LOST TREASURES

CHERRY VANILLA

“Bad Girl”

By Peter Marston

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Cherry Vanilla (born Kathleen Dorritie) is probably best known as one of the stars of Andy Warhol’s anti-play Pork and as David Bowie’s publicist in the early ’70s. But by the middle of that decade, she was fronting her own band and bringing her own mix of rock ’n’ roll and camp to the London punk scene. Her debut LP, Bad Girl, is generally regarded as her best and is our subject in this Lost Treasures post.

Vanilla’s career as a singer began shortly after leaving her job as Bowie’s publicist in 1974 and returning to the New York club scene. Her first band featured a young Kasim Sulton, later of Utopia, but her first success came fronting the Staten Island Band, whose “Shake Your Ashes” appeared on the legendary Max’s Kansas City’s New York, New Wave compilation album in 1976. The Staten Island Band (minus Vanilla) went on to support David Johansen in his solo career while Vanilla departed for London to take part in the exploding UK punk scene. She began playing regular gigs at the Roxy with a pre-Andy Summers line-up of the Police as her backing band. She was promptly signed by RCA and ushered into the studio to record her debut album. Perhaps unimpressed by the career arc and reputation of the Police (they had yet to establish themselves, even as a live act), RCA assembled a different group of musicians for the sessions, mostly Americans: Zecca Esquibel on keyboards, boyfriend Louie Lepore on guitar, Howie Finkel on bass and Manny Mancuso on drums.

Bad Girl opens with the provocative “I Know How to Hook,” a bump-and-grind blues with Vanilla’s characteristic everywoman vocals―certainly unpolished and sometimes over-the-top, but also very engaging. “So 1950’s” is a little rockier, sounding a bit like a cross between Lou Reed and Mott the Hoople, switching to a double-time punk arrangement about halfway through. “Not So Bad” is a doo-wop pastiche that sounds like an outtake from The Rocky Horror Picture Show or even Grease. “The Punk” is one of the highlights of the album. It achieves the best balance of punk and rock here, seemingly influenced by both the Ramones and, again, Mott the Hoople. “Liverpool” is one of the poppier numbers, sounding like Kilburn and the High Roads covering the Ohio Express. “Foxy Bitch” slows things down a bit, dropping a terrific groove based upon some heavy, but simple minor-key riffs. The title track “Bad Girl,” starts out like a Shel Silverstein country send-up, but then breaks into a very dramatic—and seemingly serious―bridge section. The closer, “Little Red Rooster” (not the Willie Dixon blues standard) is another highlight—a terrific rock song with a great solo and a catchy ‘cock-a-doodle-doo” chorus.

“The Punk” b/w “Foxy Bitch” was released as a single in 1977 prior to the release of Bad Girl in 1978. Both were issued only in the UK on RCA. A rare dual-label promo of “The Punk” was also released in Italy with Vanilla’s “The Punk” on the B-side and Stiff Records’ “Sex, Drugs and Rock ’n’ Roll” by Ian Dury on the A-side. None of these releases was commercially successful, but Vanilla soldiered on, releasing a follow-up LP, Venus D’Vinyl in 1978. Nearly as good as Bad Girl, it also failed to chart―and it would be twenty-four years before her next release, Blue Roses.

Bad Girl was reissued on CD in a two-fer with Venus D’Vinyl by Renaissance in 2008 and is readily available. It also available in the digital domain on iTunes and is frequently posted on various blogs. More than an underground curiosity, Bad Girl well deserves a listen from PGH’s legion of pop fans!

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Pop Pioneer and “Lost Treasures” writer, Peter Marston is the leader of long-running power pop band, Shplang, whose most recent album, “My Big Three Wheeler” has been described as “the Beatles meet Zappa in pop-psych Sumo match.”  Peter has a new project in 2015 under the name MARSTON.   They will have a track on the upcoming “Power Pop Planet – Volume 5” compilation due in May, 2015.

You check it out at this link:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shplang

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LINKS:

Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_Vanilla

AMG:    http://www.allmusic.com/album/bad-girl-venus-dvinyl-mw0000051155

Home Page:  http://www.cherry-vanilla.com/#

“Lick Me” book on Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Lick-Me-Became-Cherry-Vanilla/dp/1556529430

VIDEOS:

“THE PUNK”

“HARD AS A ROCK”