Naturally, there was no way a band like this would sound anything like what they used to sound like, and bless them, they embraced it rather than try to repeat history. They also brought back Marc’s younger brother Bruce on bass–for some reason he was kicked out after the band’s first album. They found a new vocalist in former morgue attendant Andy Prieboy, and a new drummer, Ned Leukhart, brought on a conventional drum kit. Gray, and guitarist Marc Moreland, they decided to keep on as Wall of Voodoo. Backing keyboardist, Bill Noland, also split town. Nanini went into drug treatment, and took his assortment of unusual percussion instruments with him. Realizing the rock and roll life was too much, and the drugs and touring had made his life “a walking nervous breakdown,” Ridgway split. The girl freaked out, and Nanini got arrested and flown out by helicopter. According to interviews, the critical moment happened backstage, as Stan watched Joe Nanini dump a bowl of potato salad on a scantily clad girl backstage. They’re tight and they’re sharp, and there’s no clue that Stan would call it quits. Thanks to a circulating bootleg, one can relive the final Ridgway-era Wall of Voodoo show, and it’s a doozy. They were touring, they’d had big gigs, they’d opened for the ill-fated 3-DEVO concert in ’82, and now they were at Steve Wozniak’s US Festival. The year was 1983, and Wall of Voodoo was riding high on the success of Call of the West and the big single, “Mexican Radio,” written by guitarist Marc Moreland. This even includes the band themselves, once Ridgway packed up and walked out. Suffice it to say, the band that got its start as ACME Soundtracks, with two guys, a Fairfisa organ, a guitar and a rhythm box would go on to make music so idiosyncratic that nobody’s even approximated it since. If all you know of Wall of Voodoo is “ Mexican Radio”, you’d do well to catch up with their first two albums, Dark Continent and Call of the West, just so you have a frame of reference for what comes next. He sings in a voice like a nervous gangster in a 1930s Mob movie, and the songs he writes are film noir pictures of sad-sack characters in a tough world that doesn’t give a shit. In the world of rock frontmen, Wall of Voodoo’s Stan Ridgway is one-of-a-kind. Yet, for every band that goes on with their new frontman and succeeds, many more fail. AC/DC had more success with replacement vocalist Brian Johnson than they did with Bon Scott. Joy Division lost the iconic Ian Curtis, and went on with a name change to become even more popular and successful as New Order. After Buddy Holly died, The Crickets went on with different frontmen for years. Whatever happens, the band decides they don’t need their charismatic frontman any longer, and they’ll go on without him. Maybe his own inflated ego causes him to start a potentially ill-fated solo career. In either case, he’s the face of the group, the one the people come to see. A band makes their bones around a charismatic frontman. It’s a story older than Rock ‘n’ Roll itself.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |