THE QUEEN IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE QUEEN.

Aretha Franklin's all day funeral was today, You've probably heard about it. I didn't get a chance to view more than a couple minutes. So I'm not going to waste time here. I'm going elsewhere to at least look at a few highlights, shallow as that sounds. I gotta be honest. It was something like eight hours long. There's no way I'm going to sit there and watch all of it. It's totally deserved, but my attention span isn't that heavy duty.

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Listen:

Aretha Franklin - Night Time Is the Right Time mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Aretha Franklin - Don't Play That Song mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Aretha Franklin - You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman mp3 at Jakes All Star Karaoke

YOUR MOVE, LADIES.

I apologize in advance for linking to something on Facebook. Particularly if it's only available if you are signed in. But this is too good not to share. Steve Jones eating pizza while dancing old man stylee in his skivvies to "Telstar". You might think, as I did, that it could not be better. It's hilarious. Just so ludicrous and pointless. Mindless or self effacing, I don't care. It's lame, and it is brilliant. It's dada. I thought it couldn't be better. Then I happened to hear Captain Beefheart's cover of Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy", I thought, and I was correct, that it would make an excellent soundtrack to the Jonesy pizza dance. Cued it up, and hit play on both. Hell yeah, a whole other monster. Worth the hassle, believe me. That goes double for you stoners.

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Listen: 

Steve Jones - More pizza! (video) at Facebook Dancing and eating pizza to "Telstar"
Captain Beefheart - Diddy Wah Diddy mp3 at ATumblr (?)
The Tornadoes - Telstar mp3 at Stop Okay Go

NEVER GIVE AN OLD MAN A GUN

Fuck, I'm not even going to try tonight. I got as far as the first song of a Motown podcast and it was off to the races. Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On", I hadn't heard it in at least a year. It's so smooth. If you're familiar with the original, check the demo, Still does the trick. More so in my book.

Man, what a loss. Shot dead by his dad. How fucked up is that? And judging by "Sexual Healing", released two years before his death in 1982, he still very much had it. Guns.

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Listen:

Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On (streaming) at YouTube
Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On (demo) mp3 at Evil Vince
Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing mp3 at Weebly

The podcast:

Discovering Motown 75  at MixCloud via Motown Junkies and Radio Cardiff

ALRIGHT DEPOT

The Impressions' "It's All Right" 1963: Hell yeah it's all right. Man, what a killer song. It's late afternoon with your buds, totally chilling. After a couple Brew 102s you pick up steam with J.J. Jackson's "But It's Alright".

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Listen:

The Impressions - It's All Right mp3 at Internet Archive 1963

J.J. Jackson - But, It's Alright (streaming) at YouTube 1966

HEAD SAID LESTER DEAD

Today a friend of mine posted on Facebook that he was just told that Lazy Lester died on Friday. That would be news enough. But the person who told him was Roy Head. Fuck-ing A, Ràchac knows everybody. That's the friend who posted it, Gary Ràchac. Good guy. He was friends with another Lester, Bangs, from way back, the El Cajon years. Partied with Keith Moon. A few years before Gary left town I went to see him at the record store he worked at. (Actually, I went to look at records, he just came in the deal. But it was always good to catch up.) That day I got there after he had just kicked Wildman Fisher out of the store. I have no clue how he knows Wildman Fisher or Roy Head. He's fucking Ràchac. Knows everybody.

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Listen: 

Lazy Lester - Ponderosa Stomp mp3 at The B Side

Lazy Lester - They Call Me Lazy (streaming) at YouTube 12 song

BLOW WITH RY

It might be because I've been reading so much non-fiction lately, but Ry Cooder's book of short stories, Los Angeles Stories, is hard to put down. It's noir type stuff, all centered in L.A. and surrounding areas. There's all sorts of offbeat characters: musicians, car guys, thieves, racketeers, bar owners, restaurant owners, gun shop owners. There's greasy spoons, flop houses, bars, beaches, highways and cars of all sorts. Coming from a musician, I wasn't expecting to be sucked in. But it's good, really good. Like a Raymond Chandler book, with all sorts of references to places that you'll recognize if you're from Southern California, but Cooder's work has musicians who make cameo appearances, most names only the fiendish will recognize. Yee haw, some background investigatin'. Seriously, I may read it again just to revisit the references. In just one story there's Lorrie Collins (Collins Kids), Joe Maphis, Merle Travis and Paul Bigsby, the latter the designer of the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece, And Bigsby's name-dropped in another. All that and crime, drinking, a whole lotta shootings, fast cars, murdercycles, and women. Transvestites, coaches, landlords, trolley drivers and cheeseburgers. And.whiskey, and coffee and cigarettes. And a lot of questions.

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Listen:

Joe Maphis and Rose Lee - Dim Lights, Thick Smoke mp3 at Rocky 52 1953
Joe Maphis - Guitar Rock 'n' Roll mp3 at Rocky 52 1956
The Collins Kids - Beetle Bug Bop mp3 at Rocky 52 1955
Merle Travis - Blue Smoke  mp3 at Rocky 52 1957

CALVIN OWENS WHO?

Holy shit. If this one doesn't have everything, it comes damn close. Less than two and a half minutes and yet time enough for a twenty second break right smack dab in the middle. If I was a DJ or sampling kind I wouldn't be typing this. I'd be chopping this sucker up to put to future use. On top of the skins, the bass player is going at it like he's downed a case of Red Bull. And in the second half the brass wails. Wails. This isn't the greatest instrumental 45 ever, but it's definitely the best I've heard this week.

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Listen:

Calvin Owens' Show - The Cat mp3 at Melting Pot
Four more slabs of goodness at Melting Pot

IN THE RED. YES.

Sometimes it works best when you don't know what you're doing. Samuel Charters was not really a record producer. You can tell. The production on "It Must Have Been the Devil" is shit. But it's awesome shit. The mix is all off, and that's what I really dig about it.The intro is good enough, Spann's piano, with beat ass drums, raw guitar tone, and James Cotton on harp. Then Spann's vocals come in with what just might be the most perfect amount of distortion ever recorded. Perfect. I've played this song eighty times in the last couple of days. Samuel Charters. Fuckin' A. Hee-Haw salute.

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Listen:
Otis Spann - It Must Have Been the Devil mp3 at Internet Archive
Otis Spann - Half Ain't Been Told mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Otis Spann - Worried Life Blues mp3 ar ATumblr (?)

DO IT.

Are you kidding me? I took one look at that sleeve and there's no way I'm not going to post it. I don't care what the music sounds like. I'm rolling the dice just like you. I haven't even listened to this nut yet. Kook points tip the scale, baby.

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Listen:

Pantherman - The Definitive Pantherman EP (streaming) at Frank Klunhaar 5 song mix and a bio that seems to have been written by the Pantherman himself. Don't know for sure. I haven't read it. Same spot you're in. What are you going to do?

SERIOUSLY. LADIES OF SUMMER. EVERY YEAR.

I can't believe this just happened. Just the other day when I heard Sister Nancy's "Bam Bam" and was thinking back about how I'd heard it a few years ago blasting from a passing cars stereo, I was thinking, "Man, wouldn't that be something if I heard 'Uptown Top Ranking' blasting from from a car radio?" I almost mentioned that in the post two days ago but thought that the day rightfully belonged to Sister Nancy. Well guess what? Today I heard "Uptown Top Ranking" coming out of a car window. First time ever I've heard it in public space. I think the only time I've even heard it in a club is when me or a friend was DJing and that was years ago. So being excitable with these sorts of events, I flipped, and yelled "Yeah! Althea and Donna!" and the driver gave me a knowing smile. It's just crazy, the song is from 1977 and is the woman driving the car looked to be in her late twenties. It did not compute. What's really crazy is that, not only was I on my way home from the beach like I had been when I heard "Bam Bam", but the car that was playing "Uptown Top Ranking" was pulling out from the same parking lot driveway that the "Bam Bam" car was. Pier parking lot, Ocean Beach, 92107, yo. If I hear Rita Marley's "One Draw" in that same spot I'll probably shit my pants.

Looking for "One Draw" I just ran across a live thing from 2010. Rita Marley introduces her sisters who, if I heard correctly, grew up in Sweden. The show was at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. Shit, that place was happening when I was there back in the eighties. A converted church if I remember correctly. I saw a Gregory Corso reading followed by a set from Nico. In Amsterdam? Hell yeah I had one draw. More than one.

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Listen:
Althea and Donna - Uptown Top Ranking mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Rita Marley - One Draw (streaming) at YouTube Ext 12" version
Scout Niblett - Uptown Top Ranking mp3 at SCJAG (?) Inna Cat Power stylee (lethargic)
Video:
Althea and Donna - Uptown Top Ranking (TV) at YouTube
Rita Marley - One Draw (Live, Paradiso 2010) at YouTube

NOT MICK JAGGER

Late to the party, per usual. A friend of mine, Cat if I remember correctly, used to rave about Blaze Foley. Townes Van Zant and Jimmy Dale Gilmore too I think. I don't know, I could have it all fucked up. Regardless, someone told me years ago to listen to Blaze Foley. I put it on the When I Get to Friends Recommendations part of the list. Which, if I ever get to it, I cherry pick. Country and Western and/or Americana type stuff never gets a fair shake. It's lyrics music. Not butt shakin', no mind blowing solos, deep bass, fuzz, wah wah. Just simple, heartfelt. I never get around to that type of stuff. Yeah, I know, my loss.

Prior to today I'd heard one Blaze Foley song. Today I listened to Blaze Foley for the second time. What prompted me was a profile in Mojo. Foley sounded like my kind of people. A guy trying to make a living playing music without playing the game. Homeless at times, partied too much, recordings lost or destroyed. Every fucked thing you can imagine. But the dude wrote good songs, or so I'm told. Gimme a break, I've heard like ten songs.

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Listen:
Blaze Foley - Clay Pigeons mp3 at When You Awake (?)
Blaze Foley - If I Could Only Fly (live) mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Blaze Foley - If I Could Only Fly (studio) (streaming) at YouTube

THE LADY KEEPS POPPING UP

It's been three years since I mentioned a chance encounter with Sister Nancy's "Bam Bam" blasting out a car on my way home from the beach. It was strange because the song dates back to 1993, and it's rare to find anyone in these parts that even knows who she is. Since then I've heard it four times in different parts of the neighborhood. I've obviously missed something. Was it in movie lately? Is there popular song that samples it? A remix?

I do seem to remember that the younger surf crowd around here, the Sightly Stoopid guys and their mob, thought Yellowman was all the rage in recent years. Not a big jump from Yellowman to Sister Nancy. So, is that the deal? Today I was walking past the Noodle House, a, er, noodle house that's pretty buch a bar with noodles. Owned by the sons of the couple who own the donut shop up the street. The sons went to school with the same younger surf crowd (now that I think about it, they're not really young. Younger than me.) Out of the Noodle House comes "Bam Bam". I was with my niece who is also part of that vague crowd, and knows the Noodle House bros. I mentioned that it was an obscure choice, and then she started singing along to it. She knew the song. Now I'm perplexed. I asked her where she knew the song from and she said she's just heard it a bunch.

I went to Wikipedia and saw this: "Beginning in 1991 with Main Source 'Bam Bam' has been sampled in 73 songs". Okay, then this: "most recently Kanye West’s 2016 hit 'Famous'." Aw, fuck me. That asshole?

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Listen:
Sister Nancy - Bam Bam mp3 at Tumblr (?)
Sister Nancy - Roof Over Mi Head mp3 at Fat Berri's
Sister Nancy- Ain't No Stoppin' Nancy mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Video:
Sister Nancy- Bam Bam (live) at YouTube A smoke and a beer while on the mic says something
The History Of Sister Nancy’s “Bam Bam” at YouTube Sound bites of sampling songs near the end.

SHIT WEEK STRIKES AGAIN

By now you know the Queen of Soul is dead. Fuck. There's no replacing her. Gone. That's enough to make it Shit Week. To make matters worse a friend of mine passed away two days ago. Suicide. He was the nicest guy, around the scene for decades. A music freak, mechanically minded, artistic, and selfless, big in the local chapter of Amnesty International. The type of guy that you'd see at shows, or at a taco stand, random places over the years and just assume that everything's ducky. I never saw him angry, sad, or distraught. Then out of nowhere, gone. That one I cannot wrap my head around. He wasn't irrational, or a substance abuser (even when many of us were), always level headed. It just doesn't seem possible. Needless to say I've been a bit distracted the last day and a half.

Tim, my friend that passed, was a roots guy. One band I associate him with is the Blasters. So here's some Blasters. If you need an Aretha fix, check this post from a couple days ago.

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Listen: 
The Blasters - Red Rose mp3 at AM Then FM
The Blasters - Dark Night mp3 at ATumblr (?)
The Blasters - Marie Marie (streaming) at YouTube OG Rollin' Rock version

WELL HOWDY MERRILL

Listen to new music? Hell yeah, Listen to these three tunes. It's new music to me, music new to me. Same difference. I heard these songs for the first time tonight and had never heard of Moore at all. As long as that keeps happening, I don't feel the urgency to scope "new" bands. I just need a steady fix of good shit, regardless of vintage.

NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~ 

Listen:

Merrill Moore - House Of Blue Lights mp3 at Internet Archive
Ernie K Doe's Blue Diamond With Billy Tate & His Band - No Money mp3 at Internet Archive
John Lee Hooker & His Band - No More Doggin' mp3 at Internet Archive

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN. DUDE, PLEASE.

Oh man, this was bad news. This morning while driving I heard that Aretha Franklin was "gravely ill". As details seeped in during the day, reports that she may have cancer and had not publicized her diagnosis. More reports that family members had gathered at her bedside. Whatever, it doesn't sound good. So, if you're religious, say a prayer. If you're a hippie or something, send good vibes. Thoughts, prayers, vibes,...shit, raise a glass in some dank bar. At least pause and reflect on her immense talent, her nearly spotless track record, and her longevity. Many of you may have taken her for granted. Fuck, she is an American treasure with no asterisk. Those of you of a certain age know why she is the queen. It occurred to me today that some of you younger people might not have a clue. I suggest you get yourself a "Best of" at the very least. To not know Aretha Franklin is to not know music, regardless of your preferred genre.

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Listen:
Aretha Franklin - Rough Lover mp3 at Groove Addict Early, 1962.
Aretha Franklin - I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You) mp3 at Funky 16 Corners
Aretha Franklin - Spirit in the Dark mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools mp3 at Russ Strathdee
Aretha Franklin - Rock Steady (alternate mix) mp3 at Plain or Pan The shit. Period.
Aretha Franklin - The Weight mp3 at Super Position Kitty Duane Allman guitar, Muscle Shoals.

BLAME THIS

I spent the last two days at the beach. Rather than rattle my brain for some band or song to write about, here's what I'm playing after day two, pretty much spent. It fits my mood. Plus it's been a while since I listened to either Sugarman 3 or the Daktaris. Pop a beer or stuff a bowl, I don't care. I just talked my way out of another one.

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Listen: 
Sugarman Three - Rudy's Intervention mp3 at Magnet
Sugarman Three - Soul Donkey mp3 at The Frump
Lee Fields and Sugarman & Co. - Stand Up .mp3 at Lemellotron.com
The Daktaris - Musicai Silt mp3 at Big Rock Candy Mountain
The Daktaris - Super Afro Beat mp3 at ATumblr (?)

CHILL TO THIS FUCKER

You may or may not being indulging me. Maybe I'm not the only one who loves this song. I think it might be because I went a good twenty years without hearing it before I got it again a few years ago. It initially came to me when I was about eighteen via an older beach friend, who surfed, played bass and got laid. (I surfed, rather shoddily, I was just starting to mess with bass, and had never been laid.) It was summer when I first heard it. It was early evening after the beach chill (without the connotations) music, after surf stuff, with Russell's drawl, tasty slide, sounds of the ocean, and bird noises, àla Martin Denny, who I was just discovering courtesy of thrift store roulette. This is very specific sub-sub-genre. 

It works as atmospheric music, stoner music, three beer buzz music, getting frisky music, navel contemplating music, you just can't rock out to it.. It's a beautiful song. I really dig the backing vocals so went looking for who it was (Mary McCreary, Russell's future wife). Then I looked at who else was on it. Steve Cropper (on that tasty slide, Cropper, go figure), Duck Dunn and Al Jackson. In other words, the MGs of Booker T and the MGs.

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Listen:
Leon Russell - Back to the Island mp3 at Internet Archive

WHO'S LARRY GRAHAM?

It wasn't always there, the funk influence. It came in gradually. Sometime after punk. Bands were trying new things. Though the funk influence, really blossomed in the eighties (thanks to an exploding "alternative" audience) there were seeds of it way earlier. Black Randy and the Metro Squad (LA), James White and the Blacks (NYC) and Gang of Four (UK) and so on. Check the latter's "Damaged Goods" below. Shit, that's 1978. By 1982 they're getting all kinds of  college radio funky ("I Love A Man In Uniform"). The Talking Heads incorporated all sorts of shit, funk, African music and so on, but you knew that. Hell, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, before they sucked, had some funk in them, if only because of Flea's bass playing. "Real Men Don't Kill Coyotes" is from their first LP, produced by, guess who? Andy Gill, from the Gang of Four.

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Listen:
Gang Of Four - Damaged Goods mp3 at Boebis 1978
Black Randy and the Metro Squad - Give It Up Or Turnit A Loose mp3 at Killed By Death 1979 Go there to get it
Gang Of Four - I Love A Man In A Uniform (streaming) at YouTube 1982
Talking Heads = I Zimbra mp3 at Feel My Bicep 1983
Red Hot Chili Peppers - True Men Don't Kill Coyotes mp3 at ATumblr (?) 1984

TOO DAMN HOT

It's fucking hot. Breaking records hot. I was trying to think of a song to match the mood. Thinking about all sorts of hot weather songs, and dismissing them for one reason or another. "Hot, Hot, Hot" by Buster Poindexter? Hell no. Solo David Johansen is bad enough, let alone some alter ego shtick. Third World's "96 Degrees In the Shade"? Not really getting there. They had the unfortunate experience of having been on too many Island Records compilations with much heavier reggae acts. Hendrix's "Long Hot Summer Night"? Getting closer. Oh yeah, Sly and the Family Stone's "Hot Fun In the Summertime", that'll work. Not a song about excessive heat, but a song about, golly gee, fun in the summertime. I can get behind that. When I listen to it, for whatever reason, I'm transported back to my Mom's front lawn, hanging with friends trying to figure out what to do with the hours left of daylight after dinner. Pick some fruit and throw it at passing cars? Go skateboarding? It's still years away from beer and girls. No school for months. Not a damn care in the world. It doesn't matter what we do. We have tomorrow.

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Listen:
Sly and the Family Stone - Hot Fun In the Summertime mp3 at So Well Remembered
Jimi Hendrix Experience - Long Hot Summer Night mp3 at ATumblr
Third World - 96 Degrees In the Shade mp3 at Internet Archive

OH YES IT'S LADIES NIGHT

Seriously, that photo above is so totally badass. It's the Liverbirds, who have been here before. But this week I started obsessing about the vocal delivery of Valerie Gell on their cover of "Peanut Butter". I'd compare it to a cartoon of a sneer but she really does sound tough enough to interpret it as a bona fide I don't give a fuck. Check them live (link also below).

That wasn't the only cover I was obsessing about this week. I'm reading Viv Albertine's first book, she was in the Slits,  and was reminded what a young band they were when they recorded "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". One thing I didn't realize is that it was their first record. Wow. Ari Up was, what, fifteen? That's a pretty inventive interpretation despite their lack of experience. Oh yeah, the released version was a first take.

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Listen:
The Liverbirds - Peanut Butter mp3 at Internet Archive
The Slits - I Heard It Through the Grapevine mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Video:
The Liverbirds - Peanut Butter (live) at YouTube
The Slts - I Heard It Through the Grapevine (live) at YouTube

IT'S SURF MUSIC SOMEWHERE

Fuckin' A, it was in the mid-eighties today, and the ocean water temperature is in the high seventies (record breaking, thanks global warming) so all logic would point to surf music. I wasn't in the mood for Egyptian jazz. I didn't even know Egyptian jazz existed. But one cut by Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band has sidelined me for the last hour.

Apparently this guy Ragab started the first jazz band in Egypt. He met a guy named Osman Kareem who had played with Bud Powell and moved to Cairo to study Islam. Kareem turned Ragab onto jazz. After Kareem split from Egypt, Ragab decided to put together a jazz orchestra. He had plenty of musicians to pick from. He was the head of the military music department and, according to this biography at Bandcamp (a good one by the way), had thousands of musicians to choose from. He picked twenty and they started to learn jazz, or their version of it, from scratch If he picked you, and you didn't like jazz, tough shit. Now this is where the guy starts to sound like an asshole. According to his long time friend, Rashad Fahim (source: bio mentioned above) “He ordered all the soldiers to play those jazz tunes, and if they don’t do it, he told them that he would put them in prison.” What a fuck. But you know what? The music holds up. Somewhere between Sun Ra (who he played with) and Mulatu Astatke, that sort of stuff. Exotic. Distant.

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Listen:
Sala Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band - Dawn mp3 at For the Sake of the Song Go there to get it.
Sala Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band - Cleopatra (steaming) at YouTube
The whole LP:
Salah Ragab and the Cairo Jazz Band Presents Egyptian Jazz (1968-73) (streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
How Salah Ragab Became an Undisputed Icon in Egyptian Jazz at Bandcamp

MORRICONE'S BIG ONE.

Most of us have heard Ennio Morricone's theme for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly a zillion times. Dig the video of a guy doing it by himself, imitating stuff like lead guitar and the brass with his vocals. It's pretty damn cool.

If you aren't familiar with the song, here it is, no excuses. It really is a piece of work. Morricone packs a lot into two and a half minutes.

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Listen:
Ennio Moricone - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly mp3 at Ngamer.speedrunwiki (?)

BULLMOOSE, SAD HEAD AND GATOR TAIL

It's Saturday night and the jazz station has a show called "Saturday Night Fish Fry". Everybody digs it. It's named after the Louis Jordan song, so you know what your getting. Jump blues, rhythm and blues, the whole Johnny Otis type  shootin' match. So, I'm listening to that. Can't change moods, so here's some of that. Let's not mention who covered "Big Ten Inch". I'd like to forget that band existed. Bullmoose Jackson (above) recorded the only version you need.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~ 

Listen:
Bullmoose Jackson And His Buffalo Bearcats - Big Ten Inch mp3 at Internet Archive
Mr. Sad Head - Butcher Boy mp3 at Internet Archive
Milt Trenier and His Solid Six - Squeeze Me mp3 at Internet Archive
Willis Jackson 'Gator Tail' And His Gators - Gator's Groove mp3 at Internet Archive This smokes.

HELLO OLD FRIEND

Man, I'm not going to try to make excuses. I know Alton Ellis has been here a lot. Fuck it. I was in a crap mood the other day and all I had to do was think of Alton Ellis's music and all the shit felt trivial. It was very much, and I know I overuse this angle, like hanging out with an old friend. His music has been with me for far more good times than bad, for, shit, decades. Reason enough.

Most of the links below have not appeared here; one or two might have. Hey, it's Alton Ellis.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~ 

Listen:
Alton Ellis - Rock Steady mp3 at SLPLP
Alton Ellis - Reason In ths Sky mp3 at Essentially Eclectic
Alton Ellis - Mad Mad Mad Mad mp3 at Wayne and Wax
Alton Ellis - My Willow Tree mp3 at Internet Archive
Alton Ellis - Dance Crasher mp3 at Honorama Early

THE THING WITH THREE REEDS

One of the things I've picked up on in the past is a better then average knowledge of door locks and how they work. Better than average, not an expert by any means. But I know enough that I occasionally get a call from someone who wants to find out if a lock can be repaired, and if it's something they can handle. One time I asked the guy what it looked like. "It's just a mess of tangled brass." Translated: "Rahsaan Roland Kirk".

Kirk played about a thousand instruments, some traditional, some modified tradional, some exotic, some self made. Sometimes he played more than one at the same time. Sometimes as in often. Check the video below, 1967. Ho-ly shit. It's another trip to the Transporter Room.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Rashaan Roland Kirk - Mystical Dreams mp3 at ACZET (?)
Rashaan Roland Kirk - Raouf  mp3 at Melting Pot He goes off between :30 and :50. Exhausting to listen to, It just gets weirder from there.
Rashaan Roland Kirk - Three more songs at Melting Pot Some good reading too. A great post.