Early History of The Contortions #4

Early History of The Contortions #1 (Introduction)
Early History of The Contortions #2 (Dec '77 - May '78)
Early History of The Contortions #3 (May '78 - August '78)

10.12.1978 – Max’s Kansas City, New York, NY

1. Bedroom Athlete  2. Disposable You  3. Dish It Out  4. Flip Your Face  5. Design To Kill  6. Anesthetic  7. Almost Black  8. Throw Me Away  9. Jaded  10. Contort Yourself

James Chance (voc, as), Jody Harris (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), George Scott (bass), Don Christensen (drums).

The band appears at a New York venue called Club Hollywood on 9.14.1978. At some point Adele Bertei either left the band or was pressured to leave by Anya Phillips. According to various sources, Bertei had been in and out of the band and at one point, Phillips “drove her from the group” as Pat Place reported in the August 1979 New York Rocker. George Scott remarked in same article that Bertei had gained confidence from doing various solo sets and left voluntarily. Regardless, she was not in active duty with the band on the 8.17.1978 Max’s set and only appears on a few songs during the “No Wave Jam” in the second set. It’s unclear when exactly Bertei left Contortions, but it could have been as early as the first half of August 1978. The split must not have been too acrimonious because she would play and sing on a few tracks (including a vocal duo with Phillips) from James White and the Blacks “Off White”, recorded around October 1978.  Anya Phillips assumed official management over the band soon after Adele Bertei’s departure and began trying to place the bands in more “upscale” venues in addition to Max’s. The band opens with a great version of “Bedroom Athlete” which reappears after a long absence. The repetitive “Disposable You” debuts here, based on a bossa nova rhythm with weird guitar that sounds a bit like “The Girl From Ipanema”. “Dish It Out” is extremely fast and excellent here. James Chance’s vocals are particularly aggressive at this performance. “Flip Your Face” is given a typical run-through. As an introduction to “Design To Kill”, James devotes the song to the “hardworking staff of the Chelsea Hotel” – mocking the death of Sid Vicious’ girlfriend Nancy Spungeon earlier that day. “Anesthetic” begins with Chance quoting “I’m In the Mood For Love” on the saxophone. “Almost Black”, one of the tracks by Contortions’ disco alter-ego James White and the Blacks makes an appearance here. “Throw Me Away” has a typical rendition here, still with the noisy, driving middle section which was ultimately rearranged for the “BUY” album. The middle of “Jaded” adopts a nice backbeat here for the first time, making this turgid composition much more interesting than normal. “Contort Yourself” sounds similar to how it finally would on “BUY”. This particular concert was very assured sounding, tight and no-nonsense.

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10.1978 – Blank Tapes Studio, New York, NY
1. Contort Yourself  2. Stained Sheets  3. (Tropical) Heat Wave  4. Almost Black  5. White Savages  6. Off Black  7. White Devil  8. Bleached Black

James Chance (voc, as), Jody Harris (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), George Scott (bass), Don Christensen (drums) with Adele Bertei (keyboards, vocals, percussion), Kristian Hoffman (vocals, piano), Paul Colin (tenor sax), Robert Quine (guitar), Ray Mantilla (congas), Lydia Lunch (guitar, vocals),  Anya Phillips (vocals) and Vivienne Dick (violin)

In 1978, the high rollers at ZE Records offered James Chance a substantial budget to record a “disco” album for them.  Essentially, James White and the Blacks is the Contortions playing vaguely disco-oriented compositions. The back cover of the ZE Records 12” featuring “Contort Yourself” b/w “(Tropical) Heat Wave” says the tracks were recorded at Blank Tapes in October 1978 by Bob Blank. The “Off White” album credits simply say “Fall 1978”. It doesn’t sound like a particularly complex production, so it’s probably safe to assume the sessions began in October and were wrapped up soon after. The A side of the album opens with a somewhat discofied version of “Contort Yourself” with Adele Bertei guesting on organ. Some recent editions of “Off White” substitute a six-minute-long August Darnell (Kid Creole and the Coconuts) remix of “Contort Yourself” which is more blatantly metronomic and less cacophonous than the Contortions renditions. There’s a lot of added percussion and some unidentified female backup vocals during the chorus. “Stained Sheets” follows, a slice of S/M audio vérité with James Chance and Lydia Lunch (credited as “Stella Rico”) engaged in a perverted phone-sex call. The vamp behind the vocals is somewhat laid back, but peppered by noisy electric piano stabs by Kristian Hoffman. “(Tropical) Heat Wave” by Irving Berlin is a novel, kitschy track featuring lead vocals and electric piano by Kristian Hoffman (credited as “Tad Among”), some sultry verses by Anya Phillips (a.k.a. “Ginger Lee”) and hyper conga playing by Ray Mantilla. “Almost Black” ends the side, an uptempo instrumental featuring some repartee between Anya Phillips and Adele Bertei (mysteriously credited as “Randy Marlowe” and “Little Willie Feather” and Robert Quine takes a vomitous wah-guitar solo at one point. On some versions of the “Off White” album, the long track “Almost Black” is separated into two parts. Side Two of the album contains four intense instrumentals which sound a lot less like disco and a lot more like harsh Contortions tracks without vocals. “White Savages” may have percolating hi-hat on it, but it also features Lydia Lunch’s patented slide guitar terror as well as nasty saxophone soloing and percussive white noise organ by James Chance. “Off Black” unfolds in mid-tempo, focusing on the warped guitar interplay between Jody Harris, Pat Place and Robert Quine. By the end, the tune double-times and launches into a dense thicket of 6-string skronk and honking saxophones. “White Devil” is a mid-tempo romp with some skronky Lydia Lunch guitar playing. “Bleached Black” slithers by in a sinister manner, aided by the dry violin scrapings of Beirut Slump member and film-maker Vivienne Dick. After the break-up of the original Contortions, the ex-members were all uniformly disappointed with “Off White”, accusing it of being a bad record. It is certainly somewhat incoherent in focus, but has many charms, and the instrumental side is as potent as anything the group ever recorded in a studio. It seem the album was available as a French import during fall 1979 and as a domestic release by October.

The Blacks a.k.a The Contortions, fall 1978. Photos by Anya Phillips

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1.28.1979 – Max’s Kansas City, New York, NY
1. Dish It Out   2. My Infatuation   3. Design to Kill   4. Anesthetic   5. Roving Eye   6. Twice Removed   7. I Can’t Stand Myself    8. Disposable You   9. Throw Me Away   10 . Bedroom Athlete

James Chance (voc, as), Jody Harris (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), George Scott (bass), Don Christensen (drums).

In November and December, the group appears at Max’s Kansas City, on 11.23.1978 with the L.A. punk group X, and on 12.15.1978 with kiddie-punk group The Blessed featuring Howie Pyro and probably Heartbreaker Walter Lure. A Contortions gig at Club 57 is advertised on 1.12.1979 also. This Max’s performance exists in separate audio and video forms, the video being crudely shot and over-exposed black and white. I’m not sure what the origin of the video is, but it could be by either the Armstrong/Ivers team (who were definitely using black and white cameras in 1978), or possibly Paul Tschinkel, responsible for the NYC cable access show “Inner Tube”. The shot seems like it may have been one camera of a multi-camera shoot, as there are long shots of Chance’s dancing feet and extreme close-ups of various musicians for long durations. The room audio recording sounds like it was made near the bar because the ringing of the cash register is extremely loud on it. The band looks fairly miserable or grim during the concert, particularly bassist George Scott. “Dish It Out”, “My Infatuation”, “Design To Kill”, “Anesthetic”, “Bedroom Athlete” and “Twice Removed”  are executed in a typical manner. “Roving Eye” finally appears with its James Brown-style funk overhaul featuring Don Christensen’s catchy syncopated drum pattern. Chance leaps from the stage and terrorizes the audience a bit during “Anesthetic” and “Throw Me Away”. The bassline to “Disposable You” has changed completely from the dark, chromatic one played on 10.12.1978 into a more consonant sounding line. The middle section of “Throw Me Away” is beginning to resemble the slightly more relaxed-sounding vamp used on the “BUY” album. The other bands on the bill are WKGB (a synth-based act who eventually released a single on Fetish Records) and The Cutthroats (most likely, the garage band led by bassist Gina Harlow).

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as James White and the Blacks:
2.2.1979  - Club 57 at Irving Plaza, New York, NY

1. Off Black   2. White Savages/Sophisticated Cancer   3. Almost Black   4. I Don’t Want To Be Happy   5. White Devil/Melt Yourself Down   6. Jaded    7. Contort Yourself   8. Contort Yourself (cont.)
James Chance (voc, as, organ), Jody Harris (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), George Scott (bass), Don Christensen (drums)

Most likely the first live show under the “James White and the Blacks” guise. According to reports, someone tried to sabotage the show and convinced the Village Voice to write “cancelled” over the ad listing. “Off Black” is performed in a similar manner to the “Off White” album version. “White Savages” is performed with a new middle section, but adds lyrics which would eventually surface with completely different music as the song “Sophisticated Cancer”.. Anya Phillips would die of cancer by 1981 – I don’t know if these lyrics are a direct allusion to her condition or not. “Almost Black” appears here in a very song like form with Chance focusing on lyrics before taking off on a saxophone solo. “I Don’t Want to Be Happy”is played in a very fast, aggressive manner with generic offbeat disco hi-hat accents and some noisy organ playing from Chance. It is a similar arrangement to what would appear on “BUY”. “White Devil” from “Off White” is performed with the lyrics from “Melt Yourself Down”, which would later be sung to completely different music before being included on the 1986 Japan-only LP of the same name. “Jaded” is playedd here with an uptempo backbeat as well as mellow-sounding, rolling guitar chords. Pat Place’s slide guitar remains loud and acrid though. “Contort Yourself” is played at a faster-than-normal tempo with the generic disco hi-hat pattern, and for some reason Jody Harris’ guitar gets turned up extremely loud. The band sounds really great and inspired here in general. The other acts on the bill include Mumps (featuring Kristian Hoffman), The Reasons and Information (with drummer Rick Brown). The Contortions are also listed in the Village Voice ad, but I don’t know if they played a separate set under that guise or not.

It's possible this picture was taken at Club 57/Irving Plaza on 2.2.1979. left to right: James Chance,
Kristian Hoffman, Pat Place and Anya Phillips. There is no audible participation from either
Hoffman or Phillips on the extant audio.

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Next up, part FIVE: The recording of "BUY" Contortions  . . .

This text was written by Weasel Walter, all rights reserved 2011.
If you use this for any reason, please credit the source fairly.

Early History of The Contortions #5
 
Early History of The Contortions #1 (Introduction)
Early History of The Contortions #2 (Dec '77 - May '78)
Early History of The Contortions #3 (May '78 - August '78)

Early History of The Contortions #3

Early History of The Contortions #1 (Introduction)
Early History of The Contortions #2 (Dec '77 - May '78)

5.5.1978 – Artists Space, New York, NY

Setlist unknown

James Chance (voc, as), Jody Harris (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), Adele Bertei (organ), George Scott (bass), Don Christensen (drums).

I do not have access to a recording of the Artists Space gig. So far recordings of the Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and Mars sets have surfaced, so I’m pretty sure the tapes exist. The performance was notable for a well-documented  scuffle taking place between James Chance and rock critic Robert Christgau after Chance harassed a female audience member. Brian Eno's anthology of no wave bands "No New York" (released November 1978 on Island subsidiary Antilles Records) came about after he witnessed these shows. Originally the album was to feature two songs from ten bands, but ultimately Contortions, Teenage Jesus, Mars and DNA took four songs each.

James Chance scuffles with self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics" Robert Christgau at Artists Space on May 5, 1978.
photo by Julia Gorton

Brian Eno, far left, eyeballs the camera while James Chance melts himself down and some fucking geek makes a weird face

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5.25-26.1978 –  CBGB’s, New York, NY
1. Throw Me Away  2. Twice Removed  3. Jailhouse Rock - other songs unknown

James Chance (voc, as), Jody Harris (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), Adele Bertei (organ), George Scott (bass), Don Christensen (drums).

Contortions at CBGB's circa mid-1978. left to right:
Adele Bertei, Jody Harris, James Chance, George Scott, Pat Place.
obscured: Don Christensen. Photo by Eugene Merinov

This listing is a wild guess, but three well-recorded tracks of the band live at CBGB’s in 1978 were slated to appear on the aborted ZE Records soundtrack for the Diego Cortez film “Grutzi Elvis” and I believe they may have been recorded at one of these gigs. My logic stems from the fact that “Jailhouse Rock” is short-lived in the group’s set and that these three particular performances seem a bit faster and tighter than the 5.4.1978 Johnny Blitz Benefit versions. These tracks were later issued as bonus cuts on the 1994 Infinite Zero CD edition of “BUY”, the rare 2002 Munster Records double LP version also (including James White and the Blacks’ “Off White”) and all new ZE Records CD pressings. The Senders opened the shows.

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6.1978 –  Big Apple Studio, New York, NY
1. Dish It Out   2. Flip Your Face  3. Jaded  4. I Can’t Stand Myself

James Chance (voc, as), Jody Harris (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), Adele Bertei (organ), George Scott (bass), Don Christensen (drums).

There seems to be no definitive date available for the “No New York” recording sessions, but most sources consider them to have taken place in June 1978. It can be surmised that the recording for the Contortions tracks was done live in the studio on one day. The sound is fairly raw and there’s no real production on the tracks beyond the balance of the mix. There's a lot of resonance from the room on the recording, which may have come from reflective panes of glass balanced against the walls of the studio. Essentially the Contortions' "No New York" tracks are live in the studio with "a lot of mistakes" according to Don Christensen. Members of the band long maintained that these four tracks were a better representation of the early Contortions line-up than the album “BUY”. The James Brown song “I Can’t Stand Myself” was supposed to have been spawned from a spontaneous jam at the session.

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6.1978 –  Big Apple Studio, New York, NY
1. That’s When Your Heartaches Begin  2. Schleyer’s Tires   3. McGraw Army Base/Munchen  4. Theme From Grutzi Elvis

James Chance (voc, as), Arto Lindsay (guitar), George Scott (bass), Bradley Field (drums)

There definitely existed a promo cassette of the original, lost “Grutzi Elvis” soundtrack. I know somebody who saw one back in the day, but didn’t hold onto it. That was the closest lead I’ve ever had on it. It is listed, with track titles, in the 1980 publication “Volume: International Discography of the New Wave”. Although the official “Grutzi Elvis” soundtrack (also featuring Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, DNA, Brian Eno, Rosa Yemen, Snatch, Boris Policeband and Tuxedomoon) was never released, this odd EP appeared on ZE Records in 1979 with a cover still featuring Anya Phillips, as well as a different pressing by Celluloid Records featuring minimalist cover art focusing on James Chance. It’s entirely possible that this record was made close to or during the “No New York” sessions, as it sounds to have been recorded extremely quickly and uses the same studio (Big Apple) and engineer (Kurt Munkacsi). The cover of “That’s When Your Heartaches Begin” is hilarious.  It features Teenage Jesus drummer Bradly Field on metronomic, closed hi-hat and bassist George Scott backing up Chance’s sour crooning. Halfway through the song, the vocals become painfully loud and DNA’s Arto Lindsay enters with some of his famously disruptive 12-string skronk guitar. The rest of the tracks are extremely minimal: one consists of a single saxophone line repeated over and over, another is a percussion jam and the last one is a repetitive march built on one ugly saxophone blurt. The band is labeled “Pill Factory” on the release. There’s no evidence the group ever performed together again. 

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James Chance, Paradise Garage 6.18.1978.
still from video footage by Emily Armstong and Pat Ivers.

6.18.1978 – Paradise Garage, New York, NY
1. Dish It Out   2. My Infatuation  3. Roving Eye  4. Anesthetic  5. Flip Your Face  6.  I Can’t Stand Myself  7. Jaded  8. Contort Yourself

James Chance (voc, as), Jody Harris (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), Adele Bertei (organ), George Scott (bass), Don Christensen (drums).

This recording comes from an ill-fated show featuring Richard Hell and the Voidoids, The Senders, Contortions, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and the Stimulators at the legendary disco known as Paradise Garage. Multiple sources say the turnout was low in contrast to the massive size of the venue and many people were disgruntled by the lack of alcohol available at the venue. The Contortions open with molten versions of “Dish It Out” and “My Infatuation”. “Roving Eye” is still being played in its Bo Diddley-style arrangement, albeit much faster in tempo than ever. The song “Anesthetic” makes a first appearance here, with driving kick drum quarter notes and a more hectic feel than it would have in its final form on the “BUY” album. “Flip Your Face” and “I Can’t Stand Myself” sound very similar to the “No New York” renditions. Before “Jaded”,  Kristian Hoffman is invited on the stage to “contort himself”.  It’s possible he is playing additional guitar on the song, but there’s so much guitar racket going on that it’s hard to discern. The set ends with a fast, tight version of “Contort Yourself” in an arrangement similar to the “BUY” version.  After the gig, it seemed the bands were having a hard time getting the club to pay. Chance began to argue with the management and wound up cutting himself with broken glass to intimidate the thugs.  This show was shot on black and white video by Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong for their New York City cable show “Nightclubbing”.  Excerpts of the Contortions and Teenage Jesus sets have appeared in a program of clips the two have been touring sporadically since 2000.

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7.14.78 – Millenium, New York, NY
1. Dish It Out    2. My Infatuation    3. I Can’t Stand Myself   4. Twice Removed   5. Throw Me Away

James Chance (voc, as), Jody Harris (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), Adele Bertei (organ), George Scott (bass), Don Christensen (drums).

The Contortions most likely appeared at CBGB’s the night before. This Millenium gig also featured DNA, The Dots, possibly Tim Wright (former Pere Ubu guitarist and future DNA bassist), Youth In Asia and the debut gig by Lydia Lunch’s Beirut Slump (billed as “Belfast Ghetto”). This event was a benefit for Les Guerillieres Film Collective, as advertised in the Village Voice ad. “Dish It Out” sounds a bit lethargic compared to other recent performances, but James is definitely screaming his guts out. Immediately after the song ends, Chance berates the audience with malice, setting a tone for the rest of the performance. “My Infatuation” follows in a high-strung mode. Before “I Can’t Stand Myself”, Chance tells some people sitting on the floor that if they don’t stand up “and change their attitude” the band won’t continue.  More insults segue into the jazzish intro to “Twice Removed”. The applause dwindles noticeably after the song ends and somebody from the audience yells, “Why don’t you get a haircut, hippy?” Chance tells the guy to get a “brain cut” and have his frontal lobes removed. James rambles incoherently for a long time before the band finishes off with “Throw Me Away”. During the song, it definitely sounds like James Chance is running out of steam. He pretty much disappears during the second half of the tune (fighting in the crowd?) and the set is cut short. There isn’t much applause afterward. 

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8.3.1978 – Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto, Canada

1. Introduction  2. Design To Kill  3. My Infatuation  4. Roving Eye  5. Anesthetic  6. I Don’t Want To Be Happy  7. Throw Me Away  8. Dish It Out  9. Jaded  10. Contort Yourself

James Chance (voc, as), Jody Harris (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), Adele Bertei (organ), George Scott (bass), Don Christensen (drums).

The band opens this show with a very Contortion-oid variation of the classic 12-bar blues form. “Design To Kill” appears in the set for the first time. It is referred to alternately as “Designed To Kill” up through the release of “BUY”. George Scott’s bassline here is more dissonant and abstract than what David Hofstra would play on the album. Otherwise the arrangement is already pretty close to the definitive version, although this performance sounds under-rehearsed. The renditions of “My Infatuation”, “Roving Eye”, “Dish It Out”, “Jaded”, “Contort Yourself”  and “Throw Me Away” are typical. Teenage Jesus and the Jerks also appeared on this bill. “Anesthetic” has been slightly rearranged to sound less driving. Adele Bertei’s whispy, percussion triplets underline the beat and Don Christensen lays back more on the drum kit, giving the song the languid feel it would take on “BUY”. “I Don’t Want to Be Happy” is brought back into the set, played at a very fast tempo led by Christensen’s manic hi-hat 16^th notes and Bertei’s loud organ clusters. “Contort Yourself” does contain an unusually long musical freak-out at the end of it.

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8.17.1978 – Max’s Kansas City, New York, NY
“Contortions No Wave Jam”

Soundcheck: 1. “I Can’t Stand It Any More”(?)  2. Please Please Please 

First set: 3. Untitled Blues  4. Dish It Out  5. My Infatuation  6. Design To Kill  7. Twice Removed  8. I Don’t Want To Be Happy  9. Anesthetic 10. Throw Me Away 11. Flip Your Face  12. Contort Yourself 

Second set: 13. Maintaining My Cool  14. Chain of Fools  15.  16. “I Can’t Stand It Any More”(?)  17. unknown  18. Be Bop A Lula  19. Satisfaction  20.  Nobody But Me  21. 96 Tears  22. Please Please Please  23. Roving Eye

James Chance (voc, as), Jody Harris (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), George Scott (bass), Don Christensen (drums) with Adele Bertei (organ), Bob Quine (guitar), Gary Glassman (vocals), Kristian Hoffman (vocals, ?), Bradly Field (?), Lydia Lunch (guitar), James Nares (guitar), Eric Mitchell (vocals), Rudolph Grey (guitar), Richard Hell (?).

Contortions' No Wave Jam, 8.17.1978. left to right: James Chance, Kristian Hoffman, Don Christensen,
George Scott, Lydia Lunch and James Nares. photo by Robert Sietsema.

This show featured a set by the Contortions proper, and then a “No Wave Jam” during the second set. Beirut Slump were also on the bill. After a few “soundcheck” numbers, the Contortions launched into their untitled blues opener and then a typical set list.  James Chance is almost immediately pissed at the brightness onstage and demands the lights are brought down. After “My Infatuation” somebody from the club speaks over the p.a. and says the fire department has shown up and that everyone needed to sit down or the show would be over. “Design To Kill” has a lazy false start before the group kicks in with a complete version. For some reason Jody Harris plays different chords on this version than he normally would. “I Don’t Want To Be Happy” is played again in the same uptempo manner as the 8.3.1978 show. “Anesthetic”, minus Adele Bertei’s rhythmic organ playing, is faster and more aggressive than the “BUY” version. During the song, Chance screams at the soundman to remove the echo effect from his saxophone mic. The jam session begins with James singing a cover of The Sonics’ “Maintaining My Cool”, later covered by 8-Eyed Spy (featuring George Scott and Lydia Lunch). It’s a little tough to identify the exact personnel on every song, but Robert Quine plays guitar on “Maintaining”, Adele Bertei sings scorching lead vocals on “Chain of Fools” and Gary Glassman (not sure who he is) sings on a song (which I’m not sure what the title is) with Bob Quine on vicious wah-wah guitar. Quine is still on stage for “I Can’t  Stand Myself” and somebody is on organ, probably Bertei. Next up, Kristian Hoffman (vocals), Bradly Field (?), James Nares (guitar) and Lydia Lunch (guitar) are introduced. Filmmaker Eric Mitchell screeches his way through a cover of the old chestnut “Be Bop A Lula”, which he would also lipsync in a more low-key manner during his 1979 film “Red Italy” with a fake back-up band consisting of Arto Lindsay and Lounge Lizard John Lurie.  A live tape from an early Contortions show can also heard playing in the background during scenes of Mitchell’s first movie “Kidnapped” (1978).  James Chance is back on the mic for a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction”. Rudolph Grey is added on guitar for  an improvised/ trainwreck version of “Nobody But Me”. After minutes of dead air, Question Mark and the Mysterians’ “96 Tears” is covered. “Please Please Please” seems to feature Lydia Lunch on guitar, possibly Kristian Hoffman on backup vocals.  James Chance is on lead vocal and Bradly Field and Richard Hell are also introduced,  but it’s hard to tell what they’re doing. The second set closes with “Roving Eye”. It sounds like Eric Mitchell is yelling over the top of it and Lydia Lunch may have played extra guitar. 

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Next up, part FOUR: Contortions go disco with their alter ego James White and the Blacks . . .

This text was written by Weasel Walter, all rights reserved 2011.
If you use this for any reason, please credit the source fairly.

Early History of The Contortions #4
 

Early History of The Contortions #1 (Introduction)
Early History of The Contortions #2 (Dec '77 - May '78)

Early History of The Contortions #2

Early History of The Contortions #1 (Introduction)

The actual genesis of The Contortions is well-covered in the Marc Masters and Thurston Moore/Byron Coley books, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking in depth about it. If you would like to read my own 2002 liner notes discussing some of the finer points of this topic, click here. Beware though . . . spoiler alert!

James Chance and Lydia Lunch: pre-Teenage Jesus
from the 1977 film "Punking Out"

James Chance moved from Brookfield, Wisconsin around 1976 to crack the free jazz "loft" scene happening in New York City. He soon ran into a teen runaway from Rochester, New York named Lydia Lunch and the two became friends. They started a band called The Scabs. The Scabs morphed into Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Lydia thought James was too interactive with the audience and kicked him out of the group. James started his own band, The Contortions, soon after. His earliest lineup consisted included British artist James Nares on guitar, drummer Stephen Moses (who appeared with James and David Hofstra in an early free-jazz combo called Flaming Youth) and Anne DeLeon on synthesizer. It's messy - a lot of people came and went pretty quickly - but soon Chicago-bred artist Pat Place was added to the group on slide guitar because she had good hair. Adele Bertei, hailing from Cleveland, was hanging around and got drafted on organ. Japanese rocker Reck quit Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and defected into the Contortions ranks, bringing with him, his drummer friend Chiko Hige. Thusly, our saga begins . . .

12.4.1977 – Max’s Kansas City, New York, NY

1. I Don’t Want To Be Happy   2. Roving Eye  3. Dish It Out  4. My Infatuation  5 Jaded  6. Bedroom Athlete

James Chance (voc, as), James Nares (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), Adele Bertei (organ), Reck (bass), Chiko Hige (drums)

 (Ostensibly) the first Contortions gig opens with a brutal version of “I Don’t Want to Be Happy” which is the polar opposite arrangement of the laid-back, discofied version which would finally appear on 1979’s “Buy Contortions” LP (ZE Records). Chiko Hige’s tumbling, powerful tom-tom drumming bolsters the noise from the guitars and organ, supporting James’ frenzied vocal outbursts. “Roving Eye” also appears here in a similar form underpinned by a savage Bo Diddley-type rhythmic figure, far removed from the later late-60s-James-Brown-style funk arrangement which made the album. The middle of the song here turns into a sort of jazz-swing parody with a saxophone solo. James Nares’ guitar tone is particularly brittle on this recording – it has been purported by several sources that he played some sort of “plastic” guitar. I am not sure exactly what this entails. On this early version of the "No New York" track “Dish It Out”, the drumming is a stomping four-on-the-floor beat instead of the more refined backbeat which appears on the record. Otherwise it is similar in form. Pat Place mentioned to me that she thought there was an existing film of this gig and that her hands were completely bloody by the end of the show from playing guitar. “My Infatuation” would remain very similar in arrangement throughout James’ career, however, the brash amateurism of James Nares and Pat Place on guitar and Adele Bertei on Acetone organ add an extra layer of filth here which may never have been equaled. Luckily the Japanese rhythm section is rock solid and they helped steer this virgin voyage towards success. According to many sources, including an issue of New York Rocker magazine, George Scott joined the band in December 1977, so it might be safe to assume this is Reck’s only performance with the band. He was previously a member of the original line up of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks for most of the second half of 1977 (along with James Chance, who left before him in September 1977). The turgid, monotonous song “Jaded” is performed here in a similar arrangement to how it would appear on “No New York”. This song was also played in Teenage Jesus and the Jerks when James was still a member. The set closes with a version of “Bedroom Athlete”, which is performed in this early, crude manner until it is finally revamped before the recording of “BUY”. This performance has similar tribal drumming like much of the rest of the set. The middle 5/4 section is later refined beyond the rough pileup of noise it sounds like here. The other acts on this bill included Rudolph Grey and Von LMO’s notorious, short-lived combo Red Transistor as well as Mimi and the Dreamboats (featuring future Mofungo members and a very young Jim Sclavunos).

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2.4.1978 – CBGBs, New York, NY
Set One:
1. I Don’t Want To Be Happy   2. My Infatuation   3. Dish It Out   4. Jaded   5. Throw Me Away  6. Roving Eye   7. Twice Removed   8. Contort Yourself

Set Two:
1. Intro   2. I Don’t Want To Be Happy   3. My Infatuation   4. Dish It Out   5. Twice Removed   6. Bedroom Athlete   7. Jaded   8. Roving Eye  9. Contort Yourself  10. Throw Me Away

James Chance (voc, as), James Nares (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), Adele Bertei (organ), George Scott (bass), Chiko Hige (drums)

The band more than likely played at least two more shows between this one and the debut (ads for 1.9.1978 at Max’s Kansas City with Teenage Jesus and The Jerks and 1.15.1978 at CBGB’s with The Sorrows appeared in the Village Voice pages). In the Village Voice the listing for a run of shows between Thursday and Saturday April 2-4, 1978 lists Suicide, The Fleshtones and Contortions as the attractions. On all three dates, Suicide definitely appear to have played two sets on each night as well as the Contortions. New bassist George Scott previously did time in the proto-punk group Jack Ruby before joining up with Chance and co. It is obvious that Chiko Hige is still on drums here. Adele’s scathing organ clusters and Pat Place’s rubbery slide guitar are more prevalent on this recording than on the 12.4.1977 tape. The song arrangements are similar to the ones from the first gig, but are performed here slightly faster in tempo and with more confidence. There’s a little sax and drum tag added to the beginning of “Dish It Out” which doesn’t appear elsewhere. The song “Throw Me Away” makes an early appearance here, in a more basic form than the lighter, disco version on “BUY”. The verses feature more of Chiko’s tom patterns in lieu of the James Brown-esqe drumming on the album. The raging middle section featuring a white-hot saxophone is completely different than the middle of the final version. Also prominent is a melodic organ part which didn’t make the album version. There’s a pretty large and enthusiastic crowd at this show. The crawling jazz-swing of “Twice Removed” has been added to the set and sounds largely like it always would. The first set ends with an embryonic version of “Contort Yourself” and James, who hasn’t said much during the set, introduces It in a tone dripping with contempt: “In case you didn’t know it, we’re the Contortions and this is the music we contort ourselves with, so stick it up your ass!” The tempo is much slower than it would eventually stabilize at, and the performance drags on for more than seven minutes. There’s lots of wild guitar noise however. The second set opens with James responding to a heckler: “Stick a firecracker up your ass, jerk!” There’s definitely a growing repartee between the audience and Chance, and he begins to make more snide comments towards them during the set. This late performance starts out similarly to the first, but adds “Bedroom Athlete” and “Jaded”. The microphone breaks during “Jaded”, but is replaced quickly. The end of the closing number, “Throw Me Away” is particularly dissonant and harrowing.

Contortions, backstage at Max's Kansas City, early 1978. left to right:
George Scott, James Chance, Adele Bertei, James Nares, Pat Place, Chiko Hige.
photo by Patty Heffley

One might notice a really loud guy screaming “Yi yi yi yi!” between songs: this is a late local character Jim Brawley, or “Jim Tapes”. He recorded a lot of period gigs in the CBGB’s scene and apparently he made all this noise so his tapes would be useless for bootlegging(!) The whereabouts of his archives are unknown.

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3.12.1978 – 66 E. 4^th Street, New York, NY – X Magazine Benefit
1. Dish It Out   2. My Infatuation  3. Roving Eye  4. Twice Removed  5. Throw Me Away  6. Bedroom Athlete  7. Jaded  8. Contort Yourself

James Chance (voc, as), James Nares (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), Adele Bertei (organ), George Scott (bass), Steve Moses (drums) with Robert Quine (guitar) on 8


The Contortions appeared here headlining a benefit show for local publication X Magazine, a print vehicle sponsored by the independent film organization Colab. The other groups on the bill were Boris Policeband, Erasers, DNA, Theoretical Girls and Terminal: a strong cross-section of groups who, except for old-school punks Erasers, would represent different aspects of the embryonic No Wave aesthetic. Chiko Hige is clearly gone at this point and my educated guess is that the drummer here is Steve Moses. Moses played in a free-jazz oriented trio with James Chance and David Hofstra (who replaced George Scott during the “BUY” sessions) called Flaming Youth and then jammed with an early Contortions incarnation predating the group’s live debut. His style doesn’t really jibe well with the aggressive musical agenda of the band and he seems to drag everything down in terms of tempo and feel. The band opened the show with “Dish It Out” immediately following James chewing the audience out for sitting on the floor. Moses’ drumming has a lazy, half-time feel, but otherwise the arrangement is the same as usual. George Scott was not playing terribly strong bass  at this point and his sound is extremely muddy here. The arrangement of “My Infatuation” suffers from more weak drumming. Luckily “Roving Eye” picks up the overall pace and has the thrust of the past performances. “Twice Removed” begins typically, but turns into a bit of a trainwreck during the middle section, due to under-rehearsed drumming. The momentum of the performance really takes a dive on “Throw Me Away”. It is performed too slowly, with inappropriately complicated drumming, and James tries to scat-sing some life into it before launching into his regular verses. After two minutes, the song collapses before picking back up again for a saxophone solo. This show is documented as one of the first where James Chance physically antagonized audience members, so maybe that’s what is happening during the dead air? After another minute, the song grinds to a halt again and there’s a lot of talking in the audience. Soon the band tries to play the song again and Chance tells them on-mic to “speed it up.” “Jaded” follows but it too fizzles out after George Scott’s amplifier breaks down. After an awkward minute the bass amp comes back on and the band finishes the song.  It seems like Robert Quine might be sitting in on this song, as there’s some particularly wiry, interesting guitar playing on the version which sounds very unlike James Nares’ style. Quine is definitely audible jamming away on the closing “Contort Yourself”, begun at the same plodding tempo as the 2.4.1978 CBGB’s sets. The drumming is unsupportive at first but gets more firey and inventive around the 2:00 mark when Moses finally bothers to play a concrete backbeat. Although the pace picks up somewhat, the band is sloppy and sounding long in the tooth before the song finally implodes. The crowd has a very positive response at the end of the set though . . . Although definitely not the finest Contortions performance quality-wise,  this event was a pivotal one for the no-wave scene in general. Another important aspect of this occasion was the meeting of James Chance and the woman who would quickly become his companion and manager: Anya Phillips. Phillips was a Chinese-American scenester connected with X Magazine who also worked as a dominatrix. She would help mould Chance’s image as well as sowing the seeds of discontent which would eventually break the original Contortions line-up apart.

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4.14.1978 – CBGBs, New York, NY

1. Dish It Out   2. My Infatuation  3. Roving Eye  4. Twice Removed  5. Throw Me Away  6. Flip Your Face  7. Jaded  8. Contort Yourself

James Chance (voc, as), James Nares (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), Adele Bertei (organ), George Scott (bass), Steve Moses (drums)

Contortions live 4.14.1978 opening for the Cramps.
left to right: James Chance, Adele Bertei, Stephen Moses,
Lydia Lunch (sitting), Pat Place. photo by Alain Dister

After a possible show at CBGB’s on 4.9.1978 (not confirmed), the Contortions share a bill with The Cramps on 4.14.78. The Cramps debut 7” was released in April 1978 and may have been available at this gig. The band opens with a version of  “Dish It Out” which fares better than the X Mag one. Steve Moses sounds much more comfortable in his role here. The excellent sound at CBGB’s helps bring all the players into better focus on this recording. “My Infatuation” is competent and performed in a manner more typical for the song than it had been the benefit show. The loud rhythm guitar and straight- ahead backbeat on “Roving Eye” makes it sound more like a rockabilly song(!) than it ever would again. “Twice Removed” receives a typical performance, as does “Throw Me Away” and “Jaded”. “Flip Your Face”, immortalized on “No New York” makes a first appearance here, with splashier drums and a darker sounding variation of the main guitar lick. An uptempo take on “Contort Yourself” closes things out.


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5.4.1978 – CBGBs, New York, NY
Johnny Blitz Benefit Show 

1. Dish It Out   2. My Infatuation  3. Roving Eye  4. Twice Removed  5. Jailhouse Rock  6.  Jaded  7. Contort Yourself

James Chance (voc, as), Jody Harris (guitar), Pat Place (slide guitar), Adele Bertei (organ), George Scott (bass), Don Christensen (drums)

After at least one other gig – 4.24.1978 with Mars at Max’s Kansas City -The Contortions appeared on a bill also featuring the Ramones, Sic Fucks, Stilettos, Erasers, Corpse Grinders and Spicy Bits, in a benefit concert for Dead Boys’ drummer Johnny Blitz who was hospitalized after a stabbing. This was the first of four nights total during the run of benefit shows. It’s clear that the personnel has changed. Jody Harris’ guitar is somewhat smoother sounding than James Nares and Don Christensen’s crisp, no-nonsense drumming drives the band nicely, although he is not quite as brutal as Chiko Hige. Harris and Christensen both played in an R&B flavored bar band called Loose Screws (with David Hofstra) before joining the Contortions. Harris was also in a very early incarnation of Mars and had a brief stint with ur-critic Lester Bangs’ band. It is unclear whether or not Harris and Christensen both joined the band at the exact same time. One of them may have joined after the other. It is unclear and neither musician seems to remember the chronology exactly.

Lean performances of “Dish It Out” and “My Infatuation” open the set. A very fast “Roving Eye” returns again to its tumbling jungle-drum form and Harris adds some twangy vibrato-bar licks to the middle section. “Twice Removed” also receives an uptempo, clean reading featuring the most effective execution of the fragmented middle section so far. This is the sound of what many consider the definitive early Contortions line-up beginning to cook. For some reason, Kristian Hoffman of Mumps and Bradly Field of Teenage Jesus are introduced before a hilarious cover of “Jailhouse Rock”.  My wild guess is that they were probably dancing on stage or something . . . although the picture below was definitely taken at CBGB's and it has Hoffman on guitar and an obscured (possibly) Field on organ. “Jaded” is lead by the metronomic, but out-of-tempo organ clusters of Adele Bertei, lending an even more macabre edge to the piece than ever before. Jody Harris’ echo-y guitar improvisation also creates more depth than usual on this song. After a false count-off, the band ends this succinct set with “Contort Yourself”, which is starting to resemble the “BUY” version, thanks to Don Christensen’s tight drum patterns. Bertei’s noisy organ glissandos add an extra layer of ambush to the proceedings. The following evening, The Contortions would split a bill with DNA at one of the five Artists Space festival shows which lead directly to their inclusion on the Brian Eno produced anthology “No New York” (1978, Antilles Records).

This photo might be from the Johnny Blitz Benefit show on 5.4.1978
left to right: Bradly Field(?), Jody Harris, Don Christensen, James Chance, Pat Place (sitting), Kristian Hoffman
photo by Eugene Merinov

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Next up, part THREE: Contortions play Artists Space Festival and Eno produces "No New York" . . .


This text was written by Weasel Walter, all rights reserved 2011.
If you use this for any reason, please credit the source fairly.

Early History of The Contortions #3 (May 78-Oct 78)

Early History of The Contortions #1 (Introduction)