I ‘ll testify, it ain’t no lie: I saw Elvis in the sky! You’ll understand what I mean later, but in the meantime, let me write a few words about Johnny Reno. It seems to me that Robert Rodriguez’s participation in the Roadracers film was Comrade Rino’s star moment – I’m willing to bet that a considerable number of those who watched this film were interested in Johnny as a musician. Personally, I found, perhaps, all the studio recordings that could be found, including albums by The Juke Jumpers during the period when Comrade Rino joined their band as a saxophonist. And I bought everything that I couldn’t find online. I managed to write about one record, and the second one, Third Degree (1990), the title song of which is My Mistake, which participated in the soundtrack of Roadracers, was supposed to be a pleasant dessert.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the best cards in my hand, and dessert was a little late. The money told me to jump, I just had to ask “Where to?”, and, in general, it became a bit not up to the music. It’s a shame, of course, but to hell with it – better late than never. What bothers me more is that I haven’t listened to rock and roll for a long time, and in the last month I’ve been actively uploading myself to 80s music. That’s why my ears are tuned to synthesizers, and my mind is tuned to laser dragons and turbo barbarians. However, it simply couldn’t be postponed any longer, and I will do my best to describe what awaits you on this album as objectively as possible.
The whole situation is not fixed at all by the fact that after I finally started the Third Degree vinyl needle, I can only say one thing: Roadracers fans can go on their way. Yes, to my deepest regret, there is only one track on the entire disc that is performed in the spirit of Rodriguez’s famous My Mistake – this is the opening B-side track School Of Rock & Roll. You can listen to it and skip the next four paragraphs, because all the other songs on this record are noticeably different in spirit from the two mentioned.
What’s on the album? Well, let me describe the composition of this vinyl in order of deviation from the title tracks. The closest thing to them is the second B-side track called Strange To You – Johnny Reno clearly used his experience playing with Stevie Ray Vaughn in the band Double Trouble and recorded a very interesting song with a noticeable admixture of blues rock. Unfortunately, there is also only one such song on Third Degree.
Two more songs on this record are representatives of a more classic rock and roll sound, which Comrade Reno has been familiar with since the days of The Juke Jumpers – This Ain’t The Way and Struck By Love, number three and number five on the A-side. These tracks are not as aggressive and loaded as My Mistake and School Of Rock & Roll, but nevertheless very incendiary and, in my opinion, skillfully composed. The latter is especially true of This Ain’t The Way – I like everything about this song: the intro, the end, the guitar solo with a drop of piano in the second minute, and the way the keyboards, brass and guitar play with each other, alternately coming to the fore… Perhaps This Ain’t The Way can easily compete with My Mistake for the title of the best composition of the album. The only problem is that these two tracks are somewhat different in style, and therefore it’s not very convenient to compare them. And, probably, it is not necessary.
The latest representative of the classic sound on the album Third Degree is the third B-side song called Pink Champagne. The sound of this track once again consists of a magnificent trio – piano, saxophone and guitar – and although the melody is much less intricate than This Ain’t The Way, the unhurried Pink Champagne catches no worse. Plus, I’d like to emphasize the line “Pink champagne left me feeling ‘blue” – listening to it, I literally see some abstract pink-blue canvas in front of my eyes, and for some reason I fucking like it. Anyway, once again, I was surprised to find that I find slow rock and roll songs quite appealing.
And now it remains to talk about the remaining four tracks. They are not rock’n’roll at all, but rather 80s pop rock. Why is he here? Why is there so much of it? Unclear. And if Learning To Love, along with Twisted, still represent some value, then One True Love and The Light, it seems to me, are outright failures. Moreover, these two songs cover the B-side, which is why the end of the album turned out to be somewhat… unpleasant, maybe. In general, it seems that albums should have at least two bombastic tracks: the first one to hook the listener, and the last one so that the freshest emotions after listening are positive. But Third Degree closes with exactly what it closes with, and to be honest, when the second side of the vinyl came to an end, I grimaced. In retrospect, I see that things weren’t that bad, but at that point… In short, fellow musicians. Please do not close your albums with bad tracks.
Now, don’t rush to disperse. The fact is that the CD version of the Third Degree album included two additional songs that are not on the vinyl edition. Nevertheless, these two songs were released on a separate small single, which I also managed to get. And I must say right away: this little CD turned out to be a very pleasant bonus. Both tracks on it are very similar in sound to My Mistake, which is exactly the sound I expected from a big album, not a small single. Separately, it is worth mentioning that Elvis In The Sky receives a prize from me for the best lyrics: this song tells us a great story about a guy who got drunk on moonshine and saw Elvis in the sky. “Well, I’ve watched that saucer disappear. I’ve called my wife: did you see that, dear? Pour me another milk and moonshine, I’ve got a story for inquiring minds!”
Eyes Wide Open can’t boast the same loose text, but that’s its only drawback. Otherwise, the second song of the single is still the same aggressive, screaming rock and roll that I was waiting for from Third Degree.
Summing up, we can say that, in general, Third Degree is still a good album. Especially for those who bought it on CD – they get the last two tracks by default. But after the first audition, I still got a little lost in thought.: What’s wrong with this disk? At first, I blamed everything on high expectations: the rarely seen album with My Mistake as the title track and the price at which I could buy from three to six albums cheaper – all this for some reason made me expect something really great. But after forcing myself to admit that I was the only one to blame for my own expectations, and not Johnny Reno, I came to a different conclusion: it seems to me that the whole problem is that at the time of the release of Third Degree, Comrade Reno simply had not found his sound. Considering that Johnny will hit swing and rhythm and blues on his next album, Swinging And Singing, it seems to me that this theory has a right to exist. And if you also take into account the fact that Swinging And Singing was released more than twenty years ago and is still Reno’s last studio album, you can put forward the theory that attempts to find your own sound have not been successful.
Anyway, somehow it turned out that on the one hand, Third Degree contains very skillful, complex and rocking compositions like This Ain’t The Way and My Mistake, and on the other hand – in every sense of the word – outright tricks in the form of One True Love and The Light.And even though I understand that at one time the album probably cost the same as all the other albums, and no one is to blame for the fact that the realities of capitalism have inflated the price many times, but… I can’t bring myself not to write these words: the Third Degree wasn’t worth my money. And it is impossible not to mention once again the fact that Elvis In The Sky and Eyes Wide Open remained on a separate disc, while they could well have thrown out the last two tracks of the B-side…
In general, objectively, the album is good. On the fourth. Individual songs can generally be called the pinnacle of Johnny Reno’s creativity, but only individual ones. But in general, the same Full Blown with Sax Maniacs as the album was put together much more densely and correctly. And the 80’s-style tracks on it were much more enjoyable…
2. Learning To Love
3. This Ain’t The Way
4. Twisted
5. Struck By Love
6. School Of Rock & Roll
7. Strange To You
8. Pink Champagne
9. One True Love
10. The Light
11. Elvis In The Sky
12. Eyes Wide Open
Download Johnny Reno – Third Dergee (1990) (mp3, 101 Mb)
Roadracers blew my mind as a kid and made me a Rocker for life. I chased after My Mistake for years, had a band that played a rough approximation of it based on what we could make out. Thanks so much for posting it up. It still kicks ass.
Roadracers as a whole still kicks ass despite its age. Early Robert Rodriguez in its prime. As for the music – no problems and thanks for the comment! It’s really good to know that people actually stumble upon our little site once in a while.