Description
Tom Tom Blues is the seventh studio album by the American rock band The Seventy Sevens, released on Brainstorm Artists International in 1995, distributed by Diamante Music Group. The album was recorded at Paradise in Sacramento and at Plaid Jacket Productions in Fair Oaks, California; with the band producing. Mixed by Guy Niosi and John Flanagan at Plaid Jacket.
They have some of those simple yet sophisticated elements that a band like Led Zeppelin performed so well – straight-up blues interpreted with their own personality. There’s also the hint of that jangly college radio/modern rock sound… highlights include: the classic 77’s hooks in «Rocks In Your Head», the throbbing heavy bass intro to «Honesty», the psychedelic intensity of the guitar lead in «Earache», the distorted John Lennon-style reverb-ed vocal shouts in «You Still Love Me» and «Gravy Chain», the funky drums in «Outskirts», the crazy jazz improv sound and silly lyrics of «Five In The Nave», and the schizophrenic inconsistency of tempo in «Don’t Leave Me Long» (my favorite one). [HM Magazine]
“Can a white man sing the blues” is the question that’s been hypothesized since the days of Elvis Presley. In the case of Seventy Sevens leader Mike Roe, one thing’s for certain – he’s had the blues for awhile now, and he’s done a pretty fair job of singing them. From «Denomination Blues» on the band’s 1982 debut to «Outskirts» on this latest project, Roe has been a faithful student of the genre, assimilating the traditions and adding modern rock to the mix.
Roe and long-time Sevens bassist Mark Harmon are joined this time out by former Vector drummer Bruce Spencer. The power trio leans into 10 dynamic tracks, stacking sophisticated vocal harmonies and intricate arrangements on its blues bedrock. It sometimes seemed on past albums as if Roe would insert a guitar solo simply because he needed to kill time between verses. On Tom Tom Blues, he is careful to submit everything to the service of the music and the lyric. There are a number of terrific solos, but each punctuates the song, rather than calling attention to itself.
Roe sings openly about pain and bitterness-witness songs like «Rocks in Your Head», «Don’t Leave Me Long», «Honesty» and «Deliverance», the album-closing tale of a tormented soul. These cuts may be enough to help prod even the hardest-hearted person into repentance. [Bruce A. Brown, CCM, February 1996]
For better or for worse, ‘Tom Tom Blues’ will probably be considered a seminal recording by one of the great unrecognized talents in the rock age.
The 77’s is now purely Mike Roe‘s band, and ‘Tom Tom Blues’ is the first effort with the completely new line-up, which has evolved into a tight blues trio. The last two albums, ‘Pray Naked‘ and ‘Drowning With Land In Sight‘, included the outstanding percussion of Aaron Smith, who, besides Roe, was the last remaning member of the original group. While Roe has remained the symbolic force of the group ever since its second album, he has usually been willing to modify his own inclinations, perhaps more as a modest stance than a conscious choice, first with Mark Tootle and later with David Leonhardt.
With ‘Tom Tom Blues’, Roe has finally embraced the artistic leadership mantle. Here we understand the full influence of 70’s rock upon Roe’s music. In Bruce Spencer he has his Bonham; in Mark Harmon, his Entwistle. Given this stalwart sonic ambiance, Roe is now free to fill tracks with Page-like guitar musings and his varying vocifications. The Blues lends a kind of musical thesis embellished by the current themes in Roe’s writing: love, both the lack and the need of it; fidelity and a higher calling in an age of irresponsibility; spiritual confusion; and a macho-moral stance to things like greed and social docility.
Backed by heavy bluesy rock riffs, Roe begins with two sides of the same issue: integrity. The first, «Rocks In Your Head», revamps the basic situation of «Perfect Blues», where a guy must straighten out the girl. «Honesty» is like soliloquy in response.
One of the more remarkable pieces in Roe’s recent library is «You Still Love Me», the confession of a “proud” man who, having found love was then rejected, admits to an ambivalence regarding reconciliation; later, he finds grace. This musically-heavy testimony is reminiscent of some of Robert Fripp’s material with its dense production treatment.
It’s hard to say whether «Outskirts» is ironic or not – it’s some of the purest blues rock presented by this group, but with a decidedly wimpy theme; having been “slapped around” a few times by the city, one moves on out. A proclamation or a chastisement? Nevertheless, it’s worth the price of the CD to hear Harmon and Spencer lay down the rhythm so well that Roe relaxes an impeccable, pristine slide riff into the mix.
Maybe the premier production of the album, «Don’t Leave Me Long» seems to be another cry to his (former) mate, another sensitive male paean of longing and fidelity to the marriage ideal. «Deliverance» begins as Roe is looking for a hook, as in «God Sends Quails». However, within a few measures the song settle in to a sober groove, both sonically and lyrically.
The album’s relative paucity creates the kind of focus we relished in the days of «Do It For Love», and creates the other bookend to Adam Again’s ‘Dig‘ in its pathos. The only bothersome tendency is the group’s insistence on ending instrumental breaks with a cacophony of dissonance; once is fine and artistic – four times is excess. But this is a different group now, like the difference between ‘Rubber Soul’ and ‘The White Album’. With the new approach, the focus, and, perhaps, the edge of prior works, the 77’s could enter a new, refreshing stage of righteous rock. [Jeff Cebulski, kamikaze magazine, Vol5/Issue37, January/February 1996]
J. Edward Keyes: Could you take us song by song through the record?
Mike Roe: The first one, «Rocks in Your Head», is a really good single, a basic rock tune. «Honesty», is a real sort of Hendrix, Lenny Kravitz kinda thing with two big psychedelic guitar solos. The third song, called «You Still Love Me» is a really heavy production piece, that’s hard to describe. Again, very psychedelic, very pop. The fourth song, «Outskirts», is another in our series of ‘Jungle Blues’ things, a la early Fleetwood Mac. That track probably sounds the most like classic 77’s, if there is such a thing. The fifth track is «Flowers in the Sand». That, again, sounds like a Fleetwood Mac track, more like a Christine McVie-type. (The whole song was written around a phrase that Bruce Spencer handed me which was: “She plants flowers in the sand”. From that line, the entire song wrote itself.) The next track is the most contemporary sounding, it’s called «Don’t Leave Me Long», and that sort of reflects alot of what’s going on in female pop sound right now. It’s got that kind of strummy, folk-rock-pop style. And yet other people hear it and say “Oh, it sounds like Dylan”, so… It’s got a gang of guitars. It’s the first time I did so many guitars that the illusion of a string section was created. The next one’s called «Gravy Chain», and that sounds sort of like Led Zepplin meets Beastie Boys with James Brown doing the lead vocal. Next track is called «Five in the Nave», which is a novelty track. It sounds like Jimmy Durante on speed in a very very bizarre nightclub with a jazz band out of control. It’s very sad (laughter all around). The next track is called «Earache», and that is very much Frank Zappa, very long guitar solo. The next track is probably my favorite because it’s really spiritual for me, it’s called «Deliverance». The choruses sound like Zepplin, the verses sound like The Police, and the long instrumental coda sounds like the Grateful Dead, in full swing, like when they’re doing a real intense psychedelic jam. Then the song melts down into this backwards Beatles’ guitar thing, and then takes off in this intense pounding groove a la King Crimson. That’s a real movie soundscape type thing. It’s based on a recurring nightmare that I had. [Excerpt from an interview with Mike Roe by J. Edward Key, featured in The Cardigan Journal]
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/tom-tom-blues/521560639)
CD tracklist:
01. Rocks In Your Head
02. Honesty
03. You Still Love Me
04. Outskirts
05. Flowers In The Sand
06. Don’t Leave Me Long
07. Gravy Chain
08. Five In The Nave
09. Earache
10. Deliverance
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Brainstorm Artists International. Available at Bandcamp: https://the77s.bandcamp.com/album/tom-tom-blues
CREDITS. Produced by The 77’s. Recorded at Paradise, Sacramento, CA, and at Plaid Jacket Productions, Fair Oaks, CA. Engineered by Kirt Shearer, Craig Long and Scott Reams (Paradise), and Guy Niosi and John Flanagan (Plaid Jacket). Mixed by Guy Niosi and John Flanagan at Plaid Jacket. Mastered by Michael Romanowski at Rocket Lab, San Francisco, CA. Art Concept and Design by the 77’s. Cover Illustration by Rachel Thornton (“Ashley Sad, Avery Happy” – Oil on Canvas, 1988). Inside B/W Illustration by Kathyrn Garcia Smith (1994). Photography by Pat Johnson, San Francisco, CA. Executive Producers: Ojo Taylor and Gene Eugene. All songs written by the 77’s.
Musicians: The 77’s – Mike Roe (Guitars, Lead Vocals, Top), Mark Harmon (Bass, Background Vocals, Bottom), Bruce Spencer (Drums, Percussion, Background Vocals, Everything In Between). Also featuring: Cary Avery (Percussion, Cool Vibes).
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