Wednesday, April 28, 2021

WACKY WEDNESDAY:A Mocking Bird Birthday Salute to Harper Lee

 


In Monroeville, Alabama on this day in 1926 Nelle Harper Lee was born. She grew up to become one of the best known and most respected novelists of the 20th Century, mainly due to some book about mockingbirds.

So in honor of Ms. Lee, who died in 2016, here's a musical mocking bird salute!

First here's a well-known tune by Inez & Charlie Foxx, a brother and sister team from North Carolina, who released this in 1963, three years after Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird.


Fans of The Three Stooges or Heckle & Jeckle should recognize this next one. "Listen to the Mockingbird, composed in 1855 with lyrics by Septimus Winner (under the pseudonym "Alice Hawthorne") and music by Richard Milburn, was a pop smash during the American Civil War.

Zooming ahead to the late 1980s, the duo House of Freaks did this song on their wonderful album Tantilla.

Country singer Pam Tillis twisted the title of Lee's famous book in 1995 for this sweet song of barroom violence:


Finally, here's a version of the Inez & Charlie hit performed in 1968  by Dusty Springfield and Jimi Hendrix (I'm not kidding!) on British TV.



Tuesday, April 27, 2021

CHICKEN SHACK PLAYLIST




Tuesday,  April 27,  2021
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays Mountain Time
Substitute Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

Little Chicken Wah Wah by Huey "Piano" Smith
Wild Wild Young Men by Ruth Brown
Sock it To Me Baby by James Carr
Love Me Right by Lavern Baker
Five Guys Named Moe by Louis Jordan
Mr. Kicks by Oscar Brown, Jr.
Angel of Mercy by Albert King
Please Come Home by Esquerita

Mighty Mighty Man by Roy Brown
Big Fat Mama by Roy Milton
That Old Black Magic by Louis Prima & Keely Smith 
Chocolate Pork Chop Man by Pete "Guitar" Lewis
Chills and Fever by Ronnie Love
Rattlesnake, Baby, Rattlesnake by Joe Johnson
Wonderful Girl by Jack Mack & The Heart Attack
That's Life by Big Maybelle
Sam Stone by Swamp Dogg

Drill Daddy Drill by Dorothy Ellis
Baby Sister by The Mighty Hannibal
I'm Shakin' by Little Willie John
Grits Ain't Groceries by Little Milton
I'm Busted by Ray Charles with The Count Basie Orchestra
Cry Me a River by Bette Lavette 
Shake a Tail Feather by The Five Du-Tones
Treme by Jon Boutte
Laughin' and Clownin' by Sam Cooke

The Planet by Gary Bartz & Ntu Troop
Loch Loman by The Rockets
Turn On Your Love Light by Bobby "Blue" Bland
Cadillac Boogie by Jimmy Liggins
I Got the Feeling  by Sharon Jones
Take It Or Leave It  by Lee Fields
You've Got to Lose by Jackie Brentson

Tune into   Terrell's Sound World, 10 p.m. Sundays on KSFR, 10 p.m. Sundays on KSFR
  Discover The Big Enchilada Podcast   RIGHT HERE!

Sunday, April 25, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, April 25, 2021
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
I Appeared to The Madonna byThe Devils
Oval Room by The Ghost Wolves
Dirty Hustlin' by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
I Met the Stones by Dinosaur Jr.
Kool Thing by Sonic Youth
Crazy to the Bone by Dead Moon
Human Lawn Dart by James Leg
La Mula Bronca by Al Hurricane

St. James Infirmary by Billy Lee Riley
I Don't Like the Man I Am by The William Loveday Intention
I Got a Fever by X
Girl from Outer Space by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Elks Lodge Blues by The Gears
Shake a Tail Feather by Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels
Wild Wild Wild by Linda Gail Lewis & Robbie Fulks
Ouija Board Lies by L7
These Boots Were Made for Walking by The Meteors
Lightning's Girl by The Diamond Roads

Pinball Machine by The Fall
Dusty Bibles and Silver Spoons by The Bloodhounds
Bullet Proof by Black Smokers
Early Roman Kings by Peter Case
Sharkskin Suit by Wayne Kramer
Teenagers Don't Know Shit by Quintron & Miss Pussycat
Feeding Frenzy by Faux Ferocious 
Remember (Walkin' In the Sand) by The Shangri-Las

Low and Slow by Harvey McLaughlin
Rattlesnake Shakin' Woman by Ray Wylie Hubbard with Larkin Poe
Loathsome Whistle by Nick Shoulders
Hang Me Oh Hang Me by Dave Van Ronk
Tumblin' Tumbleweeds by Michael Nesmith
Man Walks Among Us by Dave Alvin
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Go to The Big Enchilada Podcast which has hours and hours of music like this. CLICK HERE

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Thursday, April 22, 2021

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Happy Birthday John Waters!

 


Today is the 75th birthday of the Pope of Trash, the Prince of Puke, the most venerated Filth Elder alive, John Waters.

It's never easy to explain to those not familiar with this Baltimore filmmaker, just who the man is and why his work deserves the acclaim it's received. Just go over to Youtube and look for interviews with Waters. If you're not a fan within a couple of minutes, maybe just move on.

One thing I've always loved about Waters is his musical tastes. From sickly sweet '50s pop to crazed R&B to all sorts of sonic trash, Waters has a knack of using music that richly enhances the weirdest and most hilarious moments in his films.

So here's a musical tribute for Mr. Waters on his birthday.

In his first feature-length film, Mondo Trasho (1969) Waters used several Little Richard songs, including "Long Tall Sally."


Waters used this jolt of saccharine by Patti Page in a notorious scene involving the incomparable Divine and dog doo doo.



Here's the title track of Waters' 1974 classic Female Trouble, sung by Divine: 

The theme from 1981's  Polyester sung by Tab Hunter (background vocals by Debbie Harry, who co-wrote the song with husband Chris Stein):

Waters' Hairspray (1988) included not one but two songs by Dee Dee Sharp. Here's one of them:


Waters doesn't use a lot of country music in his soundtracks, but he admits he's become a hillbilly music fan in his old age. For a look at Waters-approved country CLICK HERE. He used this song, by Roger Miller soundalike Leroy Pullens in Pecker (1998). 




Sunday, April 18, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, April 18, 2021
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
Thunder on the Mountain by Wanda Jackson
Oofty Goofty (Wild Man from Borneo) by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
Still in Hollywood by Concrete Blonde
She Looks Like a Woman by The Fleshtones 
Too Political by The Dicks
The Beat Goes on by The Pretty Things
In This Rubber Tomb by Mudhoney
Swing Low Sweet Chariot by Homer Henderson

Rattle Can by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Highway 61 Revisited by Dave Alvin
Beat Generation by The Beat Farmers
Sceptre by Sleeve Cannon
Burn She-Devil, Burn by The Cramps
That Kind of Man by The Syndicate of Sound
Yankin' My Chain by Joe "King" Carrasco
Pay Your Rates by The Fall
Skull and Crossbones by Sparkle Moore

What Kind of Girl Do You Think We Are / Bwana Dik / Latex Solar Beef by Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention
Funnel of Love by T. Tex Edwards
Televangelist by Nots
Stay Out of It by Kathy Freeman
Aha by Honshu Wolves
Can't Delete Nightmares by Degurutieni
Little Chicken Wah Wah by Huey "Piano" Smith
Endless Sleep by Jody Reynolds

Little Red Rooster by Big Mama Thornton
They Don't Rob the Trains Anymore by Ronny Elliott
One Night of Sin by Southern Culture on the Skids
Lucky and Alone by Rachel Brooke
I Love You Truly by Peter Stampfel
A Mission in Life by Stan Ridgway
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. CLICK HERE

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast CLICK HERE

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Golden Throats Strike Again!

 


It's been more than a year since I dedicated a Wacky Wednesday to the Golden Throats.

Well, friend, that's too long!

What's a "Golden Throat?" you might ask. As I've said before:

Back in the '80s and '90s, when Rhino Records was actually a cool label, they released a series of albums called Golden Throats. These nutball compilations featured movie and TV stars, sports heroes and every stripe of cheesy celebrity singing ham-fisted versions of songs they had no business singing. Pop tunes, rock 'n' roll hits, country song, whatever. Nothing was sacred and nothing was safe from the Golden Throats. 

 Because of the exposure from the Rhino series, some of these unintentionally hilarious songsters became notorious and ironically hip. Think William Shatner -- the Elvis of the Golden Throats! -- and his over-the-top renditions of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Mr. Tambourine Man."

So, let's start today with Mamie Van Doren dissing the beatniks, as only Mamie could:

Another singing blonde bombshell of the mid 20th Century was Jayne Mansfield.  Although her vocal talent wasn't her best-known attribute, it might not be fair to label her as a "Golden Throat." She was a classically trained violinist and pianist and she actually could sing. 

Jack Nicholson sings "La Vie En Rose" in the 2003 movie Something's Gotta Give."


Super model -- but not so super singer -- Naomi Campbell meets T Rex


Finally, here are William Frawley and Vivian Vance -- who portrayed the beloved Fred & Ethel Mertz in I Love Lucy -- as OG Golden Throats in 1953. (Sorry, the person who posted this doesn't allow embeds. You have to click on "Watch on YouTube" in lower right corner.)

More Golden Throat action HERE, HERE and HERE


Sunday, April 11, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, April 11 , 2021
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
Louie Louie by Richard Berry & The Pharaohs 
Pills by Bo Diddley
Cosmic Thing by The B52s
Foot in Mouth by The Routes
New Socks by MFC Chicken
I'm on the Dish But I Ain't No Rag by The Toy Trucks
Miss Muerte by The Flesheaters
Fixin' to Crawl by Churchwood
There's a New Sound by Tony Burrello

Hell on Earth by James Chance
27 Devils by REQ'D
Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely by Husker Du
Stuck Here Again by L7
Porno for Pyros by Porno for Pyros
I Fought the Law by Bobby Fuller Four


The Glory of Love by The Five Keys
Count Every Star by The Ravens
Native Girl by The Native Boys
Betty My Love by The Cadillacs
Later That Night by Ruben & The Jets
Memories of El Monte by The Calvanes
Earth Angel by The Penguins
Amazons and Coyotes by The Dreamlovers
Life is But a Dream by The Harptones

Over the Mountain, Across the Sea by Johnnie & Joe
Sorry (I Ran All the Way Home) by The Impalas
A Lover's Prayer by Dion & The Belmonts
Since I Don't Have You by The Skyliners
What's Your Name by Don & Juan
My True Story by The Jive Five
Gee by The Crows
We Belong Together by Robert & Johnny
Daddy's Home by Shep & The Limelighters
Goodnight My Love by Jesse Belvin
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. CLICK HERE

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast CLICK HERE

Thursday, April 08, 2021

THROWBACK THURSDAY: The Glory of Doo Wop


About a week ago I got in a discussion on Facebook with my friend Max about the magic of doo wop. I sent him a link to an old piece I wrote in 1994 about meeting Gaynel Hodge in Phoenix the night before that year's Lollapalooza (re-published on this blog a mere 17 years ago). 

Afterwards I remembered that just a few months before encountering Gaynel, I'd written a Terrell's Tune-up column about a wonderful Rhino Records box set that collected four CDs worth worth of doo wop classics.

So what the heck? Here's that column, which hasn't been published since its original appearance in the Santa Fe New Mexican's Pasatiempo. I'll insert a few videos and links.

TERRELL'S TUNE-UP

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican 
May 27, 1994

Like most folks my age, I first became cognizant of doo wop music in the late 1960s through such comedy groups as Sha Na Na and Frank Zappa's Ruben and The Jets.

In other words, for years, doo wop seemed like a quaint joke. Ram a lama ding dong. You, know, stuff like that.

But one night last winter I was driving alone on a rainy night, listening, for reasons I don't remember, to an oldies station, which happened to play “I Only Have Eyes for You” by The Flamingos.

There's a strumming of three guitar chords, followed by the steady beat of a piano. Singer Tommy Hunt comes in singing effortlessly,  My love must be a kind of blind love/I can't see anyone but you , as if he's got to justify what he has to say.

Then the group responds with unintelligible, almost discordant syllables, like some kind of eerie voodoo chant. All this before Hunt starts the first verse, invoking celestial bodies.

By the end of the song, all five Flamingos are gushing the beautiful melody, the falsetto going nuts as if possessed by the loa  of high register. It almost seems that the group is having the aural equivalent of a simultaneous orgasm, right there in the echo chamber.

But way before the song got to this point on that rainy Santa Fe night, I was transported into the past, reliving a buried memory of being a 5-year-old kid, listening to a radio late at night to a sound that was alluring and forbidding at the same time, just like Lou Reed's Jenny.

Or just like Paul Simon's “Rene and Georgette Magritte”:

The Penguins, The Moonglows, The Orioles, The Five Satins/The deep, forbidden music they'd be longing for ...

And, as if by magic, just a couple of weeks later Rhino Records announced its new four-disc Doo Wop Box.  

In recent years, with all-oldies radio, recurring '50s revivals and all, much of the mystery and power has been sapped out of this strange and wonderful music.

Therefore, it is best to look at Rhino's Doo Wop Box with the eyes of Rene and Georgette, wide-eyed immigrants entering a new world, where almost every song is an adventure. Even overly familiar tunes,  “16 Candles,” “Only You,” “Earth Angel,” regain some of their magic if listened to in this spirit.

Listening to the four hours-plus of music in this collection, one realizes there are definite traits of the doo wop Universe.

Sometime it seems like a world in which every utterance, every movement is painstakingly planned, every harmony in place. But, then, before your very ears, it will seem to break down into near anarchy, a falsetto screaming like a banshee, the bass man grunting noises that seem to come from deep within the earth.  

There's an underlying religious atmosphere. Although God is rarely mentioned after The Orioles' “Crying in the Chapel.”

But there's all sorts of holy imagery here, “Earth Angel,” “The Book of Love,” “The 10 Commandments of Love,” “Devil or Angel.”

There's also evidence of nature worship. For instance, Dion asks the stars up above why it hurts to be a teen-ager in love.

Doo wop singers tend to give themselves mythic powers. They always are willing to climb the highest mountain and swim the deepest sea.

And sometimes a group almost will prove itself to be superhuman with songs that are downright transcendental.

There's  “My True Story” by a Brooklyn group called The Jive Five. The sad little love story of Earl and Sue might seem lethally corny under any other context. But, when Eugene Pitts wails,  “And you will cry cryyyyyyy cryyyyyyyyy ...” any listener who ever has had his heart ripped out will know this is the real thing.

Then there's “Since I Don't Have You” by The Skyliners, a white group from Pittsburgh. Forget about Axl Rose's limp cover. He's outgunned by Jimmy Beaumont who by the end of the song shouts “You-ooh! You-oooh! You-oooooh!”  like a wounded accuser while Janet Vogel sings a near aria like a siren of the cosmos in the background. [Note from 2021: I'm not sure why The Skyliners, in this 1959 TV appearance are dressed up like they're serenading Marshal Dillon and Miss Kitty at the Longbranch Saloon!]

Despite some self-conscious goofery here and there, the most appealing thing about doo wop is its sincerity. When Johnny Maestro (now there's a rock 'n' roll moniker!) of The Crests sings, “You are the prettiest, loveliest girl I've ever seen,” to his 16-year-old birthday girl, you know he means every word. And because of the forceful way he sings it, a listener will believe Maestro will feel that way about his sweetie for the rest of his life.  

Sometimes simple sincerity seems magical in a jaded world.

xxx

Here's Johnny Maestro & The Crests with their big hit. No Matt Gaetz jokes, please.



Don't worry, Ruben. I still love you

Tuesday, April 06, 2021

Chicken Shack Playlist




Tuesday, April 6, 2021
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays Mountain Time
Substitute Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :
(Background Music: Back at the Chicken Shack by Jimmy Smith)
Honey Hush by Big Joe Turner
Sittin' on it All the Time by Wynonie Harris
Drunk by Jimmy Liggins
Watermelon Man by Johnnie Taylor
Party Town by Bobby Charles
Foolin' Myself by Billie Holiday with Teddy Wilson
Hang It Up by King Coleman
High Blood Pressure by The Marathons
(Background Music Back at the Chicken Shack by Charlie Musselwhite)

Total Destruction of your Mind by Swamp Dogg
Crazy Lover by Richard Berry
I Smell Trouble by Ike & Tina Turner
I'll Go Crazy by James Brown
Jivin' Around by Andre Williams
Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens by Louis Jordan
Chicken Shack Boogie by The Five Scamps
(Background Music Back at the Chicken Shack by Robert Cray)

Reefer Madness Set 

Light Up by Buster Bailey
Feelin' High and Happy by Hot Lips Paige
Jack, I'm Mellow by Trixie Smith
Marihuana Boogie by Lalo Guerro
Save the Roach for Me by Buck Washington
Reefer Head Woman by Jazz Gillum
Weed Smoker's Dream by The Harlem Hamfats
Lotus Blossom (Sweet Marijuana) by Julia Lee & Her Boyfriends
If You're a Viper by Fats Waller
The G Man Got the T Man by Jack McVea
The Man from Harlem by Cab Calloway
Dopey Joe by Slim & Slam
All the Jive is Gone by Andy Kirk & His 12 Clouds of Joy
(Background Music Blue Reefer Blues by Richard M. Jones)

Muck Muck by Yochanan with Sun Ra
Unchained Melody by Golden Group Melodies
She's My Soul by Little Isidore  & The Inquisitors
Let's Make Love Tonight by Earl Williams
36-22-36 by Bobby "Blue" Bland
Don't Get Around Much Anymore by Mose Allison








Tune into Terrell's Sound World, 10 p.m. Sundays on KSFR
Discover The Big Enchilada Podcast RIGHT HERE!


Sunday, April 04, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, April 4 , 2021
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
It's All  Going to Pot by Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard & Jamey Johnson
Marijuana Logic by Pocket Fishrmen
Marijuana, The Devil's Flower by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Run Through the Jungle by The Gun Club
Into the Drink by Mudhoney
Move It by T. Tex Edwards
Lipstick Frenzy by Lovestruck
Touch and Go by The Fleshtones
Ring Dang Do by Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs
Can Your Pussy Do the Dog by The Cramps
Peter Cottontail by The Bubbadinos

Haint Blue by Churchwood
Git Back in the Truck by The Hickoids
That's Alright with Me by Knoxville Girls
Graveyard Chicks Are Easy by The Dead Beat Jacks
Call Me by Southern Culture on the Skids
Can't Push a River by Joe "King" Carrasco

Blink of an Eye by The Routes
How Low Do You Feel by Ray Campi
Switchin' Gears by Bloodshot Bill
Trapped in a Nightmare by Simon Stokes & Hammerlock
Break a Guitar by Ty Segall
Dancing on my Knees by The Yawpers
Night of the Meek by Imperial Wax
Julie's Sixteenth Birthday by John Bult

Sonny Boy by Randy Newman
Good Morning Little School Girl by Sonny Boy Williamson (John Lee Curtis)
Fattening Frogs for Snakes by  Sonny Boy Williamson (Rice Miller)
I'll Be All Smiles Tonight by Loretta Lynn
When I Was a Cowboy by Peter Case
Cajun Stripper by Doug Kershaw
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. CLICK HERE

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast CLICK HERE

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...