SURVIVOR'S GUILT ROCK

Post-car crash Gene Vincent has always seemed kind of unsettling to me. He just seems a little crazed. Part of it is the weird lean he has, due to a bum leg, injured in a car crash that also killed his friend Eddie Cochran. The leg had to have been a constant reminder. Poor guy.

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Listen:
Gene Vincent - Lotta Lovin' mp3 at Internet Archive 1957

IN LIEU OF EGGNOG

I know it's early for this shit, but fuck it. I just ran across a reggae mix at Aquarium Drunkard, all Christmas type music. I'm not sure how I feel about that, reggae and Christmas. A little too much, Never mind the fact that Christmas music is only really played for about a month out of the year. Enough.

The mix has Alton Ellis, the Ethiopians, the Heptones, Jackie Mittoo, the Maytals, Sugar Minott and more, twenty eight songs in all. Lee Perry's cut is below. His holiday cheer face is above.

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Listen:
Lee Perry & Sandra Robinson - Merry Christmas, Happy New Year mp3 at Music Like Dirt
The mix:
Christmas Jambree - A Vintage Jamaican Yuletide Mixtape at Aquarium Drunkard 28 songs in a zip. Go there to get it

PLUG SIDE

Last night I was in the mood for a walk to the main drag a few blocks away. I brought a radio with earbuds (surprisingly good sound for a $15 radio and earbuds found on the beach). I tuned into the jazz station. Blech. I'd forgotten that it was time for the blues show, this particular one my least favorite. It was playing guitar slinger type blues along the lines of the dreaded Blueshammer. I love blues as much as the next guy, but not when some peacock of a guitar player is strutting his stuff. So I switched stations to the r&b station and let me tell you, it was a yowza moment. The opening beats of Run DMC's "It's Like That" from their first LP. Man, I love vintage Run DMC. I worked in a restaurant when it came out, and the dishwasher played it non-stop for months. I remember thinking at the time that it was a turning point in rap. It was stripped down and powerful. No disco beats. That first Run DMC LP is right up there with the Sex Pistols debut inasmuch as it was raw and it took things in a entirely different direction.

After I got home it occurred to me that it was about the time of year to hit "Christmas In Hollis" again. Many of you will know that the horns sampled in it came from Clarence Carter's "Back Door Santa". Those of you who don't, should stop and appreciate that the most prominent sample in the song, the horns, came from another Christmas record and the key thing is, they didn't have to do that. No one would have known one way or another. For whatever reason, I find it cool that they took that extra step..

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Listen:
Run DMC - It's Like That (streaming) at YouTube
Run DMC - Christmas In Hollis mp3 at Said the Gramophone
Clarence Carter - Back Door Santa mp3 at AM Then FM
More Christmas hip hop:
Kurtis Blow - Christmas Rappin' (streaming) at YouTube
Run The Jewels - A Christmas F*cking Miracle (video) at YouTube
Snoop Doggy Dogg ft. Daz Dillinger, Nate Dogg, Tray Deee, Bad Azz - Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto (video) at YouTube

GIVE IT UP. DUDE WROTE "TAKE FIVE"

I don't listen to Aimee Mann at all, but after seeing her on a past episode Portlandia, I appreciate that she has a sense of humor. She plays herself forced to take a job as a house cleaner because of declining returns from her recording output (due to downloads, ahem). I came away thinking that she'd be a good person to have a beer with, to shoot the shit. So, when I saw her selections in The Best Thing I've Heard All Year, in the year end issue of Mojo, I figured I'd actually take the thirty seconds to read it, depite the fact that her own music doesn't do much for me. I figured there might be some common ground. I was right. Along with Gil Evans, Gerry Mulligan and Steely Dan, she mentions a Paul Desmond LP, a 1969 release From The Hot Afternoon, which she describes as sounding like a soundtrack to a 70s TV show. She's not far off.

Coming from the sax player for the Dave Brubeck Quartet, the guy who wrote "Take Five" ten years earlier, From The Hot Afternoon is completely different. It sounds like 70s bachelor pad music, a mix of exotica, West Coast jazz, easy listening, bossa whatever and, if you haven't rolled your eyes out of your head yet, oddball instrumentation ala Pet Sounds. It's not Paul Desmond as I was used to hearing, but because it is such a good example of what it is, it's been added to the list. Also down there is a Brubeck cut that Desmond plays marimba on, another sort of oddball worth hearing.

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Listen:

Paul Desmond - From The Hot Afternoon LP (streaming) at YouTube

Dave Brubeck Quartet - Backstage Rhumba mp3 at Groove Addict

TODAY WE MOURN WITH FRANCE

Years ago I worked with a Swiss woman who was a few years older than me. Knowing that I was into music, she asked if I liked Johnny Halladay. Who? She said he was like the Elvis of France. Big fucking deal, I thought. We, us Americans, didn't have to concern ourselves with French wannabe Elvises. Not only did we have the real Elvis (though he was already dead), we had in our heritage Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Johnny Burnette, Billy Lee Riley and a shitload of others. Thanks but no thanks.

But that name Johnny Halladay stayed in my head, just because she had made such a big deal about him, the swooning and all of that. It's weird how things like that stay lodged between lobes. I have to give her credit. If her intent was to spread the gospel of some French rocker, it worked, inasmuch as I was at least aware of him all these years later.

Halladay just died today. It's time to pay back my Swiss ex-coworker.

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Listen:

Johnny Halladay - Souvenirs, Sounenirs mp3 at Rocky 52 1960
Johnny Halladay - Le P'tit Clown de Ton Coeur mp3 at Rocky 52 1960
Johnny Halladay with the Stray Cats - That's All Right Mama mp3 at Rocky 52 1984

SONGS LIVE AT LEEDS TAUGHT US

Here's three covers that my brothers and I, along with countless others our age, first heard on the Who's 1970 LP, Live at Leeds. We had no idea what the originals were like, but the Who's versions were loud, and not just in volume. They were just fucking bombastic. 

Not long after that LP, my brothers and I started hearing "Summertime Blues", the original by Eddie Cochran, on the oldies station. Okay, not all that big of a departure. Both were rock 'n' roll, the Who's just turned up a bit. When we finally heard Johnny Kidd's "Shakin' All Over" it was the same, rock 'n' roll with a volume deficit. It would be decades before I ever heard Mose Allison's original "Young Man Blues". The difference is extreme. The Who's is a whole different monster. They should have renamed it "Pissed Off Young Man Blues."

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Listen:
Eddie Cochran - Summertime Blues mp3 at Rocky 52
Johnny Kidd and the Pirates - Shakin' All Over mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Mose Allison - Young Man Blues mp3 at Blogoblat (?)
The Who - Shakin' All Over (streaming) at YouTube Live at Leeds 1970
Video:
The Who - Summertime Blues (live, Monterey 1967) at YouTube
The Who - Young Man Blues (live, Tanglewood 1970) at YouTube

THIS JUST IN: WAYNE COCHRAN MORTAL

The hair. That's the first thing you notice about Wayne Cochran. The questionable self-designed duds, the second thing you notice. Fancy footwork might be the third. Somewhere down the list would be the music. Cochran had a decent voice, but I gotta say, as much as I appreciate his musical efforts, it all goes back to his freak flag, the hair and the outfits. The Hound summed it up well "...Wayne Cochran, for sheer flamboyance made the New York Dolls, Gary Glitter, David Bowie, Slade, and all the other glam rockers of the day look like the Allman Brothers' road crew." Ouch! Sting like a bee!

Cochran died a couple weeks ago. Cloud Head is dead. Long live Cloud Head.

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Listen:

Wayne Cochran - You Can't Judge a Book By Looking at the Cover mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Wayne Cochran - The Coo mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban
Wayne Cochran - Last Kiss mp3 at Keep the Coffee Coming
Video:
Wayne Cochran - James Brown's TV show at YouTube
Wayne Cochran - Goin' Back to Miami at YouTube
Visit:
Wayne Cochran - Profile at The Hound Blog

THIS IS NOT A GIRL GROUP. IT IS A BAND.

Another couple Liverbirds songs I hadn't heard and a re-listening of their stuff I had and there goes my night. Look at the photo above, Does it get more badass? They're English, they're women, they're no flash, tough, beat meets garage. Check the video below and the other songs and videos at at the bottom. You may end up wondering why you've never heard of them. Good question.

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Listen:

The Liverbirds - Loop De Loop mp3 at Internet Archive

The Liverbirds - For Your Love (streaming) at YouTube
The Liverbirds - Talking About You mp3 at The Rising Storm
The Liverbirds - Hands Off mp3 at The Rising Storm
Video:
The Liverbirds - Diddley Daddy at YouTube
The Liverbirds - Why Do You Hang Around Me? at YouTube
Read:
The Liverbirds - Feature at the Liverpool Echo
The Liverbirds profile at The Hound Blog

YOU NEED THEM

Because hardly any of you freeloaders comment on posts (ahem), I have no idea what age group passes through here. So if you are of the age that knows the Kinks, take a pass if need be. I feel it necessary from time to time to be a cheerleader for this band or that, bands that really are essential. The Kinks are one, hence this post.

With this particular band I feel I owe a debt, not to them in particular but the cheerleaders that pushed them on me. Although I knew of the Kinks bigger hits back in the day, I just happened to know the president and vice president of their U.S. fan club. (The VP was Dan McLain who would later be known as Country Dick Montana.) In 1978 they were given a four pack of tickets to a show in L.A.. Most of their friends were total Kinks fanatics and were all drooling over the possibility of getting into the show. Mindful of their responsibilities as head of the U.S. fan club, they decided to invite two people (one being me) that had not seen the Kinks before. I couldn't say no, even if I wanted to. I did get to meet Ray Davies.

So, as common as these songs are to some of you, I'm paying it forward, albeit with a shitty blog post, so some of the unknowing rugrats might pick up something.

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Listen:
The Kinks - You Really Got Me mp3 at Drummer World
The Kinks - All Day and All of the Night mp3 at Drummer World
The Kinks - I Need You mp3 at Internet Archive
The Kinks - I Gotta Move mp3 at Internet Archive
The Kinks - I'm Not Like Everybody Else mp3 at Internet Archive
The Kinks - Til the End of the Day mp3 at Wandervogel
The Kinks - A House in the Country mp3 at Internet Archive

SIC 'IM BARNABAS!

If you would have asked me to hum the theme to Dark Shadows, there's no way I'd remember it. But once I heard it, all the creepiness came back. It doesn't help that the version I heard was heavier on the Theremin and it really didn't help when I went looking for an image that I ran into that one above of Barnabas chillin' with Bozo. Yikes.

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Listen:
The First Theremin Era - The Barnabas Theme From "Dark Shadows" mp3 at Beware of the Blog
Dark Shadows Theme- Robert Cobert Orchestra (streamimg) at YouTube The original
Visit:
Dark Shadows at YouTube A whole bunch of episodes from 1967

WANTED: BAD HAIR DAY

I have to admit, I have an aversion to clean cuts. It's not hard and fast, but from time to time I notice myself backing away from objectivity. If a singer is too clean cut, I may not give him an entirely fair shake. Like this guy, Nick Waterhouse. He's a perfectly fine r&b singer, old school in practice, totally clean cut 60s Ivy League in appearance, not a hair out of place. I really dig his music, and by extension his mission to keep this type of music alive. I just wish he'd lose the comb at some point.

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Listen:
Nick Waterhouse - I Wanna Know mp3 at The Art of the Mix
Nick Waterhouse -The Old Place mp3 at Soul Donuts
Nick Waterhouse - Some Place mp3 at Augasm
Nick Waterhouse - (If) You Want Trouble mp3 at Augasm
Nick Waterhouse and Brit Manor - I Cry mp3 (via Box.net) at Across the Kitchen Table Once at Box.net, the blue download button is on the top right of the screen.
Dean and Jean - I Cry (streaming) at YouTube Original version of above.

THE MOST FAMOUS TAASUKAT IN DAKAR

This sucker may have opened up an entirely new can of worms. This I know: the music is from Senegal, is highly rhythmic and very intense. To quote the poster at Awesome Tapes From Africa (who also happens to have reissued the LP), the first song, "Dieuleul Dieuleul", is "completely insane". True, it is. He/She also described "an aggressive verbal flow thought to presage rap". I was thinking just that. Really.

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Listen:
Aby Ngana Diop — Dieuleul Dieuleul (streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
Aby Ngana Diop - Short profile at Awesome Tapes From Africa
More African music in the old posts

USE YOUR OUTSIDE VOICE

When I heard the first half minute of Ennio Morricone's "L’alibi", my initial thought was "Aw shit, someone told Morricone to use his inside voice. "Inside voice" is American wimpy parent slang for "pipe down". "Pipe down" sounds infinitely cooler. The point here is that "L’alibi" sounds watered down compared to Morricone's calling card, spaghetti western soundtracks. I wanted to hate it, but guess what? While I directed my attention to something else, it sucked me in. Without realizing it, it became a soundtrack for my activity, albeit for only two minutes.

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Listen:
Ennio Morricone – Intermezzino Pop mp3 at Roots and Culture
Ennio Morricone – L’alibi Pop mp3 at Roots and Culture

ART APPRECIATION

A good friend of mine has been in town recently, the only person that I spent time with in both San Francisco and New York. (For good reason. She's the one who talked me into moving both times.) We hadn't seen each other in years and had much to catch up on so we weren't just strolling down, we were jogging all over fucking memory lane. One of the episodes that came up, was when Art Blakey was playing some jazz club in San Francisco. You could see a good amount of the band from the street without going in, including Blakey, his mouth wide open when he was really going off. Ever the tightwad, I happened to catch part of his set from the sidewalk on two consecutive nights. Now that I think about it, he's the only big name jazz guy I've ever seen live.

Check "The Sacrifice". Yeesh. That's an opening cut on his Drum Suite album. How do you follow that? The second song on the LP is "Cubano Chant" which settles back in to a less frenzied pace. Maybe "The Sacrifice" is like coffee starting your day, with a jolt. Works for me.

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Listen:
Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers - The Sacrifice mp3 at Internet Archive
Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers - Cubano Chant mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers - The Drum Thunder Suite mp3 at ATumblr (?)
Video:
Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers - Caravan (live) at YouTube

THE ORB RODE

When I saw that photo above, I thought it was photoshopped. Roy Orbison on a dirt bike? C'mon. He didn't seem like a grease under the fingernails sorta guy. Maybe it's his voice, it's so...smooth I guess is the word. Rich. Even on his early Sun stuff his voice had more polish than was typical of the label. So, curious, I went looking and found this caption: "Roy Orbison America singer March 1966 riding on a scramble bike at Hawkstone Park Shropshire." I'll be dipped in shit, turns out that he was a bike fiend, as was his wife Claudette. (She was killed in a motorcycle accident while the two were on a ride.)

Here's a mess of the biker's early stuff, a Coke commercial he did, and a later clip of him doing the song he wrote about his wife, backed by Tom Waits, Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen, amongst others.

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Listen:

Roy Orbison - Rock House mp3 at Rocky 52
Roy Orbison - Ooby Dooby mp3 at Rocky 52
Roy Orbison - Go Go Go mp3 at Rocky 52
Roy Orbison - Domino mp3 at Retrolicious
Roy Orbison - Mean Little Mama mp3 at Mp3 Rockabilly
Roy Orbison - Dream Baby mp3 at MP3 Rockabilly

Roy Orbison - Coke commercial mp3 at The Podcast Place
Video:
Roy Orbison - Claudette at YouTube Live, with Tome Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and others

THE RECORD THAT ATE A NIGHT

The Ramrods? The name seemed familiar, but the Ramrods record I have is a cover of "Ghost Riders in the Sky", a surf type instrumental. It didn't seem likely that they would do a song called "Soul Express". I clicked, I listened, I dropped my jaw. This Ramrods is obviously not the same, but "Soul Express" is an early funk monster. Seriously. I listened to it three times in a row before moving forward. When I did move on, it took a few hours before I had even come close to getting through the post that included it.

It turned out that it was on a post at Red Kelly's mindblowing Soul Detective. The post starts out about Joe Haywood and goes through all sorts of detours with snippets and clues sourced from a bunch of other blogs. This wouldn't be all that big of a deal if the sources weren't the cream of the soul blogging crop. Funky 16 Corners, Sir Shambling, Home of the Groove...it's a who's who of soul eggheads and includes a heaping helping of other songs related to this rabbit hole of a post. Check it and see how long it takes you.

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Listen:

The Ramrods - Soul Express (Part 1) mp3 at Soul Detective

The mother lode:

Case One: Joe Haywood at Soul Detective Note: Right click on song titles to download. Sixteen songs.

JAM BAND

I ran across Kraftwerk's "Pocket Calculator" in German. It seemed like an adequate detour, just to mix things up. A soulless song, by a soulless band about a soulless piece of equipment. What the hell. In looking for an image, I ran into a Kraftwerk rabbit hole. a series of posts at 20 Jazz Funk Greats mostly concerning the band's early years. There's a song by a pre-Krafterk band Ralf and Florian were in called Organization. It's a little over eleven minutes of what sounds like a hippie stoner's jam. That might be a bit harsh, but it's not at all like the Kraftwerk we all know and love.

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Listen:

Kraftwerk - Pocket Calculator mp3 at Art Decade

Organization - Vor Dem Blauen Bock mp3 at 20 Jazz Funk Greats Ralf & Florian, pre-Kraftwerk, 1969

Visit:

Kraftwerk related posts at 20 Jazz Funk Greats More early Kraftwerk and some good reading

DUSTY THE SELECTER

Okay, so I'm watching the beginning of some movie and it's sizing up to be not my kind of film. Just before I was getting ready to shut it off, Dusty Springfield's "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me" kicks in, That was an hour ago and I can't get the damn song out of my head. It's is a good song, if a little over dramatic. Maybe that's what I like about it. Those English women pop singers could be super polished at times, with big ol' orchestras going on. I've always lumped her with Lulu and Petula Clark in that regard. I'm sure in other places there were Sandie Shaw and others, but my introduction to these singers came from U.S. top 40 radio, and those were the three with hits over here.

When I was looking for photos, I came across the one above. What was Dusty Springfield listening to? The only possible clue is the LP in her hand. Curious, and up to a challenge, I opened up my antiquated Photo-Paint program and fucked with the perspective of the image. The result is below. Bob-B-Soxx and the Blue Jeans' "Zip-A-Dee Doo Dah", a Phil Spector/Wrecking Crew joint. Dig Billy Strange's solo at 1:27. Yee haw.

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Listen:

Dusty Springfield - You Don't Have To Say You Love Me mp3 at Blognoblat (?)
Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans - Zip A Dee Doo Dah mp3 at Beware of the Blog

TWO RANDOM HOT ASS INTRUMENTALS

How I ended up on an eleven year old post at Beware of the Blog, I've no clue. But these two instrumentals were among the thirty unrelated songs on a the old post and they both rule. Dave Dudley and Nora Dean also make appearances, along with a bunch of thrift store variety oddballs.

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Listen:
The Ventures - He Never Came Back mp3 at Beware of the Blog

The Hollywood Persuaders - Drums A Go-Go mp3 at Beware of the Blog

More:
Phonoanomalies -  A Totaly New Recording For Hi-Fi Bugs at Beware of the Blog 28 more songs

"BLOWIN' MY TOP"? WHAT'S THAT, CODE?

Okay, it's 1951. Billy Ward and the Dominoes' "Sixty Minute Man" is released. It climbs the charts, both r&b and pop. All the proto-rock 'n' roll guys are sitting around. They take notice. They listen closely to the lyrics.

    There'll be fifteen minutes of kissin'
    Then you'll holler "Please don't stop" (Don't stop!)
    There'll be fifteen minutes of teasin'
    Fifteen minutes of squeezin'
    And fifteen minutes of blowin' my top

After the chorus sinks in, they all look at each other. One cracks his knuckles and says "Okay, let's do this." That's the birth of rock 'n' roll in my mind. Fantasizing about this shit doesn't cost a cent.

I've always liked the song and this past weekend I heard it by chance two days in a row. This was 66 years after it was released. I'll take that as a sign.

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Listen:
Billy Ward and the Dominoes - Sixty Minute Man mp3 at The Doo Wop Jukebox