FORGOT ABOUT THIS ONE

Here we go, Rockers, a film that has among it's cast Leroy Smart, Big Youth, Jacob Miller, Burning Spear, Gregory Isaacs and the star, Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace. It's one of the few reggae films that has a plot. Like The Harder They Come released roughly six years earlier, it is technically fictional but you forget that. What is so absorbing about it is the environment, the street scenes and, obviously, music related scenes. It's a vintage (1978) look at the roots era of reggae at ground zero, that part is not fiction.

I was going to post some music, but you know what? There's a shitload on here, though some links are dead, there are a lot that aren't.

NOT EVEN ON MY BINGO CARD

Let me just head off all of the WTFs. Chicago was not all bland AOR crap, albeit they mostly were. Let's get to the meat. Years ago I saw an interview with Jimi Hendrix by Dick Cavett. Cavett asked him if there were any current guitarists he admired and he answered Terry Kath. Kath was a founding member of Chicago, so out of the gate that sounds dubious. But check this video. I advise you to start from the beginning and cut a little slack for early Chicago. They were harder than most of us, who quit listening after the first few LPs, will remember. Stick to it until 2:56. You'll see why Kath got Hendrix's attention.

I posted that video on YouTube and got reactions that were all over the map. The guys who played guitar generally liked it. One friend questioned "Did [me] just direct me to watch a 2-minute guitar solo?" That was a friend who knows me from the post-punk rock crowd. My brother said "I did not see that on my bingo card" which got a few laughing emojis. The biggest surprise was from a friend named Robert, who I've known for years. He was one half one of a well known late seventies industrial duo. They were a wall of noise, in a good way.

When I posted that Chicago video, Robert hepped me to "Free Form Guitar" from the debut Chicago Transit Authority LP. Ho-ly shit. It's just full-on distorted, feeding back totally improvised grinding, wailing guitar. One guy, Terry Kath. Robert mentioned "My brother had the record at the time, that was basically the only track i ever listened to." I answered "Judging by early [his duo] I'd say it was probably an ear opener at a younger age. 'More of this please.'" He answered that it, the song, was definitely an influence. Compare the two below. Back to Kath, there's also a link to a documentary about him, which I haven't watched yet but the few snippets I've seen looked good.

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Listen:
Chicago (Terry Kath) - Free Form Guitar (streaming) at YouTube 1969
Non (Robert's duo) - Pagan Muzak (streaming) at YouTube 1977-78
Watch:
Chicago: The Terry Kath Experience at YouTube Two hour documentary. Don't forget, "skip ads"

WAY EARLY THESE GUYS

Some bands seem to attract the tape people. Obviously the Grateful Dead and other jam band bands of their ilk had/have tapers coming out of their ass. One band that I actually like attracted their fare share, the Replacements. There's a lot of 'em out there. Now, I can understand why someone would tape one of their sets, particularly when they were hitting their wobbly stride. But who thinks to tape a band at one of their first gigs, before they even have a record out? That's what I ran across, a Replacements show from July 17, 1980. Their first gig in a bar was just two weeks earlier. It's telling that their opening and closing songs are both from the Heartbreakers' L.A.M.F. LP. The recording is pretty good considering the recording technology available at the time. The hosting site has a download, the song list and the specs.

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Visit:
The Replacements - Live, Jay's Longhorn, Minneapolis, MN at Teenage Dogs In Trouble July 17, 1980.

WHOOP DEE DO, A BUZZCOCKS RARITY

In case I don't get around to a new post tonight, here's two 1980 obscurities, a Buzzcocks track and a Subway Sect track, both released on a cassette only compilation put out by the NME (New Musical Express) and, as far as I know, unreleased on vinyl or CD.

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Listen:

Buzzcocks – I Look Alone mp3 at Killed By Death
Subway Sect – Parallel Lines mp3 at Killed By Death

FROM THE "IT WAS A DIFFERENT TIME" FILE

After hearing Bull Moose Jackson's "Big Ten Inch Record" last night I thought I'd try to round up a few more "naughty" songs from the same era. I expected to find a few but realized that there are far more. The more I looked, the more there were. So the songs below will have to suffice. A few things to note. One is that "My Ding-A-Ling" by Dave Bartholomew was covered by Chuck Berry in 1972. It's a decent song, clever for it's time. Here's the thing: As you know (you better know), Chuck Berry wrote and recorded half a billion top notch classic rock 'n' roll songs. If he wants to sneak in a cover, he's earned it.  But this is how fucked up American listeners are. His live cover of "My Ding-A-Ling" was his only #1 hit. Ever. Ain't that 'bout a suck?

After scavenging these songs last night, I was listening to "Big Ten Inch Record" again and remembering that there was a time that hadn't heard the original, Id only heard Aerosmith's cover from their third album. I'm not a big Aerosmith fan, if you consider hating Aerosmth the same as not being a big fan. But they didn't always suck, and I gotta say "Big Ten Inch Record" was a good obscure r&b song to cover. So I thought I'd listen to it again. Then I noticed that it was just a few seconds shorter than Jackson's. I was bored so I played them both at the same time, pausing to try to synch them up. Give it a go. It was fun for about two minutes and thirteen seconds.

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Listen:
Bull Moose Jackson - Big Ten Inch Record mp3 at Internet Archive
The Toppers - Let Me Bang Your Box mp3 at Internet Archive
Dave Bartholomew - My Ding-A-Ling mp3 at Internet Archive
The Treniers - Poon-Tang mp3 at Internet Archive
Aerosmith - Big Ten Inch Record (streaming) at YouTube

SUMMER, FUCK YEAH!

I just got out of the water about an hour ago. The water temperature is 69°, the air temperature 74°. With the exception of a lack of quality surf, the conditions were about as good as June gets, and summer doesn't officially begin for a few hours. Tonight, it's a no brainer. Like it or not, surf music it is. All of the cuts below have been posted before on different posts, but never all together, and it's a real mish mash. The first one, "Penetration" by the Pyramids, is a personal favorite as is "Baja" by the Astronauts. The second and third songs (Dick Dale's "Miserlou" and the Lively Ones "Surf Rider") were both in the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction so they may be overly famliar to some of you. Still, they're excellent. There's a couple other Dick Dale songs too because, well, he's the damn King of the Surf Guitar. The rest, with the exception of "Pipeline" are lesser known tracks. I couldn't find an mp3 of Eddie and the Showmen's "Squad Car" but had to include it because they are so underrated. Eddie Bertrand is one of very few surf guitarists mentioned with the same sort of reverence as Dick Dale, and I think I remember reading somewhere that Bertrand was the only guitarist that Dick Dale himself regarded as a peer.

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Listen:
The Pyramids - Penetration mp3 at Snuthing Anything
Dick Dale and His Deltones - Miserlou mp3 at Snuthing Anything
The Lively Ones - Surf Rider mp3 at Snuthing Anything
Dick Dale and His Deltones - Night Rider mp3 at Rocky 52
Dick Dale and His Deltones - Ghost Riders in the Sky mp3 at Rocky 52
The Chantays - Pipeline mp3 at Rocky 52
Aki Aleong and the Nobels - Panic mp3 at Probe is Turning-On the People
The Torquays - Escondido mp3 at Office Naps
The Astronauts - Baja mp3 at California Girls
Johnny Fortune - Soul Surfer mp3 at Rocky 52
Charles Write and the Malibus - Runky mp3 at Office Naps
Calvin Cool - El Tecolote mp3 at Office Naps
Eddie and the Showmen - Squad Car (streaming) at YouTube

WAIT. THE VENTURES?

Funny, last night while scrolling through images in my music files I saw a photo of Harvey Mandel and was trying to remember what site I'd seen his music posted on. Had to hear "Bite the Electric Eel" again. Just because. So today I'm browsing old posts at Melting Plot, from 2015 no less, and there he was. He really should be better known. He sure as shit paid his dues, playing with Barry Goldberg, Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmy Witherspoon, Canned Heat, John Mayall, the Ventures (?!) and on solo records by both Don ("Sugarcane" Harris) and Dewey (Terry) of Don and Dewey. The first song down there is with Musselwhite, from 1967. Dig the guitar tone (not to mention Musselwhite's harp and the organ by Barry Goldberg). The other three are from The Snake, an early (1972) solo LP. The type of playing is different, even among the three. The constant on all of these is his phrasing, none of it is really overplayed. Check out his discography and pick one at random and go look for it at a YouTube. Get sucked into the Mandel rabbit hole. Yeah, that's what you should go do. Quit standing around here..

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Listen:
Charlie Musselwhite's South Side Band - Cha Cha the Blues mp3 at Groove Addict 1967
Harvey Mandel - The Snake mp3 at Melting Pot 1972
Harvey Mandel - Peruvian Flake mp3 at Melting Pot 1972
Harvey Mandel - Bight the Electric Eel mp3 at Melting Pot 1972
Visit:
Harvey Mandel - Discography at Discogs

WAIT, THAT PART RIGHT THERE.

I'm not sure how many of you rate Paul's Boutique high on the Beastie Boys scale, but it's undoubtedly my favorite. Coming after their debut, Licensed to Ill, it was a surprise. Gone were the abundance of metal guitar chords that helped make the debut a crossover hit. They surprised everybody. They didn't wait a for a half dozen LPs before creating what some call their Sgt Pepper's. In place of the guitar-based training wheels (that were no doubt pushed by Rick Rubin who had also signed Slayer), were samples from soul, funk, jazz, reggae and , ehhh, a leetle rock (Mountain's "Mississippi Queen" makes an appearance). Paul's Boutique, along with De La Soul's debut and Public Enemy's debut were all a step forward for hip hop.

Back when the completely fiend-fueled website BeastieMixes.com (RIP) was still around there were all sorts of Beastie mixes being circulated. Straight, career spanning mixes, remixes, all sorts of shit. But I don't recall running across a mix utilizing the full songs (or at least a couple verses) of the songs that were sampled. This mix is a good one. It's important to note that most of the samples, and a large part of the music in general, on Paul's Boutique were collated, curated, nipped and tucked by the Dust Brothers. So, to be as realistic as possible, don't think of this mix as a Beastie Boys home playlist. It would be more accurate to think of a stoned out Dust Brothers record party.

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Listen:
Grandpa's Groove: Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique Samples, All Vinyl Live DJ Set - Raj Mahal (streaming) at Soul Strut To Download click on the tiny downward pointing arrow on the streaming widget, it's right under the cloud on the tiny Soundcloud logo.
Alternate link:
Grandpa's Groove... mix mp3 at Internet Archive Go to the other link above for the playlist.

Bonus:
Beastie Boys - BBoyBouillabaisse mp3 at Magnet The twelve minute closer of Pauls Boutique

WAY OVERDUE. SUE ME.

Holy shit. I don't think I've ever even mentioned Jimmy Witherspoon. So, Jimmy Witherspoon. Here's three from 1949. I'm diggin' the guitar.

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Listen:
Jimmy Witherspoon - Who's Been Jivin' You mp3 at Internet Archive
Jimmy Witherspoon - Rain, Rain, Rain mp3 at Internet Archive
Jimmy Witherspoon - When I Had My Money mp3 at Internet Archive

CRACK YOUR KNUCKLES. GET TO WORK.

I listened to Flea Market Funk's DJ Prestige's Bionic Reggae mix again today and in posting it again decided to just repost the whole damn thing. From two years ago.:

It's always good when something makes you want to go shop for records, and it sure makes it a quick post full of diversions elsewhere. After just poking around indiscriminately I decided to drop by Funky 16 Corners and landed on a post about DJ Prestige, the record hound that runs Flea Market Funk. On the post there's a link to a short doc on him and his blog, his DJing and his record hunting. The part that really impressed me, and makes me want to hit thrift stores this weekend, was that the name of the blog, Flea Market Funk, is almost literal. He says that he doesn't buy big ticket rarities and that most of his records only cost him between one and five dollars, bought at flea markets, 99 cent bins and so forth. And that's not even the best of it, because he points out two important elements. One is that the aimless hunt is a big part of it, good old fashion scavenging. Exactly the part I dig. The second is that records find you. If it's on your mental checklist, at some point it will find you. Of course that's not true of every coveted record, but it does happen more than most non-fiends realize.

Here's a few links to get you in the mood. Funky 16 Corner's post on DJ Prestige, the documentary of DJ Prestige, a reggae mix Prestige did for Funky 16 Corners and then there's the real time suck, a link to a bunch of Prestige's mixes at Flea Market Funk.

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Listen:
DJ Prestige – The Hustle Is Real at Funky 19 Corners
DJ Prestige – Bionic Reggae mp3 at Funky 16 Corners 19 songs, go there for the song list
Buried Vinyl Treasures, More Flea Market Funk Mixes at Flea Market Funk
The documentary:
The Hustle Is Real - DJ Prestige documentary at Thomas Draudt

LOOK MA, NO SUITS!

I was never a huge fan of the Jam. When their first LP, In The City, came out I bought it. It was kinda sorta punk related and there were few punk LPs out at the time. Their suits bugged me, particularly their Union Jack suits. Puh-leeze. So fucking corny. It didn't help that, to set themselves apart from punks, they made a point to let everyone know that they were pro-Queen right about the time that the Sex Pistols released "God Save the Queen". Rag, rag, rag. But, they had a good sound, the guitar-bass-drums sounding an awful lot like the early Who. So I stuck it out until the second LP came out. When it did, gone were the suits, at least on the cover (cropped version above). I just listened to "The Modern World" for the first time in a very long time. I didn't listen to the lyrics too closely, but the music was fantastic for washing the dishes.

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Listen:
The Jam - This Is the Modern World mp3 at Mod Punk Archives

TEX MEETS THE GODFATHER AT THE HISSY FIT

I just happened on Joe Tex's "You Said A Bad Word", a follow up sound-alike single after his "I Gotcha" blew up the charts. Because it also sounded like something James Brown would do around the same time it reminded me that Boss Radio 66 (formerly Beware of the Blog) has an old post that they carried over, originally posted ten years ago, about a feud between Tex and James Brown. I went back to it for a refresher course. One tidbit from the post (Beware of the Blog, 2012) I'd forgotten about:

"The battle began in earnest when JB stole JT's girlfriend, Bea Ford. Then, just to twist the knife, JB sent JT a letter telling him that he was through with the Bea and Joe could have her back. This led to the magnificent diss record "You Keep Her", where Joe calls James out by name, saying he was better off without the Bea anyway." (Beware of the Blog, 20152)

Sting like a bee, who needs reality TV when you have diss records?

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Listen:
Joe Tex - You Said A Bad Word mp3 at Internet Archive
Joe Tex - I Gotcha mp3 at Internet Archive
Joe Tex - You Keep Her mp3 at Boss Radio 66

BRUBECK, MID-HOT DOG PERIOD.

Dave Brubeck came to mind today. It was the first nice weekend day in a few weeks. Nice enough for the beach anyway. We have here what is referred to as "June gloom". Much of June is spent under cloudy skies on the coast, not as welcoming for a day at the beach. But today it was nice, warm enough that the cool breeze was welcoming, shitty surf but the water prematurely warm (66 F). I listened to the last few innings of an extra inning game (Padres won) and had a hot dog (reminded of the image above). Then I went in the water. It later occurred to me that, since I was listening to the game on a transistor radio, there wasn't anything concerning my day (or few hours) at the beach that couldn't have been done in 1959. So I did what I would have done in 1959. Once I got home, I put on Brubeck.

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Listen:
Dave Brubeck - Blue Rondo à la Turk mp3 at Internet Archive
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Take Five mp3 at Time Goes By
Video:
Dave Brubeck Quartet - Blue Rondo à la Turk at YouTube The bass drum makes it.
Visit:
See Inside Jazz Great Dave Brubeck's Groovy Connecticut Home at Town and Country "Groovy"? This headline writer is at the wrong gig.

CHANTEUSE OF THE QUARRY

So, do you guys know who Joyce Harris is? You should. She comes just about as close as you can get to a female version of the Sonic's Gery Roslie. If you know the Sonics and Roslie, you know that means more than a little gravel in her larynx. Close to Los Saicos level. Not on every song but enough to merit mention. Listen to her version of "I Got My Mojo Working" and "No Way Out" below. If that tickles your fancy, there is a mix at Probe Is Turning-On the People that includes sixteen songs of hers (including two with her singing as Sinner Strong and five with her sister as Judy and Joyce). It also includes ten songs by Kathy Lynn of whom I know nothing about and isn't quite as rough as Harris. But one of hers is singing with Link Wray and the Wraymen. It's rather pedestrian for Wray, not a whole lotta badass going on, but if he worked with dog shit, I'll give dog shit a listen.

The mix is a quick download and they're all individual mp3s. so you can cherry pick which to save. Hell, I think it's worth the hassle just to have her version of "I Got My Mojo Working". Once at Probe, scroll down to session 425, the download link is right below the song list.

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Listen:
Joyce Harris - I Got My Mojo Working (streaming) at YouTube
Joyce Harris - No Way Out at Rocky 52
Joyce Harris (as Sinner Strong) - Don't Knock It mp3 at Rocky 52
The mix:
Joyce Harris Meets Kathy Lynn (Session 425) (zip) at Probe Is Turning-On the People 26 songs as individual mp3s. Once at Probe, scroll down to session 425, the download link is right below the song list.