THE ALLEY DELIVERS

Earlier today I was thinking about what a pain in the ass it is to think of a song to post every day or two. So, after I get home I'm out in the alley for a quick smoke. I overhear my neighbor, Eileen, laughing in the complex across the alley. She moved in roughly a year ago. I think it was the second time I saw her, about a week after she moved in. She was wearing the Germs T-shirt with the artwork by Shawn Kerri. Yes, instant friend. So as I was headed back into my apartment, with a trail of thoughts that included that Germs T-shirt, I overhear my upstairs neighbor talking loudly on the phone and I heard him say "gimme gimme this, gimme that". Though my upstairs neighbor wasn't quoting the Germs' "Lexicon Devil", the phrase appears in the lyrics. Too much of a coincidence to not take the hint. So, here's both versions of "Lexicon Devil", the first from the first Slash EP, produced by Geza X (Deadbeats, Arthur J and the Gold Cups) and the second from their first LP a couple years later, produced by Joan Jett. The LP version is harder and faster. While I wouldn't call it slick, it's definitely recorded in a "better" studio. I kind of dig the EP version more though. It really does sound more like the time, and the budget.

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Listen:
The Germs - Lexicon Devil (EP version) mp3 at Killed By Death
The Germs - Lexicon Devil (LP version) (streaming) at YouTube
The Germs - Two more from the EP at Killed By Death

BECAUSE, MICKEY BAKER

I ran across a song that I didn't remember hearing and the guitar sounded a lot  like Mickey Baker. Shit. Some of you may know Baker, he's a favorite of mine and he's been posted here a bunch. I was starting to have second thoughts about posting the song because if it was Baker (I did intend to find out), I would have to post it. I was beginning to feel guilty about it, about reposting some favorites over and over again in general. I do it a lot. Then it occurred to me. We're all friends here right? Well, shit, if you were in my living room right now and I felt like playing Mickey Baker, I'd play some Mickey Baker. So, sorry, we're friends now. I'll be force feeding you Mickey Baker.

If you don't know who Baker was, he was the Mickey of Mickey and Sylvia, of "Love Is Strange" fame. He was a guitarist and played on his own records and on a lot of sessions for others. Years later Sylvia Robinson ended up starting Sugarhill Records (Sugarhill Gang, Grandmaster Flash, etc) and I think I remember her buying Chess Records or having part ownership. I'm not positive. You can look it up. I'm going to listen to some Mickey Baker. His guitar is on all of these, I think. Tiny Kennedy's "Country Boy" is the one that I hadn't heard.and it sounds like him. I'll be looking that up at some point. Whoever it is, they smoke.

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Listen:
Mickey and Sylvia - No Good Lover mp3 at Internet Archive
Tiny Kennedy - Country Boy mp3 at Internet Archive Guitar credit inconclusive on this one.
Tiny Kennedy - Strange Kind Of Feeling mp3 at Internet Archive 
"Big" John Geer - Bottle It Up and Go mp3 at Internet Archive
The Du-Droppers - Talk That Talk mp3 at Internet Archive
The Five Keys - Lawdy Miss Mary mp3 at Internet Archive
Roy "Mr. Guitar" Gaines - Worried 'bout You Baby mp3 at Internet Archive
Mr. Bear - Radar mp3 at Internet Archive
Mr. Bear - How Come? mp3 at Internet Archive
The Du-Droppers - Speed King mp3 at Internet Archive

RIP U ROY

A few months ago I was flipping through an issue of Mojo and in a review of U Roy's latest LP, they referred to him as "the late" U Roy. As in dead. Fu-uck. U Roy was one of my favorite reggae artists. I was both bummed and stunned. It hit me that my connection to any sort of reggae community has dissipated to the point that in the few months since his death, no one I knew had heard the news either.

I've been listening to U Roy's stuff since I was twenty years old, well over half my life. He's one of the artists that has spent the most time on my turntable. I owe it to that first record of his that I bought, Dread In A Babylon. I still consider it his best LP. After that one I went back to the beginning. Here's a few from his first LP Version Galore, 1970. I realize that the above doesn't say shit about U Roy himself. If you're unfamiliar with him, there's a link to a profile at Jamaican from about four years ago.

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Listen:
U Roy - Wake the Town mp3 at Internet Archive
U Roy - Rule the Nation mp3 at Internet Archive
U Roy - Wear You to the Ball mp3 at Internet Archive
U Roy - Tide Is High mp3 at Tumblr
U Roy - Dread In A Babylon (full LP, streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
U-Roy, Best Known as the Pioneer of Toasting the Forerunner to Rap at Jamaicans

A REMINDER

I'm not sure how they found this blog or how they have evaded the tight information controls in place but I had eight page views overnight from, ahem, over there. In the event that whoever is visiting is sitting on the fence, I felt it my duty as a world citizen to leave a message for them. Hence the image above.

LIVE IN THE BACKYARD!

Aw man, another band I never heard of that merits mentioning, this time a garage band from Louisiana. I'll get to that in a minute. I started with Mouse and the Traps' “Maid of Sugar, Maid of Spice”. Cool, a garage song I can build around. I go looking for an image and found myself on a blog, On the Road South, which bills itself as "1960's garage bands from Texas and beyond".  Okay, so I do a little digging. Just clicking on YouTube links to garage bands I've never heard of. I ran across one with kids and I'm thinking that it could be a good laugh, or out of left field à la the Shaggs. But no, these kids mean business. (That's the guitar player above.)  Give a listen to the Little Bits, aged 9 to 12. A credible snarl beyond their years. For whatever reason, it made me think of the Sloths, and then I got the idea to go browse Ugly Things. That's where I'm going and I know I won't be back tonight, so follow me over there.

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Listen:
Mouse and the Traps - Maid of Sugar, Maid of Spice mp3 at The Rising Storm
The Little Bits - Girl Give Me Love (streaming) at YouTube
The Sloths - Makin' Love (streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
The Little Bits at On The Road Again Profile/interview
Ugly Things Magazine and label

THIS SAX PLAYER IS AT THE WRONG GIG

Last night I was out in the alley and the kid that lives across the alley was coming home from his karate class. He's about ten years old and a yellow belt, whatever the hell that means. He did what he always does, he starts asking questions. How old are you? Where do you work? Shit like that. After a half dozen of these volleys he asked a question that was so unrelated it was something you could easily find online. I just answered him "Google". Then he asked another unrelated but searchable question. I answered "Google". I should add, at this point, that the kid has a sense of humor and we razz each other all the time. So I wasn't being cruel or mean, I was teaching him how to use his fucking head. After a couple more questions I thought I'd make a point. I answered, "Google. You can find anything on there." With that, the Q & A ceased and we chatted about other alley subjects.

I thought about last nights episode just a couple hours ago. I ran into some great rockabilly cuts from a band I never heard of, the Sabres. I did a search using Duck Duck Go. (Google is actually a last resort for me. Too big.). I found links to the same songs I had already run into, but no bio anywhere, nothing more than a couple sentences. Reluctantly, I tried Google. Nearly identical results. I'm gonna have to go crawling back to that kid. "Hey, about the other night, I'm sorry, I was wrong. You can't find shit on Google!"

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Listen:
The Sabres - My Hot Mama mp3 at Rocky 52
The Sabres - Puppet mp3 at Rocky 52
The Sabres - Take Up he Slack Daddy-O mp3 at Rocky 52

MUSIC FOR STUFF LIKE THIS

If you've been lurking for a while, you've no doubt run across one of the posts with "shakers", oddball instrumentals known by other terms as well. At first Beware of the Blog was referring to them as "Titty Shakers", then someone made the decision that "Tassel Twirlers" was less, er, coarse. Somehow the term evolved into simply "Shakers". What they are is basically the type of instrumentals you'd hear accompanying a strip show in the fifties or sixties. Cheesy shit, but totally cool once you let it take over. Imagine you're just sitting there, in a dark room. You've got a flat top, wing tips, with the cheapest goddamn after shave the store sells. You've got a pack of Pall Malls, and an ice cold Hamms condensating next to a half full plastic ashtray and there's some drunk jerk yelling "Go Baby Go!" as if it was the first time the missus let him off the leash. Here's the soundtrack.

These are typical of the oddballs you used to be able to pick up at thrift stores for pocket change. Now, due to demand from oddball collectors they're nearly impossible to find for a cheap price. The word is out, everything is listed online somewhere, banged up thrift store finds included. Just snag the mix, there's 34 of them. They really do put you in a weird mood after you've heard a few in a row.

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Listen:

Hey Tiger! Do The Broken Hip! Kogar's Tassle Twirlers Volume 2 at Boss Radio 66 NOTE: The mix is at Mega.nz. Although there are buttons to sign in or create an account, it is not required. Takes about two minutes, a zip with 34 individual mp3s.

EIGHT MINUTES OF THIS GUY GOING OFF.

Here's a good disorienting cut by Ornette Coleman. More or less a filler post, in case I don't get around to something else. But it's good, especially if you like some crazy blowing all over the place. Really, it's kind of exhausting, If eight minutes isn't enough there's a link to other Coleman stuff posted in the past. This is serious "Blow, man, blow!" stuff here.

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Listen:
Ornette Coleman - Love Call mp3 at 30 Milkshakes
More Ornette Colman  here (scroll down)

WAH-WAH, CONGAS, HEAVY BASS AND PAM GRIER

Maybe it's because I like Blaxploitation movies in general, maybe because they're musical time-capsules. Maybe I just like the stealth attitude of the songs. I don't know, I'm not going to over-analyze it, I just really dig Blaxploitation soundtracks.

I wanted to include Melvin Van Peebles' film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song because it was a big deal, something about being the first independently produced Blacksloitation film, or something like that. Look it up. Unfortunately the link I had for his movie was removed, but I did find one for a film called Bucktown that I've never heard of. Within the first few seconds, wah-wah. Credits roll. Fred Williamson...Pam Grier. Stop. Wah-wah and Pam Grier? In a movie I never heard of? I'm cutting out to watch it.

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Listen:
Melvin Van Peebles - Sweetback's Theme mp3 at Oz Good
Curtis Mayfield - Freddie's Dead mp3 at Internet Archive
Funkadelic - Freak of the Week mp3 at Internet Archive
Maceo & All The King's Men - Funky Women mp3 at Internet Archive
Johnny Pate - Shaft In Africa mp3 at Internet Archive
Bar-Kays - Son of Shaft mp3 at Internet Archive
Curtis Mayfield - Pusherman mp3 at Internet Archive

HE WHO PUTS ANTS IN PANTS

I was shooting the shit with a younger DJ friend of mine yesterday. His music of choice is electronic, EDM of the "dooosh, dooosh, dooosh" variety. He also does weddings as a better paying side gig. This past weekend he DJ'ed a wedding so I thought I'd ask what a wedding go-to crowd pleaser is these days. You know, the one you throw on when the dance floor has started thinning out and you need to get them out there again. His answer was Bruno Mars. I thought about it and the one I would keep in reserve until that re-stoking was needed, this is back when I DJ'ed an occasional wedding, would have been James Brown. This lead to all sorts of thoughts later, long after our conversation ended. One is that his go-to was of current vintage in relation to when the weddings were taking place. While James Brown's or Aretha Franklin's (another go-to for me) stuff would have been about twenty five years old when I played them at events. Then I thought about the people at the weddings. I DJd only at friends' weddings, and my friends are all pretty musically educated. James Brown would have been a no-brainer.

Here's a couple lesser know James Brown cuts from 1968. (These were never dance floor tested by me.) The second song, "Funky Soul 1", is an instrumental. My guess is that the JB is on the organ. He had instrumental LPs in the past where he was the organist so I'm sticking with that (also, it's the featured instrument so...). I gotta say, the man had decent chops.

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Listen:
James Brown - There Was A Time mp3 at Groove Addict
James Brown - Funky Soul 1 mp3 at Groove Addict

PRINCE, KING, WHATEVER.

I've got a love/hate thing going on with King Jammy. He was a kind of assistant to King Tubby and then went out on his own, like Tubby, as an engineer and producer. Good credentials there. Back then he was Prince Jammy. How he was promoted to King, I've no clue. It didn't get passed from Tubby because he died in 1989 and from what I've been able to find, Jammy went from Prince to King sometime between 2011 and 2015. Who knows. His stuff as Prince Jammy was good, as well as his early years as King. He wasn't Tubby, no one was, but he was in top tier.

But, and it's a big but to me, he was the first to do the digital reggae. This was mid-eighties. I'm not against synthesizers or even digital effects if used sparingly, but crafting riddims without the use of instruments at all takes the soul out of it. Hence, dancehall. Fuck that. If the road's blocked, go the another direction. When digital reggae and dancehall came out, I returned to the side streets and went deeper into DJ, roots and rocksteady.

 

 

Here's a documentary on Jammy and a couple cuts from when he was Prince Jammy. There's also a link to a recording of his sound system at a yard dance from 1987. The sound quality on that is dubious, but it's at least a taste of the thing. Skip around, it's over two hours.

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Listen:
Prince Jammy - Second Generation mp3 at Internet Archive
Prince Jammy - Prince Jammy On the Scene mp3 at Internet Archive
The sound system set:
King (?) Jammy's Super Power Sound System mp3 at Streamola Archive From a yard dance, Walkerman Lawn 1987

THE COOL CHICKS (SLIGHT RETURN)

After posting the covers the other day, I had "Talking About You" stuck in my head. Not Chuck Berry's version or the Stones' cover. It was the Liverbirds' version. I didn't even remember whether I'd heard it via a live video or a record. So I went looking. Turns out that exactly one year ago today I'd posted some of their stuff. You know what's coming: repost. Here's the drivel I posted a year ago with a couple added tidbits:

I ran into a couple semi-recent Liverbirds videos so, yeah, time to update things. One video is a short sixteen minute documentary, the other is a clip of a musical about the Liverbirds with two of the original Liverbirds joining in on bass and drums. They're at the bottom with the other links. Here's what I said the last time I posted their stuff:

You just know that before they were ever known as a band, the Liverbirds were already the cool chicks. They had to be. In terms of coolness, you don't just go from wallflower to that photo above without a head start. Check the video below for further evidence. The icing is their choice in covers.

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Listen: 
The Liverbirds - Talking About You mp3 at The Rising Storm
The Liverbirds - Hands Off mp3 at The Rising Storm
The Liverbirds - Peanut Butter mp3 at Internet Archive

The Liverbirds - Loop De Loop mp3 at Internet Archive

The Liverbirds - For Your Love (streaming) at YouTube
Video:
The Liverbirds - Diddley Daddy at YouTube
The Liverbirds - Why Do You Hang Around Me? at YouTube
Liverbirds, the Musical - Peanut Butter at YouTube Just after the 1:00 mark, two of the real Liverbirds (bassist and drummer) join in. The drummer really wails.
We're Britain's First Female Rock Band. This is Why You Don't Know Us. - Mini-Documentary at YouTube 16 minutes
Read:
The Liverbirds - Feature at the Liverpool Echo
The Liverbirds profile at The Hound Blog

A FISTFUL OF COVERS

Here's a handful of originals that have been covered a zillion times followed by the best known covers, or at least the first to come to mind. Some of the original artists below had other songs that were covered a bunch. Richard Berry also wrote "Louie Louie", covered by everybody, and Larry Williams (seen above) wrote "Slow Down" covered by the Beatles. Chuck Berry, well, Chuck Berry. Otis Rush did "All My Lovin' (Bluesbreakers) and, I think, "I Can't Quit You" (Led Zep). Ernie K-Doe might be an exception because, as many popular songs as he had, I can't think of any covers other than the Yardbirds'. Regardless, these are nice juxtapositions. Apologies to locals that recognize these as first semester Cover Versions 101. I feel you, but someone has to shake the Auto-Tune out of the kids.

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Listen:
Richard Berry - Have Love Will Travel mp3 at Internet Archive
The Sonics - Have Love Will Travel (streaming) at YouTube
Larry Williams - She Said Yeah mp3 at Internet Archive
Rolling Stones - She Said Yeah (streaming) at YouTube
Chuck Berry - Talkin' About You mp3 at Internet Archive
Rolling Stones - Talkin' About You (streaming) at YouTube
Otis Rush - Homework mp3 at Internet Archive
J.Geils Band - Homework (streaming) at YouTube
Ernie K-Doe - A Certain Girl mp3 at Internet Archive
The Yardbirds - A Certain Girl (streaming) at YouTube

WELL, THEY ARE THINGS.

Well, here we are. Ostensibly British psych from 1967, these could be thrown into the Nuggets bin, what with the jangliness and fuzz. But there is a little more refinement here that doesn't quite have the snottiness of American garage bands. Granted these are signed bands and a year later than the peak of garage bands stateside, they just don't seem as dangerous. I guess it isn't really fair to compare them to, say, the Music Machine. Regardless, there's fuzz.

The minor dope: The Riot Squad has David Jones on vocals. He later changed his name to Bowie. The Pretty Things (seen above) are down there as a tip of the hat to Mike Stax, publisher and editor of Ugly Things (get it?) and a total PT disciple. The Move, because Roy Wood always was the freakiest ELO member (though he jumped ship by the second or third album). The Artwoods because Jon Lord, future Deep Purple founder, is on organ. All I got.

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Listen:
The Riot Squad - Toy Soldier mp3 at Internet Archive Early Bowie
The Pretty Things - Defecting Grey mp3 at Internet Archive
The Move - Vote For Me mp3 at Internet Archive
The Artwoods - In the Deep End mp3 at Internet Archive

A: BOWL CUT ERA

One thing that may not occur to casual blog browsers is that if you land on a music blog and there happens to be a song that you like, there may be more like it on the same blog on other posts. I've mentioned it before and I'll say it again: The search box is you're friend. Almost every blog has one. Use it.

Case in point: Today I ran into one early cut by Bob Seger. Now, I'm not some Seger freak. When I was younger he was all over the radio, with the Silver Bullet Band. Late seventies and early eighties if I remember correctly (I remember hearing "Hollywood Nights" for the first time while washing dishes at a restaurant I worked at. See "How to guess the release date of overplayed songs", Section 2a). But I'd heard some of his early stuff and dug it.



So, the blog AM Then FM had one, and I took a shot. Bam! Five sixties cuts, two of which I've never heard. There were others but they were early seventies and, though prior to the Silver Bullet Band, they still had that mid-seventies over played sound to them. But the five below, from 1967-1968 are great, Seger's voice over a garage type band. Not really straight garage, but from the Nuggets era. Dig 'em.

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Listen:
Bob Seger System - 2 + 2 = ? mp3 at AM Then FM 1968
Bob Seger and the Last Heard - Chain Smokin' mp3 at AM Then FM 1967
Bob Seger and the Last Heard - Persecution Smith mp3 at AM Then FM 1967
Bob Seger and the Last Heard - East Side Story mp3 at AM Then FM  1967
Bob Seger and the Last Heard - Heavy Music (Part 1) mp3 at AM Then FM  1967

JAZZBO SMELLING OB NOODLE HOUSE

On the way home a wiff of Asian food while stopped at a stop sign reminded me of San Francisco in my twenties. I had a reggae mix playing in my car and coupled with the smell, I flashed on an apartment building I lived in when I was there. Now that I think about it, all of the SF apartment buildings smelled like Asian food when I was there. Nevertheless, the smell tonight and the music that happened to be playing, led to a flashback of sorts. It was about that time that I was just starting to discern different reggae sub-genres. You wouldn't think it would take roughly five years of listening to reggae to figure out that King Tubby is in a different universe than Alton Ellis but I was green, very few of my friends listened to reggae, and there was no internet. Yadda, yadd, yadda, and now you get some reggae.

Prince Jazzbo's "Crab Walking" was one that I wanted to post because it sort of combines different sub-genres of reggae. The riddim is from Horace Andy's "Skylarking", a classic early reggae cut from Coxsone Dodd's Studio One. Jazzbo toasts over it, and being an eight minute disco mix, there's a little dub in the middle of it. That's three cuts with the same riddim on the same label. Andy's original, Jazzbo's version and then the extended version and whoever did the dub part. That's nothing. There were at least five records on Studio One using that riddim. Riddim Guide lists over fifty on various other labels. There's three other unrelated favorites below too, because they were handy but are also the shit. Yadda, yadda, yadda, noodles.

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Listen:
Prince Jazzbo - Crab Walking mp3 at Snuhthing Anything
Burning Spear - Social Living mp3 at Internet Archive 12" version, with a couple minutes of the version on the flip.
Horace Andy - See A Man's Face mp3 at Kazo Wailers
Gregory Isaacs - Poor and Clean mp3 at Kazo Wailers

MID MIX HEAD SCRATCHERS

Here we go, obscure seventies soul and funk from artists that you probably never heard of, on independent labels you didn't know existed. I'm guessing. But it's obscure enough to be have that "What the hell do we have here?" appeal.

Ruby and her ol' man are the bickering couple next door. The Harlem Underground are the stoners out on the stoop. Miss Elsie Smith? Her cover of "Watermelon Man" is an instrumental, so I have no idea what she plays. The Fabulous Counts' "Lunar Funk" is a solid jam, total seventies cop show soundtrack. Wah wah and some primitive synth. And I have no idea what "skin it back" means, but Tommy Bush seems determined to drill it into your skull.

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Listen:
Ruby and the Party Gang - Hey Ruby (Shut Your Mouth) mp3 at Internet Archive
Harlem Underground - Smokin' Cheeba Cheeba mp3 at Internet Archive
Miss Elsie Smith - Watermelon Man mp3 at Internet Archive
Manzel - Space Funk mp3 at Internet Archive
Tommy Bush - Skin It Back (Pts 1 & 2) mp3 at Internet Archive

SOUP-TO-NUTS-ABILLY

I can't tell you how long it's been since I've run into a band up my alley as much as this one, the Blue Devils. A crunchy assault, seriously there's some Heartbreakers and Stooges things going on, and a singer that sounds like Gerry Roslie's (Sonics) younger brother. And fuzz. This is good shit. Unfortunately, two 45s and one LP doesn't give one a hell of a lot to snack on. So be it, beggars can't be choosers.

I've only sampled a few songs so far but it's enough to make me add them to the list. One thing, the sound I describe above is one that I've heard on a few songs, but I checked out their cover of Muddy Waters's "Rollin' and Tumblin'" on their Bandcamp page and it's total Gun Club with a dash of Cramps. Eh, again, good enough influences, I guess. They do it effectively.

There are, though, a couple things that bug. One is that I can't find much of anything on the Blue Devils, no doubt due to their short existence, but still. Hardly any info even on their Bandcamp page. The other thing, and this really bugs, is that when mentioning Gerry Roslie above I couldn't remember whether he was still alive or not. Worse, I couldn't find confirmation one way or another online. Here we go..

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Listen:
The Blue Devils - Fooled By You mp3 at Office Naps
The Blue Devils - Shot Down (streaming) at YouTube
The Blue Devils - Tornado (streaming) at YouTube
The Blue Devils at Bandcamp