Sunday, December 19, 2021 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Santa Claus by The Sonics
She Said Yeah by Larry Williams
Long Way Down by The Ar-Kaics
Once Upon a Time (in Your Mind) by Mal Thursday
I Didn't Know I Was Dead by Negativland
Abstract Blues by Kim Gordon & J Mascis
Grass Jeans by Kim Gordon
Get Me by Dinosaur Jr.
Santa Claus Has Got the AIDS This Year by Tiny Tim
Out for Blood by Johnny Dowd
Too Good to Be Blue by Trixie & The Train Wrecks
Misshapen Head by The Grawks
Ride by Ty Segall
Funky But Chic by David Johansen
Faith in Love by The Lostines
Armenia City in the Sky by Petra Haden
Little Drummer Boy by Joan Jett
Must Be Santa by Bob Dylan
Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking For Her Hand in the Snow) by Yoko Ono
Scumbag by Frank Zappa, The Mothers of Invention Yoko Ono & John Lennon
We Start the Fire by Old Time Relijun
Nail My Dick to the Wall by The Toy Trucks
Punk Rock Retirement Plan by Legendary Shack Shakers
A Poundland Christmas by Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of the British Empire
My Insurance Man (from Bathtubs Over Broadway)
Almost Persuaded #2 by Ben Colder
Come Closer by Honshu Wolves
Jacob's Ladder by Michael Hurley
Girls by Eleni Mandell
Give Me That Old Time Religion by Joseph Spence
Christmas in the Trenches by John McCutcheon
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
On this day four years ago, December 16, 2017, we lost a wonderful American
voice, Dorothy Jacqueline Keely, better known as Keely Smith. She was 89.
Keely, born in Norfolk, Virginia, became famous for singing in her husband
Louis Prima's band. She met and began recording with Prima in 1949. They
married in 1953 (and divorced in 1960.)
Onstage, besides her singing ability, Keely was best known for her hilarious
deadpan expression and often appearing irritated at her husband's highly
animated antics. Her
obit in the New York Times
says, "Her coolness amid Mr. Prima’s chaos cemented them as one of Las
Vegas’s premier attractions and foreshadowed the style of Sonny & Cher
in the 1960s."
I never thought of Louie and Keely in terms of Sonny & Cher, but,
whatever ... Check out this 1960 clip from The Ed Sullivan Show.
I'm not sure where this performance was, but Prima & Smith's version
of "That Old Black Magic" is one of their best-loved tunes.
Keely and Louie appeared in the Robert Mitchum 1958 classic
Thunder Road. In this clip, Mitchum doesn't appreciate the
loudmouth drunk whose obnoxious laughing nearly drowns out Keely's
performance of "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey."
In the mid '60s she released
Keely Smith Sings the John Lennon—Paul McCartney Songbook, a collection of Beatles tunes. Here's a swingin' version of "Please
Please Me."
But this was her first solo hit, from 1957. Keely, wherever you are, we
wish you love.
According to Billboard, his commercial, which debuted during the 2009 Superbowl, also featured rapper Will I. Am, is "the only piece of recorded music history that features the writers of `Visions of Johanna' and `My Humps,' with the latter rapping all over the Planet Waves cut `Forever Young.' The ensuing Super Bowl ad attempts to float the similarities between the two artists, mostly in that they both wear cool sunglasses. Doing it all for the Pepsi."
And unlike Michael Jackson, Dylan didn't even have to catch his hair on fire to do it.
But this hardly was the only t.v. commercial Dylan licensed his songs for or actually appeared in ads for Victoria's Secret, Chrysler, Apple iPods, Chobani yogurt, Google, his own brand of whiskey called Heaven's Door, and probably others I'm forgetting.
And he's not alone.
The world of rock 'n' roll tends to look down at rockers prostituting their pure art for the filthy lucre of the corporate world. In the '80s, John Fogerty preached that sermon in his song "Soda Pop", as did Neil Young in "This Note's for You." I also remember, around this era, Paul Simon on Late Night With David Letterman talking about Simon & Garfunkel being approached by Midas Muffler execs pitching an ad in which "The Sounds of Silence" would be changed to "The Sounds of Midas."
Paul & Artie didn't bite. But Dylan and many others took big bites out of the corporate apple.
Back in the mid '80s, Lou Reed tried hard to make Honda motor scooters look
tough. Anthony DeCurtis wrote in his
2017 biography of Reed, wrote:
That Reed, a serious motorcycle aficionado, would not have been caught
dead riding a scooter in real life seemed beside the point. At times, he
could be defensive about the ad—“Who else could make a scooter hip?” he
challenged one journalist. But he also cited more pragmatic reasons for
his decision, and mentioned Andy Warhol, an early mentor of the Velvet
Underground, as a model for his thinking. “I can’t live in an ivory tower
like people would like me to,” Reed said. “I used to watch Andy do
something for TV Guide or Absolut Vodka … When our equipment broke, that’s
how it got replaced. We didn’t turn around and tell Andy we can’t touch
that money because it came from doing a commercial.
But
Open Culture in 2013 said "The spot made a huge splash on Madison Avenue. Its influence
could be seen all over the next generation of commercials. But it didn’t sell
many scooters."
The piece quotes ad man and author Randall Rothenberg's book
Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and Death of an Advertising
Campaign: “For all its impact on the advertising industry the Lou Reed commercial did
little for Honda. Young Americans had little interest in scooters, no matter
how hip they were made out to be.”
But Lou wasn't alone, shilling for Honda in the 80s. Check out Devo's
contribution:
And Iggy Pop apparently had a lust for auto insurance
But it didn't start in the '80s.
The only disappointing thing about The Rolling Stones when I saw them
play in Austin last month is that they didn't perform their classic Rice
Krispies jingle from the mid '60s:
And in 1967, the same year as The Who Sell Out, The Who actually sold out!
Sunday, December 5, 2021 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Too Cool to Dance by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Murder City Nights by Radio Birdman
What Happens When You Turn the Devil Down by Mystery Lights
Never Look Back by Night Beats
Black Metal by Reverend Beat-Man & Izobel Garcia
Gimme Germs by The Monsters
Johnny Voodoo by Empress of Furs
Sally Was a Good Old Girl by Shocking Blue
My Bathroom by Patt Stanton Gjonola
Some Dispute Over T-Shirt Sales by Butthole Surfers
Oklahoma by P
Born Stupid by Paul Leary
Don't Want You Either by Mal Thursday
Castrati by Pocket FishRmen
Fire Engine by 13th Floor Elevators
Some Conversations You Just Don't Need to Have by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Garbageman by William Shatner
Whiskey in the Jar by The Pogues & The Dubliners
Whatcha Gonna Do (When Your Baby Leaves You) by Chuck Willis
St. James Infirmary by Billy Lee Riley
Alligator Waltz by Rockin' Sidney
Everybody Calls Me Crazy by Clifton Chenier
I Am the Walrus by Frank Zappa
Yes We Have Bananas by Louis Prima
Five Guys Named Moe by Louis Jordan
Any Else by Negativland
Monday Morning Blues by Mississippi John Hurt
Marina by Honshu Wolves
Love Me by Elvis Presley
Sweet Mama by Alto Street
Party While You Still Can by Shinyribs
I Pity the Fool by Bobby "Blue" Bland
Muriel by Eleni Mandell
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
On this day, just 13 years ago, December 2, 2008, a very powerful voice in American
folk music went silent. Odetta Holmes, who was known to the world simply by her
first name, died at the age of 77.
She was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1930. According to
The Washington Post:
After showing musical skill at a young age, she began classical vocal
training that developed into ambition for a concert singing career. Her
mother hoped she would follow the racially groundbreaking career of opera
singer Marian Anderson. ...
After graduating from high school, Odetta followed her mother into work as
a domestic worker. She also studied music in night classes at Los Angeles
City College and found choral work in the West Coast touring company of the
musical "Finian's Rainbow."
The show took her to San Francisco in 1949, and it was there that she was
exposed to the folk music scene.
Odetta, who came to be known as the "Voice of the Civil Rights Movement,"
sang “I’m on My Way” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during Dr.
Martin Luther King's March on Washington in 1963. Also in 1963, she appeared
on television with President John F. Kennedy on a nationally televised civil
rights special called "Dinner With the President." She marched with King for
voting rights in the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965.
And she played at the Thirsty Ear Festival at Bonanza Creek Movie Ranch in
2001. That's the only time I ever got to see her perform live.
Bob Dylan said in a
Playboyinterview just a couple of years ago " Bob Dylan, who said, "The first
thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta. I heard a record of hers
Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues in a record store, back when you could
listen to records right there in the store. Right then and there, I went out
and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar, a
flat-top Gibson."
Here's Odetta singing a chilling tune on Belgian TV in the '60s:
I believe this is the very first Odetta song I ever heard back in the '60s, Woodie
Guthrie's "Pastures of Plenty":
Skip ahead a few decades and here's Odetta with a full band singing Lead Belly's "Jim Crow Blues" with a full band. (Trigger warning for sensitive right-wingers: This song could contain traces of Critical Race Theory. Take note and protect the children):
In the spirit of the Christmas season, this is from Odetta's appearance on the Ed Sullivan show on Christmas night in 1960:
And here is a song I vividly remember from the time I saw Odetta at the Thirsty Ear Festival in 2001. She's backed here by The Holmes Brothers.
