Aural Fixations

THE BEAT FARMERS
Tales of the New West
(Rhino Handmade)
When people talk about the best bands of the first Great Roots Rock Scare (the one in the 80s), they'll bandy about names like the Blasters, the Long Ryders, Rank & File and Jason & the Scorchers. All of which were great bands, mind you, but the pundits almost always overlook one outfit: the Beat Farmers. Possibly this is due to the San Diego band's disastrous liaison with Nashville's MCA-affiliated Curb Records, whose attempts to mold the Farmers into a commercial success resulted in a series of uneven albums. Or maybe it's because of Country Dick Montana, the beloved drummer/spark plug of the band whose good-natured clowning some might think precludes the band from being taken seriously. (It's difficult to have a sense of humor and be afforded respect—just ask Farmers kindred spirits Dash Rip Rock.) Rest assured, though, the Beat Farmers were indeed one of the best of the bunch, and Rhino Handmade's spectacular reissue of Tales of the New West, the band's long out-of-print 1985 debut album, proves it all over again. First there are the original dozen tracks, proof enough that few combined rockabilly, C&W, blues and rock & roll with the easy authority of Montana, guitarists Buddy Blue and Jerry Raney and bassist Rolle Dexter. The quartet backs up its musical mastery with a keen eye for sharp songs, including great covers of Bruce Springsteen ("Reason to Believe"), Lou Reed ("There She Goes Again") and their buddy Paul Kamanski, whose tunes "Bigger Stones" and the silly but country-rockin' "California Kid" (voiced by Montana in his first notable showcase) reveal a songwriter of great skill who somehow never broke out on his own. But the band also has its own superior tunesmiths: Blue turns in the witty and rocking "Lonesome Hound," "Lost Weekend" and "Goldmine," while Raney weighs in with the satirical "Where Do They Go" (poking at fun at people whose best days will soon be behind them) and "Showbiz." Capped off by the deliriously sick "Happy Boy"—another Montana tour-de-force—Tales of the New West is already damn near perfect.

But wait, there's more! Also included is the entirety of Glad 'N' Greasy, the Farmers' U.K.-only EP. It's another smashing success, including "Death Train," another fine Kamanski tune, Blue's celebratory title track, a killer cover of Neil Young's "Powderfinger" and Montana's loving desecrations of Rod McKuen's "Beat Generation" (which "borrows" the chorus from Richard Hell's "Blank Generation") and the folk standard "Big Rock Candy Mountain." And there's yet more—a startlingly strong set of demos for the band's next (and first major label) album, with another pair of great Kamanski tunes in "Blue Chevrolet" and "Road to Ruin" and Blue's rocking satire "Gun Sale at the Church," a handful of tunes from the vintage live album Live at the Spring Valley Inn highlighted by Montana doing his thing to "Lonely Blue Boy" and his demented monologue in the middle of "Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Loud, Loud Music," and "Watching the River," a newly-recorded Blue tune that soulfully pays tribute to Montana, who died of a heart attack onstage in 1995. With these worthy tracks added to the original twelve, Tales of the New West becomes almost an embarrassment of riches, a goofy grin-inducing, hipshaking, head-bobbing, air guitaring, staggeringly great record that threatens to eclipse not only its fellow travelers in the 80s roots rock era, but nearly everything in the misbegotten decade from which it came. Rest in peace, Country Dick—your legacy rocks on. Michael Toland