TONIO K.

that's right
we're talkin about the good life
in the foodchain
love among the ruins

First, some of the basic facts…

Tonio K. was born in the sunny San Joaquin Valley, in Central California. He lived there until he was sixteen when he and his parents moved to Palm Springs or somewhere around there. As a student, Tonio was subject to disciplinary problems from an early age: "I had so much detention, they gave me my own office." Later, he was diagnosed as a bright kid but weird, and ignored. During high school he played in a series of typical youth combos ("Nick's brother had the guitar, so he and I..."), none of which outgrew the local scene. In 1964, however, the teenaged Tonio K. passed a musical milestone: he saw James Brown and the Famous Flames and life was never the same. A two-year tenure with the last incarnation of the Crickets is yet another piece of Tonio K.'s extraordinary story, a tale steeped in rock history and the mysteries of mundane detail. In early 1975, he left the Crickets after touring Europe extensively and retired "That'll Be the Day" from his repertoire. Having grown more and more reclusive and exhibiting signs of textbook paranoia, young Tonio took up residence nearer the edge. When he wrote the pivotal song, "The Ballad of the Night the Clocks All Quit," Tonio K. was among the committed. He is now in his late twenties, armed to the teeth and back on the street.

The story of Life in the Foodchain:

Like most great rock & roll, Life in the Foodchain is always threatening to go out of control. Instead, in its sharp, electric tones, the album teaches lessons with each twist of a phrase. Whether he sings joyfully, as in the plaintive, C&W Transylvanian masterpiece, "How Come I Can't See You in My Mirror?," or waxes craftily ironic, as in the cacophonously persuasive "H-A-T-R-E-D," Tonio K. is constantly examining the predicaments of life—his, yours, ours, theirs.

"You can either laugh at your environment, or let it kill you," says Tonio about the world we live in. Fortunately, he's good at the former and Life in the Foodchain is loaded with humor—the kind of twisted wit that gets you in trouble until you've found a place for the rage. When Tonio K. discovered the electric guitar—irony of ironies—the rage began paying off.

    because it's dog eat dog
    and it's the cat and mouse
    it's cut the cake and grab a plate
    and hope it goes around
    it's do or die
    it's down to push and shove
    because everybody's hungry
    and there isn't quite enough

We are looking, says Tonio K., for the point of enlightenment beyond which the futility of life becomes comic. (We are looking, repeats Tonio K., for that answer to the Dadaists' favorite riddles.) Where others use paint, pens, scissors and glue, Tonio searches for answers with a saw-toothed rock & roll band. In his rasping, biting vocal style, he evaluates the situation; we are spinning—however unwittingly—to the tune of "Funky Western Civilization," ready to plunge headlong into further madness: "they put jesus on a cross / they put a hole in j.f.k. / they put hitler in the driver's seat / and looked the other way / now they've got poison in the water / and the whole world in a trance but just because we're hypnotized that don't mean we can't dance."

Accompaniment on Life in the Foodchain, under the protective guidance of Rob Fraboni (by arrangement with the Worthless Group), is provided by an unquestionably bizarre assortment of skilled musicians and technicians. Earl Slick, a confirmed killer on the electric guitar, leads most of the charges. Other guitar heroes also joined the OK assault team: legendary surfer Dick Dale, legendary gypsy Englishman Albert Lee, Tim "Legendary" Weston and the truly legendary Nick "The Legend" Van Maarth. Craig Krampf and the Dynamic Groovadelics formed the core of the rhythm section. Recorded at Shangri-la Studios, in Malibu, California, where the OK lifestyle reigned for days on end, the record boasts no indulgent instrumentation. The only keyboard on the album is destroyed—literally—by a burst of lead-filled "notes" from an automatic weapon, a NATO-issue HK-91. (With Tonio K., life is very real.) "No, no," he sings in "A Lover's Plea," "don't you go and break my heart / no don't do it / if you do / i'll go crazy / maybe hurt myself / or more significant / i might hurt you." Then, of course, he wouldn't really, but he knows there are a lot of people who would—husbands, wives, heads of state.

Follow Tonio K.'s peculiar but amiable path and you'll discover things you never knew existed—maybe some aspect of the truth. Maybe gold. Maybe the blue sock you lost a long time ago.

Tonio K. has offered the following guide to Life in the Foodchain: "Side One deals with Life In…Side Two with Love Among, which is a function of Life In…"