Saturday, June 30, 2018

BACK IN THE SADDLE

I don't know how much you listen to music while driving. For me it's essential. I live in Southern California, where the traffic is bad and the drivers are worse. Music is about the only thing that makes the time spent in traffic with the knucklehead road rage types bearable. So when my car stereo went to shit, the misery level rose. In the overall scheme of things this is a insignificant problem. But I'm sure I'm not the only one who can barely tolerate hours on the road without music. All told, I was without music for a week. It was hell. No amount of my own horrid singing or imagined comedic dialogue could ease the passage of time spent stuck in traffic. When I got the new stereo installed, I already had a CD with me. When the intro to Burning Spear's "Marcus Garvey" started blasting from my speakers, I swear to god it was about the best thing I ever heard.



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Listen:
Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey mp3 at Passion of the Weiss
Burning Spear - Marcus Garvey/Garvey's Ghost - Full LP
(streaming) at YouTube Playlist with dub versions from Garvey's Ghost following original versions.

Friday, June 29, 2018

TINKER TO EVERS TO CHANCE ROCK

Man, someone laced my rolled tacos with a Distract-o-pill, because I'm all over the place tonight. I was looking at something else on NPR's site when I saw a thing about a Joe Strummer box set that's coming out in a few months. I'm in no way a big enough Joe Strummer fiend to pick up a multi-disc set that includes stuff from the 101ers. But one song that is included in the set is "London Is Burning", Having never heard the song before, I was thinking how much it sounded like Rocket From the Crypt. I don't need much of an excuse to listen to Rocket, so I went to the set at Xtrmntr that was, at the time, the host's own version of what All Systems Go 3 would be, (All Systems Go and All Systems Go 2 were compilations of unreleased and single-only songs.) After the imagined All Systems Go 3 was posted, Rocket did indeed release one, with their own selections. After listening to a few cuts that I'd heard before, I checked out "On the Prowl". Dang me if there aren't chord changes on it that owe a debt to Larry William's "Slow Down", intended or not. That sent me to Larry Williams and that's where I leave you, because the night is about to be turned over to Specialty Records, and I know that's a cul-de-sac I'm not coming back from.

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Listen:
Joe Strummer - London Is Burning (streaming) at NPR Near bottom of post.
Rocket From the Crypt - On the Prowl mp3
at Xtrmntr
Larry Williams - Slow Down mp3
at Mercury Paradise
Rocket From the Crypt - ASG3
at Xtrmntr 29 songs

Specialty Records posts

Thursday, June 28, 2018

THE ALLEY DUDE GIVETH

Man, this was weird. Earlier this evening I was stopping my car in the alley to open my garage door and there was a guy standing next to the dumpster holding a copy of Malo's first album. Weird because I was just listening to it last night, and I don't spin that sucker very often. So I said to the guy, "Snag that one, that's a great album. I just listened to it last night". After giving one of those semi-astonished looks he nodded in agreement, then a smile came across his face, and he said "Suavecito". Wow. This guy was way younger than me so I was surprised that he knew the song. He was Mexican so my guess is that he knew it from an older relative or something.

So after pulling my car in and closing the door, the guy says, "Do you want it? I don't have a record player. It's pretty clean." Hell, I'm not going to pass on that. Then he said, "They are good. Them and El Chicano." Fuck,  I had just listened to El Chicano last night as well. Then, at almost the same time, we both said "Viva Tirado". Dude. As he walked down the alley, he said "Take it easy brother." It was just about the perfect length of a conversation. And tone. If it got to Santana we would have been there all night. Wait. The Premiers or Thee Midniters? We'd be there until next Tuesday.


These two songs were of the same era, early seventies. "Suavecito" is breezy as fuck. "Viva Tirado", completely badass, different genre but "Rumble" worthy goosebumps, when that organ really comes in. Hot afternoon "Rumble".

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Listen:
Malo - Suavecito mp3 at ATumblr (?) 1972
El Chicano - Viva Tirado mp3
at Groove Addict 1970. Note: the mp3s seem to be safe, but beware of the full LP downloads. Some of the links have been hijacked.

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

THEY FORGOT THE FUZZ

Three, count 'em three versions of "Cinnamon Girl". One version is by the Gentrys, one of the last songs to be released on Sun Records. Then there is Neil Young's original version, which still sounds good, with a rawness that the Gentrys can't touch. In their defense, John Entwistle can't touch it either.

The Neil Young LP that it was on is Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere, an essential disc without question. Seriously, if you have 40 LPs and you don't have this, than just get the fuck out.

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Listen:
The Gentrys - Cinnamon Girl mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People 1969
John Entwistle - Cinnamon Girl mp3
at Rock Town Hall 1969
Neil Young - Cinnamon Girl mp3
at The Fail Genealogy 1971
Newer Neil Young:
Neil Young with Promise of the Real - Already Great
(streaming) at YouTube 2017 It's actually really good.

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

PROTO-DON'T GIVE A SHIT

The other day I was coming out of the ocean and there were some kids poking around in a pile of seaweed. As I looked closer to see what was so different about this pile of seaweed (there were piles of seaweed all over this stretch of beach) I saw what they were looking at. It was a slimy ugly ass eel. It looked like a juvenile moray eel. Moray eels anchor their ass end in rock crevices, have sharp teeth and strong jaws. How do I know this? When I was growing up, one of my dad's acquaintances was skin diving, looking for abalone. He stuck his hand in a crack and one of those slimy ugly ass eels took hold of his finger. He was skin diving, that means no oxygen tank (scuba diving uses tanks). Running out of breath he had to do what a pre-teen me thought was the most badass thing in the world. He weighed his options and cut off his finger with a knife. I was about ten years old when my dad told that story to me and my brothers. Mega-baddass.


That story came back to me when I was standing there looking at the slimy ugly ass eel. As I walked away it occurred to me that I've never posted anything by the Electric Eels. They were a band from Ohio, early-mid-seventies, and noisy as hell. Listen to those cuts below and tell me, in 1975 was there anything more raw? Anything close?

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Listen:
The Electric Eels - Cyclotron mp3 at Killed By Death
The Electric Eels - Agitated mp3
at Killed By Death
 

Monday, June 25, 2018

RUSH PARTY

Oh fuckin' A, I just heard Otix Rush's "Homework" for the first time in a long while. That's it. One and done night. Just check it out, the horns and the muted guitar tone. The thing swings. Dig it my man. And woman.

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Listen:
Otis Rush - Homework mp3 at Snuthing Anything

Sunday, June 24, 2018

THE CUSP

Dick Dale is one musician that I've always respected. I've been thinking about him lately. He's eighty or something, and having some health issues. I do think that he is the King of the Surf Guitar. There are others who might be better technically, others more adventurous, and so on, but to me surf music began with Dick Dale. And not the earliest Dick Dale. Songs like "Let's Go Trippin'" and "Deltone Rock" were really just guitar instrumentals. "Miserlou" was ground zero. "Surf Beat". Enter the reverb. Enter surf.

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Listen:

Saturday, June 23, 2018

FUCK IT THEN. DON'T SMILE.

I just came across a live cut of Flying Burrito Brothers (Gram Parsons era) doing a cover of Roy Orbison's "Sweet Dreams Baby". It was recorded in 1969 at Winterland, so you know the place was packed with hippies and heads. A Roy Orbison cover might seen out of place, but that was the same year they covered Dave Dudley when they opened for the Stones at Altamont. That is a juxtaposition I like. A truck driving song an hour or so before Mick Jagger comes out and starts his prancing around. No wonder weird stuff happened at that show.

In looking for Orbison's original, I ran into him doing the song on TV in 1972 with some pretty funny dancers that are period perfect lame. I also ran into someone's tribute cover with the performer's identity literally kept in the dark. Just weird enough to force feed to you. You're welcome.

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Listen:
The Flying Burrito Brothers - Sweet Dreams Baby (live) mp3 at Amoeba.com
Roy Orbison - Sweet Dreams Baby
(streaming) at YouTube
The Flying Burrito Brothers - Christine's Tune (Devil in Disguise) mp3
at Rocky-52.net
The Flying Burrito Brothers - Wheels mp3
at Rocky-52.net
The Flying Burrito Brothers - Wild Horses mp3
at Beat Surrender
A live set:
The Flying Burrito Brothers - Seattle Pop Festival 1969
at The Big O
Video:
Roy Orbison - Sweet Dreams Baby
at YouTube Because dancers are cheaper than musicians
Not Roy Orbison - Sweet Dreams Baby
at YouTube Strange tribute cover

Thursday, June 21, 2018

THE DRUMMER'S DRUMMER

A few years ago I ran into a friend of mind, a drummer who has played for, I don't know, something like four decades. I brought up Ginger Baker's latest LP (at the time), Why? (a phenomenal LP by the way). My friend started bringing up drummers that he really dug, among them Elvin Jones, who he went off about in particular. He told me how an early drum teacher he had told him to get Jones's LP The Ultimate Elvin Jones. At the time I knew the name, but had never really isolated his playing when I listened to records he was on. Once I did though, shit howdy, it was another name added to the list. Here's a couple that he plays on and the LP my friend recommended. Man, that one is a total gas.

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Listen:
John Coltrane - The Drum Thing mp3 at Drummer World Elvin Jones on drums
Joe Lovano and Dave Holland - Cymbalism mp3 at Drummer World Elvin Jones on drums
Elvin Jones - The Ultimate Elvin Jones
(full LP, streaming) at YouTube

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

DON'T BE A PEANUT HEAD

Repost alert. It was three years ago that I posted the text snd video below. I revisited the video today and was again mesmerized, That makes it ripe for a repost.

I have reservations about posting some things, because I don't want to seem like I'm making fun of a particular singer or band, no matter how quixotic their musical aspirations are. Unless of course they deserve it. Mike Love deserves it. B.J. the Messenger does not, I don't think he does anyway. Shit, I don't really know about this one. The clip appears to be a public access show, Stairway to Stardom. He performs a song called "Crackhead". But, you'll notice from the image above that he's wearing a ski mask. Yeah, and that's just the start of it. Wait until you see it. His rhymes floor me, almost as much as his posse. His DJ, or whatever the fuck he's supposed to be, is really trying his best to look baddass, though through the glare of his gold chain I detect a button down shirt under a sweater. But "crackhead" is his line, so he says it. And E.J., I think that's that's his name, says it again. Whenever he's told. I seriously don't know what to make of the girl dancer. She definitely adds something to the overall weirdness, but I'n not sure if it's her moves or the stoner-like gaze of hers. Just let this sucker roll, at least until the 1:31 mark, that's when the crazy editing come in. Fucking icing on the cake.

All that said I'm really not here to make fun of B.J. the Messenger. The reason why I wanted to post this is because the whole feel of it is just so damn weird. Like something from a David Lynch movie. Kind of. Before cable, public access channels were the big outlet for, well, quixotic aspirations. And this shit is nothing if not earnest. And weird. Both admirable traits.



Listen:
B.J. the Messenger - Night Freak (streaming) at YouTube Dude got better!

Monday, June 18, 2018

THE NEIGHBOR WHO ALWAYS BORROWS THINGS

I saw Malcolm McLaren mentioned somewhere today, so I threw on Duck Rock (his first LP). Man, it's aged well. All cut and paste culture, international music with scratching and stuff. And Keith Haring and Dondi art. And Vivien Westwood clothes. Credit should be given to Trevor Horn for reeling in all of the disparate elements. Really, I don't think he gets enough credit for Duck Rock. Trevor Horn.

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Sunday, June 17, 2018

BLOW MAN BLOW

Every Sunday the jazz station has three hours of free jazz and assorted out there stuff. It serves as one last blow out before the weekend's over, without a hangover..After the show was over tonight I decided to look for some Eric Dolphy. I only have Out To Lunch so anything other than that would have sufficed. I was not prepared for "Bee Vamp". Ho-ly shit, total wig out. Twelve minutes of constant changes. Recorded live at the Five Spot in 1961, engineered by Rudy Van Gelder. It's the shit.

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Listen:

Saturday, June 16, 2018

GET THE HOOK

Today a friend of mine, the Crippler to be exact, posted the following statement on Facebook: "I have over 800 FB friends. All of them love KISS. Admit it." The statement is patently false. I hate Kiss, I always have. The closest I've come to tolerating them is liking a couple covers. Redd Kross's cover of "Deuce" and the Replacements' cover of "Black Diamond". Other than that, they're totally irrelevant. I can't stand them.

A few years ago, I posted a link to a 45 minute compilation of Paul Stanley's stage banter. It's funny at first, that inane, but when you realize that the crowds are just eating it up, it's kind of distressing. It actually pisses me off. Here's that collection and another link I recently ran into. This new one has them streaming and has each one of the on stage inanities isolated as single downloads so you can use them to fuck up your latest mix. Another thing made possible now with two streaming sources is the ability to listen to both sources at once. Two screaming Paul Stanleys at the same time. Try to out-stupid that.

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Listen:
45 Minutes of Paul Stanley Stage Banter - Curated by Chris Ames at Soundcloud
Paul Stanley - Let Me Get This Off My Chest at Internet Archive Same content as above, in individual downloads or streaming. In the right column, under "Download options" click on "VBR MP3 Files"
Redd Kross - Deuce  (streaming) at YouTube
The Replacements - Black Diamond (streaming) at YouTube

Friday, June 15, 2018

FUCK YOU CORONA

Fuck you Corona beer. I will not let you ruin this song with your stupid ass commercial. You were the first legal beer I drank, in Mexico when I was about 18. That was a long time ago, before you came to the states. Now you're the beer of beach invading douchebags. Stick that lime where the sun don't shine. Get off the air. Here is a song worth defending.

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Listen:
Jimmy Cliff - You Can Get It If You Really Want mp3 at  tztvu.zj.cn (?)

Thursday, June 14, 2018

THERE YOU ARE YOU RASCAL

Here's a solid jam that I forgot about. I downloaded it sometime in the past few years and it would occasionally pop up in a mix but never labeled. I'm like that with oddballs or one-offs. I don't make a habit of actually hunting for records. I let serendipity rock. So titles and band names sometimes get lost in the shuffle. But a solid jam is a solid jam. Wah-wah, fuzz, Latin rhythms, an organ freakout, who could ask for more? From Cuba no less.

I ram across it this time at Melting Pot, on a post of the host's top five 45 scores of 2017. The dude's serious, record shows all the time, actual research n' shit. Someone's gotta do it. It's a great blog though, again, elsewhere.

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Listen:
Irakere – Bacalao Con Pan mp3 at Melting Pot
Visit:
Melting Pot

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

COLLEGE RADIO SAYS "WHAT?"

That record above was my first impression of Fela, at least with the knowledge of who Fela was. It was the mid-eghties. I'd actually heard him before, on Ginger Baker's LP Stratavarious. That was about ten years earlier. I didn't know who he was on that one, so the name didn't register and all I discerned after listening to that LP was that the music was not at all what I expected from the drummer from Cream regardless of who he was playing with. The EP above, "Army Arrangement" (plus a couple other songs) was written up in New York Rocker, or it might have been the Village Voice. I don't remember what the review say, but I seem to remember he was in prison or jail at the time. I could be wrong. Regardless it must have been an effective write up because I bought it, listened to it, and was introduced to Fela, the man now with a name. And with a name, he was now eligible for inclusion on the list which is why, years later, I have a mess of his shit. Why am I telling you this? I'm bailing. Here's a couple that I haven't posted before.

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Listen:
Fela Kuti - Army Arrangement mp3 at IPI Times (?) 1985
Fela Kuti - Upside Down mp3 at IPI Times (?) 1976

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

LIVING ROOM JAMS

Bari and the Breakaways. They're a band from New Zealand, mid-sixties, that I had never heard of a year ago. I don't know how much they recorded and I'm not sure I want to. I'll just nibble on a song or two every so often. One things for sure: They loved their covers, But they did manage to do a decent job of retaining their own sound.

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Listen:
Bari and the Breakaways - Ain't Got You mp3 at Internet Archive
Bari and the Breakaways - Suzie Q mp3 at Internet Archive
Bari and the Breakaways - Baby Please Don't Go mp3
at Internet Archive

Monday, June 11, 2018

CUTTIN' FARTS WITH CHAN

I'm sorry. It just hit me. That photo above is probably the most used image of Chan Romero that there is, whether cropped or not. It just hit me tonight that he looks like he's squeezing out a fart. Yeah, that's the kind of mood I'm in right now. I was going to go off again about the way he got signed and how it bugs me. (After Ritchie Valens died, Romero's manager pitched him to Bob Keane to fill the vacancy on his Del-Fi label.) I was going to write some serious shit. But then I saw the 2012 video of Romero (linked below) doing his "Hippy Hippy Shake" live. The performance is actually pretty good. Romero pulls it off respectably considering his age. But what I found most entertaining is the bass player, notably a six string bass player. I'm not pointing him out to poke fun, I'm totally curious about his story. How did he come to play with Romero? Given his excess strings, what is his preferred genre? And his restrained rocking out moves? Was he once a total rocker? One thing you gotta give him, he's fully into it. Good for him.

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Listen:

Sunday, June 10, 2018

MEANWHILE AT THE DRUNK FOCUS GROUP

So, Paul McCartney played a surprise show at some pub in Liverpool and debuted a new song. The internets is blowing up. It's not a huge deal to me, cool enough I guess. But, as long as I went digging for the videos, I'll save you the hassle.



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Video:
180608 Paul McCartney NEW SONG PLUS Philharmonic Pub Liverpool st YouTube [Title as found.] Another audience member's footage

Saturday, June 9, 2018

WE ALSO JAM ECONO

I don't know how long it would have been before I was cognizant of Booker T and the MGs had it not been for Creedence. Back when I was barely a teenager, there was a Creedence concert special on TV. Being in possession of maybe three or four LPs at best, Creedence was my band. I soaked up all I could. There was nowhere else I'd be other than plopped down in front of the TV. And the opening act for this particular concert was Booker T and the MGs. Had they merely opened for Creedence it wouldn't have gotten my attention. But during their performance, playing "Time Is Tight", John Fogerty, Stu Cook and Doug Clifford were in the wings watching, visibly digging it. That was all the endorsement I needed. Booker T and the MGs were added to the list (back in the good ol' days when it was short and manageable).

When I finally got a Booker T and the MGs greatest hits LP, I realized that I had heard them before. "Green Onions" was played on the oldies station and for whatever reason, I hadn't known the name of the song or the band. But, after picking up the LP, they would pop up sporadically in unexpected places. About two years later "Green Onions" was in the soundtrack of American Graffiti a movie me and my buddies saw a half dozen times. Somewhere around then I became cognizant of Stax Records and studio and learned that they were the house band. A few years after that the Clash covered "Time Is Tight". Then Barfly, the semi-biopic about Charles Bukoski, had "Hip Hug-Her" as the intro rolls, during footage of dive bars with the titles superimposed.



I'm embarrassed to say that it never occurred to me to go past a cursory survey of what's online, otherwise I would have known that they backed Neil Young, at least once, in 1993. How did I not hear about this one? That's the video above. It's a show in Belgium, a full two hour set. I know what you're thinking. It could be really great or really suck. It is really great in some parts, and it really sucks in some, but the juxtaposition of Steve Cropper and Neil Young is interesting, not just for the playing but the ego dynamic, particularly because Cropper is known to think that his shit don't stink. And you know that Neil Young just don't fuckin' care.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
Booker T and the MGs - Green Onions mp3 at Internet Archive
Booker T and the MGs - Time Is Tight
mp3 at Internet Archive
Booker T and the MGs - Hip Hug-Her mp3 at Internet Archive
Booker T and the MGs - Summertime mp3 at Internet Archive
Booker T and the MGs - Boot-Leg mp3
at Internet Archive

Thursday, June 7, 2018

IT'S SAFE NOW BABY

Marlena Shaw's "California Soul" came up today. I'd been avoiding it for the past few years because it was in commercials and I didn't want any associations. I went cold turkey. Whenever one of the commercials came on, I turned the sound off. That was a few years ago, and now the coast is clear. I went back to it today. Hell yeah. It sounded better than I remembered it. A lot better.

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Listen:
Marlena Shaw - California Soul mp3 at Copy This

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

CAN'T TOUCH THIS

I've posted Ray Charles here before, several times. But I don't think I've ever gone back to listen to "What I'd Say". I did tonight, and it sounded great, and I can see why it was a hit, and so on and so forth, but what struck me tonight is how he milked the song. It's got long introduction, the vocal part, the solos, the call and response vocals in the last part of the song. It does all this without going anywhere, all this switching of gears just to parallel park. But shit what a song.

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Listen:

Tuesday, June 5, 2018

ANALOG, YO

I heard an awful reggae cut a few nights ago. I'll have to track it down and post it here. It had all sorts of digital shit going on, dripping in Autotune. It fucking rattled me, it sounded so phony. So, to get it out of my head I made a bee-line to my safe harbor, the roots/DJ/lovers rock era roughly mid-seventies, early eighties. I ran into a few I hadn't heard, including a different version of Burning Spear's "Creation Rebel". Yee haw. I'll post that shitty song later.

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Listen:
Big Youth - 6 Dead 19 Gone To Jail mp3 at Wailers Discography
Burning Spear - Creation Rebel mp3
at Wailers Discography
Gregory Isaacs - Tide Is High mp3
at Wailers Discography
Dennis Brown - No More Will I Roam mp3
at Wailers Discography

Sunday, June 3, 2018

FROM SAM'S HALL CLOSET

I remember a ways back that I promised to post every song in the Sun Records discography even if it takes me a million years. I'm not backing out of that, I'm just taking my sweet ass time. And today, I make progress. Here's a handful from Jack Earls and Jimmy Wages, two obscure Sun artists, two among many. Running across Wages's "Mad Man" changed my night. First off, I don't care who the artist is. If it's a song called "Mad Man" there is a very good chance I'm going to click. A song called "Mad Man", recorded at Sun, there is no way that I'm not going to check it out. That got me to thinking about all the others that recorded at Sun, the artists that no one hears that might not have as snappy of a song title. They deserve a shot too, if for no other reason than they recorded at Sun. Good enough for me.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Listen:
Jimmy Wages - Mad Man mp3 at Rocky 52
Jimmy Wages - Heartbreakin' Love mp3
at Rocky 52
Jack Earls and the Jimbos - Slow Down mp3
at Rocky 52
Jack Earls and the Jimbos - A Fool For Lovin' You mp3
at Rocky 52
Jack Earls and the Jimbos - Crawdad Hole mp3
at Rocky 52

Friday, June 1, 2018

SONGS THE FREAK TAUGHT ME

Whoa. I just ran into what was my first exposure to moving images of David Bowie. I was sixteen and all I knew of Bowie musically was Ziggy Stardust. YouTube and DVDs were still decades away. As far as visuals, all I had to go on was album cover photos and magazines. Those were the days when concerts were about the only way that you would experience a live performance, unless the artist was big enough to gain a slot on one of the late night concert shows, the big two being Don Kirshner's Rock Concert and The Midnight Special (the latter hosted by Wolfman Jack). We knew Bowie was going to be on the Midnight Special so the usual late night teen high-jinks were clipped early in order to be home in time to see it.

I remember being in my parents living room with my brother as we watched the freak show unfold. Despite having seen photos of Bowie and hearing some of his music, I wasn't prepared for an eyebrow-less androgynous skinny as a rail dude with more costumes than Cher. It was engaging. Radical. I realized what all the fuss was about. This guy was different. He made Jagger look like a jock. When he did his singer/guitar flirting with Mick Ronson, I'd no clue that it was to sell records. I had no idea that any of the over-the-top-ness of it was designed to sell records. All I could think of is that we had here one bona fide freak show.


Seeing it again after all these years was an eye opener. The tightness of the band is pretty amazing considering that it was shot live. The set includes a few covers from the LP that was released a couple weeks earlier, Pinups. It was an LP consisting of all covers aimed at the U.S. market where the originals weren't well known. That LP turned me on to songs I'd never heard the originals of, and in some cases, never heard of the band. Hard to believe I'd yet to hear Barret-era Pink Floyd, the Pretty Things, Them and the Yardbirds. Thinking back, the Who and the Kinks, might have been the only bands that I was even familiar with. Here's a few from the Pinups LP.

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Listen:
David Bowie - See Emily Play mp3 at Stop Okay Go Pink Floyd cover
David Bowie - I Wish You Would mp3
at STL.ZV (?) Yardbirds cover
David Bowie - Here Comes the Night mp3
at ATumblr (?) Them cover
David Bowie - Sorrow mp3
at Crearefnet (?) Cover of the Merseys cover of the McCoys