One of the most poignant comeback stories of the year took a sad turn last week when the Silver Apples -- whose decades-in-the-making reunion had been making huge waves in the rock underground -- were involved in a serious van accident in upstate New York. Band co-founders Danny Taylor and Simeon were driving on the New York Thruway approximately one hour north of Manhattan, where they'd just played a sold-out show at the Cooler, when their van, with Simeon behind the wheel, crashed through a guardrail and plunged into a ravine, leaving Simeon with two shattered vertebrae -- and an as-yet-undetermined degree of paralysis. Although no official details on the cause of the crash were available at press time, witnesses say the van was apparently sideswiped by a motorist who was driving erratically.

Taylor, who reportedly suffered only minor trauma in the accident, was reunited with Simeon in 1997, some twenty-seven years after the duo split for the first time. Oddly, they'd both remained in New York, albeit uninvolved in music, but they'd completely lost contact until Taylor heard a Silver Apples tribute on a local radio station and called in on a lark. The duo first hit the scene in the mid-Sixties, baffling and enchanting audiences with their homemade instruments -- the centerpiece of their sound was an oscillator-laden whirligig that they dubbed the Simeon, after its creator -- and primitively trippy songs. While their self-titled first album spent three months on the Billboard charts, the band soon fell victim to the sort of record company consolidation that's currently sweeping the industry: they lost their deal soon after the release of Contact in 1969, and broke up shortly thereafter.

Countless punk and post-punk bands -- including Pere Ubu and Spiritualized -- cited the band's influence, an influence that can be heard on the tribute album, Electronic Evocations, that came out several years ago. That resurgence helped prompt Simeon to initiate a return to form, which the band achieved on several new releases, highlighted by the Steve Albini-recorded Beacon.

Doctors are hesitant to issue a prognosis for Simeon, who, according to hospital reports, is experiencing sensation, although he's currently unable to move his limbs. Well-wishers can drop a line to Whirlybird Records, 28 Decatur Ave, Annapolis, MD 21403 ...

In other news, the eels have cancelled the remainder of their U.S. tour in support of their new album, Electro-Shock Blues. Having recently suffered through his own shade of blue -- due to the second death in his immediate family in the past two years -- singer/guitarist E decided to take a break from the road. Plans for a U.K. tour have also been put on hold. The first single from Electro-Shock Blues, "Last Stop: This Town," debuted this week at the bottom of the modern rock singles chart ...

Sound the Alarm. Velvel Records has announced the signing of Coloursound, a new hard-rock outfit featuring former Alarm vocalist/Velvel solo artist Mike Peters and Billy Duffy, former guitarist for the Cult. Expect an album in the first quarter of 1999. And how does Coloursond sound? Perhaps Peters puts it best: "It is what it is," he explained in a recent interview with Rolling Stone Online. "It's the Alarm meets the Cult." Coloursound wraps up a brief U.S. tour Nov. 18 at New York's Life, then heads back to England for a string of Winter dates ...

It's taken twenty-six years and a whole lot of lugging around of his baby grand, but ivory-tickling storyteller Billy Joel was finally chosen as an inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame yesterday. The ceremony, scheduled for March 15 at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, will also induct veterans Bruce Springsteen, Curtis Mayfield, Paul McCartney (his second entry), Del Shannon, Dusty Springfield, the Staples Singers, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Charles Brown and, in the non-performer realm, George Martin, the anointed fifth Beatle. Criteria for induction includes a minimum of twenty-five years since the artist released his/her first album, as well as a weighty significance of his/her contribution to rock & roll. So we wonder, why didn't the Piano Man earn his stripes last year, the first year of his eligibility? The Innocent Man had only this to say: "I'm honored to be a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Class of '99. It's an absolutely amazing feeling to be placed in the company of some of my all-time heroes and influences" ...

Funkster Rick James is still holed up in a Los Angeles hospital intensive care unit following his Nov. 9 stroke. In an informal statement to the Superfreak's publicist, Dr. William Young said that surgery has been ruled out, but James still has to undergo "an extensive battery of tests to determine the exact nature of the stroke," and "could be a long time in recovery." Needless to say, James' current national tour has been put on hold (he can't even walk at the moment, though he plans to resume his concert schedule ASAP). In the mean time, don't send flowers or cards, though, as James has requested that any donations be made to the Leukemia Foundation in the name of William "Head" Johnson, his younger brother who died of the disease last week ...

If you had any doubts that Ol' Blue Eyes would be back sooner or later, the folks at New York's Hofstra University will dispel them this weekend when they host a three-day conference examining the cultural relevance of Frank Sinatra. Apparently, the sponsors of "Frank Sinatra: The Man, The Music, The Legend" will be sticking to Sinatra's music, rather than delving into his instrumental role in making the mafia cuddly enough for middle America to appreciate. The conference will dissect such topics as the obsessive love granted Sinatra in Belgium and the singer's groundbreaking gender-bending performances of songs --like "The Lady Is a Tramp" and "My Funny Valentine" -- that were initially intended to be sung by women. And since it is an intellectual conference -- unlike the Marilyn Manson symposium currently unfolding down in the Lone Star State -- there promises to be a fair amount of hot air wafting from the Long Island campus. One lecture will assert that Sinatra and Charles Dickens were, in fact, extraordinarily similar. Both, according to scholar Patricia Vinci, "got famous at twenty-four, both were slim with intense blue eyes, always fashionably dressed and ... both had fans that would swoon and claw at them in public." It's an interesting argument, but until Vinci demonstrates that Dickens spent his time hanging out with fellas named Johnny Eggs and Vinnie Pyro, we're not biting ...

The RSN staff
(November 12,1998)