THROWING OUT A WILD SOUND

Somewhere over the course of my adulthood, my opinion of Hugh Hefner went from ambivalent to thinking he was kind of an old school out of touch clueless dick, much like my opinion of the whole Playboy brand. I've questioned it over the years, thinking that maybe I've been too hard on the old geezer. I'm then reminded, by another incident or factoid about the Playboy empire that presents itself. Case in point, a recent viewing of the musical segments from his short lived TV show, Playboy After Dark, The video is interesting for the flying juxtapositions alone, and some of the musical performances are great. It's interesting to see Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly, Taj Mahal, B.B. King, Canned Heat, the Byrds, the Sir Douglas Quintet, Ike and Tina Turner, and Steppenwolf all playing the same odd stage, Speaking of Steppenwolf, how about that work of art above? I call it "Two Assholes Listening to Steppenwolf", because that's what it is. It's Hugh Hefner and his lady friend, Barbi Benton, right after John Kay sings "You fill this house with things of gold, while handing crumbs to the poor and old, and then you preach about being pure, and wonder why we're laughing" Look at the two of them. (Face in palms) So..fucking...square.

The whole crowd is square, cluelessly so, Even the room is, unless some Brady Bunch bachelor pad full of swinging squares happens to be your thing. then I suppose it wouldn't bug you. Just consider that these performances are from 1969-'72. Half the bands probably played the Fillmore in the same week, so playing this room was, for most, an alien venture. I like watching the reaction of the beautiful people, particularly interesting when they try to make sense of the scuzzier bands. I haven't watched the whole thing, but it's worth skipping around. The first Canned Heat song, "Turpentine Howl" is pretty cool (at 27:50). The guitar solos are both sufficiently dirty, the tone and sloppiness of the second solo was enough to watch a second time. You'll want to stick around for Hefner interviewing Bob "Bear" Hite about his 78 collection, and, of course, Hefner's gem "You guys are really throwing out a wild sound". But do skip around for some of the whitest freak out dancing you're likely to see. Plus, where else are you going to see a well dressed asshole curled up in front of a speaker cabinet sucking his thumb? This is two worlds colliding. It's not pretty, but it is funny,

Note: Go to YouTube for the song listings and other bands, 14 bands and 29 songs..

RATCHET MEANS KNIFE

Most of you who are into reggae, specifically the early stuff, know the Slickers' "Johnny Too Bad". It's a song about rude boys, on half of the reggae compilations that ever existed (really, I checked). It was on the soundtrack for The Harder They Come, which makes it about as entry level as it gets. Not to slight it, it's a badass song about bad badasses. Every time I hear it I picture Jamaican street toughs with period cool Kingston style and six rounds of swagger walking down the street like they owned it. It occurred to me that although I know that song like the back of my hand, as many of you might, I don't even know off the top of my head if I have any of their other stuff, which amounts to a roughly thirty 45s and one LP. So I did what we do, I went digging. I did find one other song by them, "Nana", which is great and awesome and all of that, but the real surprise was running into a cover of "Johnny Too Bad" by Taj Majal, It's great, far better than most covers I've heard. (Believe me, there are some awful ones out there. Don't get me started about UB40's cover, or anything about UB40 for that matter. I hate that band. Hate's a harsh word, let's just say I think they blow.)

It made me think, after all these years, about the Off's version, one that I haven't though about in at least ten years. The Off's (not to be confused with Off!), were an early (meaning late seventies) San Francisco punk band. Their version is that from that era of real (not posed) low budget, low circulation, raw, muddled, independent punk 45s. I love that sound. They were doing the best they could with the resources available, unlike stuff of recent years intentionally dumbing down the production. Listen to the instrumental break (starting at 1:23). You'd think you'd be in for a dub thing, or a real solo, but what you get is the Shaggs and Velvets churning out a reggae rhythm with (if you're still with me, and I know only the Mystery Suggester might be) Harley Davidson from Deadbolt gritting his teeth, playing lead over a music he hates. Yo, this shit's getting thick.

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Listen:
The Slickers - Johnny Too Bad mp3 at DJNoDJ
The Slickers - Nana mp3 at Bad Luck City
Taj Majal - Johnny Too Bad mp3 at A.Tumblr (?)
The Offs - Johnny Too Bad (streaming) at YouTube

AN UNLIKELY COLLABORATION

If you're a Miles Davis or John Lee Hooker completist (which I'm not) you may already have known about this one (I didn't). It's from the soundtrack to Dennis Hopper's "The Hot Spot," which features collaborations between these two giants, along with Taj Majal and Roy Rogers (not the cowboy). Leave it to Jack Nitzsche, who wrote the score and put these guys together.

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John Lee Hooker & Miles Davis - End Credits mp3 (right click to save) at When You Awake