COP OUT NIGHT

There's a two parter over at Adios Lounge, two long parts, about the Gun Club. I haven't read it because I don't want to get sucked in, not tonight, But it's worth a bookmark to read later. The stuff over there is usually worth reading. So I'm gonna duck out. Here's just a taste. The meat is over there.

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Listen:
The Gun Club - Sex Beat mp3 at ATumblr (?)
The Gun Club - Jack On Fire mp3 at ATumblr (?)
The Gun Club - Ghost On the Highway mp3 at DK Presents
The Gun Club - For the Love of Ivy mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Video:
Ghost n the Highway (Part 1)- Jefferey Lee Pierce/Gun Club documentary at YouTube See the side bar on that page for parts 2-5
Visit:
Gun Club: Preachin’ the Word, Pt. 1 at The Adios Lounge
The Gun Club, Pt. 2: Walking with the Beast: 1983-85 at The Adios Lounge

I LIKE THE CARS THAT GO BAM BAM

I was walking home from the beach tonight and a car crossed my path blasting Sister Nancy's "Bam Bam". This shit doesn't happen around here. Not often. And it was blasting out of a newer tricked out import. Go figure. But it was a nice surprise. Sister Nancy was one of the first, if not the first, women DJs, as in reggae DJ's (we don't have to go over that again do we?) So, that was it. "Bam Bam" it is.

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Listen:
Sister Nancy - Bam Bam mp3 at Tumblr (?)
Sister Nancy - Roof Over Mi Head mp3 at Fat Berri's
Sister Nancy - Only Woman DJ With Degree mp3 at Knotoryus
Visit:
Sister Nancy at Wikipedia

NEUTRON BOMB ON YOUR FACE

A friend mentioned the Weirdos the other day, so I did what a bored person with their computer on does. I poked around YouTube and found a couple clips I hadn't seen before. One would be a good example of what they were like back in the day, for those not familiar with them. The other is for those with their fingers stuck permanently in the three finger salute, those who, like me, have always had a soft spot for the Weirdos.

The first clip is just one song, "Life of Crime", and although the quality isn't the best, it is one of the best early clips of them floating around. It feels just like it did seeing them live back then, like you're drunk. The video quality just adds to it. Back then, I never got that buzzed. It was just how you felt watching them. Even when their whole collage as dress code thing started to dissipate, there was still something there that made you feel off kilter. Not to say they didn't bring it. They did. They were an extremely tight outfit. Bomp label owner and fanzine editor Greg Shaw once said that, musically, they were better than most UK punk groups of the same era, and he was right (sample some of the mp3s below). And their lyrics were great too. The wording was comical, but often with an underlying message. A random example, "We Got the Neutron Bomb", a song about military dominance:

We got the neutron bomb, gonna drop it all over the place. You're gonna get it on your face. Foreign aid from the land of the free, but don't blame me.

We got the neutron bomb...Don't understand you, don't know what you mean. We don't want you, we want your machines. United Nations and NATO won't do, it's just the red, white and blue.

Quote singer John Denny:

"We [Los Angeles] had our own look, our own sound. It was apart from New York or London.... We were staunchly against safety pins, we tried to parody punk rock at first. We did happy faces onstage as a joke sometimes, which was the exact opposite of what New York was doing. We were just thumbing our noses at everything. Everything was a joke; punk was a joke, we were a joke. Nonetheless, we were still serious about rocking."

The second video below is for you who were around back then. I've no idea how it would look out of context, because I'm very familiar with the band and the songs and, like I said, I've always had a soft spot for them. It's a live show from last year. Despite the fact that they're whittled down from a five piece to a four piece, there's little noticeable empty space. That guitarist Dix Denny is able to make it work says volumes. As a confessed Weirdo softy, I gotta say, it's good to see Dix Denny and his brother John can still doing a bang up job, hardly coming up for air between songs. To think that they're both pushing sixty is pretty remarkable when you consider that many that age have started eyeing the early bird specials.

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Listen:
The Weirdos - We Got the Neutron Bomb mp3 at Punk Rock Music
The Weirdos - Solitary Confinement mp3 at 7 Inch Punk
Alternate link, the second 45:
The Weirdos - We Got the Neutron Bomb mp3 at Killed By Death Go here to get it
The Weirdos - Solitary Confinement mp3 at Killed By Death (Ditto)
The first 45:
The Weirdos - Destroy All Music.mp at Killed By Death Go here to get it.
A Life Of Crime.mp3 at Killed By Death (Ditto)
Why Do You Exist.mp3 at Killed By Death (Ditto)
Video:
The Weirdos - Life of Crime (Live) at YouTube Los Angeles 1978
The Weirdos at the Dive (Live) at YouTube Las Vegas 2014, a full set, 56 minutes

TO THE FOOT SOLDIER

Today the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that same sex marriage is legal in all fifty states. It's about fucking time. Among other thoughts, musically, Tom Robinson came to mind, for a very good reason. Robinson was a British singer and a man of conviction, vocal against social injustices in general, gay rights in particular. In 1978 his band, the Tom Robinson Band, released "Glad To Be Gay", and as ridiculous as it seems now, back then it was an act of courage. Despite all of the gays in rock 'n' roll over the decades, closeted or not, very few singers actually sang about gay rights. "Glad to Be Gay" was banned by the BBC, but made it to #18 on the UK charts regardless, because the song, while about gay rights, resonated, it hits just as hard for anyone feeling oppressed for being who they are. It doesn't matter what your orientation is, today was a win for everybody. And this, a tip of the hat to someone who sang about it thirty seven years ago.

Even if you're not crazy about the song musically, listen to the words. The message surpasses the medium.

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Listen:
Tom Robinson Band - Glad To Be Gay mp3 at Glad To Be Gay 1989, Live
Video:
Tom Robinson Band - Glad to Be Gay at YouTube 1977
Visit:
Tom Robinson at Wikipedia

ABORT MISSION

Yeah, it happened again. Another chance click, another night gone. It started with Prince Buster, and it hasn't ended. It's veered away, far beyond Jamaica, but I'll pick up on that later. For now, here's a link to Dave's Jukebox, the host of two early Prince Buster cuts, and the detour of the night, Buster's "Soul of Africa" at Groove Addict. The latter isn't ska, but on the cusp of it, heavy on the African drumming. The host, Groove Addict, is the tonights recipient of the "Reason Why Nothing Gets Done Around Here" award. I'm lost over there.

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Listen:
Prince Buster - Soul of Africa mp3 at Groove Addict
Prince Buster - To Be Loved mp3 at Dave's Jukebox Go there to get it
Prince Buster All Stars - Lion Of Judah mp3 at Dave's Jukebox Ditto
More Prince Buster - An old post, most of the links are still good
Visit:
Groove Addict

DUDE WAS THE MAN

I was just kind of reading up on Little Esther, nothing in depth, just a little digging, and I ran into a thing that mentioned she was discovered by Johnny Otis. It got me thinking about Otis, and how completely under appreciated his contributions to music are by the general public. Dude did everything. He was a musician, bandleader, talent scout, radio DJ, songwriter, and a champion of R & B music. The whole shooting match. Besides Phillips, he discovered Big Mama Thornton, Jackie Wilson, Little Willie John, Hank Ballard and Etta James. He was bros with Big Joe Turner and Don & Dewey, among many others. And his records, oh holy shit. Who else kept current in R & B from the early fifties all the way through the seventies? Scratch your head on that. These are a random sampling, from the early fifties through to what sounds like the late sixties or early seventies.  Check that last one. It's like a precursor to Donna Summer, the whole slow groove with steamy moaning and carrying on. See how these diversions happen? I'm stopping here. Disco frightens me.

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Listen:
Johnny Otis Quintet - Ali Baba's Boogie mp3 at Internet Archive
Johnny Otis - Harlem Nocturne mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Johnny Otis Quintet - Linda Lu mp3 at Internet Archive
Johnny Otis - Crazy Country Lover mp3 at Internet Archive
Johnny Otis - Willy and the Hand Jive mp3 at Radio George
Johnny Otis - Bye Bye Baby Until We Meet Again mp3 at Internet Archive With Roy Buchanan on guitar.
Johnny Otis Quintet - Chicken Gumbo - mp3 at Internet Archive
Johnny Otis - Don't It Make You Feel Good mp3 at Internet Archive

ALL THAT HAIR. AND A SNAKE.

A couple days ago, I put Alice Cooper make up on George Gershwin. I gotta be honest, I think it made him look pretty sharp. One thing I failed to do was give Alice Cooper props for one of the greatest lines ever written. In "School's Out", the second verse goes as follows: "We've got no class, we've got no principles, we've got no innocence, we can't even think of a word that rhymes." Genius. Why bullshit, right? Not only that, the song is an upmost declarative fuck you to the nine month prison that is school, a last day of school anthem for anyone who was of that age in the decade or so that followed it's release. 

There's a lot of early Alice Cooper that's worth hearing. Here's just a couple, Oh, and in another oversight from the earlier post, I remembered there's another show tune that I like. In Alice Cooper's "Gutter Cat versus the Jets" the second half of the song is Leonard Bernstein and Steven Sondheim's "The Jet Song" from "West Side Story". So that's two songs from musicals I'll cop to. Oh yeah, watch out, I'm a musical dandy.

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Listen:
Alice Cooper - School's Out mp3 at William Burkey (?)
Alice Cooper - Under My Wheels mp3 at Synthesis Radio Dig the Horns.
Alice Cooper - I'm Eighteen mp3 at Roy Blakely (?)
Alice Cooper - Gutter Cat vs the Jets (streaming) at YouTube
Video:
Alice Cooper - School's Out at YouTube
The Jet Song from West Side Story at YouTube

BUY YOUR OWN DAMN FRIES

I don't know, maybe it isn't as big of a deal overseas. The U.S. press though, is all over itself, making a big deal out of Barack Obama saying the n-word as a guest on a podcast. It was in comments about the usage of the word, and was in the context of a conversation about race relations in the U.S. But the press is making a big deal about the fact that he actually said the word "nigger". Nice going cub reporters. He has said it before, quoting an old friend from school, in the audio book version of "Dreams of My Father". He said a whole lot more too, again quoting someone else. F bombs, "shit", all sorts of stuff. Beware of the Blog posted the audio clips six years ago. The audio book was available everywhere. So why didn't they make a big deal about it then? Oh, that's right, he said them in context...wait a second....

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Listen:
Barack Obama - Buy Your Own Damn Fries at Beware of the Blog Six mp3s in all, choice mix meat.

HOUSE LIGHTS FOR THIS NUT

Jerry Lewis is not known for musical ventures. (The comedic actor Jerry Lewis, not Jerry Lee Lewis, hotshot proofreader.) He did release at least one LP (Jerry Lewis Sings), but I haven't heard it. But after seeing the clip below, I'm convinced. He coulda been a contender. As Chuck Berry wrote in "Little Queenie", if it's a rocker, I'll admit it, and this one, though short, is. Then again, my kind of rockers include nut cases of every type. If I have room on my plate for the Legendary Stardust Cowboy or Hasil Adkins, why not an actor? I don't give a shit what your day job is. If you can wig out for a couple minutes, that's good enough.

Bonus beat:
Jed Clampett - Oh, Baby, Yeah Baby at YouTube Rockin' the Danelctro twin neck.

SCHOOL'S OUT. TIME FOR SHOW TUNES.

So, Boogaloo Time just posted Ronnie Hawkin's version of George Gershwin's "Summertime", one of only, I don't know, one show tune that I like. I can't think of another. I didn't even realize it was from a musical until a few years ago. I was curious after hearing Ricky Nelson's cover, which is one of my favorites. It sounds kind of like him fronting the Yardbirds, though obviously it's not. It predates the Yardbirds by a few years, so they couldn't have even been an influence. There's a few other versions down there. Two great jazz versions, one by Charlie Parker and another by Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins. The Brian Wilson one is down there because I went and listened to it, and I'll be damned if I'm going to waste a link. So it is actually time for show tunes, one song, but multiple versions. And they are all tunes.

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Listen:
Ricky Nelson - Summertime mp3 at Internet Archive
Ronnie Hawkins - Summertime mp3 at Boogaloo Time Go there to get it.
Charlie Parker - Summertime mp3 at Digital Circus (?)
Sonny Rollins and Colman Hawkins - Summertime mp3 at Muzz Irkutsk (?)
Brian Wilson - Summertime (streaming) at YouTube

THAT'S RIGHT BABY, A KEG AND REVERB.

Tomorrow is the first day of summer. Big shit. It's not like there's some magic switch that's turned on, with surfboards, loud twangin' guitar and an assemblage of jerky dancing knuckleheads magically appearing on the beach overnight. Nevertheless, I'll take the occasion to lame out, and repost a bunch of surf stuff. You aficionados can skip the better known ones below and head directly to Big O. There's forty surf instrumentals, most total obscurities, with some really good ones and, as is the case with genres made up primarily of half rate copycats, some are gloriously off. That's what I'm digging on. The oddballs.

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Listen:
Aki Aleong & the Nobels - Panic mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People
The Hollywood Tornadoes - The Gremmie, Pt 1 mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
The Torquays - Escondido mp3 at Office Naps
Dick Dale & the Deltones- Surf Beat mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Astronauts - Hot Dogger mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Danny and the Seniors - Banzai Pipeline mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Johnny Barakat and the Vestells - The Wedge at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
The Lively Ones - Surf Rider mp3 at The California Girls
The Chantays - Pipeline mp3 at Rocky-52.net
The mother lode:
Surfer's Mood - Forty plus songs, all at Big O Archive (Roio) Go there to get 'em.

THE LADIES FIGHT FOR MY DELIGHT

It's all "Rapper's Delight", all night. tonight. I ran into a hilarious version of Brian Williams and his man Hank, Lester Holt, doing it, made up of clips of words and phrases from news broadcasts. Really funny, but not post worthy in and of itself. Then I ran across the original, by the Sugarhill Gang. Ho hum, you say. You've heard it a thousand times. When was the last time you heard a fourteen minute version? Yeah baby.

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Listen:
Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight mp3 at Legion of Health (?) 14 minutes
Video:
Rapper's Delight - The Real Talking Heads Brian Williams & Lester Holt
In case the link above goes dead:
Rapper's Delight - The Real Talking Heads at Tumblr
Rapper's Delight - The Real Talking Heads at YouTube
Visit:
Rapper's Delight at Wikipedia

MOVIE NIGHT

John Williams, you can sit your ass down. I just found the perfect Star Wars soundtrack. If you're at  all into sensory overloads, here's a good one. A full length mash up of all six Star Wars films, laid on top of each other, audio and visuals. It's crazy, To push it truly into the Friday Night Freak Out stratosphere, I listened to "L.A. Blues" by the Stooges repeatedly while watch random scenes. It was like Q-Tipping my skull. Good stuff. Fun times.

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Listen:
The Stooges - L.A. Blues mp3 at Razda (?)
Alternate link:
The Stooges - L.A. Blues mp3 at 8106

NUGENT DISEASE

Fucking Charlie Daniels. I don't hate him, I hate his right wing views. I hate that I have to think about that, and then try to blank it out, just to give his music a chance, particularly the early stuff with the Jaguars. They're nothing like his Southern rock shit, something else I have to blank out. But that early stuff, man, it's a ruckus. Nothing over the top on it's own, just blasting period rock 'n' roll. Kind of. It's really Batman meets Link Wray with a heavy dose of stinky sax type shaker. The type of loud that forces you to turn it up. That makes it rock 'n' roll. Whatever, the stuff works.

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Listen:
The Jaguars - Jaguar mp3 at Rocky 52
The Jaguars - Roundabout mp3 at Rocky 52
The Jaguars - Exit 6 mp3 at Rocky 52
The Jaguars - Drive-In mp3 at Rocky 52
Charlie Daniels and the Jaguars - Two more at Rocky 52
Visit:
Rocky 52 - The Discography pages

OH YEAH, HE DID DR. NO TOO

I ran into "Bonanza Ska" by Carlos Malcolm over at For the Sake of the Song. Bam! Sucked in again, and it wasn't the first time a glance at something about Malcolm turned into a two hour wormhole. Here's the two that got me started, and one recorded a few years later in New York, that one really funky, and tight. Malcolm did it all. I've heard stuff from all different periods of his career, in all sorts of styles, and I haven't heard a stinker yet, Check his Facebook page for a lot of YouTube audio clips, read the advice he dishes out to particular Facebook visitors (as recently as tonight). This guy doesn't sit around doing nothing.

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Listen:
Carlos Malcolm and His Afro-Jamaican Rhythms - Bonanza Ska mp3 at For the Sake of the Song Go there to get it 1964
Carlos Malcolm and His Afro-Jamaican Rhythms - Ska-mania mp3 at Basement Rug 1962
Carlos Malcolm - Bustin Outta the Ghetto (streaming) at YouTube 1970
The LP:
Carlos Malcolm - Ska-Mania - The Sound of the Soil LP at Basement Rug - Go there to get it, available in two different quality downloads.
Video:
Carlos Malcolm - A Jamaican Treasure at YouTube
Visit:
Carlos Malcolm at Wikipedia
Carlos Malcolm at Facebook

LAST GASP OF THE BROS

It may not have been the last thing they ever did, but "Crazy Horses" was the Osmonds' last real effort to grow a pair, rather five pairs. But a weird synth intro and Foghat-like guitar weren't enough for redemption. I think they took their ball and went home.

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Listen:
The Osmonds - Crazy Horses mp3 at ATmblr (?)
The Osmonds - Crazy Horses (slowed) mp3 at Public Collectords (?)
Video:
The Osmonds - Crazy Horses at YouTube

PUNK ROCK IS ALL AROUND YOU

You may have heard that Ornette Coleman passed away last Thursday. Coleman was not just another jazz dude. He practically invented free jazz. As early as high school, he was fucking with things, getting kicked out of the school band for improvising. His method of playing and disregard of accepted norms proved to advance jazz, but when he recorded his landmark albums, Shape of Jazz to Come, and Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation, the reactions were mixed. The latter was reviewed twice in Down Beat, with one reviewer giving it five stars and another giving it zero.

The Ornette Coleman Quartet

Here are three cuts from The Shape of Jazz to Come to give you an idea of what the fuss was about. You ought to check out the short interview with Charlie Haden, his bassist at the time, conducted the day Coleman died. There's also a great hour long documentary, 1959 The Year That Changed Jazz, that covers four albums, Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, Dave Brubeck's Time Out, Charles Mingus's Mingus Ah Um, and Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come. If you're a fellow dabbler, you can walk around tomorrow knowing a little bit more about jazz.

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Listen:
Ornette Coleman - Lonely Woman mp3 at Synthesis Radio
Ornette Coleman - Peace mp3 at For the Sake of the Song
Ornette Coleman - Focus On Sanity mp3 at Foe Wheel
A few years later:
The Ornette Coleman Trio - European Echoes mp3 at Art Decade
Video:
Charle Haden interview at Democracy Now
1959 The Year That Changed Jazz at YouTube

GET YOUR SHADE ON

It was a what the hell type hunch. I figured I'd take a gamble and hunt on an mp3 search engine for any Cramps song, ignore the song and go to the hosting blog or site and see what the hell was up. That's how I ran across You Better Shut Up and Listen. You tell me; the first post I saw there was a lengthy interview with Reverend Beat-Man. Locked in now, right? Reading snippets of the interview, you run across this exchange: after discussing different variants of Beat-Man's taste, including industrial, the interviewer asks "What made you want to play rock n roll as opposed to any other sort of music?" Reverend Beat-Man answers, "It was the chicks. Rock n’ roll chicks are the best." A true man of the cloth.

So, yeah, I ain't goin' nowhere. I decided to look for the first band I hadn't heard, and check them out. I mean, this guy was two for two, with the Cramps and Beat-Man. How could you go wrong, right? The first band I landed on was the Lamps, A worthy racket, self consciously crude maybe, but dig the guitar and drum sound on "Rototiller". Could go either way, which is why I don't care to read anything about them. I want to give them a fighting chance.

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Listen:
The Lamps - Rottotiller mp3 at You Better Shut Up and Listen
The Cramps - You Got Good Taste mp3 at You Better Shut Up and Listen
Lamps - Anvil mp3 at Dusted

GENERAL EDDUCAMATION

It's been over a year, so my assumption is that at least one crop of peagreens has passed through here without having been exposed to Reverend Beat-Man. So here, a gravel voiced ex-wrestler and true believer. Another version of blues, sort of. More like the color of a bruise.

It's a two for one sale, the first solo, and another with one of his bands, the Monsters. If these get you worked up, there's several more at the other pages linked below.

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Listen:
Reverend Beat Man - Come Back Lord mp3 at Go Retro
The Monsters - I'm a Record Junkie mp3 at Voodoo Rhythm
More Beat-Man and Monsters here
Lightning Beat-Man here Pre-ordained
Visit:
Reverend Beat Man's bio at Voodoo Rhythm
Voodoo Rhythm Records

LE COOT IN DUB

I don't know if it's still the case, but in years past Serge Gainsbourg has been pretty much hipster bait. His my shit don't stink attitude, personal style, and, oh yeah, his music, made him perfect for other generations to emulate and name drop. You know the type. They have a couple records of his laying around to appear cool. While some of his music is worthy, no question about that, his dabbling in reggae was pretty weak. That said, the dub versions are kind of a hoot. His vocals just pop in here and there to remind you that you are listening to the guy who told Whitney Houston that he wanted to fuck her on a French TV show. What a nut!

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Listen:
Serge Gainsbourg - Javanaise Dub mp3 at Mp3 Juno (?)
Serge Gainsbourg - Dub Locataires mp3 at Mp3 Juno (?)
Serge Gainsbourg - Three more dub cuts (streaming via Box.net) at Sibling Shot On the Bleachers

GIVE THIS DRUMMER SOME TOO

Big hair, a big beat, and funky as all get out, Carleen Jean Butler was the drummer behind Carleen and the Groovers, a Charleston funk band that included her brother Clary, once a member of Wilson Picket's band, on trumpet. They released only two 45s before Carleen high tailed it to Germany, leaving Clary to pick up another drummer and change the name of the band. But those two 45s are whoppers. I've posted these before but it was six years ago, so they're buried back in there someplace. Regardless, you probably haven't heard them, I'm lazy tonight, and that adds up to a cheater post.

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Carleen & the Groovers - Can We Rap mp3 at Now Again Records
Carleen & the Groovers - The Thing mp3 at Now Again Records
Carleen & the Groovers - Right On mp3 at Now Again Records
Carleen & the Groovers - Hot Pants mp3 at Now Again Records
A little more:
Carleen & the Groovers at Wikipedia
Patronize:
Now Again Records

GIVE IT UP

There's a certain kind of fiend that likes punk rock, hip hop, reggae, jazz, rock, funk, soul all sorts of other music. Stuff that is disparate but somehow goes well together. These people I consider my musical friends. They're the type of people I like to listen to records with. They could be in a shitty band, but we could still share something. So, irregardless of their music, I've always had a soft spot for the Beastie Boys. They're that type of fiend. The fact that I like much of their recorded work is just icing on the like minded cake. If you haven't listened to much of their stuff, you might think that they were dependent on samples and shouting bratty rhymes. Yee gads, is that a generalization. Here's three from their all instrumental LP The Mix Up. Between the three you'll hear all sorts of stuff seeping in. Booker T, Krautrock, and the J.B.s in just one of the songs. Damn, I miss the Beastie Boys. They always seemed to keep things interesting.

 

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Listen:
Beastie Boys - B Is For My Name mp3 at Roots and Culture
Beastie Boys - 14th St. Break mp3 at Roots and Culture
Beastie Boys - The Melee mp3 at Roots and Culture

CHUGGIN' TO THE OLDIES

Ray Charles in 1954. There isn't much cooler than that. Check this one, "Greenbacks". It's from a great post, A Brief History of American Roots Music, over at Rubber City Review. Twenty or so songs with brief descriptions, starting with old blues, chronologically through the Cramps and beyond. Sonics, J.B., Muddy Waters, a little bit of everything, all good. I just happened to dig this one.

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Listen:
Ray Charles - Greenbacks mp3 at Rubber City Review
Visit:
A Brief History of American Roots Music at Rubber City Review 21 more songs and blurbs aplenty

IT'S WHAT THE HELL NIGHT

I'd seen Robert Mitchum in movies and always kind of thought of him as sufficiently baddass. That vague impression was fortified when I saw the rather infamous photo of him at Cannes in the fifties, with some topless babe hanging on him. "Man, dude must have been something else." That's what I though when I first saw it. Then a few years ago, I ran across the album cover above somewhere online. The title, "Calypso - is like so..." was corny, but he still had that sort of bachelor man of the world look.

Last night I finally heard a couple cuts for the first time. While the songs are good and the music is good, his vocals on these border on complete crap. Far wimpier than you would imagine. But no matter which Mitchum is the real Mitchum, either way it makes his acting skills all the more impressive. Whatever.

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Listen:
Robert Mitchum - I Learn a Merenge Mama mp3 at Now Hear This
Robert Mitchum - They Dance All Night mp3 at Now Hear This

TO MA'AM, WITH LOVE

I've got no idea how the recent generation of scrappers view Patti Smith, or if they even know who she is. They should. When she first appeared, or at least when most people outside of New York became cognizant of her, she was an indication the things were about to change. It was 1976, and the Ramones already had an album out, but outside of that there wasn't really much that was different from the arena rock that dominated the first half of the seventies, much less punk rock; nothing widely available anyway. So her first LP, Horses, was a welcome change. She already had one 45 out, "Hey Joe" b/w "Piss Factory" released in 1974, but it was on the independent Mer Records, and few people had access to it, or had even heard of it.

Consider this, the A side her first major label 45, "Gloria" was produced by John Cale. The flip, a live cover of "My Generation", had Cale on bass, doing a respectable job of reinterpreting John Entwistle's bass clusterfuck from the Who's original, Smith adding some guitar noise with a Fender Duo Sonic, allegedly once owned by Jimi Hendrix, and was produced by Allen Lanier from Blue Öyster Cult. Those are some pretty impressive factoids for a major label debut. In 1976, if you were bored with all of the rock star shit, Patti Smith instantly became your cool older sister. You can bet there are plenty of people who still think of her as that. I know I do.

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Listen:
Patti Smith - Gloria mp3 at Synthesis Radio (?) 1976
Patti Smith - My Generation (live) mp3 at Ohio.edu (?) 1976
Patti Smith - Hey Joe mp3 at Rose Burlingham (?) 1974
Patti Smith - Piss Factory mp3 at Now Hear This (?) 1974, Tom Verlaine on guitar
Video:
Patti Smith Group - Horses/Hey Joe at YouTube 1976 Old Grey Whistle Test
Visit:
Patti Reads. Patti Sings - Old post with a bunch of good stuff

REGIONAL RULES

I'm not messing around. I've been meaning to hep you to Excavation. It's like some black hole of Dallas soul. Seriously, page after page of regional 45s and LPs, with a high percentage righteously tight. Here's just a couple. The first one, "El Segundo" by the Jives just slays me. It's this fluid funky groove that's kind of hard to place. The asshole description would be the Archie Bell and the Drells' back up band meets Fela, with a bass solo that borders on dub-lite. Whatever, it's very cool. The other song is a completely random selection to give you an idea of what the fruits of random clicking can be. You will get sucked in.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Jives - El Segundo mp3 at Excavation
Alvin Hemphill - The Jug mp3 at Excavation
Visit:
Excavation

ERIK'S TRIP

So a buddy of mine busts in last night, messaging me an audio file over at YouTube. "Ever Lovin' Man", by the Loved Ones. The singer's vocals are all over the place, comically so, at one moment, sounding like Eric Burdon on Quaaludes, the next Janis Joplin. I went to look for a regular audio file, for a WTF type mix, and ran across the Dirtbombs' song that shares the name. The name is all it shares. Their "Ever Lovin' Man" is a real racket. It made me forget about the Loved Ones, and go listen to some more Dirtbombs. The softy side of me did stop for a second and think about the buddy of mine who laid the Loved Ones thing on me, Erik, and if he were here, we'd probably be off on another tangent in no time. I love Erik like a brother, which means I'm very tempted to talk shit about him. Must. Stop. Now.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Loved Ones - Ever Lovin' Man (streaming) at YouTube
The Dirtbombs - Ever Lovin' Man mp3 at Switchblade Comb
The Dirtbombs - Chains of Love mp3 at Indie Rock Cafe
The Dirtbombs - Cosmic Cars mp3 at KEXP

THE LONG GOODBYE

As is the case when someone dies, the tribute posts dribble out intermittently, and it's usually the ones several days after the dust begins to settle that contain the deeper cuts. The B Side just posted an older B.B. King cut and Diddy Wah posted three, in addition to one he posted in mid-April, All five are worth a listen. "The Hully Gully Twist" is the one I'm digging. Not at all a twist song, nor is there anything hully gully-ish about it. Just a swinging guitar instrumental with some beautiful surface noise. Damn, I love old beat up records.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
B.B. King - The Hully Gully Twist mp3 at Diddy Wah
B.B. King - Three more songs at Diddy Wah Go there to get them.
B.B. King - I Can't Lose mp3 at The B Side Go there to get it.