Thursday, October 29, 2020

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Ghostly Voices from the 1930s


Five years ago in my Terrell's Tune-Up column, I spotlighted an album called Halloween Classics: Songs That Scared the Bloomers Off Your Great-Grandma. Besides boasting one of the coolest subtitles in the history of the recording industry

It featured songs, mostly from the 1930s, pertaining to ghosts, corpses, dancing skeletons and other spooky subjects. (Sorry, there were no songs about vampires, werewolves or zombies in this collection.)

Here are a few of my favorites from the album. (More can be found HERE)

Let's start with a morbid little Depression-era ditty called "It Must Be Swell To Be Laying Out Dead" by Alex Bartha's Hotel Traymore Orchestra:

Here's a guy named Putney Dandridge (1902-1946) performing a song called  "Skeleton in the Closet" from 1936:

Rudy Vallee sang this 1937 tribute to Anne Boleyn, one of Henry VIII's exes, called "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm."

This one, by a band called The Prairie Ramblers, is called "Ghost in the Graveyard." It's from 1935.

Have a safe and terrifying Halloween.



Sunday, October 25, 2020

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST





Sunday, October 25, 2020
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Stand by Your Ghoul by The Cavemen
Phantom Girl by The Breakers
One Dark Day by Dave Del Monte & The Cross Country Boys
Messed Up Mary by Muck & The Mires
Wooly Bully by Hasil Adkins
Cheater Bar by Mud City Manglers
Bottle Up and Go by The Mile Ends
My Daddy is a Vampire by The Meteors
Land of Spook by Drywall
(Background Music: Night Creature by The Run-a-ways)

The Night by Alien Space Kitchen
Haunt by Roky Erikson
Ghostified by Persian Claws
Empty Airport Lounge by Assignments
Dragstrip Riot by New Bomb Turks
All I See Are Bones by Lonesome Wyatt & The Holy Spooks
I Scare Myself by Johnny Casino
(Background Music: Cemetery Stomp by The Essex)

Jonathan Toledo by The Toll 
Murder in the Graveyard by Screaming’ Lord Sutch
Jack the Ripper by Los Peyotes
Vampires and Failures by Grandpaboy
La Llorona by Kid Congo Powers & The Pink Monkeybirds
Hearse With a Curse by Mr. Gasser & The Weirdos
I Walked with a Zombie by Dead City (with Cheetah Chrome) 
(Background Music: The Spook Walks by The Spooks)

The Halloween Parade by Jack Hardy
Halloween Parade by Lou Reed
I Hear Voices by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Daniel Webster and The Devil by Big Daddy
The Ballad of Dwight Fry / Sun Arise by Alice Cooper
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Want to keep the party going after I sign off at midnight?
Go to The Big Enchilada Podcast which has hours and hours of music like this. CLICK HERE

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Wednesday, October 21, 2020

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Strolling With The Zombie


 Just a few days before Halloween, it's a good time to celebrate a ghoulishly catchy singalong written by the late Roky Erikson: "I Walked With a Zombie."

The song comes from Roky's classic horror era, when he was cranking out titles like "Bloody Hammer," "If You Have Ghosts" and "Don't Shake Me, Lucifer." (Although the original 1981 copy of The Evil One by Roky Erikson & The Aliens -- a cassette tape recording of my pal Alec's LP -- didn't have the song, subsequent CD releases do.

The title of the song comes from a 1943 movie directed by Jacques Tourneur for RKO. It's the tale of a nurse who "is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island." It's basically a rewrite of Charlotte Bronte's 1847 novel Jane Eyre. except it's set in the Caribbean.  And it's got zombies.

Here's the trailer for the movie:


Getting back to Roky's song, as I said above, this tune is a singalong. The lyrics are simple:

I walked with a zombie
I walked with a zombie
I walked with a zombie last night

It's so simple, other musicians found it easy to cover. Here are a few of those, starting with Jack Oblivian, who's leading some kind of zombie uprising on the streets of Memphis:


Mike Edison (The Raunch Hands, Edison Rocket Train, etc.) also walked with a zombie:


As did Cheetah Chrome, with the band Dead City, whose singer,  Joe Dias, took a few little liberties with the lyrics:


I hated the first cover of "Zombie" I heard. This was by R.E.M. for the 1990 Roky tribute album, Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye. Onenthing that pissed me off was when Michael went into a corny Boris Karloff imitation in one of the latter verses. When I reviewed the album for Terrell's Tune-up, I wrote something to the effect of "Michael Stipe never walked with no zombie. But Roky Erikson did."


And here's Roky's famous walk:


Have a safe and meaningful Halloween!



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

And if you like spooky music, check out the latest Big Enchilada podcast, Spooktacular 2020

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

BIG ENCHILADA 148: SPOOKTACULAR 2020

THE BIG ENCHILADA
 



Boo! Twelve years ago this month, I unleashed my very first podcast full of tacky Halloween humor, dumb audio clips and crazed ghoul-adjacent rock 'n' roll. The podcast quickly evolved into The Big Big Enchilada, and the Spooktacular became an annual monstrous tradition of terror. 

Remember, The Big Enchilada still is officially listed in the iTunes store. So go subscribe, if you haven't already (and please, gentle listeners, give me a five-star rating and review if you're so inclined.) Thanks. 

DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBE | MIXCLOUD FACEBOOK iTUNES! |


Mixcloud is now the official home of Radio Mutation

Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Satan Takes a Holiday by Anton LaVey)
The Night by Alien Space Kitchen
Ghostified by Persian Claws
Goin' to a Graveyard by The Fuzztones
Phantom Girl by The Breakers
Vampire Twist by Brave Combo
Champagne Halloween by St. Paul & The Broken Bones

(Background Music: El Vampiro by El Vampiranos)
I Hear Voices by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Shadow World by Undercover Bonobos
Wicked Wanda by The Monsters
Chillidos en la Noche by Los Eskeletos
Night of the Phantom by Larry & The Blue Notes
Land of Spook by Drywall
Ghost in My Boot by Johnny Foodstamp

(Background Music: Lost on Ghost Road by Torn Down Units)
My Daddy is a Vampire by The Meteors 
I'm Your Frankenstein by ChazDaddy
Vampires and Failures by Grandpaboy
Haunted by God by Lonesome Ghost
Stand by Your Ghoul by The Cavemen
(Background Music: It's a Scream (Halloween Mix) by Figures of Light (featuring DJ Chrisz)

Play it below:





Sunday, October 18, 2020

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, October 18, 2020
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Superbird/Tricky Dick by Country Joe & The Fish
Welcome to My Nightmare by Alice Cooper
Something to Believe In by The Woggles
Give Me the Hammer by Mud City Manglers
Make My Move by Acid Fascists
Down Home Girl by The Mummies
It Came From Beyond by The Barbarellatones
(Background Music: Let’s Go Trippin’ by Dick Dale)

She Caught the Katie by Taj Mahal
Thinking ‘bout Me by Fuzzstainz
Teenage Lobotomy by The Ramones
Problem Child by Four More
Laserbrain by The Electric Mess
What Happened to Delila? by The Mekons
Hatt Slough Bridge Deathwish Trip by TAD
Surrender My Heart by Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons
Let’s Do Wrong Tonight by Simon Stokes with with Annette Zilinskas,
(Background Music: Rokula by Los Straitjackets)

Cracklin’ Rosie by Shane MacGowan & The Popes
Non-State Actor by Soundgarden
Penetration by Iggy & The Stooges
$ I Got Money $ by Ghost Wolves
Black Diamond Express Train To Hell Part One by John Schooley & His One-Man Band
People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul by James Brown
Question of Life by Fishbone
Ya Ha Ba Be by Ana Threat 
Honey Don’t by The Beatles
(Background Music: Spooky Bongos by Beach Girls & The Monster)

How I Love You (I’m Telling’ the Birds and the Bees) by Loudon Wainwright III
I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You by Dr. John
I’m Going to Give it to Mary With Love by Cliff Edwards 
Jack, You’re Dead by B.B. King
The Meanest Jukebox in Town by Alvin Youngblood Hart
In Tall Buildings by John Hartford
I Woke Up in a Fucked Up America by Lonnie Holley
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Want to keep the party going after I sign off at midnight?
Go to The Big Enchilada Podcast which has hours and hours of music like this.

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast CLICK HERE

Friday, October 16, 2020

Jonathan Toledo, Thou Art Avenged

 


This week's destruction of the Soldier's Monument in the center of Santa Fe's Plaza after decades of controversy  (read about that HERE) reminded me of an obscure song by a forgotten band of the late 1980s.

I'm talking about a group called The Toll from Columbus, Ohio fronted by a singer named Brad Circone. The Toll's debut album was titled The Price of Progression. I reviewed it in the March 3, 1989 issue of Pasatiempo, just a couple of months after I started my music column, Terrell's Tune-up.

The song I'm talking about is "Jonathan Toledo. "It was one of three songs on the album clocking in at more than 10 minutes. But it's the one I remember most because it hit close to home.

“Jonathan Toldeo made his home in New Mexico,” Circone repeats again and again in the refrain.

When Circone starts his [spoken] narrative, the locale becomes more specific. He is apparently describing the Palace of the Governors.


“I walked myself gently across the park / The elderly Indian women, they were all lined up against the wall / And I bet the reason that they have their backs against the wall / Is because they’re afraid we’re going to stick another knife in the / And then they’d really have to fall.”

(I noted in my review that the vendors would look pretty stupid if they sat facing the wall.)

Circone then describes the museum gift shop and how wrong it is for “the culture of shambles … the culture of shame” to sell “Indian artifacts.”

He then goes across the street to the Plaza and becomes outraged by the Soldier’s Monument. In Circone's words there was an inscription that said, "This is in memory of all those white soldiers who lost their lives clearing the land for us to settle upon."

The inscription, of course didn't literally say that. However a plaque on one side of the obelisk commemorated  “heroes” who died in battle with “savage Indians.” (Of course, in the early '70s, a time in which the racist sentiment on the monument was under attack, some guy, dressed as a workman, quietly went to the Plaza one afternoon and chiseled off the word "savage." This vandal, who I've always thought of as a clever outlaw hero never was caught. And I don't believe he's ever come forward.)

Though The Price of Progression has been out of print for years, it recently became available digitally on iTunes and on Spotify.

Here's "Jonathan Toledo":


Thursday, October 15, 2020

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Songs That Taj Taught Us


As a young music dog growing up in the 1960s, I first became acquainted with great American blues artists due to the noble efforts of British rockers like The Rolling Stones and The Animals. And later my appreciation of blues from bygone eras grew deeper -- especially country blues artists -- thanks to the noble efforts of contemporary musicians like Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, better know to the free world as Taj Mahal.

Taj is still kicking at the age of 78. And some of those old songs he recorded are immortal. Here are just a few of them.

Let's start out with this Sleepy John Estes tune called "Diving Duck Blues." (Taj's version is HERE)

The opening line of the song, "If the river was whiskey and I was a diving duck" has been used in some adaptations of another song, "Hesitation Blues," (sometimes called "If the River Was Whiskey,") which Taj also covered. This is a 1930 version of that by hillbilly giant, Charlie Poole:


Taj loved Robert Johnson and covered his song "Walkin' Blues."

This probably is my favorite Taj song ever. He got it from Henry Thomas, a Texas-born bluesman who recorded it in 1928. Before I was familiar with Taj's version of "Fishing Blues," I'd already heard The Lovin' Spoonful's stab at it. Taj's version though sounded true and authentic.

And, leaving the realm of country blues, Taj did a funky version (with Linda Tillery) of R&B titan Louis Jordan's "Beans and Cornbread."



Sunday, October 11, 2020

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST





Sunday, October 11, 2020
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Hard to Be Humble by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Her House to the Way to Hell by The Tombstones
Puked to High Heaven by Mike Watt
Precious Memories by The Blasters
So Long Baby, Goodbye by Dave Alvin
Boppin’ and Shakin’ by Crazy Cavan & The Rhythm Rockers
Youngblood by The Coasters
Next Time by The Aristokatz
(Background Music: Outrageous by The Civil Tones)

I’m Crying by The Animals
Thrash City by Poly Styrene
Sick of You by Pirate Love
Flaccid is the Night by Pocket FishRmen 
Right Side of the Mind by Angry Samoans
Jenny I Read by Concrete Blonde
Drunk Tonight by The Bloody Irish Boys
What Good Can Drinkin’ Do by Martha Fields
Hot ’N’ Cold by Ray Condo 
(Background Music: Television Fission by Man Or Astroman?)

If I Should Fall from the Grace of God by The Pogues
Doing It Right by The Yawpers
Land by Patti Smith
Motorcycle Madness by Daddy Long Legs
Live Like a Dog by The Kill Spectors
Like a Monkey in the Zoo by Daniel Johnston
Fuck Off by Audrey Auld
(Background Music: 4/4 Situation by The DJ Bonebrake Trio)

It’s a Big Old Goofy World by John Prine
Sam Stone by Swamp Dogg
Harpo’s Blues by Phoebe Snow
As Teardrops Break by Dead Moon
$1,000 Car by The Handsome Family
Zoysia by The Bottle Rockets

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Want to keep the party going after I sign off at midnight?
Go to The Big Enchilada Podcast which has hours and hours of music like this.

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast CLICK HERE

Wednesday, October 07, 2020

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Songs for Buford

O.K., last Throwback Thursday I did a post in honor of of an infamous criminal, so this week, on Wacky Wednesday let's honor a legendary lawman, the late great Buford Pusser.

The corruption-busting sheriff was the hero of the film series Walking Tall. Here's what the New York Times said about him in his 1974 obituary:

Mr. Puser, elected sheriff of McNairy County in 1964, immediately started a crime‐busting clean‐up of gambling, prostitution and moonshining in the county. Often he personally smashed up gambling equipment, using a pick‐ax.

There were at least seven attempts on Mr. Pusser's life, including one in 1967 when he and his wife Pauline were driving along a country road near the town of New Hope. Their car was sprayed with 30‐caliber bullets, and Mrs. Pusser was killed.

... In addition to being shot at, Mr. Passer was knifed, beaten several times and, once, thrown from a window. He often related in kind, and in some quarters he was criticized for being too tough a law enforcement officer, tending, as one Tennessee newspaper put it, “to overkill in the pursuit of justice.”

He died in a traffic accident at the age of 36.

Not only did he inspire the movie but also several songs.

In fact, country singer Eddie Bond recorded a bunch of Buford songs, many of which are compiled on the 1973 album pictured above. Here a couple of those songs:


No bear was a match for Buford, according to Eddie Bond.


Another country singer named Dave Hall recorded this Buford tribute:


A band called State Line Mob (which also is the name of the criminal organization Pusser fought) did this tune in 2008:


The Drive-By Truckers did not one, not two, but three Buford songs on their their 2004 album (and my favorite DBT album),  The Dirty South. These include "The Boys from Alabama," "Cottonseed" and, my favorite, "The Buford Stick," sung from the perspective of a good old boy sick of the sheriff "shutting down our stills and whores."


Jimmy Buffet sang about a drunken altercation with Sheriff Pusser in his 1999 song "Semi-True Story." The inebriated Buffet had made the mistake of climbing on top of Pusser's car in a hotel parking lot in Nashville.

A walking tall sheriff and a big Cadillac
And me and golf shoes on the hood making tracks
This daring young singer was under attack


And Buford himself, when not busting up moonshine stills, wrestling bears, or beating up Jimmy Buffet , was a recording artist himself. Here's his two-part song "It Happened In Tennessee," released by a Stax Records (!) subsidiary. It was written and produced by Wayne Jackson.



Walk tall in Heaven, Buford!

Sunday, October 04, 2020

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST





Sunday, October 4, 2020
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Geraldine by Ol’ Miss Downbeats
Get Off the Road by The Cramps
The Bad Thing by The Arctic Monkeys
League Moon Monkey Mix by The Fall
Bird Brain by Kevin Coyne
Alabama’s Doomed by Wizzard Sleeve
The KKK Took My Baby Away by The Ramones
All by Yourself at Midnight by “Whispering” Jack Smith
(Background Music: Yesiree by Impala)

Messin’ Around by The Ruiners
No Panic, No Stress by The Scaners
Spook Factor by Memphis Morticians
Insane Asylum by Koko Taylor & Willie Dixon
Brains-A-Flame by Johnny Dowd with Anna Coogan
Alphabetland by X
Primitive Love by The Texreys
Shot Down by Nick Curran & The Nitelifes
I Like it Like That by Chris Kenner
Like by Jack Hammer
(Background Music: Jitterbug by Angelo Badalamenti)

King King by Joe “King” Carrasco
That Wasn’t Chicken by Dose
Dust and Dogs by Pere Ubu
Drive You Faster by John Schooley
Somebody Told Me by Little Milton
She’s a Sweet One by Junior Wells
Love My Lover by The Fleshtones
Gig by Zip & The Zippers
El Bracero y La Pachuca by Dueto Taxco
(Background Music: Yabby by The Hully Gully Boys)

Volare by The Drifting Mines
Mr. Wiggly by The Reverend Billy C. Wirtz
After the Ball by Dave Davies
I’m a Guitar King by Dion
Painting Box by The Incredible String Band
All Night Long by Junior Kimbrough
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page


Want to keep the party going after I sign off at midnight?
Go to The Big Enchilada Podcast which has hours and hours of music like this.

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast CLICK HERE





Thursday, October 01, 2020

Happy Birthday, Bonnie Parker

 


Bonnie Elizabeth Parker, one half of the infamous Depression-era couple known as Bonnie & Clyde, would have been 110 years old today.

Happy birthday, Bonnie.

However, this Texas girl never even lived to see the age of 24. She and Clyde Barrow were gunned down by police near Sailes, Louisiana in May 1934 following a multi-state armed robbery spree.

From the FBI website:

At the time they were killed in 1934, they were believed to have committed 13 murders and several robberies and burglaries. Barrow, for example, was suspected of murdering two police officers at Joplin, Missouri and kidnapping a man and a woman in rural Louisiana. He released them near Waldo, Texas. Numerous sightings followed, linking this pair with bank robberies and automobile thefts. Clyde allegedly murdered a man at Hillsboro, Texas; committed robberies at Lufkin and Dallas, Texas; murdered one sheriff and wounded another at Stringtown, Oklahoma; kidnaped a deputy at Carlsbad, New Mexico; stole an automobile at Victoria, Texas; attempted to murder a deputy at Wharton, Texas; committed murder and robbery at Abilene and Sherman, Texas; committed murder at Dallas, Texas; abducted a sheriff and the chief of police at Wellington, Texas; and committed murder at Joplin and Columbia, Missouri.

While they weren't as well known as John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson or other famed outlaws of their day, more than 30 years after their killings, Parker & Barrow became tragic romantic figures thanks to the Academy Award winning Arthur Penn film Bonnie & Clyde, which starred Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty. 

And the phenomenal success of that movie sparked several songs.

This dorky little tune by British Invasion rocker (and future Van Morrison sideman) Georgie Fame was a top 10 hit in 1967: 

Merle Haggard released his take on the outlaw couple in 1968:


Bluegrass giants Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs provided the soundtrack to Penn's movie, with their instrumental "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" becoming a crossover hit. In 1968 the duo released a bluegrass "concept" album called The Story of Bonnie & Clyde. Tom T. Hall wrote lyrics to this song and several others on the album.


Jazz singer Mel Torme got in on the action in 1968:

And beyond America's shores, Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot (!!!!!) released this song in 1967.


Just last year, a Danish band called Volbeat did a schlock-rock tune called "The Awakening of Bonnie Parker" featuring lyrics like "Dear Clyde, I'm waiting for you / Now wake up my love/ Our time has come to shine ..."



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...