Third Rail - ID Music (1967)
In 1967, master of Bubblegum Joey Levine had started writing with Artie("Under The Boardwalk") and Kris Resnick....a collaboration that was to produce practically every song in the Bubblegum genre.....but first....in the spirit of the age, they produced their masterwork....The 3rd Rail "Id Music" An orchestral psychedelic adventure into denunciation of the advertising fuelled culture of 1960's America....one of the most pointed barbs "Run, Run, Run" was incredibly a hit single....known by everyone as a highlight of Lenny Kaye's seminal "Nuggets" album, and leads off this redone and intensified Revola classic. The sound of Superpop advertising jingles biting the hand that fed them....featuring the full album, single mixes, and the impossibly rare follow up singles, which just got more and more wicked, though in theory, still impossibly commercial! This is one of the most unusual protest records of the 1960's, attacking the enemy from the inside with it's own weapons....and doing it better!....and a beautiful sounding record to boot! This is a Revola Classic of Softpop / Psychedelia and includes the hit singles, with extensive liner notes by Dawn Eden and Joey Levine.
The Third Rail are best remembered today because their closest brush with hit-single status, 1967's "Run Run Run," appeared on Lenny Kaye's pioneering original Nuggets compilation in 1972. But while that album was the shot that kicked off the great garage rock revival, the Third Rail's music was a far better example of the glorious products of the pop music factory that was the Brill Building rather than teenage rock & roll run wild and free. Group founder Artie Resnick was a seasoned pro in the music biz, having written "Under the Boardwalk" and "Good Lovin'," and vocalist and co-writer Joey Levine was a teenaged pop prodigy who (like Resnick) would later become a major player in Buddah Records' mighty bubblegum empire a few years down the line. But in 1967, Levine was just a bit too clever for his own good, which is a big part of the pleasure of the Third Rail's sole album, ID Music. Like "Run Run Run," ID Music is filled with witty social commentary that is surprisingly enjoyable despite the fact it's more than a bit dated all these years later, and the songcraft is both clever and extremely pleasurable, especially on the baroque pop "The Invisible Man," the willfully goofy "She Ain't No Choir Girl," and the Madison Avenue takeoff "Dream Street." While ID Music's songs, production, and performances are all buffed to a high gloss, the craft and the intelligence of the music is a delight throughout, and its attempts at lyrical subversion only add to the fun, especially when one knows Levine would eventually go over to the other side and enjoy a very successful career writing commercial jingles. A very amusing product of its times. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
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Tracklisting
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1. The Third Rail - Run Run Run
2. The Third Rail - The Ballad Of General Humpty
3. The Third Rail - Is Mr. Peters Coming
4. The Third Rail - Swinger
5. The Third Rail - Jack Rabbit
6. The Third Rail - Boppa Do Down Down
7. The Third Rail - From A Parachute
8. The Third Rail - Invisible Man
9. The Third Rail - No Return
10. The Third Rail - Dream Street
11. The Third Rail - Overdose Of Love
12. The Third Rail - She Ain't No Choir Girl
13. The Third Rail - It's Time To Say Goodbye
14. The Third Rail - The Shape Of Things To Come
15. The Third Rail - Boppa Do Down Down (Single Version)
16. The Third Rail - No Return (Single Version)
17. The Third Rail - Invisible Man (Single Version)
18. The Third Rail - Run Run Run (Single Version)
Playing Time.........: 00:43:45
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