You may have seen this before if you're a Stones freak or old, or both. If you haven't seen it you might want to see what the Stones were like back when the were still cool. Live footage, off stage footage, studio footage. It looks like it's the whole film, but I didn't watch every minute so I could be wrong. I have the DVD so I know how it ends.
I was at Internet Archive, looking for something completely different when I saw a record called "Rockabilly Party" and it was on a 78. Release year, 1957. Could go either way. It went nowhere. But it is a piece of rare early rockabilly-sploitation. Then I noticed the lyrics were familiar, I knew where they were going, I'd never hear this song before. Then it hit me. Mott the Hoople lifted part of the lyrics for "Roll Away the Stone". So, that's where they got it. We can close that chapter. And Mott night it is. Including this hour and a half documentary.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
A chance click on a old post and I'm gone. Sunny Ozuna, Sunny and the Sunliners. Fuck yeah, been a while. I'm not going to ruin the hunt for you. Here's a couple from their funky era. They did all sorts of stuff, but these are the two that set me off tonight, particularly the drums in the instrumental break in the middle of "Get Down" at about 1:25. Go browse YouTube. Pick a Sunny and the Sunliners song and, before listening to it, try to guess what the music will be like, based solely on the title.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
A friend posted a video on Facebook of a string sextet playing the Dead Kennedy's "California Über Alles". Just the thought of it made me want to hate it. I did not. There's a few reasons for that. First off, I've never been all that into the Dead Kennedys. Jello Biafra's voice just ain't my thing. I don't know what it is. It has nothing to do with a string sextet, but hear me out. Biafra's voice has become less grating to me over the years, and I know they were a good (perhaps great) band and all of that, but I still can only take his voice in small doses.
Now, about this video. It reinforced what I really already knew, but made it much more obvious. The Dead Kennedys were tight, thought provoking at times, and good at getting you all kinds of riled up. But this cover really shows what the other elements distract from. The Dead Kennedys were good at making really good songs. If you know the song you will hear, amplified, the one part of the song that often gets missed. It sounds sinister with strings, like the soundtrack to some sinister movie. And it's not the strings. Listen again to the Dead Kennedy's version and see if you don't hear all of the sinisterishness.
There's another video linked below, but before we get to that, one more thing about the version above. These guys are not from the UK, or the US. They're from Brazil. WTF, right? The other video below is even more WTF. A school orchestra, comprised of primary and secondary students playing "California Über Alles" at a benefit for two ill students. Weird enough in and of itself. The kicker? The school is in Subotica, Serbia, and the audience has more than it's share of seniors and middle age people.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Ha! Right after bagging on the Stones for releasing a topical song based on current events, here I go posting an LP just because the album title ties in with current events. You've all heard by now that Trump raised the question on Thursday, wondering out loud during a nationally televised briefing on the Coronavirus if ingesting or shooting up disinfectants or bleach would kill the virus. What a complete fucking idiot. At this point it isn't "How did this idiot get elected?", it's way beyond that. Now the big question is, how did someone so fucking ignorant and completely devoid of common sense stay alive as long as he has? Without even including the politics and all fucked up policy changes, you know the crap that's made him the laughing stock of the world, how can someone that stupid stay alive? The mind boggles.
So here we are. Nirvana's first LP, before they made it big, Bleach. There's the tie-in. I wouldn't even be posting it except that I found the whole LP and it's worth hearing. It really is what put them on the map, for those in tune with what was going on. The masses would have to wait for Nevermind.
If you're digging the songs below, get them and the others quick. They're hosted at Internet Archive and they convert the files to "samples only" as soon as they realize they've been posted in full. When you get there, in the right column, under "Download options" click on "VBR MP3 Files".
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Well, would you look who's recorded a "stay at home" song. The Rolling Stones. Two things occur to me. One is that although "we're all in this together", it's hard to imagine the Exile On Main St.-era Stones (arguably when they peaked) recording a topical song based on current events, that is unless it was something that happened to them. Well, this one did, they had to postpone a tour. Although the song was already written, Jagger went back and changed some of the lyrics. It kind of reeks. Cheap gimmicks, stealth marketing. Pandering. Not because it's a bad song, it just really isn't the "we're all in this together" moment it would seem. I can't read their minds but by releasing it and getting mentions in the press (and hack blogs) they're keeping their name out there for when the tour is allowed to go on.
The other thing that occurred to me is that the Specials visited the same terrain in a heavier sounding song almost forty years ago. Right after the stay at home orders were issued and the streets became deserted at least three or four of my friends posted the Specials' "Ghost Town". I'd been putting it off because it seemed too obvious. That and because I'm tired of thinking about covid shit all day.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Wow, out of nowhere, a new X album. Maybe I just haven't been following things. It's been decades since their last and I gotta tell you, the old fart wing over there at Facebook is rejoicing. Hey, there are worse diversions. Fuck yeah, I guess.
Here's a video and a link to the LP at Bandcamp page where you can preview it or buy it in various unnecessary formats.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Ever heard of the Dapps? Me neither, not until a couple hours ago. They were a band from Cincinnati that somehow ended up working within James Brown's orbit, filling in when any of Brown's Famous Flames was sick. They had a few of their own records and, from I've heard so far, they smoke. "The Rabbit Got the Gun" is credited to The Dapps Featuring Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis (Ellis being a JB first stringer). The Dapps/Ellis version of "Rabbit" came out in 1968, the JB's proper did their own version a couple years later.
Here's where fucking around gets fun. After hearing another Dapps/Ellis song, "There Was A Time", with some insanely good sax, I had to look up ol' Alfred Ellis. Ho-ly shit, he's the sax player that was on Ginger Baker's Why? LP a few years back! I love that Baker LP! You'd think I'd know his name, there's only four musicians on the damn album. How could I have never looked this guy up before? So lame. My pre-Google self would be appalled. This shit just never ends.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
I was browsing. trying to think of something to listen to, and I ran into an old post at Super Sonido with a bio and several songs by Gal Costa. It sounded like it would hit the spot and it did. I've posted a link to it a handful of times in the past few years but it's been a while (the post is ten years old) but I was thinking that, given the date, 4/20, it might be the kind of thing that would sound good to some of you. I don't know, someone might have told me that. Regardless, it'll make your digs smell fresher.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Many years ago a friend of mine went on a Bowie fast. She liked David Bowie so much that she stopped listening to him so she wouldn't get sick of him. This was back when he only had about a half dozen albums out. Though the term "Bowie fast" was kind of comical, it made sense. I'd done something similar in the past without really labeling as a fast, but I've laid off LPs that I played a lot so that I wouldn't tire of them. In some cases, not only did I not get sick of them, when I went back and listened to them again, I heard parts that I hadn't heard before despite having heard them a zillion times.
Last night I ended an unintended Creedence fast. It had just gotten to the point that I pretty much knew every lick of every song on their first five or six LPs. The candle was flickering. Then this stay at home order. Day after day of the same thing. Had to break it up. I'd resisted going to familiar albums but ended up going with Green River anyway. It had been a while. I'd forgotten how good they were at their peak. Fogerty wrote some damn good songs, oh shit, i don't want to go down that path. I haven't got all night, Here's a couple, neither from Green River. "Suzie Q" is their first single and hit, a Dale Hawkins cover. "Penthouse Pauper" is Creedence at their most Creedence. That song could have been a hit had it not been on the same LP as "Born on the Bayou" and "Proud Mary". It's my favorite Creedence song and that's all I really give a shit about.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
I'm not sure what advantages there are to having a guitar stuck in your armpit, but I think the last time it was the thing to do was during the British Invasion. I'm guessing it has to do with technique or something, if that's the case then what's his face from Thee Oh Sees gets a pass. I like his playing. He gets bonus points too, along with the occasional band-mate, for wearing cut offs on stage. For a couple reasons. One, I like cutoffs when they're practical. You run out of shorts, you have extra long pants, you take out a pair and you cut them off. One negative is that Mr. Armpit Guitar wears cut offs so often that a person's short-to-long pants ratio would have to be severely out of whack to have all of your shorts as cut offs. You don't suppose (shudder) he bought long pants and cut them off right away? You know I'm bored as fuck when I start going off about cut offs. He plays guitar good.
You thought it was over didn't you? Nope. Because I haven't finished with the big reason why he gets a pass on the armpit guitar thing and a neutral score on the cut offs (pending confirmation). The big reason why the shorts thing is an overwhelming positive, despite my own opinion, is because I know it would get under the Crippler's skin. First, the Crippler. So named because, about twenty five years ago, a bunch of friends where hanging outside the (old) Casbah, most drunk, and I went to give the soon-to-be-named Crippler a playful kick. He grabbed my foot, yanked, BAM! Down on the sidewalk I went, on both knee caps. I hobbled a good week. The thing is that the Crippler doesn't approve of shorts being worn onstage. Anything that gets under the Crippler's skin is just one part of my slow painful revenge. Dude does play guitar good.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Reggae two nights in a row? Yep, I got a reason for that. I just heard a car driving down the street blasting the Abyssinians' "Satta Massagana" an absolute stone cold classic. The reason why I'm such a pushover on this one is that I had a shitty day, really shitty. "Satta Massagana" is rather obscure, in the US anyway. You have to be relatively deep in reggae to know it. It's from 1969 but its vintage belies its roots sound. I love the song, and hearing blaring down the road was welcome particularly after a shitty day and a social distancing night ahead of me. It was comforting. All one needs is just one "Fuck yeah!" moment a day.
I found the song by accident. If you know the Internet Archive, then you've probably found that a lot of the songs posted there get changed to samples only. I only found this one because they've misspelled the name of the group. Regardless, if you want to hear the full songs, don't delay.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
This would be one of those nights that I don't feel like sitting in front of a screen. A few weeks ago I'd take the opportunity to just walk around the neighborhood, maybe down to the beach, and just chat with the people I know when I run into them. No agenda, just cruise around. Now the streets are just about empty. I live by myself and this day after day of the same thing is getting groundhog day-ish. "Social living is the best", so repeats Burning Spear in his "Social Living". The song, rather repeated lyric, has been stuck in my head for days, like a fucking mantra. I found a download of it, so here's that and a couple other cuts, unrelated but also reggae and also good.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
What makes a man move from rockabilly to country and western? Sometimes it's a bigger audience. Sometimes the rockabilly guy was country before he hopped on the rockabilly bandwagon and it was just easier to go back to what he was originally doing. In Johnny Dollar's case, it might have been that his life became just the hard luck story that country and western songs are all about.
Dollar recorded a few rockabilly songs that didn't get released. not back when he recorded them. The hard luck story may have started there. The recordings finally saw the light of decades later, not because Johnny Dollar was a marquee name but because a rockabilly revival occurred that had everyone looking for unreleased masters of every rockabilly burp and fart recorded back in the day.
In the late fifties Dollar had given up rockabilly and became an insurance salesman. In 1964 a chance meeting with Ray Price got his foot in the country and western door, and he signed with Columbia. Still, shit did hit fan. He had four failed marriages, became an alcoholic, fought depression and then developed throat cancer and had to quit singing. In 1986, he killed himself. I could not find any mention of his dog dying or his house getting repossessed.
As much as I like his rockabilly sides (the first three below) I must direct you to the complete WTF that is the introduction of his de rigueur tear-jerker "Forever is Over". It's the fuzz Dad, as in full-on Davie Allan worthy fuzz at the beginning of the song. Exactly four notes of fuzz. That's it. Dude couldn't get a fair shake anywhere
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
When the Covid-19 shit really started to hit the fan, the Ethiopians' "Hong Kong Flu" came to mind and once it did it's just been, to paraphrase Dillinger, running around my brain. It was posted here eight years ago, but worth a listen again now. After hearing the song over the years, and and taking a cursory look at Hong Kong flu entry at Wikipedia, I realized it how serious it was. Just a few years ago I was re-reading the liner notes from a compilation, and I remember thinking then, oh, man, that was some serious shit. Good thing that won't happen again. It fucking did.
"Hong Kong Flu" is a public service song of sorts, it cracks me up in a I shouldn't be laughing at this sort of way. The way it sounds so lighthearted, all while singing "It's a killah, woa-oh, uh-huh, it's a killah, woa-oh, uh-huh, it's terrible and dreadful mon,..." But you know what? Those are the lines that have been stuck in my head the past few days.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Now here's something some of you will like, and some of you may not. Cesária Évora was a Cape Verdean singer who released her first record at the age of 47. Her style of music is called morna, typified by melancholy and nostalgia, or so they say. It's a traditional music there, where the country has a long history of people emigrating, originally for fishing or whaling. The lyrics are not in English, but listen to her voice and you'll get the vibe. I don't know what it is about her that I dig so much. I knew nothing of her when I heard a CD at a Tower Records listening station around twenty years ago. But her music is comforting, and will sooth you in these weird times. We can get back to the Stooges, Hasil Adkins, et al, later.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
I'm not going to mess around here. If you want to see a well written, widely varied and well informed music site, just go the fuck to Aquarium Drunkard. It's one of the few pro sites that doesn't cater to the same popular crap. First thing you gatta know about popular crap is that if it's popular, it's probably crap. The majority of people's taste in music pretty much blows. You know that. Anyway, Aquarium Drunkard is good, really good, and they have tons of shit from a lot of different genres. The writing's good and the music is in varied formats (some streaming, some as downloads, mp3s or zips). And all of that just to say that they have two Meters live sets from 1977 over there and nothing I could post tonight can't wait until I have a one person listening party. Wash your hands, creep.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Among all the bad shit that's been going on, there is still some good things to be found. Probe Is Turning-On the People, the bare bones music site of Phil Milstein, is still cruising. His most recent post is five versions of "Rumble", get this, all done by the man, rumbler godhead himself, Link Wray. Among the versions, one originally unreleased (the '65 version) and one that was recorded without the requisite menace ("Rumble Mambo"), a rare Wray fart. I've heard the original and covers of "Rumble" a thousand times, but hearing five versions done in the space of roughly a decade by the man himself is just about the best thing that has happened this week. How dead-on is the Probe? It's all in the details. If you look at all the info on the mp3 files you'll note that he's labeled the genre as "classical". Probe gets it.
The five individual mp3s are in a single zip. As of today they're at the top of the page linked below but, being that the site is bare bones, the newest posts appear at the top. He does, though, label posts as "sessions", so if Rumblemania ain't at the top, scroll down to Session 636.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
These go out to the Mystery Suggester, a friend that has on more than one occasion steered me towards some good shit. She's done that a lot. She knows my taste better than just about anyone. Someday I will marry her. It won't happen anytime soon, but there's a beat down wooden porch in some shitty ol' backwoods town somewhere with two beat down rocking chairs on it, with two beat down rockers sitting in them, twenty years or more in the future. Eh, maybe. Regardless, she is a sweetheart. I remember her once lamenting that it was somehow considered forward or inappropriate when an old codger puts his hand on your forearm to emphasize whatever he's talking about, whether it's baseball or airplanes. A lot of people would recognize that aged-out gesture and also be sad that that age is past. But the Mystery Suggester verbalized it, put it in a conversation. And that's just one thing. She's said so many things, done so many things, and listened to so many things that have stuck in my head. She's special that way. Kind of like a brother. Which is a shame, because she's really hot.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Okay, this one is not feature length, but it's a good diversion. A one hour documentary on Toots and the Maytals, or the Maytals as they were known before a record label owner added "Toots and". That happened in 1971 and to me years later it seems fucked up. Though there's no doubt that Toots Hibbert's pipes were superior, the Maytals are not the Maytals without the equal Maytals. The combination, the interplay, call and response, almost gospel. You'll see clips, vintage (pre-The Harder They Come) and some from years later along with interviews with reggae artists and players. It's an old BBC thing and worth watching. There's a handful of songs down there too.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Marianne Faithfull checked herself into a hospital on Monday after self-isolating following a cold. She tested positive for Covid-19 and has contracted pneumonia. Yikes. You'll be forgiven if you don't know her work. For the longest time (if you call ten of fifteen years a long time) she lapsed into semi-obscurity. She's had one big hit in the states, "As Tears Go By" and that was about all anyone stateside knew of her (other than being the love interest of Mick Jagger for a short spell, and being in the Stones general orbit). Then in 1979 she released Broken English, a breakthrough album that revived her career. He voice had become coarser, but it fit her new music. Restrained, but not pretty pop fluff like her earlier work. I always associate that LP with the house I lived at at the time, because it was played a lot by myself and a few of the roommates. When we moved in there were nine people living there and that number grew until it was hard to figure out who was a roommate and who was a hangover straggler that just never left. As the record became more and more familiar she became like something of a cool older "seen it all" sister. She ws given due respect by those who had little respect for just about anything. So, my worries are for a cool older sister not some singer. I sure hope she makes it. Her website posted "She is stable and responding to treatment."
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Interesting, free. Two of my favorite flavors. This one's both, A Canadian Tribute to Jay Reatard. It's not 100% solidly awesome shit, but it fills those two qualifications. Considering that going to a record store is out of the question, this is a great risk free diversion. More about it can be read at Still In Rock, that's where I heard about it.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Bill Withers passed away on Monday from "heart complications". I've no idea what "heart complications" means (heart attack?), but it wasn't the corona virus. Not that that makes it easier. Withers is a tough one. I'm not sure whether it's an age thing or not. I mean, I remember hearing him on the radio, and as good as his two biggest hits were ("Lean on Me" and "Ain't No Sunshine"), the third hit, "Use Me" is an all time favorite. A large part of the reason is the drums and clavinet, but it was written by Withers, sung by Withers and the phrasing is all his, and it is a stealthly funky masterpiece.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
Last night a buddy of mine posted a link to a compilation that he'd just received from Analog Africa, Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical. Ranil, born Raúl Llerena Vásquez was a Peruvian bandleader whose career was spent in a part of the coastline that was surrounded by a forest so dense that it was only accessible by sea or air, so as you would imagine no one knew who the fuck he was. Few outside of his region anyway. So, yeah, my buddy jumped on this release. He's one of the few people I know that digs international music as much as I do. I only run into him about once a month despite the fact that he lives about a half block away.
When he posted that link to the compilation, knowing his taste, I went to check it out. It was good, really good, so I bookmarked it for a purchase in the future. Then I looked as Analog Africa's other offerings and noticed that they had a compilation, Stay Safe and Sound, that was posted for those of us that are housebound. It's one of those Bandcamp "name you price" things. Guess what it is? A second compilation of Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical. Okay, so already jazzed, I bookmarked that that as well. This is late last night. So I get up this morning and step outside, and what do I run into? My friend walking towards me with a burned copy of the first compilation. So, all signs say that I'll know a lot more about this Ranil dude before the month is out.
~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~
