Plasmatics: New Hope For The Wreched 1980 + Metal Pristerss 1981 + Beyond The Valley Of 1984 (1981)

 

At a time (the late '70s and early '80s) and a place (the New York punk scene) where shocking the

audience was often the order of the day, few bands had a greater gift for cultivating outrage than the Plasmatics. During the group's heyday, a Plasmatics show could include anything from lead singer Wendy O. Williams covered in shaving cream and electrical tape while brandishing a chain saw as blue-haired Richie Stotts attacked his guitar in drag, to the destruction of televisions, electric guitars, automobiles, and other consumer goods.
               

Plenty of punk bands of the time courted controversy, but the Plasmatics took it a step further;

they were banned in several major cities (most notably London) and Williams stood trial for obscenity in a celebrated 1981 court case in Milwaukee, but the band also helped bring punk to the heartland through their crazed stage shows, frequent television appearances, and a prescient fusion of punk velocity with heavy metal guitar power.
            

In 1977, Rod Swenson, who received his Master of Fine Arts in 1969 from Yale University where he specialized in conceptual, performance, and neo-dadaist art, holding the view that the measure of true or high art is how confrontational it is. He began a series of counter-culture projects which, by the

mid-'70s, found him in the heart of Times Square producing experimental counter-culture theater as well as video and shows with the likes of the then-little-known bands The Dead Boys, The Ramones, Patti Smith, and others. It was there that he met Wendy O. Williams after Williams found a copy of Show Business Weekly someone had discarded on the bus station floor. The issue lay open to a page with an ad in the casting calls section for Swenson's theater show Captain Kink's Sex Fantasy Theater. She answered the ad and applied for a job.
                

Williams and Swenson began auditioning potential band members in 1977 and, in July 1978, the Plasmatics gave their first public performance at what had become the rock shrine CBGB on

New York City's Bowery. The earliest version of the band was a three-piece put together with a strong emphasis on visuals. The band quickly realized they needed another guitarist to hold them together musically. Guitarist Wes Beech joined the group and he would become, after Williams, the only permanent member of the band playing or touring behind or involved in the production of every Plasmatics and Wendy O. Williams record ever recorded.
           

However, in January 1981 Williams was arrested following a show in Milwaukee, WI, for obscenity, with the police claiming Williams had performed a lewd act on stage with a

sledgehammer. Williams was also severely beaten by police following the arrest, with the officers claiming she had tried to attack them. A few days later, Williams was arrested for obscenity again in Cleveland, OH; in time, she would be cleared of all charges in both cities, but the press attention helped boost the group's already notorious public profile. Later that year the Plasmatics recorded their second LP, Beyond the Valley of 1984, which featured former Alice Cooper drummer Neal Smith behind the traps following the departure of Stu Deutsch.
           

LEMMY & WENDY

Williams recorded a duet of the country hit "Stand by Your Man" with Lemmy of Motörhead in 1982. In 1984, she released the W.O.W. album, produced by Gene Simmons of Kiss. Kiss members Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Eric Carr, also perform on the album. Gene Simmons brought in Michael Ray to play lead guitar; Ray was previously auditioning on Creatures of the Night studio solos.

Williams first attempted suicide in 1993 by hammering a knife into her chest where it lodged in her sternum. However, she changed her mind and called Rod Swenson to take her to the hospital. She attempted suicide again in 1997 with an overdose of ephedrine. Williams died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 6, 1998, when she was 48. Swenson, her partner for more than 20 years, returned to their home in the area where they had lived since moving to Connecticut from New York City. He found a package she left for him that contained some noodles he liked, a packet of seeds for growing garden greens, some Oriental massage balm, and sealed letters from her.
             

The suicide letters, which included a "living will" denying life support, a love letter to Swenson and various lists of things to do, caused Swenson to begin searching the woods for her. After about an hour,

as dusk fell, he found her body in a wooded area with a pistol lying on the ground nearby. She had apparently been feeding wild squirrels moments before her suicide, as well as putting a bag over her head before shooting herself to spare her partner the horrible sight. "Wendy's act was not an irrational in-the-moment act," he said; for four years she had contemplated suicide. Swenson reportedly described her as "despondent" at the time of her death. This is what she reportedly wrote[28] in a suicide note regarding her decision:
          

I don't believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a

considerable period of time. I do believe strongly, however, that the right to do so is one of the most fundamental rights that anyone in a free society should have. For me, much of the world makes no sense, but my feelings about what I am doing ring loud and clear to an inner ear and a place where there is no self, only calm.
              

PLASMATICS - NEW HOPE FOR THE WRETCHED 1980 / METAL PRISTESS 1981

            

New Hope for the Wretched is the debut studio album by American punk rock band Plasmatics. It was released on October 2, 1980, by Stiff Records.
Jimmy Miller, former producer of the Rolling Stones and Motörhead (a band Plasmatics would

collaborate with in the future), was the initial producer for the album. He had a heroin addiction from the day he arrived in New York City and he was virtually useless to the project, nearly bringing the whole project down with him. Stiff Records fired Miller, and the album was finished by engineer Ed Stasium and manager Rod Swenson over in England. In addition to songs like "Corruption" and "Living Dead", linked to TV smashing and automobile destruction, the song "Butcher Baby" featured, as with the live shows, a chainsaw sawing through a guitar in place of a guitar solo. Stiff released it as single and it peaked at No. 55 on the UK Singles Chart, with the album reaching the same position on the UK Albums Chart.
                     

Plasmatics – New Hope For The Wretched 1980 / Metal Priestess 1981
Label: Plasmatics Media, Inc. – WOW106
Format: CD, Compilation, Special Edition 2001
Country: Canada
Released: 1980
Genre: Rock
Style: Punk

TRAXS

           

01. Tight Black Pants    1:45
02. Monkey Suit    3:25
03. Living Dead    1:34
04. Test Tube Babies    1:52
05. Won't You    2:26
06. Concrete Shoes    2:54
07. Squirm (Live)    3:27
08. Want You Baby    1:54
09. Dreamlover    5:40
10. Sometimes I    3:56
11. Corruption    2:39
12. Butcher Baby    3:31

BONUS        

    
13. Tight Black Pants (Live)    1:55
14. Living Dead (Live)    3:51
15. Sometimes (Live)    3:56

METAL PRIESTESS    1981    

16. Lunacy    5:08
17. Doom Song    5:28
18. Sex Junkie (Live)    3:08
19. Black Leather Monster    3:39
20. 12 Noon    3:31
21. Masterplan (Live)    4:48

LINE - UP

Vocals – Wendy Orlean Williams
Rhythm Guitar – Wes Beech
Percussion – Jimmy Miller (tracks: 2)
Keyboards – Jean Beauvoir (tracks: 18, 21), Wes Beech (tracks: 16 to 21)
Lead Guitar – Richie Stotts
Drums – Joey Reese (tracks: 16 to 17, 19, 20), Stu Deutsch (tracks: 1 to 15), Tony Petri (tracks: 18, 21)
Bass Guitar – Chris "Junior" Romanelli (tracks: 16, 17, 19, 20), Jean Beauvoir (tracks: 1 to 15, 18, 21)

NOTES

New Hope For The Wretched first released 1980.
Metal Priestess first released 1981.

Flac Size: 548 MB

PLASMATICS - BEYOND THE VALLEY OF 1984 (1981)

              

Beyond the Valley of 1984 is the second album by punk-metal band The Plasmatics. Producer and

manager Rod Swenson proposed the name Beyond the Valley of 1984 and the 1981 tour became "The 1984 World Tour". In between touring drummers, Alice Cooper's Neal Smith was brought in to do the drumming for the record, and the album, with its Orwellian and apocalyptic theme and songs such as "Masterplan", "Pig Is a Pig", and "Sex Junkie", were released a few months later.
               

Plasmatics – Beyond The Valley Of 1984
Label: Plasmatics Media, Inc. – WOW102, Gigasaurus Records
Format: CD, Album, Reissue 2000
Country: Canada
Released: 1981    
Genre: Rock
Style: Punk

TRAXS

             

01. Incantation   2:13
02. Masterplan   3:06
03. Headbanger   3:23
04. Summer Nite   4:42
05. Nothing   3:42
06. Fast Food Service   1:22
07. Hit Man (Live Milan)   3:06
08. Living Dead   4:30
09. Sex Junkie   3:06
10. Plasma Jam (Live Milan)   8:30
11. Pig Is A Pig   4:30

LINE - UP

Lead Guitar – Richard Stotts
Rhythm Guitar – Wes Beech
Vocals – Wendy Orlean Williams
Bass Guitar, Piano, Synthesizer – Jean Beauvoir
Drums, Guest – Neal Smith

PIG IS A PIG LYRICS

 

Now This Song Is Dedicated
To A Special Kind Of Person
The Kind Of Person That's Hiding
Under Rocks And In Closets
Wherever You Go
Hiding
Behind A Guise Of Respectability
The Cowardly Journalist
Who Hides Behind His Typewriter
Exploiting People Who Can't Fight Back
The Assassin
Who Strikes People By Surprise
The Sickie Sadist
Who Hides Behind His Police Badge
To Commit Crimes Of Violence
Against Other People
Whatever Role They Are Playing
These Creeps
Are Always The Same
Because
A Pig Is A Pig
And That's That

Your Stinkin' Lies Are So Lame
Your Stupid Ideas Are The Same
A Pig Is A Pig
And That's That
You Know Who You Are

Your Phoney Pose Is So Old
You're Just A Product From The Mold
A Pig Is A Pig
And That's That
You Know Who You Are
I Can Predict What You'll Do
'cause Everyone Else Is Like You
A Pig Is A Pig
And That's That
Stupid Mean And Ugly

Down In The Dirt Where You Go
Lower Than You You Can't Go
A Pig Is A Pig
And That's That
Big Brother's Watching You

You Can Dress Up In Disguises
You Can Try To Mesmerize 'em
You Can Surround
Yourself With Friends
Who Tell You What You Want To Hear
But In The End No Matter What You Do
You Will Come Shining Through

Flac Size: 322 MB