Customer Reviews

Yeah!

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Give Wounded Bird Records credit for finally putting back in print one of the great party albums of the seventies. This 1973 release featured their biggest hit, the million-selling "Smokin' in the Boy's Room." Co-written by bassist Michael Lutz and guitarist Cub Koda, this song showed the rest of the country what the Midwest already knew-Brownsville Station was one of the rockinest bands on the circuit.

Though the album contains only one other original (another Lutz-Koda song, "All Night Long"), they included well chosen covers, like The Balloon Farm's 1968 hit "A Question of Temperature," Ray Parker's 1966 hit "Barefootin'" and Hoyt Axton's "Lightnin' Bar Blues." They even covered fellow Ann Arbor native Terry Knight's "Love, Love, Love."

Sadly, Koda died of kidney disease in 2000 at the age of 51. As a music journalist (he was a staff writer for "Goldmine" magazine), Koda was a champion of all kinds of music. This album is a testament to his talents. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I feel sorry for all the deprived youngin's who have been raised on MOTLEY CRUE's ummm..."motley" cover of SMOKIN' IN THE BOY'S ROOM, the uncontested juvey delinquent anthem of the early seventies. YEAH! is a short, sweet,'n sweaty testamant to the charismatic GARY GLITTER-meets-BO DIDDLEY garage rockin' blooze-bustin' punk pioneers christened BROWNSVILLE STATION. In one thirty minute in-yer-ear blast, music historian/record collector CUB KODA's impeccable taste in genre-jumpin' cover tunes spans country's HOYT AXTON (LIGHTNING BAR BLUES), reggae's JIMMY CLIFF (almost hit LET YOUR YEAH BE YEAH), New Orleans soulman ROBERT PARKER (BAREFOOTIN'), punk Godfadda LOU REED (SWEET JANE), and psychedelic one hitters BALLOON FARM (QUESTION OF TEMPERATURE), all rendered in BROWNVILLE's patented slam-bang-thank-you-glam delivery. Smoke 'em if ya got 'em, boys! No one owned rock and roll covers (or created their own covers to be) like these Ann Arbor overgrown high school greasers. More fun than cherry bombs in the boy's room urinal!

RATING: FIVE SOGGY BUTTS

No, this is not the worst album in history. That award goes to the Shaggs. Of course there is nothing cerebral or particularly original about this 1973 release, but that's not the point. Just like Black Oak, Humble Pie, Foghat and many bands like them, the point here is to crank it up and have fun.

In 1973 I was 12 years old and living on Long Island. My mother picked this album up for me that summer and I thought it was the coolest thing I ever heard. I couldn't wait for her to leave the house so I could turn it up as loud as it could go! Of course that was before I discovered Deep Purple.

Well it's been at least 25 years since I heard this gem, and I couldn't help feeling like a 12 year old when I put it on! Sure, "Smokin' In the Boy's Room" is here, but there's also a few other great tracks worth mentioning. "All Night Long" is the only other original track, and like most of the tracks here, it is fun to listen to and very catchy. There's also Hoyt Axton's "Lightning Bar Blues" which I like even better than Hoyt's. Then there's "Barefootin'"...perhaps the heaviest track on the album.

It's definately a blast from the past and one of those L.P.s that you would never expect to see on CD. The only thing I didn't like was the short playing time and no additional or alternate tracks.

I had this on album originally (duhh) during my early teens and didn't take care of it. These guys put their own twist on these covers that no other band could have covered as well. It's Raw Rock And Roll's finest moment with punk roots. To hear this again in pristine condition was worth the decades of waiting. And with the Recent passing of Cub Coda (singer/writer/guitarist) this is a certified classic. Buy It Man!

If you like good ol' rock and roll, you will like this. There is nothing especially complex or "deep" about it, it is just good music. Smokin' In The Boys Room is a classic, there is a great cover of Sweet Jane, which I would rank 2nd only to Mott The Hoople's version, and there is also probably the best cover of Hoyt Axton's Lightning Bar Blues I have ever heard. Too bad Cub Koda left the scene so young, I think he still had a lot left to offer.

I've always been most impressed with the tight "less is more" production that is Brownsvilles Station's "Yeah!". There's even a guitar solo section that consists of nothing more than Cub Koda down-picking hard 8th note rhythm on a muted powerchord in place of what woulda been an ego-laiden single note solo in anyone lesser player's hands. That said, no one is gonna put this band in the class of the far more creative power trios such as Cream, Hendrix Experience or even Grand Funk, but they were all heart. They showed that a small group of true rock devotees, with limited talents and a whole lotta drive can muster.

It's been a favorite album of mine since the day it came out. I was dead-center in the target audience for "Smokin' In the Boys Room" at 13 when it hit the airwaves. As a youth anthem "Smokin'" was tied for first with Alice Cooper's "School's Out" in the same era. And the album still holds up very well in the 21st Century. The CD transfer and mastering are excellent, a staight transfer and with none of the modern "volume maximizing" via over-compression of the master tape. The artwork is as plain as it should be for this album. No additional liner notes of over-hyped praise. Ya just get a great great album.

This is the worst lp in recording history. The covers are embarassingly bad, and especially their cover of Lou Reed's "Sweet Jane" which is down right hideous and I'd be suprised if Lou Reed wouldn't beat the living daylights out of all three of these losers if he ever saw them. If you think Grand Funk Railroad covering the Stones' "Gimmie Shelter" was ridiculous, that's nothing; this is far, far worse. As for their big hit single, "Smoking in the Boys' Room" here's a newsflash:IT'S a NOVELTY song, nothing more. The rest of the songs are "me wanna hump you" caveman songs ineptly play that make Bad Company sound sophisticated. I'm sorry Cub Koda died young, but there is a silver lining in that cloud: HE'S NOT RECORDING ANYMORE. Rated 1 Star because ZERO wasn't available. Avoid at all costs. Unless you want a ten dollar mini frisbee that comes with a jewel case.