You lucky devils! You're about to be treated to an hour's worth of Hellfire sinful rock 'n' roll -- just as the Prince of Darkness intended it to sound. There is new music from The Sloths, Gregg Turner, New Mystery Girl, Left Lane Cruiser, The Vagoos ... and of course the latest sensation from Voodoo Rhythm, The Devils!
Last Sunday night (actually early Monday morning) driving home after doing Terrell's Sound World at KSFR, I tuned into the show that comes on after mine, Oil of Dog with Gary Storm. On that show Gary had Dick Rosemont, who has a Santa Fe record shop called Guy in the Groove -- as well as a cool website called the Originals Project.
What he does there is simply track original versions of popular songs. Plus, without pretending to be a completest, Dick tries to list as many subsequent versions as possible.
Hey, I like doing stuff like that! I figured correctly that I'd like his website.
That night on Oil of Dog, Dick and Gary were playing various versions of "I Fought the Law," which was a hit for The Bobby Fuller Four in 1966.
I knew that Sonny Curtis, a Buddy Holly crony from Lubbock, had written it. But until that show I don't think I'd actually heard the original version by Sonny Curtis with the (post Buddy) Crickets.
Here that is:
Rosemont writes, "Be forewarned that not everything included here will be big news to music fans!" And that's true enough. But even for a jaded old rock 'n' roll freak like myself, I found plenty of surprises just puttering around The Originals Project.
For instance, I did not know that someone had recorded "Walkin' After Midnight' -- one of my favorite stalker songs -- before Patsy Cline. But actually a lady named Lynn Howard, with a group called The Accents did in 1956 (The same year Patsy first recorded it.)
Likewise, I always just assumed that Big Bill Broonzy was the first to record "Key to The Highway" (which like everyone else my age, I first heard by Derek & The Dominoes in the '70s.) But actually it was recorded by a piano man named Charles Segar in 1940.
Now I knew that this '80s one-hit wonder called "Taco" wasn't the first to record called "Puttin' on the Ritz." (I still have a weird fondness from this video from the heyday of MTV.)
I knew it was written by Irving Berlin but I never knew who recorded it first. Rosemont's site informs us it was a guy named Leo Reisman, with Lew Conrad on vocals. And it's a Jazz Age delight.
Gilda Radner would have been 70 years old yesterday. Unfortunately, she died of ovarian cancer in 1989 before she turned 43.
An original member of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players in the early years of Saturday Night Live in the mid to early '70s, she was best known for her characters Roseanne Roseannadana, Emily Litella and Baba Wawa.
But she also did some wonderful comical music. Here are three songs to remember her by.
Let's start with a sweet, childlike ditty from her 1979 one-woman show on Broadway, “Gilda Radner: Live from New York”
Here she is paying tribute to the girl-group era as Rhonda Weiss (with The Rhondettes)
Sunday, June 26, 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
Blow Up Your Mind by The Cramps
Circuit Breaker by The Pastels
Nogales by Gregg Turner
Here He Comes by New Mystery Girl
I Couldn't Spell !!*@! by Roy Loney & The Young Fresh Fellows
Radio Danger by Skull Control
Better Than You by He Who Cannot Be Named
Listen by The Hotbeats
Bittersweet Romance Song by The Dirtbombs
Times by Andre Williams
Stinkfoot by Frank Zappa
To the Floor by Lonesome Shack
Rollin' and Tumblin' by Canned Heat
Circus by Left Lane Cruiser
Medium Size Star Bound by The Blues Against Youth
I Can Only Give You Everything by King Mud
Before I Die by The Sloths
The Decline of Western Civilization by Alien Space Kitchen
Hideous Woman by The Melvins
Lemmy by The Come n Go
Alligator Brain by The Grafters
Wild Angel by James Bond & The Agents
Quick Joey Small by Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus
European Girls by BBQ
The Great Nations of Europe by Randy Newman
Rogue Planet by Thee Oh Sees
1880 or So by Television Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye by The Casinos Poet is Priest by Julian Cope
Hard Times of Old England by Steeleye Span CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, June 24, 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
Hogtied Over You Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs with Candye Kane
Crazy Date by T. Tex Edwards
Killed a Chicken Last Night by Scott H. Biram
Lonesome Train by Dex Romweber
Waitress Waitress by Little Jimmie Dickens
Will Your Lawyer Talk to God for You by Norma Jean
Kitty Wells Dresses by Laura Cantrell
A Date With Your Memory by Cornell Hurd
Crackhead Lullaby by Red Eye Gravy
Cajun Stripper by Doug Kershaw
Your Time's Comin' by Dallas Wayne with Willie Nelson
Lady Cop by Cousin Jody
Band of Gold by Loretta Lynn
More of You by Chris Stapleton
Borrowed Angel by Mel Street
Gypsy Davy by Eric Hisaw
Three Diamond Rings by Trailer Radio
R.I.P. RALPH STANLEY
All songs by Dr. Ralph except where noted
Lift Him Up, That's All
Handsome Molly
Rank Stranger
Rose Conley
Drifting Too Far from the Shore by The Stanley Brothers
Pig in the Pen by Ralph Stanley & Doug Phelps
No School Bus in Heaven
I Only Exist by Ralph Stanley & John Anderson
Keys to the Kingdom by Ralph Stanley with The Cedar Hill Refugees
Short Life of Trouble
Stone Walls and Steel Bars by Ralph Stanley & Junior Brown
Little Mathie Grove
Will You Miss Me by Ralph Stanley with Pam Tillis
I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow by The Stanley Brothers
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican June 24, 2016
I don’t know. Am I getting too old for this stuff? I mean, what does it say when I discover a new — well, relatively new — album from an obscure garage band I like via the AARP?
Garage rock for today’s active seniors?
That’s right, the latest magazine of the AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons) has a feature on The Sloths, a Los Angeles band that started out in the mid-1960s.
No, I don’t subscribe. But maybe I ought to. After all, the AARP magazine last year published the first actual Bob Dylan interview in years and sent copies of his album Shadows in the Night to 50,000 random AARP the Magazine subscribers.
But while it’s easy to see that Dylan’s collection of Frank Sinatra standards (and by the way, he recently released a similar album called Fallen Angels) would appeal to the oldsters — which I define as people maybe three or four years older than me — The Sloths, as shown by their wild new record Back from the Grave, are still loud, raw, and sometimes even snotty. They’re a rocking band, not a rocking-chair band. The Sloths are definitely not for the "early-bird special" crowd.
Some ancient history of The Sloths: The group started in 1965 out as a band of high schoolers. They started getting gigs during that riotous era at Sunset Strip clubs like Pandora’s Box, The Whiskey a Go-Go, The Sea Witch, the Hollywood Palladium, sharing stages with groups like The Animals, The Doors, and The Seeds.
The Sloths recorded only once. It was a 45 whose A-side featured a primitive, angst-ridden, hormonal, Bo Diddley-fired tune called "Makin' Love."
Soon after “Makin’ Love” flopped, The Sloths broke up. Some members formed a new band called The May Wines that included a singer named Tom McLoughlin. They didn’t last long either. But though “Makin’ Love” didn’t sell much when it first came out, it became something of a holy grail for fanatical garage-rock record collectors. The song was included on one of the influential Back from the Grave compilations of the 1990s. (And yes, that was where they got the title for their new album.)
Getting included on the compilation stirred up new attention to the band. At one point the original single of “Makin’ Love” in its original picture sleeve reportedly was selling on eBay for $6,550.
Apparently that was one of Rummans’ inspirations for re-forming The Sloths. Rummans, the only original Sloth in its 21st-century version, recruited McLoughlin — who, since his May Wines days, has worked as a film director and writer (and early on, he actually studied the art of mime) — and other past musical pals.
Father Tom McLoughlin preaching to his flock at
the 2013 Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans
I got to see the new Sloths three years ago. They played at the Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans on a bill with several other garage-rock greats including The Sonics and The Standells. Though not as crazily intense as The Sonics (who are in the same basic age range), The Sloths played a credible and fun-filled set at Ponderosa. McLoughlin’s stage presence was remarkable.
At one point he was wearing a priest’s collar, then later a Mexican flag as a cape. During the instrumental break of the song “Never Enough Girls,” (which kicks off the new album) he tried to blow up a cheap plastic sex doll, but ran out of time (or breath) before he had to start singing the next verse.
As for Back from The Grave, it’s a fine collection of good basic rock ‘n’ roll that’s almost as good as The Sloths’ live show. Songs like “Never Enough Girls,” “Lust,” “A Cutie Named Judy” and a new recording of “Makin’ Love” show how smooth a transition from horny high school kids to dirty old men can be.
But the most interesting songs here are the ones in which The Sloths’ maturity is a major strength. There’s “One Way Out,” in which every verse is a brutal little story about a drug-addled teenaged girl, a divorcing couple, a soldier who snaps and commits an atrocity, and a suicidal kid who ends up preaching on the streets for some cult. McLoughlin tells the stories in a voice that’s sympathetic but not about to pull any punches.
And even better is “Before I Die,” in which McLoughlin turns on its head that famous youthful declaration by The Who. “I wanna be old before I die,” he sings to a chugging Yardbirds-like beat. Here the singer isn’t selfishly yearning to cram more sex, drugs, and money into his life, or to achieve some immortality. Instead he’s wanting more time to apologize to people he’s hurt, pay off his debts, and “say things I should have said long ago.”
Here’s hoping for a long second life for The Sloths.
Also recommended:
* Some of This is True by Alien Space Kitchen. Here is a tough-rocking but ultimately catchy-sounding Albuquerque trio who describe their sound as “garage-punk space-pop.” (They previously described their sound as "hot interstellar space punk for consenting adults.")
This, their second album (scheduled for release in July) is a strong follow-up to their 2012 debut, Just ASK.
In fact, the music on the new one is probably a little stronger. On Just ASK, the band basically was a duo, featuring singer-guitarist Dru Vaughter, and drummer (and singer) Noelle Graney. The new album is the first with bassist Mess Messal.
Like their first one, Some of This is True is full of songs full of inspired nonsense about spaceships and even space people.
The opening cut is called “Alien Agenda,” which starts off with a slow guitar riff that sounds like some serious Brit-folk-rock is about to be committed. Instead, the song explodes with one of the stronger rockers on the album. There are also the conspiracy-soaked “How to Fake a Lunar Landing” and “Welcome to Star 65,” which goes back and forth between funky/jazzy verses sung by Graney and a crazy punked-out response sung by Vaughter.
At the moment, my favorite songs here are the delightfully paranoid “The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization” and the raging song that follows it, “Better Daze.”
All in all, this would be a cool soundtrack for an alien abduction.
Alien Space Kitchen plays Friday, June 24, at Burt's Tiki Lounge in Albuquerque, with a lineup that includes Weedrat and The Dying Beds; music starts at 9 p.m. Video time!
Here's a song from the Sloths set I saw at the Ponderosa Stomp
This is the official video for "One Way Out."
And this is the original "Makin' Love."
And here are a couple from Alien Space Kitchen.
"Losing My Mind is on the new album.
This one originally was by an African psychedelic group, Witdh
And for all you AARP rockers, here's a message from Stan Ridgway ...
A rich girl meets up with a band of Gypsies -- or sometimes just one lone Gypsy -- in the woods. Or sometimes he / they come to her house and abduct her -- or cast a magical spell on her or just charm the pants -- or at least her boots of Spanish leather -- off her. She decides to forsake her wealthy husband, her comfortable house, her goose-feather bed and -- yes -- her baby to sleep out in the woods in the arms of her new lover.
It's a song that's been known by several names -- "Johnnie Faa," "Raggle Taggle Gypsy," "Gypsy Davey," "Blackjack David" and others -- sung for centuries, first published under the name of "The Gypsy Laddie" 276 years ago and undoubtedly sung by the folks years before that.
Nick Tosches, in his book Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock 'N' Roll, argues the ballad has roots going back to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
Writing in the Journal of American Folklore in 1980, the late Christine A. Cartwright said the song was first collected in Scotland in 1740. "The ballad's narrative tension,' Cartwright wrote, "seems to spring from a two-edged threat presented by the Gypsies: their invasion of and imposition upon Scottish culture, with all their disturbing, foreign values and ways, as well as their potentially threatening attractiveness."
More than 100 years before "The Gypsy Laddie" appeared in print, apparently some Scottish politicians wanted to make Scotland great again. No, they didn't build a wall and make the Gypsies pay for it. But in 1609, the Scottish parliament passed a law ordering the Gypsies out of their country. And there are records of Gypsies being sentenced to hang. No wonder someone wrote a song about these dark-skinned invaders running off with white women.
Robert Burns said the song was about the cuckolded Earl of Cassilis whose wife was said to have run away with a man named John Faa. Cartwright however argues there is no evidence this actually ever happened.
An early version of the song was called "Raggle Taggle Gypsy" Here's a version by a raggle taggle band called Planxty (done as a medley with a beautiful Irish air "Tabhair Dom Do Laimh."
Here's another clip from the '70s, The Incredible String Band singng "Black Jack Davy."
And of course the mighty British folk-rock band Steeleye Span did an excellent rocking version. Introducing the song, Maddy Prior says, "I used to think that ths next song was about the triumph of true love. But I've recently come to the conclusion that it's really about a bit of rough." (Click the link. Don't be afraid!) In an interview last year with Chris Braiotta of WBUR, Prior makes the same joke, and elaborates. And now I see [the protagonist] as a totally unsuitable young man for my daughter."
In early versions of the song, there is a confrontation between the wronged husband and the Gypsy, sometimes ending with a lynching and the runaway wife forced to return to her life of luxury. Most "Black Jack Daveys" I've heard though end up with the woman happily forsaking her old life.
Indeed, this ending has virtually disappeared in versions of the song that popped up in America. And that's not all that changed. Gone is any magic spells the Gypsies used to seduce the lady. In fact, in most American versions, there is no abduction at all. The Gypsy and the lady meet by chance in the woods and spontaneously decide to run away together.
Cartwright says, "The lady's choice, in every aspect but the adulterous, is in fact the choice that settled America. Where a land must be settled, the love of adventure and the willingness to roam become positive cultural values for women as well as for men, and the lady's decision to leave the established society for the wilderness cold no longer be seen as a choice that only a bewitched woman would make."
Below are some American takes on this classic ballad. First, The Carter Family.
Rockabilly Warren Smith, in Tosches' book, claims to have written "Black Jack David." He may well have written the "I come from a farm" verse.
Once again, let's go around the world in a daze with some wild and wacky tunes from foreign lands.
Let's begin with Van Anh, a Vietnamese dan bau artist, playing "Ghost Riders in the Sky." (A dan bau player named Van Anh Vo is scheduled to play this year's Globalquerue on Sept. 24. However, Neal Copperman, one of the head honchos of this wonderful event says he thinks it's a different Van Anh.)
It's a wonderful night for a Romanian bear dance
A few years ago, my daughter, sent me this video of Kali Bahlu singing "Cosmic Telephone Call." It must be a Buddhist version of the old gospel classic "Jesus on the Mainline."
The late Jovica Petković was a revered accordion player from Sarajevo. I'm not sure why he and most of his audience are in their underwear. Must be some quaint Baltic custom.
Sunday, June 19, 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
A Cutie Named Judy by The Sloths Baby Doll by The Del Moroccos
You'll Never Take Us Alive by The Dwarves
Minute Man by New Mystery Girl
It's You Time by The Weeds
Kremlin Dogs by Gregg Turner
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe by New Bomb Turks
All Leave Cancelled by The Fall
Better Daze by Alien Space Kitchen
Bangkok by Jello Biafra & The New Orleans Rauch and Soul All-Stars
Eviler by The Grannies
Two-Lane Blacktop by Rob Zombie
Hanged Man by Churchwood
Reelin' and Rockin' by The Frogs
Cosmic Two-Step by The Barbaraellatones
The Lover's Curse by The A-Bones
Beer Hippie by The Melvins
Witch in the Club by Quintron & Miss Pussycat
The Pusher by Left-Lane Cruiser
Sugar Farm by Lonesome Shack
Boundless by The Blues Against Youth
She Lives in the Jungle by O Lendario Chucrobillyman
Daddy Logg's Drive in Candy Hoppin' Car Babes by Bob Log III
'Tis a Pity She Was a Whore by David Bowie
I Wanna Go Back to Detroit City by Andre Williams
Koroborri by Cankissou
Psychedelic Afro Shop by Orlando Julias
Poison by Susan James
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, June 17, 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
Hi-Billy Music by Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys
Cocaine Blues by Johnny Cash
Do What I Say by The Waco Brothers
Dirt Queen by Trailer Radio
Might as Well Get Stoned by Chris Stapleton
My Next Ex-Girlfriend by Old Man Kelly
Creek Between Heaven and Hell by Jesse Dayton
Three Days by Dallas Wayne
Begging to You by Marty Robbins
The End of the World by Cyndi Lauper
I Don't Know by Dex Romweber
Gunter Hotel Blues by Paul Burch
Memphis Yodel by Jimmie Rodgers
If You Could Touch Her at All by Whitey Morgan
There Must Be Another Way to Live by Amber Digby
Gone, Gone, Gone by Carl Perkins
Wrong John by Jim Stringer
Beans and Make Believe by Mose McCormack
Ida Red by Merle Haggard
True Lovin' Woman by Steve Train & His Bad Habits
Drinkin' Wine and Staring at the Phone by Dave Insley
