Monday, July 6, 2009

SIMON STOKES SUPER POST!

Here's a guy who should need no introduction, but yet he does. Simon has got to be one of the best keep secrets in rock 'n' roll, Drop his name to most music fans and suddenly they draw a blank,but for those who are familiar with his work he is a genius,no doubt about it. No one else could have made these records,drenched in the biker lifestyle at a time when bikers were still bikers not rich ass yuppie pieces of shit like nowadays. Drug culture was underground and not at the mall and the only people who had tattoos were convicts,bikers and the military. So at the time Simon must have been pretty scary to Mr.suit and the status quo. Sure there were hippies running around all over the place but to me Simon does not fit that mold at all. His songs are full of violence ,drugs,transsexuals and Harley's, delivered in a gruff almost Howling wolf vocal style. Not exactly a Grateful dead show, maybe a Stones show but not the Dead. There's actually alot to the Simon Stokes story, From being signed at the same time as the Stooges and MC5 , doing an album with Timothy Leary, to his later soundtrack work on the Outlaw riders soundtrack, the Punisher soundtrack and one of the Child's Play movies to being featured in the "American pop" movie. Far more than I could ever go into here on this page and he's still making music. Luckily the man made some music that will explain all you really need to know.
First up is Simon Stokes and the Nighthawks. An absolute classic piece of vinyl, Simon had been in several heavy psych bands leading up to this, but he really went for it on this one. Its very lowbrow dirty rock 'n' roll sound would have even frightened the most jaded listener of the time. This music simply oozes sleaze. From the biker anthem's "Big city blues" and "Ride on angel" to the down right depressing "You've been in" there no doubt that Simon a had a unique and very real vision of his music, give this a listen and then flip off a yuppie on a hog!
Next up is Simon's masterpiece and my personal favorite "Simon Stokes and the black whip thrill band". From the album cover to title to the songs included this is a classic. Simon's voice is even more weathered on this one and the songs are a little darker. Included are a re-record of "Ride on angel" plus many other great tunes like "The devil just called my name", "Should have married Peggy sue" and the classic "The wolf pack rides at night"
Next is a lessor but still good album, I think its interesting that Simon took this turn. It seems like he was being a little watered down here, I'm not sure if that was his call or someone else's, never the less this is a OK album that has a few really good songs. Again we get another re-record of "Big city blues" this time around it's given an almost disco make over, which really should be heard by any fan to be believed. I put off buying this one for along time and I can see why it's not making any top ten lists, but I am glad I bought at least for one song called "Earthquake". It which shows Simon commanding a much larger and more Vegas type band, I can only speculate about how this came about in real life. Who knows really, Simon was hanging out with a weird crowd, I remember seeing a photo of him with Sammy Davis Jr. around this time so maybe had his sights set on the ageing rat pack who really knows, all we have are the albums. So give Simon a listen and see what you think!

Just like the knights of old, the wolf pack rides the night!


Simon stokes and the nighthawks
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?zidaid14wjq



Simon Stokes and the black whip thrill band
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ydmgzfjywfz



Simon Stokes- Buzzard of love LP

7 comments:

  1. Man its great to find these! I had the pleasure of meeting Simon at the first confederacy of scum super show, great guy. never have found these until now thanks for posting!

    ReplyDelete
  2. dear sir,
    would you be interested in the latest simon stokes release "Head"?

    toothpickelbow@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can't thank you enough for introducing me to mr stokes. I think I'll be listening to these albums for a while.

    Just in case you've not already heard of him (though i'm sure you have)you might like the music of a mr armand schaubroeck, I was instantly reminded of him whilst listning to stokes. The tracks "ratfucker" and "buried alive" are both on youtube and would probably give you a good idea of his sound.

    Thanks again NTL

    ReplyDelete
  4. Today is the 19th of May of the year 2011. 18 months since the last post. You probably are not reading these any longer so you will miss this but maybe it will save some others from the frustration I got after I unpacked your uploaded partial file that I downloaded. Anyway, where is track 8 (If I Wanted To) in the Blackwhip album? You skipped over it and named the next track number 8 instead. I guess you didn't think anybody would know. Thanks for an incomplete album. I hate when that happens so I hate you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hmmm... Looks like some people get very serious about these files. But actually there is an error but no tracks are missing. In this version of the CD song positions 6 and 7 are one contiunuous track. The person who copied the names missed that and that was the start of several attempts to correctly name the mp3 files. But in the end it was a sloppy and bungled job but can be corrected very easily. lol

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jeebus, hate a guy for his dedication to posting his awesome collection so shitheads can whine about a missing track? Get real. Go buy some music.

    ReplyDelete
  7. A legend.
    His first two albums are easily among the best albums of the seventies, if not of all time. Simon Stokes is the essence of rock'n'roll.

    ReplyDelete

 

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