Journey-Raised on Radio (1986)

Journey are still one of the best rock bands I had ever heard, and they still continue to make good music to this day. Raised on Radio was the band’s 9th album, released in 1986, and this was a point in which lead vocalist Steve Perry took nearly-full control of the band, and he tried to make the band sound as commercial as they did on their 1981 album Escape, which was a big breakthrough for the band. Guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Jonathan Cain were still in the band, but bassist Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith were both fired (but Smith did play drums on three of the album’s tracks), being replaced by session musicians Randy Jackson, Bob Glaub, and Larrie Londin (Keep in mind that there were a TON of session musicians on this album, but Steve Lukather wasn’t one of them!). Jackson would later rise to more popularity when he became one of the judges for American Idol. I bought this album on CD from Thrifty Joe’s, and it was the original 1986 CD pressing.

This album is practically a straight-up pop rock album which doesn’t sacrifice Journey’s typical arena rock sound. Even though Journey first formed as a progressive rock band, Journey had experimented with some progressive styles on later albums such as 1980’s Departure and 1983’s Frontiers, but Raised on Radio isn’t one of them, so if you’re into the Journey that gets progressive at times, this album isn’t for you.

This album was considered by many Journey fans to be a Steve Perry solo album in all but name; most of what was heard matched the keyboard-heavy pop styles of Street Talk, his debut solo album that was released two years prior to Raised on Radio. It seems that in this stage, Steve wanted to meld his style of keyboard-heavy pop rock with the commercial hard rock of 1981’s Escape album, and he did it successfully. This album even experiments with genres like typical 80’s pop (“Positive Touch”, “It Could’ve Been You”), new wave (“Susanne”), post-disco in the Michael Jackson vein (“Once You Love Somebody”), and really grandiose synthpop (“Happy to Give”). The style of hard rock heard on Escape is found on the tracks “Be Good to Yourself” and the title track. If you wish to dig into some “progressive” Journey on this album, it’s best that you get a taste of the atmospheric soft rock ditty that is “The Eyes of a Woman”. That particular track had Neal Schon experimenting with a guitar synthesizer (Maybe this was the MIDI-controlled guitar synth he used during the Raised on Radio tour?) and a Kurzweil keyboard synth, a keyboard which was famously used by Pink Floyd back when David Gilmour led the band. This track also incorporated some sound effects, provided by Megan Clearmountain.

Part of the awesome cover illustration was done by Prairie Prince, who became known as both the founder of the Tubes and as Journey’s very first drummer. That was, before Aynsley Dunbar replaced him.

 

The Six Musical Degrees of Separation, Part 2: Triumvirat is Related to Michael Jackson

 

I’m not gonna lie; I’m a huge Michael Jackson fan! My all-time favorite song of his is “Billie Jean”, because it is an awesome, really catchy song. Right now, for the second edition of The Six Musical Degrees of Separation, I’m coming up with a link between Michael Jackson and Triumvirat, a progressive rock band that was the German clone of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, who were really big figures in the progressive rock movement. I remember I used to own a vinyl copy of Triumvirat’s 1975 album Spartacus, and it was a great album, by the way.

The relationship between Triumvirat and Michael Jackson is summed up in just two moves:

1. In 1980, Triumvirat released their final album, an era when progressive rock was dying out, entitled Russian Roulette. The album consists almost entirely of new wave and power pop. Much of the guitar work was provided by famed session guitarist Steve Lukather.
2. Steve Lukather played guitar on many tracks that were done by none other than Michael Jackson!

That was pretty simple, wasn’t it?

The Residents-Meet the Residents (1974)

Earlier, I did reviews of unreleased recordings by the Residents, but this time, I’m going to review their 1974 debut album, Meet the Residents. I have the original 1974 mono mix of this album in my iTunes collection, and it is one of the weirdest albums I ever had the pleasure of listening to. The cover art is a vandalization of the cover of the Beatles’ first American release, Meet the Beatles, but none of the songs on the album actually parody the Beatles.

Here are the tracks (note: these are a decription of tracks from the original mono mix):

“Boots”-A severe butchering of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots are Made for Walkin'”, consisting of tape distortion, out-of-tune lead vocals, bombastic horns, thumb piano, and doo-wop style backing vocals.

“Numb Erone”-This consists of an oriental-sounding tune performed entirely on a broken piano.

“Guylum Bardot”-This has the same broken piano from the previous track, this time with deep grand piano chords, bluesy horns, percussion, and nasally group vocals.

“Breath and Length”-This track starts off all ominous, followed by a piece featuring copy machine-like noises, animal-like vocals, chimes, female group vocals, and a tape solo that sounds like a malfunctioning paper shredder.

“Consuelo’s Departure”-Full of various tape effects and wordless hick vocals that were also processed.

“Smelly Tongues”-Beginning with plopping tape noises and distorted computer-like beeps, this track is filled with broken piano chords, tape effects, percussion, and doo-wop-style group vocals.

“Rest Aria”-A modern classical piece featuring piano, jazzy horns, percussion, and some Middle Eastern-like atmospheres.

“Skratz”-A strange spoken word piece featuring distorted jazz instruments.

“Spotted Pinto Bean”-A low-budget mini opera featuring operatic female vocals, orchestral instruments, jazzy horns and drums, a parade field recording sound effect, and a field recording of what sounds like a Vietnam War battle to end it all.

“Infant Tango”-This is a mutant disco track featuring cheesy wah-wah guitar, electric bass, horns, and Muppet-like vocals. There is also a rising electronic crescendo in one part of the song.

“Seasoned Greetings”-This starts off in an arcane style with piano, horns, and accordion, before becoming an avant-garde progressive rock piece with psychedelic guitar, distorted electric bass, horns, and percussion. It later becomes out-of-tune before a reprise of the opening segment comes, with a Resident saying a Christmas greeting to his family.

“N-ER-GEE (Crisis Blues)”-This closing track is divided into 6 parts:
1. The intro consists of deep electronic drones with a silly-sounding voice talking about what’s happening during Christmastime.
2. This consists of piano, percussion, horns, and vocals.
3. A sound collage consisting of a skipping record featuring the Human Beinz song “Nobody But Me”, also featuring distorted growling noises, a cymbal tape loop, gobbling high-pitched wordless vocals, an explosion sound effect and a frequency beep that sounds like that of a station identification from old television networks.
4. A children’s music-style marching band piece.
5. A slightly jazzy number featuring instrumentation similar to the previous part of the song, this time with silly lead vocals talking about the energy crisis.
6. The last part consists of a tape loop of the Residents singing, “Go home, America. 55 would do”, as like a toll-taker on the road.

The Rutles-The Rutles (1978)

The Rutles were a fictional Beatles pastiche/parody band created by members from Monty Python and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, first created for a parody program from the 1970’s called Rutland Weekend Television, before moving on to become the focus of a made-for-TV mockumentary called All You Need is Cash. Neil Innes, a member of the Bonzos and the creative force of the Rutles, actually appeared with his band in the Beatles Magical Mystery Tour film, performing the song “Death Cab for Cutie”. I bought the soundtrack for the mockumentary, also the Rutles’ self-titled debut album, on vinyl at a store called Thrifty Joe’s. I remember seeing bits and pieces of the original mockumentary, and after listening to the soundtrack, I would like to say that it is a fine piece of novelty rock and parody music that pre-dates “Weird Al” Yankovic.

Here are the songs, in order (note: this was the tracklisting from the original vinyl):

“Hold My Hand”-This song is a parody of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “All My Loving”. The original vinyl pressing, which is the one I have, begins with a collage of hairdryer noises and the Rutles tuning up. However, this was not included on the CD reissue.

“Number One”-A parody of “Twist and Shout” that is in a much quicker tempo, and slightly more rocking, than the original Beatles version. In fact, the melody sounds like they were also taking inspiration from “La Bamba” by Ritchie Valens.

“With A Girl Like You”-A clever parody of “If I Fell” that begins with the line “shoot me down in flames if I should tell a lie”. This opening lyric showcases the type of humor the Rutles has.

“I Must Be in Love”-A parody of “A Hard Day’s Night” that is also a bit more different than the original.

“Ouch!”-A clever parody of “Help!”.

“Living in Hope”-A parody of “Octopus’ Garden” that has a more country tone to it.

“Love Life”-A parody of “All You Need is Love” that features an orchestra that sounds like something out of a TV variety show compared to the baroque arrangements of the original version.

“Nevertheless”-A parody of “Within You, Without You” that sounds as raga-inspired as the aforementioned.

“Good Times Roll”-This parody of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” has similar psychedelic lyrics, but are more silly. For instance, there is a pineapple pie in the sky!

“Doubleback Alley”-This parody of “Penny Lane” has lyrics that sound way more average than the Beatles version.

“Cheese and Onions”-This parody of “A Day in the Life” sounds more laid-back and depressed, with the lead vocals sounding as nasally as they could get. The orchestral crescendo parody sounds more baroque, and the crashing piano chord is replaced with a very short note.

“Another Day”-A clever parody of “Martha My Dear” with rather baroque-sounding string and brass arrangements.

“Piggy in the Middle”-This parody of “I Am the Walrus” contains a backwards message (backed by an electronic noise) which, when played backwards, says, “This little piggy went to maaaaaaaaarket!”.

“Let’s Be Natural”-The original album closes with a parody of “Dear Prudence”.

If you want to listen to a true Beatles parody, go ahead and check out the Rutles. Their music is great!

The Incredibly Interesting Music of Wesley Willis

Wesley Willis (1963-2003), a chronic schizophrenic from Chicago, Illinois, wasn’t typical of most African-American musicians of the 1990’s. In fact, his music is very, very interesting because he was one of the many innovators in the outsider music genre. Wesley’s music consists of a rather experimental from of punk rock that was created by him singing humorous, sometimes obscene and absurd lyrics over the auto accompaniment feature on his Technics KN series electronic keyboard, sometimes incorporating his own keyboard sounds and experimental effects on top of the pre-programmed music. Almost all of his songs end with the catchphrase “Rock over, London! Rock on, Chicago!”, followed by a random advertising slogan. Wesley was one of the discoveries of Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra, who helped signed him to his Alternative Tentacles label in the mid-1990’s. He also fronted a hardcore punk band called The Wesley Willis Fiasco, which helped him boost his cult status.

I first discovered Wesley Willis after I first heard a song by him while watching the movie Super Size Me in Arlington High School in Riverside, California, called “Rock n’ Roll McDonald’s”. The use of that song in the movie made perfect sense when you consider the movie to be a documentary about McDonald’s and the rest of the fast food empire.

I made a YouTube playlist of his songs, all of which I’m going to review for this article.

“Rock n’ Roll McDonald’s”-One of Willis’ more simple-sounding songs, about a Chicago-area McDonald’s location that was filled with rock music memorabilia. This just has the keyboard music along with a bit of echo on his vocals during the chorus.

“Northwest Airlines”-A song about an airplane trip to San Diego, this piece is much slower and features ambient synth effects. The America Airlines slogan at the end perfectly matches the airplane theme of the song.

“The Chicken Cow”-In the same tempo as “Rock n’ Roll McDonald’s”, but in a much different key. The lyrics are about a cryptid with a silly name, but is in fact one deadly creature.

“Kris Kringle was a Car Thief”-This begins with samples of a cheering crowd with Wesley speaking to the “audience”, followed by a song about a guy named Kris Kringle, unrelated to Santa Claus, who likes to steal cars. The crowd sounds continue until they stop in the middle instrumental section, which has some ocean sound effects.

“Ward My Rock Music Off”-This piece sounds like it features a different keyboard because the guitar in the pre-programmed music has a much more twangy sound, and it also features a dance music-sounding synth bass playing in rhythm with the music. Later, you hear a collage of strange sound effects, such as that of cars passing by, playing along to the music.

“Pink Floyd”-This is a song about a Pink Floyd concert at Soldier Field that Wesley had a chance to see. This song features Wesley playing a droning synth bass along to the music.

“Mr. Magoo Goes to Jail”-This song about the titular cartoon character going to jail for armed robbery features Wesley’s vocals that were electronically processed. I think he was using a harmonizer for this song. During the instrumental section, you hear various electronic sound effects. At the final section, you hear what sounds like a machine gun.

“Jadroplov”-This is a much more experimental piece, beginning with the sound of a bell ringing with an imaginary conversation between Wesley and a plummer. It leads into a fast punk piece with electronically-processed vocals and bird sounds. It ends with an electronic loop of the word “Chicago” during his catchphrase.

“Shonen Knife”-A song about a concert Wesley went to see featuring the Japanese all-girl punk group Shonen Knife.

“Elvis Presley”-A song dedicated to the King of Rock n’ Roll, this piece is much slower, but also featuring strange harmony vocals and thunder sound effects (at the beginning, you also hear a reverbed electronic pulse).

“Black Flag”-A song about the Southern California hardcore punk pioneers, this features Wesley singing over a different musical accompaniment on the keyboard, which sounds like a simple punk rock melody, with harmonizer-altered vocals. This also has electronic wordless voice effects and strange sound effects, like that of a baby crying, a dog barking, and a record scratching.

“Black Sabbath”-A song about a Black Sabbath concert, this has a rapid synthpunk melody performed on a different keyboard, along with distorted vocals.

“Bill Clinton”-An ode to the former President of the United States, this is rather simple-sounding just like “Rock n’ Roll McDonald’s”.

“Agent Orange”-A song about an Agent Orange concert, accompanied by a synthpunk melody similar to that of “Black Sabbath”.

“Rev. Norb Rozek”-This song begins with some fake gunshot sounds followed by a death threat, leading to an ode about the lead vocalist for the punk rock band Boris the Sprinkler.

“October 31”-A song about an October 31 concert (October 31 were a heavy metal band), backed by a phased-out synthpunk jam with some weird electronic effects.

“Put the Gun Down”-An attack against gun violence, this song is accompanied by a low droning synth bass and warbling electronic sounds.

“Shoot All My Rhythm Down”-This has an echoey keyboard punk jam with Wesley singing about a schizophrenic episode. This also has some ocean and seagull sound effects in the instrumental section.

“Dixon Spivy”-An ode to a doctor named Dixon Spivy, accompanied by group vocals, street sound effects and some other sound effects, but I cannot identify what they are.

“Shoot My Harmony Music Down”-Another song about a schizophrenic episode, this is accompanied by a synthpunk melody.

“Oprah Winfrey”-Beginning with a cheerful rant from Wesley, this leads to a distorted punk melody with an ode to Oprah Winfrey.

Wesley Willis’ music is synthpunk, but it’s rather interesting synthpunk. I would suggest that if you’re a fan of incredibly strange music or modern-day outsider music, then by all means, listen to Wesley Willis’ music, and have fun. This guy is definitely one of the best punk musicians I had ever come across.

The Six Musical Degrees of Separation, Part 1: Journey is Related to Negativland

 

The Six Degrees of Separation is a theory that states that anyone can be related to anyone in six ways or less. This theory is popularized in such ways as the film-related game known as The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. However, for the first time on The Disabled Music Critic, I decided to take this rule to a much more music-oriented level.

Journey is one of the most well-known arena rock groups ever, and Negativland is one of the most well-known sound collage/Plunderphonics groups ever. Both Journey and Negativland are two of my favorite bands, so I decided to think of a link between these two bands. I decided to come up with this idea after playing the title track from Journey’s 1981 album Escape and the title track from Negativland’s 1987 album Escape from Noise simultaneously using two YouTube links. Both songs sounded awesome when played simultaneously. Honestly, it mashed up perfectly!

Also, it would be cool if Negativland did a Booper version of “Girl Can’t Help It”.

The relationship between Journey and Negativland are summed up in four moves:

1. Journey’s second drummer, Aynsley Dunbar, who replaced Prairie Prince after he left to form The Tubes after Journey’s first demo tape, had played with many famous musicians, but he also worked many times with Frank Zappa and his band, the Mothers of Invention.
2. Aynsley Dunbar was in the Mothers of Invention with Don Preston, the band’s keyboard player and occasional sound effects man.
3. Don Preston had played synthesizer on Eskimo, an album released in 1979 by the anonymous avant-garde innovators, The Residents.
4. The Residents were guest musicians on Escape from Noise, the fourth album released in 1987 by………Negativland!

The relationship can also be extended with three other bands and artists, starting with Negativland.

-The Southern California punk trio Minutemen were labelmates with Negativland on SST Records back in the 1980’s.
-Zoogz Rift, a Frank Zappa-style musical funnyman and professional wrestler, were also on the SST label with Minutemen and Negativland.
-The Rudy Schwartz Project, a Texas-based experimental parody collective founded by Joe Newman, who played with Zoogz Rift, was one of the labelmates of Negativland, as their 1995 album Günther Packs A Stiffy was released on Negativland’s independent record label Seeland.

That about sums up the first edition of The Six Musical Degrees of Separation!

Jingle Reviews: A Classic Kentucky Fried Chicken Advertisement from 1969

I love KFC, but nowadays, I’m trying to slim down from fried chicken (Don’t worry! I’m not obese! I’m just a tiny bit husky!). However, if I want to go to KFC, it should be just for stuff like their chicken tenders and chicken sandwiches (the not-so-greasy stuff), but that would be when I lose weight.

Let’s not talk about KFC, and talk about the background music, and the jingle, for a classic KFC ad, back when it was called Kentucky Fried Chicken, back in 1969.

The background music gives the commercial a very nice ambience, which makes sense because the commercial shows Colonel Harland Sanders sitting in a family’s living room discussing how the Colonel’s fried chicken is made in his restaurants. I would describe this music as Southern country blues furniture music. The music consists entirely of a simple acoustic guitar melody along with harmonica, with simple-sounding electric bass appearing later on. At the end of the commercial, when it shows a KFC location, a man with a very rich, very golden voice, sings “Kentucky Fried Chicken, if you want Kentucky Fried Chicken, you have to visit me.”, ending with a gentle chord as the commercial fades to black. Contrary to what the lyrics announce, the man is not Colonel Sanders singing.

The sound quality on the jingle is rather rough, but it is actually fine by television standards at the time, as the commercial was shot on film, not videotape. The jingle reminds me of the country-sounding title song off of the first suite of the Residents’ 1970 demo tape Rusty Coathangers for the Doctor, but with two more instruments other than just an acoustic guitar (although later in that particular demo track, it develops into a jam with distorted Hammond organ and sloppy electric bass). I remember the Residents did similar-sounding country folk music, like in the KFC jingle, on undocumented tapes dating back 1969, the year that this commercial aired on television, such as the tracks “I Hear Ya Got Religion” and “Moonman”, how both of those tracks have a living room atmosphere and acoustic guitar.

The acoustic guitar, by the way it sounds, could’ve been produced on an old-fashioned acoustic guitar, one that was prominently used by many African-American blues musicians in the 1920’s, 1930’s, and so on, such as the very popular Gibson L-5 model, which was first produced in 1922. This may be so because it is an acoustic guitar that is built to look like a later hollow-bodied electric guitar, giving the guitar a very rich sound. The electric bass, which sounds very simple, could’ve been an electric bass produced by Fender because those type of bass guitars were very popular in the 1960’s, and was commonly used by many psychedelic and progressive rock bands of that era. The man who was singing the jingle (again, not Colonel Sanders) could’ve been a famous voice-over artist, but I’m not sure which one, because I know a very few voice-over artists. Two of them include Ken Nordine, who famously recorded the Word Jazz albums for Dot Records, a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures, back in the late 1950’s, and Brian Cummings, who was most famous for his work with Disney.

I have a big soft spot for old-fashioned country blues music, especially the ones that have a nice atmosphere. So far, I have 2 old-fashioned country blues albums in my vinyl collection, and those are: (1) the early-1960’s Maude Humbard album Camptown Meeting, which is a gospel album, and (2) the psychedelic-sounding Powerglide, an album from 1972 by New Riders of the Purple Sage. Maybe, I’ll put Powerglide up for a review on this blog.

The full advertisement, complete with the music, can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwURoueDzFo

Cowlamp-Cowlamp Unplugged (2015)

Behold! Another Bandcamp release that I’m definitely interested in. Cowlamp is an experimental sound collage music project from Michigan that uses found sound, analog electronics, and tape loops to create soundscapes that, when I listened to bits of the first track, can be similar to stuff like Nurse With Wound and Negativland.

Here are the tracks, in order:

“tape 1”-The whole album starts off with a woman’s voice, leading to a piece with distorted analog synthesizer and tape loops of speed-manipulated harmonica. It gradually becomes lower and lower in fidelity.

“(tell me about flint)”-This begins with a collage, followed by schoolchildren singing accompanied by piano. A woman’s voice shows up talking to the children, accompanied by mechanical string-like noises and synthesizer.

“tape 2”-A tape loop of bubbly noises.

“(mandolin)”-This consists of an out-of-tune mandolin piece, with faint sounds coming from a Christian rock radio station (I recognize the song; it’s a worship song that I’m very familiar with), in the background.

“tape 3”-A tape loop of strange distorted and warped noises.

“(sunset number two)”-A tape loop piece featuring a strange synthesizer improv and some tape effects.

“tape 4”-A tape loop consisting of strange warped noises. The same as “tape 3”, but this time without distortion.

“(first rate kids)”-An old radio broadcast that has a bit of static, backed by out-of-tune ukulele.

“tape 5”-A tape loop of manipulated mouth sounds. That’s what it sounds like.

“sermon”-A sample of an old church sermon appears, accompanied by strange mechanical sound effects. Later on, you hear a tape loop of a dog whimpering and panting. An ice cream truck later appears, followed by backwards noise effects.

“tape 6”-A tape loop of distorted backwards piano, or something like that.

“(time)”-A series of random voices talking about the age of the recording.

“tape 7”-A tape loop of distorted and warped mechanical noises.

“(tickets please)”-A field recording, but I’m not sure what the location is. You can sure hear children in the background, along with some music.

“tape 8”-A tape loop of distorted and sped-up bird noises. It is also only a minute long.

“(water)”-Consisting of someone urinating. Perhaps the only bad track on the whole tape.

“tape 9”-A tape loop of beeping noises.

“(communist)”-A 12-second snippet of what I think is a hearing conducted by Joseph McCarthy.

“tape 10”-A tape loop of distorted piano and accordion (I think).

“(paul bunyan)”-A 23-second snippet of an altered sample of a song about Paul Bunyan, ending with a strange reverb effect.

“tape 11”-A tape loop of a collage of voices saying “right” and “left”.

“let’s go again”-A sound collage consisting of the tape butchering of a rock n’ roil song.

“farewell to tape loops”-A warped mechanical noise appears, along with backwards piano.

“goodbye”-A 31-second snippet of a voice sample of a woman talking about the “proud heritage” of Flint, Michigan.

“etc.”-The closing 25-second snippet consists of a warped recording of metallic clanking.

This album is one of the most interesting pieces of tape collage music that I had ever come across on Bandcamp, and if you’re into strange homemade experimental music, check the whole thing out here at: http://cowlamp.bandcamp.com/album/cowlamp-unplugged

Robbie Judkins-Five Sketches for Joseph Beuys (2013)

In September 2013, experimental musician Robbie Judkins released an EP of experimental found sound music on Bandcamp, created as a musical version of an exhibition of Joseph Beuys sculptures at the Tate Modern museum. The music is made entirely of improvised compositions using “found objects such as wood, metal, clay, glass, plastic and general debris”.

The album sounds really cool. I’m going to describe each of the sound sketches with analogies, since Mr. Judkins already described the objects that were used for the recording of the EP.

“Sketch One”-Kitchen noises with the sound of jet planes taking flight.

“Sketch Two”-The sound of breakfast in the morning, being prepared as stuff is being set on the dinner table.

“Sketch Three”-Metal cans, cat food cans, etc., being poured down all over the floor one by one.

“Sketch Four”-Strange static appears as a jazz man plays drums to accompany it.

“Sketch Five”-Industrial machinery makes all kinds of sounds, along with the ringing of flattened jingle bells.

That was an awesome EP! In fact, these recordings were part of the Masters in Sound Art at the London College of Communication, and even the Tate Modern’s Learning Centre.

You can find this EP here at: http://lefthandcutsofftheright.bandcamp.com/album/five-sketches-for-joseph-beuys

“Where is the Edge” (“Где тот край”) by Sokol (Сокол), OR Could the Soviet Russians Have Invented Arena Rock in the 1960’s Without the World Realizing It?

Sokol, whose name is Russian for The Falcons, were the first Russian rock group to form in the Soviet Union (however, the very first Soviet rock group was a Latvian band from 1961 called The Revengers). Sokol were named after the district of Moscow where the band members lived. In a time where the communist government of the Soviet Union placed very strong restrictions on rock music to the point of almost banning it, Sokol performed underground concerts and recorded songs privately. Some of these recordings can easily be found online, particularly through YouTube. The band’s only practical official release was a couple of songs they recorded for an animated short film from 1968 called Film, Film, Film, which was distributed by the state-run animation firm Soyuzmultfilm.

Some recordings were released on compilation albums, but their legal status is not certain. I discovered a recording by Sokol that was dated to be recorded in 1965, and it didn’t sound like beat, rock n’ roll, or pop. Instead, the song, entitled “Where is the Edge” (Russian: “Где тот край”), consists of something that is so ahead of its time that it sounded like it came from the mid-to-late 1980’s. In fact, this means that the Soviet Union invented arena rock without the world realizing it!

I discovered this song as I was looking up stuff from Sokol on YouTube, and I clicked on the video with the song in it, and after listening to it for the first time, I thought it was the greatest Russian song I had ever heard. The music was full of killer guitar solos, like a cross between Journey’s Neal Schon and famed session guitarist Steve Lukather, synthesizer, stellar drumming, and typical mid-60’s rock instruments like Hammond B3 organ and acoustic piano. I even translated the video’s description from Russian to English, and it said that the song did come from 1965, and I even YouTube searched songs with the same Russian title, and three results for the same Sokol song came up first. I even noticed the recording quality, which sounds like it came from a reel-to-reel recording, which is typical by 1960’s rock music standards.

The whole song structure all makes sense because eight years before the song was recorded, in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I into outer space, beginning the legacy of new frontiers in space travel. This also meant that the Soviets were constructing and innovating more and more electronic technologies.

You can check out the song here at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x3BxbtBxtw