Rhinofy-Five Man Acoustical Jam
In retrospect the debut is the best.
But this live album is my favorite. My favorite live album of all time, hell, I’ve listened to it enough!
The debut got traction. Especially with “Modern Day Cowboy”… That’s on the live album too, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
You want to listen to “EZ Come EZ Go” and “Gettin’ Better” and “Little Suzi” and “Cumin’ Atcha Live.” But mostly I didn’t. I didn’t get hooked until the second album, the vastly uneven “The Great Radio Controversy.”
By 1989 CD players were de rigueur. And finally, we could program our favorite cuts. Want to know what killed the album? Not Napster, but the CD. You could listen to just the single, just your favorites, and there was no second side to give the CD bite. An hour plus of material was oftentimes impenetrable. At least in the days of vinyl you knew the second side opener was a killer, and the last cut on each side. They counted. What counted on a CD other than the opening cut? Which is why you should always put your best cut first, people may not get any further. Album sequencing? Best to worst, it’s just that simple. Then again, we won’t have albums to kick around that much longer…ha!
Anyway, there are three killer cuts on “The Great Radio Controversy,” “Lazy Days, Crazy Nights,” “The Way It Is” and “Love Song.” Oh, eventually I came to love “Heaven’s Trail (No Way Out)” and “Paradise,” knowing them from the live album, and I’ll admit “Party’s Over” is a good closer, but there was a period in 1989 when I’d play the first three tracks in a loop, on repeat…FOREVER!
Let’s start with “Lazy Days, Crazy Nights.” It’s the sound, the intro, like they’re building a spaceship to Mars. The first note makes you want to sign up. To this heavy excursion, piloted by the production team of Michael Barbiero, a disco expert!, and Steve Thompson.
But I love those lazy and crazy nights
It’s my way, it’s my life
EXACTLY! If you know me, you know I’m a night owl. I’d stay up all night every night if I could. I love it when the sun goes down, the world is my own, people stop calling, e-mailing and texting, even if I never leave the house I’m on my own mental adventure.
But my favorite of the three, my favorite song on “The Great Radio Controversy,” is “The Way It Is.”
Even though we could never seem to work things out
I still love you just the same
I miss your smile and that sparkle in your eyes
You’re so beautiful, never change
That’s exactly how I felt. It takes a long time to let go after they move out. You’re angry, but you’re still connected. Over time, you feel warmer towards them, but at first you’re in shock.
But what I love most about this verse is the way the song goes quiet, Jeff Keith is almost singing sotto voce, it’s private, intimate…and for that reason intense.
And there’s a great solo too!
And then comes the piece de resistance, “Love Song.”
On “The Great Radio Controversy” there’s a seemingly endless instrumental intro, which works perfectly because it sets the song up… After a minute, the music changes, it’s like the sun is rising and…
So you think that it’s over
That your love has finally reached the end
Any time you call, night or day
I’ll be right there for you, if you need a friend
That’s what you need when you’re at loose ends, friends. Hopefully you didn’t abandon yours when you got involved with your significant other, because loneliness kills.
But it’s not forever.
That’s the point of the chorus…
Love is all around you
Love is knockin’ outside your door
Waitin’ for you is this love made just for two
Keep an open heart and you’ll find love again, I know
Yup, you’ll lick your wounds and recover. Realize that’s what everybody’s looking for, connection. You’ll get into a conversation and your heart will smile as well as your lips and you’ll be in heaven. You’ve just got to hang in there.
And then the song explodes, the guitar wails…
And that’s exactly what happened, “Love Song” exploded. Through a special effects video banged on MTV of a live show, you see the girl on the guy’s shoulders and you just feel good all over. Hell, you know the power of music!
And then came “Five Man Acoustical Jam.”
It was Queenie Taylor’s idea. A promoter, who booked Slim’s. She saw Tesla perform acoustically at the Bammies, she asked them to do so at a club. That’s how greatness occurs, via happy accidents, often incited by another.
And you roll up that catalog and a few covers into a live show and you’ve got an album so infectious that you’ve got to get the DVD just to see it, to join in on the fun.
It’s more than the songs, it’s the narration, the offhand comments, you truly feel like you’re there…
It begins with “Comin’ Atcha Live,” which has a totally different feel than the studio take on “Mechanical Resonance,” it’s like walking into a biker bar with country musicians pickin’ and grinnin’ and swilling beer and your body shakes and you smile and you feel like the world is your oyster.
I’m a mean machine, I’m the kind you don’t wanna meet
My middle name is trouble, I’m a danger in the street
Acoustically this loses the edge and only the rebellion remains. The essence of rock and roll.
And “Comin’ Atcha Live” merges into “Truckin’,” a take any Deadhead would love if they could realize we share so many of the same roots, hard rockers and jam band fans.
And the second number is “Heaven’s Trail (No Way Out),” which sounds like everybody in the club put on their boots and went out hiking into the wilderness, leaving civilization behind.
You know there’s nothin’ like the real world to get me down
There’s nothin’ like the world outside that turns me upside down
This is the essence of hard rock, of metal, the alienation. But it takes a new twist on “Five Man Acoustical Jam,” because that’s what it is…ACOUSTICAL! The songs gain colors and subtleties they never had in their hard rock incarnations.
And then come the hits. For me anyway!
Yup, a live rendition of “The Way It Is” that makes you want to buy a guitar and practice just to play this. The vocal is imperfect, but isn’t life? On the studio take the instrumentation takes away from the meaning of the lyrics. Here, the words shine. I sing them in my head all the time.
Try to see it my way
Do I have to keep on talkin’ till I can’t go on
Yup, that’s right, WE CAN WORK IT OUT! One of those magical Beatle numbers that make our hearts swoon. This is what we did, play these songs in a circle in the sixties, but now they were doing the same twenty five years later.
And then came the hit. A cover of the Five Man Electrical Band’s “Signs.”
Who even remembered this song? I mean it was carved into my DNA, but I thought I was alone, but it turned out this band from Sacramento much younger than me knew it too. And it’s done half-seriously, half-jokingly, and as a result lightning is trapped in a bottle and a hit is born. Yup, a live cut riddled with imperfections broke through. Because it contains the essence of a hit… MAGIC!
And you’ve got to hear “Lodi” and “Mother’s Little Helper” but don’t miss “Love Song” and “Modern Day Cowboy,” which takes on a greater darkness played acoustically. Sometimes you strip things down, get quiet, and songs take on even more meaning.
But really, you’ll love every minute of “Five Man Acoustical Jam.”
Or you won’t.
You see we used to all listen to everything. Until rap, when a segment of the audience peeled off. Just after hard rock/metal separated from the mainstream.
And I never hear anybody talk about this album anymore, never mind this group. But I kept a cassette in my glovebox for fifteen years, just in case I needed a hit, a CD is within arm’s reach.
And just like Cheap Trick, the band’s career was derailed by a huge live album. “Psychotic Supper” has got the positively brilliant “What You Give” with the dynamics of a Led Zeppelin track, but the rest of the record was uneven and after such a huge commercial success, it was hard to get everybody’s attention focused once again.
Yup, too much success can hurt. Just ask Alanis Morissette!
But this was before “Jagged Little Pill.” Even before “Nevermind.”
I feel so lonely, yet I know I’m not the only one
To ever feel this way
That’s what it says in “What You Give.” And ain’t that the truth.
And that’s one reason we have music, to fill up the space, to eradicate the loneliness.
And that’s exactly what “Five Man Acoustical Jam” does. Squeeze out all the bad feelings and replace them with an exuberance that makes you live in the moment and anticipate greatness in the future. And the great thing is it’s there whenever you need it, ready to be played, to lift you right up.
