THROWBACK THURSDAY: Happy World Oceans Day

Ahoy!

Today, June 8, is World Ocean Day.

So to honor the world's oceans, here are a bunch of sea shanties, pirate songs and other salty songs of the sea.

Let's start with one that Popeye used to like, "Blow the Man Down" as performed by the Robert Shaw Chorale



Here is a classic shantie called "Haul Away Joe," done a Capella by a contemporary Irish group called The Eskies. I'm not sure why the lead singer shouts "Timmy!" at the end of each version, I don't think it has anything to do with Southpark. (The Clancy Brothers do it too.)



Here's an archetypal pirate song, "Fifteen  Men on a Dead Man's Chest" as performed by  The Roger Wagner Chorale. This song originally came from Robert Lewis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island in 1883, Stevenson only wrote the chorus:

Fifteen men on the dead man's chest
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

But in 1891, Kentucky journalist Young Ewing Allison expanded the snippet into a full-blown poem and published it in the Louisville Courier-Journal (where he was the editor.) Allison called his work "The Derelict," Here's a version by a band called The Jolly Rogers -- live in Muskogee, Oklahoma


"Barnacle Bill the Sailor" was considered pretty ribald and randy when Frank Luther recorded it in 1928. Of course, I learned far filthier lyrics to in as a teenager at Methodist Youth camp.



Speaking of filthy, here's "Good Ship Venus," as performed by Oscar Brand. (And even he cleaned it up a little.)



Finally here's my favorite sailor song, Jacques Brel's  "Port of Amsterdam," as sung by Dave Van Ronk. When I was in Amsterdam a few years ago I searched for a restaurant that served fish heads and tails but couldn't find any.

 


For another great old sea-faring song, check out my Throwback Thursday post on "Hanging Johnny" from a few onths ago,

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Clone Rock!

Before we existed the cloning began
The cloning of man and woman
When we're gone they'll live on, cloned endlessly
It's mandatory in heaven
For one brief shining moment, rock 'n' roll was overrun by renegade clones
Pat Benetar & Roger Capps

Maybe it was The Boys from Brazil, the 1976 novel by Ira Levin, turned in to a movie two years later, which was about Nazis cloning Adolf Hitler.

Or maybe it was the 1973 Woody Allen science fiction Sleeper, which involved a government plot to make a clone from the nose of the dictator. He had died in a rebel bombing and the nose was all that remained.

Or maybe it was the story -- suppressed by the lame-stream media -- about the clone of Elvis Presley, who escaped his mad scientist creators. (As far as I know, nobody ever claimed the $100,000 reward, so he's probably still out there.)

Whatever sparked it, from the mid '70s through the early '80s, the concept of human cloning was responsible for a bunch of rock, pop and funk songs.

Below are some of the best of these.

Let's start with the funkiest, George Clinton and Parliament, whose album, The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein set a high bar for the clone tunes that would follow. Here's the song "Children of Production."



In 1977 Now, the third album by the San Francisco proto-New Wave group The Tubes, included a song called "Cathy's Clone." None other than Captain Beefheart played sax on the track.



Cloning showed up on on Pat Benetar's 1979 debut album In the Heat of The Night in the form of "My Clone Sleeps Alone." Did Miss Pat foresee the eventual decline of clone rock? "No naughty clone ladies allowed in the '80s," she sang.



Alice Cooper had one of the last Clone Rock tunes, his 1980 single "Clones (We're All)," later to be covered by The Smashing Pumpkins.



And yes, in 1981 I made a little Cajun-flavored contribution to Clone Rock  ...

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 4, 2017
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Lake of Fire by Meat Puppets
You're My Pacemaker by Archie & The Bunkers
Watch Out Woman by Travis Pike & Brattle Street East
Life on the Dole by Molting Vultures
Tallulah by Cowbell
They Ring the Bells for Me by Reverend Beat-Man
Teenage Barbarian by Rattanson
The Mad Daddy by The Cramps
Bundle of Joy by Dean Ween Group

Get on Board by Dead Moon
That's When I Reach For My Revolver by Mission of Burma
Stand for the Fire Demon by Roky Erickson
Burning Love by Rev. Tom Frost
Cowboy George by The Fall
Web in Front by Archers of Loaf
Why Do You Think You Are Nuts by Sharon Needles

Ballad of Soloman Jones by Jon Langford's Men of Gwent
Traveling Alone by The Mekons
The Hand of John L. Sullivan by Flogging Molly
Down in the Beast by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Dead Meat by Pussy Galore
Claw Machine Wizard by Left Lane Cruiser
Off the Ground by Benjamin Booker
Stalin Wasn't Stallin' by The Golden Gate Quartet
Luna Goona Park by The Wipeouters

Down by The Water by PJ Harvey
I Got Lost by Afghan Whigs
Estimate by The Black Angels
Is That You in the Blue by Dex Romweber Duo
Sycamore Tree by Xiu Xiu
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, June 2, 2017
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
The Crawdad Song by The Meat Purveyors
Truck Stop at the End of the World by Bill Kirchen
Pop  a Top by Nat Stuckey
I Ain't Got Nobody by Merle Haggard
Big Dummy by Tommy Collins
Better Bad Idea by Sunny Sweeney
Big Game Hunter by Andy Anderson
Grandpa Stole My Baby by Moon Mullican
Root Hog or Die by June Carter
Shakedown by Valerie June

Creepy Jackalope Eye by Steve Earle & The Supersuckers
I'm at Home Getting Hammered by Jesse Dayton
Totally Totaled My Car by L.A. Rivercatz
I Can't Tell the Boys from the Girls by Lester Flatt
Cryin' to Cryin' Time Again by Dale Watson & Ray Benson
Cryin' Time by Nancy Sinatra
May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose by Little Jimmy Dickens
Brown Eyed Women by The Grateful Dead
Payday Blues by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks

I'm Leavin' by Rhonda Vincent
Soul on the Move by Martha Fields
Chew Tobacco Rag by Pee Wee King
Suzie Anna Riverstone by The Imperial Rooster
Stupid Boy by Gear Daddies
Who Was That Man by Nick Lowe
Small Town Saturday Night by Wheeler Walker
Livin' on Love by Ray Campi
Wake Up Baby by Sonny Boy Williamson
Untitled (track 2) by Charlie Tweddle

San Antonio Stroll by Tanya Tucker
It's Not Right by John Wagner
Laredo by Snakefarm
Marie by Leon Redbone
St. Pete Jail by Panama Red
Cheater's World by Amy Allison
Cold Hard Truth by George Jones
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets


Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page

Check out this month's hillbilly episode of The Big Enchilada, Where the Jackalope Roam 

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

THROWBACK THURSDAY: In Celebration of June ... Lots of Junes!

It's June 1 and what better time to show some appreciation for singers named June.

First let's start with June Allyson, a dancer, singer and actor born Eleanor Geisman in The Bronx in 1917.  In the 1940s she became known as "the girl next door." Here's a number called "When" from a movie called The Opposite Sex."



June Christy was another June who wasn't born a June. (She was born Shirley Luster in 1925) Christy's big break in show biz is when she landed the job as singer for Stan Kenton's band following the departure of Anita O'Day in 1945. Here's an appearance on High Hefner's first TV show, Playboy's Penthouse.


June Tabor is a wonderful British folk and pop singer. I first heard her in 1976 with Maddy Pryor on their album Silly Sisters. Here's a song she did with The Oysterband.



Valerie June Hockett, known professionally as just Valerie June probably is way too young to be part of Throwback Thursday. But much of her rootsy music hearkens back to the 20s and 30s. Here's a bluesy tune called "Workin' Woman Blues."



Finally here's my favorite June of all, the lovely June Carter, later known as June Carter Cash. Sometimes June is overshadowed by her own family. Her mom (and aunt and uncle) were The Carter Family, major pioneers of country music. And her husband was a guy named Johnny Cash. But in the 1950s, June had her own career, singing songs and performing sweet hillbilly comedy. Here's a heartache song, which follows some funning around with Marty Robbins on some TV show.


Happy June!