SIC 'IM BARNABAS!

If you would have asked me to hum the theme to Dark Shadows, there's no way I'd remember it. But once I heard it, all the creepiness came back. It doesn't help that the version I heard was heavier on the Theremin and it really didn't help when I went looking for an image that I ran into that one above of Barnabas chillin' with Bozo. Yikes.

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Listen:
The First Theremin Era - The Barnabas Theme From "Dark Shadows" mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Dark Shadows Theme- Robert Cobert Orchestra (streamimg) at YouTube The original
Visit:
Dark Shadows at YouTube A whole bunch of episodes from 1967

WANTED: BAD HAIR DAY

I have to admit, I have an aversion to clean cuts. It's not hard and fast, but from time to time I notice myself backing away from objectivity. If a singer is too clean cut, I may not give him an entirely fair shake. Like this guy, Nick Waterhouse. He's a perfectly fine r&b singer, old school in practice, totally clean cut 60s Ivy League in appearance, not a hair out of place. I really dig his music, and by extension his mission to keep this type of music alive. I just wish he'd lose the comb at some point.

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Listen:
Nick Waterhouse - I Wanna Know mp3 at The Art of the Mix
Nick Waterhouse -The Old Place mp3 at Soul Donuts
Nick Waterhouse - Some Place mp3 at Augasm
Nick Waterhouse - (If) You Want Trouble mp3 at Augasm
Nick Waterhouse and Brit Manor - I Cry mp3 (via Box.net) at Across the Kitchen Table Once at Box.net, the blue download button is on the top right of the screen.
Dean and Jean - I Cry (streaming) at YouTube Original version of above.

THE MOST FAMOUS TAASUKAT IN DAKAR

This sucker may have opened up an entirely new can of worms. This I know: the music is from Senegal, is highly rhythmic and very intense. To quote the poster at Awesome Tapes From Africa (who also happens to have reissued the LP), the first song, "Dieuleul Dieuleul", is "completely insane". True, it is. He/She also described "an aggressive verbal flow thought to presage rap". I was thinking just that. Really.

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Listen:
Aby Ngana Diop — Dieuleul Dieuleul (streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
Aby Ngana Diop - Short profile at Awesome Tapes From Africa
More African music in the old posts

USE YOUR OUTSIDE VOICE

When I heard the first half minute of Ennio Morricone's "L’alibi", my initial thought was "Aw shit, someone told Morricone to use his inside voice. "Inside voice" is American wimpy parent slang for "pipe down". "Pipe down" sounds infinitely cooler. The point here is that "L’alibi" sounds watered down compared to Morricone's calling card, spaghetti western soundtracks. I wanted to hate it, but guess what? While I directed my attention to something else, it sucked me in. Without realizing it, it became a soundtrack for my activity, albeit for only two minutes.

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Listen:
Ennio Morricone – Intermezzino Pop mp3 at Roots and Culture
Ennio Morricone – L’alibi Pop mp3 at Roots and Culture

ART APPRECIATION

A good friend of mine has been in town recently, the only person that I spent time with in both San Francisco and New York. (For good reason. She's the one who talked me into moving both times.) We hadn't seen each other in years and had much to catch up on so we weren't just strolling down, we were jogging all over fucking memory lane. One of the episodes that came up, was when Art Blakey was playing some jazz club in San Francisco. You could see a good amount of the band from the street without going in, including Blakey, his mouth wide open when he was really going off. Ever the tightwad, I happened to catch part of his set from the sidewalk on two consecutive nights. Now that I think about it, he's the only big name jazz guy I've ever seen live.

Check "The Sacrifice". Yeesh. That's an opening cut on his Drum Suite album. How do you follow that? The second song on the LP is "Cubano Chant" which settles back in to a less frenzied pace. Maybe "The Sacrifice" is like coffee starting your day, with a jolt. Works for me.

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Listen:
Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers - The Sacrifice mp3 at Internet Archive
Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers - Cubano Chant mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers - The Drum Thunder Suite mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Video:
Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers - Caravan (live) at YouTube

THE ORB RODE

When I saw that photo above, I thought it was photoshopped. Roy Orbison on a dirt bike? C'mon. He didn't seem like a grease under the fingernails sorta guy. Maybe it's his voice, it's so...smooth I guess is the word. Rich. Even on his early Sun stuff his voice had more polish than was typical of the label. So, curious, I went looking and found this caption: "Roy Orbison America singer March 1966 riding on a scramble bike at Hawkstone Park Shropshire." I'll be dipped in shit, turns out that he was a bike fiend, as was his wife Claudette. (She was killed in a motorcycle accident while the two were on a ride.)

Here's a mess of the biker's early stuff, a Coke commercial he did, and a later clip of him doing the song he wrote about his wife, backed by Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen, amongst others.

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Listen:

Roy Orbison - Rock House mp3 at Rocky 52
Roy Orbison - Ooby Dooby mp3 at Rocky 52
Roy Orbison - Go Go Go mp3 at Rocky 52
Roy Orbison - Domino mp3 at Retrolicious
Roy Orbison - Mean Little Mama mp3 at Mp3 Rockabilly
Roy Orbison - Dream Baby mp3 at MP3 Rockabilly

Roy Orbison - Coke commercial mp3 at The Podcast Place
Video:
Roy Orbison - Claudette at YouTube Live, with Tome Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and others

THE RECORD THAT ATE A NIGHT

The Ramrods? The name seemed familiar, but the Ramrods record I have is a cover of "Ghost Riders in the Sky", a surf type instrumental. It didn't seem likely that they would do a song called "Soul Express". I clicked, I listened, I dropped my jaw. This Ramrods is obviously not the same, but "Soul Express" is an early funk monster. Seriously. I listened to it three times in a row before moving forward. When I did move on, it took a few hours before I had even come close to getting through the post that included it.

It turned out that it was on a post at Red Kelly's mindblowing Soul Detective. The post starts out about Joe Haywood and goes through all sorts of detours with snippets and clues sourced from a bunch of other blogs. This wouldn't be all that big of a deal if the sources weren't the cream of the soul blogging crop. Funky 16 Corners, Sir Shambling, Home of the Groove...it's a who's who of soul eggheads and includes a heaping helping of other songs related to this rabbit hole of a post. Check it and see how long it takes you.

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Listen:

The Ramrods - Soul Express (Part 1) mp3 at Soul Detective

The mother lode:

Case One: Joe Haywood at Soul Detective Note: Right click on song titles to download. Sixteen songs.

JAM BAND

I ran across Kraftwerk's "Pocket Calculator" in German. It seemed like an adequate detour, just to mix things up. A soulless song, by a soulless band about a soulless piece of equipment. What the hell. In looking for an image, I ran into a Kraftwerk rabbit hole. a series of posts at 20 Jazz Funk Greats mostly concerning the band's early years. There's a song by a pre-Krafterk band Ralf and Florian were in called Organization. It's a little over eleven minutes of what sounds like a hippie stoner's jam. That might be a bit harsh, but it's not at all like the Kraftwerk we all know and love.

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Listen:

Kraftwerk - Pocket Calculator mp3 at Art Decade

Organization - Vor Dem Blauen Bock mp3 at 20 Jazz Funk Greats Ralf & Florian, pre-Kraftwerk, 1969

Visit:

Kraftwerk related posts at 20 Jazz Funk Greats More early Kraftwerk and some good reading

DUSTY THE SELECTER

Okay, so I'm watching the beginning of some movie and it's sizing up to be not my kind of film. Just before I was getting ready to shut it off, Dusty Springfield's "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" kicks in, That was an hour ago and I can't get the damn song out of my head. It's is a good song, if a little over dramatic. Maybe that's what I like about it. Those English women pop singers could be super polished at times, with big ol' orchestras going on. I've always lumped her with Lulu and Petula Clark in that regard. I'm sure in other places there were Sandie Shaw and others, but my introduction to these singers came from U.S. top 40 radio, and those were the three with hits over here.

When I was looking for photos, I came across the one above. What was Dusty Springfield listening to? The only possible clue is the LP in her hand. Curious, and up to a challenge, I opened up my antiquated Photo-Paint program and fucked with the perspective of the image. The result is below. Bob-B-Soxx and the Blue Jeans' "Zip-A-Dee Doo Dah", a Phil Spector/Wrecking Crew joint. Dig Billy Strange's solo at 1:27. Yee haw.

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Listen:

Dusty Springfield - You Don't Have To Say You Love Me mp3 at Blognoblat (?)
Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans - Zip A Dee Doo Dah mp3 at Beware of the Blog

TWO RANDOM HOT ASS INTRUMENTALS

How I ended up on an eleven year old post at Beware of the Blog, I've no clue. But these two instrumentals were among the thirty unrelated songs on a the old post and they both rule. Dave Dudley and Nora Dean also make appearances, along with a bunch of thrift store variety oddballs.

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Listen:
The Ventures - He Never Came Back mp3 at Beware of the Blog

The Hollywood Persuaders - Drums A Go-Go mp3 at Beware of the Blog

More:
Phonoanomalies -  A Totaly New Recording For Hi-Fi Bugs at Beware of the Blog 28 more songs

"BLOWIN' MY TOP"? WHAT'S THAT, CODE?

Okay, it's 1951. Billy Ward and the Dominoes' "Sixty Minute Man" is released. It climbs the charts, both r&b and pop. All the proto-rock 'n' roll guys are sitting around. They take notice. They listen closely to the lyrics.

    There'll be fifteen minutes of kissin'
    Then you'll holler "Please don't stop" (Don't stop!)
    There'll be fifteen minutes of teasin'
    Fifteen minutes of squeezin'
    And fifteen minutes of blowin' my top

After the chorus sinks in, they all look at each other. One cracks his knuckles and says "Okay, let's do this." That's the birth of rock 'n' roll in my mind. Fantasizing about this shit doesn't cost a cent.

I've always liked the song and this past weekend I heard it by chance two days in a row. This was 66 years after it was released. I'll take that as a sign.

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Listen:
Billy Ward and the Dominoes - Sixty Minute Man mp3 at The Doo Wop Jukebox

YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT. JAZZ COWBOY.

I didn't know much about jazz when John Coltrane was recommended to me by a friend. The friend had great taste in music, and among other things that he told me about his indoctrination in jazz was that before he heard Coltrane, he had little interest in jazz himself. He told me, in great detail, about the first time he listened to his dad's copy of A Love Supreme. Knowing enough to know Coltrane was a near deity in jazz, and after his recommendation, I started listening to Coltrane. I got as far as "My Favorite Things" and thought it a weird choice for a cover. A song from the Sound of Music by a jazz god? What's up with that?

Luckily I listened, long enough to get to the point where he starts to stretch his legs, Okay, I thought, that's how a jazz god does covers. This all came back to me when I heard Sonny Rollin's cover of "I'm an Old Cow Hand (from the Rio Grand)". This one really goes off. By the time you're through the first couple minutes, you forget what song it started out as. The alternate take, released as bonus cut on a later reissue. is double the length, and really allows you to really get lost. While it doesn't sound like dub, it elicits the same feeling, as if your weaving in and out of the song, kind of floating. And it's just Rollins on sax, Ray Brown on bass, and Shelly Manne on drums; Just a trio.. This jazz shit is okay.

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Listen:
John Coltrane - My Favorite Things mp3 at LBCC (?)
Sonny Rollins - I'm an Old Cow Hand (From the Rio Grande) mp3 at Time Goes By
Sonny Rollins - I'm an Old Cow Hand (From the Rio Grande) (alternate take) (streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
A Bit of Jazz at Time Goes By Ten random jazz cuts, posted by the man Tibbles. What got me going tonight. Thanks Peter.

AS IF POLY WERE PISSED

If you haven't heard Downtown Boys, don't read about them just yet. Listen to them first, then do your Google thing. Descriptions are all over the place and most aren't all that accurate. There are more than a few knee jerk comparisons to bands that came before, most using tired genre labels, but it's better that you make of them what you will. Let's just say that we could use more bands like them in these times. Of those of you who haven't heard them, there's probably only a small percentage that will really dig them. That's who these are for.

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Listen:
Downtown Boys - Violent Complicity mp3 at Still In Rock
Downtown Boys - I'm Enough (I Want More) mp3 at Still In Rock
Downtown Boys - Wave Of History (Live) (streaming) at The Fader
Downtown Boys - Cost of Living (Full LP) (streaming) at YouTube
Video:
Downtown Boys - Wave of History (live) at YouTube

EIGHT COVERS BY THESE GUYS

It's not often that someone posts covers by these guys, and when they do, it might be one or two. It's a good look at where they came from, particularly if you're too young to remembered when the band actually mattered. Though the post at Boogaloo Time says that they were all recorded in 1964, without checking I think that at least a couple were released a year or two later. A nice reminder that all bands were green at one point.

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Listen:
Eight covers by that band up there at Boogaloo Time

WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT

I just remembered about another one man band, Lewis Floyd Henry. After Joe Hill Louis yesterday, I figured, what the hell, let's give this guy his due. Here's a guitar player, seemingly Hendrix obsessed (with considerable chops), playing a live mash up of Metallica and Wu-Tang Clan, and then breaking into the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog". As nutty as it sounds, it's pretty seamless. While he may not be "The Greatest One Man Band In the World" as the video is billed, he's definitely some hot shit street fare.

After viewing the video, you might want to head over to YouTube and see more of his stuff. If you can't get enough of the one man band thing, watch some Bob Log III, Reverend Beat Man or Hasil Adkins. 

TRASH NIGHT SUPER BONUS

I was just taking out the trash, which is, as all menial tasks are, usually accompanied by humming whatever the hell song pops in to my head. "Tiger Man" was up this time, Rufus Thomas's version. It was first recorded by Joe Hill Louis at Sun, but remained unreleased at the time. Sam Phillips had Rufus Thomas record it and that was the version that got released.

Joe Hill Louis's act was as a one man band and he was the only artist who had a record out on Phillips's pre-Sun label, Phillips Records, when Sun, the label, was born. "Boogie in the Park", recorded in 1950, is about as raw as it gets. Dig the link below and keep in mind that there were only 300 pressed. The fact that you even get the opportunity to hear it will mean something different depending on your age. If you're relatively young, you'll think "Cool. I'll check this later". You older people will think "Fuck, I guess the internet didn't ruin everything" and hop to it straight away.

Louis, or Hill Louis, was a semi-fixture at Sun, recording with other on-again off-again label-mates as well as solo. He played guitar on Rufus Thomas's "Bear Cat" (a ripoff of "Hound Dog"), I guess showing there were no sour "Tiger Man" grapes.

Dan Sartain, a totally unrelated artist, covered "Tiger Man" a few years back, so that's down there too, Just because it was laying around.

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Listen:
Joe Hill Lewis - Tiger Man mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban 1953, unreleased until the eighties
Joe Hill Lewis - Boogie In the park (streaming) at YouTube 1950
Rufus Thomas - Tiger Man mp3 at Internet Archive 1953
Rufus Thomas - Bear Cat mp3 at Internet Archive 1953
Dan Sartain - Tiger Man mp3 at Xtrmntr 1990s
Visit:
Joe Hill Louis - Long bio at The Hound Blog

EAT THE TEACHER

T'was a time that Sly and Robbie's shit did not stink. As the rhythm section of the Revolutionaries, the backing band at Channel One studio in the second half of the seventies, they were at the right place at the right time backing the right artists. There were other reggae rhythm duos doing remarkable work, but it was Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare that became reggae's drum and bass marquee names.

Alas, they may have been too good. Too tight. Maybe they got restless. Whatever the reason, though they retained their reggae sensibilities, they started fucking around with digital. They began backing non-reggae acts. It wasn't an overnight change, it happened gradually, so gradually that I never noticed that I had lost interest in their whereabouts until a couple nights ago. I heard them backing the Wailing Souls on "Old Broom", released on their Taxi label about 1980. Ah, man, it felt good to hear the old Sly and Robbie, as they had been around the first time I heard them. I went looking for more of that period and ran into a killer disco mix (extended version) cover of "Rainy Night In Georgia", with them backing Tinga Stewart from 1978. It's awesome, them at the early peak of their reggae game. Though they have stuck with reggae type music (i.e. dancehall), and used reggae rhythms in their playing with non-reggae artists (Grace Jones, Mick Jagger, Simply Red, Ian Dury, Joe Cocker, Sinéad O'Connor, etc.) it just doesn't have the same feel, it's not as earthy.

I checked their discography. By the looks of it the bottom dropped out for me around 1980 and, wouldn't you just know it, that's just about when they started fucking with syn drums and digital bass. They were fucking with the program, and they've continued fucking with the program. Fine, if that's what they wanna do, go for it. Their shit may not stink yet, but I'll be damned if I'm going to wait around until it does. If you want to see what I'm talking about, compare the Wailing Souls' "Old Broom" from around 1980, to their "Live On" from 1994, with Sly and Robbie supplying the backing on both. Rough or polished, I'm taking rough every time.

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Listen:
Wailing Souls - Old Broom mp3 at Bass Shaka (?) 1980-ish
Tinga Stewart - Rainy Night In Georgia (streaming) at Reggaeville 1978
Wailing Souls - Sweet Sugar Plum Plum mp3 at Bass Shaka (?) 1980-ish
Wailing Souls - Live On (streaming) at YouTube 1994

OUT STANDING IN THEIR FIELD

There's a number of ways to hit the reset button. You can revisit some rockabilly, soul, oddball, funk, reggae, punk rock and so on. Or you could just go for a jolt of irreverent, self indulgent so-sloppy-they're-not-even-trying, good ol' fashioned don't-give-a-single-shit poorly produced trashy piss off the neighbors rock 'n' roll. Pussy Galore were always good at that.

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Listen:
Pussy Galore - Dick Johnson mp3 at Le Twenty-Two Bar
Pussy Galore - Cunt Tease mp3 at Voice Blog (?)