allow him to run for President again, and he succeeds at bludgeoning the courts into accepting his dictatorial powers, which allow to throw his Whig and Radical Liberal political opponents into prison camps.   Using black Marxist rebellions throughout the country as a pretext, he persuades US President Herbert Hoover to acquiesce in allowing the CSA to re-institute conscription and rearm overall.  The Confederate Air Force flies unarmed fighter planes of new designs labeled “Confederate Citrus Company”, while tractor factories expand, the same factories producing the barrels (tanks) otherwise prohibited.  In other words, the US is asleep at the switch as the Confederacy rearms.  The Socialists manage to elect several Presidents in the US:  Upton Sinclair, Hosea Blackford, and Al Smith, and elect significant numbers in Congress.  The Democrats act as the conservative, pro-capitalist party, and the Republicans are marginalized in between the two. 

 WWII.  Having persuaded US Socialist President Al Smith to agree to a plebiscite in 1940, Featherston manages to get Kentucky back to the CSA.  On June 22, 1941, Confederate forces attack Ohio, taking the US by surprise – although a handful of US characters can sense a war on the horizon.  Featherston had set up prison camps to handle the white political opponents and blacks taken in Marxist rebellion, but eventually expands the camp system, led by Jefferson Pinkard, to begin taking in as much of the black population as it can – and permanently disposing of them, first by firing squads, then carbon monoxide trucks, and finally cyanide gas chambers.  Its major camp, analogous to Auschwitz, is Camp Determination, located in western Texas.  Both sides also begin atomic weapons programs, the US helped by Germany and the CSA helped by Britain.  Rebellions break out in Utah – again – and Canada, whereas CSA forces are tied down in the prison camp system. 

 The initial Confederate drive reaches Cleveland and Lake Erie, cutting the US in two.  Featherston proposes a lopsided peace agreement to Al Smith, who tells him to shove it.  The CSA attacks east into Pennsylvania, with a huge city battle in Pittsburgh consuming troops on both sides.   When winter hits, the US slams into Mexican troops guarding the perimeter, then surrounding the city:  Pittsburgh becomes Stalingrad for the Confederates trapped inside.  Predictably, attempts to break through fail, and the Confederate army in Pittsburgh is lost, which lets the US begin taking the strategic initiative. 

 The US then drives the Confederates out of Ohio into Kentucky and fights its way southeast through Tennessee, then into Georgia and further on.  As the war continues going downhill for the Confederates, their atomic bomb program winds up being their only hope to even the odds.  Poison gas remains in use during WWII. 

 There’s a fair amount of….intimate activity between husbands and wives and unmarried soldiers and sailors and the women who do this for a living (fortunately, same-sex activity is merely hinted at and not described, and there are no gay characters).  As the books progress Turtledove thankfully turns down the detail considerably; I consider it to be more embarrassing than provocative.  

 Accents are a constant source of discussion.  Everyone smokes – Confederate tobacco consistently agreed to be superior to US versions - but cannabis is nonexistent; Cuba figures briefly, Jamaica not at all.  The fictional characters are well fleshed out, and even the ostensible villains, mainly Jake Featherston and Jefferson Pinkard, are still remarkably sympathetic, though the mass genocide of the Confederacy’s blacks is by no means sanctioned.  The astute reader can acknowledge some callouts thrown in:  Carl and Bob sweep Flora’s office for CSA bugs, and tell their assistant “Dick” to shut up; a Confederate navy officer in Plains, Georgia, defends his town against black guerillas; Morrell meets Guderian, a German officer, whose own adjutant, a surly corporal, doesn’t like Morrell’s own Jewish adjutant; and many more.   Franklin Roosevelt is Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a substantial character but nowhere near President, which Flora Hamburger speculates he might have been had he not had polio.  

 It’s tempting to dismiss the series, as Turtledove mainly blended the US Civil War, WWI, and WWII, having an abundant supply of source material.  We all know what happened.  Featherston’s fate is probably the most significant example of an original outcome in the series.  I would say that Turtledove does a good job of making characters we care about.  This is my fourth time reading the full series; sometimes I read the dialogue out loud.  With Turtledove’s inclination to focus on accents – e.g. Potter speaks with a Yankee accent despite being a Confederate officer – I’m sometimes inclined to read out with the wrong accents deliberately.  Or even give Featherston that affected voice that men who like men seem to use (!); he never does get an Eva Braun or a male lover, his hard-on is for revenge (!!!).   

 The #1 plot hole concerns the Confederacy’s atomic program based in Lexington, Virginia, surrounded by West Virginia to the west and US forces already on the Rappahannock when the war begins and already in Richmond by the time the CSA manages to get a working weapon, meaning the location is surrounded on three side by US held territory.   For the US to take Lexington and destroy the Confederate nuclear program would have been too simple and easy to not have happened – here all they do is bomb it with conventional weapons.   I suppose Turtledove made this exception because Featherston’s hope for the atomic bomb was the only thing keeping him going after the US continued on the strategic offensive and the Confederate situation gets even more hopeless.  A lesser plot hole is Camp Determination’s location in west Texas, not far away from the US border with New Mexico, an area sparsely populated and defended on both sides of the border.  This makes it particularly vulnerable once the US decides to go after the camp.  But neither of these significantly compromise the overall appeal of the stories.  As noted, I enjoyed reading the full 11 book series no less than 4 times, the most recent time just recently.  I can easily recommend this to anyone else with an interest in history and a tolerance for multiple books without pictures. 

 Speaking of pictures, the only diagrams are the maps, everything else having to rely on written descriptions.  Both sides start WWI wearing service caps (analogous to Civil War kepis), though by now the US has switched from dark blue to green-grey, and the Confederates have switched from grey to butternut, aka khaki.  As head wounds prove the cloth headgear to be unsatisfactory, both sides switch to steel helmets.  The US version is like the German WWI pattern helmet, the Confederate equivalent similar to the British/US Brodie helmet from WWI.  No mention is made whether the US switches to the 1935 German equivalent for WWII, but the Confederates switch to a rounded version most likely analogous to the US M1 helmet from WWII.  US troops carry bolt action Springfields in both wars, whereas the Confederates switch from bolt action Tredegars (supposedly a copy of the Lee Enfield rifle) to semiautomatic rifles in WWII.  Both sides use submachine guns in WWII and machine guns in both wars. 

 One of the weirder elements is simply the alliance of the US with Imperial Germany, which puts it at odds with Britain and Canada.  US forces fighting British and Canadians, our biggest and best friends in real life?  Kind of strange.  Most activity in Europe is only mentioned in passing, and actual cooperation and interaction with Germany in both wars is de minimis. 

 Movie/TV.  The next Turtledove book which makes it into a movie or miniseries will be the first, at least to my knowledge.  This series would be best served making How Few Remain a movie, and each book in the series as a miniseries, which would add up to 10 seasons in all.  I won’t hold my breath.  In the event it did happen, here would be my casting suggestions.   Roger Kimball (Tom Berenger); Anne Colleton (Nicole Kidman); Scipio (Morgan Freeman); Cincinnatus (Denzel Washington); Sam Carsten (Daniel Craig); Jake Featherston (Edward Norton); Irving Morrell (Brad Pitt, in Fury mode); Chester Martin (Seth Rogen); Jonathan Moss (Paull Rudd); Hipolito Rodriguez (Cheech Marin); Jefferson Pinkard (Dennis Quaid); but that about extinguishes my imagination.  Will it happen?  We’ll see.

Karl Urban

 

One of my favorite actors these days comes from New Zealand, and he’s…. KARL URBAN. 

 Lord of the Rings.  The #1 prince of Rohan is Eomer, pretty much a hero like Aragorn.  This was one of Urban’s first major roles.  I’ll have to watch this again…

 Dredd.  After Stallone did a heroic job in the first movie – but botched the whole thing by taking his helmet off, a big no-no for Judge Dredd (possibly a secret Mandalorian) Urban got it right by keeping his helmet ON for the entire film.  Sadly, Urban himself notes there are no current plans for a sequel.

 McCoy.   When they rebooted the Star Trek movies with a new, younger cast taking the roles of the Original Series Characters, Urban got the role of “Bones” McCoy, the ship’s doctor, originally played by DeForrest Kelley.  Bones was easily the most cynical of the crew members and usually at odds with Spock, though their rivalry was mostly friendly.  As with all his other portrayals, he nailed this one. 

 The Boys.  Season 2 done, Season 3 on its way.  This is a series which takes the premise of “superheroes gone wrong” – who protects us if the superheroes themselves turn out to be villains?  Urban plays Butcher, the #1 guy leading the team of otherwise ordinary (but highly skilled and determined) humans bumping ugly with Homelander, Stormfront, and the rest of the not-quite-so good superheroes.   Count on his usual gruff demeanor, and I’m even hearing a quasi Australian accent – whatever passes for a New Zealand accent, not that I can tell the difference – in this role. 

 RED.  “Retired, Extremely Dangerous” describes Bruce Willis’ character, kind of John McClane on steroids.  Urban is in here too – but don’t ask me what he does.  I’ll have to watch this again.

 He’s also in Riddick, but as a minor character too insignificant to watch the whole film just for his sake.  Moreover, Vin Diesel has yet to make a movie I’ve enjoyed seeing. 

 In a sense, Urban is taking many roles we might attribute to Clint Eastwood were he not too old for these.  However, I haven’t seen him in any westerns, spaghetti or otherwise, nor have I seen him with an orangutan (do they have kangaroos in New Zealand, or is that only in Australia?).  I imagine he’s overdue for a more light-hearted role – in fact, a comedy.  I get the impression that he doesn’t click with comedy roles and told his agent to steer him clear thereof (though not in a position to say that based on any actual evidence beyond my subjective thoughts) but his clear wit seems to be underexploited in all these dramas and action films.  Karl, if you’re reading this, give it a thought….. 

Chevy 305 V8

 Guess what? Time for more CAR S**T!

 Chevrolet made a V8 in 1916 which was a spectacular failure.  D’oh!   In 1932 Ford came out with its flathead V8, which was an even more spectacular success.  Cadillac, which had been making V8s since 1914, produced its first overhead valve design in 1948, followed closely by Oldsmobile in 1949, Buick in 1953, and then Chevrolet and Pontiac in 1955.  Chevrolet’s first OHV V8, its small block design, was a well-designed model, starting out with a 265 cubic inch displacement.  The size was upgraded to 283, 327, 350, and 400, with the 350 cubic inch displacement the “sweet spot”.  It was an EFI variant of the 350 under the hood of my 1992 Pontiac Firebird Formula – and which still sits in a machine shop. 

 In 1977 Chevrolet took the 350, with a 4.00 inch bore and 3.48 inch stroke, and reduced its bore to 3.74, producing a 305 (5.0L) V8.  This was the emissions era, with high gas prices, so the 5.0L engine’s express purpose was to save gas and reduce emissions. 

 In 1982 GM redesigned the F-Body (Camaro and Firebird) and ended this business of the different divisions making their own V8s.  Henceforth Pontiac would make 2.5L four cylinders (the Iron Duke), Buick would make its ever-popular 3.8L V6, Oldsmobile would make diesel V8s, and Chevrolet could… do as it pleased.  For the 1982 model year, the Camaro and Firebird base engine was that 2.5L four cylinder (disgusted Kirsten Wiig picture here), the middle engine was a 2.8L V6 from Chevrolet, and the V8 choices were both 5.0L.  The budget performance model Firebird, the Formula, was dropped, replaced with the S/E, which was essentially a third generation Esprit (quasi-luxury model of a non-luxury car).  The top performance models were the Z/28 for the Camaro and the Trans Am for the Firebird.  The 1982 Trans Am did not have ground effects, but it did get the offset hood scoop, so it looks very similar to the ’87-92 Formula, aside from the spoiler.

 Ok, you’ve decided to get a Z/28 or Trans Am.  What’s under the hood?  Well, if you’re not picky, you’d get a 5.0L V8 with a computer-controlled four barrel Rochester QuadraJet, the LG4 engine, putting out a whopping 145 horsepower.  More disgusted Kirsten Wiig looks.  If that’s not enough, we have an EFI system with two one-injector throttle bodies on a remarkably restrictive intake manifold, the so-called Crossfire Injection System, putting out (drumroll please) 165 HP.  Well, at least the new cars look nice.

 In 1983 they jazzed up the LG4 and bumped it up to 190 HP, the L69.  This was under the hood of mid-80s Monte Carlo SS models.  In 1985, Tuned Port Injection made its debut, giving us 205 HP for the 5.0L.  Eventually the TPI 5.0L (LB9), combined with the T5 5 speed manual transmission, reached 230 HP and 300 lb-ft of torque in select Z/28s, Formulas and Trans Ams.  If you preferred an automatic, you could get the 5.7L TPI, the L98, up to 240 HP and 340 lb-ft of torque.  This was more than the T5 could handle, and GM figured only Corvette owners would pay $3000 for a ZF 5 speed manual.  Finally, the TBI system was refined in 1988 for the L03, bringing it up to 170 HP, 255 lb-ft of torque, and becoming the only available V8 if you bought a base Firebird.  Externally the LB9 and L98 TPI engines are identical in appearance, as the TPI setup is the same size.  Barring removing the cylinder heads to measure the cylinder bores, checking the car’s VIN would be the way to determine, an F in the eighth position for the 5.0L and an 8 for the 5.7L.  There are 5.7L TBI engines, but only in trucks. 

 In November 1992 I finally managed to buy my own new car.  Not a car bought for me by my parents with a 4 cylinder engine, but a car I picked out myself.  Sadly, my budget wouldn’t permit a Formula or Trans Am, but I could manage a base Firebird with a 5.0L V8.  Black on black, loaded with T-tops, power windows, automatic transmission etc.  At night the dash lit with red gauges.  Super cool.  The exhaust sounded nice and the car could get out of its own way.  Not a rocket, but certainly fast enough to notice the torque coming from the rear wheels.  I eventually had the performance chip installed (nominally another 30 HP) and Mobil One oil. 

In June 1995 I finally scored a 1992 Firebird Formula 350.  Our law firm handled the custody battle of a body shop guy, Tim, who painted the car black from September 1997 to January 1998.  I had sold the base Firebird to my boss, who had Tim do some body work on it.   Tim remarked, having driven both cars, that the Formula was MUCH faster than the base Firebird – as you might expect: it had 300 HP and 350 lb-ft of torque – basically 100 more of each.

Note that Ford has its own 5.0L V8, a 302.  Actually, Chevy did make a 302 itself, under the hood of '67-69 (First Generation) Camaro Z/28s.  The Ford 5.0L sat under '79-93 Mustangs and paired up with the afore-mentioned T5 manual transmission (5.0 5 speeds).  But the Ford version was its A team engine; the Chevy 302 and 305 were B team engines.  

Sadly, the 305 doesn’t respond well to modifications.  Its 3.74 inch bore doesn’t interface well with stock Chevrolet cylinder heads; the 350’s 4.00 inch bore does a much better job of that.  I’ve never driven a TPI 5.0L 5 speed model – its highest performance version - to compare.  The 305 also went under the hood of trucks.  It was essentially a compromise between performance and fuel economy.  However, that base Firebird certainly met the threshold of “fun to drive”, got better fuel economy than the 350, and shortcomings notwithstanding, that was a successful compromise.  Yet another example of “not as good” (vs 350) as opposed to “not good”.

Bootlegs Revisited

 Another return to an older topic, in that case the blog was written in 2009.   Since then I’ve collected most of the King Crimson Collector Series. 

 I also picked up a few TOOL bootlegs:  one from the Fear Inoculum Tour and three from the 10,000 Days Tour (thanks, Diane!).   The band only has two official live recordings: a 1993 Lollapalooza recording, and Salival, combined with either a VHS or DVD, which dates from Undertow, the first album, and includes “You Lied”, a great non-TOOL song.  According to drummer Danny Carey, the band has a huge stash of live recordings, but has yet to release any of it, a la King Crimson Collectors Club, which is odd considering they went 13 years from 10,000 Days to Fear Inoculum AND they are not only fans of King Crimson, but toured with them.  I picture a huge warehouse full of live recordings no one has had the time or patience to wade through to determine how decent the sound quality is or whether the performances embarrass the band.  Who knows.  I dare say we’ll find out. 

 AC/DC.  I picked up a ten pack, for $50 – meaning each CD of a show was $5.  Six of them are Bon Scott shows and four from Brian Johnson.  The latter gave me a recording of Brian Johnson singing “Bad Boy Boogie”, a Bon Scott song, to complete my ersatz playlist of Paris ’84, our first concert.  Keep in mind that Bon Scott era AC/DC has only ONE official live album, If You Want Blood (You Got It), recorded on the Powerage tour.  That set was “Riff Raff”, “Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be”, “Bad Boy Boogie”, “The Jack”, “Problem Child”, “Whole Lotta Rosie”, “Rock’n’Roll Damnation”, “High Voltage”, “Let There Be Rock”, and “Rocker”.  The bootleg package has some intriguing song choices, including “Sin City”, “Gone Shootin’” and “Up To My Neck In You”.  One show was from September 1977, yet Powerage wasn’t released until May 1978, meaning those lucky audience members heard those songs before others did the following year.  The Bon Scott bootlegs are two from Dirty Deeds, three from Powerage, and one from Highway to Hell tours. 

 I also picked up a bootleg of their Madison Square Garden show on the Rock Or Bust tour in 2017 with Axl Rose singing.  We saw the following show, Verizon Center in DC, with an identical setlist.  Why the band didn’t see fit to record the show and release it themselves, I don’t know.  As a practical matter, Axl sounds a lot more like Brian Johnson than Bon Scott.  I found his inter-song banter to be unintelligible.  However, the song choice alone was well worth the purchase.

 Black Sabbath.  I also picked up a few Sabbath bootlegs, one (Lausanne, Switzerland in April 1970) includes “Sleeping Village >> Warning”.  Many older Sabbath shows have extended jams, “Sometimes I’m Happy”, and alternate lyrics.  I don’t think of Black Sabbath as a jam band, but some of the improvs put them in that category.  The other commonly known Sabbath bootleg, which I picked up recently and will be officially released with the Sabotage boxed set, is the Asbury Park show, known as Killing Yourself to Live.  It has “Megalomania”, “Sabbra Cadabra”, and “Spiral Architect”.  I awhile ago I picked up the Paranoid boxed set, mainly for the quadraphonic mix from 1974.  But it included the Brussels and Montreux shows from the Paranoid tour, which had been bootlegs for years.   

  Coverdale/Page.  After Deep Purple broke up, singer David Coverdale formed Whitesnake.  From 1978 to 1984 (David Coverdale’s Whitesnake through Slide It In) they were more of bluesy band (WS Mark I), and from 1987 (self-titled) to the present they’ve been more of a commercial metal band (WS Mark II).   Many accused the Mark I version of being a bit too reminiscent of Led Zeppelin.  So it was odd, or possibly appropriate, that Jimmy Page and David Coverdale collaborated on a single album, simply called Coverdale/Page, in 1993.  I bought it when it came out and listened to it a few times since then.  It sounds like Jimmy Page and David Coverdale made an album together.  What I didn’t realize was that the band actually toured – in Japan.  A bootleg of their Japanese tour (Live in Osaka) features “Slide It In”, “Here I Go Again” and “Still of the Night”, by Whitesnake – with Jimmy Page playing – and “Rock And Roll”, “Kashmir”, “In My Time of Dying”, “White Summer/Black Mountain Side”, and “Black Dog”, with David Coverdale singing (except on WS/BMS).  The remainder of the set – 50% - are C/P songs.   Overall an interesting addition.

Grateful Dead.  This band is famous for allowing audience members to tape their shows and trade them, much to their record company’s anger and frustration.  Eventually many of these wound up being officially released: no less than 38 Dick’s Picks, 38 Dave’s Picks, and 17 Road Trips, plus Cornell ’77 (probably THE most famous show), Egypt ’78, and a quadruple set of Closing of Winterland 12/31/78, a four disc set covering a bizarre show which began at midnight and ran to the morning of January 1, 1979.  I’ll repeat again:  Cousin Jimmy was a student at Cornell in ’77 and saw the concert, then my uncle Buddy took the family to Egypt and he saw the following year’s show there. (Count our blessings….!)  I suppose “official bootleg” might be a contradiction in terms, but others on this list are truly non-official.

The Dead even have a database, DeadBase, which will tell you which songs were played, and when. 

Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl.  Note that, from 1963-70, the years the band was in existence and releasing material, no live album was released.  Part of this was because those shows from 1963-66 (last concert at San Francisco) the crowd noise far exceeded the band’s tiny ampage.  Imagine if Pete Townshend had spoken to them and recommended a few Marshall stacks to even the odds.   With the screaming girls drowning out the band’s performance, it’s more novelty and morbid curiosity than an enjoyable experience.

Other General Principles

Sound Quality.  This often varies considerably, but I’ve found that even for shows which are relatively worse, after you listen for awhile your brain seems to screen out the noise and you start hearing the music.

 Song Selection.  Hearing rarely-heard songs live is one major benefit.  Again, AC/DC only have ONE official live album from Bon Scott’s era, so six bootlegs give you many songs you weren’t going to hear on If You Want Blood. 

 I Was There!!  In the unlikely event someone recorded a show I was actually at, I’m happy to get the bootleg.  As it is, the Dead shows at RFK in 1992 and 1995 seem to be the only ones I can think of off the top of my head which qualify.  

Deep Purple Mark I

 

My journey into the Deep world of Purple began approximately 1984, when living in Paris, France.  Seeking to start off on the band, I went to Bazar Hotel de Ville (aka “BHV”, pronounced “bay osh vay”), a department store in eastern Paris near the town hall – the same town hall which had Louis Napoleon’s map of Paris and went up in flames during the Paris Commune in 1871.  The store itself became BHV the same year, 1871.  In any case, this store had a music section, and that section had these 12” black vinyl platters, including quite a few by Deep Purple.  Not knowing which album to start off with, I tried Deepest Purple, a compilation album.  All but two of its 12 songs, “Burn” and “Stormbringer”, were Mark II songs, the exceptions being the title tracks of the two Mark III albums.

 As you might expect, we’re mostly familiar with the classic lineup, known as the Mark II, which recorded In Rock (6/70), Fireball (7/71), Machine Head (3/72), Who Do We Think We Are (1/73), the classic live album Made In Japan, and three reunion albums, Perfect Strangers (10/84), The House of Blue Light (1/87), and The Battle Rages On (7/93).  For those of you wanting to collect literally ALL of the band’s recorded material, there’s Jon Lord’s Concerto For Group and Orchestra performed at the Royal Albert Hall in fall of 1969 – essentially an original classical music piece with the band adding its own contribution.  Most of us listen to it once and never again.  But before that, beginning in spring of 1968, was this one. 

 In 1968, Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, and Nick Simper had been playing in various bands with less success and recognition than they would have liked.  They agreed to form a band together, and recruited Evans and Paice (from The Maze/MI6) to fill out the ranks.  This lineup was more commercial than later ones, but only scored some success with “Hush”, itself a cover.  Aside from “And the Address”, redone on the latest album, “Hush” is the only Mark I song the band still plays.  Before Mark II had a substantial array of its own material, it was playing “Mandrake Root” and “Wring That Neck” in concert.

 At this stage they were an opening act, mainly for Cream and Vanilla Fudge.  Blackmore pissed off Eric Clapton by inserting non-rock material into his solos as a lark.  The first name was Roundabout, then changed to Deep Purple.  Their first gig was on April 20, 1968.  Their material sold far better in the US than the UK, where crowds dismissed them as an American bubble gum pop band.  In the US they appeared on Playboy After Dark.  They spent so much time in the US, and were so much more popular there, that they considered moving there permanently, but abandoned that idea when they learned that doing so would make Ian Paice, the youngest member of the band, liable to being drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam (male permanent resident aliens are required to register with the Selective Service – and thus are subject to being drafted).

 Band Members.

 Ritchie Blackmore (Guitarist).  He continued on to Mark II & III, leaving in 1975 to form Rainbow.  He came back later in 1984 for the reunion and left in 1993 on the Battle Rages On Tour.  Since then he has been playing renaissance music with his current wife Candice – and apparently they live on Long Island, of all places.   Generally he favors Stratocasters with 70s headstocks and scalloped fretboards, played through Marshall stacks.  Blackmore is notorious for being difficult to deal with and Rainbow went through various lineups as bassist Jimmy Bain said, “our banjo player kept firing musicians.”

 Jon Lord (Keyboardist).  He continued through Marks III-V and remained in the band for two albums with Mark VI, after Steve Morse replaced Blackmore on guitar.  He retired from Deep Purple in 2002, and died in 2012.  Easily recognizable by his mustache.  He added a fair amount of classical music to the mix.

 Ian Paice (Drummer).  By now he’s the only member who has been with band with literally every lineup.  I can’t say I know enough about drummers to comment on his style.  He does seem shy and least likely to cause any problems.  He’s left handed but plays a right handed kit, though with drum kits – as opposed to guitars and basses – I can’t tell the difference.  Same with left-handed amps, left-handed keyboards, or left-handed microphones.

 Rod Evans (Singer).  After being let go in 1969 he eventually formed Captain Beyond in the early 70s with former members of Iron Butterfly; he’s on the self-titled debut and Sufficiently Breathless.  In 1980 he joined an ersatz Deep Purple scam in which he was the only member remotely connected with the band.  The band’s management sued him, got a judgment of $400k, and he disappeared into obscurity.  Ironically he’s probably better esteemed these days for Captain Beyond than DP Mark I.  He has a deep, rich voice and not prone to shrieks, putting him in a completely different class than Ian Gillan or David Coverdale.  

 Nick Simper (Bassist).  He wasn’t too happy when they let him go in 1969 along with Evans.  He formed a band named Warhorse in the 70s and declined to be invited to the scam band in 1980.  He still shows up from time to time, but hasn’t done anything high profile since Deep Purple. 

 Albums.

 Shades of Deep Purple.  (7/68).  Debut album.  Track listing:  And The Address; Hush; One More Rainy Day; Prelude: Happiness; I’m So Glad; Mandrake Root; Help [Beatles cover]; Love Help Me; Hey Joe [Billy Roberts cover, though Hendrix’ seems to be the definitive version].  Bonus tracks on remastered CD: Shadows; Love Help Me (instrumental); Help (alternate version); Hey Joe (BBC recording); Hush (Live on US TV).

 The Book of Taliesyn (10/68).  My own favorite, thanks to “Anthem” and “The Shield”.  I recall listening to this one when we were visiting London.   Track listing: Listen, Learn, Read On; Wring That Neck; Kentucky Woman [Neil Diamond cover]; Exposition; We Can Work It Out [Beatles cover]; Shield; Anthem; River Deep, Mountain High [Tina Turner cover].  Remastered CD bonus tracks:  Oh No No No (out-take); It’s All Over (out-take); Hey Bop A Re Bop (BBC live recording); Wring That Neck (BBC live recording); Playground (out-take).

My original copy purchased in Europe back in the day is fairly flimsy, but is stereo.  The 180 grain reissue I purchased is mono.   The CD version is stereo. 

 Deep Purple (self-titled) (6/69).  Track listing:  Chasing Shadows; Blind; Lalena; Fault Line; The Painter; Why Didn’t Rosemary; Bird Has Flown; April.  Remastered CD bonus tracks: The Bird Has Flown (alternate mix); Emmaretta (out-take); Emmaretta (BBC live recording); Lalena (BBC live recording); The Painter (BBC live recording).  Here, unlike the prior two albums, only one song, "Lalena", is a cover (Donovan).  So the band had progressed to mostly originals.

 Live at Inglewood.  October 18, 1968.  As an opening act, no one seemed to bother to record their shows, so to my knowledge this is the only surviving live recording (CD) of this lineup.  Set: Hush, Kentucky Woman, Mandrake Root, Help, Wring That Neck, River Deep Mountain High, Hey Joe.  Obviously it was the Book tour, opening for Cream, no material from the self-titled album which came out in 1969.  The CD itself now seems to be out of print.

 As hinted earlier, this material is considerably different than the Mark II and later albums.  It’s somewhat commercial and late ‘60s pop, with some extended instrumentals which approach prog in nature.  Usually you’d expect a commercial band to give us quick and simple 3 minute songs and not bother going off on guitar and keyboard solos.  Plus you’ve got all those covers, which Mark II and later lineups didn’t bother with – at least not on vinyl.  It’s definitely a very different flavor, though Blackmore’s guitar and Lord’s keyboards are still recognizable.  Harking back to last week’s blog, it’s “not as good” as later Purple but still well above a threshold of “good”. 

 In July 1969 the band decided to move in a heavier direction.  They fired Evans and Simper and recruited Ian Gillan and Roger Glover.  The two had earlier been approached about joining, but their band Episode Six was on its way up and they felt they owed the rest of E6 a duty to take it as far was it would go.  By July 1969 E6 had stagnated, so the time was right.  Evans had decided to marry an American girl and move to the US, so he wasn’t too upset, but Nick Simper wasn’t too happy.  In a recent interview, though, he concedes that the band made the right decision to replace him with Roger Glover. 

 Deep Purple Mark VI.  Just a little item I want to address here as I don’t believe it merits a whole blog entry on its own.  In 1973, Ian Gillan quit and Roger Glover was fired, the band replaced them with David Coverdale (vocals) and Glenn Hughes (bass & backup vocals). This was Mark III, which recorded two albums:  Burn (2/74) and Stormbringer (12/74).

After Stormbringer Ritchie Blackmore got fed up with the funk direction the band headed in (“shoeshine music”, as he referred to it), mainly thanks to Hughes, and left.  The band replaced him with Tommy Bolin (Mark IV) which lasted for one album, Come Taste The Band (10/75).  The album itself was fine, but on the tour it turned out that Bolin was a heroin addict and his performances overseas, strung out without heroin, were train wrecks.  As soon as the tour ended (last show at Liverpool on March 15, 1976), the band broke up and went their separate ways.  Bolin died of a heroin overdose a few months later, December 4, 1976.

The Mark II lineup reformed in 1984, as noted above.  After House of Blue Light, Blackmore arranged to have Gillan replaced with Rainbow singer Joe Lynn Turner for one album, Slaves & Masters, which is Mark V.  Then Gillan came back for The Battle Rages On, the last album with the Mark II lineup.     

In the middle of that tour, Blackmore quit abruptly, leaving the band to find another guitarist to cover the remaining tour dates.  They found Joe Satriani.   After the tour the band offered him a permanent job, but he refused.  One story is that he felt Blackmore was “the” guitarist; another is that he was under contract with another label which had exclusive rights to any original material he wrote.  For whatever reason, Satriani did not join the band as a permanent member and the band did not record any new material with him.  Any live recordings from this tour are bootlegs and not official releases, and given the circumstances will remain so indefinitely.   So there is NO official DP material with Satriani and no new studio material with him.  The next guitarist to remain with the band was Steve Morse, who is still with them.  When Jon Lord retired in 2002, the band replaced him with Don Airey. 

Despite this, some refer to the touring lineup with Satriani as “Mark VI”.   No, Mark VI is the lineup with Steve Morse on guitar and Jon Lord on keyboards, (Purpendicular (2/96) and Abandon (6/98)), and Mark VII is the lineup with Morse on guitar and Airey on keyboards – who are still making records (Bananas (9/03), Rapture of the Deep (11/05), Now What ?! (4/13), Infinite (4/17), and Whoosh! (8/20)) and – COVID permitting – touring.   

Not As Good < > Not Good

 

Oftentimes people sometimes confuse the two.  I suppose many of us who are married, and had several different romantic partners over the ages, might acknowledge that the person they settled down with was not their optimal sexual partner – but the person who was, had other issues (e.g. infidelity or general personal incompatibility) which made the current partner the overall optimal one.

 Moving away from relationships, this features for several musical groups.

 GRATEFUL DEAD.  The band began in San Francisco in 1965 and remained active until Jerry Garcia’s death in 1995.  After that time, the surviving band members reformed for several tours, playing the classic material with no new material recorded or released after Jerry died.  Veteran Deadheads will tell you that Jerry’s health issues in 1986 mean that the ’86-’95 version was never quite as good as the ’65-’86 version. 

 A colleague of mine had seen them multiple times before 1986 and never after that.  I invited him to join me for the 2020 show of Dead & Company – Jerry’s place taken by John Mayer, and original members Bobby Weir, Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart still on stage, bassist Phil Lesh still alive but too old to tour anymore – at Jiffy Lube Live.  Initially he dismissed this out of hand, but after listening to official recording of the 2019 show, he changed his mind.  [Update 2021: While the 2020 show was canceled due to COVID, we managed to see the show in August 2021, and both enjoyed it immensely, Jerry Garcia's absence notwithstanding.] 

 I’m not in a position to compare Dead & Company with pre-86 Grateful Dead.  My sole experience with Jerry-era Dead was two shows at RFK, 1992 and 1995.  I would say the subsequent shows I saw were comparable enough in quality to make the shows worth attending.

 AC/DC.  Bon Scott died in February 1980, soon replaced by Brian Johnson.   The first two Brian Johnson albums, Back in Black and For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) were top quality and just about as good – in my opinion – as the Bon Scott albums.  After that, the quality dropped dramatically.   Listening to the current album, Power Up, it’s occurred to me that musically, the band is still OK.  The “weakest link” is Johnson’s vocals, accurately described as “Marge Simpson”.  Of all the available singers, Brian Johnson is the best they can find?  Fortunately the band plays Bon Scott material and plenty of songs from Back in Black.  But later material from Blow Up Your Video through Stiff Upper Lip seriously straddle the distinction between “not as good” and “not good”. 

 Black Sabbath.  For their part, Sabbath have their classic Ozzy Osbourne era, followed by two excellent albums with Ronnie James Dio, then a slew of albums which aren’t nearly as impressive.  However, I listened to Eternal Idol and Headless Cross, both with singer Tony Martin, and found them enjoyable enough.  Not quite up to Heaven & Hell or Vol 4, but enjoyable enough.  I’m revisiting TYR right now, and will tackle Cross Purposes, Forbidden, and 13 in the coming weeks.  I can’t say there’s any Black Sabbath album, with any singer, I’d describe as “not good”.  Moreover, on the Cross Purposes tour, they pulled out “Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath”, “The Wizad”, “Into the Void”, and the full “Symptom of the Universe”, including the second acoustic part.  I’ve heard bootlegs from the ‘70s with Ozzy, and even then they weren’t playing the full song.  So give them some credit for putting on an awesome show, even if it wasn’t even Martin’s own material.

 Van Halen.  I haven’t heard the Gary Cherone album (Van Halen III), nor the fourth Sammy Hagar album (Balance), and of course I have heard all the David Lee Roth albums – offhand, I don’t recall much about A Different Kind of Truth, the only post-Hagar DLR album.  I prefer the DLR material, but Hagar’s stuff is good enough to qualify as “not as good” instead of “not good”.  Having said that, also prefer Hagar on his own and with The Circle (with Vic Johnson and Jason Bonham) or Chickenfoot (with Joe Satriani and Chad Smith).  I can’t say I’ve heard anything by Hagar I could call “not good”. 

Wishbone Ash.  Here's a band that's been around since the early 70s.  The classic lineup, for the first four albums, S/T, Pilgrimage, Argus, and Wishbone IV, was Andy Powell (guitar/vocals), Ted Turner (guitar/vocals), Martin Turner (actually not related to Ted) (bass/vocals), and Steve Upton (drums).  After IV the various band members left, leaving Andy Powell the only original member.  The classic lineup reunited in the late 80s for Nouveau Calls, but soon Powell was left by himself again, at this point I don't know why.  By the time I got into them and was looking to see them live, (2000), Powell remained the only original member of the band.  I chose to see the band anyway, and lo and behold, it was a worthwhile experience.  Of course, Powell's lineup plays plenty of classic tunes, and the current group puts out new material of competitive quality.  Maybe not as good as the first four, but certainly "good enough". 

Amplifiers

It looks like I missed my self-imposed Friday deadline due to another case of writer’s block.  I had already written about Marshall amplifiers, and in so doing, also addressed the issues of tube vs. solid state, distortion, and the birth of the Marshall stack.   Moreover, until recently, I was only using Marshalls.

A few basic points I’ll address which apply to all amplifiers.  Most guitarists – and bassists – can acknowledge and recognize that a large percentage of their sound comes not from their instruments but from the amps they play through.  A $2000 Gibson Les Paul Custom isn’t going to sound nearly as good through a $100 solid state amp it will through a Marshall tube combo or half stack – or any of the competing amps of comparable quality.  And an amp cranked up loud enough will make single coil pickups, ostensibly thinner and less substantial than humbuckers, still sound thick and nasty, which is why Stratocasters and Telecasters, plus Gibson’s P90s, aren’t nearly as rare among guitarists playing hard rock and heavy metal, or even doom, as you might imagine. 

Getting back to the larger topic…

Recently I picked up a Laney combo – L20T-112.   Laney is famous for being the amp brand favored by Tony Iommi, the guitarist for Black Sabbath.  It's a 20 watt, 1x12" combo with delicious distortion and remarkably strong reverb.  The Dual Reverb doesn't seem to have much at all, despite its name.

Fender Twin Reverb.   Probably Fender's most famous amplifier, with a strong, distinctive reverb sound.  Originally 85 watts, then 135 watts - which was far too loud - and so they went back to 85 watts again.  It's a tube amp with 2 12" speakers.  The list of Twin Reverb players is like a who's who of famous guitarists.   Fortunately, Fender still sells them.  The original blackface (pre-CBS) '65 reissue is $1700 new, the subsequent CBS silverface '68 reissue is $1400 new, and now there's a solid state modeling version, the Tone Master (looks exactly like the '65) for $1000, supposedly half the weight of  real tube Twin Reverb.  With one exception, all the Twin Reverbs I've seen around were Tone Masters, though the local used guitar store has a vintage '66 blackface listed for....$3000.  The '65 reissue is probably the best deal, though I'm not in the position to add any more equipment to my existing arsenal.

Mesa-Boogie.   Randall Smith founded this company in 1969, with Santana as one of his first customers.  He hot-rodded Fender amps for more gain and distortion.   Some of the cooler combos have wicker grilles.  My first exposure to Black Sabbath was indirect, through Ozzy Osbourne's live album Speak of the Devil, intended to satisfy father-in-law Don Arden's contractual demand for a live album just days after Randy Rhoads died.  Brad Gillis, the replacement guitarist, blazed through Sabbath classics like "War Pigs" with a rich, full distortion:  Mesa Boogie Mark II's.  Unfortunately, these amps are extremely expensive, even 1x12" combos go for $2000.   Were I to collect amps, I'd add a Mesa Boogie to my collection.

Hiwatt.   Tube amps, I've seen Justin Hayward (Moody Blues, Isle of Wight) and David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) playing them, and the local used guitar shop has a few, along with Mesa Boogies and a whole room just for Marshalls.  Created in England in the early 60s by David Reeves.  However, I can't say I have much familiarity with these.   The company is still in operation today.

Orange.  The favorite amps for stoner rock bands, including Matt Pike & Sleep, with Wishbone Ash being the earliest band to be prominent users.  I have a small practice amp, not even a 1x12" combo.  

Ampeg.  Bass amp manufacturer, Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones being one of the first to use them, and Al Cisneros of Sleep also being a more contemporary fan.   Not being a bassist, I can't comment too much except to say they're a popular brand.   Lemmy still preferred Marshalls.

Sunn.  An amp company which spawned the name of the droniest stoner rock band ever;  SunnO))) (Amps Left On Accidentally Record New Sunn O))) Album (thehardtimes.net)).  I can't say I have much experience with these amps.  I know Randy Holden of Blue Cheer is featured with them on the cover of his solo album Population II, switching from the Marshall stacks which were ubiquitous with him and Leigh Stephens back in the day.  

Vox.  Most famous amp is the AC30, played by the Beatles, the Stones, and Queen's Brian May.  They also make guitars and effects (e.g. wah-wah pedal); even drums.  They're now owned by Korg. 

We think of stacks as being the loudest, but a relatively small combo, with a single 12” speaker, can be extremely loud in a small, indoor location – and in a live situation, miked up to the club’s P.A. system.   Moreover, my experience has been that my tube amps, sitting in one place for years at a time, don’t need much maintenance, i.e. changing and biasing the tubes, and this minimal maintenance doesn’t rise to the level of being inconvenient – at least not to me.