Tuesday 30 July 2019

Kim Fowley ‎– "Love Is Alive And Well" (Tower ‎– DT 5080) 1967


Looking like a Flower Power version of Malcolm McDowell as 'Alex' from 'The Clockwork Orange',you just know something's wrong here. The Self-appointed 'Lord of Garbage', Kim Fowley had a wide and varied career in Pop Music, chiefly as a producer and writer of novelty hits,exploiter of trends and of gleefully cultivating the 'shock factor'.
If a new trend was evident, he would be there with a semi-relevent single ,album, or group.Like a child molester offering access to some puppies
In his late twenties by 1967, with a rapists stare, as well as a rapists witt,he surrounded himself with Flower Children and likely deflowered the ones he could;all this while doing his best impression of Sky Saxon and The Seeds.
His tongue firmly in cheek, as well as in other places, it isn't entirely clear if he's semi-serious,or just a piss-taking predator.
The track "Super Flower", has no music, no singing,only Fowley interviewing a group of Sunset Strip teenyboppers with questions like: ‘Why do you love Kim Fowley?’ or ‘You, flower child; what’s your opinion?’ It would be magnanimous if it wasn’t such an obvious set up, with ‘...he’s beautiful, kind, considerate…generous…’ or ‘wonderful, marvelous’ being the only answers!
He ticks all the boxes for 'Cult Leader',of which there was too much competition in 1967, so he stuck with Pop music,and released this Psychsploitation classic.
He went onto Glamsploitation,Punxsplotation Metalsploitation,in fact anysploitation.Culminationing in his greatest creation, The Runaways.Unfortunately the heavily ticked 'Rapist' box on his cult-leader application form ,was proved to be far too accurate when he,'allegedly'(I had to put that in for legal reasons) Raped Jackie Fox, of the Runaways, in front of scores of witnesses,and the rest of the Band (Joan Jett????There are witnesses that you witnessed this) in 1975.
This is the man and the ego who had the audacity to record a song called “Me” with a co-written songwriting credit, no less! But, again, like Gary Glitter, don't let the man get in the way of the art.He is,after all, Dead.
The nonsense lyrics to 'reincarnation' describe in detail what the afterlife has in store for him,and probably us too?:


“I’ll be back
As a brown paper sack,
A wretched guitar
Or a Chinese car...”

Or perhaps

“I’ll reappear
As a reindeer
Or a tin can full of
Ice cold beer...”


I don't think I could drink a cold can of beer ever again!?

Tracklist:

1 Love Is Alive And Well 1:34
2 Flower City 2:07
3 Flower Drum Drum 2:58
4 This Planet Love 2:10
5 War Game 3:07
6 Reincarnation 2:08
7 See How The Other Half Love 2:00
8 Flowers 1:45
9 Super Flower 1:59
10 Me 1:45


BONUS TRACK:

11. The Trip 2:03

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