Thursday, March 31, 2016

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Happy Birthday, Hillbilly Piano King

He only wanted to make the kind of music "that'll make them goddamn beer bottles bounce on the table."

And I believe that Aubrey Wilson "Moon" Mullican accomplished that goal many times over.

Born in Polk County, Texas in 1909, Tuesday would have been Mullican's 107th birthday.

As a boy in Texas, the first music he loved was the blues. According to an article on the Texas State Historical Association site:

Though Moon served as a church organist during his teens, he developed an interest in blues music and learned to play the guitar with instruction from a black farmer. Impressed also by pianists who performed in local juke joints, Mullican developed a distinctive two-finger right-handed piano style that became his trademark. Much to the chagrin of his father, he began to play for dances as a teenager and aspired to become a professional musician. When he was about sixteen years old he moved to Houston and worked as a piano player for establishments that some observers characterized as "houses of ill repute." Sleeping by day and working evenings, Mullican may have received his nickname for his nocturnal habits during this period. For a time in the 1930s he performed with his own band in clubs and on the radio in Southeast Texas and Louisiana.

By the 1930s he was playing in a number of western swing bands including  Cliff Bruner's Texas Wanderers,

In 1947 he signed with King Records in Cincinatti, where he recorded his best-known song "I'll Sail My Ship Alone." In 1949 he joined The Grand Old Opry.

Along the way, Mullican he developed a style of hillbilly boogie that was a huge influence on rockabilly. In fact one of Mulican's devotees was a fellow singing piano player named Jerry Lee Lewis. Mullican's style spanned country, blues, jazz and later, he embraced rock 'n' roll.

By the time he died on Jan. 1, 1967, he'd faded away from the national stage. But he kept on gigging in Texas, making them goddamn beer bottles bounce on the table until the end.

So happy belated birthday, Moon. Here are a few videos of live performances to keep his memory alive.

I wonder if Moon ever met Clarence "Frogman" Henry ...


Moon sings of the moon


On these clips Moon does best when pretty girls are around his piano


And here's Moon Mullican's signature song.



Wednesday, March 30, 2016

WACKY WEDNESDAY: This Gator's Gonna Get Your Granny!

Those of you who follow me on Facebook or Twitter might already know that I got a little steamed at the most recent episode of HBO's Vinyl -- specifically in which record execs Richie Finestra, and Zak Yankovich catch Elvis Presley in Las Vegas.

This, of course was in the mid '70s when the King was in decline and during the scene Zak, played by Ray Romano, is disappointed and downright disgusted that his rock 'n' roll hero of his youth has morphed into the watered-down white jump-suited idol of un-hip old ladies.

But what really gets to Zak is the song Elvis (Shawn Klush) sings in the scene.  It's "Polk Salad Annie," a 1968 hit by Tony Joe White that Elvis picked up on and made a staple of his live set.

“The king of rock ’n’ roll is singing about lettuce!” Zak says scornfully.

And that's why I got pissed. You can't argue that Elvis wasn't going downhill artistically at this point (though he still had guitarist James Burton and his back-up singers The Sweet Inspirations going for him.) But whatever Elvis' problems were, "Polk Salad Annie" was not one of them.

There was no shortage of over-produced, overwrought, cornball middle-of-the-road songs from the 1970s Elvis songbook the writers could have chosen to illustrate how far he'd drifted from his 1950s rockabilly heyday.

"Polk Salad Annie," in fact is one of his better musical choices of the '70s. Its lyrics contain a sexy swamp girl, her razor-totin' mama, wanton watermelon theft, and of course granny-chompin' gators.

Mister, that is rock 'n' roll!

Here's a live version by Elvis to make my case:



There's no question, however that this is Tony Joe White's song. Here's one of my favorite versions, Tony Joe with Johnny Cash on the Man In Black's old TV show:



And more recently, Tony Joe sang a lower, slower rendition with Foo Fighters on The Late Show With David Letterman. Pat Smear looks like he's having the best time here.



Here is a Spotify playlist featuring the original Tony Joe version plus a whole bunch of covers (including one by the late Clarence Reid, Blowfly's alter ego) Play one, play some, play all.



And don't forget this song where Ray Wylie Hubbard explains how "Polk Salad Annie" helped win the heart of a stripper girlfriend.





And, no, Zak, Elvis was not singing about lettuce. It's actually a toxic plant called Phytolacca americana. Unless you cook it correctly, polk salad (also known as poke salad or poke sallet or poke weed) can hurt you.

As the Ohio State University Weedguide says:

Infants are especially sensitive and have died from eating only a few raw berries. Although boiled young shoots have been eaten as greens and berries cooked in pie, ingestion of any part of the plant cannot be recommended. Adults have been poisoned, sometimes fatally, by eating improperly prepared leaves and shoots, especially if part of the root is harvested with the shoot, and by mistaking the root for an edible tuber.

(The original cooking video I had here disappeared. And, so did the one I chose to replace it. So let's try this one)



For more deep dives into songs, check out The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Songbook

Monday, March 28, 2016

Start your week with a healthy new BIG ENCHILADA Podcast episode

THE BIG ENCHILADA


Welcome to the Big Enchilada Podcast Health Care Convenience Center. This month we're offering some very healthy doses of high-poeered, crazy rock 'n' roll to cure whatever ails you. Take your medicine. It's good for you!


SUBSCRIBE TO ALL GARAGEPUNK PIRATE RADIO PODCASTS |

Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Outer Limits Surf by The Deadly Ones)
Karate Monkey by The Woggles
Swamp Pigs by Dash Rip Rock
Wise Old Man by The Fall
Psyche Out With Me by The Monsters
Boom by Wild Flag
You Fine and Healthy Thing by Charles "Boogie Woogie" Davis

(Background Music: Dapper Dan by Dr. Lonnie Smith)
Not Like You by The Vagoos
Château Phoquoeupe by The Come N' Go
Bad Love by Night Beats
UFO, Please Take Her Home by Coachwhips
Chicken Yodeling Woman by O Lendário Chucrobillyman

(Background Music: Late at Bailey's Pad by Warren Barker & The Warner Brothers Star Instrumentalists)
Run Rabbit Run by Bantam Rooster
Whispers by Sulphur City
My Life by Harlan T. Bobo
Feeling Grear Now She's Gone by Lynx Lynx
Git Back on the Truck by Hickoids
Tipsy #3 by The Chumps


Sunday, March 27, 2016

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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Sunday, March 27, 2016
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's the playlist

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres

Peter Cottontail by The Bubbadinos

Karate Monkey by The Woggles

The Pot by The Monsters

Freezer Burn by Edison Rocket Train

Alligator River by Lothar

Lonely Planet Boy by New York Dolls

Ax Me by J.J. & The Real Jerks

Zombie Blocked by Left Lane Cruiser

Deathbed Side Manner by The New Bomb Turks

 

40 Miles of Bad Road by Dead Moon

Shangri Lah by The Night Beats

Venice with Girls by The Fall

Attitude by The Come N' Go

Miss Phenomenal by King Automatic

Born Bad by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Great Big Idol with the Golden Head by The Gories

Tears in Vain by Jonah Gold & His Silver Apples

Gilligan's Island by Manic Hispanic

 

Bad and Good by Javier Escovedo

New Kind of Kick by The Cramps

Meet Me at the Graveyard by Andre Williams

What Am I Gonna Do by John the Conquerer

Glow in the Dark by Lovestruck

Come Back, Bird by Manby's Head

Amazons and Coyotes by Simon Stokes

96 Tears by Aretha Franklin

 

What Kind of Girl Do You Think We Are / Bwana Dick / Latex Solar Beef by Frank Zappa & The Mothers

Stormy Monday by Bobby "Blue" Bland

Every Woman Needs a Working Man by Johnny Rawls

Opportunity by Timmy Thomas

I'll Take Care of You by Bobby Patterson

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

 

Friday, March 25, 2016

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

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Friday, March 25, 2016
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FMEmail me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
Back in the Saddle Again by Gene Autry
Git Back in the Truck by Hickoids
If Looks Could Kill by T. Tex Edwards
Receiver by The Waco Brothers
Swamp Pig by Dash Rip Rock
That Truck by The Texas Rubies
Can't Get Away by Banditos
99 Years to Go by The Wray Brothers
Baby He's a Wolf by Werly Fairburn

Fist City by Loretta Lynn
Too Close to Heaven by Dad Horse Experience
Good Times by Oh Lazarus
Tied by The Yawpers
The Whiskey Lingers by The Bonnevilles
Georgia on a Fast Train by Billy Joe Shaver
Fruit of the Vine by Nancy Apple

Steve Young Tribute

Ramblin' Man by Steve Young (Live on the Santa Fe Opry 2005)
Seven Bridges Road by Dolly Parton
Lonesome, Onery and Mean by Waylon Jennings
The Angel of Lyon by Tom Russell
Long Way to Hollywood by Steve Young (Live on the Santa Fe Opry 2005)

The Darkest Day by Eilen Jewel
Mississippi Sue by Andre Williams
Big Fake Boobs by The Beaumonts

Bury Me Deep by Steve Train & His Bad Habits
Don't Bet Against Me by Hackensaw Boys
Evicted by Peter Case
Any Old Time by Maria Muldaur
Gunter Hotel Blues by Paul Burch
The Year We Tried to Kill the Pain by Bob Woodruff
Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? By Johnny Cash

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Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: My Last Words on SXSW 2016


Austin, Texas. Once again, the crowds were too big, the traffic was too crazy, and the hype is getting way too obnoxious. Yet here I was again back in Austin for another South by Southwest music festival. And here I was again enjoying some of my favorite bands and having a great time — despite the crowds, the traffic, the unrelenting hype.

I was there without actual festival credentials. (I don’t need no steenking badges!) So I didn’t go to very many “official” festival showcases. But, as veteran attendees know, there are more than enough unofficial shows to make up for that.

Here are some of the better ones I saw.
Thee Oh Sees

* Thee Oh Sees at Hotel Vegas. This is the third time I’ve seen John Dwyer and his merry band. But neither of the first two shows I saw was half as fierce, aggressive, or intense as the one I saw this year. They started off on full-blast warp speed and rarely eased up for the hour-plus they played. The latest version of Thee Oh Sees has two drummers, a bass player and, of course, leader John Dwyer on guitar, vocals, and occasional keyboards. The crowd was well-past fired up, immediately forming a frenzied mosh pit, which inspired a seemingly endless stream of stage divers/crowd surfers. It was as if the early’90s never ended. And yes, that can be off-putting to us older fans who don’t want to lose our dentures to some idiot slam dancer. Dwyer’s crazed otherworldly musical vision — the distorted falsetto vocals, the crazy sci-fi guitar bleeps and bloops — cuts to the bone.

Hickoids
* The Hickoids at The White Horse. This long-running Texas cow-punk goofball group has become one of my chief must-see bands every time I go to Austin. Having a Santa Fe crony, guitarist Tom Trusnovic, in the group helps, but I was already a casual Hickhead even before he joined several years ago. I was a little apprehensive about seeing the group this time because it would be the first Hickoids performance I would have seen since the death of original member, guitar slinger and cosmic cowboy Davy Jones. Earlier that evening, before The White Horse show, Jones was honored at the Austin Music Awards. Two years after The Hickoids were inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame, Jones was inducted as a “solo” artist. Head Hickoid honcho, Jeff Smith, was there to accept that award. He held it up onstage at The White Horse before the band started playing. Then the surviving Hickoids proceeded to live up to Jones’ memory, bashing through some of their greatest hits including “Git Back on the Truck,” “Cool Arrow,” “Working Man’s Friend” and the fabulously filthy “Stop It! You’re Killing Me.” By the end, we were all screaming for more. Davy would have been proud.

And the next night, I caught Trusnovic playing at The 04 Lounge with the latest version of his garage/punk group Monkeyshines, which he started years ago in Santa Fe. Monkeyshines still has that wild joyful noise.

Jean Cook and Jon Langford of The Waco Brothers
* The Waco Brothers at the Yard Dog Gallery. The Wacos’ performance at the annual Bloodshot
Records party has been a SXSW highlight for 20 years now. You always know it will be a fun show. But this year, Jon Langford, Dean Schlabowske, Tracey Dear, and the others seemed supercharged. The old songs — “See Willie Fly By,” “Plenty Tuff and Union Made,” “Do You Think about Me” — sounded more vital than that they have in years, and their new tunes from their recently released Going Down in History were all punches that landed.

* Timmy Thomas at Saxon Pub. Thomas is a Miami-based soul singer who had a hit in 1973 called “Why Can’t We Live Together.” That was his biggest success, though Thomas kept recording for another decade or so, routinely hitting the R & B charts. He basically dropped out of sight for a few decades. But then last year Drake sampled a little bit of “Why Can’t We Live Together” and that seemed to give Thomas a late-career second wind. Playing with a band complete with a couple of sax players, Thomas, whose vocals remind me a little bit of Swamp Dog, performed a funky set including old hits and material from an upcoming comeback record.

* Eve & The Exiles at The Continental Club. Eve Monsees, a local Austin favorite, is one amazing guitarist. She’s a longtime friend and former schoolmate of bluesman Gary Clark Jr.’s and a co-owner of Antone’s Record Shop. She’s been playing since she was a kid, and the fact that she loves it is obvious in every note she plays. The first time I saw her was a couple of years ago when she was performing with The Bluebonnets, ex-Go-Go Kathy Valentine’s group. On Wednesday she was fronting her own band, The Exiles, at a Continental Club event called Garage Fest Day Party. It’s a simple guitar/guitar/bass/drums quartet with Eve handling nearly all the vocals. Together they make a tasty bluesy, garagey, early Stonesy stew.

* The Woggles at Garage Fest Day Party. This veteran garage band from Georgia specializes in
unrelenting, raw-rocking, soul-informed good-time sounds. They’ve been around since the early ’90s. They definitely look their age, and they seem a little uncomfortable in their little matching red-and-black uniforms. But all this only adds to their crazy charm. They’ve got more energy than a hundred horny teenagers, and singer Mighty Manfred takes the role of a hyped up master of ceremonies of a party that might just last forever. Manfred announced that “Karate Monkey,” a Chubby Checker song The Woggles cover, is the best dance song in the world. I was skeptical at first. And then, The Woggles removed all doubt.

Night Beats at The Mohawk. This Seattle-based psychedelic trio, which has roots in Texas, was playing all over Austin during South by Southwest, but I didn’t catch the group until late Saturday afternoon, near the end of the festival. They looked exhausted, but they managed to play an energetic set. Like many of the first-wave acid-rock groups, Night Beats fuse spacey guitar with hopped-up soul riffs. While their instrumentals hint at mind-expanding excursions, unlike your typical “jam bands,” they tend to keep their songs nice and short. The group has a new album, Who Sold My Generation, which I just ordered. Stay tuned.

Video Bonus

Here are Thee Oh Sees, same place I saw them but I think a couple of nights later.



This is from the Timmy Thomas set I saw at The Saxon


Here's "Karate Monkey" by The Woggles at the Continental Club last year



I wasn't at this show, Saturday night. But allegedly this performance got Jon Langford, playing with one of his bands, Bad Luck Jonathan, kicked out of The Saxon Pub. He's quite a lovely dancer.





Thursday, March 24, 2016

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Happy Birthday Son House

Monday was the birthday of Edward James House, Jr. of Lyon, Mississippi, better known as "Son House." He was born March 21, 1902.

House was a contemporary of of Charlie Patton, and an inspiration to Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters.

He outlived them all. House's was an archetypal hard-drinking bluesman's life, a fondness for whiskey, a stint in prison for murder. And some great, emotional songs poured out of his soul.

At the age of 25 House left behind his career as a preacher to become a blues singer. Although he's generally venerated as a founding father of the Delta blues, three times in his life House saw his career as a singer fizzle as he'd fade into obscurity for years or decades at a time.

House recorded several tunes in Wisconsin for the Paramount label in 1930.

Then he seemingly dropped out of the music biz. He didn't record again until the early 1940s. That was with Alan Lomax, wwho recorded recorded a set of songs by House for the Library of Congress.

Then House was quiet for more than 20 years. Then in 1964, he was "discovered" by record collectors (one of whom being Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson who later would help form Canned Heat) during the great folk scare.

And all of a sudden House was playing festivals, coffee houses, and college campuses and started recording again, including a live album with Alan Wilson called John The Revelator The 1970 London Session. 

The folk scene of the '60s was long dead, but Son House kept living. He kept performing until the mid '70s. Poor health forced him to retire. He was pretty much invisible until his death in Detroit in 1988.

This is embarrassing, but I just assumed he'd died sometime in the late '60s and early '70s. It's heartbreaking to think of Son House off on the sidelines, old, sick and forgotten.

But today let's celebrate the wild, sometimes even frightening music Son House left behind.

Here is a live performance of his signature tune "Death Letter Blues."



This one is aptly titled "Scary Delta Blues."



Here's an aging Son House with a young Buddy Guy



This is a color clip of a song called "Grinnin' in Your Face."



Wednesday, March 23, 2016

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Heat Up A Radio Dinner


8-Track Tape version of Radio Dinner
Back in 1972, The National Lampoon basically was the coolest magazine around. And when two of their best writers, Tony Hendra and Michael O'Donoghue set out to do a record album, it was a sure bet it would be profanity-laced, politically incorrect, downright brutal, insulting to decent people everywhere ... and funny as Hell.

My favorite tracks on the album were the parodies of the music stars of the day. Here's Hendra as John Lennon with lyrics based on Lennon's 1971 Rolling Stone interview:



I've already posted this classic "commercial" by Bob Dylan (actually Christopher Guest) in a previous Wacky Wednesday. But hat the heck, here it is again:



I met Joan Baez in a Canyon Road bar once a few decades ago, but I didn't think to ask her what she thought of this Radio Dinner song, "Pull the Tregroes" (sung by Diana Reed). And some inspired YouTuber made this fancy video to go with it.



Finally, here's one for the New Agers. Remember, you are a fluke of the Universe. You have no right to be here ...



Friday, March 18, 2016

SXSW: Blog Malfunctions


The Austin Banjo Club
AUSTIN _ Here's the good news: I've been having a great time going out to see bands and spending a lot of time with my kids and grandkids, who live in this town.
Here's the bad news: I've gotten way behind on my blogging about t he festivities surrounding SXSW. My old cronies like Chuck and Alec will scoff at this notion, as they'll remember me in years past staying up to 5 a.m. At the old Excel Inn to blog this silly stuff. I guess I'm just getting feeble in my old age.

Also, during the few scraps of time that I've had to spend on this mess has been frustrating because my iPad blog program (Blogsy) isn't cooperating with placing and arranging photos like I want them.
At one point tonight I nearly started screaming at my screen in the Study Room of Strange Brew coffee house, which would have been extremely rude. (I've never been 86ed from a coffee joint before.

Tomorrow looks like a fun and busy day. Hopefully I'll finally catch The Night Beats Saturday at noon at Whole Foods on South Lamar. And there is more after that. So I'm going to do a blog moratorium for the rest of the trip.

And you can follow me on Twitter and on Instagram
The Wackos of Waco

Thursday, March 17, 2016

SXSW Day 2

The Hickoids: America's Sweethearts
AUSTIN, TEXAS _ Hands down my musical highlight Wednesday was The midnight set of The Hickoids over at The White Horse, a nothin' fancy but welcoming joint off East 6th Street that in recent years has become one of my favorite Austin venues in recent years. And, of course, The Hickoids have become one of my chief must-see bands every time I come to Austin. Having a Santa Fe crony, guitarist Tom Trusnovic in the group helps, but I already was a casual Hickhead even before Tommy joined several years ago.

But I was a little apprehensive about seeing them last night because this would be the first show I'd see them since last year's death of original member, guitar slinger, no-shit cosmic cowboy, "The True Heart of Austin Rock 'n' Roll" and Prince of the Plaid Davy Jones.

Publicist extraordinaire Heather West and Hickoid Jeff Smith with Davy's award
Last time I saw Davy, or The Hickoids, was during the 2014 SXSW. I saw them play twice (once in San Marcos and once at the White Horse) and I watched them get formally inducted in the Austin Music Hall of Fame at the Austin Music Awards show. He was in great spirits that week and played like the maniac he was.

Last night before the White Horse show, Davy was honored again at the Austin Music Awards. He got inducted posthumously into the Hall of Fame, this time as a "solo" artist. Head Hickoids Honcho Jeff Smith was there to accept that award. He held it up on stage at the beginning of the band's set to great applause. And then the surviving Hickoids proceeded to live up to his memory.

Smith, Trusnovic, bassist Rice Moorehead and drummer Lance Farley -- along with new guitarist Cody Richardson (who also plays with The Beaumonts) bashed through some of my favorite Hickoid hits including "Git Back on The Truck," "Cool Arrow," "Working Man's Friend" and the fabulously filthy "Stop It, You're Killing Me," which put to shame anything in the Blowfly tribute set, which was on immediately before.

My son, who lives in Austin, went with me to the show, so it was heartwarming to see it through the eyes of a newcomer to the warped world of The Hickoids. (He'd seen the band once before, when they opened for Roky Erikson on New Year's Eve. But I'm so bitter and resentful for missing that show, I don't like to talk about it.)

Actually that Blowfly tribute was pretty disappointing. The main problem was it just went on way too long. I loved Blowfly, who died earlier this year, but a little of him goes a long way ...) But that set was sandwiched between two fantastic sets, The Hickoids and The Beaumonts.

I walked into the White Horse just as The Beaumonts were starting one of my favorite tunes, "Money for Drugs."

Unfortunately, we got there too late to see Churchwood and Stevie Tombstone. In my golden years I guess I'm starting to lose my schedule management abilities for SXSW ...

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

SXSW Day 1

.
A look behind Thee Oh Sees
AUSTIN, TEXAS _ As Roger Miller would say, my ears still ring from last night's show at Hotel Vegas over on East Sixth Street. The stars of Tuesday's show were Thee Oh Sees, which longtime readers of this humble blog should know is one of my favorite living bands.

This is the third time I've seen John Dwyer and his merry band. I first caught them during the 2012 South by Southwest festival in Austin before I even knew who they were, playing on a bill with The Gories and Kid Congo Powers. By the second time I saw them, a couple of years ago in Albuquerque, their album Floating Coffin was one of my favorites of that year. (It's still my favorite Oh Sees record, though they've done a couple of fine ones since.)

Of those three shows I've seen, last night's was definitely the fiercest, most aggressive and most intense. They started off on full blast warp speed and rarely eased up for the hour-plus they played. Dwyer, after putting Thee Oh Sees on a ridiculously short "hiatus" shortly after the last time I saw them, moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles and put together a new version of the group.

The band I saw last night had two drummers (which also was the case when I first saw them four years ago), a bass player and, of course Dwyer on guitar, vocals and occasional keyboards.

Oh si!
This Austin crowd was extremely fired up, immediately forming a frenzied mosh pit, which inspired a seemingly endless stream of stage-divers/crowd surfers. It was as if the early '90s never ended.


And I've got to go on the record here as a hip and swingin' rock 'n' roll grandpappy and say that this crap irritates me. I've avoided the mosh pits since that night a few years ago I nearly lost my upper plate when some dumbass mosher thought it would be cool to slam into my back. One reason I hate it so much is that the quality of my snapshots suffer when I lost my place up front and center.

But all that geezer stuff aside, this show left me grinning. Not only was the show full of fire, the crazed other-worldliness of Dwyer's musical vision -- his distorted falsetto vocals, the crazy sci-fi guitar bleeps and blorches -- cuts to the bone.

It's all on a visceral level. I couldn't actually make out any of the lyrics he was singing and I didn't recognize many of the songs until several minutes in -- and many of them, I didn't recognize at all.
But you could feel the power, that call of the weird that rock 'n' roll fans crave.

If you're in Austin right now, don't kick yourself for missing this show last night. Thee Oh Sees have taken up residency at Hotel Vegas and will be playing tonight and every night through Saturday there. (Not sure of the times though.)

One disappointment: Another favorite underground band I love, The Night Beats, also was on the bill at Hotel Vegas Tuesday. However, they played hours before I arrived, around 5 p.m. (5 p.m.? What is this, the early bird special at Denny's?) So hopefully I'll catch them somewhere later this week.

Sunday, March 13, 2016

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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Sunday, March 13, 2016
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's the playlist

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres

Accentuate the Positve / Things are Getting Better by NRBQ

Little Doll by The Stooges

I Got Eyes for You by The Gories

Ass Welt Boogie by The Bassholes

Bad Love by The Night Beats

Meat Juice Mustache by Made for Chickens by Robots

UFO, Please Take Her Home by The Coachwhips

Wild Man by The Mokkers

Romance by Wild Flag

Crazy for You by Dirtbombs

 

Dead Moon Night by Dead Moon

Voyage of the Trieste by Chocolate Watch Band

Lady Queen Bee by The Grandmothers

Bee Line by The Ugly Beats

Facebook Troll / No Xmas for John Quay by The Fall

Mean Ass Girlfriend by The Barbarellatones

Pre-St. Pat's Celebration (Celt Rock and more!)

Black and Blue by Kilmaine Saints

The Body of an American by The Pogues

Jack Dempsey by Scythian

Some Say The Divil is Dead by The Wolfe Tones

Hey What's Under Your Kilt by Celkilt

Full Moon by The Bloody Irish Boys

What's Left of the Flag by Flogging Molly

Jimmy Collins' Wake by Dropkick Murphys

Hit the Ground by Greenland Whalefishers

Whiskey Devil by The Mahones

Molly Malone by Sinead O'Connor

The Six Rat Rovers by Paddy & The Rats

Forty Deuce by Black 47

Carrickfergus by Van Morrison & The Chieftains

Substitute CLOSING THEME: Lucky Day by Tom Waits

 

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SXSW 2016: WATCH THIS BLOG

Love is in the air in Austin next week.
And The Waco Brothers will be there too

I'm headed down to Texas once again for the festivities surrounding South by Southwest. Please bookmark this blog and watch for my posts. Hopefully, if my grandsons allow it, I'll be posting ever day, starting Wednesday morning.

No, I didn't get a badge or wristband. But as any music fiend who has attended this Spring Break for the Music Industry knows, you don't need no stinking badge! There are plenty of unofficial, unsanctioned, unspeakable events to keep you thoroughly entertained.

The last time I was there, in 2014, there was a senseless, tragic crime in the streets of Austin that left four people dead (just a few blocks from where I was at the time.) A maniac named Rashad Owens plowed through Red River Street, which was full of pedestrians, leaving four people dead. this was near the Mohawk, where some musical acts I love, including X, The Black ANgels and Les Claypool were playing.

Last November a jury found Owens guilty of capital murder. Because the state didn't seek the death penalty, he received an automatic life sentence.

If anyone gives a rodent's posterior, you can find my posts from past years, going back to 2004 HERE.  And you can find a whole lot of my SXSW snapshots HERE

The bad news: No Wacky Wednesday or Throwback Thursday next week. But follow the links and catch up on some old ones.

Someone I won't be seeing next week is the late Davy Jones of The Hickoids. Davy died of cancer in November. But I bet his spirit will be there Tuesday night when Hickoids, Beaumonts, Churchwood, Stevie Tombstone and others play The White Horse.

R.I.P. Davy Jones





Friday, March 11, 2016

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

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Friday, March 11 , 2016
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens

String's Mountain Dew by Stringbean

Five Brothers by Marty Robbins

Cheatin'. Again by Whitey Morgan & The 78s

Rock my World by Jimmy & The Mustangs

Talk to Me Lonesome Heart by Miss Leslie & Her Juke Jointers

My Baby Don't Dance to Nothin' But Ernest Tubb by Junior Brown

Who Says God is Dead by Eilen Jewell

Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven by Loretta Lynn

Your Money and My Good Looks by Gene Watson & Rhonda Vincent

I Dreamed of a Hillbilly Heaven by Eddie Dean & The Frontiersmen

 

When They Found the Atomic Power by Hawkshaw Hawkins

Why Can't He Be You by Patsy Cline

Hangman's Boogie by Cowboy Copas

Wasted Mind by Danny Barnes

Fist Magnet by Bad Livers

Sympathy for the Devil by Danny Barnes

Has My Gal Been Here by Devil in a Woodpile

My Gal by Jim Kweskin's Jug Band

 

Meridian Risng/Jimmie Rodgers set

Cadillacin' by Paul Burch

Dear Old Sunny South by The Sea by Jimmie Rodgers

Waiting on a Train by Steve Forbert

California Blues by Alejandro Escovedo with Jon Langford

Whippin' the Old TB by Merle Haggard

Jimmie Rodgers' Last Blue Yodel by Jason & The Scorchers

My Blue-eyed Jane by Bob Dylan

Standing' on the Corner by Jimmie Rodgers with Louis Armstrong

Gunter Hotel Blues by Paul Burch

The Train Carrying Jimmie Rodgers Home by Iris DeMent

 

A Dark Road is a Hard Road to Travel by Ralph Stanley

Billy Dee by Kris Kristofferson

Katy Kay by Robbie Fulks

Pin in the Rope by Philip Bradatsch

Learning The Game by Leo Kottke

Happy Trails by Roy Rogers

CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


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Thursday, March 10, 2016

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: Burch Sings of Jimmie

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
March 11, 2016


You know from the first words Paul Burch sings on his new album, Meridian Rising, that this is going to have a lot more attitude than most records honoring any country-music immortals.

“Let me tell you all about the place I’m from/Where the police tip their hats while they’re swinging their clubs. … You best mind where you go and watch what you say/I’ll visit your ma, but I’m not going to stay.” 

Yes, the sweet sunny South of romantic myth juxtaposed against the oppressive reality. I knew right then I was going to love this album.

That song “Meridian” is about Meridian, Mississippi, and the album is about that town’s most famous son, Jimmie Rodgers — America’s beloved “Singing Brakeman,” often called the “father of country music.”

But Burch, a honky-tonkin’ alt-country hero for more than 20 years, swings down the club on any notion that this is anything like any Rodgers tribute you’ve heard before. (And there have been some fine ones, such as Merle Haggard’s Same Train,A Different Time, Steve Forbert’s Any Old Time, and the Bob Dylan-instigated various-artist spectacular, The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers.) For one thing, there are no actual Jimmie songs here, though most the tunes are played in the Rodgers style that blends hillbilly, blues, and jazz.

Instead of merely covering his songs, Burch tells the story of Rodgers’ life — not as a literal biography, but with songs from Rodgers’ point of view in various situations. You find Rodgers on tour like a Depression-era rock star on “US Rte 49” —  traveling, picking, drinking, womanizing. “They put me up in a house after the show/The mayor’s wife and daughter came in the back door. … Girls did alright by me but I had to leave ’em on Rte 49.”

But the stories Burch tells aren’t all fun and games. “Poor Don’t Vote” shows Rodgers’ working-class sympathy with those hit hardest by the Depression — and his anger at politicians who exploited and looked down on them. “You think you’re safe ’cause the poor don’t vote. … You’d better be kind to this rabble/’Cause if you got my vote or not may be the least of your troubles.”
Jimmie likes it

Rodgers’ death from tuberculosis at the age of thirty-five is foreshadowed in several tunes — even in the good-time “US Rte. 49,” there’s a quick road stop in a hospital.

On “Fast Fuse Blues,” the singer notes “Later’s coming earlier every day,” and makes a last request: “Take me to Coney Island, so the last thing in my eye/Is you way up on the Wonder Wheel waving me goodbye.” Indeed, Rodgers visited Coney Island the day before he died.

The beauty of these songs — the stories they tell and the emotions behind them — is that they stand on their own even if a listener knows nothing about Rodgers.

In the end, Meridian Rising makes me better appreciate both Rodgers and Paul Burch.

Also recommended

* Got Myself Together (Ten Years Later) by Danny Barnes. Banjo maniac Barnes first got famous — well, maybe not actually famous, but he achieved a certain level of underground acclaim — with the pioneering Texas alt/punk/weirdo-bluegrass outfit called Bad Livers in the 1990s.

The Livers broke up around the turn of the century after their commercially disastrous final album, Blood and Mood, basically scared and/or angered much of the Americana crowd. In my review back then I wrote, “Had Beck been raised in Mayberry as the abused stepson of Gomer Pyle …”

In other words, I loved it.

After that, Barnes left Austin for Washington State and began a solo career, sometimes collaborating with jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and even Dave Matthews — yes, that Dave Matthews — and others.

In 2005, Barnes released a record called Get Myself Together. “It was kinda my last acoustic type effort heretofore (I launched pretty heavily into my electronic period),” Barnes wrote on his website.

I’m not exactly sure why he decided to release a new version of that album, but somehow I missed the original when it came out, so I’m glad he did. (Unfortunately, he left off his bluegrass version of “Sympathy for the Devil,” which was on the 2005 album, though he does have a new version of Bad Livers’ “I’m Convicted” as a bonus track on the new one.)

Barnes does most of these tunes solo, mainly just voice and banjo. His wry lyrics and his vocal phrasing make him sound like a modern John Hartford. You can hear that in the song “Wasted Mind,” a disdainful look at some kid going nowhere fast.

“He ain’t the first boy standing round a beat-up Chevy/Want to sing like Eminem,” Barnes sings while his fingers fly around his banjo. “On a first name basis at the police station/Where you spend a lot of lonely nights/Standin’ in the line-up lights.”

Incarceration for stupidity is the theme of another highlight here, “Get Me Out of Jail.” It begins “Well, I got drunk this morning/And I went off to work/By nine or ten I cashed it in/And threw up on my shirt/Then I lost your house keys/So I broke in with a rock/I keep my OxyContin baby/Way down in my sock.”

And things get worse from there.

If you’re interested in Danny Barnes, check out this 2009 Bad Livers’ reunion show HERE.


Video Time:

Here's a live performance of "Meridian" by Paul Burch



Here's "Fast Fuse Blues"



Here's Jimmie Rodgers -- at least that's the name on the tail of his shirt. And yes, that's Louis Armstrong on the cornet and his wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong on piano.


Here's Danny Barnes singing "Get Me Out of Jail" with Mimi Naja on mandolin and drummer Tyler Thompson live in Oregon last November.



And just for old time's snake, here's "Fist Magnet," my favorite song from The Bad Livers' crazed final album, Blood & Mood






THROWBACK THURSDAY: Three Country Stars

Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas
Last Saturday, March 5, marked the 53rd anniversary of a plane crash that killed three major country stars of the day: Cowboy Copas, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Patsy Cline. It was country music's equivalent to the crash a few years before that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper

These days, everyone knows Patsy. But Copas and Hawkins are far less known.

Lloyd "Cowboy" Copas, an Ohio native first achieved stardom in the 1940s when he replaced Eddie Arnold in Pee Wee King's band. (I just played one of his hits, "Hangman's Boogie" on my latest Big Enchilada podcast.) Copas began his solo recording career King Records in Cincinnati.

That influential label in 1948 also signed long tall Harold Franklin Hawkins, better known as "Hawkshaw." Hawkins. whose wife was country singer Jean Shepard, began singing professionally after World War II. (An Army vet, Hawkins fought in the Battle of the Bulge.) Like Copas and Cline, he was a member of the Grand Old Opry.

I probably don't need to tell you about Patsy. At the time of her death she was one of the biggest stars of country music.

At the time of the crash, the three were returning from a benefit concert in Kansas City -- a show to raise money for the family of a disc jockey who had died a few months earlier. Also killed in the crash was the pilot, Randy Hughes, who was Cline's manager and Copas' father-in-law.

This story, published Saturday in The Tennessean, tells the story of the crash  and their loved ones who survived them. (Check out the video interview of Jean Shepard, who confesses to being resentful of the fact that Cline's death overshadowed that of her husband's.)

But first enjoy some music from these three country greats. We're fortunate that YouTube has live clips from all three. Here's Cowboy Copas.

 

Enjoy some Hawkshaw Hawkins:


Here's a fairly obscure -- but downright gorgeous -- Patsy Cline tune:



And finally, here's a rather maudlin tribute to Patsy, Hawkshaw and the Cowboy: "Three Country Stars" by Dick Heil





Wednesday, March 09, 2016

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Happy Birthday Yuri Gagarin

Gagarin: Space is the place

America won the Space Race. We got to the moon before anyone else did.

So there.

U.S.A! U.S.A!

But back in 1961, that outcome didn't seem so clear. That was especially true on April 12 of that year when a Soviet cosmonaut became the first person to orbit the Earth.

His name was Yuri Gagarin. And today is his birthday. He would have been 82.

Gagarin joined the Soviet Air Force in 1955. Four years later he was training to become a cosmonaut.

On April 12, 1961 in spacecraft called Vostok 1 Gagarin circled the planet at a speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour. The flight lasted 108 minutes. Unlike the American space flights that followed, Gagarin didn't land back on Earth in his spacecraft. He ejected from Vostok and parachuted to the ground.

Godless communist or not, that was pretty bitchen!

Gagarin was killed in a plane crash on March 27, 1968 -- more than a year before the U.S. moon landing. Gagarin never got to take a second trip to space.

Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin left medals on the moon honoring Gagarin and cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, who also had been killed in a plane crash. A crater on the far side of the moon was named in honor of Gagarin.

Back when I was in college, some older friends of mine in El Paso honored Gagarin by inventing a drink named after him. I don't remember what was in it. Vodka I presume. A couple of bartenders down in Juarez would serve it when you asked.

In Russia, he was honored with this song. (Sung by Eduard Labkovskiy in 1975).



A website devoted to Soviet music provided the music. (Turned into English by Google Translate --  thus the Mad Libs / song poem quality of this rendition.)

We're leaving space to work,                    
Stykuya ships in orbit,                        
And all originates from the first flight,             
Gagarin first turn around the Earth.          

The commander of the ship, bright-eyed Russian guy,      
He smile his whole universe presented.            
No, not for nothing that went first in space Yuri Gagarin,     
It is a new road has opened for us.                   


Space miracle machines                         
Explore Venus and the Moon,                          
And if it is necessary, and we take off, guys,          
Climb into outer space any new ground.          

The commander, fighting a brave man,         
With the crew will go to Mercury and Mars.          
No, not for nothing that went first in space Yuri Gagarin,     
He opened a new road for us.                   

Floats Land expanses of the universe,                
Around the Sun holds its usual path,           
And we live, humans, daring dream          
Across the Solar System to walk someday.   

The commander, son of Earth, a great guy,     
Astronauts, scientists will deliver at Pluto.           
No, not for nothing that went first in space Yuri Gagarin,     
For the future they committed feat.

I have no idea what "For the future they committed feat" means.

Whatever ... Here is a more recent Gagarin song:

Sunday, March 06, 2016

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

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Sunday, March 6, 2016
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's the playlist

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres

Burn, Baby Burn by Stud Cole

Changing Colors by The BellRays

The Witch by Los Peyotes

I'm the One by BBQ

Anala by The King Khan & BBQ Show

Smoked All My Bud by King Mud

Startin' to Slip by Sons of Hercules

Cadillac Hips by Soledad Brothers

Must Be Desire by Mojo Juju

 

Springtime for Hitler / Don't Cry For Me Argentina by Billy Joe Winghead

Shortnin' Bread by The Cramps

Jenny Take a Ride by Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels

Buzz Buzz Buzz by The Blasters

Red Hot by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs

What's the Matter Now by The Oblivions with Mr. Quintron

Shoplifter by Quintron & Miss Pussycat

Golden Surf II by Pere Ubu

 

Almost Ready by Dinosaur Jr.

Silver Monkey by Copper Gamins

Busted by The Black Keys

Betti Moretti by King Salami & The Cumberland 3

Green Sin Bags by Alex Maiorano & The Black Tales

Broken Bones & Pocket Change by St. Paul & The Broken Bones

Red Cadillac by Johnny Rawls

Wild Wild Lover by The A-Bones

Feeling Great Now She's Gone by Lynx Lynx

No Control by The Manxx

 

Albuquerque Freakout by Holy Wave

Searchin' for You by Javier Escovedo

The Hole by The Soul of John Black

My Life by Harlan T. Bobo

Bang Bang by The Gaunga Dyns

As Time Goes By by Jimmy Durante

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Friday, March 04, 2016

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

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Friday, March 4, 2016
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
Back in the Saddle Again by Charlie Daniels
Mud by Legendary Shack Shakers
My Frijoles Ain't Free Anymore by Augie Meyers
Man of the Road by Wayne Hancock
The Race is On by George Jones
There Ought to Be a Law Against Sunny California by Terry Allen
Boomtown Boogie by Butch Hancock, Terry Allen, Jo Carol Pierce & Joe Ely
Fools Fall in Love by Butch Hancock with Marce LaCouture
Heaven is the Other Way by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
Whispering Sea by Loretta Lynn

Poor Don't Vote by Paul Burch
Pretty Girl by Miss Leslie
DIYBYOB by The Waco Brothers
Rats in My Amp by Salty Pajamas
America is a Hard Religion by Robbie Fulks
The Cold Hard Facts of Life by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
Monkey Rag by Asylum Street Spankers

Beautiful Blue Eyes by Red Allen & The Kentuckians
Pick Me Up on Your Way Down by Jimmie Dale Gilmore
God Don't Never Change by Lucinda Williams
7 Devils by Goddamn Gallows
Let's Bounce by Supersuckers
Hillbilly Highway by Reagan Boggs
Need Somebody Bad by Rhonda Vincent
Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy by Red Foley

Velvet ine Matador by Freakwater
Touch of Evil by Tom Russell with Eliza Gilkyson
Blue is My Heart by Holly Williams
When I Was a Cowboy by Odetta
A Beautiful Thing by The Handsome Family
Tiny Island by Leo Kottke
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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NPR Loves a Terry Allen Song

Terry Allen at Plaza Bandstand, Aug. 19, 2009

Artist, musician and Santa Fe resident Terry Allen was honored this week when NPR featured one of his tunes on the Songs We Love segment.

The song is "Cortez Sails" from Terry's 1975 debut album Juarez. Jewly Hight of NPR writes:

 The album's longest track and gravitational center, "Cortez Sail" is a rickety waltz which pivots between whimsical road ballad and ominous war song, between Jabo's keenness to get back across the border into Mexico (homesick and ducking a double murder he'd committed in Cortez, Colorado) and 16th century conquistador Hernan Cortes's drive to brutally colonize the Aztecs. It's a dialogue between the freedom to move, to flee, to choose one's destination, and the power to dominate — or the powerlessness of being dominated.

I never can get the dadgum NPR embeds to work on this blog, so I'll just post a Youtube of the song:



No denying the majesty of "Cortez Sail." But if I were choosing the song that I love most from Juarez, it would have been this one:



Juarez is being re-released again in May, this time on a label called Paradise of Bachelors. You can pre-order HERE. The label also plans to re-release Terry's second album, Lubbock (On Everything).

Thursday, March 03, 2016

THROWBACK THURSDAY: The Sexsational World of Scopitones


Long before cable television, back in the early to mid '60s, dozens of pop and rock stars were filming hundreds of music clips for what amounted to a proto-MTV.

It was centered around a contraption, manufactured in France, called the Scopitone 450, which basically was a jukebox hooked up to a 26-inch TV set that played 16mm film clips.

The technology had been around since at least the 1940s when "Soundies" -- black and white clips played on coin-operated machines -- were briefly the next big thing in show biz.

The Scopitone machine was a huge improvement over the old Soundies model, For one thing, a customer could chose among a wide array of film clips. The clips were in color.

And best of all, as the art form evolved, most the Scopitone clips were filled with scantily-clad go-go girls whose shimmying put Sister Kate to shame! 

As this article in Broadly, a feminist section of Vice says:

... the message in these videos is clear: T&A! The in-your-face sexiness of the images is a stark contrast to the rather unsexy, often downright lame songs. To see more explicit non-static imagery, one would have had to go to the trouble of attending a peep show or tracking down a stag film. The Scopitones' absurdly enthusiastic buxom women were chosen to attract the male gaze on a small screen across a smoky bar, with the promise of a peek at more skin...in the next video.

But let's start with one of the milder ones. Debbie Reynolds' production company was responsible for many of the Scopitones. But the bump and grinding is kept to a minimum here -- though wholesome Debbie sure could work her pretty pink petticoats in this Golden Throat take on "If I Had a Hammer."


But wait, it gets wilder. Check out the bikinis and beehives in this " Pussycat a Go-Go medley by Stacy Adams & The Rockabilly Boys (no, they ain't rockabilly)



Jody Miller was best know for "Queen of the House," and answer song to Roger Miller's "King og the Road." Here she sings a George Jones song. But I don't think Possum done it this way ...



Joi Lansing, one of the queens of the Scopitones, sings one of my favorite songs from a Matt Helm movie.



And here's one in which i actually like the music. It's a song I first heard by The Searchers done by a group called George & Teddy & The Condors. And oh, yeah, there are go-go girls ...




Something was always cooking at Scopitone
(Hat tip to my friend Deborah and our mutual friend Tim for sending me down the Scopitone path.)


Wednesday, March 02, 2016

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Emanating from the Secaucus Lounge ...


'60s nostalgia has been an annoying cultural phenomenon for way too many years. In fact I'm pretty sure it's been plaguing the national imagination since sometime in the early 1970s.

But back in the late '60s, some major (and minor) rock and pop musicians were busy perpetrating a nostalgia for music from even earlier eras.

Think of songs like "Winchester Cathedral" by one-hit wonders The New Vaudeville band, or "When I'm 64" and "Honey Pie" by The Beatles.

Think of a big chunk of the repertoire of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

Like this song:



The Rolling Stones did their part in 1967 on the last track of Between the Buttons. Most folks think the lyrics of "Something Happened to Me Yesterday" are about an LSD trip, though the additional of of the woozy sax and trombone (played by Brian Jones) give the tune a whimsical British Music Hall feel.

By the last 30 seconds of the song, the whole thing has morphed into a faux dance band radio broadcast with Mick Jagger serving as the smarmy announcer,: "So from all of us to all of you, not forgetting the boys in the band and our producer Reg Thorpe, we'd like to say God bless. So if you're out tonight, don't forget, if you're on your bike, wear white ..."

Jagger has been quoted saying, "The ending is something I remember hearing on the BBC as the bombs dropped." Take a listen:



Speaking of late '60s songs framed as live radio broadcast, a singer named Guy Marks had a minor hit in 1968 with this little treasure called "Loving You Has Made Me Bananas" that sounded like a Bizarro World version of a depression-era big band dance program. An announcer (Marks himself?) starts it off:

From the Hotel Sheets in downtown Plunketville, the Publican Broadcasting Company presents the Music of Pete DeAngelis and his Loyal Plunketvillevanians. Here in the beautiful gold, yella, copper, steel, iron ballroom of the Hotel Sheets in downtown Plunketville, overlooking the uptown section of downtown Pottstown! 

Then it gets downright silly.



I'm not sure whether this song came before or after a similar recording by San Francisco psychedelic heros Moby Grape. Their album WOW, released in April 1968 had a strange song called "Just Like Gene Aurty, a Foxtrot." This was a Skip Spence composition that featured a guest musician named Arthur Godfrey (!)  I'll let Graham Reid of the Elsewhere blog tell the story:

So just before "Just Like Gene Autry: A Foxtrot" on the 33 rpm album, a voice came on and invited listeners to get up and change the speed of their player to 78 (most players at the time had speeds of 33, 45 and 78, some -- like the one in my house -- even had 16rpm).

And what you got was an orchestra lead by Wow producer Lou Waxman and introduced by famous CBS radio and television announcer Arthur Godfrey who also played banjo and ukulele on it.

"Skippy bumped into Arthur at Columbia [Records]," said band member Jerry Miller later. "The two of them were like Mutt and Jeff, cruising around arm-in-arm. The funny thing was that Arthur Godfrey thought that Gene Autry was the kind of music we did all the time."

Godfrey kicked off the proceedings:

And now, emanating from the Secaucus Lounge of the fabulous Fandango Hotel in Weehawken, New Jersey, we proudly present the celestial melodies of Lou Waxman and his Orchestra, who ask the age old musical question...

And, with Spence crooning like Guy Lombardo on Thorazine, here's what emanated:



So in conclusion, I'll let Frank Zappa have the final word:




TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

  Sunday, March 17, 2024 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM  Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Te...