Kim Fowley - Wildfire The Complete Imperial Recordings (1968-69 us, pure energy rock 'n' roll, maverick visionary three Imperial albums, 2013 double disc set)

Producer, songwriter, scenester, svengali, unrepentant opportunist and spectre at the feast: if Kim Fowley’s name is attached to a project, you can’t help perking up – either in eager anticipation or amused dread.

Wildfire compiles the three albums Fowley gifted to the Imperial label in the late 60s. The first, Born To Be Wild: The Exciting Organ Of Kim Fowley, is a likeably makeweight instrumental set intended as an unthreatening entrée into the “now sound” for middle-aged rocking daddies. With its accessible, meekly groovy organ-led covers including Pictures Of Matchstick Men, Hello, I Love You and Soul Limbo, it’s fun if not fundamental, and is wisely relegated herein to the back-end of both CDs.

The real meat is provided by 1969’s Outrageous, a bestial, largely improvised, straight-society-baiter on which Fowley’s hoarse shamanic yelling, hyperventilating, “method” commitment and primordial regressions (Nightrider, Inner Space Discovery) suggest Iggy at the end of his not-inconsiderable tether, or Lorenzo St Dubois (LSD) from The Producers.

The same year’s Good Clean Fun melds Zappaesque comedic duologues (Motorcycle, Ode To Sweet Sixteen) with queasy country-rock (Baby Rocked Her Dolly) and distressingly horrible musique concrète (Energy, Lights The Blind And Lame Can See). Somehow, Fowley emerges as the freak-flag-waving sexual predator it’s ok to love.  

by Oregano Rathbone

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Animal Man (Kim Fowley, Marty Cerf) - 2:46  

2. Wildlife - 4:10 

3. Hide And Seek - 2:10 

4. Chinese Water Torture - 0:46 

5. Nightrider - 2:24 

6. Bubble Gum (Kim Fowley, Marty Cerf) - 2:30

7. Inner Space Discovery - 4:03 

8. Barefoot Country Boy - 2:03 

9. Up - 4:05

10.Caught In The Middle - 5:40

11.Down - 4:47

12.California Hayride - 1:22 

13.Born To Be Wild (Mars Bonfire) - 2:46 

14.I Can't Stop Dancing (Gamble Huff) - 2:07 

15.Shake A Lady (Ray Bryant) - 2:05

16.Hello I Love You (John Densmore, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, Jim Morrison) - 2:06

17.Soul Limbo (Al Jackson Jr., Booker T. Jones, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Steve Cropper) - 2:39

18.Space Odyssey - 2:48

All songs by Kim Fowley except where stated

Tracks 1-12 from "Outrageous" LP 1968

Tracks 13-18 from "Born To Be Wild" LP 1968

Disc 2

1. One Man Band (Michael Lloyd) - 2:13 

2. Ode To Sweet Sixteen (Harlowe) - 1:26

3. Good Clean Fun (Michael Lloyd) - 2:18 

4. Search For A Teenage Woman (Rodney Bingenheimer) - 2:17 

5. Energy (Kim Fowley) - 2:04 

6. Baby Rocked Her Dolly (Merle Kilgore) - 2:21

7. Motorcycle (Jerry Landis) - 2:22 

8. Kangaroo (Warren Zevon) - 3:55

9. Light The Blind And Lame Can See (Kim Fowley) - 1:55

10.Good To Be Around (Michael Lloyd) - 2:15 

11.The Great Telephone Robbery (Kim Fowley) - 6:30 

12.I'm Not Young Anymore (Warren Zevon) - 4:29

13.Wild Weekend (Phillip Todaro, Thomas Shannon) - 2:30 

14.Pictures Of Matchstick Men (Francis Michael Rosi) - 3:04 

15.Savage In The Sun (Mars Bonfire) - 2:44 

16.Sunshine Of Your Love (Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Peter Brown) - 2:30 

17.Classical Gas (Mason Williams) - 2:29 

18.Fresno 1963 (Tom Ayres) - 2:23

Tracks 1-12 from "Good Clean Fun" LP 1969

Tracks 13-18 from "Born To Be Wild" LP 1968

Musicians

*Kim Fowley - Vocals, Keyboard, Percussion

*Mike Allsup - Guitar

*Eddie Hoh - Percussion 

*Mars Bonfire - Guitar

*Jimmy Greenspon - Keyboard

*Joe Schermie - Bass

*Orville "Red" Rhodes - Steel Guitar

*Wayne Talbert - Keyboard 

*Carmen Riale - Bass

*Ben "Blues" Benay - Harp, Guitar

*Joe Torres - Percussion

*Skip Battin - Bass

*Mars Bonfire - Guitar

*Neil Innes - Piano, Guitar, Vocals

*Michael Lloyd - Keyboards, Guitar

*Vivian Stanshall - Vocals, Trumpet

*Warren Zevon - Vocals, Guitar

*Richard  & Thomas Frost - Vocals

1960-69  Various Artists - Impossible But True The Kim Fowley Story (2003 ACE)

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