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Rating: Dear DeBaseriano, have you ever found yourself falling in love with a band's image? It happened to me with Crime, and so the first piece of advice I can give you, if you don't know this band yet, is to search online for their iconographic material, from the covers of the (few) published records, to the concert posters, to the flyers... Whether they're dressed as 1940s gangsters or in the uniforms of the local San Francisco police, captured in an auteur black and white, they appear as credible protagonists of a hard-boiled novel à la Dashiell Hammett.
Johnny Strike, Frankie Fix, Ron "The Ripper," and Hank Rank proclaimed themselves the first and only rock'n'roll band in San Francisco. Arrogant and boastful enough, but also aware of their own greatness.
Because they were among the greatest, despite a rather scant official discography, comprising only two singles, the explosive «Hot Wire My Heart / Baby You're So Repulsive» from 1976 and «Murder By Guitar / Frustration» from 1977; in fact, there is also a third single, the (in my opinion) dispensable «Maserati / Gangster Funk» from 1980.
And yet, to testify to the band's value are also, and above all, the many other episodes that at the time remained locked away: from «San Francisco's Doomed» to «Rock'n'Roll Enemy No. 1», from «Crime Wave» to «Piss On Your Dog», these are just some of the diamonds brought to the surface with this anthology, as evidence of an undeniable talent.
It is true, they are rough diamonds (since the recording quality isn't the best), but there are cases where perfection and sound cleanliness as well as precise execution are certainly not a flaw; and this is the case with Crime, indeed.
Crime played punk, and indeed you might find them cataloged in some anthology of the genre. But they were more punk in attitude than in substance: theirs was in fact a blend of ancient flavors, from blues and '50s rock, filtered through the urgency and tension of '77. To give an idea, I think that if the Rolling Stones had been infected by the punk wave, then instead of «Exile On Main Street» they might have produced any of the tracks in this anthology; but I am equally convinced that when Jon Spencer played «Now I Got Worry», he kept Crime's lesson very much in mind.
Paraphrasing a definition stuck to the aforementioned Stones by someone who understands much more than me, Crime really sounded «filthy and nauseating», perhaps rightly so «The first and only rock'n'roll band in San Francisco».
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Frustration (02:24)
Frustrated and ya shoot it up my way
Transfusion when you're movin' down a highway
Love the way ya scream and cheat and beat your guitar
Everybody says you've taken it too far
Well
Frustrated baby I'm gonna move on you
Frustrated honey and I know what'cha do
I see your face nearly every day
All you hippies can fade away
Double trouble for Mad Dog Colonel
Philadelphia and you do the stroll
Seen ya in your alley Mustang Sally
Take you home and they shoot you up
Well
Frustrated baby I'm gonna move on you
Frustrated honey and I know what'cha do
I see your face nearly every day
All you hippies can fade away
06 Piss On Your Dog (02:36)
Woke up on the wrong day-searching for my k-9
Fell down in the street, rolled over and jumped a stop sign
Saw you in the gutter and I just had to go-go
Piss on your dog-go piss on your bow-wow
Drivin' down the wrong street, rattled through the subway
Couldn't find the sign and I couldn't see the k-9
Screaming out your window and I just had to go-go
Piss on your dog, go piss on your dog
Woke up on the wrong day-searching for my k-9
Fell down in the street, rolled over and jumped a stop sign
Saw you in the gutter and I just had to go-go
Piss on your dog, go piss on your dog
Piss on your dog
10 Murder by Guitar (04:30)
Yeah it looks like murder
Yeah it looks like murder
Murder by guitar-one two three
Murder by guitar-in the first degree
Murder by guitar-nasty boys
Murder by guitar-death by noise
Murder by guitar-I'm on the run
Murder by guitar-three to one
Murder by guitar was the only way
Murder by guitar-Aaaaaaayy
Murder by guitar-one two three
Murder by guitar-in the first degree
Murder by guitar-inside your head
Murder by guitar-na-na-na-na-now you're dead
Murder by guitar-murder by guitar-murder by guitar
Right into your heart man
16 Emergency Music Ward (02:06)
Take me to the E.M.W.
Take me to the x-ray rythm machine
Let me see the song I had to write
Let me hear the soundwaves of the other patients ear-plugettes
Radio rocket nurses working nite-shift
A new patient jumps up in the day shift
Starts singing aloud with a moderate beat
Doctor d is dead-doctor d is dead-doctor d is dead
The rocket nurse runs in with a Sony
And plugs it into the raving mans head
Everybodys channels switched to soul shake
Shake down-shakin' all over
My guitar lays on the floor bleeding blood not donated
I push button my perscription-5000 milligrams
May cause drowsiness-don't drive under the influence
I overdose at the emergency music ward - I o.d. at the e.m.w.
I overdose at the emergency music ward - I o.d. at the e.m.w.
I overdose at the emergency music ward - emergency music ward
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