POST-BEACH, BACKYARD ROCK

It was nice here today, one of those rare mid-winter days where it seems like spring isn't that far off. I headed to the beach and, with the exception of the water temperature and the lack of tourists, it could have been a summer day. Barefoot, shorts, the works. On the way back from the beach I was thinking of surf music, second guessing myself because it's only the end of January. Then a small flock of parrots flew over, squawking their feathered asses off. The parrots don't usually show up in these parts until late spring. Yikes. No wonder the polar bears are having such a tough go at it. Uh-oh. Get Greta on the line, stat.

So, if it feels like summer and the parrots are telling me the real thing is coming sooner than usual, what the hell, here's some surf. Oddball and vintage, all from the vaults of Downey Records, home of the Rumblers. What's with the song titles though? Do you think "Migraine" is gonna sell? "Theme of Etiquette"? And how about that glaring band name. "Hey man, you gonna checkout Pastel Six tonight?"

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Listen:

The Hustlers - Migraine mp3 at Internet Archive
Pastel Six - Bandido mp3 at Internet Archive
The Hindus - Theme of Etiquette mp3 at Internet Archive

ANTI-TRUMP, PRO-THIS GUY.

It you're not familiar with what's going on in the U.S., it's a shit show right now. One party is, in effect, hoping you won't notice the wet spot if they don't look at it. There's an impeachment trial going on, to impeach Donald Trump. I will not call him president, because there is nothing presidential about him. Don't get me started. Let's just say, if you ever watched The Apprentice, you fed the fuck. That's just the beginning. On to other things. Sort of.

Someone posted a Bernie Sanders campaign ad tonight, featuring a cover of Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'". It got me to thinking about the song and about Bernie Sanders, whom I fully support. Regardless of if he becomes the next Democrat candidate for president, just as when he was a candidate the last go around, I'll donate to his campaign because at the end of the day, if his voice is out there, as it has been since the last election, it benefits me in the long run.

After watching that spot, I went back to Dylan's version and, in doing so, was amazed at how it applies to today. Just one example:

"Come senators, congressmen, please head the call, Don't stand in the doorway, don't lock up the hall, for he who is hurt is he who has stalled, there's a battle outside that's raging."

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Listen:
Bob Dylan = The Times They Are A-Changin' mp3 at Free Beer For Yorky

SLUDGE NA NA

Every once in a while you just have to have some raunchy shit. I don't know, it might not be the same for you but, while I do have a fondness for expertly crafted music, sometimes I really need to hear something that starts with feedback or an in-the-red distorted bass lick; something that kind of ignores finesse and just blows shit up. The Germs can do that. Flipper too in a more sludgy way, and post-pit Black Flag, when they started to stretch. Pissed Jeans are like a mix of those three. Derivative? Shit yeah, derivative of those three bands to start. But I'm not about to split hairs about that, not when their sound is capable of splitting skulls. This is good ol' fashioned American noisy shit. The individual songs below have been posted before, but there's another link to their LP, King of Jeans, which I think I remember being what put them on the map. I'm definitely past the age of playing fan boy, so I don't know their names or much about them at all. I don't even know if they still exist. I don't care, I just like to blow it up on a Tuesday night.

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Listen:
Pissed Jeans - Closet Marine mp3 at Pissed Jeans
Pissed Jeans - Dream Smotherer mp3 at Subpop
Pissed Jeans - False Jesii Part 2 mp3 at Subpop
Pissed Jeans - People Person mp3 at Subpop
Pissed Jeans - I've Still Got You (Ice Cream) mp3 at Subpop
The LP:
Pissed Jeans - King of Jeans at I Don't Care About Sleep 12 songs in a zip.

DODD AT THE CONTROLS

Ah, hell yeah. You could do a lot worse. Twenty two minutes of three extended mix 12"s, from the vaults of Studio One. That's the man above, Coxsone Dodd, who likely had nothing to do with these mixes. But it was his studio, his label, and at that time, early seventies, he was the absolute shit. Like a Phil Spector or Sam Phillips, but in reggae. I've posted Studio One stuff here many times. You may have noticed sometimes oddballs pop up in Dodd's discography. Though records coming out of Studio One were primarily reggae, even then there was some weird shit going on.

In the middle of this mix (below), there appears to be some sort of synth strings (or some other kind of keyboard that mimics strings) and there's some flute, giving it a sort of Blaxploitation soundtrack vibe, still with a reggae beat. I normally hate fake strings but if it was real strings on this it would just sound too polished, too fancy.

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Listen:
12 Inch Session #23 – Brentford Disco Set mix mp3 at Roots and Culture
Mix contains:
Jackie Mittoo, Brentford Disco Set and Jah Stone – Gold Streak (Studio One – 197X) [0:00 > 8:38]
Richard Ace and Brentford Disco Set – Mo-Bay Dub / Mo-Bay Special (Coxson – 1972) [8:38> 14:24]
Brentford Disco Set – Rebel Disco (Studio One – 197X) [14:24 > 22:15]

GREAT TACOS IN HISTORY

I haven't been to Tijuana in ages. I'm only 18 miles from the border, but the stricter ID regulations for crossing the border require two official government issued IDs to cross, so I'm in the process of getting the second one I need. I'm a little apprehensive. Just like people from New York City who have told me that I wouldn't recognize the neighborhood I lived in during a short period in 1986 (Lower East Side), I've been told that TJ has been spiffed up and you have to go into the back streets to get the vibe of yore. Fine, I can do that. It's strange that I've let so much time pass since the last time I was down there. Particularly because I have nothing but good memories. I love Mexico and have never had a bad experience. Hairy, yes, but always unscathed.

Los Pingüinos del Norte

I was already thinking about Mexico while listening to a couple cuts of norteño by Los Pingüinos del Norte. Then, in the middle of one of the songs I start getting the smells. My neighbor is grilling steak right outside my kitchen door. All of a sudden I'm transported to the taco stand next to the Woolworths on Revolución in downtown Tijuana. All I need is the smell of a just opened Corona (sans lime fuck you very much) and the smell of beat up cars burning leaded gas. Nevermind the fact that Los Pingüinos del Norte are from somewhere south of Texas, this sort of shit played all over the bars in TJ, bars not unlike the one in the photo above.

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Listen:
Los Pingüinos Del Norte - Yo Soy Norteño mp3 at For the Sake of the Song
Los Pingüinos Del Norte - Corrido De Luz Arcos mp3 at For the Sake of the Song

FIVE TOOL PLAYAS

Studio Beasties during bong break.

Every once in a while I go back to the Beastie Boys. Why? Because they are one of the last bands that really seemed like they were full on music fans, not of a particular genre, but of the good stuff of all genres. They borrowed or stole in the form of samples licks, riffs, effects, riddims and tempos of all sorts of types of music and they rapped over pre-recorded mixes at times, and they played their own music as a three piece unit. They kept you guessing. They didn't look to what other people were doing, they just did their stuff. They didn't give a shit about what you or I were expecting. They more than proved themselves worthy, growing LP after LP, after their 1986 debut Licensed to Ill, itself a groundbreaking mix of guitar riffage and rhymes (thanks in no small part to producer Rick Rubins).

I haven't heard all of their stuff, but I followed them sporadically for decades and I have heard a shitload. I can't say that I've ever heard anything that wasn't worth hearing, and that includes music from all of the different eras. Here's four taken at random, I don't think I've posted before. I didn't even bother to try to remember when these were recorded or even look it up. It doesn't matter.

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Listen:
Beastie Boys - Now Get Busy mp3 at Internet Archive
Beastie Boys - Electric Worm mp3 at Tumblr
Beastie Boys - Sure Shot mp3 at Le Mellotron
Beastie Boys - OK mp3 at Tumblr
Video:
Beastie Boys - Sabotage (live) at YouTube From Letterman 1994. Phew.

JUKE BOX JURY

This was a random click. I'd never heard of the band, I'd never heard of the song. I didn't know the release date or the country of origin. But the guitar hooked me. The tone, the riffs, the pace. This was something like a mix of the Buzzcocks and the Real Kids, with a little Jet (remember them?). Three minutes of crunchy goodness. The big question? On the basis of one song, they were pretty much batting a thousand. Dare I go further? This took some deliberation. If they were as good as that one song with their other stuff, I'd likely have at least heard of them before. And it their other stuff sucked, would it diminish my fondness for the song I just listened to? I listened to it a couple more times and decided to take the plunge.

Right off the bat it became a challenge. The band's name was the Ramblers. Do you have any idea how many bands there are with that name? Even armed with the song title ("Solid Ground") there was practically nothing to be found. I did find an entry at Discogs, but after seeing what the the name of the album the song came from, things were getting sketchy. Are you ready for this? The album title: The Kids Are Back To Rock 'n' Roll. Oh jeez. How the fuck are you going to defend that? I looked at their discography. They were German and this sucker was released in 1978. Okay, so I'll take the one song. One non-hit wonder. It's happened before.

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Listen:
The Ramblers - Solid Ground mp3 at Mod Punk Archive If the link is dead, YouTube has it
Video:
The Ramblers - The Kids Are Back To Rock 'n' Roll at YouTube Yikes. When did punk rock finally get to Germany?
Visit:
The Ramblers - Discography at Discogs

THE MAN WITH THE HALFTONE HEAD

Last night while fiddle farting around I was listening to Saturday Night Fish Fry, a rhythm and blues radio show that just plain kicks ass. I've probably mentioned it before. If you like rhythm and blues, jump blues, and that type of stuff, primarily from the forties and fifties there's a link below (they stream the show online). That lead to an r&b dig, and I was reminded of this cheapo 10 CD Rhythm and Blues set with a couple hundred cuts. There are partial song samples posted at Internet Archive, but the set is so damn cheap (about $20 U.S.) that if you're into that type of music you really ought to shell out some of your fancy beer money. It's a no frills set with no liner notes, just song titles and artists, and it's got about the most generic name possible, Rhythm and Blues, so it can be hard to find. (Just search the "ASIN# B000AAP7IU" and it'll pop up.)

My aim was to post some Amos Milburn, the first artist on the first disc of that box set, and take if from there. I instead settled on Roy Milton because his stuff was easy to find, surprisingly easy. Following Milton I was off to the races, so Milton is what you get. I checked out and finished the night flat out fucking around while listening to about third of that set. Baby. I just can't stop.

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Listen:
Roy Milton - Milton's Boogie mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People
Roy Milton - New Years Resolution Blues mp3 at Snuhthing Anything
Roy Milton - The Numbers Blues mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People
Roy Milton - R.M. Blues mp3 at Le Mellotron
Roy Milton - Tons of 78s at Internet Archive
Boxed set (samples only):
Rhythm and Blues at Internet Archive
Visit:
Saturday Night Fish Fry radio show (streaming) at Jazz88 (Streams Saturdays 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM PST)
Roy Milton at the Heatwave Ballroom show poster Semi-high resolution
Roy Brown, Roy Milton and Camille Howard at the Hillside Theater show poster High resolution

DON'T BLINK, RUSSIAN EDITION

If you have any interest in Pussy Riot, and have only heard a cut or two, dig this quick. Eleven songs at Internet Archive just posted yesterday. I can pretty much guaranty that they won't be there for long. If you don't know who they are, well, you might deserve to be left in the dark. Go to Wikipedia or something, I don't know. Anyway, dig these while they're still there.

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Listen:
Pussy Riot - Putin Revolution mp3 at Internet Archive
Pussy Riot - Police State mp3 at Internet Archive
Pussy Riot - Nine more at Internet Archive NOTE: Once there, in the right column under "Download options" click on "VBR MP3 Files"

GREAT MOMENTS IN GLOBAL POST-PUNK WTF

These days it's not all that weird to hear bands like the Ramones blasting from ballpark sound systems between innings. We don't even notice it. But it wasn't always like that. It kind of crept in. The same thing has happened with all sorts of once marginalized music. But, when you step back and think about it, some of it makes sense. It's catchy, formulaic and it gets people riled up. And the same music is in TV commercials, played in retail outlets and so on. I didn't think that I could be surprised much anymore, but that was before seeing these two videos that just popped up on my radar in the past month.

One is purportedly the 2015 Russian Synchronized Skating Team, doing what they do, to the music of 'The Joke' by the Fall. WTF. right? I even Snoped the sucker and there was no mention of it. The soundtrack does have that indoor arena echo. It's pretty incredible when you hear the slightly more abrasive sound it has on record. What was the thought behind this marriage? I'll have to look that up.

The other video is of Javanese gamelan ensemble Sekar-Melati doing a cover of Gang of Four's "Not Great Men". What in God's name is going on with this world. I guess it makes sense. Everything's fucking global these days thanks to the goddamn internet. Everyone is wearing the same T-shirt and the same shorts. Regional style is kaput. That fucking does it. I'm going back to Jamaica.

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Listen:
The Fall - The Joke (streaming) at YouTube
Gang of Four - Not Great Men mp3 at AVC(?)

STILL READ BOOKS?

Dennis Brown and Big Youth

I had second thoughts about posting reggae again so soon. I'm in the mist of reading Lloyd Bradley's excellent Bass Culture (previously published as This Is Reggae Music), for the third time. It rules. If you have any interest in reggae but don't know where to start, this is your book. Really, I've read a bunch of books on reggae and this one has more in it than all of the others put together. So I was in the mood. I figured I'd click on a song I hadn't heard and, depending how the mood progressed, take it from there. The system was rigged though. Big Youth and Dennis Brown on the same slab. I knew, absolutely, what that would do to my mood. Between the pull of my reggae records and the book, the computer loses.

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Listen:
Big Youth and Dennis Brown - Ride On Ride On mp3 at Marley Discography
Big Youth and Dennis Brown - Wild Goose Chase mp3 at Marley Discography
Visit:
Other reggae posts here This will come in handy if you read the book.

BOY IN CAMOUFLAGE

Yellowstone, mid-sixties.

Today is my brother's birthday. He was badass. He passed away in 1997 and I miss the fuck out of him. He was my best friend. We were twins and, more often than not, into the same shit. Sometimes he and I would would find it necessary to spread the gospel, three cuts of which are below. 

Palm Desert, mid-eighties

Dick Dale called him "Timmeeey!" Jerry Lewis shouted at him "Hey Grizzy!" Ozzy Osborne bought him breakfast at Denny's. These are true facts. He had Van Dyke Parks's phone # and self portrait on a scrap of paper. When he met Harry Nilsson, Nilsson had just hung up the phone after talking to Ringo Starr. Between his dual interests, as a guitar player and music photographer, he met a lot of the hot shots. Yet, his true spirit was wrapped up in stuff like this. Amen.

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Listen:
Hasil Adkins - She Said mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy - Paralyzed mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Shaggs - My Pal Foot Foot mp3 at Secret Comics

WHY NOTHING EVER GETS DONE, PART 46

Well, there goes an hour of doinkin' around. I was browsing Cover Me and ran into a cover of the Wailers' "Slave Driver" by a quartet of banjo players, Our Native Daughters. It could suck, that's what I was thinking. It did not. It's great, a completely different song. I mean, the same song, but the feel is completely different.

Our Native Daughters

I thought I'd round up the Wailers version for comparison and all hell broke loose. I ran into all sorts of versions that I hadn't planned on. But, hell, since I ran across them, might as well pass on the links. If you know the version of "Slave Driver" that most people know, it's the version on the first big Bob Marley and the Wailers LP, Catch A Fire, and probably the Island Records version that has overdubs of session musicians on top the Wailers. I'm not sure where one of the versions below is from. It sounds like a regular recording session, but the instrumentation is more sparse and there's a handful of people clapping at the end. It definitely sounds unfinished. But I dig it, it's not as spit shined.

I went looking for a discography that might show all of the different versions to see what version I might have been listening to. I made the mistake of going to Wailers Discography. Makes sense right? Problem was, I ended up checking out stuff other than a definitive list of all of the versions of "Slave Driver". Then I ran into an "alternate weed mix" of "Stir It Up" and listened to it a few times. After that I was no longer in the mood for any of this nonsense.

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Listen:
Our Native Daughters - Slave Driver (streaming) at Bandcamp
The Wailers - Slave Driver (alt) mp3 at Majalisna (?)
The Wailers - Slave Driver (Peel Session) (streaming) at YouTube 1973
The Wailers - Stir It Up (alt. weed mix) mp3 at Wailers Discography
Video:
The Wailers - Slave Driver (live) at YouTube 1973, Edmonton

YOU LOOK LIKE A FOOL

I've been scarce the past couple of days. My next door neighbor was found dead on Thursday. He'd shot himself in the head. We weren't good friends, but it hurts because the guy was just getting his shit together. In the past, he was a heavy drinker. He'd occasionally come home after the bars closed and be pissed off about something and proceed to smash shit up in his apartment. I hadn't heard it, but the former tenant in this apartment had, as well as another neighbor in close proximity. About a year ago, he made a 180. Quit drinking, started to eat better and got into a fitness routine. His demeanor changed drastically. He went from stand-offish to outgoing and actually kind of jovial. Everything seemed to be going good for him, so I have no clue what set him off, but you seldom do in cases like this. It's easy to say "If I'd only known", but without looking at what you did see, you haven't learned anything. What I guess I learned is that if there is a wild swing of a pendulum, it could swing just as wildly back.

So, for the past two days I'd been wanting to post stuff, but I didn't want to post a song and then later associate with this dark event. I finally settled on something. Kiss. I never listen to Kiss, so I could care less if there are bad associations with them. They are a bad association for me. That said, some of you might dig this, a very early club gig from 1973. If you, like me, couldn't give less of a shit about Kiss, you may enjoy the mix of 45 minutes of Paul Stanley's insipid stage banter.

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Listen:

45 Minutes of Paul Stanley Stage Banter - Curated by Chris Ames at SoundCloud
Video:
Kiss - Live at the Coventry, Queens, NY Dec 21, 1973 at YouTube Length: 8:42 minutes
Kiss - Live at the Coventry, Queens, NY Dec 22, 1973 at YouTube Length: 43:40 minutes

GODDAMN FLUTE! HOW"D YOU GET IN HERE?!

Well, a question that has been bugging me for decades has been, at least partially, answered. As a teenager and young adult, I was a total Johnny Winter freak. His "comeback" LP Still, Alive and Well was probably my most played LP of all time up to that point. (I probably had about a hundred albums, if that.) I know the LP backwards and forwards, and I must have read the liner notes a thousand times. For decades I've known that the flute on Winter's "Too Much Seconal" was played by Jeremy Steig. It was no one I knew back then, and in ensuing years I'd see him on the liner notes of other LPs, but what was he doing before he appeared on the Johnny Winter LP? I found out tonight, by accident.

We begin at Probe Is Turning-On the People, where the newest post is a 45 by Moe, Adrian and The Sculptors. Who the fuck are they? Knowing his (host Phil Milstein's) taste, I knew to give it a shot. I also noticed that, though there was little more info than what you'd find on a 45 label, there was that production credit for John Hammond, another clue that the two cuts may be worth hearing. They were. (Go listen, I'll wait.) While listening to them, because of the lack of info, I did a search. Other than a one 45 discography at Discogs, there was just a post at It's Great Shakes and it didn't sound too promising, starting "I hate it when I can't find information on certain obscure groups." Figuring it a dead end, I did something I rarely do. I read the comments.

A few comments down, there it was: "I can add Moe is Moe Pelham, Adrian is Adrian Guillery and the Sculptors are: Bob Larimer on drums, Eric Kaz on Harmonica, S.J. Gandy on electric bass, Frank Woode on tenor sax and Jeremy Steig on flute. All hail from New York City." I only recognized one name, Jeremy Steig. Flute. Case closed. Then a couple comments later "They became Jeremy & the Satyrs. Did a really good LP." At this point I think I'm caught up all the Jeremy Steig I need. Maybe more later. Never was a flute guy.

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Listen:

Johnny Winter - Too Much Seconal mp3 at Tumblr
Moe, Adrian and The Sculptors - Love Train/Shotgun 45 at Probe Is Turning-On the People Both songs in a zip. You may have to scroll down to Session 961
Moe, Adrian and The Sculptors - Love Train (streaming) at YouTube
Moe, Adrian and The Sculptors - Shotgun (streaming) at YouTube
Jeremy and The Satyrs - In The World Of Glass Teardrops (streaming) at YouTube
Jeremy and The Satyrs - Mean Black Snake (streaming) at YouTube

BOSS MEN INDEED

This is one of those rare instances when a band looks exactly like they sound. This sucker swings.  Consider that, if you were an adult back then, in 1965 (too early for me), the rest of the world might be singing "She Loves You Yeah, Yeah, Yeah", and you might be in a dark club somewhere listening to these cats, wondering why Chivas Regal was supposed to be the shit. Ponder: If you dig this now, what would you have thought about it back then, say, versus the Beatles? Should we be ashamed of our hipster ways that might have been? Slippery slope there.

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Listen:

Don Patterson with Sonny Stitt and Billy James - Big C's Rock mp3 at Groove Addict

BUZZCOCKS OBCURITY FROM 1980

The headline is not misleading. There is a 1980 cassette comp only Buzzcocks song down there. But that's not the real reason for this post. I'd originally intended to make it about Liliput, the band formerly known as Kleenex. After hearing them for the first time in years I couldn't help but think about them in context with the time. Their song "Eisiger Wind" is from 1980. At that time, punk rock was beginning to evolve, or devolve depending on how you look at it. To generalize, punk rock sort of split into three types, straight punk, hardcore, and post-punk, the latter being where all the oddball shit was haphazardly assigned. That's where you could see Liliput being put. I started to think of all of the different bands that weren't punk rock, hardcore, or even new wave. That was a good era, all things considered. Early eighties, before brightly colored new wave came in and took a big ol' dump on things. So, yeah, I started to dig in at Killed By Death, looking at records that were released in 1980. Bam! First one I see, the cassette comp with the Buzzcocks song. Running across an obscure Buzzcocks song from 1980 is about as close as you're going to get to finding a lost Spiral Scratch outtake. I'll take it, along with the other song on the post, a Subway Sect obscurity. Yee haw.

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Listen:

Liliput - Eisiger Wind mp3 at Killed By Death
Liliput - When The Cat’s Away Then The Mice Will Play mp3 at Killed By Death Go there to get it.
Buzzcocks – I Look Alone mp3 at Killed By Death
Subway Sect – Parallel Lines mp3 at Killed By Death Go there to get it.

KNOW THEM

When it comes to rockabilly, there's that first tier. A lot of Sun Records acts there. Elvis (at the beginning), Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Billy Lee Riley and so on. Come to think of it, Riley's more of a second tier in terms of recognition. And that's not saying that recognition equals quality. It rarely does in music. The wild shit doesn't get noticed by the masses. Ask most fiends of any particular genre, the first tier is littered with "safe" musicians, in the mold bank-able acts (Jerry Lee Lewis being an exception in regards to "safe"). So, there is the second tier, where Riley resides. But he's in good wild company. A few second tier acts would include Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps (the first three LPs anyway) Eddie Cochran and Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio. And Burnette's what tonight is about. Someone you should know.

Class act: The trio with Gene Vincent (second from right)

Burnette and trio had some minor hits but none big enough to keep in print, not for a few decades. It wasn't until the late seventies that their stuff started to get reissued, Bear Records out of Germany if I remember correctly. For anyone into rockabilly enough, who had a bunch of Charly's Sun reissues, and the French reissues of Gene Vincent's, the Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio reissue was a revelation, the first inkling that all the first tier and second tier stuff might be just the tip of the iceberg. Of course, I'm speaking of rockabilly fans, not the hard hardcore rockabilly freaks. They likely had valued copies of the originals, rolling their eyes right into their fucking pompadours. They had third tier stuff, Mac Curtis, Ray Campi, Ronnie Self. Fourth tier stuff and so on. The rest of the iceberg.

I well remember when the Johnny Burnette virus crept through the people I knew. It was essential stuff. It still is. Rather than sit here even longer I'll just leave these here. If you know nothing about Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio, for crying out loud, you can find a lot if you look. I'm tapped out for the night. Just remember: Essential.

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Listen:

Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio - Train Kept A-Rollin' mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio - Tear It Up mp3 at Internet Archive
Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio - Honey Hush mp3 at Rockn Dog
Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio - Rockabilly Boogie mp3 at Rocky 52
Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio - All By Myself mp3 at Internet Archive
Johnny Burnette and the Rock 'n' Roll Trio - Oh Baby Babe mp3 at Internet Archive

RED STRIPE OPTIONAL

Here's a random selection of reggae 45s, both the A-sides and B-sides, because, hey, it's always nice to hear them in the form that they would have been played back in the day at sound systems. I've always fantasized about being at one of those outdoor sound system dances back then. I'd stick out like a sore thumb, but if they were anything like the sound system dance I attended locally (in San Diego) back in the eighties, it wouldn't matter. Fuck, the bass alone knocked out half your senses. That was a long time ago, and I still remember the people I was with, the smell of the jerk chicken, the haze of smoke and the shuffle of the feet. It was held indoors, in the same rented hall that had also been home to many punk shows. So the venue was familiar, and because it was indoors everything seemed amplified. The music, the smoke, the smells. You really need to turn this shit up. Aw, what the hell, burn one.

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Listen:

Delroy Wilson - Run Run mp3 at Marley Discography A-side
Delroy Wilson - Run Run (Version) mp3 at Marley Discography B-side

U Roy and the Heptones - Make Love Not War mp3 at Marley Discography A-side

U Roy and the Heptones - Make Love Not War (Version) mp3 at Marley Discography B-side
Lee Perry & The Upsetters - Jungle Lion mp3 at Marley Discography A-side

The Upsetters - Freak Out Skank mp3 at Marley Discography B-side
Scotty - Skank In Bed mp3 at Marley Discography A-side
Bongo Herman - African Breakfast mp3 at Marley Discography B-side

SUCCUMB TO COOL

Last night while I was working on the post of Betty Everett, I let YouTube roll in the background. After a few songs it went to a Barbara Lynn video. Hearing it still in the background, I heard it was a cover of "What'd I Say". Okay, clicked the tab and, oh holy hell, she was so cool, her moves, playing, outfit, the whole package. I was trying to think of what female guitar player would even come close on the cool spectrum. Ivy from the Cramps came to mind, as did Bo Diddley's sister and backing guitarist, the Duchess. But neither of them were known for their singing as well. This is one of those clips that reminds you why you like music so much. I gotta say, I try to ignore the cool factor sometimes, as if it carries too much weight when evaluating a singer or musician (or author, artist, actor, ...) but there is no denying Lynn's coolness. Put that load right on me.

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

Listen:

Barbara Lynn - Got Love If You want It mp3 at Dial Tone Records
Barbara Lynn - I'm A Good Woman mp3 at J-Bird (?)
Barbara Lynn - You'll Lose a Good Thing (streaming) at YouTube Her big hit.
Visit:
50 Historic Black Women Guitarists and Bassists You Need To Know at She Shreds
While searching for an image I ran across a post "50 Historic Black Women Guitarists and Bassists You Need To Know" at She Shreds, a cool survey but a couple selections were just unknown women that happen to be holding guitars. No ID, no music. If these are guitarists who we need to know and they don't even know who they are, they really ought to be taken off the list, even if it's not a convenient fifty. But, hey, I see that a friend of mine made it! Ms Joyce Rooks #37, yo.

SHOOP SHOOP OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE

How could I not have posted Betty Everett yet? Not that I'm all that familiar with more than just a fraction of her output, but still. I'd heard  "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)" a thousand times when I saw the movie Exposed and that was at least twenty years ago. The film starred Nastassja Kinski and I had it bad for her after seeing Cat People. Big ol' movie star crush. In the film she's alone in her apartment and plays that song, doing a crazy dance that I haven't been able to disassociate with that song ever since. Shit, now that I think about it, I had the song on a Charly Records compilation and used to spin it occasionally when DJing. So, yeah, oversight.

Everett's music was seemingly made for those Northern soul all-nighters. That kind of soul that isn't Aretha, but it's not the Supremes either; it's somewhere in the middle. Sixties soul was like that. Just like all sorts of lesser known surf bands, rockabilly singers, garage bands and punk bands, once the genre was identified, there was just shitloads of lesser known records that weren't exactly copycats, but sure did benefit from the artists that were leading the pack. Check out Everett's version of "Hound Dog". It's apparent that just about any song can be made in a Northern soul vein. As an added bonus, check Merry Clayton's version of "Shoop.." released in 1963, a year earlier. I actually like it more then Everett's. Not quite as slick sounding. And it has a whole lotta cowbell.

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

Listen:
Betty Everett - The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss) mp3 at Internet Archive
Betty Everett - Hound Dog mp3 at Internet Archive
Betty Everett - Down in the Country mp3 at Internet Archive
Merry Clayton - The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss) (streaming) at YouTube