Wednesday, March 11, 2020

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Mojo is Everywhere



This Wacky Wednesday we celebrate the songs and career of Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr., better known throughout Christendom as Mojo Nixon.

To paraphrase The Dead Milkmen, if you don't know Mojo Nixon, then your brain needs fixin'.

Mojo recently announced that he's got a new 10-disc box set called The Mojo Manifesto that'll be released this month. Also coming is a documentary with the same title. (It was supposed to have premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival this month, but something funny happened on the way to the festival.)

 Here's a promo video for the doc.



I first encountered Mojo late one weekend night in 1987 while watching Night Flight on cable TV. That's when I first saw the video of "Elvis is Everywhere" by Mojo and  musical partner Skid Roper

I couldn't believe my ears. I soon became a dedicated acolyte of the Mojo Synod  of the Cult of Elvis.

Here are some of my favorite Mojo tunes.

Mojo and Skid dug Howlin' Wolf as much as they did Elvis.



He also paid tribute to teen sensation Debbie Gibson



In the early '90s, Mojo teamed up with Country Dick Montana and Dave Alvin to form The Pleasure Barons who made an album called Live in Las Vegas. When they played live in Santa Fe circa 1992, this crazed supergroup included John Doe of X, Rosie Flores and Katy Moffat. Here's the Barons' version of a Mojo classic.



In 1994 Mojo teamed up with Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys on an album called Prairie Home Invasion. This is my favorite song from that:



Finally, here's the song that made us all fall in love ...

And Elvis STILL needs boats!






Sunday, March 08, 2020

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST





Sunday, March 8, 2020
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
9 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
I'm Not Your Stepping Stone by Paul Revere & The Raiders
Eight Miles High by Husker Du
Thrash City by Poly Styrene
Unable to See the Good by The Buff Medways
Holly Sez by Alien Space Kitchen
We Sell Souls by Lyres
Cold Night for Alligators by Roky Erikson

Silver Moon by Jono Manson
Lighten Up by Sonny Jones
Primitive by The Cramps
Earthquake Shake by The Skunks
Laredo (Small Dark Something) by Jon Dee Graham
Ramblin' Gamblin' Man by Bob Seeger
There But For the Grace of God Go I by The Gories
Fish Heads by Osaka Popstar

The Alphabet Song by The Three Stooges
TV Eye (Take 5) by The Stooges
Something Bad by Ronny Elliott
Betty vs the NYPD by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Cesspoll by The Electric Mess
Daydream by The Artakees
Juarez & Zapata by Joe "King" Carrasco
Rosalie by Andre Williams
Enough is Enough by Tomar & the FCs

Treat Her Right by Roy Head
Love U 2 Death by The Darts
Poisoned Stones by Thee Oh Sees
Oh Bondage! Up Yours! by X-Ray Spex
Drag City by Jan & Dean
American Wedding by Gogol Bordello
Inca Roads by Frank Zappa

Laugh at Me by Mott the Hoople
Cigarettes by Greg Dulli
Framed by The Coasters
Shake Your Funky A.S.S by T. Valentine
Preacher's Daughter by Bobby Charles
Sittin' Here Drinking by Christine Kittrell
Junker Blues by Champion Jack Dupree
It's Bad You Know by R.L. Burnside

All These Blues Go Walkin' by Terry Allen with Shannon McNally
I Just Left Myself Today by The Hickoids
I Didn't Know You When by Possessed by Paul James
Too Old to Dream by Nick Shoulders
As Old as Espanola by Boris McCutcheon
I Can Dream Can't I by The Skyliners
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Go to The Big Enchilada Podcast which has hours and hours of music like this.

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Thursday, March 05, 2020

THROWBACK THURSDAY: All I Did Was Shoot My Wife




Here's a song written by a guy named after Booker T. Washington who ended up in a Mississippi prison for assault.  He'd shot some guy in the leg.

Booker T. Washington White, known professionally as Bukka White, already was a recording artist before his  two-and-a-half-year prison stint in Mississippi's infamous Parchman Farm. He'd recorded 14 blues and gospel songs in Memphis in 1930 under the name Washington White (though Victor Records only released a handful of those tunes at the time.)

He wasn't asked to record again until 1937. At that point he was awaiting his trial for the shooting. But a gig's a gig, and White skipped bail and fled to Chicago for his record deal. He managed to record a few tunes before the law caught up with him.

White, according to Allmusic Guide, "proved a model prisoner, popular with inmates and prison guards alike and earning the nickname `Barrelhouse.' It was as `Washington Barrelhouse White' that White recorded two numbers for John and Alan Lomax at Parchman Farm in 1939.

But "Parchman Farm Blues," his song about the prison, didn't come until 1940, after he'd been released.

Reflecting on his incarceration, White sang,

I'm down on Parchman farm
I sho' wanna go back home
I'm down on Parchman farm
But I sho' wanna go back home
But I hope some day
I will overcome

White sang it, accompanying himself on guitar, aided by Washboard Sam on percussion.

Hear it for yourself:



You probably notice that White's song doesn't sound much like any version of "Parchman Farm" that came later. The song broke out of its genre prison leading authorities on a multi-decade chase that's probably nowhere close to finished.

Nearly 20 years after White recorded this song, a Mississippi hipster named Mose Allison took "Parchman Farm," quickened the beat and added his renown brand of droll humor to the lyrics.

Though Allison's narrator claimed he "ain't never done no man no harm," by the last verse he sings, "Well I'm a gonna be here for the rest of my life /And all I did was shoot my wife."



Allison's first version was recorded in 1957. Seven years later, he did a new version called "New Parchman," in which he declares the prison "is loaded with rustic charm."

Allison's take on White's song launched a ton of covers. The third major Mississippi singer to record "Parchman" was Bobbie Gentry. who released it on her 1968 album The Delta Sweete.



1968 was the first time I'd ever heard the song. But it wasn't Bobbie Gentry's version. It was by the proto-metal trio known as Blue Cheer.



Portland rockers Dead Moon, who I suspect were inspired by Blue Cheer, covered it in 1988.



Then just last year, in their tribute to Gentry's The Delta Sweete, art-rockers Mercury Rev, with Dutch singer Carice van Houten, put their spacey stamp on the song.



And in 2018, a one-man band from Utah named Jacob T. Skeen, with the help of his puppet (!!!),  Mr. Bonetagels, revived the Bukka White version of "Parchman Farm."





For more deep dives into songs, check out The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Songbook

Tuesday, March 03, 2020

CHICKEN SHACK PLAYLIST




Tuesday, March 2, 2020
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays Mountain Time
Substitute Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens by Louis Jordan
A Chicken Ain't Nothin' But a Bird by Cab Calloway
Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine by Harry "The Hipster" Gibson
Looking For a Man by Esther Phillips
Hide Nor Hair by Lou Rawls
A Certain Girl by Ernie K. Doe
Ooh Poo Pah Doo by Trombone Shorty
When You're Smilin'/ Sheik of Araby by Louis Prima

Your Feet's Too Big by Fats Waller
St. James Infirmary by Louis Armstrong
Hello Mama by Willie West
Wacky Dust by Ella Fitzgerald

Sinner's Prayer by Ray Charles
Lonely Avenue by Van Morrison
Time is on My Side by Irma Thomas & Alan Toussaint

Compared to What by Les McCann & Eddie Harris
I've Known Rivers by Gary Bartz
Bessie's Blues by John Coltrane
Old Rugged Cross by Rahsaan Roland Kirk

The Chicken & The Hawk by Big Joe Turner
Wild Man by Mose Allison
I Like My Baby's Pudding by Wynonie Harris

It Should Have Been Me by Billy Boy Arnold
Just Because by Lloyd Price
Holy Cow by Kermit Ruffins

Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page


Want to keep the party going after I sign off?
Go to The Big Enchilada Podcast which has hours and hours of music like this.

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast CLICK HERE

Sunday, March 01, 2020

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST





Sunday, March 1, 2020
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
9 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
Lightning's Girl by Diamond Roads
Run Through the Jungle by Gun Club
Brimful of Hate by Jack Ketch & The Crowmen
Tina the Go-Go Queen by Tav Falco & Panther Burns
Used to Be Cool by Sons of Hercules
London's Burning by The Clash
Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl? by The Barbarians
The Ballad of Thunder Road by Robert Mitchum

Shell of a Man by MC Chicken
Pachuco Hop by Joe "King" Carrasco
Tryin' to Get By by New Bomb Turks
Cupid's Not a Friend of Mine by Muck & The Mires
Sloppy Drunk by Jimmy Rogers
Mr. Trouble by Stan Ridgway
Not a Crime by Gogol Bordello
Rockin' Bones by The Cramps
Thirty Second Lover by The 5 Royales

Obeah Man by Meet Your Death
Warm Hands by Ty Segall
Air BnB by Kim Gordon
Pasties and a G String by Tom Waits
Tusk by Camper Van Beethoven

A Reggae Sentimental Journey by King Shark & Zsa Zsa
Sentimental Journey by Pere Ubu
Chubby Chaser by The Barbarellatones
Nasty Boogie by Champion Jack Dupree
Parked Outside by Afghan Whigs
Call Me Lucky by Dale Watson

They All Ask'd for You by The Meters
Organic Frequency by Mean Motor Scooter
I Surrender! by The Fleshtones
Burnin' Love by The Hickoids
Reconsider Baby by Elvis Presley
Action Packed by Ronnie Dawson
The Patriot by Locker Room Lovers
Patriot's Heart by American Music Club

Dancin' in the World of Love by David Lynch & Jack Cruz
Live Fast, Die Slow by The Black Lips
City of Vampires by Terry Allen
Touch the Sky by Black Pumas
Fear and Beer by The Mekons
Sleep by Tami Neilson
Given to Me by Southern Culture on the Skids
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page


Want to keep the party going after I sign off at midnight?
Go to The Big Enchilada Podcast which has hours and hours of music like this.

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast CLICK HERE

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 14, 2024 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM  Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terre...