I talked about Linda Ronstadt's Mad Love album awhile back (it was pretty brief, use the label column on the right if you want to read it) and I mentioned that on that album Linda did three songs by a pretty unknown band called The Cretones. Well, I was at My Mind's Eye the other day and I found a promo copy of it for two bucks! How often do you find an album with three songs that Linda Ronstadt saw fit to include on an album for two bucks? Not very often is the correct answer.
So The Cretones - Thin Red Line came out in 1980. So did Linda's Mad Love. You would think this might be a real boon to The Cretones' career, but I think what happened was that these became Linda Ronstadt songs in the ears of the public, and I think the record labels were suitably impressed enough to let the band record another album, but they were a little late for the flash-in-the-pan that was late 70's Power Pop. Then again I think everyone besides The Knack managed to miss that boat. Cretones' guitarist Mark Goldenburg played on Linda's Mad Love and then went on to play with Jackson Browne, and had some hits for other people. Unfortunately, The Cretones kind of remain a footnote in Rock history.
I suppose being a footnote is what most of my favorite bands end up doing. I don't get it, to be truthful. I don't go out of my way to find weird music that no one has heard, but then again I certainly don't go out of my way to buy music I can hear anywhere, anytime. Sure, I have some super big selling records and have written about some of them here. I'm always surprised when something that I think is fantastic, the kind of thing I couldn't live without and no one reads that blog entry. There's not a ton of stuff about The Cretones online (and lord knows someone coming here for solid information is gonna leave sorely disappointed!), so I'll actually be easy to find with a search engine. No one will see it, though. Because unfortunately, I seem to listen to things no one else gives a shit about. Toss in the fact that I'm a lousy writer and it's a double whammy of shitty writing and obscure music. In 1500 years someone will look back and say, "Hey this guy and the music he liked was brilliant!" but for now, well I think it's more likely that in 1500 years this stuff will all have just been forgotten and overlooked for 1500 years, perched on the precipice of remaining forgotten for another 1500 years. I mean, I'm barely a footnote of the blogging world, and I'm doing my best be be less relevant every day!
I'm going to sit and listen to my Cretones album again anyway. When I listen to them, I think about the things I really loved in 1979 and 1980, like The Doors, Bowie, Sex Pistols and The Tubes. The Cretones really don't fit in that group. I still loved Yes and The Cretones don't fit in with them, either. I think they fit in with my love of things like Artful Dodger, though. The keyboards sound pretty dated these days, but I guess back then they sounded really new. The guitar sound is generally good, like on Everybody's Mad at Katherine, but there's still some kind of weenie-ish keyboards in there. I'm good with it, though. It's there, and it's not going away and I like the song anyway. It's mid January and there's plenty of grey skies and snow here and while I listen to this the first thing I think is that I'd like to go drive around on a sunny day with the windows down. That's pretty cool.
Linda Ronstadt must have really like the end of side one and beginning of side two, though. That's the run on the album of Justine, Mad Love and Cost of Love. Those are the three songs she put on Mad Love, and I see what she liked about them. She really didn't change much, and The Cretones don't sound like amateurs or like they did this on a shoestring budget. Linda used a crack band (as usual) and while they aren't the whole difference, Linda liked these songs, and it shows. She's ten times the singer Mark Goldenburg is (pretty astute of me, eh?) and here on The Cretones Thin Red Line these songs just lack a little of the punch Linda was able to get out of them. Then again, Linda uses Rosemary Butler for backing vocals, and that takes real confidence. The Cretones versions of these songs are really good, though. They're the best three songs on the album, but the thing is, the rest of the album is good. So I'm conflicted as to whether Linda ends up ultimately helping or hurting The Cretones. Could these songs have pushed through without Linda? It's hard to say.
I think a song like Thin Red Line would have done pretty well on a college station that was playing new music but not concerned with pushing the envelope. We have one of those around here, and I like them now and then. Everything doesn't have to be so out there different and shock me, or sound like nothing I've ever heard before. I've got room in my record collection for craftsmen, and that's what The Cretones were. Maybe they weren't Rock Stars, but they were good at writing catchy songs that made Saturday afternoon a little better.
Now, the thing that most sets The Cretones apart is the song Hey Mrs. Peel. My dad got me to start watching The Avengers, and I am a huge fan of Diana Rigg in general and Mrs. Emma Peel in particular. So anyone else here in the good old USA that liked that show is automatically Okay By Me. Once again, we're looking at a good song. A great subject, but how do you write about Mrs. Peel without either creeping or being a geeky fanboy? You have to do it like The Cretones did. With a little panache.
Thin Red Line is a good album. It's not some undiscovered unique take on Rock N' Roll that is going to change your life. If you find it in a used bin for two bucks, you should get it, though. Because it's good and you should have room for good records. Mine is a promo copy; the cover is a little bent in spots but the record looks and sounds like it was hardly played, if at all. I won't look for a better copy, but I also won't be getting rid of this one anytime soon, either.
