"BOMBS BURSTING IN AIR"? NO THANKS.

It's a simple song, simple enough that you learn it in grade school. It's written by one of America's greatest songwriters and it's one of the best songs about America ever written. Maybe it's lost it's shine for grade school, but I don't remember ever not knowing the song. Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" is ingrained in my head. And most people have only heard two thirds of it.

A year ago Mental Floss posted a story about the song that speculates that the two missing verses were omitted because of what could be perceived as political content, but to me read more like truth and common sense. Per the article "It may have had something to do with the mounting anti-communist furor that would lead to the Red Scare of the late '40s and early '50s." The article includes the two missing verses and an anecdote about how, when Bruce Springsteen joined Pete Seeger to play the song at an inauguration event for Barack Obama, Seeger was insistent that they include the two verses.

My favorite version of the song is the one recorded by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. It's a groove and a half, really, an awesome reworking. They include the two additional verses and another with slightly re-written lyrics. But, guess what? There was a real seventh verse too, one that I'd not known about until I looked at the official Woody Guthrie web site, run by his daughter. There's a link to it below. Remember, "Antifa" means anti-fascist. To be anti-fascist is to be patriotic. Happy 4th.

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Listen:
Woody Guthrie - This Land Is Your Land mp3 at Rocky 52
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - This Land Is Your Land mp3 at Tumblr
Video:
Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen - This Land Is Your Land (live) at YouTube
Visit:

This Land Is Your Land: The Story Behind America's Best-Known Protest Song at Mental Floss
Woody Guthrie official site - Full lyrics

LOOK WHAT THEY DONE TO MY SONG MA

I'm not sure exactly when it happened, probably around the late sixties. Prior to that, early rock 'n' roll bands covered older songs, but it was basically just different ways of interpreting them. But as soon as big amps started showing up, rather than interpreting songs in a different way, it seems it was all about destroying the songs. Not necessarily with bad intent, just a louder, more amplified way. And a lot of people first heard old blues or jazz songs through whoever the guitar hero of the day was, which could be said to be a good thing. There were some musicians that kind of straddled the line, that really thought they were being reverent (Johnny Winter, a blues guy at heart, comes to mind). But somewhere in there, it got loud, really loud, the covers often unrecognizable, which may have been the whole point. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.

It hit me recently when someone posted the Who's version of Mose Allison's "Young Man Blues", which is just about the most stark example of obliterating the original that there is. Given that Allison was so laid back in his delivery, it wouldn't take much, a standard rock 'n' roll band could have done it, but the Who completely destroyed it. Yeah, Clapton, suck on that.

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Listen:
Willie Dixon - Spoonful mp3 at Le Melletron
Cream - Spoonful (streaming) at YouTube
Willie Dixon - I Just Want To Make Love to You (streaming) at YouTube
Foghat - I Just Want To Make Love to You mp3 at Internet Archive
Mississippi Fred McDowell - Good Morning Little Schoolgirl mp3 at Keep the Coffee Coming
Ten Years After - Good Morning Little Schoolgirl (live) (streaming) at YouTube
Mose Allison - Young Man Blues mp3 at Blog Noblat (?)
The Who - Young Man Blues (live) mp3 at ATumblr (?)

THEY FORGOT THE FUZZ

Three, count 'em three versions of "Cinnamon Girl". One version is by the Gentrys, one of the last songs to be released on Sun Records. Then there is Neil Young's original version, which still sounds good, with a rawness that the Gentrys can't touch. In their defense, John Entwistle can't touch it either.

The Neil Young LP that it was on is Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere, an essential disc without question. Seriously, if you have 40 LPs and you don't have this, than just get the fuck out.

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Listen:
The Gentrys - Cinnamon Girl mp3 at Probe Is Turning-On the People 1969
John Entwistle - Cinnamon Girl mp3 at Rock Town Hall 1969
Neil Young - Cinnamon Girl mp3 at The Fail Genealogy 1971
Newer Neil Young:
Neil Young with Promise of the Real - Already Great (streaming) at YouTube 2017 It's actually really good.

SONGS THE FREAK TAUGHT ME

Whoa. I just ran into what was my first exposure to moving images of David Bowie. I was sixteen and all I knew of Bowie musically was Ziggy Stardust. YouTube and DVDs were still decades away. As far as visuals, all I had to go on was album cover photos and magazines. Those were the days when concerts were about the only way that you would experience a live performance, unless the artist was big enough to gain a slot on one of the late night concert shows, the big two being Don Kirshner's Rock Concert and The Midnight Special (the latter hosted by Wolfman Jack). We knew Bowie was going to be on the Midnight Special so the usual late night teen high-jinks were clipped early in order to be home in time to see it.

I remember being in my parents living room with my brother as we watched the freak show unfold. Despite having seen photos of Bowie and hearing some of his music, I wasn't prepared for an eyebrow-less androgynous skinny as a rail dude with more costumes than Cher. It was engaging. Radical. I realized what all the fuss was about. This guy was different. He made Jagger look like a jock. When he did his singer/guitar flirting with Mick Ronson, I'd no clue that it was to sell records. I had no idea that any of the over-the-top-ness of it was designed to sell records. All I could think of is that we had here one bona fide freak show.

Seeing it again after all these years was an eye opener. The tightness of the band is pretty amazing considering that it was shot live. The set includes a few covers from the LP that was released a couple weeks earlier, Pinups. It was an LP consisting of all covers aimed at the U.S. market where the originals weren't well known. That LP turned me on to songs I'd never heard the originals of, and in some cases, never heard of the band. Hard to believe I'd yet to hear Barret-era Pink Floyd, the Pretty Things, Them and the Yardbirds. Thinking back, the Who and the Kinks, might have been the only bands that I was even familiar with. Here's a few from the Pinups LP.

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Listen:
David Bowie - See Emily Play mp3 at Stop Okay Go Pink Floyd cover
David Bowie - I Wish You Would mp3 at STL.ZV (?) Yardbirds cover
David Bowie - Here Comes the Night mp3 at ATumblr (?) Them cover
David Bowie - Sorrow mp3 at Crearefnet (?) Cover of the Merseys cover of the McCoys

THE O.G. RASCAL HATER

I should have never gone down this road. I heard Hanni El Khatib's version of "You Rascal You" tonight and it reminded me that I'd never heard it back to back with John Fogerty's version, the only one I knew, from 1975. The juxtaposition made Fogerty's version sound kind of like New Orleans R & B. So, I figured I'd look for the original. Holy shit, I've never been so sick of rascals in all my life. The song has a history, and there are forty billion versions. Fuggit, I'm stopping here.

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Listen:
Sam Theard - You Rascal You (streaming) at YouTube The original 1929
Milton Brown - You Rascal You mp3 at Rocky 52 1935
Louis Armstrong and Louie Jordan - You Rascal You mp3 at Heineken 1950
John Fogerty - You Rascal You mp3 at Rock Town Hall 1975
Dr. John - You Rascal You (streaming) at YouTube 1992
Hanni El Khatib - You Rascal You mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Geoffrey - You Rascal You (video) at YouTube A student jazz combo, extremely tight. 2013

THAT WAS A GOOD EPISODE

Not messing around tonight. I was going to post the first song picked at random that was what I considered a really good record. The Slit's cover of "I Heard it Through the Grapevine" fit the bill. I've heard all four of the versions below many times, and the Slits is far and away my favorite, though technically it's probably, no, certainly the worst. But I identify with it, like many of you who know it, because if you are of a certain age, the Slit's version came out during a crucial period in your life. And if you can't identify a good song with an episode, what good is it?

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Listen:

The Slits - I Heard It Through the Grapevine mp3 at William Burkey (?)
Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through the Grapevine mp3 at Chilthorne (?)
Gladys Knight and the Pips - I Heard It Through the Grapevine mp3 at Zatoon (?)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - I Heard It Through the Grapevine (streaming) at YouTube

DOUBLE YOUR FUN

I've heard both of these versions of "For What It's Worth" too many times to count, but it never occurred to me to listen to them back to back. You should try it, First the Staple Singers' cover, and then the original by Buffalo Springfield. Because it beats not bothering with it. It's a great song anyway, one that you should know, and hearing them back to back enhances both versions.

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Listen:
The Staple Singers - For What It's Worth mp3 at Now That's What I Call Bullshit Go there for three more Staples songs
Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth mp3 at LZ Center

LOST AND FOUND

Remember Linda Gayle? Her crazy cover of "Maggie's Farm? I didn't. Ran into it again at an old post from 2008, over at the sadly dormant but still packed with goodies Boogie Woogie Flu. So what the hell, might as well post another lady larynx shredder. Joyce Harris leaves it all out there on "Got My Mojo Working".

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Listen:
Linda Gayle - Maggie's Farm mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu
Joyce Harris -  Got My Mojo Working (streaming) at YouTube
Sinner Strong - Don’t Knock It (streaming) at YouTube Sinner Strong was Joyce Harris. She asked to be billed as Cina Strong but was misheard, or so the story goes.

SEE HOW FAR YOU GET

Everybody knows "Shakin' All Over". The first version I heard the Who's, from Live at Leeds. You probably know it. It's a mutha. Then I heard the Guess Who's, which predated the Who's by about four years and was a minor hit in the U.S. in 1965. I didn't hear it until later, played on oldies stations. The next version I heard was Johnny Kidd's original, I didn't need to go further. 1960, as it was meant to be heard.

Tonight, study hall was on. I finally decided to school myself on Johnny Kidd, the damn eye patch and everything. Then I decided to look for other covers and.., just forget it. There's too many. I have other goofing off to get to.

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Listen:
Johnny Kidd and the Pirates - Shakin' All Over mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Gene Vincent - Shakin' All Over mp3 at ATumblr (?)
The Who - Shakin' All Over (streaming) at YouTube
The Guess Who - Shakin' All Over (streaming) at YouTube
Led Zeppelin - Shakin' All Over mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Wanda Jackson - Shakin' All Over mp3 at Middays Bedfello
Visit:
Johnny Kidd - Jukebox Heroes (documentary) at YouTube

TWO COVERS AND SOME ELOQUENT CUSSIN'

If you ever make it through the links listed under "Get Lost" in the left column over there, you might have seen the link to De Discos y Monstruos, a coolly curious blog featuring oddball 45s and a monster toy in every post. Though they've slowed down (their last post in January), there is a lot of good stuff in their old posts. To wit, these two that were posted back to back two years ago. The first is a cover of Mitch Ryder's "Sock It To Me" by a band of studio musicians calling themselves Jalopy Five, for this particular release. From what I can ascertain from a dubious translation of the post, which is in Spanish, the label Hit Records specialized in churning out covers of popular hits and then selling them cheaper. Yeah, the stinkers. But this one is good, and the unnamed singer does a better, gruntier, job than Ryder did on the original. The slapdash production just adds to it.

The other 45 over there is a later Jackie Wilson cover of Stevie Wonder's "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" backed by the Count Basie Orchestra. It's good, but the real reason I'm even mentioning it is to bring up another Wilson cut that some of you may not have heard. We all know Jackie Wilson, right? "Lonely Teardrops" was his biggee. The other song of his down there is "You Better Thing Twice (Version X)" a duet by him and LaVern Baker, she of "Tweedlee Dee" and "Jim Dandy" fame. The reason it's "Version X"? Just listen to it and hear them in all their potty mouth glory. Another humdinger that demands reposting.

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Listen:
Jalopy Five - Sock It to Me Baby mp3 at De Discos y Monstruos
Jackie Wilson with Count Basie - Uptight (Everything's Alright) mp3 at De Discos y Monstruos
Jackie Wilson and LaVern Baker - You Better Think Twice (Version X) mp3 at Beware of the Blog

SCHOOL'S OUT. TIME FOR SHOW TUNES.

So, Boogaloo Time just posted Ronnie Hawkin's version of George Gershwin's "Summertime", one of only, I don't know, one show tune that I like. I can't think of another. I didn't even realize it was from a musical until a few years ago. I was curious after hearing Ricky Nelson's cover, which is one of my favorites. It sounds kind of like him fronting the Yardbirds, though obviously it's not. It predates the Yardbirds by a few years, so they couldn't have even been an influence. There's a few other versions down there. Two great jazz versions, one by Charlie Parker and another by Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins. The Brian Wilson one is down there because I went and listened to it, and I'll be damned if I'm going to waste a link. So it is actually time for show tunes, one song, but multiple versions. And they are all tunes.

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Listen:
Ricky Nelson - Summertime mp3 at Internet Archive
Ronnie Hawkins - Summertime mp3 at Boogaloo Time Go there to get it.
Charlie Parker - Summertime mp3 at Digital Circus (?)
Sonny Rollins and Colman Hawkins - Summertime mp3 at Muzz Irkutsk (?)
Brian Wilson - Summertime (streaming) at YouTube

CLOSURE

It's always nice when you can finally get something that bugged you behind you. You can finally stop thinking about it. Some of you, noting the sleeve above, already know where I'm going. "I'm Archie Bell and the Drells". Not ten words into the song, a big fat grammatical error. It's bugged me for decades. Really. So, today, when I finally heard Drell sing "We're Archie Bell and the Drells", I could officially close the book.

There's another Drells thing down there too, the original of "There's Gonna Be a Showdown", the song the Dolls covered. What the hell, the Dolls' cover is down there too, just to remind you what they could do with a song.

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Listen:

Archie Bell and the Drells - Tighten Up mp3 at DJNoDJ

Archie Bell and the Drells - There's Gonna Be a Showdown mp3 at Sale el Soul
New York Dolls - There's Gonna Be a Showdown mp3 at A.Tumblr (?)

THIS IS WHY

I'd never heard Dee Dee Warwick's cover of "Suspicious  Minds" before tonight, but it is an instant favorite. An instant all time favorite, it's that good. Memphis, Detroit, New Orleans and Kingston all rolled into one. You might not hear it. It helps to listen to what each isolated instrument is doing, because you can hear isolated instruments. There's a whole lotta stuff going on, without getting too thick. It's just a great production. Close your eyes and imagine yourself in the control booth as it's being recorded. Believe me, you'll be sorry when it ends. This song is epic.

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Listen:
Dee Dee Warwick - Suspicious Minds mp3 at Boogaloo Time

EXPRESS YOURSELF ALL IN YOUR FACE

No messing around tonight. One song and I'm out. But you get three versions. The one that started it was Leroy Sibbles's cover of Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band's "Express Yourself". It's surprisingly funky coming from the house bassist for Studio One and one third of the Heptones. Funky enough to make me want to hear the original again. And you can guess what came after that.

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Listen:
Leroy Sibbles - Express Yourself mp3 at DJ No DJ
Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - Express Yourself mp3 at Funk Explosion
NWA - Express Yourself mp3 at Music Is Art

THE JAMAICAN SOUL MAN

I give. Alton Ellis's cover of the Delphonics' "La La Means I Love You" just threw me all off course, not that I had one. But it totally hit the spot. Blew the sourpuss right out of my skull. It made me forget where I was going. So it's Alton Ellis night.

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Listen:

Alton Ellis - La La Means I Love You mp3 at Roots and Culture

Alton Ellis - What Does It Take (To Win Your Love) mp3 at ATumblr (?)

Alton Ellis - Cry Tough mp3 at Boogie Woogie Flu

Alton Ellis -  Something You've Got mp3 at Hearsay

Oddball:

Raekwon vs Alton Ellis – Curious (streaming) at Beats from Beijing Mash up. Works better than you'd think.

C'MON...EVERYBODY?

Right down the "Summertime Blues" rabbit hole tonight. All it took was hearing a crappy cover of the song. It was bound to happen, there have been so many covers of it. But it was a little disconcerting to realize that there are few Eddie Cochran covers at all, let alone of that one song, that have the sound or feel of their original version. Not to say some aren't good. Some are and some aren't. But it seems nearly impossible for anyone to cover an Eddie Cochran song without fucking with it. Only one of the assorted covers down there sounds even remotely like him, and I'm not going to tell you which one it is. Those of you familiar with his music will hear it right away. If you aren't familiar with his music, I'll bite my tongue.

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Listen:

Eddie Cochran - Summertime Blues mp3 at Rocky 52

Bobby Fuller Four - Summertime Blues mp3 at Bedazzled
Blue Cheer - Summertime Blues mp3 at The Setbacks
The Who - Summertime Blues mp3 at Bedazzled

Black Keys - Summertime Blues mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Other Cochran covers:
Billy Zoom - Hallelujah I Love Her So mp3 at Billy Zoom
Chocolate Watch Band - Milk Cow Blues (streaming) at YouTube
The Real Kids - My Way (streaming) at YouTube
The Sex Pistols - Something Else mp3 at 195.122.253.112 (?) Sid Vicious vocal
Video:
Eddie Cochran - Summertime Blues (Town Hall Party) at YouTube
The Who - Summertime Blues (Live) at YouTube
Visit:
Other covers of Summertime Blues at Second Hand Songs
Summertime Blues at Wikipedia Earl Palmer on drums. I did not know that.

ANKA, WE'RE COOL. BUT BOONE,...

I don't know, if I was an Anka fan, maybe I would have been pissed. But I'm not. So the fact that he covered Nirvana doesn't bug me at all. Pat Boone on the other hand bugs me just because he exists. I don't even remember why, that's how old my distaste is...oh, wait! I do remember! It's because his white bread ass had the audacity to cover Little Richard back in the day. You can guess why. Figuring that Little Richard's music wouldn't sell to the goody two shoes, he recorded sanitized versions of "Tutti Frutti" and "Long Tall Sally", to take advantage of the demographic that might otherwise have been tempted to dig the savagery that is Little Richard. What a fuck. I'm starting to get pissed at him all over again.

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Listen:
Paul Anka - Smells Like Teen Spirit mp3 at Clayton Counts
Paul Anka - Jump mp3 at Super Zombie
Pat Boone - Paradise City mp3 at Dawayne Bailey
Pat Boone - Smoke On the Water mp3 at Review Stalker

BUBBLEGUM? WHAT'S THAT?

How the fuck did that just happen? One minute my interest is piqued by an Archies cover by Big Youth, then six clicks later I'm digging through the catalog of Pressure Sounds, a UK label, They specialize in obscure and never released reggae, much of it from the golden era. I think you know what that means. About Big Youth. the cover is great, it's him with Junior Byles, from 1977. It's on a post with nine songs, a good cross section, a couple of which are below. There's some even you hot shots might not recognize (Pluto? The Eagles?). 

Looking for more info about the Big Youth cut, I ended up on the page for his "Town Without Pity" 45 at Pressure Sounds. A nice 45 I may purchase one day. A couple clicks later I ran into a compilation of versions, all from the Micron label, and deep with heavy hitters. Holy jeez, add that to the list. Looks like this fantasy shopping trip is gonna take a while. The song snippets sucked me right in.

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Listen:
Big Youth with Junior Byles - Sugar Sugar mp3 at Now That's What I Call Bullshit
U Roy - Dreadlocks Dread mp3 at Now That's What I Call Bullshit
Dr, Alimantado - I Killed the Barber mp3 at Now That's What I Call Bullshit
Big Youth - Hit the Road Jack mp3 at PashPash
Big Youth - Cool Breeze mp3 at Le Blog de la Grande Chose
Visit:
Pressure Sounds  

RUDOLPH BETTER HAUL ASS

You gotta like Lemmy. He's his own man, isn't he? He never seems to say no, and he leaves it all out there. Even with a Christmas song. On "Run Rudolph Run" he teams up with Billy Gibbons and Dave Grohl, but really, it's all Lemmy. Every song he does sounds like the last song of a live set, on the last date of a long tour. And he's been like that for how long? God love him.

The second song down there is a cover of "Stand By Your Man" with the late Wendy O. Williams (Plasmatics), and it sounds like you'd think it would sound, at the punk end of the metal-o-meter. There's a couple covers of Motorhead's "Ace of Spades" down there too. One is an awesome soul version by Eli "Paperboy" Reed, and the other by Union Avenue, a Johnny Cash tribute band from Scotland. Their entire repertoire seems to be covers done in the style of Johnny Cash. That shit might get old. But do check the version by Reed. And check the trailer for the Lemmy documentary if you haven't already seen it. See what all the fuss is about.

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Listen:
Lemmy, Billy Gibbons and Dave Grohl - Run Rudolph Run mp3 at What Hh8r (?)
Lemmy and Wendy O. Williams - Stand By Your Man mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Eli "Paperboy" Reed - Ace of Spades mp3 at Ryan's Smashing Life
Union Avenue - Ace of Spades mp3 at Cover Me
Video:
Lemmy- Documentary trailer at YouTube
Motorhead - Ace of Spades (live) at YouTube

MISSION: MAKE IT SWING

Among holiday songs, one of the least likely to swing would have to be "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". You can't imagine it, it's that unthought of. But it has happened. If you haven't heard it, you have to check what Jimmy Smith does to it. What seems impossible sounds effortless for him. Seriously.

"Jingle Bells" is down there too, along with his most awesome version of "Mission Impossible", that one for all of you last minute shoppers.

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Listen:
Jimmy Smith - God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman mp3 at Panic Stream
Jimmy Smith - Jingle Bells mp3 at Panic Stream
NOTE: Links to Panic Stream, the uploader of the songs, have been disabled, The song links work, but the links to the actual site were loaded with pop-ups,
Last minute special:
Jimmy Smith - Mission Impossible mp3 at AM Then FM