AND NO CLAPTON!

I hadn't heard the first Bluesbreakers LP before tonight, probably because it's called John Mayall Plays John MayalI, and it only credits the Bluesbreakers on the back of the cover. Whatever. I like Mayall, enough to listen to the records I already have but not enough to actively hunt down others. This first one though, it's like the missing link between old school British blues bands and the U.S. garage bands. It was recorded live, so it sounds a little rougher, louder than the Bluesbreakers studio LPs that followed. And, yes, no Clapton. Yee haw.

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Listen:
John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers - Crawling Up a Hill mp3 at Internet Archive
John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers - Crocodile Walk mp3 at Internet Archive

TWELVE YEAR OLD AS SELECTOR

Of the early records that ended up in the "boys' room", the bedroom that I shared with my brothers, many were oldies. Many. We listened to Top 40, like all kids did back then, but we also listened to oldies almost more than current music. I've no clue why we latched onto oldies. It might have been because the playlists were vast, but repeated month after month, year after year, unlike Top 40 hits which came and went. Whatever the reason, we latched onto oldies when we were barely teens. To give you an idea, the first LPs that I remember my younger brother Ted buying were an Eddie Cochran two disc set, the Who's Who's Next, Black Sabbath Vol 4, and a Bill Haley and the Comets compilation. When he was twelve. Who buys Bill fucking Haley with their paper route money in the seventies? My brother Ted did.

Buying the compilations gave us an opportunity to hear deeper cuts than what the oldies stations played. Haley's a good case in point. How many people nowadays can name one Bill Haley and the Comets song that isn't "Rock Around the Clock". I know one who can. Ted.

This all came back to me this past weekend. Several months ago, someone had given Ted a busted up Rockola jukebox that didn't work. Being the kind of guy who never shrinks from rolling up his sleeves, he went to work right away cleaning it up. After getting the cosmetics taken care of, it looked good but mechanically was still kaput. He ended up finding a guy online that lived about an hour away that said that he would completely rehab the thing for $150 plus parts. He went for it, and when he got it back was ready to load it. He'd rounded up a sizable collection of 45s, around 600 or so, from estate sales. There must be a lot of aging rockers in his neck of the woods because he picked up a formidable catalog of good shit (The Killer on Sun! Little Richard on Specialty!). After all of that, which he shrugged off as not that big of a deal, the real work was just beginning. What to put on the damn thing.

This was a big deal. Me and my brothers have wanted a jukebox for years and years. Since we listened to oldies back in our bedroom. This would be the first. What would be the inaugural record to be loaded in? I don't think he's ever deliberated more about anything. Last weekend he called me. He had made his selection. Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" would be the first record loaded. He selected that one not for the well known hit, but the B side, "Thirteen Women". That particular song was a big favorite in the boys room, despite it's vintage. It's about a guy who has a dream about an H-bomb going off and the only people left in town are him and thirteen women. Can you imagine what thoughts go through a puberty age brain with a song like that? No competition! Thirteen women! Fuckin' sign me up, H-bomb or not!

Haley was the first rock 'n' roll star. He had a crack band and, despite sub-marquee looks and a somewhat advanced age (28 when he had his first hit), dazzled teens with his fun lovin', always smiling, stage presence. Check the videos. Dude had it down.

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Listen:
Bill Haley and the Comets - Thirteen Women mp3 at Internet Archive
Bill Haley and the Comets - Crazy Man Crazy mp3 at Russ Strathdee
Bill Haley and the Comets - Rock Around the Clock mp3 at Rocky 52
Bill Haley and the Comets - Mambo Rock mp3 at Rocky 52
Bill Haley and the Comets - See You Later Alligator mp3 at Rocky 52
Video:
Bill Haley and the Comets - Goofin' Around at YouTube Dig the licks.
Bill Haley and the Comets - Rip It Up at YouTube 

ANATOMY OF A CRAP SHOOT

An unrelated earlier record cover. Very cool.

If you go record shopping, you know how it is. You gather a stack with the intention of weeding some out before you make it to the register. All of a sudden you realize that the store is closing in a couple minutes and you have to sort through the possibilities really quick, The first couple of picks are the no brainers, then you get to the maybe-maybe not part of the stack. You weigh the price, the certainty, the hunch and the crap shoot factors. You settle on one, because it's just cheap enough to take a chance.

That happened to me. The crap shoot/hunch that was just cheap enough was an LP by a band called Chakachas, the title was Jungle Fever. What? Check the cover below, You can't tell shit. I checked the back, no credits other than a bunch of song titles, songwriting credits, the names of the engineer and producer. No mention of band members, studio or anything else to go on. But most of the song titles were in Spanish, there was a cover of "Harlem Nocturne", and another titled "Chica Chica Bau Bau". It was worth a gamble. Or so I thought.

When I got home I was anxious to find out if my crap shoot/hunch would pay off, so I started on "Harlem Nocturne", a song I knew well from the shitload of other versions. I was underwhelmed. It was passable, but not the surprise I'd hoped for. So it was on to one of the sure things I'd picked up.

Jungle Fever faded into the back of the stack of recent plays and was forgotten. Fast forward a couple months and I'm browsing old bookmarks. There was a page at Art Decade bookmarked with a song called "Turtle Soup" by Chakachas, but I didn't recognize the name of the band, that's how little of an impression I had from the crap shoot/hunch. I listened to "Turtle Soup" by this band that was essentially unknown to me. It was actually funky as shit, with wah-wah and strings and killer breaks, the whole Isaac Hayes shootin' match. Sounded early seventies. So I went looking for other stuff, most of what I found was older. Then I remembered that the post at Art Decade mentioned another song, so back I went. The other song that they mentioned was "Jungle Fever", but it's still not ringing a bell. I tracked it down and, holy shit, is this one a keeper. Sounds a lot like the early Budos Band stuff, but repetitive, with a sexy woman voice panting and uttering unintelligible sweet nothings. Just weird enough to give it the edge over the funkier "Turtle Soup".

The epilogue? I went looking for an image and found the one of the Jungle Fever LP. That's when it hit me that the song that I had been digging on was on the crap shoot/hunch LP that I hadn't fully listened to. That's some random shit.

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Listen:
Les Chakachas - Turtle Soup mp3 at Art Decade
Les Chakachas - Jungle Fever mp3 at ATumblr (?)

WAH-WAH UTILIZATION 101

This sucker, from 1972, is period perfect blues rock, heavy on the rock. It's the first song on the first Foghat album, a cover of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You". The LP was produced by Dave Edmunds, who was not far removed from his own hit, a cover of Smiley Lewis's "I Hear You Knockin'". Foghat and Edmunds was a good pairing. Nothing too flash, just crunchy sturdy twelve bar shit.

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Listen:
Foghat - I Just Want to Make Love to You mp3 at Internet Archive

STUPIDITY IS NOT A CRIME.

I hadn't heard Crime in quite a while, and I ran into "Hot Wire My Heart" over at Newer. That song plops you right back in the late seventies San Francisco. I went looking for more and ran into a video I'd forgotten about, Crime playing for inmates at San Quentin, a maximum security prison. A band called Crime. Dressed like cops.

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Listen:
Crime - Hot Wire My Heart mp3 at Newer Go there to get it. 1977
Video:
Crime - Live at San Quentin at YouTube 1984

TOTAL GO MAN GO

Big Jay McNeely was the shit, the epitome of a honker, just pure unadulterated blasts. Providing exactly what the songs needed. Distilled down to the basics and there for a reason, to take a song to the next rambunctious level. The intent was clear. You just have to see a handful of his titles to see where he was coming from. "Nervous Man Nervous", "Psycho Serenade", "Wild Wig", "Insect Ball", "Just Crazy", "Jay's Frantic". Fuck yeah, he's a crazy sax man.

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Listen:
Big Jay McNeely - Nervous Man Nervous mp3 at Internet Archive
Big Jay McNeely - Psycho Serenade mp3 at Internet Archive
Big Jay McNeely - Wild Wig mp3 at Internet Archive
Big Jay McNeely - Insect Ball mp3 at Internet Archive
Big Jay McNeely - Just Crazy mp3 at Internet Archive
Big Jay McNeely - Jay's Frantic mp3 at Internet Archive

MAY I NEVER HAVE TO RESORT TO SHITTY MUSIC

Boy, have I got a lot to learn. Since the lapse of my jazz phobia sometime in the past decade, I can't say that I've listened to a shitload of it, more so than the before maybe but still just sort of dabbling in the names that pop up all the time. Before today I'd never heard of Joe Henderson. I listened to one cut and Ill be damned if another one didn't just get added to the list. This is how it happens. Now that I know that Joe Henderson existed, I'll see his name all over liner notes. That happens all the time, especially in jazz (is there anyone that Gerry Mulligan hasn't met?). So, new name, credit goes to For the Sake of the Song. You ought to check them out. They have a lot of good varied stuff, Ethio-jazz to proto-stoner rock and everything in between. They probably have a huge record collection. Jealous. Sort of.

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Listen:
Joe Henderson - El Barrio mp3 at For the Sake of the Song
Horace Silver (with Joe Henderson) - Song For My Father mp3 at For the Sake of the Song This is the song that Steely Dan copped for the intro of "Rikki Don't Lose that Number". That much I knew.
Four more songs with Joe Henderson at For the Sake of the Song

BEWARE THE GEAR SWAPPIN' MAMA

There are trucker songs about driving, about drinking, about getting home to a woman, and some about screwin' around while out on the road. And then there are trucker songs by women. Those are usually about waiting for a man to get home or worrying about what hijinks they're getting into while on the road. Maybe some longing for this or that. But there are few songs about women truckers. That's where Kay Adams comes in. Her "Little Pink Mack" was, for lack of a better comparison, something akin to a 1966 version of Riot Grrrl gone trucking. It might not seem like a big deal, but if you want to look at a good ol' boy network, you'd be hard pressed to find a tighter, more male dominated group.

Besides the subject matter, the song is notable for the period perfect guitar. It was recorded in 1966, and Kay Adams was hovering around Bakersfield. Yeah, that means some clean succinct pickin' including the clickity sound of a Bakersfield guitar (presumably a Telecaster), some tasty pedal steel and some rogue fuzz. Yee haw.

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Listen:
Kay Adams - Little Pink Mack mp3 at Rocky 52
Norma Jean - Truck Driving Woman (streaming) at YouTube Two years later, Norma Jean picks up on it. 
Kay Adams and Dick Curless - Devil Like Me (With an Angel Like You) mp3 at Rocky 52

KINDA MISSED HER ANYWAY

I'm a sucker for Brazilian music, especially when I want it to be warmer, it's getting warmer, or it is warm. I'm not one for cold weather. So it is with pity that I look to you guys that are still ass deep in cold, or rain, or whatever it does where you live. You can keep that change of seasons crap. Me, I'd just as soon park my butt in Brazil.

For the Sake of the Song recently posted a duet by Gal Costa and Caetano Veloso. That's what got me going. Gal Costa's been posted here a number of times, but I'm going with her again because she can get a little crazy. Veloso will get his turn. Hey, there is a link to a documentary on Tropicália. It's just one slice of Brazilian music, we still have the rest of spring and summer to go.

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Listen:
Gal Costa e Caetano Veloso - Coração Vagabundo mp3 at For the Sake of the Song Go there to get it.
Gal Costa - Vou Recomecar mp3 at Super Sonido
Gal Costa - Relance mp3 at Super Sonido
Gal Costa - Acauã mp3 at Super Sonido Wait for the freakout.
Gal Costa - Pontos de Luz mp3 at Super Sonido
Gal Costa & Gilberto Gil - Sebastiania mp3 at Super Sonido Freakout endings seem to be a trend.
Gal Costa -10 more cuts, 15 in all and great copy at Super Sonido
Video:
Brazil - The Tropicalist Revolution Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 at YouTube

MORE IMPORTANT, NOT BIG MOUNTAIN

Okay, if you're a reggae purist, you'd be tempted to shun the Grasspoppers. I know how you feel. I have an aversion to reggae bands from outside of Jamaica myself. But the Grasspoppers taught me something. Actually at least two things. One is that I shouldn't base my dismissal of non-Jamaican reggae on what I have seen in the U.S., which is disproportionately white (relatively speaking) and though well intended, often lame. If they're anywhere near a hackysack or college campus, get the fuck out. But, the Grasspoppers are not from the U.S., they are from Lisbon, Portugal, and more importantly they are open about reggae not being their main thing. That's the second thing I learned from them. If a band does not portend to be the real deal, you can drop the critical act. Still, they do a good job, and I'm not in the mood to be harsh anyway.

This is how they describe themselves:
"Working as an artistic collective connected to several artists from all areas in Lisbon, Maputo and Luanda, The Grasspoppers main areas of work are music production, events, remixing, blogging and movie making."  Okay then. I'm too damn laid back to put up a good fight.

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Listen:
The Grasspoppers - Brown Skin Guy mp3 at Caipirinha Lounge
The Grasspoppers - Doo Doo Doo mp3 at Caipirinha Lounge
The Grasspoppers - Carta a Uma Cidade Adormecida mp3 at Caipirinha Lounge
Visit:
Grasspoppers at Bandcamp Nine more songs

TAKE YOUR FOOT OFF THE FURNITURE

I started a post and was getting all tangled up in the Nuggets II box set. I decided to stop on Them for a second. I knew it would be over. After one play of "I Can Only Give You Everything" I wouldn't be much in the mood for writing anything, let alone lame blog drivel. So here we are, Them, the band between me and Astral Weeks. I may never hear the latter, not the way things are going.

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Listen:
Them - I Can Only Give You Everything .mp3 at Pretty Goes With Pretty
Them - Mystic Eyes .mp3 at Smiles Davis
Them - One Two Brown Eyes .mp3 at Smiles Davis
Video:
Them - Baby Please Don't Go at YouTube
Them - Gloria at YouTube

RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE THE WHOLE TIME

I remember the first person who I heard about Terry Reid from. Actually, now that I think about it, it's the only time I've ever had a conversation about Reid. That wouldn't be all that surprising if he was some sort of complete unknown and was just now being unearthed, but that's not the case. The conversation happened when I was in my teens, decades ago, and I've heard not one peep in conversation since. Unfortunately, it came from my friend's younger brother who was a complete dick, so I didn't bother following it up. The crazy thing is that I have conversations about music with knowledgeable music fiends every day and since that first mention the topic of Terry Reid has never come up again, not once. How is that possible? The funny thing is, I know exactly what friends of mine are fans of Reid even though the subject has never come up. Anglophile music freaks that are into sixties stuff, know a lot about music and are probably a musician themselves. The majority of them play guitar. I can think of a half dozen friends that fit that description in the time it took to type this sentence. Actually eight by the end of it. It's shit ass bad luck that Reid's name doesn't come up more. He deserves better. In 1968, Aretha Franklin said "There are only three things happening in England: the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Terry Reid". Yeah.

At Glastonbury Fayre (1971), David Lindley on lap steel.

What started this all was hearing a later 2004 song, "Secret". What struck me is how much his voice sounds like John Fogerty in parts. Not in all of it, he hits a few high notes that Fogerty would never hit. There's a couple early cuts down there too, where the fuss all began. Check the documentary trailer, see who his better known fans are. There's a few other things about him too. Now I gotta go talk shop with one of those guys.

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Listen:
Terry Reid - Secrets mp3 at Internet Archive 2004
Terry Reid - Superlungs My Supergirl mp3 at The Rising Storm
Terry Reid - Things to Try mp3 at The Rising Storm
Video:
Superlungs - A Terry Reid Documentary (trailer) at YouTube
Terry Reid Beat Club - Live 1969 at YouTube
Good read:
Even Superlungs has to pay the pawn shop at Washington Post