by Lang Reid
IWith
George W Bush having been re-elected, despite Michael Moore’s books and
movies, the anti-Bush lobby looked as if it was going to run out of
ammunition. However, rather than wait until three years into the
presidential term before reloading their WMD’s (weapons of mass
derision) and reloading the shelves, they managed to produce (in very
quick time) The Bush Survival Bible, edited by Gene Stone, ISBN
0-8129-7476-X, published by Random House at the end of 2004.
The book is made up of short snappy chapters claiming
to cover Tips to Maintain Your Sanity, People Worse than Bush, New Drinks
to Get You By, Lovable Dog Breeds to Adopt and Reasons to Love Global
Warming and other assorted non-related topics. By now you will have
already seen that this book is not focused, no matter what its title.
It is difficult to give any of the chapters much
credence, other than the one with nine people worse than GWB. There is a
brief thumbnail sketch after each one, and the nine nominations include
Tomas de Torquemada from the Spanish Inquisitions, Vlad the Impaler who
gave rise to the Dracula legend, Adolf Hitler, who needs no introduction;
Cambodia’s Pol Pot and Idi Amin.
Interspersed throughout the book are George W Bush
jokes and then those are followed by Bush quotations, showing that Dubbya
is a keen follower of Mrs. Malaprop and the Rev. Spooner, with such gems
as “Security is the essential roadblock to achieving the road map to
peace.” (Washington DC July 25 2003) or “Families is where our nation
finds hope, where wings take dream.” (LaCrosse, Wisconsin, October 18,
2000).
Quite frankly, I believe this book is rubbish. It has
been thrown together hoping to win buyers on the rebound from the
elections in the US. However, since slightly more than 50 percent of
Americans gave George Dubbya another four years in office, perhaps the
slightly less than 50 percent who lost are politically challenged enough
to buy this book as well.
The review copy did not come with its price in this country. I was so
underwhelmed by the slim volume that I could not be bothered to find out
how much it sells for. Even given away free, it is not worth keeping. It
is also too light to hold the door open in anything past Force 1 on the
Zephyr scale of breezes. Perforate the pages and hang in the toilet.
Private Dancer
Ireviewed this book, written by Stephen Leather, six weeks ago and at the
time wrote, “This was the best book you cannot buy”, as it was only
available as a down-load from the internet. I finished the review by
stating, “Brilliant book. Leather’s publishers are crazy to let this
one escape!”
Taking these sorts of comments to heart, Stephen Leather has published
it himself, so now you can go to your favorite bookseller, and for B. 350,
buy the best book regarding the relationships with bar girls that you can
ever read. This should be compulsory reading for all first-timers to
Thailand. Buy one for your friends back home.
The story of a Five Star Rock ‘n’ Roll Star – part five
A doff off the hat
from Mott the Dog and
a curtsy from Ella Crew
Luther
Grosvenor finally made it back into the studio to record his first album
in nearly twenty years, in 1996 at Steve Winwood’s studio. Once there
the creativity stacked up over the years all came tumbling out. In two
weeks ten tracks were completed and ready for release. Luther surrounded
himself with old mates including ex Spooky Tooth Mike Kellie (who as
well as playing sturdy drums wrote ‘Fullness Of Time’ for the
album); Dave Moore took the keyboard position; while Steve Dolan has the
time of his life supplying the bass notes. Jess Roden makes two guest
appearances on the two cover songs, a storming version of Joe Tex’
‘I Wanna Be Free’, and a roaring slab of Bob Seger’s ‘Fire Down
Below’.
But it is obvious Luther Grosvenor is the star. Ariel
Bender leaps out at you during the rockers and nails the solos to the
mast. The solo on ‘Best Years Of My Life comes out and knocks your
boots off. If there was any doubt that Luther Grosvenor had lost his
chops, that doubt is gone in seconds. Just listen to the opening song,
the autobiographical ‘Evesham Boy’.
Luther Grosvenor co-wrote six of the songs with long
time buddy from Blues 92 days John Ledsom. Mixed into the album are some
wonderful blues numbers where Luther really lets rip, along with a very
moving instrumental ‘Cathy’, dedicated to Luther’s wife. The music
was arranged by Dave Moore, but Luther’s playing is outstanding, you
really have to love some very much to get that sort of emotion out of a
guitar. The title song is played twice, once electrically and again at
the end of the album acoustically. ‘Floodgates’ is without doubt one
of the great albums of the nineties.
With the great critical success of ‘Floodgates’,
the idea was put out to re-form the original Spooky Tooth, feeling that
there was some unfinished business there. The band convened to Germany
to start recording, but Gary Wright had to send apologies as his
recording commitments in America did not permit him to join the others.
So the other four, Mike Harrison, Greg Ridley, Mike Kellie and Luther
Grosvenor, went ahead with recording with out him.
It was a mistake. It just isn’t Spooky Tooth
without Gary Wright. Obviously the playing is staggeringly good, and
they get to re-record an old Spooky Classic ‘That Was Only
Yesterday’, and one from the days of Art, ‘Love Is Rea’. Luther
Grosvenor plays some lovely guitar, but in general the album lacked that
necessary spark. It was finally released titled ‘Cross Purposes’ to
an indifferent public in 1999.
Luther Grosvenor did allow Ariel Bender out of the
cupboard one more time though. In April of 1999 Ariel Bender joined the
Ian Hunter band for the encores at the first annual Mott the Hoople
Convention. The band stormed into ‘Walkin’ with A Mountain’ and
Ariel Bender was so busy throwing shapes that he didn’t even notice
his guitar was not plugged in (a little too much Dutch courage). But
Ariel Bender still performed the gig of his life.
Those wonderful people at Angel Air have re-released
‘Floodgates’ as an Anthology with an in-depth biography including
some rare photos. They added on the two tracks from the Peter Green
tribute album ‘Rattlesnake Guitar’; the best of the tracks from the
Spooky Tooth reunion album; the first single from Deep Feeling,
‘Pretty Colours’, from way back in 1966; and as a special treat
tacked onto the end is a live version of ‘Here Comes the Queen’ from
1974, Ariel Bender playing with Mott the Hoople in Santa Monica. Ariel
Bender always seemed to get the last word.
A second solo album was planned in 2000, but in a
dramatic turn around, Luther Grosvenor decided enough was enough and
announced his complete retirement from the music business. This time it
seems like the retirement is final. A man who can produce an album of
the quality of ‘Floodgates’ will be sorely missed.
“Floodgates they can open or they close,
Floodgates can open many broken roads,
Life is like a Prayer that never seems to end,
A never-ending Story, a never-ending Friend.”
Floodgates by Luther Grosvenor. (1996)
To contact Mott the
Dog email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.mott-the-dog.com
Mott’s CD review: From Luther Grosvenor to Ariel Bender and Beyond