Thursday, April 2, 2020

The Crazy Rider "Rock N Roll" b/w "High School Rock 'n Roll"


(Crazy Rider Records, 1981/Columbia 1982) I got these two singles in China and did not know they were the same group initially (even though the same songs is on both 45s, but I assumed every 70s/80s Japanese 50s leather band had a tune called "Rock N Roll"...Carol is the only onne of this type group I knew previously and they had a song called "Good Old Rock N Roll"). So for the Columbia single where the band's name is in Japanese I searched online for ten minutes for clues, found footage of the reformed band playing a classic car show in 2014, but even that had the band name on Zjamapanese characters, and on Discogs this record does not exist, BUT, I found the same tracks on a record from the previous year on a different label, so I learned the band name was Crazy Rider. Then I saw on the other record that their name in English (and the label name, which was the band's name, was also in English). But in my defense, there are beards and mustaches on the 1980 (according to Discogs, though it says 1981 on my copy) record, and by '82 (or '81 if Discogs is right about that alternate release) they had successfully transitioned from facial hair Sha Na Na greaser 50s rock to clean shaven Stray Cats 50s greaser rock. However, musically (though OK and bouncy and raw-ish), they are sub-Sha Na Na (Happy Days-theme song level sub-Sha Na Na), with no traces of punk influence at all. Carol was in 1972 and was more savage than this (which is why Guitar Wolf [who had multiple songs with 'Rock N Roll' in the title on "Missle Me"] cite Carol more than Crazy Rider. Still, this was worth the Yen. And the adventure of finding out who they were. And the minutes of my life watching this that I will GLADLY never get back.

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