Friday, January 22, 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
Pelican Bay by Peter Case
Church on a Saturday Night by Artie Hill & The Long Gone Daddies
Cry Baby Cry by Banditos
Looking at the World Through a Windshield by Bill Kirchen
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican January 22, 2015
The life of Jimmy Ellis of Orrville, Alabama, is one of the greatest oddball rock ’n’ roll stories of all time. You probably aren’t familiar with the name of Jimmy Ellis. How about his stage name — Orion? Not familiar with that either? Well, no matter. If you like true-life bizarre tales from the sleazy side of rock, you’ll enjoy the documentary Orion: The Man Who Would Be King. Ellis was born in 1945. He had an amazing gift — a singing voice nearly indistinguishable from that of Elvis Presley. But, as the movie by Jeanie Finlay explains, when Ellis moved to Los Angeles in the early ’70s to pursue a musical career, what he first saw as a blessing turned out to be a curse. No label of any size wanted to sign him precisely because he sounded so much like Elvis. At one point, after Presley died, Ellis released a single called “I’m Not Trying to Be Like Elvis” — but nobody was convinced. It was after this that things started getting strange. A novelist named Gail Brewer-Giorgio had written a book about a Presleyesque singer called Orion who had faked his own death to escape the pressures of fame. She was looking for someone to sing Orion’s parts for a never-made movie version of her book. She met Ellis through a mutual friend. Shelby Singleton got wind of the project and of the amazing singer Ellis. Singleton, a wheeling-dealing huckster on par with Col. Tom Parker himself, had purchased Sun Records — the company that launched Elvis’ career — from Sam Phillips.
You want an album cover with good taste
or one that tastes good?
Singleton first had Ellis record a vocal track over an old Jerry Lee Lewis song, “Save the Last Dance for Me,” and released it as a single by "Jerry Lee Lewis & Friends." Similar duets came out on classic old Sun Records tracks by Carl Perkins and Charlie Rich — tracks that the real Elvis had nothing to do with. The way I see it, Singleton should have been arrested for desecrating historic monuments.
Then Brewer-Giorgio’s Orion came to life. Under Singleton’s direction, Ellis donned gaudy jumpsuits and colorful Lone Ranger-style masks and went on the road. His first album had a cartoon of Orion ascending from a casket, but that tasteful idea went out the window after retailers objected. The album cover lifted text from the Orion novel (the documentary reveals that Brewer-Giorgio never got paid for it). Many gullible Elvis fans actually believed that Orion was the King in disguise. And the Singleton-era incarnation of Sun Records, of course, did nothing to discourage the strange belief. At first Ellis basked in the dedication of his fans, which, according to the film, included a number of attractive females eager to offer themselves to the masked man. But as the record and concert ticket sales declined, he grew tired of the masquerade. In 1983, he tore off his mask, which proved to be a deal-breaker for Singleton. Sun Records dumped him, and Ellis’ career took a nose-dive. After trying a number of different names and personas, Ellis eventually went back to the mask. But the latter-day Orion failed to capture the old fire. Finlay tells the story through interviews with Ellis’ friends, family (including Ellis’ son), side musicians, and others. Brewer-Giorgio gets a lot of time. She spent much of her career writing nonfiction books, pushing the idea that Presley, like her fictional Orion, faked his own death. If Finlay mentions this in the film, I must have missed it when I blinked.
Orion with Kiss
Best of all, there is generous live footage of Ellis/Orion performances. And there is a still photo of Orion with members of KISS. Apparently they performed on the same bill in Europe in the early ’80s. Orion was a man haunted by hucksters. And unfortunately, Finlay engages in a little hucksterism of her own. Near the end of the film, she implies there might be a genetic reason Ellis sounded so much like Presley. Ellis was adopted, you see, and the only name for his father on his birth certificate was “Vernon,” just like … just like ... But mostly, Finlay brings real dignity to the life of a man who previously has been dismissed as merely a weird musical joke. Orion: The Man Who Would Be King opens at the Jean Cocteau Cinema (418 Montezuma Ave., 505-466-5528) on Friday, Jan. 22. Also recommended
There’s another cool music documentary opening in Santa Fe this week — The Winding Stream, directed by Beth Harrington. This one is the story of the Carter Family, that venerated clan from Virginia often credited as the originators of what has come to be known as country music. The bulk of the film focuses on the original group: A.P. Carter, his wife, Sara, and his sister-in-law Maybelle. No, the Carters didn’t invent country music, but they were the first hillbilly vocal group to achieve widespread popularity. And A.P.’s determination to collect and record the songs of the mountains helped ensure the endurance of this music. Making a case for the importance of the Carter Family is not a major undertaking. Just on the strength of their most famous songs — “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” “Keep on the Sunny Side,” “Wildwood Flower,” and others — their reputation would be set in stone. Harrington’s real task was making them seem human. Sara, the main singer of the original group, had a voice that seemed resigned and weary. Unlike the songs of their chief contemporary, Jimmie Rodgers, the Carters’ tunes rarely, if ever, show any humor. Photos of Sara and A.P. always remind me of Grant Wood’s American Gothic. (Maybelle Carter, who kept performing with her daughters for decades, including a stint with her son-in-law, Johnny Cash, never had a problem seeming warm and human.) Through interviews with various Carter descendants, Harrington brings warmth and depth to those stony icons, A.P. and Sara Carter. And that helps you appreciate the classic songs even more. And the doc is full of wonderful music including archival footage plus more contemporary versions of Carter songs by the likes of George Jones, John Prine, Roseanne Cash, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Grey DeLisle & Murray Hammond and others.
Clutch Cargo
One quibble: There is little footage of the original Carters performing. Harrington tried to bring some of the songs to life by animating still photos. Unfortunately this process looks like some modern-day Clutch Cargo cartoon, more bizarre than illuminating. The Winding Stream opens at The Screen (Santa Fe University of Art & Design, 1600 St. Michael’s Drive, 505-473-6494) on Friday, Jan. 22.
Enjoy some videos: Here is the official trailer for the Orion movie
Here is Jimmy Ellis' best-known pre-Orion hit
Here is the trailer for The Winding Stream
This duet featuring Anita Carter and Hank Williams is in the movie
On this Throwback Thursday I want to just present various versions of a strangely alluring song that I came to through Dion & The Belmonts. The lush harmonies, the greasy sax, the mysterious, almost mystical lyrics of deja vu ("The clothes you're wearing are the clothes you wore / The smile you are smiling you were smiling then, /But I can't remember where or when...") How could anyone resist? It might be the ultimate late 50s/early 60s makeout song. Here is Dion and the boys. Try to disregard the screaming teenage girls.
When I first heard it, there was something about "Where or When" that told me this was older than rock 'n' old. But actually the song is not much more than 20 years older than Dion's version. It was written by that great American songwriting team of Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart for a 1937 Broadway production called Babes in Arms. That's a musical that included other Rodgers & Hart classic like "The Lady is a Tramp" and "My Funny Valentine." Actors Ray Heatherton and Mitzi Green sang "Where or When." Here's a recording by Heatherton.
In 1939, Babes in Arms was turned into a Busby Berkely musical starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. (The script was radically rewritten and most the Rodgers & Hart score was tossed -- though "Where and When" survived. Here is a scene where it was sung by Douglas McPhail, Betty Jaynes and Garland -- with some musical criticism by Rooney.
Miss Peggy Lee did a cool, sultry version in 1941. Like the Heatherton version, the vocals don't start until about half way through.) The song became a Rat Pack favorite. Sinatra sang it and so did Sammy. But I dig this swingin' version by Dino on his mid '60 TV show.
If you want to get an accurate portrait of mental health problems and psychiatric institutions, don't go looking at popular songs about the subject.
The following tunes aren't exactly what you'd call enlightened. Most of them are based on cruel stereotypes and weird assumptions about psychological problems.
So if you don't like dark humor, just consider this a historical look at old attitudes.
And please don't call the men with the butterfly nets.
Let's start with a jazzy classic, "Twisted" by Annie Ross, which I first came to by way of Joni Mitchell (whose version on Court & Spark included a cameo from Cheech & Chong.) But I prefer this video of Annie on Playboy's Penthouse backed by Count Basie.
"Insane Asylum" is a classic blues duet of Willie Dixon and Koko Taylor.
Behold a live performance of my very favorite Alice cooper song: "The Ballad of Dwight Fry."
Here's a song my crony Gregg Turner originally performed with The Angry Samoans, This is a more recent version of "I Lost My Mind."
Turner's actually the one who turned me on this next song more than 20 years ago. He said he first heard it done by Elvis Costello. But it was written by country giant Leon Payne, best known for writing "Lost Highway" for Hank Williams. This version is by country singer Eddie Noack.
But the major country classic of craziness is Porter Wagoner's somewhat autobiographical "The Rubber Room."
On his final studio album, 2007's Wagonmaster, Porter revisited his "rubber room" days with this moving song, "Committed to Parkview," which was written by Johnny Cash.
My favorite madhouse music in the realm of hip hop is The Geto Boys' "My Mind's Playing Tricks on Me."
Bo Diddley is CRAZY!
Finally some of you longtime readers probably expected me to include Napoleon XIV's mid '60s smash "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Ha" in a blog post about loony-bin songs.
But that's just too predictable. Instead, let's flip out and play the flip-side of that hit record, one I've never hear played on the radio. It's called "Aaaaah-aah Yawa em Ekat ot Gnimoc Re'yeht," which is "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Ha" played backward. Caution: You might hear the voice of Satan in this early example of backward masking.
Sunday, January 17, 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
Monkey Song by The Big Bopper
Parchment Farm by Dead Moon
The Lover's Curse by The A-Bombs
Which End is Up by Miriam
Ice Queen by JJ & The Real Jerks
Arthur's Hooked by King Mud
Nerja' sawa (نرجع سوا ) by Mazhot
Don't Tease Me by Question Mark & The Mysterians
Smack My Bitch Up by Richard Cheese
I Wish You Would by David Bowie
Starman by Dewy Cox
Blackstar by David Bowie
Beaujolais by Javier Escovedo
Call the Police by The Oblivians
Hello Mabel by The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band
A Long Journey by Leo Welch
I Got a Razor by Memphis Slim & Willie Dixon
Worn My Body for So Long by T-Model Ford & Gravel Road
Compared to What by Les McCann & Eddie Harris
You Can't Judge a Book by It's Cover by Bo Diddley
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat by Bob Dylan
One Kind Favor by Canned Heat
The Eternal Question by The Grandmothers
Oh No / The Orange County Lumber Truck by The Mothers of Invention
I'm Your Man by Nick Cave
This One's from the Heart by Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, January 15, 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
Bear Creek Blues by John Prine
Cool Rockin' Loretta by Joe Ely
Wanted Man/DIYBYOB by The Waco Brothers
Bloody Mary Morning by Willie Nelson
Get It On Down the Line by Danny Barnes
Move It by T. Tex Edwards
Everything it Takes by Loretta Lynn with Elvis Costello
Honky Tonk Merry Go Round by The Stumbleweeds
Family Man by Robbie Fulks
Roll Truck Roll by Terry Allen
Hot Dog Baby by Hasil Adkins
Honky Tonkin' by The The
Cheap Motel by Southern Culture on the Skids
Number One with a Bullet by Freakwater
Let's Do Wrong Tonight by Simon Stokes
Whiskey Drinkin' Women by Cornell Hurd
Jason Fleming by Roger Miller
Sister Kate by Oh Lazarus
Payday by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Ruby Are You Mad by The Osborne Brothers
Wine Wine Wine by Dale Watson
High As You Can Be by Asylum Street Spankers
Put Something in the Pot, Boy by The Five Strings
Demon Rum by Legendary Shack Shakers
Indoor Fireworks by Nick Lowe & His Cowboy Outfit
That's the Way Love Goes by Merle Haggard
Lord, I’m In Your Care by Grey DeLisle & Murry Hammond
Wreck on the Highway by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Roy Acuff
Star Motel Blues by Kell Robertson
Jimmy Brown the Newsboy by Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs
Fred McDowell, know to the blues and folk worlds as "Mississippi" Fred McDowell (though he was born and he died in Tennessee), had a birthday this week. He would have turned 112 on Tuesday, Jan. 12. (Thanks to Putney on the KUNM Blues Show for reminding us of that fact on his show last night.)
On a 1969 album, McDowell declared, "I do not play no rock 'n' roll." That, of course didn't deter The Rolling Stones from recording McDowell's song "You Got to Move."
But McDowell also did not play no delta blues. Living most of his days in Como, Miss., in the northern part of the state (about 50 miles south of Memphis), he was a purveyor of what is known as the Hill Country blues, a sound later associated with R. L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough and Jessie Mae Hemphill.
I like this description on a site called Hill Country Harmonica:
Hill country blues is NOT the stuff that Muddy Waters took to Chicago. It's the stuff that stayed behind in Mississippi. This may be why Junior Kimbrough's music sounds sadder, and uses fewer chords, than Muddy's: because the lives of its creators were more circumscribed. The hill country elders didn't have the big hits that Muddy, Wolf, Little Walter, B. B. King enjoyed. They didn't have tour buses. They didn't play the Regal and the Apollo. They didn't wear matching suits. They wore truckers' caps and cowboy boots. They stayed home. (Actually, an important correction: R. L. Burnside DID move to Chicago in 1944 and stayed there for about 15 years. He fled back home to the Mississippi hills after his father, two brothers, and uncle were all murdered in Chicago within the span of one year. Hill Country bluesmen were the guys for whom the escape-to-the-promised-land thing just didn't work out.) These men farmed, drove tractors, worked for themselves.
McDowell was old enough to have recorded back in the '20s and early '30s, the era of Robert Johnson, Charley Patton and Son House. But he wasn't. In the '20s, he busked around the streets and Memphis and when he settled down in Como he would play weekend parties and fish fries. But he earned his living as a farmer.
But he didn't record until 1959 when he was "discovered" by Alan Lomax, who released several of his songs on a folk music series on Atlantic Records. A few years later Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie Records came calling and recorded more of the singing sharecropper. McDowell became a regular in the folk music revival circuit, playing campuses and coffee houses. he was part of the American Folk Blues Festival tour in Europe, which also featured blues titans like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, Memphis Slim and others.
In 1969, McDowell recorded an album for Capitol Records, I Do Not Play No Rock 'n' Roll. He played electric guitar and was backed by a pretty rockin' no-rock rhythm section. Some purists hated it. I loved it.
By this time he was attracting the attention of rockers like The Stones and Bonnie Raitt, who recorded a medley of his songs "Write Me a Few of Your Lines" and "Kokomo Me Baby."
McDowell wasn't able to enjoy this recognition for long, however. He died of cancer in Memphis in 1972.
But his music lives on. Here are a few for Fred:
This next one is from the American Folk Blues Festival.
McDowell played gospel as well as blues.
This is a song by the original Sonny Boy Williamson. I first heard it by The Grateful Dead, and later Johnny Winter.
I like Fred's version even better than The Stones' ...
There aren't very many wackier than the Marx Brothers, And their classic comedies -- and even their not-so-classic comedies -- were filled with music. Here are some of my favorite songs from those movies.
First from the 1939 film At the Circus
A cowboy song from Go West
A classic tune by Groucho as Captain Spaulding from Animal Crackers
Chico and Harpo get down in The Big Store
And decades before the rock 'n' roll versions, Harpo was playing a serious harp rendition of "Blue Moon.' (another one from At the Circus)
UPDATED 9:10 amThanks to Chuck for pointing out this omission. From Horse Feathers ...
Sunday, January 10, 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
Love is a Beautiful Thing by The Cellar Dwellers
I Wanna Come Back From The World Of LSD by Fe-Fi-Four Plus 2
Jane / Spectacle by Dead Moon
Til My Back Ain't Got No Bone by Tom Jones
Rub My Root by Memphis Slim & Willie Dixon
Ooh Baby / Wrecking My Love Life by Super Super Blues Band
Try it by The Standells
Bad Man by Thee Fine Lines
Rocket Boy by Lovestruck
Nest of the Cuckoo Bird by The Cramps
Down and Out by The Vagoos
Flesh Eating Cocaine Blues by Daddy Long Legs
Bittersweet Romance Party by The Dirtbombs
Pictures of Lily by The Hickoids
Out of Control by Wayne County & The Electric Chairs
Little Bad Wolf by The Tra-Velles
Moonlight by Jerry J. Nixon
Where the Good Doggies Go by Al's Equinox Party
Mean Heart by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Swamp Buggy Badass by Quintron & Miss Pussycat
Put Me in Jail by Joe "King" Carrasco
People Who Died by Jim Carrol Band
It Ain't Easy by Javier Escovedo
Get Outta My Way by The Laughing Dogs
Mr. Face by Ty Segall
Two Sided Triangle by Any Dirty Party
Vega-Tables by The Beach Boys
Cheryl's Going Home by Miriam
CzekajÄ…c Na Wczoraj by Kazik & Kwartet ProForma
Bittersweet Candy by The Barbarellatones
Moonbeam by King Richard & The Knights
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, January 8, 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
Tiger by the Tail / Building Our Own Prison by The Waco Brothers
Gotta Travel On by Jerry Lee Lewis
Purple Sprouting Broccoli by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
High Noon in Killville by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Sweet Sweet Young 'un by Al Duval
I Like to Sleep Late in the Morning by David Bromberg
