Monday, September 22, 2008

Great Lost Singles of the Seventies (Part XXVI)

From 1977, it's Sonic's Rendezvous Band and the utterly incredible "City Slang."



if you've never heard this, it's more or less the definitive hard rock record ever. Okay, that's a slight exagerration, but seriously, if the hair on the back of your neck isn't standing up after that opening bass riff when the guitars kick in I would seek immediate medical attention.

6 comments:

MJConroy said...

Holy Mother of Michigan!
Never heard this before.
Anybody got the 6 cd set?

http://www.amazon.com/Sonics-Rendezvous-Band/dp/B000I2J3A8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1222102500&sr=1-1

steve simels said...

I've been very tempted to spring for that set, but the priciness has deterred me up till now.

For the time being, I've consoled myself with downloading the song from iTunes...

Of course, I do have a birthday coming up....
:-)

MBowen said...

With a more compelling vocal, that would be one of the best records I've ever heard. Unfortunately, the singer is just undistinguished enough to consign it to the "almost but not quite" bin.

I saw Patti Smith back in fall of 1978 and she talked this song up bigtime. "The Ramones, they're great, The Clash, they're great, 'City Slang', it's great too." She also played "Frederick" months before it was recorded, and in fact before she'd actually finished the words. It was much better than the (over)produced by Todd Rundgren version that was eventually released.

Anonymous said...

It's a great loss that Sonic's Rendezvous Band never made it bigger!

ROT(Plumber)

Kid Charlemagne said...

Hey, this sounds like Radio Birdman!!!

Anonymous said...

The studio version is great but quite honestly, the live version from the 'Sweet Nothing' album blows this out of the water. Check it out if you haven't already.

By the way, nice to see there's stuff by these guys on youtube :-)