"H_artbreak H_tel" - arranged by JC Rx
{this 2004 arrangement *(CC) BY-NC-SA-3.0*}

"I walk a lonely street"
(~ anonymous suicide, 1955)

The SexPistols tribute / cover band that i played with [FeverBlister!] in Lincoln, NE, in 1978 {oh, yeah!}, covered a few other artists besides Johnny and the boys. Among them [along with X, Stranglers, Pere Ubu] was the indomitable John Cale [not to be confused with either JJ Cale or John Cage, as Wiki puts it! ;-) ] ... I remember hearing his "Pablo Picasso" just the day before we first played it live: perfect rock and roll with that awesome lyric that almost rhymes [and i then typically despised poor / false / slant rhyme] ... Yes, Punk was doing it's damage to me! ;-)

Another track off of his '77 "Guts" {that critic Robert Christgau called "a hard-sell advert for the disease [of] the cold, committed dementia of the best English rock,"} really stuck with me: his reworking of Elvis' first national triple chart #1 hit, 1956's "Heartbreak Hotel," written by Hoyt Axton's momma, the irreplaceable Mae Boren Axton! [... And i see that this week is the 55th anniversary of it's release!]

Several of the players from FeverBlister! went on to be the band that moved on [after being the interim group a/k/a in Lincoln in 1979] to become Book of [Holy] Lies in the Chicago music scene of '80 - '81... {see our track "Tree of Laughter" here on RN} ... Our first plum gig was at Tut's old location by the El tracks, opening for John Cale, who was on tour supporting his "Sabatoge-Live" album {yeah, at same place where we earlier played on the night John Lennon was shot - see that story elsewhere!} ...

Opening for and meeting our hero was verrry coool; very hard to pretend to be a post-punk "too cool to care" when John Cale, progenitor of the Velvet Underground comes into your green room, sits down, pops a beer and says "so, how's it goin?" with a slight Welsh lilt! {My grandma was half-Welsh, by the way!} Knowing he was watching made us play as all-pro as ever, rockin' the walls, no blahblahblah between songs, just hit it hard! He looked on from side stage like he dug it, i think, and he played his ass off, too!
{ps I also like Elvis' version! And the 60's Johnny Cash on TV!}

Though i have sung this {!} as a straight-up tribute to Mr. Cale's version, this is my improvisational instrumental deconstruction of that classic rock'n'roll via garage punk tune, performed live on my 50th birthday, 2004, at Ruta Maya WHQ, recorded direct to CD via TC Finalizer [mp3-ed for RN at 147kbps VBR]... All programming of the TR-909 Rhythm Composer, all custom sound design on the Yamaha TX81z, and all guitar {my sweet *DragonFire*, a G&L SC3 (gifted to me by my buddy elMO and custom painted - thanks, wendy} through that lovely purple Line 6 Filter Modeler (thanks Bob M.)} is, yes, all me, me, me; [i did the live mix, too!] ...

Oh yeah, the one man band lives on! Turn it up! ENJOY!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cale
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_Boren_Axton
[Great very thorough overview of the history of the song:]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartbreak_Hotel

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*LEGAL*: This mp3 sound recording
by JC Rx is licensed under a
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[Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
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