The Smithereens write: It was at some point in 1993 that our original audience moved on, grunge took over everything, and the newly-obsolete Smithereens found ourselves label-less, dropped unceremoniously by the new president of our longtime label Capitol Records, along with 50 other Capitol Records recording acts, one of whom was a gangsta rap outfit out of Orange County who riddled the famed Capitol Tower on Sunset & Vine in Hollywood with machine gun bullets for years in their unceasing attempts to assassinate the president of Capitol. I understand that he is still in hiding somewhere, which is a very good thing for music lovers everywhere. We were lucky to make a very quick transition to RCA Records, who were based in NYC, our home base at the time, and the home of the long-deceased Elvis Presley, who, decades after his death, was still the biggest-selling artist on the label. RCA was referred to derisively by virtually everyone in the industry at the Record Cemetery of America, and we found out through the grapevine that we were not really wanted at the label, and that our signing was payback for a huge favor that our then-manager had done for someone at the label. We thought that if our career was over and that we were about to make what might be our last album, that we wanted to go out on the same record label as Elvis, and be the one rock and roll band who had made records for the labels of the two greatest and most iconic rock n roll artists of all time, The Beatles and Elvis Presley. We were absolutely shocked and appalled to see original rare and iconic original Elvis Presley LP artwork strewn about the floors and hallways of RCA with no regard for their historic importance whatsoever. Heres an excerpt from Brett Milanos great book Vinyl Junkies that I wrote back in 2003: I spent many years unsuccessfully attempting to track down what is perhaps the most obscure, bizarre, and elusive Elvis Presley album ever released, an early 1970s live recording on RCA titled HAVING FUN WITH ELVIS ON STAGE. The Smithereens were signed to the RCA Records Label for a brief period in the mid-90s. One afternoon I ran into the vice president of RCA. At the end of my rope trying to find this great lost Elvis album, I begged him to go into the vaults and find me a copy. He said that he would be more than happy to do so. I then good-naturedly took him to task, letting him know in no uncertain terms that they were losing tons of potential revenue off the Elvis catalogue, because unbelievably, RCA had let the great live Elvis album HAVING FUN WITH ELVIS ONSTAGE go out of print for many, many years, and that Elvis army of fans were still clamoring for this disc, and could not purchase it anywhere at any price. He was shocked to hear this news, and, in earnest, promised me that he would look into this matter immediately, and do his best to see that the record would be reissued, and he promised to find me a copy of the record. He scrambled to the RCA master vaults to unearth this potential new Elvis blockbuster, only to discover that the joke was on him. When he listened to the master tapes of HAVING FUN WITH ELVIS ON STAGE he discovered to his horror what I already knew; that HAVING FUN WITH ELVIS ONSTAGE was a talking album only, a limited-release Colonel Tom Parker Elvis Fan Club oddity; a horrible record that featured no music, no songs, and no Elvis vocal performances at all, but instead showcased over 40 minutes of inane, unfunny, incoherent, and Quaaluded-out mindless onstage in-between-song raps and ramblings by an intoxicated and druggy Elvis well past his prime. Needless to say, the vice-president of RCA was not amused. He didnt get the joke, but I got the record.
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 05:36:59 +0000
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