Here are a few twisted rock 'n' roll takes on some of your favorite television theme songs.
Let's start with a reliable old psychobilly group, Elvis Hitler, who brought Hendrix to Hooterville with this 1980s mash-up, "Green Haze.".
Iggy Pop paid tribute to songwriter Neil Hefti and Adam West in his glorious live cover of "Batman."
I was too old to appreciate The Banana Splits Saturday morning kiddie show in the '70s. But I'll never be too old for The Dickies' version of the theme song.
When I hear Husker Du's version of Sonny Curtis' "Love Is All Around," the theme to the Mary Tyler Moore Show, I truly believe I'm going to make it after all.
The Chicano punk band Manic Hispanic brought took Gilligan's Island to the barrio. (It's from a 1997 compilation called Show & Tell: A Stormy Remembrance Of TV Theme Songs a fun collection of rock 'n' roll TV theme covers.)
And speaking of Gilligan's Island, here's a version that sparked a vicious lawsuit filed by led Zeppelin's lawyers that resulted in a court order requiring the band Little Roger & The Goosebumps to destroy all copies of the record.
Ironically, Robert Plant in a 2004 interview on NPR's Fresh Airsaid this was his favorite parody of "Stairway to Heaven." (He talks about that right around the 15 minute mark.)
To which "Little" Roger Clark replied in a 2007 interview, "Thanks for nothing, Bob. Well, I met him. He said, `Oh, I’ve always liked this record.' It was Jimmy Page and the manager that hated it. But that’s just like any business situation. `I love you, babe, but my partner’s got a problem.' "
Some copies of the original are still floating around. And Little Roger & The Goosebumps released a legal version 16 years ago,
Sunday, February 14, 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
Papa Satan Sang Louie by The Cramps
Trash by New York Dolls
Clouds of Dawn by Dead Moon
You Don't Love Me Yet by Roky Erickson
500 lb Bad Ass by Chief Fuzzer
War Dancers by King Mud
Licking the Frog by Manby's Head
Mixed Biz'ness by Beck
Valentine by Concrete Blonde
Stumbling' Man by TAD
Death Party by Gun Club
Mama Get the Hammer by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Sharpen Up Time by New Bomb Turks
Goons of Hazzard by Dead Kennedys
High on Drugs by The Fleshtones
Why Do You Get So High, Shorty? By The Treniers
Hoodie Saperticker by Barbara & The Boys
Designed to Kill by James Chance
Been to Kansas City in A Minor by Frank Zappa
Sweet Georgia Brown by Captain Beefheart
Pretty Lord Sundance Part 1 by Lord Sundance
Teenage Head by The Flamin' Groovies
Who Do You Love by Bo Diddley
Manny's Bones by Los Lobos
Sewer Fire by Thee Oh Sees
Don't Be Taken In by Miriam
Frogman by King Kahn & The Shrines
It's Money that Matters by Randy Newman
Some Enchanted Evening by Bob Dylan
Nothing Lasts Forever by The Kinks with Maryanne Price
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, February 12, 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
World's in Bad Condition by Dave & Phil Alvin
I Want to Huga Ya, Kiss Ya, Squeeze Ya by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Ramblin' Man by Dick Dale
Amarillo Highway by Terry Allen
Baby He's a Wolf by Werly Fairburn
New Deal of Love by Hank Thompson
The Girl I Sawed in Half by Paul Burch
Drinkin' Bout You by Alex Culbreth & The Dead Country Stars
Ya'll Motherfuckers Need Jesus by The Goddamn Gallows
Alabama at Night by Robbie Fulks
Rollin' on Rubber Wheels by Louie Setzer
Set Up Two Glasses Joe by Ernest Tubb
Hotel San Jose by Jimmy & The Mustangs
The Love-in by Ben Colder
Every Night About This Time by Rachel Brooke
Family Tree by Wheeler Walker, Jr.
Evangeline by Emmylou Harris & The Band
The Shiek of Araby by Jim Kweskin Jug Band
Dan Hicks Memorial Set (All songs by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks except where noted)
I Feel Like Singing
Ragtime Cowboy Joe
O'Reilly at the Bar by Maryanne Price & Floyd Domino
That Ain't Right (with Gibby Haynes)
Hummin' to Myself (with Maria Muldaur)
The Diplomat by Maria Muldaur
Mama I'm an Outlaw by Dan Hicks
Hell I'd Go by Dan Hicks & The Accoustic Warriors
The Buzzard Was His Friend
Beedle Um Bum (with Jim Kweskin)
See You in My Dreams
Weakness in a Man by Waylon Jennings
The Bloody Bucket by Grey DeIsle
Hop Old Rabbit by Elizabeth LaPrelle CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
The recent death of Dan Hicks got me thinking of one of Hicks' big influences, Jim Kweskin.
I was in junior high the first timeThe Jonathan Winters Show, which I never missed. This was about the same time I'd become a devotee of Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band and the early Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, so discovering Kweskin was a huge revelation. I don't even remember the songs Kweskin played on Winters that night. I just remember their joyful noise -- and how sexy singer Maria D'Amato was.
I ever saw the Jim Kweskin Jug Band. It was on
The music of Kweskin and his band -- which included Maria's then husband Geoff Muldaur, Fritz Richmond, Bill Keith and harmonica blower/cult leader Mel Lyman -- was a personal gateway to all sorts of old blues, jazz, hillbilly, Tin Pan Alley and, yes, jug band sounds. They showed that music that even predated my grandparents could still be wild, mysterious, and a lot of fun.
I've already done entire features on some Kweskin favorites such as Beedle Um Bum and Sheik of Araby. But here are some other original, or at least earlier versions of songs from the Kweskin song bag.
Let's start off with a jug-band tune from The Dixieland Jug Blowers, with a song Kweskin would use as a title song for his 1967 album, Garden of Joy.
This 1920s favorite by a lady named Vaughn De Leath is another Kweskin classic
Here's a version of "Never Swat a Fly" recorded by Abe Lyman's California Ambassador Hotel Orchestra more than 30 years before Kweskin and crew.
Another exotic tune, "Borneo," performed by the Frank Trumbauer Orchestra with Scrappy Lambert on vocals.
I heard "Blues in the Bottle done by The Lovin' Spoonful before I heard Kweskin's version. But Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers did it before either of them. (And Hunt was from Terrell, Texas!)
One hundred twenty-three years ago today Jimmy Durante, the gravel-voiced star of Vaudeville, radio and television and movies, was born in New York City.
This son of talian immigrants was known as a comedian whose trademarks were his beat-up hat and his huge bulbous nose (which he called "the Schnozzola").
But before his career as a comic and an actor, Durante was a musician. According to his bio on the Red Hot Jazz site:
Before Jimmy Durante became one of the most famous and lovable entertainers of the Twentieth Century, he was a hot piano player and bandleader, Durante was greatly influenced by Scott Joplin and had his first success in show business as a Ragtime piano player starting around 1911. He was billed as "Ragtime Jimmy" and played in New York City and Coney Island.
Playing ragtime piano on Coney Island n 1911. Even if I knew nothing else about him, that alone would make me love Jimmy Durante.
He died in 1980, but his ghost still haunts strange corners of YouTube, So let's honor Jimmy on this Wacky Wednesday with some of his wackier tunes.
In 1934, appearing in the movie Palooka, Durante first performed what would become his signature song, "Inka Dinka Doo"
Three decades later, Durante would perform the song on TV with a strange novelty artist of the mid '60s called Mrs. Miller.
Also in the '60s Durante weighed in on the flying saucer phenomenon
He dabbled in patriotic children's music
And he dueted with Louis Armstrong
So goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, and happy birthday, Ragtime Jimmy, wherever you are."
Sunday, February 7, 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
Shake Your Hips by Billy Boy Arnold
Clear Night for Love by The Rockin' Guys
He Looks Like a Psycho by The Electric Mess
Hey Little Girl by The Dead Boys
All by Myself by Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers
Your Haunted Head by Concrete Blonde
Outrun the Law by The Thingz
Heathen Child by Grinderman
Bowie Medley by The Cherry Drops
It Ain't Easy by Javier Escovedo
I Want Answers by The Fleshtones
New Orleans by The Plimsouls with The Fleshtones
Laredo (A Small Dark Something) by Jon Dee Graham
He's Doin' It by The Gories
Poor Poor Pitiful Me by Warren Zevon
Advance Romance by Frank Zappa
Pablo Picasso by Jonathan Richman
Mama Guitar by The Oblivians
I Can Only Give You Everything by King Mud
Mammer Jammer by Don & Dewy
Disease by Dead Cat Stimpy
Matamoros by Afghan Whigs
Sand by OP8
Deep Dark Vanishing Train by Mark Lanegan Band
Don't Call Me Mark Chapman by Julian Cope
It's Not My Time to Go by Dan Hick & The Hot Licks
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, February 5, 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
Worried Man Blues by George Jones
Artificial Flowers by Cornell Hurd Band
Step Right This Way (Baby I'm You Man) by DM Bob & The Deficits
Let's Waste Another Evening by Josh Lederman y Los Diablos
Where's the Dress by Moe Bandy & Joe Stampley
Little Ramona Gone Hillbilly Nuts by BR5-49
We Always Fight When We Drink Gin by Austin Lounge Lizards
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican February 5, 2016
It’s been so long since The Waco Brothers released an album of new material I was beginning to wonder whether the standard-bearers of Bloodshot Records’ “insurgent country” were going the way of the Branch Davidians — without the spectacular finale.
After all, since 2005’s Freedom and Weep, the only albums the group has released are a live record (Waco Express: Live & Kickin’ at Schuba’s Tavern, Chicago) in 2008 and a collaboration with alternative country singer Paul Burch (The Great Chicago Fire) in 2012.
But now the good folks at Bloodshot have given us a double shot of Wacomania. In December came a limited-edition live album called Cabaret Showtime, and set for release later this month is Going Down in History, that long-awaited album of all-new material.
For the uninitiated, The Waco Brothers came to be in the early ’90s, forming in Chicago, where Jon Langford of The Mekons had settled. Most of his current bandmates — including fellow Brits Tracy Dear and Alan “Sprockets” Doughty plus Wisconsin native Dean Schlabowske (aka Deano Waco) — have been in the Waco Brothers since the beginning.
At first they were basically a Langford side project, gigging in Chicago and covering lots of classic country songs (“for free beer,” or so the legend goes).
Langford’s love for country music is sincere. As a Mekon, he helped facilitate the shotgun wedding of punk rock and country music with albums such as Fear and Whiskey and Honky Tonkin’, back in the 1980s.
With The Wacos, he rocked the country far harder than The Mekons ever did while somehow remaining truer to the source material. And then Langford, Schlabowske, and the others started writing all these great songs especially for The Waco Brothers. (Their original tunes are officially credited to the band, so it’s hard to determine who actually wrote what.) And when Chicago’s Bloodshot Records was born in 1994, The Wacos were a natural match. They rightfully remain the label’s flagship band.
The first thing I noticed about Going Down in History is that the band is continuing the path of its last few studio albums, jettisoning many of its overt country touches. Steel guitarist Mark Durante has been gone for years now (and that’s a loss). And to be honest, unlike their earliest albums — To the Last Dead Cowboy and, especially, Cowboy in Flames, which whomped me over the head right off the bat, — it took a few listens for the new one to grow on me. But grow it did. The raw, muscular-but-melodic, roots-informed rock in the end is just hard to resist.
The opening cut, “DIYBYOB,” sung by Schlabowske, contains a clever twist on an old sea dog adage: “Sailors take warning, red eyes in the morning/You can’t kill us, we’re already dead.” There’s a vague reference to national politics, which Deano instantly backs away from (“Move along, there’s nothing here to see”), while the refrain seems to speak of a failed relationship (“DIYBYOB, there’s nothing left ’tween you and me”).
But by the last verse of the song, the singer proudly clings to the punk-rock ethos that still propels him: “On the day after the music died/Can’t take all the credit, but we tried/You can’t cut the power, you can’t turn out the lights/We’ll keep the party goin’ through the night.”
“We Know It” starts off with some foreboding, bluesy noodling but quickly turns into a hard-charging, almost paranoid rant by Langford: “We know it when we see it/We know it when it calls/We know it can’t be good for us/We know we want it all.”
One of the chief delights by Langford here is “Building Our Own Prison,” which takes a souped-up Bo Diddley beat and makes it more chaotic, while Langford sings about “big boxes” ringing the town, donating his shopping list to science, and nailing “my body to the temple door.”
The Wacos do two cover songs on Going Down in History. One is The Small Faces’ “All or Nothing,” which sounds as close to a soul ballad as you’re ever likely to hear from the band. (They dedicate this to Faces’ keyboard man Ian McLagan, a friend of the band, who died in 2014.)
And they end the album with a rocking version of Jon Dee Graham’s “The Orphan’s Song.” At the end of the song they playfully alter the refrain, turning “I will be your brother for the night” into “I’ll be your Waco Brother for tonight.”
Sounds like a deal.
As for Cabaret Showtime, this is a lighter-hearted affair on which The Wacos romp through some of the great country tunes that inspired the group all those years ago: Buck Owens’ “Tiger by the Tail,” Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Wanted Man” (which was actually written by Bob Dylan), and Gram Parsons’ “Ooh Las Vegas” are all here. There’s even a country version of bluesman Jimmy Reed’s “Baby What You Want Me to Do” (which is called “You Got Me Running” here).
My personal favorite on this album is a fairly obscure George Jones song, “Girl at the End of the Bar.” Langford practically spits the lyrics (“She had so many hard knocks/She don’t play the jukebox/She’s lived all those sad songs firsthand”) just before he plays probably the prettiest guitar solos I’ve ever heard him play.
But it’s not all hillbilly hijinks on Cabaret. There are not one but two Waco-ized T. Rex covers (“Debora” and a garagey “20th Century Boy”). And — believe it or not — The Waco Brothers play Pink Floyd! It’s an instrumental called “Interstellar Overdrive,” which appeared on Floyd’s 1967 debut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
So no, this album isn’t for country purists. But purists have never been The Wacos’ top demographic target.
Yvonne DeCarlo live in San Pedro
(in her wild, sexy pre-Lily Munster days)
named Mary Ingraham in a response to a request by President Franklin Roosevelt for a program to provide moral support and entertainment for armed services members. (The U.S. would not get directly involved in World War II for another 10 months, but the distant drums of war were getting louder.)
Although the organization was -- and still is -- involved in many activities to help the folks who serve in the military, it's most famous for its Camp Shows -- sending singers, dancers and comedians to entertain the troops at domestic military facilities as well as in war zones.
So today we salute the USO with some videos of some of those performances.
Here's a singer named Frances Lanford (no relation to The Mekons' Jon Langford) singing "I'll Be Seeing You" on the Solomon Islands in 1944. That's Bob Hope introducing her.
Speaking of Bob Hope, in this clip he introduces four singers -- Dick Powell, Yvonne DeCarlo (yikes! She doesn't look monstrous at all here), Dale Evans (without Roy Rogers) and Danny Kaye. They're playing for sailors wose aircraft carrier is being repaired at the San Pedro shipyards during WWII.
This video features footage of the great Al Jolson performing at USO. The audio however is a radio performance of a song called "There'll Never Be Another War." The video begins with Jolson pitching war stamps. He starts singing about a minute and 20 seconds in.
I guess Jolson was wrong about there never being another war.
Jumping ahead to Viet Nam, here's Bob Hope introducing a "canary" named Jan Daley in Long Binh, Viet Nam. (This would have had to have been 1970 or later because she's singing the theme from Love Story.) Here Ms. Daley mercilessly teases some poor soldier (who doesn't seem to be complaining)
One hundred and three years ago today, the states of Delaware, Wyoming and my beloved New Mexico voted to ratify the 16th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the one that gives the federal government authority to impose a personal income tax on its citizens.
Delaware is recognized as the 36th state to ratify -- the one that put it it over the top. I don't know whether Delaware did it before us due to their earlier time zone or whether our state Senate got preoccupied introducing guests in the gallery or the House got detoured by some memorial honoring the city of Pie Town.
Whatever the reason, Delaware got the credit. Or blame if you really hate taxes.
Here are a few songs by American artists honoring the 16th Amendment.
We'll start with bluesman Robert Cray's "1040 Blues'.
Next up is The Man in Black with "After Taxes."
Johnny Paycheck sings about his friends at the Internal Revenue Service.
Here's an assault on taxes from the left -- and a funky one at that -- by Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
But here's a different kind of message about taxes. In 1942, as the U.S. was fighting World War II, the IRS commissioned Irving Berlin to write a little reminder that paying taxes is patriotic. Here in his song "I Paid My Income Tax Today," comedian Danny Kaye sings lyrics like:
See those bombers in the sky? Rockefeller helped to build ’em, so did I I paid my income tax today
