Wednesday, June 19, 2019

La Marr Bruister's Protegé

Oboyoboyoboy! Here's Jeff Simmons' entire œuvre [French for egg - Ed.], except for the apparently unfindable Blue Universe from 2004 which I strongly suspect is the usual return to *cough* blues roots made by rock musicians of a certain age in the absence of any better ideas. Or chords. As an hors-d'oeuvre [French for horse's egg - Ed.] we have the swell single-sided disc cut by early Simmons combo Easy Chair for Seattle's mega-corporation Vanco Records in '68, complete with unused cover slick in the low, low quality you've come to expect from FalseMemoryFoam©! I tried sharpening it up but it still looks way gnarlacious.


Around this time, La Marr Bruister, noted bandleader and rodent-heater, took the fresh-faced Master Simmons aside, dangling a contract to record his good shit on Bruister's record label, Straight. Eagerly inking pact, Simmons immediately landed the prestigious gig soundtracking the Favorite Films blockbuster Naked Angels, which starred like, nobody, and was only seen by a couple hundred people nationwide, most of them projectionists.


Undeterred by his Tinseltown heartbreak, Simmons went on to record the epochal Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up, with generous contributions from Bruister, and although you won't find a better album title this side of the Pecos, the album itself joined the efforts of pop chart hopefuls Wild Man Fischer and the GTOs in the cut-out bins, in spite - or maybe because - of Simmons' way bodacious 'fro on the front cover. Jeff Simmons - we salute you!



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