While we’re all in a Wallflowers frame of mind, here’s another Phase One Wallflowers gem freshly excavated after a quarter-century beneath the Canadian permafrost. “Rubber Room” is essential Wallflowers material,” writes bassist Paul Howland. “This one and ‘Funland’ (along with any of the many Stooges cover tunes) encapsulate the Wallflowers sound nicely.
“Composed during the Aaron Daniels, Tommy Clarke lineup. The band was influenced by Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers and early Misfits for their use of early rock-and-roll styles played with a modern attitude and sound. Aaron referred to this style as ‘Rock and Soul.’ The soul influence became more explicit later in things like the bands cover of Otis Redding’s ‘Security.’ Funland was at the more overtly funk end of the spectrum.”
Adds vocalist David Rinck, “‘Rubber Room’ was a fun song to sing, since it dealt seriously with the ever-pressing problem of mental health — always a big deal on the Wallflowers agenda.”
You can really hear the Richard Hell influence too… great song!
Dunno if it was a proximate influence, but I keep thinking of the chorus from Hendrix’s “Fire”:
Awesome!!! Now we need “Bag Full of Drugs”!!! I remember that as the showstopper tune back in the day.
haha Paul we had to drop “Bag of Drugs” from the set since Aaron thought it crossed the line. He said he always cringed when I got up there and slinked around the stage singing “I gotta a bag o’drugs and I’m walking down the street” hahaha.
But I also liked that song, my opportunity for my sleeeeezy dope dealer impression.
That was always one of my favorites.
I was in France recently, and it occurred to me that the lyrics sound great translated, too:
Sac plein de drogues,
je marche dans la rue.
Tout le monde cherchent
mon sac plein de drogues.
haha that’s great!
j’ai un sac des drogues
et je marche dans la rue
et je montre ca a tout et partout!
LOL! M. Rinck, “Je montre ca a tout et partout” est vraiment parfait.
Mes deux ans à une compagnie française m’a donné l’occasion à ameliorer beaucoup mon français, mais seulement Dave Rinck lui-même peut trouver la mot juste pour cette ligne finale.
Oops … Translation:
“LOL! Mr. Rinck, ‘Showing it off to everybody everywhere’ is just perfect.
“My two years at a French company gave me a chance to improve my French a lot, but only Dave Rinck himself could find the perfect phrasing for that last line.”
“Bag of drugs” had one of my favorite basslines. I remember having a long conversation with Aaron about that one. Shortly after, Huey Lewis and the News came out with “I want a new drug” Dave and I were like “See Aaron!”.
… And by now, it would’ve been completely co-opted by the mainstream — probably licensed for a tidy sum by the Special Olympics and re-recorded as “Bag of Hugs.”
Matt, funny enough we used to cover Hendrix’s “Fire”, so you may have something there. Okay, let’s talk seriously abut musical influences for a second here. The very pertinent subject of Richard Hell came up a couple of times in conjunction with us (comments which I take as a tremendous compliment). For those not familiar with his career (those that are can skip this section), Hell started out as a poet with Tom Verlaine. Those two left their mark on NY underground music as Television with the brilliant album Marque Moon, and he then went on to play in the original Heartbreakers with Johnny Thunders before recording Blank Generation with the Voidoids in 1978.
Hey Paul, remember when we went to see Richard Hell at the Whiskey in Hollywood and he fell on Brent? haha, I also saw Richard Hell at CBGBs in about 1984, and he made a big impression on me then as well. Wayne Kramer got up and played guitar with him. I’ve been listening to Blank Generation a lot lately. This album really has been a constant influence on my view of art for so many years. I hate fusion music, food, art, anything mixed up (screwed up) like that, but Blank Generation somehow sits convincingly at the juxtaposition of so many things – punk, jazz, poetry… He blows Patti Smith away as a subversive, and the makes Talking Heads sound like pap in my opinion. I imagine that this is how Kerouac would have sounded if he had recorded an album. And that album pretty much summed up the CBGBs underground…
Man, they just don’t make albums like that anymore… where would a musician or poet or anyway, artist in general… go to produce something like this? Where are the relevant places to reach to make a relevant statement these days?
Dave Rinck: Richard Lloyd from Television et al. gives guitar lessons in NY! I keep trying to clear some time so I can book a few sessions with the great man.
I saw Lloyd replace the late Peter Laughner during the reunion tour of Rocket from the Tombs. The guy I went to the show with (and had been playing a bit with) had been in a college band with Craig Bell, RFTT’s bassist, after Bell had relocated to Connecticut. So I finally got a chance to meet Cheetah Chrome and interact with all these cool old first-wave NY punks.
I always thought Pere Ubu was influenced largely by Roxy Music. Go ahead -- listen to “Ladytron” again!
Which brings me back to Todd’s ELO comment…
“# Mmrothenberg Says:
May 30th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
… And by now, it would’ve been completely co-opted by the mainstream — probably licensed for a tidy sum by the Special Olympics and re-recorded as “Bag of Hugs.”
Wait, that’s brilliant! Except, I’m thinking it’s part of a UNICEF publicity campaign, with none other than Dave Rinck himself in the video promo, walking down the streets of Nairobi, Dacca, Addis Abbaba, etc., distributing hugs while the Wallflowers play…
How adorable Paul…
Dave, I remember you and Paul playing this(Rubber Room) for me at Greenwich and being completely floored by Tommy’s break-in fuzz lead. I think it was this song that cinched the deal for me as far as wanting to be a Wallflower. Where the hell is Tommy dammit? He needs to be on this blog pronto!
I tracked Tommy as far as Seattle, where he’s working as a chef. I Googled guys he was in a band with a few years ago and called them … I freaked out a few strangers named Clarke … I’ve had no luck.
I hear he wears his hair in a ponytail, or at least he did in the early Oughts. Maybe we should start eating our way through Seattle restaurants looking for a ponytailed cook with calloused fingers! 🙂
Most people forget or do not know that me paul and dave were the og wallflowers. Just need to claim my place in wallflower history. We used to practice at my parent’s until Dave broke our screen door and my Dad 86ed him.
Ted is right, we were called the Disco Hookers or something silly then.
BTW Ted, I’m sorry about that screen door.
Dad was a hot head. I don’t think you made a real great first impression. Funny my mom thought Jerry was the worst, even to this day she will tell me “that guy with the hair was crazy, what a weirdo.” I think one of my fondest memories was when your Sister was suicidal and you taped razor blades to the bathroom mirror with instructions.
Yeah, that probably wasn’t so nice, but you know…
Still love the Walflowers flyer that read “taste the fury baby face!”