I'm not sure if one's career being summarized in a 111-word paragraph is such a hot way to be memorialized, but whomever penned the above hammered home most of the basics. I remember when Imperial Drag originally came out. I owned the album, but was hardly a fanboy, and in fact, given that I was besotted with the likes of Guided By Voices and Ben Folds Five at the time, I/D resided on my mind (and CD-changer's) back burner, seemingly forever. I was aware of Manning Jr.s pedigree, and was actually getting caught up on Jellyfish's second album Spilt Milk right around this time. Nonetheless his new project's overarching vibe simply wasn't hitting the right notes with me at the time, but on the same token I wasn't planning on trading in my I/D CD, nor was I willing to dismiss the band outright.
I didn't realize it at the time but the main mouthpiece in the group, Eric Dover had a prominent role on Slash's Snakepit's (yes, that Slash) debut, It's Five O'Clock Somewhere, which released in 1995. In fact, this occurred simultaneous to his Imperial Drag tenure. As with Slash's Snakepit, Dover took up most of the time at the mic with Imperial Drag. But if you were expecting a third helping of Jellyfish's psych-kissed power pop on Imperial Drag you had something else coming. Upon release, much was made of the quartet's "glam" bent, and having a slow-burning T-Rexy banger as their lead-off single ("Boy or a Girl") only reinforced this understandable notion. But even there, I/D were also tapping into Redd Kross' then-current m.o. as well. Maybe I didn't want to admit it at the time but the song was eminently catchy, even if the hand-claps and such had me scurrying. Sure enough, there was more of that to be found on the album alongside vague forays into Memphis soul, classic rock, boogie, and less so blues. What we weren't privy to at the time was the fact that Imperial Drag had a tentacle or two around Cheap Trick-inflected power pop, something revealed on non-LP goodies "She Cries All Night" and "Why Can't I Be Someone Else." To be honest, I/D had a lot of plates spinning simultaneously, not all of which were represented on the album, mush less an LP that even most Jellyfish holdover couldn't seem to be bothered with at the time.
You'll find all 14 album tracks here in their original versions, and a whopping 27 more tunes, essentially three albums worth of tunes all told. Imperial Drag, though only lasting one album struck me as the kind of band that reveled in dipping their fingers in a myriad of pies, and you've got the opportunity taste all of them at your leisure here. BTW, I think it was Bruce Brodeen of Not Lame renown who may have originally disseminated these tracks, as the last portion of which are labeled as "Not Lame exclusives." A hearty thank you if you're out there reading this sir. As a final FYI, this file is 334 mgs and it's only available as MP3s. Dig in!
01. She Cries All Night
02. Smellin' Like a Rose
03. Mother Nature
04. Boy or a Girl
05. Breakfast by Tiger
06. Turpentine & Honey
07. Gypsy Sister
08. There You Go Again
09. Sweet Sweet Love
10. Could've Been You
11. Scardy Cats & Egomaniacs
12. I Won't Pay to Buy It
13. Countless Poets
14. Look Back Over My Shoulder
15. Hey Honey Please
16. Please Leave Me Home for X-mas
17. Lovin' From the Oven
18. Do You Spy
19. Strange
20. I Didn't Feel a Thing
21. Private Hell
22. Morning Star
23. What Makes You Think
24. Slowdown
25. Not Enough
26. Why Can't I Be Someone Else?
27. Playboy After Dark
28. Crosseyed
29. Down With the Man
30. The Man in the Moon
31. Zodiac Sign
32. The Salvation Army Band
33. Stare Into the Sun
34. Illuminate
35. Working Class High
36. Overnight Sensation
37. A Bruise is Still a Bruise
38. Dandylion
39. Half Off Sale
40. Spyder
41. Suzy Suicide
8 comments:
yeoman's work as usual this holiday season, so thanks for your efforts.
never paid attention to this band, possibly because i confused them with imperial TEEN ... who i similarly ignored. (jellyfish, too!)
but roger manning has a credit on redd kross's "dumb angel," and that's enough of a nudge for me, so what the hell.
Imperial Drag was one of my favorite albums that year! Thank you so much for posting this, which I've been seeking for some time since missing out on its initial offering via the band's website.
Their work is IMHO severely underrated. I imagine it is because so much of the record comes off as pastiche (it cops openly from Led Zeppelin, Steppenwolf, Mott the Hoople, Bowie, T. Rex, Elton John, and a host of other '70s giants), but the hooks are tasty and the performances energetic. I think of them as Jellyfish evolved from '60s Beatlesque pop to mid-'70s blues-rock and glam. (Whether or not this is an evolution exactly is in the ear of the beholder.) Of course, they didn't have Andy Sturmer or Jason Falkner, but I spin their album more often than either Jellyfish or the Grays' Ro Sham Bo.
Thanks again for filling this hole in my collection. Happy Hannukah!
... and add Rod Stewart/Faces, Bad Company, Raspberries & Supertramp to that list after listening to these demos... yeah, they were all over the place, but I like it!
Sweet! Now THIS is a holiday gift! Thanks so much!
Thank you for all the great music. Hope you had a wonderful holiday!
Mike
Another year, another great sampling of tunes! Thanks again for all your hard work. You love this stuff, and it shows. See you in 2022!
I wish I could remember the details but after Not Lame released the "Fan Club" box set in 2002, around '03 I set to work on putting together a 2-CD set of many of these demos. Calls were made, voicemails left and returned/not returned, lines of communication got blurred in the fury of other label and company activity on my end...it was about a year of low-burner work that moved somewhat glacial manner but it was steaming ahead.
I can't recall 'why' it all just stopped suddenly(not by me) but it was certainly by late 2004/early 2005. My excitement did not wane but I do recall thinking there was no urgency whoever I was in contact with(not Roger but in retrospect I should have been talking with him more).
Which brings us here with this wonderful posting(and another reminder why this WO is one of the coolest and best blogs in the world) gathering all the track I had heard and which were floating around 'back then' - and MORE. WHOA! I've not listened to these tracks in 15+ years...and it will be a whole lot of fun enjoying all of them and more!
Oh, I was so excited to download the tracks that I only read the description afterwards. I'll add to the comment connected to my name. I think there was a track that I might have put on a freebie CD-R(or two) that we used to toss in with an order but, for the sake of clarity, Not Lame/me would not have sold or even disseminated to the internet the tracks that I had back then without permission and out of respect for the artists, all of whom I knew/know.
I do recall a MFV(Mastered From Vinyl) collection in the mid/late 00s that was shared by a network of music geek friends that pulled together a bunch of tracks but I don't think it had any more than 20 songs on it.
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