FIVE YEARS AND FUZZ WILL DO THAT

I've heard all sorts of stuff by the Wailers (the Northwest Wailers, not the Jamaican Wailers) and am well aware that their stuff can vary. But listening to a couple songs back to back, I was unprepared for the juxtaposition of their early cut "Driftwood" (1960) and "Hang Up" (1965). It's a remarkable contrast, from an almost exotica type instrumental to an orgy in fuzz. The photo above is singer/sax player Ron Gardner, who joined in '62. He would be part of the "Hang Up" Wailers. Contrast that swagger with the photo of the earlier "Driftwood" Wailers below. What a difference five years makes.

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Listen:
The Wailers - Driftwood mp3 at Office Naps
The Wailers - Hang Up (streaming) at YouTube

IT'S STONER ROCK SOMEWHERE

Whoah dad, I forgot all about the Sadies. I just ran into "Flash". Man, what a damn good band. The picking and guitar interplay is as good as it gets. On the dusky outskirts of Bakersfield with a flat tire and a bent rim. The Sadies always remind me of my friend John. He would always go off about bands that he liked. Sometimes I had no interest, but some of the times he was right. Two bands that he was always talking about that he was absolutely right about were the Fall and the Sadies. The Sadies backed all sorts of people. My first exposure was an album with them backing Neko Case. They've also backed Andre Williams and Neil Young among others. (Just as I typed that it occurred to me that Neil Young has been backed, at one time or another, by the Sadies, Devo, Pearl Jam and Booker T and the MGs.) Anyway, here's a few. Some awesome picking on these. Dig the videos. Tight.

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Listen:
The Sadies - Flash mp3 at Internet Archive
The Sadies - The Double Wide mp3 at Groover's Paradise
The Sadies - Milk and Scissors mp3 at Internet Archive
Neil Young with the Sadies - This Wheels on Fire mp3 at the Adios Lounge
Andre Williams with the Sadies - Shake a Tail Feather mp3 at Internet Archive
Video:
The Sadies - Flash at YouTube
The Sadies - Through Strange Eyes at YouTube

AND LIKE THAT, THE LIST GROWS

I was wondering why I hadn't heard of Tiny Topsy. She's my type of fifties, a throaty rhythm and blues singer not unlike Big Mama Thornton or Big Maybelle. One who really belts a song. So, I did some digging. She died at the age of 34 having only recorded nine singles. That explains why I've never run across her. The silver lining, if there is one, is being able to fit her entire recorded output on one compilation. Here's a few, including her radical reworking of Rosco Gordon's "Just A Little Bit". I have digging to do.

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Listen:
Tiny Topsy - Aw Shucks Baby mp3 at Internet Archive
Tiny Topsy - Miss You So mp3 at Internet Archive
Tiny Topsy - Come On, Come On, Come On mp3 at Internet Archive
Tiny Topsy - You Shocked Me mp3 at Internet Archive
Tiny Topsy - Cha Cha Sue mp3 at Internet Archive
Tiny Topsy - Just A Little Bit mp3 at Internet Archive

THAT DAY THE ART DIRECTOR WAS HIGH

Here's a grab bag of covers. A couple surprises of note: The cover of "In the Ghetto" by Gene West is actually a young Barry White. And the lounge-y latin jazz cover of "Psychotic Reaction" that I thought might be some sort of corny retro outfit is actually Señor Soul who would later become War. That's them above, from an album cover. Pulling zero stops. They look like they're trying to cover all the bases, the guy on the far right dropping his mask going "Fuck this shit. This is ridiculous."

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Listen:
Señor Soul - Psychotic Reaction mp3 at Internet Archive Count Five cover
Gene West - In the Ghetto mp3 at Internet Archive Elvis cover
Lulu - Feelin' Alright mp3 at Internet Archive Joe Cocker cover
Aloe Blacc - Femme Fatale mp3 at Internet Archive Velvet Underground cover
Sugarman 3 - What the World Needs Now mp3 at Internet Archive Burt Bacharach cover

FROM BURMA WITH FUZZ

Yee haw! Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe is posting again. If you dig oddball international music, you need to check it out. Not only does the host appreciate the unfamiliar aspect of unheard music from lands far away, he does a more than adequate job of tracking down background information. That's not easy when you're starting with scant information in another language. The song below was a semi-recent post. From Burma, it begins with roughly eight seconds of crazy fuzz and then bleeds into some primitive synth riffs. The song keeps changing and along with it the dominant instrument. Alas, the fuzz does not return. I could do without the singing, but the craziness of the music more than makes up for it.

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Listen:
Thein Tan -  Khaing Pann Sone / ခိုင်ပန်းစုံ mp3 at Radiodiffusion Internasionaal Annexe

OWE ME A COKE

Here's a juxtaposition for you. John Fogerty and Rick Nelson covering each other. Kinda sorta anyway. The Fogerty song that Nelson covers is "Almost Saturday Night" from Fogerty's eponymously titled second solo album. The Nelson song that Fogerty covers, "Hello Mary Lou", is not really Nelson's. It was written by Gene Pitney, but Nelson had the hit with it. And Fogerty didn't cover it himself per se, it was covered when he was in Creedence on their last LP, Mardis Gras. I have to say Creedence did better with "Hello Mary Lou" than Nelson did with "Almost Saturday Night". Creedence had more oomph than Nelson did later in his career. Check Fogerty's homage to James Burton's playing on "Hello Mary Lou", tone and licks. (Burton was the guitarist on Nelson's "Hello Mary Lou".)

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Listen:
Rick Nelson - Hello Mary Lou mp3 at Snuhthing Anything
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Hello Mary Lou mp3 at Internet Archive
John Fogerty - Almost Saturday Night (streaming) at YouTube
Rick Nelson - Almost Saturday Night mp3 at Internet Archive

BAKER? OUT BACK.

Here's a couple by Big Maybelle. "That's a Pretty Good Love" is awesome. In a moment that would have made my late brother Tim proud, I correctly identified the guitar player as Mickey Baker. Tim's the only one I know that would have appreciated that. We never discussed Baker back when he was alive, we'd never heard of him. But I know if he were still here, he'd have found Mickey Baker and he would have been impressed that I was able to ID the licks. Damn, I miss him.

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Listen:
Big Maybelle - That's a Pretty Good Love mp3 at Internet Archive
Big Maybelle - I've Got a Feelin' mp3 at Rocky 52

YOU'RE CONFUSING EVERYBODY

Ah hell, that's what I was thinking. I ran into some Percy Mayfield cuts and wanted to post them but didn't feel like, you know, doing the leg work. Mayfield was a lesser known rhythm and blues singer, but good. He wrote too ("Hit the Road Jack") and he recorded for a few different labels, among them Specialty and Chess. Even you fiends in training know that those two labels alone warrant a listen. He kind of reminds me of Andre Williams without the cussing. The first one below is an early r and b cut, the second one is a laugh riot from later in his career. It's a anti-hippie song with a guitar player who has gum stuck on his wah-wah foot. The backing vocals are classic. Luckily, being that I'm not in much of a mood for legwork, there is a lengthy bio at The Hound.

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Listen:
Percy Mayfield - I Made It Just the Same mp3 at Internet Archive
Percy Mayfield - You Wear Your Hair Too Long mp3 at Internet Archive
Visit:
Percy Mayfield profile at The Hound

HELL YEAH IT WAS A DIFFERENT TIME

I wasn't cognizant of a lot of soul music when it was originally released. I was alive but so young that I didn't even know what music was. My first exposure was hearing some coming out of the garage from my Dad's workbench radio while he was sorting fasteners or whatever the fuck he did in there while we were outside doing yard work. I didn't know the titles as they weren't my per-adolescent bag, man.

Once in our teens my brothers and I would listen to the oldies station and some of the songs that had been playing in the garage were familiar enough to have had an association. A lot were one hit wonders, most way out of the scope of a Motown, Stax or Atlantic. I've always liked those types of soul records, the B-listers, from that particular era. Here's a few that will be very  familiar to some of you. One thing that I always try to keep in mind, there are twenty somethings walking around who have no idea who the Beatles are. It boggles my mind but it is truth. Scarier, there are people with normal day to day lives, responsible citizens, who have never heard the O'kaysions' "Girl Watcher".

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Listen:
J,J, Jackson - But It's Alright mp3 at Internet Archive
O'kaysions - Girl Watcher mp3 at Internet Archive
Archie Bell and the Drells - Tighten Up mp3 at Internet Archive
Cliff Nobles and Co. - The Horse mp3 at Internet Archive

NEW TO ME FUNK GRAB BAG NIGHT

Just like other genres, when funk was the happening thing, there were so many bands doing the same type of stuff that to stand out from the masses you had to have that certain thing. A solid bass line, accomplished drum breaks, percussive horns, those are three that nearly every good funk single had. So what else? That's where the obscure funk bands take over. The people you never heard of because they mistakenly thought they could take a short cut with a clever or silly song title, exaggerated singing,  over-doing the grunts. Some fully committed with a goofy-ass band name. But that's why I like obscure funk. I gravitate toward the imperfect, the slightly off. Seems more human. Add wah-wah and I'm off to the races.

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Listen:
Wee Willie and Winners - Get Some mp3 at Internet Archive
Little Oscar - The Funky Buzzard mp3 at Internet Archive
Soul Tornados - Crazy Legs mp3 at Internet Archive

DEFINITELY NOT GOOD-BAD.

Man, I've heard it a million times and it still makes my hair stand on end, Howlin' Wolf's "Evil" is one of the most authentically menacing three minutes ever cut into vinyl. Everything about it, his voice, the tempo and Hubert Sumlin's guitar playing and tone is absolutely cut to the bone perfect. After listening to it, all I needed was an excuse to post it again. I went to see how long it had been since I posted it, bam!! Found my excuse. The link to the Howlin' Wolf documentary had moved. So here's both, "Evil" and a new link to the documentary, plus a couple others.

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Listen:
Howlin' Wolf - Evil mp3 at Internet Archive
Howlin' Wolf - Break of Day mp3 at Internet Archive
Howlin' Wolf - Forty Four mp3 at Internet Archive
Howlin' Wolf - Moanin' at Midnight mp3 at Internet Archive
The documentary:
The Howlin' Wolf Story: The Secret History Of Rock And Roll at YouTube 2003

HEH, I GOT YOUR ORGAN RIGHT HERE.

On old mix at Funky 16 Corners got me going on a Hammond binge. Once I saw his mix Hammond Internationale did truly include international artists (Jackie Mittoo: Jamaica, Walter Wanderly: Brazil, etc) and knowing host Larry's taste, I found it odd that it didn't have Graham Bond (though it does have Brian Auger). Throwing a few additional songs down there allows me to re-post Graham Bond Organization's version of "Wade In the Water". It's so smooth. It fully swings, and it's got Ginger Baker on drums, his very first record. The second one down there by the Artwoods has as organist a pre-Deep Purple Jon Lord.

The mix is great. I've been listening to it for the past half hour or so. It's kinda cool because the songs are all different styles but the fact that they all have that Hammond sound kind of ties them together more cohesively then you'd expect.

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Listen:
Graham Bond Organization - Wade In the Water mp3 at Rising Storm
The Artwoods - Walk On the Wild Side mp3 at Rising Storm
Merit Hemmingson – Pata Pata mp3 at Funky 16 Corners
The Mix:
Hammond Internationale mix at Funky 16 Corners Scroll down to the eighth mix for the song list.

THE WHOLE PACKAGE

Oh man, I just revisited Al Green. The very first notes of "Here I Am" hooked me, changed my mood. The production is so fucking good I had to drag out an f-bomb just to tell you how good it is. Willie Mitchell was the producer, as he was for a lot of Al Green's hits. Obviously the songs are good and Green's voice is amazing, but the production just wraps around you. Check the intro to "Love and Happiness". If that doesn't suck you in it's your loss. Here's a few of Green's and two earlier cuts by Mitchell himself.

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Listen:
Al Green - Here I Am mp3 at Internet Archive
Al Green - Love and Happiness mp3 at Internet Archive
Al Green - Take Me to the River mp3 at Internet Archive
Willie Mitchell - Monkey Jump mp3 at The "B" Side
Willie Mitchell - Woodchopper's Ball mp3 at The "B" Side

I PREFER "POST-DRIVEWAY"

Usually a series of days without posting here is an indication of laziness or being tied up with something else. Not the case this time. I had started posts the past few nights only to dump what I'd written because it was just paragraphs of me ragging about current music. You know, my periodic anti-Auto-Tune tirade, lack of challenging music, rhymes without teeth, blah blah, blah. Yeah. I don't have a lawn but get off it anyways.

Here's some sixties garage stuff. I hadn't run across much in the past couple years because music blogs are dropping like flies, but I have found some that someone had posted at Internet Archive. They're of the Nuggets variety, in other words there might be some that you're familiar with and some you aren't. Fuzz is in there, snotty vocals and a dash of attitude. Not a lick of Auto-Tune. (That's the Gonn pictured above.)

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Listen:
The Gonn - Blackout of Gretely mp3 at Internet Archive
The Standells - Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White mp3 at Internet Archive
Third Bardo - I'm Five Years Ahead of Time mp3 at Internet Archive
The Uniques - You Ain't Tuff mp3 at Internet Archive
We the People - You Burn Me Up mp3 at Internet Archive
Music Machine - Double Yellow Line mp3 at Internet Archive
Mouse and the Traps - Maid of Sugar, Maid of Spice mp3 at Internet Archive