FRESHMEN TAKE NOTE

A member of It's A Beautiful Day died a few days ago, I saw it in a news feed. I don't like It's a Beautiful Day, but it reminded me that they had a song called "Don and Dewey" that I always used to run into when I was looking for music by, yep, Don and Dewey. I'm not sure why they did a song about Don and Dewey (or at least titled as such), I just know it got in my way when searching for something more crucial. So, fuck It's A Beautiful Day, here's some Don and Dewey.

Don and Dewey were a criminally overlooked early rock 'n' roll duo. You locals here know I'm crazy about them. I have to thank for that a slightly older couple, semi-friends who played a Don and Dewey record at a house party when I was roughly twenty three years old. The next day I bought the compilation seen above. Tower Records actually had it. The record has been in constant rotation here for decades. For those of you not familiar with them, consider it a second tier essential, meaning that once you digest the big name early rockers (Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, et al) they should inhabit your playlist. Know them you creeps.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Don and Dewey - Justine mp3 at Rocky 52
Don and Dewey - Jungle Hop mp3 at Rocky 52
Don and Dewey - Farmer John mp3 at Rock Town Hall
Don and Dewey - Miss Sue mp3 at Rocky 52
Don and Dewey - Just a Little Lovin' mp3 at Rocky 52
Don and Dewey - Jelly Bean mp3 at Internet Archive Burned from a 78

EIGHTEEN SONGS? WHY BOTHER?

I was checking out the NME site just to see what's going on over on that side of the pond. Wouldn't you just know it, what I landed on was an article about an American record label. It was about Specialty Records, the label that most people recognize as the early home of Little Richard. But, man, they had so much more. Sam Cooke (before his breakout) and Lloyd Price you may know about. But, holy shit, they had Don and Dewey, Guitar Slim, Percy Mayfield, Art Neville and tons of others. The reason for the article is a new compilation, Rip It Up: The Best of Specialty Records. Alas, the compilation has only eighteen songs. What the fuck. That's like being on a desert island and receiving an airdrop of food consisting of one M&M. Here's some assorted stuff from Specialty Records that I was able to round up. There's a link to the article at NME and a Specialty discography that you fiends should peruse.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Don & Dewey - Farmer John mp3 at Rock Town Hall
Larry Williams - Slow Down mp3 at Mercury Paradise
Larry Williams - Short Fat Annie mp3 at The New LoFi
Art Neville - Arabian Love Call mp3 at Office Naps
The Holidays - Aw-Aw Baby mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Little Richard - Slippin' and Slidin' mp3 at Stolen Records
Little Richard - The Girl Can't Help It mp3 at Happy Parts
Visit:
The Story of Specialty Records, the Most Influential Label of All Time: “Songs never die” at NME
Specialty Records discography at Global Dog Productions From 1948 to 1985

WHEN PARTIES WERE THE INTERNET

I'm sure all of us have favorite records that we've had for years. Records that are so special that you remember the moment when they became significant to you personally. Sometimes it's the first time you ever heard them, and sometimes it might be an already familiar song but something significant happened while the song happened to be playing. If a record is special, it's likely you'll remember  more details than you'd expect.

I like Don and Dewey a lot. I remember where I was when I first heard them. It was at a party, a friend of a friend's party or something like that. There was good music being played, I'm sure. There was enough party action going on that I hadn't taken notice of where the records were. I'm not a snoop like that. If it were a friend's party I'd probably taken a gander, but I was there as a guest of a guest. Anyway, I remember hearing something that was so damn hot that I stopped the conversation and went looking for the host to ask who it was. It was Don and Dewey, and act I'd never heard of. This was well before the internet. The host showed me the LP and I saw that it was on Specialty, the same label that Little Richard's records were on (!) and that was all I needed to know. I had a copy of the LP within days and it's been a favorite ever since.

That was over thirty years ago and for the last three decades I tried to remember whose party it was so I could thank them.  I thought that there was some sort of connection with my brother, but he passed away in 1997 before I thought to ask him. Meanwhile, the years trickled by with the mystery of who turned me on to Don and Dewey still hanging.

Last week a woman who I'm friends with on Facebook posted a playlist of what was on her shuffle. She's not someone I really know, just one of those friends you pick up on Facebook because you have a lot of friends in common. She's posted playlists before, but the most recent one showed such varying music types that I knew she had good, and informed, taste. Something on the list, I'm not exactly sure what record it was, prompted me to wonder if this was the person who had that party years ago. I was actually pretty excited thinking that after all these years there was a possibility of solving the mystery, or at least eliminating someone from the long list of people it could have been.  

Via Facebook messaging, It went like this:
"Jackie, did you once have a party (late 70s early 80s) in which you played Don and Dewey?"
"Probably. With Steve [last name]?"
("Holy shit", I thought. I hadn't seen or heard from Steve in decades. He was a good friend of my brother's who, I think, used to live with Jackie.)
Then Steve piped in:
"I remember a party back then, that I think both Tom and Tim were at. This was before I knew either of them very well. Not surprised that Don and Dewey would have been played. Hey Tom!"

Wow, mystery finally solved after three decades. I thanked them and told them I'd been wanting to thank the person(s) responsible for years. That's why I keep posting Don and Dewey. Just paying it forward for Jackie and Steve, until now not knowing that it was Jackie and Steve.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Don and Dewey - Justine (streaming) at YouTube
Don and Dewey - Farmer John mp3 at Rock Town Hall Specialty 659 A-side
Don and Dewey - Jungle Hop mp3 at The Adios Lounge Specialty 599 A-side
Don and Dewey - A Little Love mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban Specialty 599 B-side
Don and Dewey - Kill Me (streaming) at YouTube Specialty SPS 2131
Don and Dewey - I'm Leaving It All Up To You (streaming) at YouTube Specialty 610 A-side
Don and Dewey - Stretchin' Out (streaming) at YouTube Rush 1002
Little Richard (with Don and Dewey)- Bama Lama Loo mp3 at Jeub (?) Specialty 699
Visit:
Don & Dewey - Excellent bio at The Hound Blog Unfortunately the mp3 links are dead.

DON AND DEWEY VS SHIT WEEK TWO

It wasn't quite Shit Week II, but it might as well have been. Just before my, er, "event", San Diego suffered the loss of two true believers from back in the day. Frank Gutch, the owner of one of the very few independent record stores, and Kit Johnson, a super fan turned front woman of her own band, Pharmacy. Then, the day after returning home, word came that Tony Kinman, bassist and co-lead vocalist of the Dils, Rank and File, Blackbird and Cowboy Nation, passed from cancer. Kinman was from Carlsbad, just about forty miles from here and the Dils were one of the first punk bands to play in San Diego. The very first punk show to be exact, a show that was organized at meetings at Gutch's store, and attended by Kit who was scene fixture from day one. All that shit tied together, with my own near miss, made for a very personal Shit Week II. I'll probably touch on all three in the coming days, but it's too much to cover in one post. Right now I just want to fucking wig out and listen to some favorites, you know, chicken soup shit. Don and Dewey were posted just a few months ago but, fuck it, they fit that bill handily.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Don and Dewey - Jungle Hop mp3 at The Adios Lounge
Don and Dewey - Justine mp3 at Diddy Wah
Don and Dewey - Bim Bam mp3 at Diddy Wah
Don and Dewey - Farmer John mp3 at Rock Town Hall

IN THE WHO'S WHO OF KICK ASS

Don and Dewey again. As if I have to give a reason. You know as well as I do that they are criminally under-recognized. If you don't know them, it proves my point. They're the package. Both possess gravel ridden pipes and both play multiple instruments (violin/guitar and keyboards/guitar respectively). They are to the Righteous Brothers what Little Richard was to Pat Boone. The wild and crazy OGs vs light weight blue eyed shit.

To try to stretch out, I went looking a little further for stuff than I have in the past. The first few down are the no-brainers. They should be considered absolutely essential if you ever hope to experience something beyond American Graffiti level oldies. The other stuff is lesser known. Man, though, for a duo that are as unknown as they are, they sure recorded a lot together. Check their discography. (Dig the entry from '64, Don and Dewey and Larry (Williams) and Johnny ("Guitar" Watson)! Holy fuckin' Wilburys, Batman!

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Don and Dewey - Justine mp3 at Diddy Wah
Don and Dewey - Bim Bam mp3 at Diddy Wah
Don and Dewey - Farmer John mp3 at Rock Town Hall
Don and Dewey - Jungle Hop (streaming) at YouTube
Don and Dewey - Koko Joe (streaming) at YouTube
Don and Dewey - Miss Sue (streaming) at YouTube
Don and Dewey - Heartattack (streaming) at YouTube
Don and Dewey - Soul Motion (streaming) at YouTube

THE SHIT YOU FIND

Dear rodents, please take note. For the next few days I will be moving all of my earthly possessions to new digs, an apartment two doors down. This might seem like a quick task, but you should see my earthly possessions. I've lived in the same place over half my life, so there's quite a bit of it, nearly all devoid of any real monetary value. At one end of the spectrum, you have vinyl, about ten percent of which have those clear protective covers on them, like your granny's couch. I'm assuming there's some value there, because the plastic sleeves would indicate specialness for one reason or another. At the other end of the value spectrum you had a 8" length of a 2x4. Saved because, who knows, you may need a 8" length of a 2x4 sometime. In the middle of the spectrum you have an awful lot of valueless cool shit. To wit, in a box of unrelated stuff, I had a sleeveless totally scuffed and unplayable 45 of the Premieres' cover of Don and Dewey's "Farmer John". The one with their faces on the label. That's probably the reason I melted a whole in it at the top. I'd given up on playing it and just thought I should put the Premieres up on that there wall. In another box, again, loose with other shit, sleeveless and unplayable, the Sonics' "Boss Hoss" It did not have a added hole in it in which to hang. At that point I'd probably realized that there was a big ol' hole in the middle of the record that I could hang it from. Apparently, I've learned a lot in the years that I've been here.

This was supposed to be short post to say that, in the next few days, posts will be short so I can plow through this shit. But my intent is to at least check in. I may miss a day, but that's what the two thousand other posts are for (really, last time I checked, there were over 2,200 posts). Bear with me. If I find dupes of anything cool, I may have a free raffle or something.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Sonics - Boss Hoss (streaming) at YouTube
Don and Dewey - Farmer John mp3 at Rock Town Hall
Video:
The Premieres - Farmer John at YouTube American Bandstand

BO DIDDLEY MEETS THE SEARCH BOX.

A few days ago, I was in one of those happy go lucky fancy free moods that are all too rare. In my car, in no particular hurry, and not in the doghouse, not anywhere that I knew of anyway. For whatever reason, Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell" started playing in my head. I don't know why, it just did. It set into motion a rewind of sorts, and for the last few days I've been revisiting songs that I've heard a thousand times, but haven't listened to in a while. Not necessarily to maintain that mood, but that's what it ended up doing. Bo Diddley, Liverbirds, Don and Dewey, wait...Bo Diddley? 

In the middle of all of the meandering, it occurred to me that I might have lost a link to a set of photos of early rockers and country and western artists taken by a young girl armed with a Brownie camera back in the fifties. (She took the photo above.) When I realized that I hadn't properly tagged that in an earlier post, and not remembering the gal's name, semi-panic set in. Thankfully that little search box on the top left of this and every other page saved the day. So, before I go any further, let me introduce you to the search box. Up there at the very top left hand corner (scroll up dummy). It is your friend. As many tags as there are in the right column (under "Index"), there are many posts here that lack proper tags. And being that there are 1857 posts here, I'm not about to start checking.

Anyway, just listen to these. This is some Grade A shit. And by all means, check the guitar solo on the Valiants' cover of "Good Golly Miss Molly". It's seriously fucked up, somewhere between awful and pure genius. I don't know about you, but the Wild-O-Meter here goes in both directions.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Chuck Berry - You Never Can Tell mp3 at David Fulmer (?)
Bo Diddley -  Pretty Thing mp3 at Boogaloo Time
The Liverbirds - Talking About You mp3 at The Rising Storm
Don and Dewey - Justine mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Nick Curran and the Low Lifes- Kill My Baby mp3 at KEXP.org
Little Richard - Rip It Up mp3 at Kid America Club
Esquerita - Crazy, Crazy Feeling mp3 at Rocky 52
The Valiants - Good Golly Miss Molly mp3 at De Discos y Monstruos
Visit:
Carol Coleman (née Mangham) - The Girl With the Brownie 

TWO MINUTES OF BLISS

I listened to a lot of random stuff tonight. You do it too. One songs lead to another and there goes and hour. Towards the end of it, I ended up listening to Don and Dewey's "Justine". I had to stop there, because even though it's been posted many times before, and some of you may know it well, if I can turn one person onto it tonight who hasn't heard it, my job is done. The song is absolutely essential. I could go off about why it is essential at great length, were it not for my end of the day laziness. I'll cut to the chase. It's one of my favorite rock 'n' roll songs of all time. Scratch that, favorite songs of any genre of all time. Hell. If you really want to know, "Justine" is one of my favorite things of all time, living or dead, audible or physical. It is a reason to get up in the morning. It makes you feel alive. Yes it does.

The other three songs down there are every bit as mighty. And as a consolation to guitarists, I direct your attention to the guitar in the image at the top, a double cutaway Telecaster. Who knew? I sure didn't.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Don and Dewey - Justine mp3 at Beware of the Blog Specialty 631 A-side
Don and Dewey - Bim Bam mp3 at Diddy Wah  Specialty 631 B-side
Don and Dewey - Farmer John mp3 at Rock Town Hall Specialty 659 A-side
Don and Dewey - Jungle Hop mp3 at The Adios Lounge Specialty 599 A-side

LEVEL TWO PREREQUISITE

Here we go, another evening eater, Thank you Diddy Wah. Your post with Don and Dewey's "Justine" b/w "Bim Bam" sent me all over the place. Old links, new links, discographies and YouTube. The fruits of my meandering are below. There's something for everybody. If you're not familiar with the duo, for God's sake, get your head on straight. Listen to the songs. This is it. You should probably bone up over at The Hound Blog, there's an excellent profile. Hunt down that LP above, it's got to have been reissued. For those already familiar with them who have that LP or another compilation, you ought to check out YouTube for some pre- and post-Specialty sides. They'll have you tearing your skull inside out. Like hearing "Justine" for the first time. (You may want to take this with you.)

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Don and Dewey - Justine mp3 at Beware of the Blog Specialty 631 A-side
Don and Dewey - Bim Bam mp3 at Diddy Wah  Specialty 631 B-side
Don and Dewey - Farmer John mp3 at Rock Town Hall Specialty 659 A-side
Don and Dewey - Jungle Hop mp3 at The Adios Lounge Specialty 599 A-side
Don and Dewey - A Little Love mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban Specialty 599 B-side
Don and Dewey - Kill Me (streaming) at YouTube Specialty SPS 2131 (LP only)
Don and Dewey - I'm Leaving It All Up To You (streaming) at YouTube Specialty 610 A-side
Don and Dewey - Stretchin' Out (streaming) at YouTube Rush 1002
Little Richard (with Don and Dewey)- Bama Lama Loo mp3 at Jeub (?) Specialty 699
Visit:
Don & Dewey - Excellent bio at The Hound Blog Unfortunately the mp3 links are dead.
Don & Dewey at Wikipedia
Don and Dewey Discography at Wang Dang Dula

TOTALLY VISCERAL

You know how it is (or was). If you scour thrift stores, garage sales, 99 cent bins, and record swaps long enough, you develop an obsession with certain labels. Particularly labels with a high keeper quotient. You get a glimpse of a yellow gold label with rays emanating from the center? "Sun!" Snapping finger on a yellow background?, "Stax!", light blue with a stack of records? "Early Stax!" Blue with silver? "Chess!" And so on. Obviously, it's not nearly as fruitful these days, digging through picked over stacks, with everybody and their mothers selling them on the secondary market. No one keeps anything, The prices are driven up to the point that no average Joe can afford a decent collection. It's that flipper disease, just like house flippers. Who cares if it kills the little guy's chance to buy a home (or a record), it's everyman for themselves.

Anyway, back to these 45 labels. Despite the fact that I rarely see the physical vintage product, outside of the few that I have, I still have that same reaction. One of the biggees for me is seeing the unmistakeable yellow, black and white logo with the classic hand lettered "Specialty" across the top. That's one of the handful of labels that's never let me down. So when I saw it splashed across On The Record's recent post, it had me going on a Specialty binge.

Here's some top shelf Specialty sides. You may also want to check out the all-Specialty mix from Diddy Wah, (streaming or download). To the cooler than ice twelve year old Norwegian kid who just presented their Power Point take on Moondog to the English class today (read the first comment below this post), you are cooler than ice, as I said. Being so, you may one day wish to read this lengthy piece on Specialty Records. By all means, stay away from that death metal stuff.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Don & Dewey - Justine mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Don & Dewey - Farmer John mp3 at Rock Town Hall
Larry Williams - Slow Down mp3 at Mercury Paradise
Larry Williams - She Said Yeah mp3 at Beware of the Blog 
Larry Williams - Dizzy Miss Lizzie mp3 at Joe Troiano's Blog 
Little Richard - Keep A Knockin' mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Little Richard - Rip It Up (Rehearsal Take 14) mp3 at Electric Adolescence
Lloyd Price - Lawdy Miss Clawdy mp3 at Jordan Hatch
Ben Hughes - Sack mp3 (via DivShare) at On the Record
The mix:

Specialty Records Radio Show Special at Diddy Wah Streaming and download. About SoundCloud: If the embedded streaming widget has a visible downward pointing arrow on the right side of the bar (in this case it does) downloading is enabled. Click on the arrow.

Read:
Art Rupe's Specialty Records at History of Rock
Specialty Records at Wikipedia

BONE UP PUNK

Now, this is what I'm talkin' about. Diddy Wah, the UK DJ and host of the Diddy Wah blog, has put together a killer radio show featuring only Specialty Records releases, presented in chronological order. Every few songs he pipes in with a few factoids, which makes for a quick overview of the label and some of the artists that recorded for it. Quick, in that the hour duration just wets your appetite. This is a real good one you guys, and it's available streaming, or as a download. I raided old link drawer for some other Specialty singles as a teaser.

Listen:
Specialty Records Radio Show Special at Diddy Wah Streaming and download
Individual songs:
Don & Dewey - Justine mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Larry Williams - Slow Down mp3 at Mercury Paradise
Little Richard - Long Tall Sally mp3 at One Sweet Song

THESE GUYS RULE

Yesterday I mentioned that a violin solo on one of the Quantic & Alice Russell cuts made me want to hear Don & Dewey, who don't sound like them at all.  It was just the violin.  I know I've raved about Don & Dewey before.  It's just really befuddling, why more people aren't absolutely apeshit about these guys.  This is second or third tier rock 'n' roll fiendom,  It should be top tier.  You should all know Don and Dewey.  So today, as I've done several times before, I went hunting for something in an effort to get you sapsuckers to actually hear something by them other than the few cuts I've posted before, awesome as they are.  I was looking in particular for "Farmer John," a semi-hit for the Premiers when they covered it, and "Pink Champagne," which features Don Harris' fine violin playing.  (I know what you're thinking.  Worry not.  It's not what you think.  The violin fits.)  I actually found a six song rip of side two of a Don & Dewey compilation that includes both of those songs.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that it's a tinny sounding rip.  Just pretend you're listening to a Don & Dewey block on Johnny Otis's radio show, on a tinny AM radio.  (Johnny Otis actually played them.  I've heard tapes.  So cool is he.)  I threw three previously posted songs down there too, in regular fidelity (substantially better), so you can add it up.  A very detailed bio is available at the Hound Blog, which, as you would expect of this Hound character, is top notch; some good reading.  If you like the cuts below, there's a readily available 25 cut compilation that has just about everything they recorded as Don & Dewey proper.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Don & Dewey - Jungle Hop mp3 at The Adios Lounge
Don & Dewey - Justine mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Don & Dewey - A Little Love mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Don & Dewey - Six songs in a single mp3 at Boot Sale Sounds Tinny rips of: Pink Champagne, Little Sally Walker, Farmer John, Jungle Hop, Kill Me, The Letter
Visit:
Don & Dewey at The Hound Blog

DEAR SANTA, GIVE THEM THIS SUCKER

The first time I ever heard Don & Dewey was at a party (here it comes...) a long time ago. Even over the murmurs of conversation, it hit hard enough to hunt down the host of the party, and complete a thorough investigation. It was immediately added to the ongoing want list. Amazingly Tower Records, of all places, had a reissue of their stuff, and it was good, from beginning to end good. No stinkers.

Ever since getting hooked by that LP (on Specialty no less), I've tried to figure out why Don & Dewey weren't, and still aren't, better known. They're like some sorta Little Richard meets a rockin' version of Sam and Dave, with some gravel thrown in. And a little bit of rhythm and blues, with electric violin. They recorded the original versions of "Leaving It All Up To You" (a hit for Dale & Grace, in a much milder version), Farmer John (the Premiers, and The Searchers), and the Sonny Bono penned "Koko Joe" (the Olympics, and the Righteous Brothers). And every one of their original versions is superior to their respective covers. They should be huge.

Here's what I could find. The only version of "Farmer John" I could find was an awfully tinny version on YouTube, and it's so bad that I left it out intentionally. That song is one that must boom. Without the ability to blast it, it is not the same song. Buy their record. The one with "Farmer John." If you can't find it anywhere else, there's always the online retailers.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Don & Dewey - Jungle Hop mp3 at The Adios Lounge
Don & Dewey - Justine mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Don & Dewey - A Little Love mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Don & Dewey - Bim Bam (streaming) at YouTube
Don & Dewey - Kill Me (streaming) at YouTube
Don & Dewey - I'm Leaving It All Up To You (streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
Don & Dewey - Excellent bio at The Hound Blog Unfortunately the mp3 links are dead.
Don & Dewey at Wikipedia

PASS IT, MAN

Sometimes I get to maniacally cruising around online, looking for music to write about, and don't slow down enough to smell the pixels. It's ridiculous, really. This whole thing was started for two reasons. One, is that I found myself sending links to great music via email an awful lot. I figured, why should I do that, when I can do a simple blog that would be like emailing everybody all at once? The second reason is that I missed the "you gotta hear this" conversations with my brothers. So, consider this post, actually all the posts, as "you gotta hear this" things, because most of the songs and sites that I link to are some pretty cool shit.

The Heartbreakers - One Track Mind, and Too Much Junkie Business

Though none of the hosts of other sites, or the visitors to this godforsaken dump, have made a peep about my habit of directly linking to mp3 files on other peoples blogs, I will. Here's my thing: just about every blog that has music posted has some sort of disclaimer saying that they're posting mp3s for education value, or to help promote the recording artists. My assumption is, if they are sincerely trying to do just that, then I am helping in them in their mission. If any host has a gripe about the bandwidth they may be paying for (to store mp3s and other media), as a result of a particular post, then I'll take 'em down. Begrudgingly (to be honest), because it will interrupt the flow, man; but I will. It's their right. Just as it might be their right to put ads on a blog that is supposedly for educational purposes. See what I'm getting at?


Rolling Stones 1972 rehearsal. Hipshake, and Tumbling Dice

Here's a good "gotta hear this" with a dash of "you gotta read this". It's a recent post over at the Adios Lounge, It's not very often I run into a post that is well thought out, taking partial bits of songs and connecting them with other artists or bands, and citing different eras and disciplines. On the post, titled "LAMF: A Study in Rock n' Roll DNA", he goes to town. For instance, suggesting that the Germs, on "Richie Dagger's Crime" sounds like the Heartbreakers mixed with X, with a John Fogerty type guitar tone (from the first Creedence LP) in one particular 28 second part of the song. Whether I agree 100% or not, I dig that shit. It's a great post, with 12 songs, two Chuck Berry guitar parts as references, and various other links sprinkled around (i.e. to Richard Hell's piece about Johnny Thunders on his site).

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A just a taste of the mp3s (because any post that includes Don & Dewey, the Germs, the Sonics, the Heartbreakers, and Creedence is the post of someone who undoubtedly broke into my apartment and raided my record collection):

The Sonics - Psycho mp3 at The Adios Lounge
Don & Dewey - Jungle Hop mp3 at The Adios Lounge
The Germs - Richie Daggers Crime mp3 at The Adios Lounge
The Hearbreakers - Baby Talk mp3 at The Adios Lounge
The New York Dolls - Personality Crisis mp3 at The Adios Lounge

The post:
The Adios Blog - LAMF: A Study in Rock 'n' Roll DNA, 14 mp3s, a mix download containing all the songs, and some pretty informed text, dissecting the whole Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers schtick.

An other interesting read:
Richard Hell - Hot and Cold Johnny (book excerpt) at RichardHell.com

LARYNX SHRED FEST

Selective memory seems to correlate with priorities. By that I mean, I forget a lot of things; a lot. But one thing I'm remarkably good at remembering is when I was exposed to a particular band or song. I can go down the list of just about every record (or CD) I have and remember when I first heard it, or who told me to check it out. (The first recommendation came from a teenage, pre-Rolling Stone Cameron Crowe. No shit.) I actually started a list once and had to stop, because the recollections came remarkably easy.

This morning I had my most recent recommendation, in a very brief online conversation with a very good friend, one whose taste is, in my book, beyond reproach. As it had been some time since we last spoke, I asked her about a band she'd likely be in tune to, the Jim Jones Revue. She said, and I quote (or paraphrase): "Love them. Check out Bunker Hill." I did just that, and immediately heard the similarity. They both belong to the elite group of good ol' fashioned larynx shredders. A certain brand of shouters that if you were to try to emulate, you'd have to reach for some cough drops. Really, try to to sing all of the songs below and see if you don't do some permanent damage. Here then is a brief (rather spotty) history of larynx shredders, including Bunker Hill:

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Bunker Hill - The Girls Can't Dance mp3 at Secret Comics
Bunker Hill - Hide and Go Seek (with Link Wray) mp3 at Garage Hangover
Bunker Hill - You Can't Make Me Doubt My Baby mp3 at The Soul Girl
Bunker Hill bio @ Wang Dang Dula
Little Richard - Keep A Knockin' mp3 at Drummer World
Don and Dewey - Justine mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Sonics - Psycho mp3 (download at Mediafire) at Metal Bastard Goes Soft
Jim Jones Revue - Princess and the Frog mp3 at Sous les Paves, la Plage
Nick Curran and the Low Lifes- Kill My Baby mp3 at KEXP.org