Takin' A Ride

It can be argued that the mark of a great band, as opposed to a “very good” band, is by the quality of their b-sides and compilation tracks. If that’s the case, then the Hellacopters are one of the best bands to ever exist. These tracks are at least as good, and in a lot of times, better than the tracks that appear on their albums. This is the third (!) volume of their b-sides and compilation tracks and if you break up each of these Cream Of The Crap compilations into 30 or 40 minute blocks, that’s technically six full albums of b-sides and extra tracks!

Two thirds of this one are cover songs, which is probably why they’ve all been regulated to b-sides, split singles, and compilation tracks. But you wouldn’t know it. Quite a few of them are deep cuts and pretty obscure, and as always when a great band does a cover song, they make it their own. Which the Hellacopters most certainly do. They have quite a love for Detroit rock, and it shows in their covers of Alice Cooper, The Temptations, Bob Segar, Smokey Robinson, Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, and the MC5. The Damned also get covered here, as do songs by Motorhead, the Ramones, and Radio Birdman. And they cover some of their friends’ bands, like Flaming Sideburns and Adam West too!

Of course let’s not forget their original songs, the bulk of which come from the “Disappointment Blues” EP. “Oh Yeah, Alright!” has a special significance to me, since it was played at my wedding reception 16 years ago. It’s a song about hanging with a girl and listening to records, name dropping dozens of bands. “and we made out to Angus Young. The Pistols band, Stevie Jones. Have you got any Ramones? She said ‘Oh yeah! Alright!’”

As much as anyone can be a big fan of the Hellacopters, I can practically guarantee you that absolutely no one has all their releases. According to Discogs, they have 78 releases of their own and 207 appearances on other compilations and albums. It’s just not possible to have them all, as they were released all over the world, some in very limited quantities, and have some huge asking prices. I’m pretty much a completist and am pretty crafty at trying to find every single song from the Hellacopters and even I certainly don’t have all of the songs even on this compilation, let alone the other two volumes. Don’t get me wrong: I do have most of them! Thankfully, they’ve been compiling them all those rare and hard to find tracks onto these releases, which certainly are not “crap”, and it’s really nice to have them all in one place. These are all remastered, and sound great! I haven’t gone through their whole discography recently, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they already have enough songs for a volume 4. Bring it on! It doesn’t get much better than this.

🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸