Daniel_Rf's Full Review: The Very Best of the Coasters by The Coasters
Of all the classic R&B groups (The Drifters, The Clovers, The Dominoes), The Coasters are perhaps the ones to make deepest impact upon Pop culture- but does their brand of novelty R&B rave-ups still sound exciting and vital in the 21st century? Yes. Not as funny mind you, but more of that later.
The Coasters started their life as The Robins (one of the numerous “bird groups” of the 50’s-The Ravens, The Flamingos, etc.), a group signed to LA’s Spark label and produced by Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber, one of the most famous song writing partnerships of the Rock era. After three fine hits (“Framed”, “Riot In Cell Block #9” and “Smokey Joe’s Cafe”, the last two included in this compo), The Robins were signed to R&B giant Atlantic, only two of the original members remaining (lead singer Carl Gardner and bass Bobby Nunn). Add Leon Hughes and Billy Guy et voila- instant Coasters. This outfit had a considerable number of hits in the Rock & Roll era and the pre-Beatles Lost Years, even attaining a few crossover hits with white audiences (mainly because of their humour).
So, how did they do it, then? And what makes The Coasters sound at the same time so vintage and so fresh today?
The main selling point of Coasters records in their heyday- the humour- is now hopelessly outdated. Few songs here will make you even chuckle, let alone laugh out loud. But what gives the songs style, even now, are the vocals. Starting with The Robin’s “Riot In Cell Block # 9” (sung by the guy who wrote “Louie Louie”, Richard Berry), each and every one of these hits is enriched by vocals that give meaning and strength to every word they say, without ever sounding uneasy. Lead vocalist Carl Gardner was an extremely volatile type, managing to perform a number of different voices (though he was at his best when sounding Clyde McPhattersque); but also give credit to the cool as hell bass Bobby Nunn, and the background singing abilities of Hughes and Guy. The best example of this vocalising in action, btw, is “Searchin’”, a jailbait anthem in which every Coaster takes turns saying ”What’s your name?” in increasingly absurd voices.
However, The Coasters were also a project shared by Lieber/Stoller, the dou that wrote such classics as “Hound Dog” and “Kansas City”. Unsurprisingly, their song writing prowess and production gimmickry also contributed strongly to The Coaster’s sound, so much so in fact that it is they (not The Coasters themselves) who were asked to give comments on these songs by the folks at Rhino for the liner notes. Novelties the songs they wrote may be, but quality novelty nevertheless.
Songs like “Yakety Yak” or “Charlie Brown” (nothing to do with the Billy Corgan lookalike), for instance, still work just because they’re straightforward and get to the beef of what (yawn) teenage rebellion was about, before James Dean, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain f ucked that concept up so badly that nowadays it is a blank term (sorry, but it had to be said). A grumpy father that yells ”Yakety yak!/don’t talk back!” (“Don’t play this song to your kids- it will become a weapon in their hands” critic Dave Marsh once noted) or the school bully Charlie Brown that doesn’t understand ”why is everybody always picking on me?”- these are universal, eternal subjects that will never go away. Beauty in simplicity.
Beauty in simplicity, too, can be found on “That Is Rock & Roll”, one of the greatest Rock anthems ever written. ”You say that music’s for the birds/and you can’t understand the words/well honey if you did/you’d really blow your lid/cos baby that is Rock & Roll!”- have truer lines ever been written about the genre? I think not.
In every aspect, the refreshing thing is the pureness of these tracks, contaminated neither by excessive studio gloss (just the odd sound effect or two) nor any pretensions. These songs are relicts from a time when it didn’t take performers fifteen years to produce a second album, when songs were written and tracks cut like nobodie’s business. That classics like “Young Blood” and “Yakety Yak” were written in 10-15 minutes (as Leiber & Stoller claim here, at least of the latter) is a testament to the greatness of their song writing and the laziness of contemporary performers (Blur, Sheryl Crow, NIN, Radiohead- much as I love you guys, you’re all guilty of it!).
And don’t sell every one of these songs short as a novelty item, either- there was much more going on, albeit at a hidden level. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the lascivious eroticism of “Little Egypt (Ying Yang)” or the obvious protest inherent to “What About Us?”, but the satire inherent to, say, “Idol With The Golden Head” or “Along Came Jones” is harder to get. And after reading the liner notes, you too will see that “Run, Red, Run” is about more than just a monkey who plays poker.
Finally, this whole mess wouldn’t be as great as it is without competent backing- credit must go to the excellent backing musicians, specifically legendary Soul saxophonist King Curtis who wailed away on almost every one of their hits.
In a somewhat romanticised idea of the facts, Lieber & Stoller claim that it was their increasingly inflammatory lyrics that led to the break-up of The Coasters. This is a bit of an overstatement (with the British Invasion and the rise of Soul, The Coaster’s time was simply up), but dig these lyrics of the sadly never released “Whitey” and tell me if that don’t sound like something Curtis Mayfield (God bless his soul) would’ve come up with:
”Who dropped the bomb and started the war?/an’ when you’re over there fighting, who you fighting’ for?/when you come back and you can’t get a job/and the only way to make it is to hussle and rob/hey, who you gonna hustle?/and who you gonna rob?”
The demise of The Coasters was, as previously mentioned, inevitable. However, they left a big legacy, not only on black R&B, but also on acts like the early Beatles (who covered “Young Blood” and “Searching” on their ”Live At The BBC” sessions). And correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that Poison Ivy (the supersexy female villain of the Batman comics) was more than a bit inspired by The Coasters hit of the same name.
Total R&B fanatics can be appeased with Rhino’s 2CD ”Fifty Coastin’ Classics” anthology; for the rest of us, this single disc will suffice to enjoy the raving, stylish music of one of the all time greatest R&B combos ever to walk this Earth.
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