Ninety seven years ago today, Aug. 11, 1919, Germany adopted a constitution hammered out in the city of Weimar, creating a representative democracy for the country.
The new government for the next 14 years would be unofficially known as The Weimar Republic.
The Weimar Republic era wasn't an easy time for Germany, which faced hyper-inflation, crushing debt, depression and and the rise of National Socialism.
But culturally, the '20s truly roared in the Weimar Republic,
It was the age of the cabaret in which art, theater, music and cinema thrived.
In honor of the Weimar constitution, here are a few samples of popular German music of that era.
Let's start with big, bawdy Berlin Singer Claire Waldoff,
Here's Harry Jackson's Tanz Orchestra.
Adolf Ginsburg's Orchestra performs "I Found a Million Dollar Baby"
Finally here is Lotte Lenya singing "Seeräuber Jenny" in the film version of The Three Penny Opera. Her husband was Kurt Weill, who composed the music for the play. Lenya was in the original 1928 Berlin stage production of the play.
Here is a bunch of songs by TV stars who probably wish they'd never sung them.
Let's start with Burt Ward, who portrayed Robin on Batman in the mid '60s. The song "Boy Wonder I Love You" is fairly typical '60s teen idol dreck. But it's teen idol dreck written and arranged by Frank Zappa! Plus, some of Zappa's original Mothers of Invention, including my late pal Jimmy Carl Black, played on the record.
They had incredibly long, scraggly hair, and clothes that appeared not to have been washed in this century if ever. These were musicians who became famous for tearing up furniture, their speakers, their microphones and even their expensive guitars onstage. They were maniacs! ... Their fearless leader and king of grubbiness was the late Frank Zappa. (The full name of the band was Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.) After recording with me, Frank became an internationally recognized cult superstar, which was understandable; after working with me, the only place Frank could go was up.
The following video proves him right
Perhaps the greatest TV news anchor to never exist was Ted Baxter, portrayed on The Mary Tyler Moore Show by Ted Knight. Here's an ode from Ted to another television journalist Barbara Walters from his 1975 novelty album Hi Guys. I'm still searching for the restraining order Walters surely filed after hearing this.
And in this clip from NBC's Hullabaloo, (a music show I watched back in the mid '60s even though it was hopelessly inferior to ABC's Shindig) Michael Landon -- Little Joe on Bonanza -- does the Freddie with Peter & Gordon
Sunday, Aug. 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
When the Lights Go Out by Jimmy Witherspoon
Richard Speck by The Chesterfield Kings
Swollen Colon Lament by Figures of Light
Waste of Time by The Cynics
Big Ass on Fire by Pocket FishRmen
Casn't Judge a Book by Thee Headcoats
Things Could Change by Rock 'n' Roll Monkey & The Robots
Night of Two Moons by Digger & The Pussycats
Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance by The Mothers of Invention
Graveyard Boogie by Cawama
Hot and Nasty by Eddie Spaghetti & Brian Venable
Bloodstains on the Wall by Honeyboy
Bloodstained Carpet by Dino's Boys
Destroy All Music by The Weirdos
Drunk Town by The Devils
Mornin' Noon and Night by Daddy Long Legs
Constant Pain by Pussy Galore
God of Thunder by Quintron & Miss Pussycat
How to Fake a Lunar Landing by Alien Space Kitchen
Full Moon in the Daylight Sky by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Heartbreak in the First Degree by The Soulphonics
Do the Primal Thing by NRBQ
I Can't Control Myself by The Ramones
Mixed Bizness by Beck
Pockets by Sulphur City
Mr. Good Enough by JJ & The Real Jerks
Shakin' Street by The MC5
Dirty Old Man by The Sonics
Warlord of the Royal Crocodiles by Tyrannosaurus Rex
Naapusissa by The Shangri Blahs
The Big Break by Richard Berry
Kremlin Dogs by Gregg Turner
Hey Yah by Richard Cheese
You Must Be Be a Witch by Dead Moon
Up the Dumper by The Melvins
Girl from the North by Dengue Fever
Night of the Lotus Eaters by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
The Kiss by Judee Sill
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, Aug. 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
Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child by Mojo Nixon
TTT Gas by The Gourds
Longer by Lydia Loveless
When I Steal by Ruby Dee & The Snakehanders
Be My Ball and Chain by Brennen Lee & Noel McKay
Three Diamond Rings by Trailer Radio
Cowboy Song by Slackeye Slim
Boots and Spurs by Kyle Martin
Dangerous Nan McGrew by Helen Kane
Another Brick in the Wall by Luther Wright & The Wrongs
Gin & Tonic by Joe West
Lotta Lotta Women by Robbie Fulks
Never Be Again by Ugly Valley Boys
Put Your Teeth Up on the Window Sill by Southern Culture on the Skids
Pig Fork by The Imperial Rooster
Gold by The Handsome Family
Under the Jail by Mose McCormack
Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain / Mother's Best ad by Hank Williams
Bonapart's Retreat by Audrey Williams
You Flopped When You Got Me Alone by June Carter
Don't Ya Tell Henry by Bob Dylan & The Band
The Devil Ain't Lazy by Asleep at the Wheel with The Blind Boys of Alabama
Sweet Georgia Brown by The Western Flyers
One More Night Alone by Dan Whitaker & The Sidebenders
Making Believe by Wanda Jackson
Poor Don't Vote by Paul Burch
Hickory Wind by Bob Mould & Vic Chesnutt
It Comes to Me Naturally by NRBQ
Take These Chains from My Heart by Merle Haggard
Scrapyard Lullabye by Chris Whitley
Tell Me Why I Do by Dex Romweber
Rye Whiskey by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
(Out on the Streets) Junk is Still King by Gary Heffern CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican Aug. 5, 2016
Decades before the issue of musicians “selling out” and shilling for corporate products became a subject of serious handwringing among the deep thinkers of rock ’n’ roll, Southern flour mills were bankrolling radio shows that popularized their products as well as major country and blues artists.
The Martha White company was sponsoring The Grand Ole Opry — with a cool jingle by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs — while King Biscuit Flour was bankrolling Sonny Boy Williamson’s radio show in Helena, Arkansas.
Even Hank Williams had a corporate sugar daddy — or more accurately a flour daddy — in a Decatur, Alabama, mill called Mother’s Best Flour Company.
In 1951, the company sponsored a weekday morning at WSM in Nashville starring Hank and his Drifting Cowboys. More than 15 hours of these shows are available on a 15-CD box set called The Complete Mother’s Best Collection ... Plus! reissued last month in different packaging than the original 2010 edition.
Here you’ll hear Hank and his band singing songs, cutting up between numbers and sometimes even screwing up. At one point Hank says he’s going to perform “I Saw the Light” but instead starts singing a different song. Hank stops the song, saying “Now which one am I singing? I wrote so many of ’em to the same tune I don’t know which one I’m started off on …”
You’ll hear Hank singing some of his best-known hits — there are three different versions of “Move it On Over,” four of “Cold, Cold Heart,” etc. — novelty songs, cover songs, a plethora of gospel songs, instrumentals by the Drifting Cowboys — and 30-some songs by Miss Audrey.
Mr. and Mrs. Hank Williams
Ah, Miss Audrey!
Audrey Williams was a beautiful woman and a muse for some of her husband’s greatest songs. (She divorced Williams in 1952.) But she had a voice that could peel paint. I wonder how many sales of Mother’s Best Flour were lost by music lovers turning the dial when her off-key voice came over the airwaves.
She does some dandy humorous songs like “Four Flusher” and “Model T Love.” June Carter would have killed with these songs. But Audrey just made them painful. They should have let Big Bill Lister, Hank’s rhythm guitarist and opening act, do these numbers. (Lister has only one solo track here, a funny talking song called “Foolish Questions.”)
My favorite songs here are Hank’s versions of country classics made famous by others. Among these are Moon Mullican’s “I’ll Sail My Ship Alone,” Roy Acuff’s “Low and Lonely,” Bob Nolan’s “Cool Water,” and a Fred Rose song Willie Nelson made famous more than 20 years after Hank died, “Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain.”
Hank’s version has a verse that Willie didn’t use, probably because it didn’t fit in with the story he was telling on his album Red Headed Stranger:
“Now my hair has turned to silver/All my life I’ve loved in vain/I can see her star in heaven/Blue eyes cryin’ in the rain.”
Trouble ahead, lady in red
There’s a genuine Hank Williams oddity here. “Stars in Her Eyes” is a 14-minute musical melodrama about venereal disease in which Hank narrates and sings little snippets.
This wasn’t sponsored by Mother’s Best. It was a part of a U.S. Public Health Service project to reach Southerners about the dangers of VD. None other than the renowned folklorist Alan Lomax helped the government line up singers like Roy Acuff, Woody Guthrie, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and, yes, Hank Williams, to star in musical public service announcements. (There is a cool podcast by WNYC about that HERE.)
Hank’s contribution to this effort was the story of Joe and Lena, a young couple. He goes through their entire tedious courtship and their marriage, aided by a handful of uncredited actors who sound like rejects from radio soap operas. The woman who plays Lena is especially overwrought.
My favorite part is the last scene in which Lena begs forgiveness for giving Joe the clap. Joe gives a classic 1950s manly reply: “Let’s not talk about it. Not now. Not ever.”
At the recommended retail price of $129, it’s fair to say this box set is for Hank Williams completists only. And there are problems beyond the hefty price tag.
The introductions and closings of all the individual programs — there are nearly three hours of these when you add them up — are extremely repetitive. And so are the plugs for Mother’s Best that follow nearly every song. While charming at first, these start getting old fairly quickly.
Despite these flaws, this box set will give a listener a deeper insight into the personality and the musical grasp of one of the true giants of American music.
For those who just want the music, there was a fantastic 2008 three-disc box called The Unreleased Recordings that features 55 Hank songs — just the songs, and no Audrey solos — from the Mother’s Best sessions. It’s out of print, but you can find it for a reasonable price online.
Robbie Fulks in Los Alamos: It was only a few weeks ago in this very column that I was raving about Robbie Fulks’ latest record, his “seemingly subdued, but actually powerful acoustic album Upland Stories,” and how 20 years after his recording debut, Fulks continues to grow as an artist.
You can see for yourself whether I was correct. Fulks is playing at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 5, at Ashley Pond in Los Alamos as part of Russ Gordon’s free summer concert series. Yes, I said free! Bring your own lawn chairs.
Video Time!
These videos, of course are brought to you by Mother's Best Flour
Until very recently I believed that Helen Kane was the actual voice of Betty Boop.
But just a couple of months ago after writing a column about Cyndi Lauper, a diligent editor showed me the error of my ways. (Thanks, Molly B!)
So no, Helen Kane was not Betty Boop. But when you listen to her songs, you can see how one can make that assumption.
Kane was born Helen Claire Schroeder Aug. 4, 1904 in the Bronx. She started her entertainment career in Vaudeville and by the late 1920s she was making records as well as movies.
And yes, her "boop boop a doop" had become her trademark by this time.
Betty Boop didn't make her debut until 1930. Her face resembled Kane's. But even more so, Betty's voice (provided through the years by at least three actresses, Margie Hine, Mae Questel and Bonnie Poe) resembled Kane's
Cane sued Max Fleischer Studios in 1932, claiming the company had appropriated her vocal style. The case dragged on for more than two years and eventually Kane lost.
We all love Betty Boop but Kane, who died in 1966, deserves love too.
So let's celebrate her music on her 112th birthday.
Cyndi Lauper made this song famous.
But the first song of Kane's I ever heard was this one.
And here's where I first heard that song:
And for those who really want to Boop out, here's a collection of her songs from the Internet Archive
Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr., better known in the free world as Mojo Nixon turned 59 years old yesterday.
Happy birthday, Mojo!
Mojo doesn't perform music that much these days. For the past several years he's done a weekday radio show called The Loon in the Afternoon for Sirus XM's Outlaw Country station.
But his songs are immortal.
Though he's best known for such classics as "Don Henley Must Die," "Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with My Two-Headed Love Child," and of course "Elvis is Everywhere" -- the song that made me a lifelong fan -- today I honor Mojo with a bunch of less familiar songs.
Let's start with this clip from 1989 -- which was around the first time I ever heard Mojo live -- Here he sounds like a one-man redneck Velvet Underground.
Truly he was the King of Sleaze.
From the early '90s, Mojo & The Toadlickers sing "Poontango"
Here is a live performance from earlier this year in which Mojo discusses current events and politics. I can hear the influence of Wesley Willis in this one.
And speaking of politics, back in 1990, Mojo was a guest on CNN's Crossfire where he did battle with Pat Buchanan (who used to work for another Nixon) and some Junior League Tipper Gore over the evils of rock 'n' roll and the need for mandatory labeling of dirty, perverted, violent, Satanic records.
(If you're a masochist, the rest of Mojo's Crossfire appearance can be found HERE and HERE.
Sunday, July 31, 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
Rats in My Kitchen by The Fleshtones
Fall on You by The Plimsouls
Knee High by Dino's Boys
Better to Be Lucky Than Good by The Electric Mess
Night of the Sadist by Larry & The Blue Notes
Animal by Knoll Allen & The Noble Savages The Striker by The Giant Robots Bless You by The Devil Dogs
We'll Be Together by The Pretty Things
Manic Romantics by Soulphonics Cha Cha Cha Chewy by Jonny Manak & The Depressives Skinny Jimmy by The Del Moroccos
If a Man Answers by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
The Sky is a Poisonous Garden by Concrete Blonde
Shotgun Shooter by GØGGS
Bloody Hammer by Roky Erickson & The Aliens
Spooks by Ghost Bikini
El Sadistico by Deadbolt
No Novelty by Nots
Andres by L7
Moonlight Motel by The Gun Club
Crawl Through Your Hair by New Mystery Girl
Alien Agenda by Alien Space Kitchen
Big Black Hole by The Oblivians Celebration Number One by The Night Beats
Yona's Blues by The Come n' Go Louie Louie by The Flamin' Groovies
Shattered by The Good Feelings
You Got the Love by The Cynics Wild Little Rider by The Bloodhounds
High John the Conquerer by Gogol Bordella
Russian Lullaby by Pierre Omer's Swing Revue
Zycie Jest Piekne by Kult
Reckless Heart by Johnny Rawls
Muriel by Eleni Mandell
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, July 29, 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
Thunder Road by Robert Mitchum
The One That Got Away by Legendary Shack Shakers
Hard Travelin' by Tim Timebomb
It's All Over But the Crying by Jan Howard
Sloppy Drunk Blues by Devil in a Woodpile
Cornbread and 'Lasses and Sassafrass Tea by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
I Got Nothing by Don Whitaker & The Shinebenders
Skip a Rope by Dallas Wayne
Don't Fall in Love WIth a Girl Like That by The Boxcars
Buffalo Gals by J. Michael Combs
Anything Goes at a Rooster Show by The Imperial Rooster
Don't Shoot by Kyle Martin
I Don't Claim to Be an Angel by Laura Cantrell
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter by The Western Flyers
Rubber Room by Frontier Circus
Dolores by T. Tex Edwards & Out on Parole
Railroad Lady by Jerry Jeff Walker
Jimmy Jack's Diner by Trailer Radio
The Marching Hippies by Guy Drake
Never Come Home / Cocktails by Robbie Fulks
Do You Know How It Feels to Be Lonely by Carla Olson
Begging for a Bullet by Dean Miller
Win-Win Situation for Losers by Dave Insley
Roarin' by Gary Stewart
One Meat Ball by Josh White
Number One With a Bullet by Freakwater
The Pilgrim Chapter 38 by Kris Kristofferson
Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends by Joan Osborne
Watching the River Go By by John Hartford
Thy Burdens are Greater Than Mine by Hank Williams
For years I've been fascinated by a song that I just always assumed was an Old
West cowboy song, the song that might be sung out on the range, or by Miss
Kitty's prettiest showgirls at the Long Branch Saloon.
"Buffalo Gals."
I always assumed there was something going on beneath the lyrics about dancing
with the girl with the hole in her stocking. Something spooky and mystical and
sexy.
Recently while reading about "Buffalo Gals" on the Library of Congress
Folklife Todayblog, a commenter named Joe Ward described exactly what I thought the song was
about:
It may have been a cleaned up account, but when I was a child in Texas I
was told that it was based on an old cowboy legend that on moonlit nights on
the prairie, sometimes the spirits of sleeping buffalo would emerge in the
form of beautiful young girls and dance in the moonlight.
I imagined it as an invocation, with the horny old cowpoke singing it trying to
conjure up his own buffalo gal, who I'm sure would snort, kick up a lot of dust
and, uh, dance by the light of the moon. But there's good evidence that "Buffalo Gals" didn't start out as a cowboy
song. And that article in Folklife Today, written by
Stephanie Hall suggests that originally the Buffalo gals might have just been girls from
Buffalo, N.Y.
Hall writes:
"Buffalo Girls" became the title of a 1990 Larry McMurtry novel about
Calamity Jane
... the origin of this song is often given as having been composed by the
minstrel show performer John Hodges under his stage name “Cool White” in
1844. The lyrics are somewhat different, as shown by the title: “Lubly Fan
Will You Cum Out To Night?” [sic] (Lubly Fan is Lovely Fanny). It is an
early example of a song sung by a white man who performed in black face
using a mock African American dialect. Just one year later another white
group who performed in black face, The Ethiopian Serenaders, published sheet
music for “Philadelphia Gals,” (1845) with similar lyrics and no attribution
for a composer or lyricist. ... The Ethiopian Serenaders published another version, “Buffalo Gals”
(presumably for Buffalo, New York), also unattributed. This is the first
sheet music version of the song as it is most familiar to us today.
Hall, however, raises the possibility that the song could have existed long
before it was published.
"Folk songs and minstrel show songs were often in oral circulation long
before they appeared in published form, so first publication is not
necessarily a reliable indication of a song’s age or the composer. It was
not uncommon for the person who first transcribed a song to claim
authorship, especially in the nineteenth century. ... Versions of the song
may even have existed in oral tradition before “Lubly Fan” or “Buffalo Gals”
appeared on minstrel stages.
Hall found what might be a version of the song in the guise of a fiddle song
found in Virginia and West Virginia called "Round Town Gals" circa 1839. You can
find a version of that
HERE.
After the song was published in the mid 1840s, it began to travel around the
country. Sometimes the title would be changed to match the locale in which it
was being played. But "Buffalo Gals" began to stick.
"Who are those buffalo gals?" Hall wrote. "The bison is a symbol of America,
especially the American west. As the song takes on new life, the `gals' may be
women of the west, pioneers, cowgirls, or perhaps fancy women."
Or maybe even the spirits of wild animals who take human form to dance by the
light of the moon.
Below are some worthy versions of "Buffalo Gals."
Woody Guthrie was not the first to record it, but he captured the spirit. His
"Buffalo Gals is a drunken square dance.
Springsteen put some rock 'n' roll in it.
Former Santa Fe resident Eliza Gilkyson played with the lyrics and made it her
own.
And, of course, Malcolm McLaren went crazy with it.
Ninety seven years ago today, Aug. 11, 1919, Germany adopted a constitution hammered out in the city of Weimar, creating a representative democracy for the country.
