Of course the Music Machine were one of the greatest, most original and inspiring 60s-garage bands and yes, the single glove actually IS the prickly (?) attribute which however, could be intended as a symbol for their influences on Rudi or his love for them?.
Did Sean Bonniwell ever complain to him for it? I don´t think so...
I loved them and you weren´t in the band yet! Elixir festival 85 >
(ok, sure, they were pop by comparison, but still..)
We were grateful for the Fuzztones bringing those great tunes to Europe, (original or not). Personally i think they let re-surge those great tune in their own singular way!
So, i would rather say they re-invented this music style!
The fuzztones sounds like Fuzztones and nobody else, even when the cover.
(As well as the Cramps when they covered)
Personally, i love most of the original Fuzztones songs too.
"IMO The Ramones & Cramps are in a different league"
In the USA they may be in a different league!! OK!
But not here! In Europe they are in the same league!
LIVE AND LET LIVE!
(Non mi fare vergognare anche tu di essere Italiana,
ti prego, con Berlusconi abbiamo gia´fatto il pieno!)
John Carlucci said:
I think I have some expertise on this particular topic and can shed some light on the situation having been in this band for 5 years when they were in their prime.... Yes, Rudi stole the entire image from The Music Machine. The Fuzztones started as a novelty side band to his "real" band, Tina Peel. Tina Peel wore matching outfits of stripes, polka dots & checkers and Rudi played a Carvin Les Paul copy. The funny thing is that the novelty side band went over better than his main band, so he kept doing it. He pieces his bands together by whoever is available, then dresses them up to fit his "image". He tells them what guitars to play, what clothes to wear & how to cut their hair. In some cases, he had dudes that were bald, so he made them wear wigs. Some of his band mates knew nothing at all about garage music, and were basically hard rock dudes that he molded to fit the look. I was from a Punk Rock background & had my most success to that point as a member of the Power Pop band, The Speedies. The most amazing thing about the line-up of the Fuzztones when I was in the band is that despite Rudi, the other 4 of us had amazing chemistry & we took the band to a different place. Try as he did to control us, I did not work. I am & always have been a non-conformist. We had the chops & the spirit to put on an amazing live show. But the original songs Rudi wrote were nothing compared to the covers we did. You have to realize that in the 80's the internet did not exist. It was not that easy to find these rare songs by bands like The Sonics & 13th Floor Elevators. A lot of people did not realize we were doing covers back then. This was their first exposure to this genre. So now you have young bands emulating what we did while we were emulating what came before. IMO The Ramones & Cramps are in a different league, They had their own voice & did something more original than we did. We tried, but it was an uphill battle the entire time.Is it possible to call them "a Music Machine wannabee"-band just for a single glove used by a young Rudi, while on the other hand, still today, you hve bunch of bands wearing bones-chains a la Fuzztones? Are they Fuzztones wannabee bands?? I´m confused...
(but hell, it may be!.. ;)