FUCK FINESSE. GO BABY GO!

I'm having a Gories fit over here. I started watching a documentary on them and stopped after about fifteen minutes, I decided to tailgate in a way first, in this case getting psyched to watch the rest of it by checking a few live things first. That was all it took and I was on another Gories binge. There's just something about them. They're rough around the edges, they're not flashy, they are definitely not maestros. I can't explain why it is that I like them. I guess it comes down to them not quite giving a fuck, always an admirable trait. So, I'm going back to the documentary. There's a link below to a post from a few months ago with a live video and a couple songs.

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Visit:
Earlier post with two songs and a live video

HEY! NO NEEDLE SHARING YOU TWO!

I let this sucker stew for a week because it was so out of left field, I didn't know what to think of it. Keith Richards doing a cover of Lou Reed's "I'm Waiting For The Man". If you know both artists and the song, you know this is unexpected. On the outside it seems to make sense. Both Reed and Richards were junkies and the song is about a guy waiting for his dealer. But I've never heard Richards even mention Reed, or the Velvet Underground (Reed's band). And I can't think of any other instance when he's covered a contemporary. I'm sure there have been instances but I'm too lazy to look. Feel free..

The beauty of letting this thing stew for a week was thinking about it a thousand ways. Was it a good thing? A bad thing? Richards trying to remain relevant to hipsters? A sell out? A chink in the armor? Or just an old rocker starting to relax a bit? I found myself cynical. Then, after after several days, I was reminded. I don't have to have an opinion about Keith Richards covering the Velvet Underground at all. It will in no way, shape, or form, disrupt or enhance my life. I don't have to like it or dislike it. It is.

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Listen:
Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting For the Man mp3 at Bijan Blog The original

PEDAL STEEL WORKS

If you're of a certain age, you probably know the song "Different Drum", it was a hit for the Stone Poneys [sic] in 1967 with Linda Ronstadt singing. It still gets played on what few oldies stations are still around. It's a great song but, not being a big Linda Ronstadt fan, I heard it for years and never bothered looking at the songwriting credit. For half my life I walked around not knowing that it was written by Mike Nesmith, pre-Monkees. He was the one with the ridiculous knit cap topped with a little pom-pom thing. He recorded the song a few years after the Stone Poneys. As good and heart-tweaking as the Stone Poneys' (Ronstadt's) version is, Nesmith's lean version is sadder. Sadder even than the other version he did. He recorded the song twice. Having found just the songs with no background info, one of his versions may be a demo, I've no clue. But the bare bones version has the more believable effect. As corny as this sounds, close your eyes and imagine you're on the porch, it's a hot and dusty afternoon, you're just tossing back a few while your buddy strums and does his lamenting thing.

Here's the Stone Poney's version and both Nesmith versions and a few more Nesmith cuts. Nesmith had a hit in 1970 with "Joanne", another plaintive hit, so that's down there. A couple others of note are covers. One is "She Thinks I Still Care", a song that was a hit for George Jones. Headscratcher of the night is a cover of Dave Dudley's "Six Days on the Road". If you're familiar with Dudley's original, you'll know why I'm certain that Nesmith was ten kinds of stoned when he recorded his version. It's more than twice as long as Dudley's and sounds like it was arranged by the Velvet Underground.

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Listen:
Stone Poneys - Different Drum mp3 at Internet Archive
Michael Nesmith - Different Drum mp3 at Internet Archive Sad version
Michael Nesmith - Different Drum mp3 at Internet Archive
Michael Nesmith - Joanne mp3 at Internet Archive
Michael Nesmith - She Thinks I Still Care mp3 at Internet Archive
Michael Nesmith - Six Days on the Road mp3 at Internet Archive

IT'S ALL GOOD

Yesterday I was at the neighborhood hardware store. It's a mom and pop store that really caters to the community it serves. None of the bulk shit, none of the racks to the ceiling or tricked out shit you don't need. It's a hammer and nails type place. I was there for rope.

I got to the counter and recognized the two people behind it. I'd been in the store a month or so ago and they were playing some music from South America. I don't remember what it was exactly but when I mentioned that I liked it the conversation turned to international music in general; Brazilian, African, all over the place. Just a few days ago I'd been thinking about those two hardware store people. I knew I was going there for rope and I remembered that there was site I'd posted a ways back that was basically a spin-the-globe radio station finder. I tried every which way I could think of to find it on this, my own fucking blog, and failed. When I mentioned that to one of the hardware clerks, he did a quick web search and found the site in a milli-second. Yep: doh!!

On the globe, there are no borders or city names, just the shapes of the continents with green dots all over it. You'll probably need another map to reference where the cities from music rich regions are. I needed it to find Cape Verde and Lagos Nigeria, but Kingston Jamaica was easy enough to find. Once you know where the city is, just click among the closest green dots and it plays the station from that locale. When I got home I messed with it again, ended up on an armchair world tour for two hours. You should bookmark it so you don't have to go to the hardware store to find it again.

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Listen:
Radio Garden - Global radio access

BROTHER BOOGIE

The weekly Saturday Night Fish Fry radio show on the local jazz station is a total gas. All old school jump blues and early rhythm and blues, hosted by Billy Vera, who some of you might remember from his band Billy Vera and the Beaters (who are not at all like his radio show). Regardless of what type of music his band played, he knows R&B. He knows names, record release dates, gig notes and all sorts of trivia. It comes on from 6:00-8:00 Saturday evenings, perfect for after beach putzing around. It's like you've got a buddy in the living room spinning the wax while you man the burritos.

One song Vera plays a lot is "Drunk" by Jimmy Liggins (above). Man, I dig that song. Years ago I was a pretty heavy drinker, so I get it. It's been decades since I've been shitfaced drunk, but this song makes it seem like yesterday. One thing Vera mentioned on the show is that Jimmy Liggins had a brother, Joe (below), also a singer. So here's a couple from each of them. You Don and Dewey fans will recognize "Pink Champagne".

One last thing, I just checked and there's a bunch of Vera's shows that you can stream on the radio station's web site. But really, a transistor radio is the way to go.

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Listen:
Jimmy Liggins - Drunk mp3 at Internet Archive
Jimmy Liggins - Cadillac Boogie mp3 at Internet Archive
Joe Liggins - Pink Champagne mp3 at Internet Archive
Joe Liggins - Little Joe's Boogie mp3 at Internet Archive
The Radio Show:
Saturday Night Fish Fry at Jazz88.org  65 episodes available streaming!
Visit:
Band of Brothers - The Liggins Brothers at San Diego Troubadour

CRAZY GEETAR SPECIAL

When you think of guitar in jazz you might think of Kenny Burrell or Jim Hall, that stuff with a mellow tone, clean and exact. The other jazz guitar that comes to mind is the fusion stuff, more electrified but still a tad too exact to appeal to my more rock tainted sensibilities. Enter Sonny Sharrock, who can sound almost like a rock guitarist. I guess the closest comparison is someone who plays as loose as Hendrix, as loose as you'll hear in a jazz context.

The songs below are from one of Sharrock's last albums, Space Ghost: Coast to Coast. The person who posted them refers to the LP as his masterpiece. Not being familiar with Sharrock's output I'll have to take him at his word. No matter, this stuff is good. "Out to Launch" is some crazy shit.

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Listen:
Sonny Sharrock - Hit Single mp3 at Xtrmntr
Sonny Sharrock - Out to Launch mp3 at Xtrmntr
Sonny Sharrock - Rocket 99 mp3 at Xtrmntr
Sonny Sharrock - Fear of a Ghost Planet mp3 at Xtrmntr

IT'S POST-PUNK SOMEWHERE

Just a quick one because I ran across a favorite that I'd been wanting to share for a while for one reason. The the lyrics fucking crack me up. It's by the Knitters, a side project that included John Doe, Exene Cervenka, and DJ Bonebrake from X, Dave Alvin from the Blasters and Jonny Ray Bartel from the Red Devils. The song, "The Call of the Wreckin' Ball", is about a guy who stomps chickens to death for a living. It starts with: "Well I woke up this morning, lookin' for kicks, went out to the barnyard to stomp on some chicks. They call me Wreckin' Ball, 'cause I'm the baddest of 'em all." That's just the first couple lines. The rest of the song is just as goofy. When I hear it, I'm envisioning the Max Fleischer version of Bluto from the early Popeye cartoons. The lyrics definitely have a cartoon feel to them. Lil' Abner shitfaced drunk. Anyway, it's best to hear it first but if your English is spotty there's a link below to the lyrics. The Knitters' version of Merle Haggard's "Silver Wings" is down there too because it's a good one.

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Listen:
The Knitters - The Call of the Wrecking Ball mp3 at Internet Archive
The Knitters - Silver Wings mp3 at Internet Archive
Lyrics:
The Knitters - The Call of the Wrecking Ball lyrics at Genius