School Punks by Brownsville Station (CD, Apr-2005, Wounded Bird Records)

This was Brownsville Station's fourth LP, which was released in 1974.

When this record came out in the mid-seventies, some Rock fans were put off. The cartoonish jacket painting for the album portrays the band as "School Punks". They're standing in front of a graffiti adorned (school) brick wall, decked out in leather jackets, but wearing some unlikely shirts. To many Rock fans at the time, including myself, the cover looked riduculous. The album title, song titles, and to some extent, the music, followed suit.

Leather bomber jackets were already a symbol of both the 50's style and Rock'n'roll, of course; and an actual photograph of the band wearing leather and either lounging around, or brandishing their instruments could have been an inspired choice. Instead, the painting and presentation made the band look like lightweight commercially-minded panderers.

I didn't buy the LP and the few songs I did hear from it seemed more like sketches of songs than real songs, and with cheesy lyrics; so my suspicions were confirmed.

Recently I found out that 6 of Brownsville Station's original 7 LPs had finally been released on CD, but our local legendary music store couldn't get most of them. I thought about it for a little while and realized it was likely they would go out of print again, possibly soon- so I bought them all on eBay, including the dreaded SCHOOL PUNKS.

30+ years later, I view this recording differently. I figure the band was trying to keep things rolling financially after their big success with the killer SMOKIN' IN THE BOYS ROOM, and in doing so just got carried away trying to exploit the potential of what they perceived as their fan base.

The cover which I had always thought was idiotic is now amusing- even charming, kind of a codification of a certain youth subculture at a point in time. I realize that the band, still in their late 20's at the time, was probably trying to identify with their younger fans as much as anything else. If you check up on these guys, you'll see that they truly loved their fans.... almost as much as they loved Rock'n'roll.... hee, hee.

They roar out of the speakers on the first cut, "Kings Of The Party", with guitars blazing, and some ridiculous lyrics:
"We're the kings of the party, we're the baddest people alive, we're the kings of the party, now come on and give me five"
It used to make me cringe, but now it sounds hilarious when heard in the context of the exhilarating high energy (Chuck) Berry flavored music of the song. It makes me smile. Sure they were pandering, & probably underestimated their fans in the process, but they were also having fun. The band rocks like crazy on this one.

There are several strong tracks on the record, and some fairly annoying ones; but in this case, the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. It IS a concept album; and the whole thing hangs together well. All three band members handle the vocals, with Michael Lutz sounding better than ever.

Three stars for the CD as a whole, and another star for the incisive slide guitar on Mama Don't Allow No Parkin' and the terrific version of I've Got Love If You Want It, which also features some sweet guitar from the always clever Cub Koda.

Somewhat insubstantial, but still a blast. Thank God for Rock'n'roll !

You just can't keep a band like Brownsville Station down.