It’s fun having a website and blog because people just contact you out of nowhere for different reasons. Some people contact me because they like what I am showcasing or writing about, or they write because they recognize someone from one of my blog posts, or they write to tell me that they are also a friend, of one of my friends, etc.
Because I am a Photographer, people sometimes email me, to tell me that someone is using one of my photos without permission.
Such was the case with the photo shown above.
Someone told me that they had seen this image I took of Randy Gun, in a blog post, and at first I thought it was Randy Gun himself, stealing from me again, like he did last year (there are dozens of Randy Gun stories/dramas, here on my blog, if you want to read them and see what a jerk he really is.)
When I went to investigate, I found that this blogger had taken my photo of Randy Gun (from 32 years ago), distressed it up, put a song list over it, and made it look like it was the actual back side of a released CD. (The front side of the CD was some ridiculous Daniel Boone cartoon, that I didn’t really get.)
I posted a reply, to this blog post, stating that they were infringing on my copyright, and that this CD didn’t exist, because Randy didn’t know about or have access to these photos of mine until we came back in contact with each other last year. So, he wouldn’t have had that image of mine, to use on a CD cover, that had been recorded in the past. (Plus, they hadn’t even invented CD’s yet back when Randy would have recorded this!)
When I started to pay attention to what was written on this “pretend” CD, I noticed that it had an actual set list, from a live gig, that Randy supposedly played at CBGB, in New York City, back on June 30th of 1982!
WHAT THE F***?!
As I started clicking around, I actually found this recording of Randy, from CBGB’s (in FLAC format) on a peer to peer website. I also found other information that stated something like: “this recording had been the last date of the band’s tour.”
Ok. Seriously?!
I could be totally wrong (but I don’t think I am), but Randy didn’t have a “band” to speak of, much less a concert “tour” for this band. After he was fired from The Necessaries in late 1979, he started playing with Peter Gordon and Love of Life Orchestra (still does to this day, in fact.) In July of 1982, (only a couple of weeks after this supposed big gig of his at CBGB), Randy was in Chicago with Love of Life Orchestra, to play a Summer Festival, because that’s where I last saw Randy (a previous blog post covers all this stuff.) I’m sure I would have heard of/been invited to any upcoming “show dates” he would have been playing at, had they existed back then.
Jesse Chamberlain and Ernie Brooks had both played with Randy in The Necessaries and Peter Gordon heads up Love of Life Orchestra. Jon Klages had played Guitar on Randy’s one and only 7″ single that had been released, so that was probably why these guys all ended up playing together for this gig at CBGB. It was just some friends helping another friend out.
Last year, when Randy was still thankful for all the photos I had unearthed of him, he made a statement to me, to the effect of: “It was unfathomable to him, that he didn’t become a Monster of Rock, based on how great all my photos were of him!”
Ahh…if it was only that easy, to become a Monster of Rock, all of my ex-boyfriends would have become Superstars!
Problem is, to become a Monster of Rock, you actually have to have good material, and be good at performing that material.
Once you hear these long-lost recordings, you will hear for yourself, why Randy never achieved Monster of Rock Stardom.
Please don’t think that I actually like this music – I am only posting these songs for the sake of the history of it all. For that, and that alone, it is interesting that someone took the time to record a full set, of an unknown band, back on June 30, 1982 at CBGB, and it’s amazing that they still had that tape, and posted it online 30 years later.
This set of Randy’s, from CBGB, was about half an hour long, so it is broken into two parts below, for your listening enjoyment.
Hey! I just read that CBGB is planning a huge reunion shindig for July of 2012. There isn’t a better time then, for this music to be unearthed! Perhaps Randy Gun will receive yet another chance to become that “Monster of Rock” he apparently wanted to be.
Randy Gun – Live from CBGB (Part 2)
Click Here to read more of my Randy Gun Stories.
