SKETCHES OF BOOM BOOM (SLIGHT RETURN)

If you know the film The Hot Spot, you know it's not the greatest. But you likely also know the soundtrack, featuring collaborations with Miles Davis and John Lee Hooker. The shared material is worth hearing for two reasons. One is that you can clearly hear both, and the other is that combination works. Augmented by Taj Mahal on dobro, Roy Rodgers on slide and Earl Palmer on drums, it's a total supergroup of non-rock musicians. Credit producer Jack Nitsche for corralling these epic talents. He's no stranger to that sort of thing (ala Mick Jagger and Ry Cooder's "Memo From Turner" from the soundtrack of Performance).  

The "Ending Credits" cut has been posted here before, but I just ran across the the whole soundtrack, streaming at YouTube. Just let it rip, crank it up and go about your business. (There's YouTube to mp3 converters available online should you be particularly fiendish).

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Listen:
Miles Davis & John Lee Hooker - Ending Credits mp3 at When You Awake From The Hot Spot OST
Mick Jagger with Ry Cooder - Memo From Turner mp3 at ATumblr (?) From Performance OST
The soundtrack
The Hot Spot Original Soundtrack - Composed by Jack Nitsche (streaming) at YouTube
Video:
The Hot Spot Main Title Sequence at YouTube

COOL PHOTO, COOL SONG

My apologies to anyone who knows Charlie Musselwhite's "Cha Cha the Blues". I know I've posted it before, but while browsing at Ace Records, I ran into that photo above of Charlie Musselwhite's South Side Band and had to post it.  You know it's coming, the cool photo cop out. But look at it. It's cool. Dig on the full size here, and dig on "Cha Cha the Blues", a compact instrumental that still packs in three solos; Musselwhite's on harp, Barry Goldberg's on organ, and Harvey Mandel's on guitar. All three are insanely good, dirty without a note out of place. The production ist raw. Check the sound on Musselwhite's harp and that sinister sounding organ, and, fuck, Mandel's guitar tone, not to mention his whammy bar thing at the very end of his solo. This song is, quite frankly, the shit.

The song and another, along with a zip for the whole LP, are at Groove Addict. Yeah, them again. So what, cool photo.

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Listen:
Charlie Musslewhite - Cha Cha the Blues mp3 at Groove Addict With Harvey Mandel and Barry Goldberg. Instrumental

Charlie Musslewhite - My Baby mp3 at Groove Addict Go there to get it.
The whole LP:
Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's South Side Band at Groove Addict 1967. NOTE: Pop-ups a-plenty when downloading zip. I gave up.

WOOD PANELING IS COMING BACK

You can feel a little dubious about the marquee looks of Kitty, Daisy and Lewis. You can listen to their music and come away thinking that it's interesting, but maybe not your bag. You can ponder whether or not they're hard core enough, in whatever genre they're playing at any given moment. But one thing trumps their actually playing abilities. The Carpenters factor. They're family, two sisters and a brother. How cool would that be? Being in a band with your siblings? Even if you sucked, which these guys don't. You just have to shelve that purist attitude for a few minutes.

Someone's been watching David Lynch movies

All three are multi-instrumentalists. Kitty Durham plays drums, harmonica, ukulele, banjo, trombone and guitar, and sings. Daisy sings and plays drums, piano, accordion and xylophone. Lewis plays guitar, piano, banjo, lap steel and drums, and he sings too. And he collects 78s, and built a home studio, all analog. He's also cut their vinyl at a mastering studio owned by their dad, Graeme Durham, who also backs them when they play live. Even mom, Ingrid Weiss, gets into the act, playing bass at live dates. She's a former member of the Raincoats. Rico Rodriquez has played with them, and Mick Jones has produced them. Fuck, all that and style? I give up.

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Listen:
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis-Turkish Delight mp3 at Soul Donuts
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis-Polly Put the Kettle On mp3 at Casa y Media
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis-Say You'll Be Mine mp3 at Internet Archive
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis-Baby Hold Me Tight mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis- Goin' Up the Country mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis - Developer's Disease (streaming) at YouTube
Video:
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis- Goin' Up the Country at YouTube
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis- Live, in KEXP studio at YouTube With interview, 26 minutes
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis- Live, in Berlin at YouTube Full set, 55 minutes

NEVER ENTIRELY CONVINCED

In a matter of full disclosure I will admit to having liked Blondie. Their debut LP had just come out and they opened for the Ramones at the Whiskey, It was my first punk related show. While the Ramones definitely had the advantage music-wise, style points were won by the undercard. Blondie as a band never looked sharper. Gary Valentine had not left the band and the world was still safe from Nigel Harrison's Jheri curls. Clem Burke was still in his psuedo mod phase, Jimmy Destri and Chris Stein were both in skinny ties (before they became de rigueur for lame new wave bands). I don't remember what Debbie Harry was wearing. Really. Unlike many guys my age, I never really thought of her as all that hot. But I liked the style of the first LP era Blondie. That lasted about one album.

Long story short, they deviated. Still, I have a special place in my heart for the band, particularly Stein, Harry, and Burke. Burke because he;s a great drummer, and he's added a bit of legitimacy to just about every band he's been in since, and there have been many. He is also the main subject in what is known as, I shit you not, The Clem Burke Drumming Project. It's not a joke. It is described thusly,  "Physiological tests included the measurement of heart rate, oxygen uptake and blood lactate in rehearsal tests and monitoring heart rate and blood lactate during live stage performances." Alright then.

I like Chris Stein and Debbie Harrry less for their musical contributions than their taste in stuff other than their own. I don't even remember specifics, but there were associations with Jungle Records, the Gun Club, the Screamers, and Tav Falco. And Joan Jett, Andy Warhol, Iggy Pop, and James Chance. Wait. James Chance? What the hell?

Because I appreciated them, but am not crazy about them as a band and haven't really listened to much of their stuff in years, not to mention my ambivalence towards Harry's supposed hotness, or lack thereof, I feel qualified to say that her voice pretty much sucks. But it always sounds like Debbie Harry, so there's that. Here's two oddballs to illustrate my point. The video above, Harry covering James Brown's "I Feel Good", backed by James White and the Blacks. Who knew? Below is her with some Argentinian ska band, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. Really. Doing "Strawberry Fields Forever". Gulp. Both of these, like most Blondie related things, probably looked good on paper. But, that's why I like them. It seems like relaxed scheming, kinda half-assed in execution. I can relate.

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Listen:

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs  with Debbie Harry - Strawberry Fields Forever mp3 at ATumblr (?)

THE ULTIMATE FUCK IT LET'S PARTY SONG

Hey, today was Peggy Lee's birthday. I know that because the jazz station mentioned it, then played her "Is That All There Is?" I love that song, total punk rock. It might be a completely different type of music, but listen to the lyrics. Fuck it, break out the booze, have a ball.

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Listen:
Peggy Lee - Is That All There Is? mp3 at Little Manatee Springs
Peggy Lee - Black Coffee mp3 at Robert Barone (?)
Peggy Lee - Fever mp3 at Augasm

IT'S A MAN'S MAN'S MAN'S DEPOT

What the hell, eight versions, or in Ice Cube's case variation, of James Brown's "It's A Man's Man's Man's World", including the original. Here's just a couple. Some are better than others. I'm digging on Sekouba Bambino's version. The Resident's take is kind of creepy, Grand Funk's is surprisingly not awful, and Ice Cube's is as catchy as it is explicit. A little fucked up though, that one.

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Listen:
Sekouba Bambino - It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World mp3 at Soul Donuts
James Brown - It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World mp3 at Soul Donuts
Six more versions of It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World at Soul Donuts
Misc:
Large full version of JB's mugshot here

NICE DUDS GUYS

When you think about South African nusic, you don't usually think of pop music, or rock 'n' roll, made by whites. Shit, I can hear that at home. But, when I run across it, I have to check it out, if only to try to get inside their heads. Are they thinking that they're so good the world will notice? When the world is doing their damnedest to ignore the whole region, then still in the thick of apartheid. Or did they set more humble goals like "let's just be the best Beatles rip-off in all of South Africa"?  Still can't figure that out. 

Hear the Flames do their best Beatles-Stones-Spector all in one song. Birds of a Feather sound like they've been listening to the Kinks and Davie Allan. John E, Sharpe is just peeking in the garage.

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Listen:
The Flames - If You Think You're Groovy mp3 at Soul Safari
Birds of a Feather - Come On Up mp3 at Soul Safari
John E, Sharpe and the Squires The Flames - Yours For Picking mp3 at Soul Safari
The Flames - Don't Worry Bill (streaming) at YouTube

KENNY KAN'T SPELL

Looking for something by Kenny and the Kasuals, I ran across an old post at WFMU's Beware of the Blog, Songs the Woggles Taught Us, in other words, songs that the Woggles covered. These Woggle characters had some kinda taste. Nearly every one of the songs is top shelf killer. They range from Top 40, to deeper cuts from familiar artists, to the totally obscure, That WFMU's Debbie D. (now at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban) was able to track all of these down is an achievement in itself. Here's just a couple. There's over fifty. Yeah. GTFO, baby.

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Listen:
Kenny And The Kasuals - Journey To Tyme mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Pretty Things - Buzz The Jerk mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Jay Jays  - Shake It Some More mp3 at Beware of the Blog

EVERYBODY FARTS

Bo Diddley is not beyond reproach, but I'm sure not going to slag him. Even his oddball, misguided, not the Bo we know stuff is, at the very least, interesting, sometimes comically so. Here's a couple from about five years apart, mid-sixties to 1970, "I Don't Like You" slays me. Not in a classic Bo Diddly way, but in a Bo Diddley just throwing spaghetti at the wall way.

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Listen:
Bo Diddley - I Don't Like You mp3 at Groove Addict
Bo Diddley - Ooh Baby mp3 at Groove Addict

AND SHE PLAYS TAMBOURINE WITH HER FOOT

I can't exactly figure out why, but I have a soft spot for Jessie Mae Hemphill that surpasses anything music related. Just her vibe. It might help that the first I heard time I her was on a Highwater Records 45, and I bought it because of the sleeve. Black and white, unremarkable, but with a photo that said "This is going to be good, weird, or both." Whatever it was, it wouldn't be run of the mill. It wasn't. Jessie Mae Hemphill was in.

Hemphill is an excellent guitarist, with a restrained singing style. Think Slim Harpo. But the hook was the tambourine. On some songs it's relentless. I dig it. These songs have appeared here before, I know. But this is for those who aren't familiar with Jessie Mae Hemphill, or maybe weren't in the mood the first time. I don't want to see people walk around like that.

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Listen:
Jessie Mae Hemphill - Standing In My Doorway Crying mp3 at Ghetto Session
Jessie Mae Hemphill - Honey Bee mp3 at Subverse
Jessie Mae Hemphill - Crawdad Hole mp3 at Tiny Cat Pants
Video:
Jessie Mae Hemphill - Train, Train at YouTube  So cool.
Visit:
Jessie Mae Hemphill at Wikipedia

THE FIRST TWO MINUTES OF THE DEBUT RECORD

Let's play pretend. Pretend you're in a record store, you see a 45, looks like any other crudely done DIY thing. It's 1980 after all. What the hell, this looks as good as any. The debut record by a band you'd never heard of. You bite, you bring it it home, you blast the first few notes of it, and you know right then.

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Listen:
Girls at Our Best - Getting Nowhere Fast mp3 at Art Decade
Visit:
Girls at Our Best Fan site
Girls at Our Best at Wikipedia

YOU GUYS ARE ALL OVER THE PLACE TONIGHT

You gotta like Augie Garcia. Well, your criteria might be different, but I gotta like Augie Garcia. For starters, early in his career he decided his professional attire would include shorts. Year round.  In Minnesota. What a nut. The even better factoid is that he once opened for Elvis, and following his performance, after playing only two songs, he and his family all left before Elvis played.

Sometime referred to as the godfather of Minnesota rock 'n' roll, it would be hard to argue. He was right there on the cusp, when rhythm and blues begat rock 'n' roll. Wailing, honkin', skin bashing, meat and potatoes rock 'n' roll. Wearing shorts and splittin' the scene.

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Listen:
Augie Garcia - Hi Yo Silver mp3 at Rocky 52
Augie Garcia - Going to Chicago mp3 at Rocky 52
Augie Garcia - Ivy League Baby mp3 at Rocky 52
Augie Garcia - Let the Good Times Roll mp3 at Rocky 52
Augie Garcia - I'm All Through With You (streaming) at YouTube

Visit:

Augie Garcia at Twin Cities Music Highlights

CRAM SESSION NIGHT

Oh jeez, here we go again. Another random click turned into a another rabbit hole. No big suprise there. What was surprising is that it lead to a subculture in Australia that I'd never known about. It started at an old post at Rising Storm with a couple cuts by Coloured Balls, an Australian band that was apparently a favorite of the sharpies. Who or what are the sharpies? We'll get to that in a second. First, about the band. The first song I heard was "Won't You Make Up Your Mind", a rapid and raw minute and a half of punk rock. Except it wasn't, not then anyway. Check it out and consider the vintage, 1973. Punk rock of the late seventies was still a good three years away, but these guys were ripping. They looked like some weird hybrid of mods, skinheads and Slade, and they were getting the sharpies all riled up. Interesting enough to go digging.

The photo above is one of about three or four posed shots that I was able to find. That it was about the best tells you just how slim the pickins were. I kept looking, and all Coloured Balls leads ended up going to mentions on pages about sharpies. The sharpies also looked like some weird hybrid of mods, skinhead and Slade. And they had a funny dance (see sharpies dance here). As I am just now learning about the sharpies, I'm not going to bullshit you like I know what I'm talking about. Rather, I'll just direct you to the links I ran into and let you figure it out.

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Listen:
Coloured Balls - Won't You Make Up Your Mind mp3 at Rising Storm
Coloured Balls - Heavy Metal Kids (streaming) at YouTube
Coloured Balls - Won't You Make Up Your Mind mp3 at Rising Storm Go there to get it
The Full LP
Coloured Balls - Ball Power (streaming) at YouTube 1973
Video:
Coloured Balls - The Devil's Disciple at YouTube
Coloured Balls - Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On at YouTube
Melbourne Sharpies at YouTube The dance at 2:25
Visit:
Sharpies at Perfect Sound Forever
Skins 'n' Sharps
Sharpies at Wikipedia
How a Teenage Sharpie Girl found Rock ‘n’ Roll Salvation in the Church of the Coloured Balls at Shoot Farken

COOL PHOTO BUG OUT

A wicked cool photo of John Lee Hooker and all twelve tracks of his 1959 LP I'm John Lee Hooker. Why mess that up with a bunch of jabbering?

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Listen:
John Lee Hooker - Hobo Blues mp3 at Internet Archive
John Lee Hooker - Crawling King Snake mp3 at Internet Archive
The LP:
John Lee Hooker - I'm John Lee Hooker at Internet Archive Note: Click on VBR MP3 for the whole shooting match.
Extra:
Larger version of above photo

EVEN HIS ALL TIME WORST WOULD BE GOOD

Everyone who has favorite musicians has favorite songs by those favorite musicians. When people post their "all time" sort of list, you usually assume that they have heard more of the particular artist than you have, or at least enough to present a case. Whatever, it's all subjective, and even if they're not your particular favorites, they're usually good and may include songs you haven't heard or songs you may want to reconsider. Among the old posts at Soul Donuts is an "All Time Top Five" of John Coltrane. Who am I to argue?

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Listen:
John Coltrane - Acknowledgement mp3 at Get The Curse (?)
John Coltrane - Resolution mp3 at The Gio (?)
All Time Top 5 - Coltrane in the Cold Rain at Soul Donuts

THOSE OLDIES BUT GOODIES REMIND ME OF YOU

The 1989 debut LP. You're three songs in and getting a feeling about what this band is all about. It's make or break. The fourth song, if it sucks, could leave a permanent impression, at the very least being that the band is all too eager to bring things down a notch. If the fourth song is good, it might just lead to a band that stays in your peripheral aural orbit for years to come. The first two songs below were the fourth songs on the debut LPs by Nirvana and Mudhoney. They got played a fuckload back then.

1989 was a good year for music in general. All the crappy new wave was dying down. College radio was happening, and home taping. Probably the most significant thing, and one that is often ignored, is the mix tape culture. It was exploding. Everybody could make a compilation. That had been the case for years, but never with the combination of the varied playlists of college radio, the independent labels, boom boxes and the ease of recording. Who didn't make mix tapes?

Public Enemy is down there just because 1989 was also the year of "Fight the Power" and it's an awesome song, and belies the thing about varied playlists. It's also a segue to what got me distracted tonight, an old post at Adios Lounge featuring thirteen songs from 1989, with Flat Duo Jets, Fugazi, Beasties, you get the idea.

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Listen:
Nirvana - School mp3 at Adios Lounge
Mudhoney - You Got It mp3 at Adios Lounge
Public Enemy - Fight the Power mp3 at Adios Lounge
Ten more from '89 at Adios Lounge

IT'S GETTING TANGLED IN HERE

Here we go again. A check of the latest over at Groove Addict netted a Jamo Thomas song I hadn't heard, which isn't surprising because I've only heard a handful of his songs, notably "(I Spy For the) FBI", That one was covered by the Untouchables back in the eighties or nineties, I forget exactly when. All that later psuedo-ska stuff, second or third wave, whatever it is, is a blur to me, with few exceptions. One exception is the Untouchables' "Mandingo", not as much for the song itself (which is above average for a later ska band), but the lyrics. In short, Mandingo is like the badass of the century. Neat.

So, the Jamo Thomas song just posted was "Must I Holler", a release on Chess. He was on all sorts of labels, Chess being just one of them. Most were lesser known labels, at least one of them a Mom and Pop type operation. Here's the topper. Right after the Jamo Thomas post, Groove Addict posted Luther Ingram and the G-Men's version of "(I Spy For the) FBI". Yeesh. Further digging elsewhere popped up an early cut by the Party Brothers that was produced by Jamo Thomas, who may or may not be the singer on the track. You see where this is going. All over the damn place. Solo from here.

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Listen:
Jamo Thomas - Must I Holler mp3 at Groove Addict
The Untouchables - Mandingo (streaming) at YouTube
Luther Ingram and the G-Men - (I Spy For the) FBI at Groove Addict Go there to get it.
The Party Brothers - Let Me Be the One mp3 at Sir Shamblings Note A few audible beeps are heard to discourage reproduction.
Video:
Jamo Thomas - (I Spy For the) FBI at YouTube
The Untouchables - (I Spy For the) FBI at YouTube

OR ELSE WHAT?

As if you need another good reason to dig around in old links, here's three, all found at Rising Storm. The updates over there have been slow in coming, but there's so much good stuff in the old posts, you won't get to all of it for a while anyway. There are two old posts there, from three years ago, both featuring Bay Area bands from the sixties, neither band having had any records out back when they existed, and both having unreleased recordings in the can when they split up. And both could be thought of as some sort of psyche, maybe not. That term gets thrown around a lot. Which brings up a personal grudge. Back when Public Nuisance had their first posthumous release a few years ago, Mojo magazine referred to them as something like the unheard San Jose version of the Stooges. I forget what else they said, but they laid it on thick. Enough so that I went out and bought it, without hearing them. And without seeing that image above. That alone would tell me that they weren't any sort of any version of the Stooges, They look more like the Monkees. That's not to say that they aren't good. They're excellent. But when you're expecting Stooges...

I's not sure what to think of Crystal Ship, so I won't bother much with them. There is a tweaked guitar solo with weird chord changes in "In Your Mind", but those vocals don't do much for me, nor do the lyrics. But the consolation for you: Los Macs, an unrelated band on another post. Oh yeah, now we're getting a little wacked. Mojo would call their "El Amor Despues de Los Veinte Ano" the Chilean Revolver or Sgt. Peppers. Whatever, no matter how derivative, it sounds good. And when was the last time you heard psych from Chile? What? This morning? Aw, go to hell.

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Listen:
Public Nuisance - Magical Music Box mp3 at Rising Storm Plus one more
Crystal Ship - In My Mind  mp3 at Rising Storm Plus one more
Los Macs - El Amor Despues de Los Veinte Ano mp3 at Rising Storm Plus one more

WHO AM I TO ARGUE?

Just look at that would you? Does it get better? The one-two punch package/product combo. Fucking amazing. That's the kind of mood I'm in right now. I got on a Miles tack tonight, that started with listening to eden ahbez's stuff on YouTube. Trippy dude there. That lead to Miles Davis's version of "Nature Boy" (which is, as one would expect, awesome). Then I remembered that Rubber City Review recently had a post with the host's favorite ten Miles Davis songs with the reasons why and the stories behind them.

That's not even the best part. The guy is a fiend, and he describes his path to fiendom and really lets you know exactly where he's coming from. Way more studied than me, or you for that matter. He's the record shop guy, 2016. He just posted snippets of the songs, but they're all roughly three minutes long, where some of the songs are over ten minutes long in their entirety. But there's ten of them and a lot of info, laid out by someone who knows more about Miles Davis than you or I. Maybe not you. Let me know when you post your top ten.

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Listen:
Eden Ahbez - Full Moon (streaming) at YouTube Like, dig, man.
Miles Davis - Nature boy (streaming) at YouTube
The guy's list:
10 by Miles Davis at Rubber City Review

COLE THE GATEWAY

Today is Mothers Day in the U.S., a day we thank our Moms for all of their sacrifices and love and what not, with varying degrees of heartfelt mushiness. My Mom passed away several years ago, and I miss being able to pick up the phone, call her, and then hang up knowing that everything is all right. No matter how old I was, when I was sick, I'd call her to get advice. It wasn't always the correct advice, but coming from her, it always made me feel better. Just a year or so before she passed away, she did what she had never done before. She turned me on to a song. It was "Nature Boy" by Nat King Cole. The song was written by eden ahbez, whose name I won't capitalize because he didn't. ahbez was a hippie before there was such a thing. Long hair, beard, vegetarian diet, nature loving, the works. He walked across the country something like eight times, and hardly ever had a fixed address. And this was in the forties.

ahbez, bottom center, and friends. Band rider: watermelon

In 1947 ahbez went to Hollywood to pitch the song to Nat King Cole, handing the words and music through a stage door to be passed on to him. His sister-in-law in a 1977 L.A. Times article said he picked Cole because he liked the gentleness of his voice. It's an interesting story, about the song and ahbez, and there's a a couple links below for those inclined. The reason why I picked this song today is because it makes me think of my Mom every time I hear it. I wrote about the first time I saw her listen to it in an earlier post, and one of the things that struck me is how she seemed taken to another place when she was listening to it. With this faraway look, she sang along to it. Fast forward to about a year ago. I was in the alley, taking something out of the garage when a old codger is walking by. It was cloudy and a little chilly out.  I muttered something like "Nice day, huh?" and he answered "I'm all bundled up, and look at you, a barefoot nature boy." Then I asked if he knew the song, and he paused, and with that same faraway look that my Mom had had, started singing the song, right there in the middle of the alley.

"This is how we play it back in the hut." abhez and Sinatra, 1948

The song really does have that effect. It's not of this world any more today than it was when it was written, in 1947. There's something about it, and once you hear it, you might find yourself taken enough to pause, particularly if you hear it by chance. Here's a few versions. Some have been posted before, my favorite being Etta Jones's. Bowie did a pretty dynamic version that I had not heard until recently, and there's a link below to a version by the Real Group. I don't know who they are, and I'm not usually down with accapella anything, but they do an extraordinary version.

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Listen:
Nat King Cole - Nature Boy mp3 at Los Sueños de la Razón (?)
David Bowie - Nature Boy mp3 at Moulin 1 (?)
Etta Jones - Nature Boy mp3 at Office Naps
Two other versions of Nature Boy mp3 at Office Naps
eden ahbez - Topago mp3 at Office Naps
Video:
The Real Group - Nature Boy at YouTube
Visit
eden ahbez and Nature Boy at Songbook
eden abhez at Wikipedia

MOONLIGHTING

Marcia Griffiths is generally thought of as a reggae singer, and she is, but she's done her fair share of stuff with little or no reggae influence at all, some of it really awesome. One such side is her cover of Al Green's "Here I Am", one that would make Isaac Hayes proud, if it was three times longer. As it is, at four minutes, there is ample time to get in a groove. The laid back wah-wah is a nice touch.

Check the others too, in her more recognized role. She's so smooth. I'm really digging that last one, a later thing with Lady G, whom I suppose I should know, but most post-eighties reggae is a blur to me anyway.

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Listen:
Marcia Griffiths - Here I Am mp3 at Foe Weel
Al Green - Here I Am mp3 at  Joe Troiano
Bob and Marcia - Young, Gifted and Black mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Marcia Griffiths - Feel Like Jumping mp3 at Pixie Radio
Marcia Griffiths - Let Me Hold You Tight mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Marcia Griffiths & Lady G. - Really Together Riddim - Buzzin Bashment mp3 at Dancehall Music Title as found.

EPIC POST (ELSEWHERE)

I just landed on Soul Donuts for the first time a few days ago, and I've gone back a half dozen times since. It started with a hunt for Fela stuff. Now I'm just fuckin' lost. There's so much, it's overwhelming. Here's just a handful, from a Best of 2015 post. There's over thirty songs and about two dozen videos in all. And that's just one post.

The songs are varied in style and after sampling about half of them. two things seem evident. One is the real or imagined influence of the Daptone mob. There's more than a few sound-alikes. The other thing evident is that smooth seventies type soul is back, in a big way. Though it lacks the grit and grunts of the more ass shaking variety, it grows on you. I'm not a softy, but take it from me, Isaac Hayes and Marvin Gaye are gateways.

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Listen:
Soul Surfers - Astra mp3 at Soul Donuts
Soul Motivators - Street Level mp3 at Soul Donuts
Soul Investigators - Vultures Prayer mp3 at Soul Donuts
The Mighty Mocambos - B Boys Suite in b Flat Minor mp3 at Soul Donuts
Monophonics - Promises mp3 at Soul Donuts
Visit:
Soul Donuts

JAM BAND? YEAH, SURE. WHERE DO WE SET UP?

A thirty six minute version of "Sister Ray", live, excellent quality, 1969. The photo above is earlier, but it's a cool photo. One blonde reason why. Sue me. Anyway, if you dig "Sister Ray" at it's most Sister Ray-ish, you'll like this version. Some of you might hate it. Again, sue me.

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Listen:

Velvet Underground - Sister Ray mp3 (Live, 1969) (via Box.net) at Across the Kitchen Table  Once at Box.net, click on the blue "Download (*84.5 MB)" in the top right. That's right, 84.5 MB. Quite the commitment. You can always click the streaming doohickey and listen to it while you work on your spreadsheets.

KARA KEEPS IT LIT

She's still at it folks. Kara, the young guitarist mentioned back in December then doing Freddie King covers, is back again on her guitar teacher's YouTube channel, tackling Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign". King's original happens to be a favorite of mine, after one spin back in the day making Cream's cover completely irrelevant. Back then, you'd be hard pressed to find a young guitarist drawing from King's version, which makes Kara's go at it all the more endearing. It's 2016, for crying out loud. Most of her friends are probably already obsessed with their phones.

Kara is something like ten years old. I'd have to go back and look at her earlier videos, but I think she's been taking lessons for roughly three years. That's practically a third of her life. Think about what the distractions must be like for a kid that age growing up today. Sticking with any interest for three years is a major achievement, and interest that few of your friends share? How can you not be a fan?

My hat's off to Kara, her guitar teacher, Michael Stevens, her dad Beau, who is also taking lessons, and her entire family, for being supportive and instilling a love for music that, thanks to young musicians like Kara, will carry on at least one more generation.

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Listen:
Albert King - Born Under a Bad Sign mp3 at Feel Good Playlists
Cream - Born Under a Bad Sign mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Albert King - Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven mp3 at Passion of the Weiss
Albert King - Crosscut Saw mp3 at  Madison AMPS
Video:
Kara and her Dad - Unchained Melody at YouTube Three years ago, just getting wheels. Amazing progress, no? Watch it until the end. If it doesn't produce a smile, you've no heart.
More of Stevens's student videos at You Tube and some of the teach himself

THIS GUY

Fela, again, four tunes I hadn't heard. This is not one of my "what the hell, get in and get out" posts. This is one of those "because Fela on his worst day is better than, you know, that crap you listened to earlier today" posts. Dig it.

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Listen:
Fela Kuti - Mistake mp3 at Soul Doughnuts
Fela Kuti and Roy Ayers - 2000 Blacks Got To Be Free mp3 at Soul Doughnuts
Fela Kuti - Two more cuts, both early at Soul Doughnuts
For the locker:
High resolution version of above photo
More:
Older Fela posts Scroll down this page

I CAN HEAR IT NOW, "HEATHEN!!"

To any of you who have heard the Flamin' Groovies and don't know what the fuss is about, you're thinking about it too much. If you are one of them, you've no doubt read some things that praise them, unashamedly gushing. People that write that stuff are likely thinking about it too much as well. But take it from an original doubter, they'll grow on you.

As for any descriptions of them as the American version of the Stones, check "Slow Death". Although it's an adequate production job by Dave Edmunds, imagine that in the hands of Jimmy Miller. In that era too, 1972, Miller had just produced "Exile On Main St." Then again, a viewing of the Groovies in '72 doing "Roll Over Beethoven" isn't exactly fortifying my case. And therein lies the Groovies downfall. Quality control. Some really really good stuff sprinkled throughout, but not without its accompanying bar band dreck. There, I've said it.
 

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Listen
Flamin' Groovies - Slow Death mp3 at Bedazzled If the song link doesn't work, go there and right click
Flamin' Groovies - Headed For the Texas Border mp3 at Music Like Dirt
Flamin' Groovies - Three more 45 sides at Bedazzled
The Counterpoint:
Flamin' Groovies - Roll Over Beethoven at YouTube Damning

MUST ONE GUZZLE TO BE A SURFER?

That photo above provided tonight's distraction. It's Eddie Bertrand, of Eddie and the Showmen, a Southern California surf band. He's at a party at Richard Delvy's house. Delvy was the drummer for the Challengers, another surf band. I think the girl in the photo is Kathy Marshall, the so-called "Queen of the Surf Guitar". Though there are supposedly a couple of known recordings of Marshall, nothing has ever been released so we'll never know. But who's to argue? I mean, how many girl surf guitarists were there? And she did play live, with the Showmen backing her.

Greg Noll shows how it's done. Late fifties.

 

I wasn't able to find anything by Eddie and the Showmen either, other than stuff on YouTube. So, as consolation, there's a link to a bunch of surf obscuros. There may be a handful of bands that you recognize, but there's a whole lot of no hit wonders. It's been posted before, but how many of you have heard them all anyway? There's somewhere between forty and fifty of them (a few links are dead). Some are so-so, but some are seriously tweaked. Shit, the song titles and band names alone are worth a look.

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Listen:
Eddie and the Showmen - Squad Car (streaming) at YouTube
The Challengers - Surf Beat (Full LP streaming) at YouTube
The big bag:
A Surfer's Mood - Compiled by Phillip Cohen at Big O Dozens of individual obscure surf mp3s.
Visit:
Kathy Marshall at Real Live Sound