Sunday, December 29, 2019 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)by
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Happy New Year by Spike Jones & His City Slickers
Blank Generation by Richard Hell & The Voidoids
Phantom by The Darts
Finger by Ty Segall
Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White by The Standells
Jane by Dead Moon
Dangerous Madness by Wayne Kramer
Mama Get the Hammer by Barrence Whitfield
Devil Time by Satan & Disciples
Alien Agenda by Alien Space Kitchen
Shivers Down My Spine by King Khan & The Shrines
Love Like a Man by Thr Fleshtones
I've Become Flaccid by Eating Bad Acid by Gregg Turner
Journey to the Center of the Mind by The Ramones
Evil Thing by Thee Headcoatees
Anywhere's Better Than Here by The Replacements
Rather Low by Nick Shoulders
Funnel of Love by Cyndi Lauper
Love Like Crazy by Jessica Lee Wilkes
Catfight by Miss Celine Lee
Shakin' All Over by Eilen Jewell
She's About a Mover by Sir Douglas Quintet
The Mad Daddy by The Cramps
No Blame by Sex Hogs II
Please Abduct Me by The Scaners
I Found My Baby by The Jokers
She Lives in the Jungle by O Legendario Chuchrobillyman
The Glory of Love by Jimmy Durante
What a Joy by Donovan Joseph
Black Beauty by Autarchii
Bless You by Tony Orlando
I Walked In While He Was Changing Your Mind by Rex Hobart & His Misery Boys
Bitter Frost by The Hoth Brothers
Blue As the Ocean by Cactus Blossoms
Elvis Presley Blues by Tom Jones Substitute CLOSING THEME: Auld Lang Syne by Guy Lombardo
This is just a little tribute to some of my musical heroes who died this year.
As cheesy as it sounds, if you love their music you can keep them alive in your heart.
Bluegrass great Mac Wiseman left us in February:
March took the sultan of the surf guitar, Dick Dale:
Roky Erikson died in May
Dr. John died in June
In July, Jerry Lawson of The Persuasions, the greatest a capella group in rock 'n' roll history, passed.
Art Neville of The Neville Brothers and The Meters died in July. Here's an early solo record Art cut before those groups:
"Outsider" musician Daniel Johnston died in September:
Later in September, Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter died. This song is from one of his solo records in the '70s.
And early this month, original Flamin' Groovie Roy Loney died. This is a clip with a later Loney band, The Phantom Movers. (And for a whole Loney tribute, check out my latest Big Enchilada podcast.)
UPDATE: Just minutes after posting this, I learned of the death of rockabilly giant Sleepy LaBeef.
Sunday, December 22, 2019 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
The 79th Annual Steve Terrell Christmas Special
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
The Season's Upon Us by Dropkick Murphys
Super Rock Santa by The Fleshtones
Must Be Santa by Bob Dylan
Christmas 1979 by Wild Billy Childish
Even Squeaky Fromme Loves Christmas by Rev. Glen Armstrong
Don't Believe in Christmas by The Sonics
Yulesville by Ed "Kookie" Byrnes
Christmas is a Comin' by The Shitbirds
Little Drummer Boy by Joan Jett
Can Man Christmas by Joe West
Santa Can't Stay by Dwight Yoakam
Fat Daddy by Fat Daddy
Merry Xmas to Me by The Waco Brothers
Is Santa Claus a Hippie? by Linda Cassady
My Last Christmas by The Dirtbombs
Santa Doesn't Cop Out on Dope by Sonic Youth
Sausage & Sauerkraut for Santa by The Polkaholics
Christmas is For the Birds by Conway Twitty
Jinglecide by The Rockin' Guys
Hark the Herald Angels Sing by The Fall
Christmas is Just Another Day by Johnny Dowd
Santa's Doing the Horizontal Twist by Kay Martin & Her Boyfriends
Fairytale of New York by The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl
Be-Bop Santa Claus by Babs Gonzales
Somebody Stole My Santa Suit by Dan Hicks & The Christmas Jug Band
Six Bullets for Christmas by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Gloria by Elastica
Happy Birthday, Jesus (A Child's Prayer) by Little Cindy
So Much Wine by The Handsome Family
Go Tell it On The Mountain by Mojo Nixon & The Toadlickers
Santa Claus Got Stuck (in My Chimney) by Ella Fitzgerald
O Holy Night by Brian Wilson
Star of Wonder by The Roches
Silent Night / What Christmas Means by Dion
Let's celebrate with a bunch of tunes from some of my favorite "outsider" musicians. (And if you baren't hip to "outsider music," educate yourself HERE and check out this previous Wacky Wednesday HERE.)
Let's start with some holiday cheer from Wesley Willis
Beneath the wacky exterior, this Yuletide song by Larry "Wild Man" Fischer tells a heartbreaking holiday story
Daniel Johnston had the Christmas spirit
A spoken-word recital from the jolly old Legendary Stardust Cowboy
B.J. Snowden, the self-declared "Queen of Outsider Music," teamed up with Fred Schneider of the B-52s for this Christmas dance number
OK, once again this is not really a Christmas podcast. I included just enough Christmas songs to make you smash your head against the bathroom mirror, not enough to chop off your own head. Besides, fans of this kind of music got some bad news right before I started working on this: Roy Loney, a founding member of The Flamin' Groovies died. So there's a rocking Roy tribute right in the middle of the show
And remember, The Big Enchilada is officially listed in the iTunes store. So go subscribe, if you haven't already (and gimme a good rating and review if you're so inclined.) Thanks.
Sunday, December 15, 2019 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
Breathless by Jerry Lee Lewis
Sonic Reducer by The Dead Boys
Colour from the Tube by Gang of Four
Lust Lil Lucy by Nick Curran & The Lowlifes
Let Me In by ET Explore Me
Disolve by Mudhoney
Victory by P.J. Harvey
My Amazing Life by Kathy Freeman
Too Good to Be Blue by Trixie & The Trainwrecks
Trouble in Mind by Big Bill Broonzy
Yeah Yeah Yeah by Los Gallos
Backstreets by Shannon & The Clams
The Hungry Wolf by X
Plant the Seed by Imperial Wax
Big Blue Burning Bus by The Hormonauts
Golden Shower of Hits (Jerks on 45) by The Circle Jerks
Along Came Jones by The Coasters
R.I.P. Roy Loney
She's Falling Apart by Flamin' Groovies
Jump into the River by Roy Loney & The A-Bones
32-20 by Flamin' Groovies
Slow Death by Charlie Pickett
I Couldn't Spell !!*@! by Roy Loney & The Young Fresh Fellows
Scum City by Roy Loney & The Phantom Movers
Scratch My Back by Flamin' Groovies
Teenage Head by Ross Johnson & Jeffrey Evans
Gonna Rock Tonight by Flamin' Groovies
So Glad You're Mine by Junior Wells
Train Train by Jimmy "Duck" Holmes
Stay Gold by Black Pumas
Gotta Have My Baby Back by Kelly Hogan
Since I Don't Have You by The Skyliners CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Willie Mae Thornton, better known as "Big Mama," would have turned 93 on Wednesday. But she died in 1984 at the age of 57.
Happy belated birthday, Big Mama.
Born in Ariton, Alabama she started her musical path singing in church, though she was drawn to the blues of Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie. Thornton was a hard-living, hard-drinking R&B singer whose heyday was in the 1950s, when she was part of Johnny Otis' Revue.
Though she deserved fame on her own talents, Thornton is best known for two songs done later by other singers.
She recorded the first version of "Hound Dog," written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952. A guy named Presley had a huge hit with a seriously mutated version of that song three years later.
She also wrote an odd, dark blues called "Ball and Chain" in the early '60s, though it wasn't released until after Janis Joplin, fronting Big Brother & The Holding Company, recorded it and made it famous in 1968. (And in an archetypal story of music industry greed and cruelty, her record company owned the copyright, so Thornton didn't receive any royalties from Janis' cover.
Have I told you lately how much I hate the music industry?
Big Mama outlived both Elvis and Janis, but by the time the '80s came around, the booze had destroyed her liver and her heart. Despite her trademark girth for so many years, when she died, she reportedly weighed less than 100 pounds.
But today, we celebrate her life and music. Let's start with her best known song:
Big Mama knew rats as well as hound dogs.
Here's "Ball and Chain" before Big Brother put it through the psychedelic grinder:
Big Mama recorded this Ray Charles hit in 1969
In 1980, Aretha Franklin had Big Mama as a guest on her TV special. Thornton would have been in her early 50s at the time she and Aretha sang this Bessie Smith classic.
Sunday, December 8, 2019 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
The Holygram's Song (Back from the Shadows Again)
Mechanical Man by Mean Motor Scooter
Bromidic Thrills by Imperial Wax
If It's News to You by Tammi Savoy & Chris Casello
Martin Scorsese by King Missile
Suck You Dry by Mudhoney
The Sky is a Poisonous Garden by Concrete Blonde
Insane Asylum by The Detroit Cobras
See You in the Boneyard by The Flesheaters
No Gifts for Nazis by Alice Bag Band
If You Play With My Mind You're Going to Get Your Hands Dirty by Cornell Hurd Band
No Cussin', No Fussin' by Dale Watson
Black Moon Risin' by Black Pumas
Suit or So by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
The Boogey Monster by Gnarls Barkley
John E.'s Mood by Jon E. Edwards & The Internationals
Don't Hold My Hand by The Darts
Air B & B by Kim Gordon
John Lennon set
I'm Losing You by John Lennon
Isolation by Ty Segall
Cold Turkey by Lenny Kravitz
She Said, She Said by Black Keys
Everybody's Got Something t o Hide Except Me and My Monkey by Fats Domino
Working Class Hero by John Lennon
Helter Skelter by Siouxsi & The Banshees
No Reply by The Beatles
Tom Waits Set
Waiting for Waits by Richie Cole
Raised Right Man
Heart Attack and Vine by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
Singapur by Kazik
House Where Nobody Wins by Iris DeMent
Muriel by Eleni Mandell
Innocent When You Dream by Tom Waits
Just got back to town last night, so Wacky Wednesday is a little late today ...
While visiting Austin, Texas last week, I got to see Cornell Hurd and his always-amazing band for the first time in several years.
Besides his strong voice and tight country-swing group (Cornell eschews the term "country," preferring to call his sound "Texas dance music"), what I like best about Cornell is his songwriting, which is fortified by his sardonic sense of humor. Many of his song titles alone are funnier than most of what passes as "comedy" these days.
It's too bad that I couldn't find "The Genitalia of a Fool" on YouTube. But below are some other great examples:
Cornell played this one (and gave a similar intro) when I saw him last week.
I washed my mind in muddy water ...
This may leave you .... breathless -ah
Mom was ahead of her time
This is one of my son's favorites when he was growing up (from probably my favorite kiddie album by anyone.)
Sunday, November 24, 2019 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
Jack Ruby by Camper Van Beethoven
Just Dropped In to See What Condition My Condition Was In by Mojo Nixon
WishThat She'd Come Back by The Mystery Lights
I Hate You by The Monks
Hornet by Jon Spencer
I Walked All Night by The Cramps
Mystic Eyes by Them Spirit in the Sky by Fuzzbox
Memwa'n by Moonlight Benjamin
Rational Actor by Nots
Get Yr Life Back by Kim Gordon
American Wedding by Gogol Bordello
Git Back in the Truck by Hickoids
Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creature With the Atom Brain by Roky Erikson & The Aliens
Nobody Spoil My Fun by The Seeds
Phantom by The Darts
Seven and Seven Is by Love
Breakfast Eggs by Ty Segall
Ride With Me by Sulfur City
Crawl by Eilen Jewell
Mesopotamia by B52s
Oh Catherine by Pere Ubu
Before the Next Teardrop Falls by The Mavericks
Black Temptation by The Flesh Eaters
Thanksgiving by Loudon Wainwright III
Lucky Day by Tom Waits CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Saturday, November 23, 2019 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Saturday Mountain Time Guest Host: Steve Terrell, subbing for DJ Spinifex 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
Lost in Music by The Fall
The Swamp by Sloks
We Want to Talk to Your Leader by The Scaners
Mechanics Wanted by Mekons 77
Spirit Hair by Quintron
Compared to What by Les McCann & Eddie Harris
Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head by Marshall Allen & Terry Adams
Walk on the Wild Side by Jimmy Smith
I've Known Rivers by Gary Bartz
Afrodesia by Dr. Lonnie Smith
Harry Hippie by Bobby Womack
Hico Killer/Long Mile to Houston by John Zorn
Extraordinary Woman by The Psychedelic Aliens
Advanced Romance by Frank Zappa, The Mothers & Captain Beefheart
Blue Suede Shoes by The Residents
The Hollow Earth by Pere Ubu
It's a Vanity by Gabo Brown & Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo
Monkey and Baboon by Dr. John
Nothing But Flowers by Talking Heads
Papa Legba by Pops Staples with Talking Heads
Papa Legba by Moonlight Benjamin
Blackheart Man by Bunny Wailer
Over the river and through the woods to The Big Enchilada we go! Here's a Thanksgiving feast of crazy rock 'n' roll that can help you overcome your tryptophan daze. I hope you count The Big Enchilada and Radio Mutation among your many blessings.
(This is the first Thanksgiving podcast I've done since 2011. Enjoy that masterpiece, titled "Jive Turkeys", HERE)
And remember, The Big Enchilada is officially listed in the iTunes store. So go subscribe, if you haven't already (and gimme a good rating and review if you're so inclined.) Thanks.
The clocks have caught up with me, folks, it’s really time to go. This is my last Terrell’s Tune-up. After more than 32 years at The New Mexican, I’m officially retiring as of Nov. 22.
No, this column isn’t going to be a self-congratulatory walk down Memory Lane, recounting more than 30 years of writing this golden column.
Besides, I don’t want to write a tearful “farewell” column when I’ll probably resume writing music commentary in some form for Pasatiempo in a few months, and I don’t want to have to write a “How Can You Miss Me When I Won’t Go Away” column in the near future. (Those who like my weird tastes in music can still listen to Terrell’s Sound World, 10 p.m. Sundays on KSFR and my monthly Big Enchilada podcast at bigenchiladapodcast.com.)
But I’ve got some unfinished business here. I’m not going to be around at the end of the year, so I won’t be around to do my annual Top 10 album list. Even knowing I was retiring, I’d compulsively been compiling my favorite albums of this year. I hadn’t quite finished, so here are my Top 8 albums of (most of) 2019.
* Deserted by The Mekons (Bloodshot). This is the best album by this 40-plus-year-old band in more than a decade. It’s wild, somewhat cryptic, beautiful in spots — and it rocks like folks their age (or my age) aren’t supposed to rock. The first song, “Lawrence of California,” sounds like a lunatic’s call to arms, conjuring a last-gasp proclamation by a ragtag army of fanatics about to be mowed down. I’m also enthralled by the sweet, melodic, and pretty “How Many Stars?” which has deep roots in British folk music. The story is ancient, but the melody could haunt you forever.
* I Used to Be Pretty by The Flesh Eaters (Yep Roc). This band rose up during the pioneer days of the great Los Angeles punk rock explosion of the early 1980s. It’s a revolving door supergroup that in some incarnations included a who’s who of southern California punk and roots rock. The band that recorded this includes frontman Chris Desjardins, some vocals from his ex-wife and longtime Flesh Eater Julie Christensen, as well as various members of The Blasters, X, and Los Lobos. Desjardins also lends some vocals here. His voice sounds as if he’s just woken up from a nightmare — and his cronies capture the spirit of the unique bluesy, noirish sounds they were making back at the dawn of the Reagan years. The band still is powerful and a little bit frightening.
* Human Question by The Yawpers (Bloodshot). This trio of Colorado roots rockers, whose album Boy in the Well became a serious obsession of mine a few years ago, continue their raw, blues-infused rock. This record grabbed me and refused to let go in the opening seconds of the locomotive onslaught of “Child of Mercy,” which deals with the putrid pangs of romantic collapse. And the next song, an even more brutal romp called “Dancing on My Knees,” sealed the deal. While I mostly like their rowdier tunes, the soul-soaked “Carry Me,” the type of song you could imagine being covered by Solomon Burke, hits just as hard.
Country Squire by Tyler Childers (Hickman Holler). Childers plays country music, basic fiddle-and-steel country music, singing honest tales of life with a little sob in his voice and, I imagine, a little bourbon on his breath. Many of the themes in Childers’ lyrics traverse along well-trodden country themes. Yet when Childers sings, it never sounds corny.
* 3 by Nots (Goner Records). This is an all-woman punk, or maybe post-punk, band from Memphis that I discovered back in 2016 with their second album Cosmetic. Though the new album didn’t take me by surprise like their last one, the sound is no less urgent, painting a bleak, paranoid picture of 21st-century life.
* Too Much Tension! by The Mystery Lights (Wick). A budtender in Durango and fellow public-radio DJ first alerted me to this wailing, psychedelia-touched, garage-fueled band. The Lights are fronted by singer Mike Brandon and guitarist Luis Alfonso Solano, who, inspired by the first-wave garage-rock madness of the old Nuggets compilations, as well as groups like The Velvet Underground and Suicide, started playing together as teenagers. This album is just as good if not better than the group’s self-titled debut.
* Gypsy by Eilen Jewell (Signature Sounds). In recent years, this former St. John’s College student has become one of my favorite lady roots rockers. This, her latest album, is packed with many fine songs, from the swampy rocker “Crawl” to hardcore honky-tonkers like “You Cared Enough to Lie” and “These Blues,” as well as lovely acoustic numbers like “Miles to Go” (which reminds me of Van Morrison’s “Into the Mystic”) and even a funny protest song, “79 Cents (The Meow Song),” which deals with sexism and economic disparity and has a catty reference to the current commander in chief.
* Gastwerk Saboteurs by Imperial Wax (Saustex). After Mark E. Smith — founder, frontman, and frothing prophet of The Fall — died last year, surviving members of his band decided to go on together. I was prepared to be cynical about this project, but I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, I’m pretty sure that if someone had played me these songs without mentioning anything about The Fall, I still would have liked them. It’s just good, aggressive, guitar-driven, punk-painted rock.
So long, gentle readers. And watch out for flying chairs!
Updated Nov. 30, 2019 AD
Here's a Spotify playlist with selections from all these albums:
Norman Greenbaum, composer and performer of the classic psychedelic Jesus boogie known as "Spirit in the Sky" turns 77 years old today.
Happy birthday, Norman!
Greenbaum nearly went to that spirit in the sky in 2015 when he was critically injured in an auto accident in Santa Rosa, Calif. But he survived and has performed since then
As I've written here before, most people who remember Greenbaum, know him for his 1969 hit, which decades later was used in movies like Apollo 13, Wayne's World 2 and Sunshine Cleaning, tv shows including Law & Order, House and Big Love and even commercials for Gatorade, Nike, American Express and HBO.
Ramhorn City's finest
But a few years before "Spirit" he had a novelty hit called "The Eggplant That Ate Chicago" with his neo-jug band, Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band.
I was in junior high in Oklahoma City at the time. My favorite radio station, WKY had a contest to draw the invasive eggplant, and I was one of the winners. My prize was the Dr. West album. This album inspired my brother and me to form our first band, The Ramhorn City Go-Go Squad & Uptight Washtub Band.
We covered several Dr. West songs, including "Eggplant," though we never quite nailed that one.
Here are a few of the Dr. West songs we loved so well. (and you can find more HERE)
This first one, "Patent Medicine," inspired me to write a forgotten Ramhorn City classic called "Tizzic Cream."
To appreciate Dr. West's Medicine Show & Junk Band. you had to be at least little weird
What can you say about the modern-day fish?
As a special birthday treat here's Norman's biggest hit performed in the mid '80s by the British New Wave group Fuzzbox
Sunday, November 17, 2019 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
Where Evil Grows by Gore Gore Girls
Murdered Out by Kim Gordon
Break Your Mind by The Darts
What a Way to Die by The Pleasure Seekers
Mustang Ranch by Black Joe Lewis & The Honey Bears
Gone Deep Underground by Stan Ridgway
I Don't Want to Wash Off Last Night by The Gaunga Dyns
Space X-Ploration by The Scaners
Uncontrollable Urge by Devo
The Beat Goes on by The Pretty Things
Robotic Centipede by Mean Motor Scooter
I'm On the Dish But I Ain't No Rag by The Toy Trucks
The Crawler by Ty Segall
I Won't by The Replacements
Spectacle by Dead Moon
Girl from '62 by Thee Headcoats Shaving Cream by Uncle Floyd Vivino & Oogle
Big Iron by Mike Ness
I Am a Big Town by Jon Langford Mule Skinner Blues by Van Morrison & Lonnie Donegan
Get Behind the Mule by Tom Waits
Two Women by Jimmy "Duck" Holmes
Shake 'til You Get Enough by Bobby Rush
Oh Catherine by Pere Ubu
From the Estate of John Denver by DBUK
Creeker by Tyler Childers
After the Rain by The Mekons
My Special Angel by Doc Watson CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
I've been listening to a podcast about Dolly Parton and, the other day while driving around I heard a segment about one of Dolly's greatest early hits, "Muleskinner Blues."
As you'll see here, and probably already know, Dolly wasn't the first to record this song, which was written by country music pioneer Jimmie Rodgers with George Vaughan. It's been recorded by Roy Acuff, Woody Guthrie, Merle Haggard, The Maddox Brothers & Rose, skiffle master Lonnie Donegan and countless others.But some argue Dolly did it best, which is true -- at least until The Cramps.
Here she is on the Porter Wagoner Show in 1970:
Jimmie Rodgers' was the first version of the song to involve mules, but two years before "Blue Yodel #8," a bluesman named Tom Dickson released the strikingly similar "Labor Blues."
While "Muleskinner Blues" is about a guy applying for a job, Dickson's song is about a laborer who's quitting his job because the "captain" isn't great about paying him on time for his hard work.
Like the more famous song, "Labor Blues starts out "Good morning captain / Good morning shine ..." basically a dialogue between boss and worker. It has to be noted that "shine" is a racial slur against African Americans (which Dickson was." Some of the "Muleskinner" versions that followed kept the word "shine" thought some, such as Dolly's changed it to "son" or "sir."
Here's the Singing Brakeman, who wanted to skin some mules. Actually, as Fred Sanders explained on his excellent article about the song a few years ago: “Muleskinner” is just a funny name for a muleteer or mule-driver; a person who specializes in keeping the mules moving. “I can pop my initials on a mule’s behind” is a comical boast about proficiency with a whip. The mule gave a song full of aural hooks the lyrical hook it needed to catch on.
Bill Monroe turned the song into a bluegrass standard
Dolly Parton was not the first woman to skin this mule. That would be Odetta, who drove the mule back to its black roots
The Fendermen, a rockabilly duo from Wisconsin made it rock
The Cramps, obviously inspired by The Fendermen, took it to Voodoo Island
Sunday, November 10, 2019 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
Organic Frequency by Mean Motor Scooter
Plant the Seed by Imperial Wax
The Double Axe by Thee Mighty Caesars
Murdered Out by Kim Gordon
Yeah! by The Cynics
I Tripped Over the Ottoman by The Dead Milkmen
Earthquake by Butthole Surfers
Look in the Mirror by Gregg Turner
What Now My Love by Stan Ridgway
Breakfast Eggs by Ty Segall
I Like U But Not Like That by The Darts
Don't Be So Easy by The Toy Trucks
Drive By Buddy by Black Lips
Police Brutality by Alien Space Kitchen
My Underwear Froze to the Clothesline by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
Get Busy Living by Trixie & The Trainwrecks
Please Abduct Me by The Scaners
Fleshy Boy by Spray Paint HAPPY QUARTER CENTURY BLOODSHOT RECORDS!!!!
The Last Honky Tonk in Chicago by Wild Earp
Cowboy in Flames by The Waco Brothers
Mirage by The Mekons
Matadora by Cordero
Bowling Green by Neko Case
My Baby Didn't Come Home by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Trucker's Speed by The Meat Purveyors
Liza Jane by The Dyes
Reason to Believe by The Yawpers
I'm Lonesome Without You by Hazeldine
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
I Was Drunk by Alejandro Escovedo
Be Real by Bottle Rockets
Lonely Ain't Hardly Alive by Robbie Fulks CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican November 8, 2019
Gregg Turner and Sam Minner, courtesy Gregg Turner
I’ve found punk rock in dingy bars, at big music festivals, blasting out of beat-up old cars. I’ve found punk rock on the radio and on vinyl records, cassette tapes, CDs, iPods, and music streaming services. I’ve found punk rock on left-of-the dial radio, on music videos, and in the movies.
But one place I’ve never seen punk rock is on a university syllabus.
Until now.
Professor Gregg Turner has gotten the green light to teach an actual college class for New Mexico Highlands University called A History of Punk Rock, in the spring semester. It’s a bona fide class, with papers, tests, projects, and three college credits if you don’t flunk out like some stupid punk.
Turner is a founding member of the Southern California band the Angry Samoans, a math professor at Highlands — and a certified Terrell crony. (Full disclosure: Turner and I have been pals for about 25 years. I portrayed the groom in the video for his song “Satan’s Bride.” I’ve frequently done gigs with him at Whoo’s Donuts, where I never made any money, but I’ve been paid with untold numbers of pastries.)
When Turner first mentioned this idea to me a few months ago, I told him it sounded like a great one. But deep down I was thinking, “Yeah, wait until the administration finds out …”
So I was surprised — and more than a little impressed — when I got a written statement from Highlands President Sam Minner.
“Like other music genres, punk rock exploded onto the scene to directly challenge the status quo,” Minner wrote. “Early punk rockers like Gregg Turner and his bandmates in the Angry Samoans said — I would say yelled — ‘We’re going a different way and not accepting that music or culture has to be static.’ ”
Minner continued: “I really think that The Angry Samoans were incredibly influential in the punk movement of the ’70s. I listen to the Stones most every morning as I drive to work, but sometimes, depending on my mood, I play the Samoans and get to work ready to take on the world.”
Turner told me that he, too, was surprised when he went to talk to Minner and learned that the NMHU president had a copy of the Samoans’ classic first LP, Back From Samoa. “He’d bought it in 1983,” Turner says. “He pulled it from his shelves with all his academic books. My jaw just dropped.” Minner told him he’d played in a punk band in Missouri around the same time.
Gregg Turner with Blood-Drained Cows,
Live at CK's 2007
Samoan primer: The Angry Samoans didn’t get as big as other L.A. punk groups like X or Black Flag, or as notorious as The Germs or Fear. In fact, Turner and Samoans frontman “Metal’’ Mike Saunders, along with the rest of the band, basically were outsiders among outsiders. Starting out in Van Nuys in the late ’70s, the group soon gained a high place on the enemy list of influential Los Angeles disc jockey Rodney Bingenheimer. It seems the Angry Samoans gave Rodney no respect in their song “Get Off the Air.”
The group broke up in 1991. By this time Turner was becoming more serious about his career in academia. Turner earned his Ph.D. in math and moved to New Mexico a couple of years later to teach at the College of Santa Fe.
Back to the present: It was an appointment with Turner’s urologist, Eric Anderson, earlier this year that inspired the punk history class. Anderson told Turner he was a major fan of The Dead Kennedys and Black Flag. That started the gears turning.
The official class description notes that punk rock was a reaction to “the corporate mass-produced, self-aggrandized pop music offerings that had become standard fare by the late ’60s and the early and mid-’70s.”
The music that Turner will teach (to “explore the anger and rebellion that instigated and fueled the genre at that point in time”) isn’t going to start with The Ramones or the Sex Pistols. According to the course description, the class also will explore “incipient manifestations early on in the ’50s (Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard) and brash counter-cultural outcroppings in the ’60’s (Kinks, Sonics, Seeds, Standells, Iggy and the Stooges, MC5, etc.).”
Also, Turner says the class will “pick apart the historical, sociological, and political contexts that provided the impetus for the outrage and the vitriol indigenous to these different time periods. The evolution of ’70s punk rock to ’80s hardcore and Nirvana will also be discussed.”
And, if he can get a travel budget, Turner hopes to be able to bring in some of his old punk-rock pals from California, who include some well-known musicians he says have expressed an interest.
Turner says — and I don’t think he’s joking — that he’s thinking of requiring students to listen to lengthy sets of recordings by some of the more loathsome prog rock of that era, such as Yes and Genesis, to give the students an idea of what made punk rock necessary.
I don’t know, though. I assume Highlands has strict policies forbidding torture.
Turner’s class will be held at 1 p.m. to 3:50 p.m. Saturdays at the Santa Fe Higher Education Center, 1950 Siringo Road, starting Jan. 18. Sign up through Highlands’ Office of the Registrar (nmhu.edu/office-of-the-registrar). (NOTE: The time and day of the class changed after this was originally published. What you see here has been corrected.) College ain’t cheap. In-state tuition for undergrads is $771 for three credit hours. But for elderly rockers like me, 65 or older, the senior citizen rate is $5 per credit hour, or $15. And no, you won’t need a note from your urologist. Video Time! Turner still performs this Angry Samoans song Angry Samoans meet The Chambers Brothers
The legendary "Satan's Bride" video, starring the beautiful Kristina Pardue
On this day in 2007, the greatest country music Hank not named Williams died. Hank Thompson -- whose hits included "The Wild Side of Life," "A Six Pack to Go" and "Oklahoma Hills" -- was 82 when he went to that great honky tonk in the sky..
This sad anniversary falls on Wacky Wednesday this year, so let's celebrate Hank by featuring some of his funniest tunes. In addition to all his other talents, the man knew his way around a novelty song.
A personal note here, if you indulge me in a little name-dropping: I met Hank in the early '80s and even more bitchen, I was introduced to him before his show at the old Line Camp in Pojoaque by none other than Roger Miller. Roger told Hank, "Steve's from Oklahoma City, he said, truthfully. But then he added, "I think he was raised on Reno Street," referring to an old OKC skid row. All three of us laughed out loud.
Anywho, have some laffs and remember Hank.
Here's a seasick song from 1949
"No Help Wanted" was a Top 10 country hit in 1952
Years before Merle Haggard started recording, Hank was singing about strangers.
This one could never be played on the radio today -- perhaps with good reason -- but in 1958 it was a number 2 country hit. Hank was still singing it in 1991.
Finally here's one of his last recordings, a duet with my old Santa Fe High School lockermate, Junior Brown in 1997.
