ua

ua

Friday, April 02, 2021

The Gun Club: The Las Vegas Story 1984

The Las Vegas Story is the third studio album by punk blues group The Gun Club, released in 1984.


This album saw the return of founding member and lead guitarist Kid Congo Powers, after a three-year stint with The Cramps. The album was dedicated to Debbie Harry "for her love, help and encouragement."
                                                                                                      

[AllMusic Review by Thom Jurek  

The tragedy of the Gun Club's third album, The Las Vegas Story, is that it was largely ignored by both critics and fans due to the mixing and mastering disaster that marred its predecessor, Miami -- an album that was full of great songs and performances but was so marred by poor sound that it sounded lifeless. Both records were issued by Chris Stein's Animal label.
                                                                           

The Las Vegas Story was produced by Jeff Eyrich who was just coming off T-Bone Burnett's Proof

Through the Night project and was about to enter the studio with both the Plimsouls and Thin White Rope. Its lineup features the return of original guitarist Kid Congo Powers, as well as drummer Terry Graham and new bassist Patricia Morrison (aka Pat Bag) from L.A. punk outfit the Bags.
                                                                                   

Late frontman /guitarist Jeffrey Lee Pierce was writing feverish rock & roll songs that took their

inspiration from Southern blues and West Texas country music all framed by an angular, jagged post-punk energy. The screaming rawness at the heart of the band's debut, Fire of Love, had been replaced by a dry, moaning lonesome, percussion heavy desert sound, space and echo float through the mix like a ghost through Pierce's slide guitar playing.
                                                                        


Bass drum and tom-toms fuel the attack with a basic, primitive nocturnal energy. Topics ranged from

personal disintegration in "Walkin' with the Beast," and the country-blues-drenched "Eternally Is Here," and the shambolic, two-step country confusion of "My Dreams" that quotes directly from Television's "Marquee Moon" to the disappearance of the nation in "Bad America"'s edgy guitar wrangle.
                                                                       

There are a couple of covers on the set tossed right in the center of the album: "The Master Plan," a

spooky, brooding, rock read of Pharoah Sanders' and Leon Thomas' "The Creator Has a Master Plan," and a slovenly, funereal version of "My Man's Gone Now," by George and Ira Gershwin from Porgy and Bess. The Las Vegas Story is a provocative record that reveals the Gun Club was pulled in many directions at once, and though the tension is in evidence on every track, it nonetheless holds together. After Fire of Love, The Las Vegas Story is their most satisfying album and is, perhaps, the band's most visionary offering.]

TRAXS

                                                                                             


01. The Las Vegas Story     0:23
02. Walking With The Beast     4:30
03. Eternally Is Here     3:02
04. The Stranger In Our Town     5:10
05. My Dreams     4:01
06. The Creator Was A Master Plan     1:50
07. My Man's Gone Now     3:14
08. Bad America     4:56
09. Moonlight Hotel     3:08
10. Give Up The Sun     6:02


All songs composed by Jeffrey Lee Pierce, except: "The Master Plan" (Leon Thomas, Pharoah Sanders) - "My Man's Gone Now" (DuBose Heyward, George Gershwin)
                                                                                 


Personnel

Jeffrey Lee Pierce – vocals, guitars, bells, musical tube, montage and piano on "The Master Plan"
Kid Congo Powers – excessive feedback, guitar and slide guitar, whirling whirlies, maracas and ancient mutterings
Patricia Morrison – bass, backing vocals, maracas and Bacardi
Terry Graham – drums

Additional musicians

Mustang Dave Alvin – lead guitar on "Eternally Is Here" and "The Stranger in Our Town"

MP3 @ 320 Size: 87 MB
Flac  Size: 231 MB

 
WALKING WITH THE BEAST  LYRICS




In the still of the night, I walk with the Beast
In the heat of the night, I sleep with the Beast
Who slipped so deep inside me
And rots the love right out of me

I prayed to Elvis on my knees
To take this thing from around me
Or snap it with a thundercrack
And change my blues to black

But, how did my love surround me
With such a dead thing around me,
I'm just walkin' I'm just walkin'
I'm just walkin'
Walkin' with the Beast...

I'm not alone, there's trucks outside
My body hurts, there's trucks outside
You get lucky in the bar
You're down and lucky in the dark

Indian winds across the skies
Black against the Nevada skies
There's nothing you say that does not squeal
There's nothing you want you do not steal

 



Well, how my love surrounds me
With such a dead thing around me
I'm just walkin' I'm just walkin'
I'm just walkin'
Walkin' with the Beast

The Beast will be with me tonight
Wild across the western sky
Someday, I'll go to the mountain and take my stand
And my spirit will rain all over this land

Sick across the highway bar
Sick and going way too far
It's the new world, see if you like it
It's the new world, you cannot fight it

Well, how my love done blessed me
With such a dead thing around me,
I'm just walkin' with the beast...


2 comments: