CONFIRMED CLOWN

I've just watched the great American shit show, otherwise referred to as the Presidential Debate. These are for the Republican participant.

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Listen:
Run DMC - You Talk Too Much at YouTube
Henry Rollins - Liar at YouTube

YOUR FIX OF WAH WAH

Bobby Marchan was a New Orleans singer and drag queen back in the early sixties, in the same mold as other New Orleans rhythm and blues artists (Lee Dorsey, Allen Toussaint, Eddie Bo, etc.) but neither is the reason he's here. He's here for one reason. His 1974 single "Push the Button" is an awesome groove with excessive wah wah. A lot of wah wah. It's as if the guy's foot is nailed to the pedal and he's walking around like that. Wah wah pedals were like the cowbell of funk. Some could pull it off. Restraint is sometimes needed, but it won't capture my attention forty six years after it was recorded. A lot of it is the mix and spare instrumentation (guitar, organ, bass and drums), but in the end, really, the wah wah wins this one.

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Listen:
Bobby Marchan - Push the Button mp3 at Soul Garage 1974
Bobby Marchan - My Day is Coming mp3 at Soul Garage 1974
Bobby Marchan - Booty Green (streaming) at YouTube 1960

DUDE BIT ELVIS

Roy Head passed away this past Monday. I found out about it from a friend who was friends with him. Not a blip on the news though, not that I saw anyways. Unbelievable. Dude killed it back in the day. Here's what I posted a little over a year ago:

 

Roy Head just seems a little crazy. Not really bat shit crazy, just a little who gives a fuck crazy. There's something about him that makes him just a classic American under-achieving performer. Not for lack of trying, the guy has achieved a lot, but he really should have been huge. What is it about him? Why did big time superstar status elude him? He had the voice, the showmanship, and he definitely had the moves. (Moves-wise, I can guarantee you that both Michael Jackson and Iggy Pop both took a little something out of his playbook.) So, what was it? Oh yeah, who gives a fuck.

 

There were a couple quotes included in the excellent bio at the Hound Blog that are pretty telling. "I beat up club owners, choked disc jockeys, and did a lot of things I wish I hadn't done. Just just screwed up."  Alright then, he screwed up. But, hell, lots of performers have. Judging by my trusty Jerry Lee Lewis Screw Up Intensity vs Frequency Guage, he ranks pretty high. There's something more telling here: "Hell, I've screwed up. I've got thrown off tours because I was having a little more fun than some of the other acts. I bit Elvis Presley on the leg when I was drunk one night and his bodyguards leaped on me, man, I had to go to the chiropractor for three weeks to get straightened out. I'm still not through. If there's one son of a bitch in the room that's paid to hear me, I'll work my butt off for them." It's that last two lines that really makes Head a classic trooper. He's been schlepping around stages for half a century. When the stages got smaller, he'd just ask the audiences to step back so he could party on their floor. One of his signature moves is the Gator, which entails him rolling around and dry humping the floor, be it the stage or where you just spilled your drink. He made that one up back in the day, when he fell off of a stage and tried to make the best of it. Someone asked him what the move was and he just came out with "gator". He didn't give a fuck.

Even though, as we've established, he's screwed up, there was this thing called timing. When his only real chartbuster "Treat Her Right" was released in 1965, the pop world was nutty about the Beatles and Stones, not some dude in a suit that danced like a freak. He was too soul for rock, and too rock for soul. He didn't give a fuck. But he put out some awesome records. If your whistle's sufficiently dampened, read the bio at The Hound Blog.

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Listen:
Roy Head - Treat Her Right mp3 at Rocky-52.net
Roy Head - Live It Up mp3 at Rocky 52
Visit:
Roy Head’s “Treat Her Right” Gets The Star Treatment In Quentin Tarantino’s New Flick at Texas Monthly
Roy Head - Excellent profile at The Hound Blog
Roy Head at Wikipedia

IT'S SURF MUSIC SOMEWHERE. (MY KITCHEN.)

I would imagine that most of you don't live near or frequent a beach that has surf. And of those of you who do, fewer get off on more than riding waves. Whether good or bad, body surfing or board surfing is always fun, no matter what your skill level is. There is an old adage that basically says, the best surfer on any given day is the one having the most fun. I agree wholeheartedly with that. But to me, it's the whole package. Unfortunately, surfing over the last thirty or so years, has become more of an attention getting past time of slashing and burning, getting air and doing radical tricks that by no means enhances someone's relation with the ocean. It's all this competitive "Look at me!" shit that really goes against nature. People don't seem to flow with the energy of a wave any more, they'd rather destroy it. Fine, that's their misguided thing. Me? I dig all aspects of being in the surf. Whether it's getting to the line up, getting a decent ride, or getting drilled. If you've been in ocean enough, you kind of know waves, when to avoid them or when to go for it. One part of the ocean experience that you have no control over is getting worked in the impact zone, whether the wave breaks on you or in front of you. Getting thrown around in the white water is one of the most underrated joys of an ocean experience. I completely dig that sort of thing. It's only water. Unless the surf is really big, the water's too shallow or there's bad rip currents, you won't really get hurt. The best part of it is that you have very little control over how you'll get tossed around or where you'll be when the energy dissipates. Of course it's far safer without a surfboard, and that's what makes bodysurfing, or swimming, fun when pummeled. You have but a few seconds to appreciated the power and source of the energy that's tossing you around. And that's when freaked out jazz becomes infinitely more appropriate than the Surfari's "Wipeout!". Just yesterday I came home, beat up in a good way from my "swim", and I listened to these. Everything made sense in that I had no control or expectations of where these songs were going. I just rode them out.

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Listen:
Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Rip, Rig & Panic mp3 at Melting Pot
Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Three others at Melting Pot (and a great write up)

EARLY THIS GUY

I thought of this song today and I hadn't heard it in a while, so there you go. Now you're stuck with it.

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Listen:
Al Greene - Hot Wire mp3 at Groove Addict

LOCK DOWN THEATER NIGHT 31

I'd forgotten to post this. The Schitzophonics, a whole live set. After it aired, streaming live in the middle of August, it disappeared from the streaming site. I had hoped that someone captured it and would put it on YouTube and the Casbah, the club that sponsored the original live stream and the venue that hosted it, did it. This is an incredible set and the thought that it only has 106 views as of this moment quite frankly scares me. It seems unbelievable that this caliber of get down does not warrant a serious mass of minds blown. What the fuck are people listening to or watching that this doesn't rate?

Here's the deal, of what I know or have seen. The Schitzophonics are trio, Pat Beers, guitar and vocals, his wife, Lety, the drummer. At least a two different bass players over the years, maybe more. I don't know, I've not looked at stats. They are a tight unit. but the show is really Pat Beers. Dude does not stop. He's throwing his guitar all over the place, ample feedback, one handed fret hammering, fancy footwork, splits, fancy mic acrobatics. You'll see Wayne Kramer, Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend and James Brown, all rolled into one. There's a couple studio cuts down there so you can hear what their records sounds like. Lots more at YouTube. Dig it.

NOTE: Set starts at 16:10

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Listen:
The Schizophonics - Two Thousand Seventeen (streaming) at YouTube
The Schizophonics - Steely Eyed Lady (streaming) at YouTube

LOCK DOWN THEATER NIGHT 30

Damn, to be in Rome in 1980. The show below is the Talking Heads, live in Rome in 1980. Many of you may have already seen it. It's been up on YouTube by one user or another for years. If you have any interest in the band and have yet to see it, go grab some popcorn, pour yourself a beer or roll a big fat joint, whatever accoutrements you utilize, and forget about Mitch McConnell for an hour. If you have seen it, then you get the parting gift, the icing on the Rome 1980 cake. Gil Evans with the RAI Big Band, who ever the hell they are. Gil Evans I know. Jazz pianist and band leader, blah, blah, blah. The live show, two hours, is good, and kinda sorta has a Jerry Dammer's Spacial Arkestra vibe to it. Regardless, it hit the spot after a day at the beach with a couple friends. That's my criteria.

 

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Listen:
Talking Heads - I Zimbra mp3 at Feel My Bicep
Talking Heads - Life During Wartime (streaming) at YouTube
Talking Heads - Born Under Punches mp3 at By Way Of (?)
Talking Heads - Crosseyed and Painless mp3 at By Way Of (?)
Talking Heads - Houses In Motion mp3 at Three Happy People
Gil Evans with the RAI Orchestra feat. Lee Konitz at Teatro dell' Opera di Roma (streaming) at Past Daily Two hour lave radio broadcast.

LISTEN LOUD. WORK NEVER HAPPENED.

I just love it when there's all sorts of shit going on in a song. When it's an unusual mix of instruments in a genre that isn't strictly defined, it really has my attention. When it's long and the focus isn't on one particular instrument, that's even better. I happened on this old bookmark and listened to shit going off in a radical manner for twenty two minutes. It reset things.

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Listen:
Pharoah Sanders - Summun, Bukmun, Umyun mp3 at 30 Milkshakes

DIP DI DIT DI DUUH

If you at any time were a fiend of the film American Graffiti, particularly if you've seen it multiple times or own the soundtrack, you know this song. I loved that movie. Back in the day me and my buddies saw it about a thousand times. I owned the soundtrack and played it all the time, never mind the fact that the music was of an earlier generation. I didn't even like doo wop. So why did I catch myself singing this in the shower? I guess I do like doo wop now.

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Listen:
The Spaniels - Goodnight Sweetheart mp3 at R Strathdee (?)

LOU RAWLS, BUD MAN

This is where I cut out. I ran into a Lou Rawls song, THE Lou Rawls song. If you know only one Lou Rawls it's "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine". It's a good song, a superb voice, but, you know, over played to the point that you stop listening. Because that song was so familiar, and the only song I knew, Rawls was always on the back shelf. Then a friend of mine was over, someone I rarely see. We were watching a ball game and talk came to music, He started going off about Lou Rawls's voice. From anyone else I might not have been attentive, but this was the person who turned me onto Bobby Blue Bland decades earlier. Fuck yeah I listened. Then, the Dirtbombs covered Rawls's "A Natural Man". Yet another endorsement from someone with respectable taste. Yes, Lou Rawls is now on the list. The Bud shirt is his street cred.

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Listen:
Lou Rawls - You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine mp3 at Clayton Counts
Lou Rawls - A Natural Man (streaming) at YouTube
Dirtbombs - A Natural Man (streaming) at YouTube

THE APPLES AND ORANGES BAND

A friend posted a thing on Facebook about the Flamin' Groovies Shake Some Action LP, praising it. This was after he mentioned a few days ago that the first Blondie LP, released around the same time, did not age well. I wholeheartedly agree. Shake Some Action is a great album, produced by Dave Edmunds, in my friends words "possibly the best Beatles tribute of all time". And he would know. I'm not going down that road tonight, just take it from me. This he was saying about Shake Some Action. It was like Flamin' Groovies 2.0. All polished, courtesy of Edmunds. Roy Loney's out, Chris Wilson's in. And suits. What's that all about? A different band, only one album removed from Teenage Head. So, here's four songs from four successive LPs, the first two with Loney in the band, and the second two with Wilson in the band.

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Listen:
Flamin' Groovies - Headin' For the Texas Border mp3 at Melting Pot  1970
Flamin' Groovies - Teenage Head mp3 at Chris Wireman (?) 1971
Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action mp3 at Margauxville 1976
Flamin' Groovies - Take Me Back mp3 at Flying Snail 1978

TOOTS DIED YESTERDAY.

This sucks. Toots Hibbert died yesterday from Covid. He was in intensive care in a Jamaican hospital about ten days ago and after a couple days came news that his condition was improving. Like a lot of people, I was relieved. Hearing this today was a major bummer.

Hibbert was the lead singer of Toots and the Maytals and there from the beginning, active throughout the years from the ska era up to just a few weeks ago when his latest album came out. His voice was distinctive in a gruff Otis Redding sort of way, and he could make you like songs you previously hated (check his take on John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads". Whoa!). Dude was reggae.

Here's a few songs that I didn't post when I did the post about him going into intensive care a week or so ago, along with a couple I did post because some are just vital (see "Pressure Drop"). Some of it is very early, when they were billed as just The Maytals. If you're unfamiliar with Toots and the Maytals altogether, check this documentary.

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Listen:
The Maytals - Pressure Drop mp3 at Dinosaur Gardens
Toots and the Maytals - Sweet and Dandy mp3 at Tumblr
Toots and the Maytals - Do the Reggay mp3 at PixieRadio
Toots and the Maytals - Funky Kingston mp3 at Soul Garage
Toots and the Maytals - Take Me Home, Country Roads mp3 at Tumblr
Toots and the Maytals - Reggae Got Soul mp3 at Tumblr
Toots and the Maytals - Freedom Train mp3 at Keep the Coffee Coming
The Maytals - It's No Use mp3 at Sir Shambling's Very early.
The Maytals - Dog War mp3 at Soul Garage
The Maytals – Six & Seven Books mp3 at Soul Garage
The Maytals – My Distination [sic] mp3 at Soul Garage
The Maytals - Little Flea mp3 at Soul Garage

OCCAM'S GLITTER

I happened to come across the video of Suzi Quatro doing "48 Crash" on some TV show. I've seen it before. Suzi Quatro is not high art. She's not particularly hard as a rocker. She did some softies, and had a handful of hits, though none in the U.S. But watching this video it hit me. On this particular song, and this appearance, she and her band seem to be to glitter what the early Ramones were to rock 'n' roll. That is to say, stripped down. She boiled glam down to the bare essentials. Tight leather, shag haircut, platforms and that glam beat. That relentless, pumping, Mike Chapman Nicky Chinn glam beat that adorns so many glitter hits of that era, notably Quatro's and the Sweet's.

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Listen:
Suzi Quatro - Can the Can mp3 at Tumblr
Suzi Quatro - Devil Gate Drive mp3 at Tumblr

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE

This was recorded in John Lydon's home studio, the studio put together by his brother. He sold the song to Mountain Dew for use in a commercial. It's unashamedly Sex Pistols-ish, but it actually works. I'm not going to waste time trying to figure why he would work with a company like that. Personally, I think there's way too much crap in the Dew. Who cares, it's not my business who he works with. Regardless of the client, I would love to hear the full version of this, if one exists. The commercial is only thirty seconds long, barely enough to get into it.

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Listen/video:
John Lydon - Route 66 at YouTube Mountain Dew commercial.

SO THAT'S WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE

I haven't really run out of bands, but I find myself going back to songs that were overplayed when they were hits to the extent that I've never actually bothered to really listen to them. Today there's a fire burning about forty miles south east of me. Ashes are falling all the way out here on the coast (I'm in San Diego). I was trying to think of a song to post, so when I noticed the ashes and was told about the fire, I thought, what about a fire related song? The first one that came to mind was Hendrix's "Fire", followed immediately by the Ohio Players' "Fire" which I hadn't heard in years. So that's the one I went to, to really listen to it. In doing so, I ran across "Love Rollercoaster" a badass jam in and of itself. 

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Listen:
Ohio Players - Fire (streaming) at YouTube
Ohio Players - Love Rollercoaster mp3 at Tumblr
Video:
Ohio Players - Fire at YouTube From The Beat Club, this smokes. Dig the intro, clipped from the theme from The Munsters.

THE RANDOM PULL

The other night I grabbed a totally random album out of the rack without looking and slapped it on. Iggy Pop's The Idiot, his first post-Stooges LP. The last Stooges album (credited to Iggy and the Stooges), Raw Power was a departure from the first two. Rocking, yes, but the first two LPs were just fucking downright feral. Even that departure was mild in comparison to the change between Raw Power, released in 1973, and the industrial dirge of The Idiot released four years later. The latter was produced by David Bowie, and he also played on it, not just snippets. He had so much to do with the overall sound and feel of of it that it might as well be seen as a equal billing collaboration between the two. Bowie was actually formulating the sound that would later be heard on his so-called Berlin trilogy (the LPs Low, Heroes and Lodger). Listening to The Idiot now, it seems way more ahead of its time, something I had not recognized when it came out. Then again, the disappointment I felt when I first heard it was largely because I was hoping for a more Stooges-like album. Hey, it was 1977, punk rock and all of that. Then, this?

I managed to find the five tracks on side one and I do recommend listening to the whole thing, so there's a link to a streaming side two. Also, what seems to be an exhaustive song-by-song article on the LP, with links to related videos. I've not read it or tried any of the YouTube links, but it's there anyway.

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Listen:
Iggy Pop - Sister Midnight mp3 at Olcros (?)
Iggy Pop - Nightclubbing mp3 at In Bed With Dactylo
Iggy Pop - Funtime mp3 at Olcros (?)
Iggy Pop - Baby mp3 at The Rising Storm
Iggy Pop - China Girl mp3 at Olcros(?)
Iggy Pop - The Idiot, side two (streaming) at YouTube Three songs: Dum Dum Boys, Tiny Girl, Mass Production
Visit:
Nightclubbing at Pushing Ahead of the Dame A song by song rundown of The Idiot on a Bowie fan site.

LOCK DOWN THEATER NIGHT 29

Jimmy Cliff, The Harder They Come

It's a little early for Lock Down Theater re-runs, but there's a good reason. Yesterday I ran into an online report that Toots Hibbert is in intensive care in a Jamaican hospital. Possible covid. Yikes. Though reports today say he's improving, at 77 years old, he's no spring chicken. Thoughts and prayers and all that jazz.

Hibbert was the lead singer of the Maytals, one of the earliest reggae bands. In fact, their song "Do the Reggay" [sic] was the first song title using the word. Hibberts voice is somewhat gruff and when he does the call and response thing sounds almost like gospel backed by a reggae band. In doing searches about his health I also just read that he and the reformed Maytals (consisting of what other singers I'm not sure) just released a new LP in the last week.

I wanted to find the clip of them from The Harder They Come, only to find out that the movie link I'd posted back in April was kaput. The good news is that there's some other stuff. So here's The Harder They Come, the documentary on Toots and the Maytals and assorted Maytals songs, including a streaming version of one off the new LP. Thoughts and,,,well, prayers for some of you. Thoughts anyway.

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Listen:
The Maytals - Do the Reggay Drop mp3 at Dinosaur Gardens 1968
The Maytals - Pressure Drop mp3 at Dinosaur Gardens 1969
The Maytals - Monkey Man mp3 at Space Pack 1969
The Maytals - Gold and Silver mp3 at The Fader (?) 1971
Toots and the Maytals - Pomp and Pride mp3 at Renan (?) 1972
Toots and the Maytals - Time Tough mp3 at Tumblr 1974
Toots and the Maytals - Got to Be Tough (streaming) at YouTube 2020
Video:
Toots and the Maytals - Sweet and Dandy at YouTube From The Harder They Come
Toots and the Maytals - Documentary at YouTube
The Maytals - Treat Me Bad at YouTube From This Is Ska 1964