Tonio K. - Life in the Foodchain

A new to me release. Many years ago I picked up Romeo Unchained, and Notes from the Lost Civilization (not in that order) mainly because they were on WHAT?/A&M where Mark Heard's iDEoLA project was released. So I figured it was a guilty by association sort of thing. It was an indie label after all so that had to mean something.

I remember liking Notes from the Lost Civilization, but honestly I was getting so much music back then that unless I really had something blow my hat off, I gave things a listen or two and then filed them.

Here I am years later, and up pops a rather water damaged copy of Life in the Foodchain. It made me sad looking at it. The vinyl was in surprisingly good shape, but any liner notes and credits were long lost to the gods of misplaced socks. Still, this was an album I had always been curious about, so I brought it home where it the joined the queue of treasures waiting for a turn(table). I pop it on and the title track is cranked in the cave (everyone was out, so why not?) and the big riffs are just starting to hit. "Holy cow." I say to myself. It's at this point I am sorely missing the credits and lyric sheet. I also see in small print on the bottom left the date of the release: 1978 - figures.

Musically, I was hooked right off, and whereas Romeo Unchained is very much of it's time, and to a lesser degree Notes from the Lost Civilization the songs on Life in the Foodchain feel more timeless and like something you could hear now. I don't know if "How Come I Can't See You in my Mirror?" was a nod to Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London" but it's pretty darned funny. Most of the songs are played straight, but are often scathing if not actually really funny. Take that Randy Newman!

That was a few days ago, and I'm still playing the album over and over. I am not the most objective listener, and my ability to actually discern whether something is actually good or not kinda blurs into a soupy fog. Things are enjoyable, or they're not. Of course, I'm always cognizant of high points, after all they stand out. To badly paraphrase a saying paraphrased by J.F.K. "a great song lifts up the rest of the album" Of course others will espouse: "one hit, the rest shit!"

Earlier I mentioned the missing liner notes, so it was off to the internet to read the lyrics, and get a list of credits. Wow, there were a lot of names I knew. Among them, Dick Dale, Albert Lee, and Earl Slick on guitar, Garth Hudson from the band lends accordion, and drummer Curly Smith. The album was produced by Rob Fraboni who was known for his work with Dylan, Eric Clapton, and The Band.

Apparently this was the first album to feature an AK-47 firing live ammunition as part of the big rock ending in "H-A-T-R-E-D" which is probably one of the more honest post break up songs ever written.

Like Tonio K. writes on the title track:

Kind of like mowing the lawn
Everything gets to this certain dimension
Winds up on a customer's plate and then gone

But it's not gone is it?