DIDDY WAH, SELECTOR

You know that move I've been ragging about? It's unofficially done. Unofficially, because I've moved out, and I've moved in, but I have a good deal of shit in storage to go through. A lot of it will probably get dumped. A lot of magazines kept for that one article that, as it turns out, I didn't need to read again. A lot of stuff saved because the internet didn't exist. If you're too young to know pre-internet rock 'n' roll fiending, let me tell you. Fact checking and finding back stories was manual labor. Try schlepping yourself  to the main library, looking in a periodical index, in print, going to the periodical counter, requesting the magazine, and then waiting for it to be retrieved. All of that, before you've read a word. We had to learn about it out on the street

So, anyway, here's two killer cuts, both posted in March 2014 at Diddy Wah, as was yesterdays Watts Little Angel Band thing. All three slay me in different ways, "Arabian Blues" just fully hits something. Don't know exactly what it is, but it makes me feel kinda weird, good weird. Man, that Diddy Wah. Dude's been banging on all cylinders for years.

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Listen: 
Frankie Lee Sims – Walking With Frankie mp3 at Diddy Wah
Jimmy Beck – Arabian Blues mp3 at Diddy Wah
Diddy Wah mixes (streaming) at Diddy Wah

KIDS BANGING ON SHIT

Okay, this one starts as just a faint racket, when the kid starts singing, it sounds like an under gunned Jackson Five with a clanky band. A second or two later you realize what the Watts Little Angel Band is all about. These kids play funky ass rhythms on junk, trashcans and the like, the most conventional a cowbell. Even that is funky, if you can believe it.

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Listen: 
Watts Little Angel Band - New Orleans / Land of 1000 Dances mp3 at Diddy Wah

AT EASE PACK MAN

Yee haw, Boogaloo Time just posted a bunch of swinging Hammond B3 cuts, including "Bullseye" by the Martinis and that gives me a great reason to direct you to an old post with stuff by the Martinis and other tracks from bands that included Packy Axton. If you don't know Packy Axton, he was the son of Estelle Axton, co-owner of Stax. And he was a bit of a partyer. That annoyed a few people at Stax, the wrong people. He was kind of a fuck up. Which is, of course, his appeal in these parts. 

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Listen:
The Martinis - Bullseye mp3 at Boogaloo Time
The Martinis - Hung Over mp3 at Rare Funk On 45
Visit:
Vital Organs - Nine more Hammond obscuros at Boogalo Time
Who Wants a Drink - Three more Packy Axton things

TUNING IS A FOUR MAN JOB

Before we get started, I'm switching my computer over to my new digs tomorrow, and I don't expect things to go smoothly. I'm realistic. So I might miss a post or two. Hang in there and just go poking around in the old posts.

When it comes to doo-wop, you don't really have to love or hate it. There's so many different types, you can pick or choose all you want. Even if it's just a handful of songs. "Yakety Yak" might not grab you, but "Down In Mexico" might. Especially if you've seen Quentin Tarantino's Deathproof. That fuckin' guy. I don't mind that he uses songs that I like in his soundtracks. I hate that he uses them so effectively that my associations change, sometimes for the better, and other times for the worse. Even though I've heard it many times, "Down In Mexico" is forever tainted after seeing the scene that features it. I can't tell if Tarantino is trying to sell doo-wop, sex, or his movie. Whatever your feelings are about the scene, "Down In Mexico" will never sound the same. It's effective, but it still kinda pisses me off.

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Listen:

The Coasters - Down In Mexico mp3 at Hells Belles

The Coasters - The Hatchet Man mp3 at Beware of the Blog

The Coasters - Little Egypt mp3 at Angelfire (?)

Video:

The Coasters - Down In Mexico (scene from Deathproof) at YouTube 

TRUE TO HIS COOL, ALL THE WAY TO THE END.

Another quick one as the moving deadline approaches. Tonight it's a no brainer. Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley died yesterday at the age of 89. I'm not sure if he was still performing, but I did see written somewhere that he decided in 2014 to put off retirement. His last recording was in 2015. So, yeah, Jagger and his ilk have a ways to go to catch up. 

Every genre has its OGs and Stanley was the last of the bluegrass OGs. You know as well as I do that any musician with a long career is going to have some stinkers, but I defy you to find a Ralph Stanley stinker. Not in seventy years of performing. Jeez, just listen to "O Death". A capella, no picking whatsoever, it'll give you the chills. Especially today.

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Listen:

Ralph Stanley - O Death mp3 at Simon Fraser University (?)
Ralph Stanley - Highway of Regret mp3 at Jack Tuttle
Ralph Stanley - This Little Light of Mine mp3 at Heavens Daily

The Stanley Brothers - It's Never Too Late Over mp3 at Time Goes By Tibbles! Represent!
Ralph Stanley with Bob Dylan - The Lonesome River mp3 at Ferrum College (?)

WATT'S ROLL CALL

Among dozens of reasons to like Mike Watt, and one of the reasons he gets respect in this house, is because he recognizes greatness amongst his peers, punk related or not. To wit, on his 1994 LP Ball-Hog or Tugboat he covers Cowboy Nation's "Big Train". Now, you're scratching your head, who the hell is Cowboy Nation? They were an old school type cowboy country band that included Chip and Tony Kinman, brothers that began their careers as the Dils, one of the most potent California punk bands in the first wave of the late seventies. Come to think of it, "Big Train" may date back to the Dils. Whatever. Memories fade. Look it up if you're so inclined. After the Dils, the Kinman brothers were in Rank and File, Blackbird and then Cowboy Nation. They're deserved of a long-ass post all their own, but that'll have to come after I finish moving. In the meantime, I direct you to Watt's version of "Big Train", which features members of Nirvana, Wilco, Pearl Jam, Dinosaur Jr., and two Meat Puppets. Yeah. On a song written by two thirds of the Dils. F-huck yeah.

The Dils, ca 1979

 

In case you're dying to know, the personnel on the song is Watt (bass, vocals), Dave Grohl (drums), Nels Cline (slide guitar), Eddie Vedder (vocals, guitar), J. Mascis (guitar), Chris Kirkwood (banjo) and Curt Kirkwood (guitar). And that's just one song. The album also features members or former members of Bikini Kill, Soul Asylum, the Germs, Black Flag, Sonic Youth, the Pixies, the Screamers, the Lemonheads, the Screaming Trees, That Dog, the Beastie Boys, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Dude gets respect in a lot of houses. And the Kinmans get respect in his house.

Here's Watt's studio version, Cowboy Nation's version, and above, a video of a live TV appearance with a stripped down four piece band (with Grohl, Vedder, and Pat Smear of the Germs/Nirvana/Foo Fighters). A super special bonus in a recent video of Chip Kinman's latest project Ford Maddox Ford doing the song, with Tony Kinman sitting in on vocals, and another video of the Dils from 1979 doing Class War (thirty seven years goes by quick!). Because I couldn't find mp3s of any version of "Big Train", a consolation prize: the first two Dils 45s from way back in the day. Much more on the Kinmans, past and present, later. Now, back to packing.

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Listen:

Mike Watt - Big Train (streaming) at YouTube
Cowboy Nation - Big Train (streaming) at YouTube
The Dils - I Hate the Rich, and You're Not Blank at Killed By Death Go there to get them
The Dils - Class War, and Mr. Big at Killed By Death Ditto
Video:
Ford Maddox Ford with Tony Kinman - Big Train (live) at YouTube 2016, Shitty quality sound, but, man, is it good to see these two guys on the same stage again.
The Dils - Class War (live) at YouTube 1979 

STUMPED FOR NINE YEARS

Another day of moving crap. Tonight it was two thirds of my record collection and all of my CDs, and moving a pile of stuff out for an Amvets pick up tomorrow. I'm semi-worked. But dinner and the Isleys made me forget all about that for a few minutes. Here's both versions of their "Who's That Lady?", from 1964 and 1973. The '73 version is the one you probably know. It's badass.

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Listen:
The Isley Brothers - Who's That Lady? (1964) mp3 at Groove Addict
The Isley Brothers - That Lady (1973) (streaming) at YouTube

THE SHIT YOU FIND

Dear rodents, please take note. For the next few days I will be moving all of my earthly possessions to new digs, an apartment two doors down. This might seem like a quick task, but you should see my earthly possessions. I've lived in the same place over half my life, so there's quite a bit of it, nearly all devoid of any real monetary value. At one end of the spectrum, you have vinyl, about ten percent of which have those clear protective covers on them, like your granny's couch. I'm assuming there's some value there, because the plastic sleeves would indicate specialness for one reason or another. At the other end of the value spectrum you had a 8" length of a 2x4. Saved because, who knows, you may need a 8" length of a 2x4 sometime. In the middle of the spectrum you have an awful lot of valueless cool shit. To wit, in a box of unrelated stuff, I had a sleeveless totally scuffed and unplayable 45 of the Premieres' cover of Don and Dewey's "Farmer John". The one with their faces on the label. That's probably the reason I melted a whole in it at the top. I'd given up on playing it and just thought I should put the Premieres up on that there wall. In another box, again, loose with other shit, sleeveless and unplayable, the Sonics' "Boss Hoss" It did not have a added hole in it in which to hang. At that point I'd probably realized that there was a big ol' hole in the middle of the record that I could hang it from. Apparently, I've learned a lot in the years that I've been here.

This was supposed to be short post to say that, in the next few days, posts will be short so I can plow through this shit. But my intent is to at least check in. I may miss a day, but that's what the two thousand other posts are for (really, last time I checked, there were over 2,200 posts). Bear with me. If I find dupes of anything cool, I may have a free raffle or something.

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Listen:
The Sonics - Boss Hoss (streaming) at YouTube
Don and Dewey - Farmer John mp3 at Rock Town Hall
Video:
The Premieres - Farmer John at YouTube American Bandstand

PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT A PHONE

I was going to make this one all about the photo, so let's start there. Just look at it. Is it not one of the greatest Muddy Waters photos you've ever seen? What's amazing is that it wasn't set up. It wasn't even posed, or even suggested. It is a candid moment between Waters and his wife, Geneva, taken by Art Shay in 1951, who saw the moment and put it in the bank. Everything is just about perfect. The lighting, the directions that they're looking, their expressions, the composition, and dig the totally natural way his left arm wraps around her, still fingering frets. If you or I tried that it would look awkward as hell. It's just an amazing photo, unpublished until 2012, You can read all about it here, and catch a high resolution version here.

That was going to be it tonight. That is, until I ran into a page at Internet Archive that has a twenty six song compilation, all classic cuts. If you do not know the Mud man, consider these super ultra mandatory. And check out his bio. Don't go walking around like you don't know jack shit. Muddy Waters is essential, period. Go.

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Listen:
Muddy Waters - Rolling Stone mp3 at A.Tumblr (?) 1948
Muddy Waters - I Just Can't Be Satisfied mp3 at Tiny Cat Pants 1977
The compilation:
Muddy Waters - The Anthology 1 at Internet Archive NOTE: In the right hand column, where it says "Download Options", click on "VBR MP3" for twenty six individual mp3s
Visit:
Art Shay on Muddy Waters at The Chicago Blog The photographer
Muddy Waters and wife Geneva - High resolution
Muddy Waters at All Music Bio and discography

BAD SONG ERASER

Man, I was walking near the beach today and someone drove by blasting UB40's cover of "Red Red Wine". I hate UB40. I hate them a lot. A few minutes later I was going in the water, and it was cold. Colder than I expected, so I did what I often do. I tried to distract myself from the water temperature by singing a song in my head, the first one that came to mind. Trouble was, it was a UB40D. I had to think of something else, stat. Thankfully Dr. Alimantado's "I Killed the Barber" came to mind quickly, the result of a recent spin. Just about the polar opposite of UB40. Kinda. Enough.

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Listen:
Dr, Alimantado - I Killed the Barber mp3 at Now That's What I Call Bullshit
Dr. Alimantado - Poison Flour (streaming) at YouTube A favorite
Dr. Alimantado - Born For a Purpose mp3 at Surreptitious Music
The full LP:
Dr. Alimantado = Best Dressed Chicken in Town (streaming) at YouTube
Dr. Alimantado = Best Dressed Chicken in Town (zip) at Compartilhando Reggae

HOW CHILL IS JIMMY REED?

I've always thought of Jimmy Reed as sort of a laid back version of the blues. Not that he isn't authentic. He just doesn't seem as threatening or believably down as someone like Howlin' Wolf. Shit, next to him Howlin' Wolf might as well be Guitar Wolf (no relation). Just how chill is he? He won't even get off his duff for photo shoots. That chill.

Fake? Could be. Posted as found.

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Listen:
Jimmy Reed - Shame Shame Shame mp3 at Aadtcp (?)
Jimmy Reed - Big Boss Man mp3 at Revision 99
Jimmy Reed - Baby What You Want Me to Do mp3 at Plain or Pan
Jimmy Reed - You Got Me Dizzy mp3 at 31 Down (?)
Jimmy Reed - The Sun Is Shining mp3 at Eyewings (?)

LETTS MEETS PEEL IN HI-FI

Every so often I go back to the John Peel site to see the most recent posts. It's hard to beleive that it's been ten years since he died. And the interesting shit just keeps coming. One thing added since the last time I checked it out is the Record Box, a series of posts with different notable music types pullimg favorites from his massive collection and explaining the reasons why the records were chosen. One of the posts features the picks of Don Letts. (You should know him by now.)

Letts starts with regggae, King Stitt, Big Youth, Augustus Pablo, and the Congos, then inexplicably changes directions and goes to the Idle Race (Jeff Lynne's pre-Move, pre-ELO band), then Led Zep, Bowie, the Who, Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown and Funkadelic. Then onto punk rock related stuff. Back to reggae, then the Slits and PiL. You get the drift. Cool, no brainer stuff, right? But Letts was there way before you, and may actually be, in a butterfly effect, part of the reason you first heard some of the songs. He was a stealth tastemaker. Peel himself was a tastemaker supreme. So, to have Don Letts picking through John Peel's records is worth checking out. There's also an eighteen minute video of Letts talking about the records.When you get to the page, click on the first one and go about your business while they play in succession. Here's just two of them, these two because they're smack dab in the middle of the Letts/Peel Venn diagram.

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Listen:
Bob Marley and the Wailers - Punky Reggae Party mp3 at Pixie Radio
Sex Pistols - Anarchy In the UK mp3 at Ebaums World
Visit:
Don Letts at John Peel Archive Letts's picks from Peels stash
John Peel Archive Home page

AGAINST ALL ODDS

I have an aversion to the flute. I don't always hate it, but, yeah, I pretty much hate it. Blame Ian Anderson and those weird outfits with tights and shit. Spotty sightings over the years didn;t help. I knew of Herbie Mann by his shirtless LP cover long before I ever heard him. Yeesh. I didn't buy a thing of his until about a year ago. It was a 99 cent bin, what the hell, sorta thing. The first thing on the LP, a cover of Sonny Rollins's "St. Thomas". With my guard already dropped, I had 99 cents on the line after all, I got sucked in. After a few plays I threw up my hands. Mann was in, but on double secret probation. I just realized why I will now tolerate Herbie Mann. His is the music for post-wining and dining loosen the tie bachelor pads, the soundtrack to the dimming of the lights. Not my kinda bachelor pad mind you. I'd more likely be spinning Hasil Adkins. But if it's post-wining and dining, tie loosening, light dimming bachelor pad music, I'll admit it.

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Listen:
Herbie Mann - Not Now, Later On mp3 at Groove Addict
Herbie Mann - Blues In the Closet mp3 at Groove Addict
Much More:
Herbie Mann = 13 LPs, each with a sample song at Groove Addict

DUDE DESERVES A BETTER PHOTO

I gotta say, I hate bad album covers. Covers that are so bad they don't even qualify for the "so bad it's good" routine. They're just bad. The one below is one of them. What makes it worse is that the music it contains is damn fine, the album cover is one of very few for Scotty, a Jamaican DJ/toaster, and that shitty little round photo is one of only two to be found online. (The other, above.)

Some of you, familiar with his "Draw Your Brakes" from the soundtrack of The Harder They Come, might assume that he was as big as some of the other artists on the soundtrack, namely Jimmy Cliff, the Maytals, and Desmond Dekker. Not so, at least outside of Jamaica. There he had several hits. But outside of Jamaica, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who can name another song of his besides "Draw You Brakes", So it is that that seems to be the only song floating around online. But guess what? Ghost Capital has the whole LP. And a great profile. Yee haw.

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Listen:
Scotty - Draw Your Brakes mp3 at Art Decade
The LP:
The Best of Scotty, Draw Your Brakes at Ghost Capital 13 songs in a zip, and a short profile.

BEFORE THE BUG

The Tempo Toppers featuring Little Richard, 1954, a year before his first hit, "Tutti Frutti". Something must've snapped.

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Listen:
The Tempo Toppers featuring Little Richard - Rice, Red Beans and Turnip Greens mp3 at Boogaloo Time
Rock 'n' Roll:
Earlier Little Richard posts Scroll down this page

LAZY LESTER RIDES AGAIN

Sometimes I feel a little guilty about posting stuff I've posted before, but sometimes the band, mix, or post somewhere else bears mentioning again. That's the case with this mix, So Many Days, posted in 2012 at Hearsay and still ripe for clicking. It's subtitled Rhythm and Blues 1946-1966, so you know just what you're getting into. There's a good bit of regular blues too. What isn't apparent by looking at the song list, packed with B-listers, is that every song on it is, at the very least, great. Some, mind blowingly so. Check out Lazy Lester's "Sad City Blues". Yeesh. Imagine someone humming "I've Put a Spell On You" on their way to the gallows. That's the feel if not the content. Doom Gold.

Here's just s few from the mix. Go there for all 24, posted individually and as a single zip.

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Listen:
Lazy Lester - Sad City Blues mp3 at Hearsay
Little Walter - I Got To Go mp3 at Hearsay
Slim Harpo - Buzz Me Babe mp3 at Hearsay
The mix:
So Many Days - Rhythm and Blues 1946 - 1966 at Hearsay 24 cuts, individually or in a zip

DIG THIS DETOUR

I'm all over the place tonight. After hearing Franco's "Tika Kondima Na Zolo", I got lost, and before I get real lost I thought I'd hep you to this song and some other stuff. First, who's Franco? No idea. New to me, as of an hour ago. But I'm about to find out. If you want to find out too, and dig on some other Congolese coolness, dig these.

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Listen:

Franco - Tika Kondima Na Zolo at Cocoringo's Circadian Sounds
A mix:
Congolese Cool - Mix by World Service at Podomatic Hour long mix, 13 songs, one by Franco and OK Jazz. Click on "Downlod Episode" to save.

More mixes by World Service Not Congolese, but still cool
Visit:
On Sort OK - Article about three early OK Jazz EPs at World Sevice

Franco and OK Jazz - Profile at Retro Africa

SPONSORED BY GILLETTE

Depending on your age, you may associate ZZ Top with a particular era of their career. I'm certain most of you have only known them as the band with those ratty ass beards. You might go back as far as those corny videos of theirs that got played on MTV all the time. Spinning guitars, hot rods, I mean spinning furry guitars, "Legs". Keep in mind, that shit was on the air all the time. Total crap.

Take it from me, if you want to know the real ZZ Top, start with the third LP, Tres Hombres, and go backwards, Start there because you've heard a song or two from that one. Then, check their their second, Rio Grande Mud, and their first ZZ Top's First Album. Between Tres Hombres and Fandango!, their third and fourth LPs, they started thinking big. The tour that year was ridiculous. They were no longer "that little old band from Texas".

If you dare not go past their fourth LP, I don't blame you. Instead, go further backwards, to guitarist Billy Gibbons's earlier band, the Moving Sidewalks. That's them above, the bottom photo the later of the two. Check the two songs below and try to guess which era of the Moving Sidewalks it is that you're listening to. Furry guitars...damn MTV all to hell.

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Listen:
The Moving Sidewalks - Every Night A New Surprise mp3 at Soylent Cream
The Moving Sidewalks - Joe Blues mp3 at Kiwi 19 (?)
Visit:
The Moving Sidewalks official site

RIDICULOUS

"Okay guys let's just destroy this. Make it like Eddie Cochran never existed, whaddya say? Maybe a half dozen Marshall stacks. That ought to do it. Who's got weed?"

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Listen:
Blue Cheer - Summertime Blues mp3 at Beware of the Blog

CRAP SHOOTING ELSEWHERE

Totally unrelated photo by Malick Sidibé. It's cool.

Swinging sixties cinematic drama Thai pop? How about a post-techno beach hit? 1970s French cheeky rhumba beat space disco? Retro-futurist spacy minimal ambient funk? Anybody? It's Hyphen Headquarters over at Avant-Avant, more ridiculous sub-sub-subgenres than you can shake a stick at. Give 'em credit, it must be hard coming up with them.

Check out the Madlibs over there. If one of the nutty songs actually sticks, right click on "play" to download. Me? I'm all about the soft rock beats meets neo-Italo in guilty pleasure cop disco.

Visit:
Avant-Avant Home page

TORME HAS A POSSE

I gotta be honest. I always thought of Ronnie Milsap as one of those crossover country artists of the seventies that came close to ruining the genre for me, not that I was a big fan back then anyway. Crossover country did what smooth jazz did. It made me not want to venture further than what I'd heard by happenstance. The whole broad encompassing genres, country and western and jazz, would have to wait. And they did. For years. I just hate crossovers.

Today I was flabbergasted to run across a Wilson Picket type song by Milsap, "Wish You Were Here" that was damn good. I didn't even believe it was the same Milsap until I hunted down another reference, but still, I couldn't find the exact year. Judging by the facts that he started recording under his own name in 1966, and the record was produced by Huey P. Meaux, I figure the vintage is somewhere  there in the mid-late sixties. I dig it. And here again is another Mel Torme type moment. Dismissing an artist's entire oeuvre because of a vague impression from decades earlier. That forehead of mine is getting a dent in it.

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Listen:
Ronnie Milsap - Wish You Were Here mp3 at Boogaloo Time
Four more South Texas soul obscuros at Boogaloo Time

DUDE DOES A SMOKIN' VERSION

I never tire of "Comin' Home Baby". You may. That's not really my concern. I know why I like it so much. Because I'm reminded that I would never have gone near Mel Torme had Rev Tom Frost, the host of Spread the Good Word, not posted his version. I trusted the taste of host Frost, so I clicked, trepidatiously. That is a fancy word. Within seconds I realized that I had been wrong about Torme all along. With every new-to-me version of "Comin' Home Baby" I hear, I have a Pavlovian reaction that causes me to slap my forehead.

This version is killer. Not a thing out of place. It's by Peter Nero, whose band includes Klaus Voormann on bass, the only name I recognize. But it swings.

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Listen:
Peter Nero - Comin' Home Baby mp3 at Groove Addict Go there for the whole LP
More versions of Comin' Home Baby here Including Torme's 

WAIT, WHAT YEAR IS IT?

Holy shit, Wolfmother has the seventies rock 'n' fuckin' roll thing down. I don't care how brashly derivative their thing is. I don't even remember if I was supposed to hate them or not. All I know is that they have it down. I used to live and breath stuff like this, eat it for breakfast. Tastes change and broaden, but I will still stop for something like this. As they say, if it's a rocker, I'll admit it.

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Listen:
Wolfmother - Love Train mp3 at Music Glob
Video:
Wolfmother - Woman at YouTube From Late Night With David Letterman, 2006
Wolfmother - Joker and the Theif at YouTube 2006
Wollfmother - Live, Rockpalast,  April 2016 at YouTube Entire set, hour plus

LET IT FLY BRO

If you live outside of the UK or France, there's a good chance that you may know of only one Vince Taylor song, if that. "Brand New Cadillac" was covered by the Clash, so you may have gone digging for it at some point, or you may have heard it on a rockabilly compilation. But I don't think you get a good idea of what Taylor was like from just one song. Even if you've heard several songs, I really think you gotta see him in action to fully appreciate his whole thing. Check the video below and the other one linked at the bottom. Dude's a gyrating machine, with all sorts of outlandish flourishes. It's kinda like the Roy Head "Treat Her Right" syndrome, wherein a song is good on it's own, but when you see it performed you it can what the fuss was all about back in the day. In Head's case it's a matter of agile dancing, ala James Brown. Taylor is a whole different monster. He arrived after rockabilly was already in full swing, and he had some catching up to do. He had to stand out some way. So he gyrates, thrusts all in your face, makes hand gestures like he invented them, rolls around on the floor, and that sort of thing. And he's also what you'd call handsome, in a lady killer sorta way. Pretty much Elvis, Chris Isaak and Lux Interior all rolled in one. This guy is a doozy.

Dig the video above. Check his emphatic fake punch at 1:40. The guy clearly thinks he's badass. Maybe he is. Doesn't matter that much. Either way, he is kind of a freak and that's good enough around here.

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Listen:
Vince Taylor - Brand New Cadillac mp3 at Rocky 52
Vince Taylor - Twenty Flight Rock mp3 at Rocky 52
Vince Taylor - Jet Black Machine (streaming) at YouTube
Vince Taylor - There's a Lot of Twistin' Goin' On mp3 at Emotion Lotion
The Clash - Brand  New Cadillac mp3 at DK Presents
Video:
Vince Taylor - Twenty Flight Rock at YouTube
Vince Taylor At His Best at YouTube Over the top moves.
Visit:
Vince Taylor - Excellent profile at Hi Lo Brow

NICE EFFORT

You must have heard by now that boxing legend Muhammad Ali has passed away. The man often referred to as "The Greatest" or GOAT (Greatest of All Time) was known for his skills in the ring, his boasting, and his adherence to his own personal beliefs. I gotta say, I'm not particularly interested in men beating the shit out of each other within the confines of a roped off area, or anywhere for that matter. Seems like a pretty brutal thing to do, and even if a fighter is making loads of cash, how many spectators and gamblers exhibit some degree of blood thirst mixed with greed? That's two things that I really can't get behind. One thing I can get behind is a fighter who gave up three years in the ring in his prime, and a shitload of potential earnings, because of his opposition to the war in Vietnam.

There are a lot of videos of Ali related videos at YouTube, Ali in the ring, in news reports and biographical profiles of him, as well as tribute songs going back all the way to the sixties. There are quite a few songs, including several hip hop tributes, that sample his catch phrases. And as far as his own output, I wasn't surprised to hear "Ali's Historical Theme Song", in which he boasts of putting the crack in the liberty bell along with other things. It's as corny and playful as you would imagine, though I was surprised to find out that it's from a record promoting dental hygiene. WTF? Frank Sinatra, Richie Havens, Jayne Kennedy, Ossie Davis, and Howard Cosell are also on the same record. I wonder what their take on dental hygiene is. I found another record more interesting. In 1964, while still using his born name, Cassius Clay, he covered "Stand By Me" and it is actually pretty passable for a non-singer.

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Listen:
Muhammad Ali - Ali's Historical Theme Song mp3 at WFMU's 365 Day Project

Cassius Clay - Stand By Me (streaming) at YouTube
Cassius Clay - I Am the Greatest (streaming) at YouTube

Visit:

Muhammad Ali - Profile and slide show at New York Times

WHO DID THIS TO MY RECORD COVER?

Every once in a while, like some of you, I dip my toe into international music. It didn't used to be that way. For years I listened to western music almost exclusively, primarily rock 'n' roll, soul, blues, rockabilly, and so on. I have to give credit to the Talking Heads for broadening my taste. Though I had one album of African music as far back as high school, it was a Ginger Baker LP, recorded with Fela's band, bought just because Baker was a hot shit rock drummer. 

In the early eighties, hardcore was all the rage, at least with the people that hung around the house I lived in. But it was a big house. In one room, someone is spinning Black Flag's Damaged. In another room, the Talking Heads' Fear of Music might be playing. You could move from one room of the house, with Black Flag's "Rise Above" lessening in volume as the Talking Heads' "I Zimbra" increases. By the time you get to the other room you feel like you've entered a different world.  "I Zimbra" is a real piece of work, particularly given the vintage. No one did what the Talking Heads were doing. I'd heard African music. The Talking Heads weren't African music. But they made me want to really listen to African music. Back to the kitchen for a beer. Oh jeez, here comes Black Flag again.

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Listen:
Talking Heads - I Zimbra mp3 at Feel My Bicep
Black Flag - Rise Above mp3 at DK Presents
Video:
Talking Heads - I Zimra (live, 1980, Rome) at YouTube
Black Flag - Rise Above (live, 1980) at YouTube
Talking Heads - Live in Rome, 1980, entire concert at YouTube

TOTALLY ROMAN

Ever have one of those nights that after hearing a few songs in a row by a particular person you just don't want to break the mood by playing someone else? Tonight it was Morricone night, and even though he's been posted before, and even though I've been doing a bit too much of the reposting lately, I'm going no further, because these two hit the spot and changed the direction of the whole night. So, suck it Trebek, you get Morricone tonight. Three title tunes from films by Sergio Leone, all three absolute classics, not just of spaghetti western soundtracks, but soundtracks in general. Listen to all the shit going on in these. So baddass.

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Listen:
Ennio Morricone - Il Buono Il Brutto Il Cattivo mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Ennio Morricone - For A Few Dollars More mp3 at Blondin
Ennio Morricone - A Fistful of Dollars (streaming) at YouTube

SPEAKING OF MACKS

Andre Williams, "Going to Tia Juana", early, not a cuss word in sight. Decades before he became the level two darling of obscurophiles everywhere.

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Listen:
Andre Williams - Going to Tia Juana mp3 at Westwood Music (?)
Visit:
Older Andre Williams Posts Scroll down this page for more songs and a documentary.