Wayne Kramer & The Pink Fairies - Cocaine Blues (1974-78) (2016)

Although this is billed to "Wayne Kramer & the Pink Fairies", in fact only four of the ten cuts were done with the Pink Fairies. This is more properly viewed as a collection of odds and ends from Kramer's 1970s work, none of it too exciting, but not without its merit and historical value. The first four songs were recorded live at Dingwall's in London in 1978, with Kramer, only recently out of jail, fronting the Pink Fairies. In imperfect but listenable fidelity, Kramer runs through Mose Allison's "If You're Going to the City," Bob Seger's "Heavy Music" (into which he wittily inserts a bit from James Brown's "There Was a Time," adapting the lyrics to refer to Detroit), the nine-minute "Cocaine Blues" (an interesting, autobiographical, mostly spoken account of the events leading to his mid-'70s prison term), and "Kick Out the Jams." Next are four run-of-the-mill hard rock studio tracks, also done in London in 1978, including covers of "Do You Love Me" and Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come," along with a couple of originals (one co-written with Mick Farren). Paul Carrack, presumably that Paul Carrack from Squeeze/Ace/Mike & the Mechanics/Roxy Music, is on piano. Finishing the disc off are two 1974 studio cuts, done in Detroit: "Get Some" is another Farren/Kramer collaboration (with lumpy, boxy bottom-end sound), and "Ramblin' Rose" was of course first done by Kramer with the MC5. This material has more heart than much 1970s hard rock, but is still almost exclusively for the MC5 completist.