Sunday, March 27, 2022

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, March 27, 2022
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
Bad Betty by The Sonics
See Me Frown by Les Grys-Grys
On Graveyard Hill by The Pixies
Take a Good Look by The Fleshtones
Groove Shelter by Xposed 4Heads
Bruges Jail Rhumba by Nesttor Donuts
Can't Seem to Make You Mine  by The Barbaraellatones
Nobody Spoil My Fun by The Seeds
I'm Not Afraid by Dead Moon
We Can Really Feel Like We're Here by Negativland

She Don't Care by Ty Segall
Divide and Conquer by Husker Du
Crashing Down by The Grawks
(Hey Mama) Wild Tchoupitoulas by The Neville Brothers with Ivan Neville, Ian Neville &  George Porter Jr.
La Rosa Enflorece by Nocturne Spark
Bunch of Losers by Thee Butchers Orchestra
Meetin' My Baby by Bloodshot Bill

Judy Belle Thompson by The Freakons
Waitress Song by Freakwater
Where Were You by The Mekons
Troubled Friends by Gogol Bordello
Crooked by Lemon Bucket Orkestra
Middle Finger by Dropkick Murphys
Moonshiner by Gary Gorence
Last Kiss by Wayne Cochran

You Gonna Miss Me by Eilen Jewell
Can't You See I'm Soulful by Eleni Mandell
Another Place I Don't Belong by Big Al Anderson
Blue Distance by Peter Case
A Mission in Life by Stan Ridgway
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Thursday, March 24, 2022

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Let's Get to Bob Bob Bobbin' Along!

 


It's officially spring -- although yesterday in Santa Fe we all woke up to a winter wonderland, which, thankfully melted by afternoon. And, during my daily walk, I actually saw a red red robin, bob bob bobbin' on a neighbor's recycling bin.

So let's help nudge our sleepyhead spring to get up, get out of bed by celebrating a song that for nearly 100 years has been synonymous with the spring, "When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along)."

This tune was written in 1926 by Tin Pan Alley's Harry Woods, who also wrote or co-wrote songs like "Paddlin' Madeline Home,"  "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover," "Side by Side," (that's the one that starts out, "Well we ain't got a barrel of money...") and "Try a Little Tenderness."

Woods' song about the bird was recorded by several singers in 1926, but Al Jolson's version is surely the best-known:


Starting in the late 1920s, "Red Red Robin" became the signature tune for actress Lillian Roth. (This recording was decades later, 1956 to be exact.):


There seemed to be a Robin revival in the '50s. For instance, Louis Armstrong took a shot at the robin in 1956...


... as Doris Day had done in 1954

But I believe my favorite version of this happy tune came even later. Texas singer Rosie Flores did this rockabilly "Robin" on a Bloodshot Records children's song compilation, The Bottle Let Me Down in 2002:


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


Sunday, March 20, 2022

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

 



Sunday, March 20, 2022
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
Red Red Robin by Rosie Flores
I'm Going Back by Les Grys-Grys
Dirt Bag Fever by Quintron
Voice in the Mirror by Thee Oh Sees
Pornography Part 1 by Mike Edison
Meow Meow by Nesttor Donuts
Kiss My Ring by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
Make It Up by Reigning Sound
You're Crazy for Taking the Bus by Jonathan Richman

Bionic Trunk by Old Time Relijun
Cream Johnny by Night Beats
Nothing Makes Me Happy by The Grawks
Do Me Do by Johnny Dowd
Gloomy Sunday by Nocturne Spark
Handful of Sand by Divine Horsemen
(There's ) No Room to Rhumba in a Sports Car by Elvis Presley

Dog is Life / Jerusalem by The Fall
Alice by Figures of Light
Vodka is Poison by Golem
Corn and Grain by The Mekons
Down by Sam Snitchy
Oak Tree Hanging by Gary Gorence
Judy in Disguise by Jello Biafra

I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day by The Pogues
Born Stupid by Paul Leary
Three on the Tree by Bigdumbhick
I Love You So by The Chantels
Feelings by Die Zorros
Goodnight Irene by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

WACKY WEDNESDAY: '70s Variety Show Beatles Covers

 


The Beatles broke up in 1970. And yet their music lived on. Why weren't they forgotten by the masses like The Dave Clark 5 or Gerry & The Pacemakers?

The answer is obvious: The stars of 1970s TV variety shows made a bold effort throughout the Me Decade to make sure Beatles songs would be remembered through time.

The Beatles may have been over and done as a band, but the tacky variety shows, which were on the rise, threw their music a necessary lifeline.

Old school variety show host Ed Sullivan might have helped launch The Beatles in 1964. But Donny & Marie and their contemporaries helped preserve the Fab 4's legacy.

Actually, even before the '70s, some variety programs displayed a sincere affinity for The Beatles' music.

For instance, this 1967 clip from the Carol Burnett Show, starring Carol along with Phyllis Diller, Gwen Verdon (best known as a dancer), and Bobbie Gentry -- all of whom grew mustaches for the occasion --  might have been the template for the variety shows that followed. 

On one hand, how cool was it, seeing Bobbie Gentry and Phyllis Diller in the same "band"? On the other hand, this reinforces a line in The Dictators' song "Who Will Save Rock 'n' Roll"

"I wish Sgt. Pepper had never taught the band to play." 

Skip ahead to 1975 and here's Cher, on her popular television program, singing a Beatles medley with Tina Turner and ... Kate Smith???????

And in 1978, Donnie & Marie were joined by none other than Kris Kristofferson for another rollicking Beatles medley.

But as far as I'm concerned, the best variety-show Beatles song was the 1970 appearance by the beautiful Juliet Prowse (hey, this lady dated both Sinatra and Elvis). She did a crazy Bollywood-style "Tomorrow Never Knows" -- one of my favorite Beatles tunes, that rarely gets covered -- on The Engelbert Humperdinck Show.

Top this, Phyllis Diller!

And if you enjoyed this post, check out the crazy Beatles covers HERE and HERE

Sunday, March 13, 2022

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, March 13, 2022
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'm Gonna Dig Up Howlin' Wolf by Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper
Evil (Is Going On) by Howlin' Wolf
Got No Friends by Gino & The Goons
Cool for Cats by Squeeze
Infeccion by Nestter Donuts
The Inhuman by The Mekons
She Asked Me, So I Told Her by T. Model Ford
Raspberry Beret by Hindu Love Gods
Why Can't We Live Together by Timmy Thomas

Isolation by Ty Segall
Two Steps Ahead by The Routes
Crime Don't Pay by King Khan Unlimited
Billy the Kid by Nocturne Spark
Silk Scarf by Johnny Dowd
Jacksonville (Part 1) by Sam Snitchy
Slanted by The Blues Against Youth
I Hope You Go to Hell by The Royal Hounds
Under Lock and Key by Gary Gorence


CHRIS ABEYTA TRIBUTE 

Besame Mucho by Chris Abeyta & Don Lovato
Flor de las Flores by Chris Abeyta & Gerry Carthy
Mi Ranchito by Chris Abeyta & Don Lovato
Santa Fe by Chris Abeyta & Gerry Carthy




STAN ROSEN TRIBUTE

Pie in the Sky by Utah Phillips & Ani DiFranco
There is Power in the Union by Bucky Halker
Bread & Roses by Si Khan, Pete Seeger & Jane Sapp
Solidarity Forever by Joe Glazer


The Body of an American by The Pogues
Tear-Stained Letter by Richard Thompson
Don't Tell Me by Joey Quinones
If I Could Only Fly by Merle Haggard
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Thursday, March 10, 2022

THROWBACK THURSDAY: It's Norman Blake's Birthday

 


Master picker Norman Blake, whose talents on guitar, dobro, mandolin, fiddle, and banjo as well as his Tennessee-soaked vocals have amazed and delighted country and bluegrass fans for decades, turns 84 today! 

Happy birthday, Norman.

Even if you don't recognize his name, if you're a fan of the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, or the classic 1972 hillbilly collaboration Will the Circle Be Unbroken -- or certain seminal records by the likes of Johnny Cash, John Hartford, Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, Steve Earle and others -- you have heard the music of Norman Blake. (I probably first heard him on Dylan's Nashville Skyline.)

Blake was born in 1938 in Chattanooga. According to a 2003 article in Vintage Guitar:

His career started when he left school at age 16 to be a professional musician. Early jobs included playing fiddle, dobro, and mandolin in country dance bands before a short stint in the Army. After serving, Norman worked with June Carter, then Johnny Cash when Cash’s regular dobro player couldn’t make a session. He stayed with Cash’s band for over 10 years.

Here is what I believe is Blake's finest moment with Cash. His dobro shines, though Cash's crazed vocal track almost makes you worry that he's going to go off the rails and start murdering his band.

Blake began his "solo" recording career (often sharing credits with his wife Nancy and other collaborators) in the early 1970s. Here are a couple of tunes from Norman or Nancy:

This is a favorite from 2001, Blake's version of an Uncle Dave Macon song, "All Go Hungry Hash House":


I looked for, but couldn't find a Youtube of Norman's "Precious Memories (Was a Song I Used to Hear)," which was written by our mutual friend and Santa Fe picker Jerry Faires. But here's that song on Spotify (I know, I know ...) by Norman & Nancy:


But this is my favorite Norman Blake song of all time, "Last Train from Poor Valley":



Sunday, March 06, 2022

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, March , 2022
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
Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats
Burn, Baby Burn by Stud Cole
Narcissist by King Khan Unlimited
Midnite Blues by Detroit Cobras
Fun Girls by Xposed 4Heads
West Yorks Ballad by The Mekons
Out for Blood by Johnny Dowd
Elephant Man by Meet Your Death

How Far Can Too Far Go by The Cramps
Like Calling Up Thunder by The Gun Club
Crypt by Night Beats
Plea by Sam Snitchy
She's Out of Control by The Barbraellatones 
I Wanna Be Yours by The Grawks
No Makeup by Sloks
Wade in Bloody Water by The Grannies

Hunter S. Thompson by Nocturne Spark
You're a Whole Different Person When You're Scared by Warren Zevon
Monkeytown by Degurutieni
The Idiot Kings by Soul Coughing
Contort Yourself by James White & The Blacks
Daystar by SRC

The Gypsy by Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs
Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye by The Casinos
Jon E. Edwards is in Love by Jon E. Edwards
Your Love is Too Cold by Bobby Oroza
Hello Stranger by Trish Toledo
I Never Had it So Good by Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Thursday, March 03, 2022

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Celebrating Jackie Brenston, Ike Turner and "Rocket 88"

 

Delta Cats: Ike Turner, left, with Jackie Brenston 

Happy birthday rock 'n' roll!

On this day, March 3, 1951,  at Memphis Recording Service -- later renamed "Sun Studios," a band called Ike Turner & His Rhythm Kings, featuring a singer named Jackie Brenston from Clarksdale, Mississippi recorded a little jump blues tune called "Rocket 88."

And what a song it was.

Writing in Time Magazine in 2004,  Jamaican-born journalist Christopher John Farley said of "Rocket 88":

Rocket 88 was brash and it was sexy; it took elements of the blues, hammered them with rhythm and attitude and electric guitar, and reimagined black music into something new. If the blues seemed to give voice to old wisdom, this new music seemed full of youthful notions. If the blues was about squeezing cathartic joy out of the bad times, this new music was about letting the good times roll. If the blues was about earthly troubles, the rock that Turner's crew created seemed to shout that the sky was now the limit. And if anyone had ever thought before that black music was just for black people, Rocket 88 undercut that tall tale — the beat was too big, the lyrics too inviting, the melody too winning, the volume too loud, for the song to be taken as anything but an invitation for all who heard it, black or white or brown or whatever, to join the party.

Sun Studios licensed the song to Chicago's Chess Records. But instead of crediting the single to Turner and his band, Chess released it under the name "Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats." This had to have pissed off Ike Turner to the max.

Besides Turner's pounding piano, Brentson's joyful vocals and 17-year-old Raymond Hill's wild tenor sax, many "Rocket 88" fans also cite Willie Kizart's distorted electric guitar as a factor that made the song so unique. 

Talking to Rolling Stone in 1986, Sun king Sam Phillips said,:

"... when Ike and them were coming up to do the session, the bass amplifier fell off the car. And when we got in the studio, the woofer had burst; the cone had burst. So I stuck the newspaper and some sack paper in it, and that’s where we got that sound."

Many scholars dispute that "Rocket 88" is the very first rock 'n' roll song. Other candidates include Roy Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight," or  Goree Carter's proto-Chuck Berry "Rock Awhile" or Sister Rosetta Tharpe's "Strange Things Happening Every Day" or other tunes. 

We'll leave that debate to grumbling academics. But even if it wasn't the first rock 'n' roll song, there's no denying "Rocket 88" is a wild joy.

Here's the song that made us all fall in love:

So why aren't we more familiar with Jackie Brenston? Not long after "Rocket 88," the singer left Turner's band to try a solo career. He never received much success, but Brenston, who died in 1979, left behind some pretty cool tunes. Here are a few of them, starting with one called "Leo the Louse":

This one is "Tuckered Out"

And from Jackie's short-lived career as a restaurant critic, (I know, I know) here's "Fat Meat is Greasy"



Oldsmobile's 1949 Rocket 88


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...