Balled up into a taut, explosive package of tense energy, irresistible hooks and melodic charm, "Hangin' On The Telephone" was supposed to be the hit single that was going to put The Nerves on the pop-music map.

Instead, it was Blondie and its revamped version — included on 1978's classic album Parallel Lines — that broke through, giving Debbie Harry and company their first U.K. Top Ten.

The Nerves' Jack Lee actually wrote "Hangin' On The Telephone," and the band's drummer, Paul Collins, recalled his initial reaction to it in a recent e-mail interview.

"The first time I heard 'Hangin'...' in Jack's flop house room on Pine and Gough in San Francisco, I thought I had died and gone to heaven," says Collins.

In short order, however, it was The Nerves that would collectively pass on. Together only briefly in the mid-'70s, The Nerves — with Lee on guitar, Peter Case on bass and Collins — and their brand of fast, tight, infectious garage-rock flamed out quickly, leaving behind only an EP's worth of primal power-pop recordings. "Hangin' On The Telephone" would ensure the group a lasting legacy, however, and when he heard Blondie's cover, Collins thought, "That finally The Nerves were going to get their due."

For his part, Peter Case, who would go on to somewhat bigger things with The Plimsouls, had a different reaction to hearing Blondie do "Hangin' On The Telephone." He remembers thinking, "Jack's rich now."

But, for The Nerves, widespread acclaim, not to mention wealth, eluded them, and in 1978, after three years together, the band split. To rectify that wrong, Alive Records released what is being touted as the trio's first official LP One Way Ticket Nov. 25. Padded with fiery live tracks and a handful of demos, along with the original Nerves EP, One Way Ticket is essential listening for anyone interested in the origins of L.A. punk (even though, as Case is quick to remind, The Nerves actually began in San Francisco).

To find out what all the fuss is, visit www.bomp.com and prepare to be amazed.

News of a Rainbow reunion — minus the most famous member, guitar sorcerer Ritchie Blackmore, but including Blackmore's son Jurgen (or J.R.) — arrived last month to some fanfare. Vocalist Joe Lynn Turner, whose soulful singing graces such band favorites as "Street Of Dreams" and "Stone Cold," is a part what's being called Over The Rainbow that also includes keyboardist Tony Carey, drummer Bobby Rondinelli and bassist Greg Smith.

But, a far more rewarding experience in September gave Turner a whole new perspective on life. As reported here in this blog, Turner went to Iraq to entertain the troops with the band Big Noize, an assemblage of rockers from '70s and '80s heavy-metal acts like Deep Purple, Rainbow, Quiet Riot (guitarist Carlos Cavazo), AC/DC (Simon Wright) and Ozzy Osbourne's band.

It was a long time coming for Turner, who had approached USO.org two years ago about performing for soldiers stationed in the war-torn land "... because I'd heard that they were having trouble getting artists, celebrities, or anything else to go over there. People were obviously afraid and what have you."

He got a form letter back saying, in so many words, that they were not interested.

"I just wanted to do something; I wanted to do my part for the troops," says Turner. "This is not a political move. This is just completely for the troops. It's not about red and blue, it's about red, white and blue. It's for our guys and girls over there. This has nothing to do with for or against the war. So, I was kind of disappointed in that."

The story doesn't end there, thankfully. A friend of Turner's, Jeff Thornton of Lone Wolf Productions, had an idea for a tour of Iraq that grabbed Turner's attention.

"I had done two Naval tours with him, and what they are basically, on the Pacific Rim, is doing Seoul everywhere from Japan all the way down through the Diego Garcia, which is an island in the Indian Ocean, where we have a lot of heavy artillery," explains Turner. "I don't know. I might be talking above most peoples' heads, but having been there twice, you know, I'm really familiar with what's going on, and where all the heavy artillery comes out of, to go into the Middle East, and that's Diego Garcia. So, to make a long story short, I've done two tours with them doing that, and he'd been to Iraq 23 times, with other acts, local and otherwise. So, I jumped on the chance, and I felt that this was a really great opportunity for a project that I'm involved with called Big Noize, which features a lot of infamous guys from big groups, and if anybody's not familiar, it's bignoizemusic.net."

Six months of briefings and organizing proceeded the tour, and Turner remembers "... we kept getting briefed throughout the time about what we could expect, what we had to bring, what we had to wear, how we had to act... everything, because it's a different world when you get over there."

It lasted two weeks, with Big Noize visiting a number of out-of-the-way outposts.

"We primarily went to the smaller camps, because most of the bigger camps... although we went to Baghdad twice, we didn't really play Baghdad; we played Camp Taji, which is outside of Baghad, which is a huge camp," says Turner. "But we went to the smaller camps, like Shield and Falcon, and things like this... because these guys never get anything out there. They're right on the perimeter. They're still fighting out there. They're taking an inch, a foot back every day, for Operation Iraqi Freedom."

The trip left Turner a changed man. "This [was] just an amazing journey, and an amazing experience, and a life-changing one at that, because when you do finally come back, you start to look at life differently, you start to look at yourself differently, people... everything changes for you because you've been through something that is extremely difficult, extremely different, and eye-opening. So, it's hard to return to civilian life and just see everything the same way it was. I mean, you'll never complain about anything again. Never complain, you know, because these guys, they're in 140-degree heat, eatin' sand, in the dirt, you know, every day, gettin' shot at and mortar fire and everything that happens over there. Even though the fighting's down about 60 percent, it's still dangerous. And on the perimeters, we were up north and on the edges of where the fighting still is; it's still going on, pretty hot and heavy. We experienced mortar fire, machine-gun fire, and all that kind of stuff. So, I don't know where to begin, except it's just an amazing, amazing experience... the band was amazing on this. We all joined forces and just said, 'Look, we want to do this for unselfish reasons. It was really an amazing feeling to go over there and a very bonding experience."

Turner and company hope to go back in March, because, as Turner says, "... once you've got it in your blood, you really don't want to let it go."

The same, evidently, goes for him with regard to Rainbow. Not content to stop there, Turner also is out promoting his new concert album, Live in Germany, and says that a new Sunstorm record is in the works. An AOR project of Turner's that includes Survivor's Jim Peterik and Giant's Dan Huff, Sunstorm, according to Turner, was supposed to begin work on the album in late October.

About the new album's direction, Turner says, "What Sunstorm is really is like kit-oriented songs from the '80s. And I think it's pretty much in the same style, whereas these songs are hook-line-and sinker type songs. And Jim Peterik wrote a couple more. I've got about four or five in there. You know, just good writers, great songs, great production, and that's what Sunstorm is about. It's not supposed to be hard-rocking; it's supposed to be more of a commercial enterprise, you know. But it's so well-done; if you checked out the last one, it's so well done, you can't help but like it. You know, even the hard-core aficionados, you know, they kind of dig it, so I'm hoping that we have the same success with this one."

Mary Chapin Carpenter said it best: "This set is a treasure." And so is Red House Records, the indie American roots music label set in the Twin Cities that's celebrating its silver anniversary in 2008 with an extravagant — well, as extravagant as you can get for a small indie — three-CD box set, Red House 25: A Silver Anniversary Retrospective.

Housed in a handsome leatherette case are 64 tracks of down-to-earth folk music, Americana, bluegrass, acoustic blues and Celtic — the product of honest songwriting, Midwestern values and hard musical labor. Helping promote a "new folk" grass-roots resurgence in this country, Red House is home to Greg Brown, Loudon Wainwright III, Eliza Gilkyson and Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna guitarist extraordinaire Jorma Kaukonen, and way more artists than we have room for here.

The Red House story begins with Brown, in the early '80s.

Well, it all started, as we say in sort of the beginning of this book, there's about three ways you can start with this company, and I suppose that's a common story, but one way might be to go back to when Greg Brown," says Red House president Eric Peltoniemi. "I think around 1980, [Brown] put out a self-released album called Iowa Waltz, which he'd gotten some money from the Iowa Arts Council for. And he just thought he better have a label name on it, so he just wrote on there, 'Red House Records.' He was living in a farmhouse at the time, and it was red. But, then, it went out of print, and a couple years later, Bob Feldman, who was the spiritual founder of our label, and also the president and so forth, happened to come across Greg in a coffeehouse and was just blown away. Couldn't understand why everybody didn't know about Greg Brown. So, [Feldman] was teaching high school at the time. He would go back and talk to Greg and try to see if he could help him with his career. And they got that old record back in print, and that was the first Red House record. And that was in 1983. So, 25 years ago, and the first few years, they only put a couple records out, here and there. But, then I came onboard in 1986, with a Spider John Koerner record, and I've been with them ever since. We've now put out about... we're getting close to 225 albums now."

With Red House hitting 25 years old, the label, with most of its anniversary celebrations behind it, are now — like the entire music business — trying to deal with life in the digital age. These are strange times for a label that likes to do business the old-fashioned way. Some of their traditional values are still being upheld. The label still only signs artists it likes and respects, without any real consideration given to how many records they can sell.

Still, Red House does have to keep up with the times, and that means driving people to its web site, investing in well-rounded packaging for its CDs and just trying to do what it can to survive.
 
"We're still thinking hard about what does it mean to be a label like Red House in the 21st century, and what does it mean to be any kind of label in the 21st century," says Peltoniemi. "And why should an artist even sign with a label in the 21st century? All of those different things, and we want to make sure we have the best answers for those questions. One thing we are conservative about to a certain extent is I don't think we really want to be a leader in any of these moves, because so many of these initial moves are false starts, but we want to be fairly close to the front on some of these, and see which ones are the most practical, sound and that's pretty much the way we've always operated."

To learn more about Red House and its stable of high-quality artists, visit www.redhouserecords.com, and stay tuned for a more in-depth story about Red House's anniversary and its evolution from a business run out of Feldman's apartment to a full-fledged label, with an office and everything.

An acetate recording of "My Happiness" cut by a very young and very green Elvis in 1953 is being put up for sale by one of the King's high-school chums, and it is expected to be a big-ticket item. Exactly how big is yet to be determined.

"We can all throw a number in the air, but this is a unique item of great significance in the history of popular music," says Maurice Colgan, an Elvis aficionado from Ireland who is assisting in the sale. "At this point, it's my guess the acetate will fetch an astronomical sum."

Colgan is working with Ed Leek, who, according to Colgan, "... attended Hume High School in Memphis, and was in the same classroom as Elvis for three years. They became good friends and because Ed had a car when Elvis didn't, he and other mutual friends would tour the neighborhood as teenagers did back then, hanging out at hamburger joints, playing the jukeboxes and generally living it up, although money at that time was in short supply."

As the story goes, it was Leek who pushed and cajoled Elvis into making a record "... and actually lent Elvis the four dollars it would cost," says Colgan.

Though unsure of himself in the studio, Elvis did it, recording "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin," with only a lonely old acoustic guitar as accompaniment. Evidently, according to Colgan, Marion Keisker (pictured with Leek at top with the acetate), Sam Phillips' secretary, actually did the recording. Her story is captured on the video "Sun Days With Elvis," directed and produced by the U.K.'s Bernard Roughton.

The song "My Happiness" was released commercially in 1990.

But now, Leek, who is 74, is seeking to sell the acetate. Obviously, the most appropriate place for it is Graceland. But whether that'll come to fruition is anybody's guess. If it goes to a museum or music venue and replicas could be made to allow everybody to enjoy the recording in digital form, that would please Leek, according to Colgan.

For the full story on this historic piece, including additional photos, read the Jan. 2 edition of Goldmine.

Long regarded as one of the most scintillating live metal albums ever, The Scorpions' Tokyo Tapes closed perhaps the most artistically impressive chapter in the band's history.

Of course, more commercial success would come later, years after guitar wizard Uli Jon Roth had left The Scorpions and taken his epic, classically inclined ambitions with him. Without Roth, the remaining Scorpions abandoned all pretense and focused on more earthbound concerns — like partying, chicks and straightforward metal.

Interestingly enough, Tokyo Tapes could have been even better than it was, as Roth explains in talking about his swan song with the band.

The recordings were culled from two shows, "... actually the last shows we ever did with the band in that configuration with myself, and they were meant to be the last ones because I had handed in my notice a year before that," says Roth. "And I simply felt that I needed to move into a different direction, and, you know, then we separated on amicable terms. The two shows that it was recorded from were in Japan at Sun Plaza Hall — a beautiful sounding hall — and yeah, we just picked... the recordings that were the best. Having said that, we actually played three nights there, and the first night we played there was by far the best. Unfortunately, that one wasn't recorded. I was actually quite upset about that. The producer wanted to save money, but that was to me the best show we ever played. And that's the one that's not on the album. It's always like that, isn't it (laughs)?"

Not a whole lot has been written about the band Roth was in before The Scorpions, Dawn Road. Roth co-founded the group, which also featured future Scorps' bassist Francis Buchholz. Dawn Road would eventually morph into what The Scorpions would become post-Michael Schenker, who left in the early '70s to join UFO.

"Basically, we were like a high school band," says Roth. "You know, at that time — that was in '71, '72 — I was mainly interested in studying the classical guitar. And I had kind of put the electric guitar kind of on the back burner. But we had this band, and we rehearsed it on weekends, and we played a few shows. But, it was kind of, you know, an amateur kind of thing in that we loved the music, and we just wanted to do something, but it wasn't a quote-unquote a professional band. Then, when Rudolph rang me up one day and said, you know, would you like to play guitar on the show we have booked. And I did, and we got on very well. By that time, the old Scorpions had already disbanded, and Rudolf (Schenker) was like the last remaining member, and he was a founding member anyway. So, I said, 'Why don't you come to our rehearsals?' And he did. And we had a great rapport, and it didn't take long until we started forming a new band, with the four members of Dawn Road and Rudolf. And we also got Klaus Meine back into the fold. So, then we were six initially, and that was how we recorded the first album, Fly to the Rainbow. And then the keyboard player dropped out. He wanted to become a teacher. And so we were left with five members. And from then on... yeah, that was the Scorpions lineup for Fly to the Rainbow, and the following ones. The drummers kept changing but the other members remained the same."

As has been the case for years, Roth is still following his muse as a solo artist, combining classical and hard-rock elements in elaborating constructed, complex pieces that speak to his incredible musicianship and ingenious, innovative compositional skill. His latest effort, Under A Dark Sky, is a somewhat apocalyptic, yet still hopeful, look at a world gone mad, and musically, it's a powerful testimony to Roth's talent. Visit www.ulijonroth.com to learn more, and check out the multimedia section of www.goldminemag.com to hear a podcast of our interview with Roth.

What are your thoughts on Tokyo Tapes? Is it as good as advertised? Has it stood the test of time? Let me what you think.