Thursday, December 30, 2021

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Happy Birthday John Hartford


Eighty four years ago today, December 30, 1937, in New York City (New York City????!!?) a boy named John Hartford was born. His family soon moved to St. Louis, where young John grew up watching the boats along the Mississippi (he'd later work as a towboat pilot on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers) and listening to the Grand Ol' Opry on the radio.

He'd grow up to become one of the finest hillbilly instrumentalists (guitar, fiddle, mandolin), singers and songwriters of the late 20th Century. 

Most of us first became familiar with Hartford after a little song of his, having something to do with rolling up his sleeping bag, became Glen Campbell's first solo hit. Soon after that Hartford became a regular on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour as well as the short-lived Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour.

Here are Hartford and Campbell performing that song on tv:

But Hartford quickly proved that he was no one-hit wonder. Though no other song of his ever became nearly as famous as "Gentle on My Mind," and his albums weren't exactly commercial smashes, in the 1970s he made some of finest country and bluegrass music around. His 1971 album Aereo-Plain, recorded with Norman Blake, Vassar Clements, Tut Taylor and Randy Scruggs should be considered a classic.

This is a later career (1999) song about New Mexico's most celebrated troubled youth:

Hartford died of cancer in 2001. His last hurrah was his appearance in the still amazing soundtrack of O Brother Where Art Thou? and the subsequent concert film, Down From the Mountain for which he served as MC as well as a performer:

Finally, here is my favorite Hartford song of all time, In Tall Buildings. 


Happy birthday and RIP, Gentle John.

Sunday, December 26, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, December 26, 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
Your Love Belongs Under a Rock by The Dirtbombs
Asking For More by The Grawks
Freaks in Uniform by Horrorpops
Naked Girl Falling Down the Stairs by The Cramps
Homemade Pie by Johnny Dowd
Gimme Germs by The Monsters
Blue Gene Vincent by Havana 3 a.m.
Snake Drive by R.L. Burnside with The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
The Lowlife by Nick Curran & The Lowlifes
You're a Moron by The Control Freaks
Psychedelic Baby by Rodd & The Librettos

Killing Me by Dead Moon
Bamboo Bimbo by Devo
It'll Chew You Up and Spit You Out by Concrete Blonde
Slow Boy by Kim Gordon & J. Mascis
Acme in the Afternoon by Degurutieni
Sugar Sugar by The Barbarellatones
I Walked All Night by The Embers
Wine by James Luther Dickinson

Crypt by Night Beats
Guy Like Me by Wolfy & The Bat Cubs
Come and Have a Go If You Think You're Hard Enough by The Mekons
The Lung Song by Old Time Relijun
All My Life by Howlin' Wolf
Ol' 55 by Frank Zappa with Tom Waits

I'm Shakin' by The Blasters
Shivers Down My Spine by King Khan & The Shrines
Insurrection Blues (Chickens Come Home to Roost) by Corey Harris
Green Shirt by Elvis Costello
Distant Fingers by Patti Smith
Dreaming My Dreams With You by Waylon Jennings
Broken Butterflies by Lucinda Williams
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Wednesday, December 22, 2021

WACKY WEDNESDAY: A Very Golden Throat Christmas

 


In these troubled times, it's extremely important to embrace our most cherished Christmas traditions. Such as celebrities who have no business singing crooning corny Christmas songs.

In case you forgot, here's what a Golden Throat is, ere is how I've explained it before:

Back in the '80s and '90s, when Rhino Records was actually a cool label, they released a series of albums called Golden Throats. These nutball compilations featured movie and TV stars, sports heroes and every stripe of cheesy celebrity singing ham-fisted versions of songs they had no business singing. Pop tunes, rock 'n' roll hits, country song, whatever. Nothing was sacred and nothing was safe from the Golden Throats. 

Because of the exposure from the Rhino series, some of these unintentionally hilarious songsters became notorious and ironically hip. Think William Shatner -- the Elvis of the Golden Throats! -- and his over-the-top renditions of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and "Mr. Tambourine Man."

So let's start off this Golden Throat Christmas Special with this turkey from Walter Brennan:

Christmas on the Ponderosa was always special when Pa Cartwright started to sing

What's Christmas without David Hasselhoff?

Et tu, Seth?

And let's go home for the holidays with the always poignant William Shatner, aided and abetted here by ... Billy Gibbons???????


Merry Christmas! And find more Golden Throat action HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE

Sunday, December 19, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




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

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Thursday, December 16, 2021

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Remembering Keely



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.


Wednesday, December 08, 2021

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Rocking Madison Avenue



Bob Dylan was a spokesman for his generation.

The Pepsi Generation.

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 05, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




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

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Thursday, December 02, 2021

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Remembering Odetta


 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 Playboy interview 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. 

Let it shine!

Sunday, November 28, 2021




Sunday, November 28, 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
The Holygram's Song (Back from the Shadows Again) by Firesign Theatre
Journey to the Center of the Mind by The Amboy Dukes
I've Got to Get to You by Dion with Boz Scaggs
Lonely Wolf by Ray Harris
Sit Down Comedian by Dave Del Monte & The Cross-Country Boys
She's a Bad Motorcycle by Tav Falco & Panther Burns
I Appeared to The Madonna by The Devils
Man in a Suitcase by Thee Oh Sees
Shut Up and Get on the Plane by Drive By Truckers
Jungle Boogie by Frank Zappa

They Won't Let Me Forget (The Things I Can't Recall) by Legendary Shack Shakers
Can't You See Me by Divine Horsemen
Bad to the Bone by Sloks
This Foundation is Cracked by Old Time Relijun
Lubrication by The Sex Organs
Catfight by The Barbaraellatones
Night and Day by Rockin' Dopsie

ROLLING STONES TRIBUTE SET 


Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones
Under My Thumb by Social Distortion
I Met the Stones by Dinosaur Jr.
Let's Spend the Night Together by Muddy Waters
Gimme Shelter by Merry Clayton
Connection by Keith Richards & The X-Pensive Winos
Child of the Moon by The Fleshtones
Radio Control by Mick Jagger 
Blame it on the Stones by Kris Kristofferson
Carol by The Rolling Stones
Sweet Virginia by Jerry Lee Lewis & Keith Richards

Back on Top by Buffalo Nichols
Your Red Wagon by Paul Burch
Right Track Now by Powell St. John with Roky Erikson
True Grit by Alto Street
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Thursday, November 18, 2021

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Hey Annie, It's Hank Ballard's Birthday!


On this day in 1927, a baby named John Henry Kendricks was born in Detroit. He grew up to become an R&B belter named Hank Ballard, who in the early 1950s made some good old fashioned suggestive, scandalous rock 'n' roll, getting most of his well-known tunes banned on radio stations all across the land of the free.

As his page on the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame website says, "His success is a perfect representation of rock and roll appeal—it behaves so bad but it sounds so good."

Happy birthday, Hank.

Ballard died in 2003. But I had the pleasure of interviewing him by phone before a Santa Fe concert in April 1989 and then meeting him backstage before the show at the old Sweeney Convention Center. (I also got to meet Ballard's wife and manager Theresa McNeil, who was killed just a few months later in a hit-and-run crash.)

In that phone interview, Ballard talked to me about the state of music back when he recorded "Work With Me Annie."

"We was still in the Victorian Age," he said with a knowing laugh. "Man, as young as we were, we didn't think we wereb being insulting to anyone. We were just having fun."

But, as I noted in my story, Ballard wasn't claiming complete innocence. "The kids like them risque songs. They still do. ... It was a wonder that we didn't get arrested."

Ballard was born in Detroit, but, as he told me, his family moved to Alabama when he was very young, where he grew up singing in his church choir.

But another huge influence on his music, he told me, was cowboy music. "Gene Autry was my first idol," he said. "I also liked The Sons of the Pioneers. Remember `Cool Water'? Man, I still love it."

Ballard still is best known for this song, which, he told me,  was about an old girlfriend from Louisville, Kentucky. "She's a school teacher in Chicago," he told me in 1989. "She's been doing that for about 25 years. We played a gig over there and she happened to be present. I introduced her as the real Annie and people lined up to get her autograph."

Work with me here:

I guess Annie had to take maternity leave. (Though Ballard insisted that his Kentucky sweetheart did not have his baby.) 

In that 1989 interview, he told me that this next song was a rush job, recorded "at some woman's house in Washington, D.C. during a break in a gig." This version of "Annie Had a Baby" is from the wonderful old show Night Music, from around the same time I saw Ballard at Sweeney Center.

And the third part of Ballard's Annie cycle was an ode to Annie's Aunt Fannie.

"Annie" inspired a lot of 1950s singers, including Etta James, who cleaned up "Work With Me Annie" into a tune called "The Wallflower, which had the refrain, "Dance With Me Henry." Also Buddy Holly expanded on the character of Annie and put her to work on the "Midnight Shift":

And years after the Annie songs, Ballard wrote a little tune about a little dance. His version wasn't the hit one however. That distinction goes to a guy named Ernest Evans who Dick Clark reinvented as Chubby Checker:

And finally, a Ballard tribute from Ronny Elliott. As Ronny said, "I never liked Chubby Checker ..."



Sunday, November 14, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, November 14, 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
Hot Smoke and Sassafras by Bubble Puppy
Where's My Pebble by NRBQ
A Question of Temperature by Balloon Farm
Whisperer by Ty Segall
Catfight by The Barbarellatones 
Tip My Canoe by Dengue Fever
Treat Her Right by Los Straitjackets with Mark Lindsay
Born With a Tail by Jesse Dayton
My Way by Sid Vicious

I Got Loaded by The Cadets
Let's Talk About Girls by The Chocolate Watchband
Over the Cliff by Old 97s
Ain't That Just Like Me by The Searchers
Stranger to Me by The Monsters
Jungle Fever by Charlie Feathers
Tapioca Tundra by The Monkees
Hoodoo Lady by Memphis Minnie

Negativland  Mini-Set

Negativeland at Meow Wolf, Santa Fe
Nov. 12, 2021


Don't Don't Get Freaked Out 

No Brain 

This is Not Normal

Create the Visitor




Feel the Pain by Dinosaur Jr.
We're Laughing by Psychedelic Aliens
I Love You So by The Chantels
Hucklebuck by The Riptones

In the Rut by Alto Street
Man Downstairs by Junior Wells
Party While You Still Can by Shinyribs
You're Just in Love by Louis Prima
Bye and Bye by Corey Harris
Time by Lindsey Buckingham
Love Letters by Ketty Lester
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Happy Birthday Carl Stalling!


On this day 130 years ago, a child of German immigrants was born in Lexington, Missouri. Carl Stalling would grow up to become undoubtedly the greatest creator of cartoon music in the history of film.

Stalling,  Allmusic says, was:

Stalling at work
...  the visionary behind the kaleidoscopic music beating at the heart of the classic cartoons produced under the aegis of Warner Bros. Studios during the middle of the 20th century. Frenzied and impassioned, his work broke new ground by following the visual trajectory of the on-screen action instead of the accepted rules of composition; the result -- a technique not anchored in conventional senses of time, rhythm, or thematic development -- was unprecedented in its extremism, as melody, style, and form crashed together in a glorious pile-up of sound and image. A maverick whose reach extended from pop to jazz to classical and beyond, Stalling's revolutionary cut-and-paste compositions remain a clear forerunner of the experimental music created in his wake -- in fact, it could easily be argued that he succeeded in introducing entire generations of young cartoon fanatics to the music of the avant-garde.

... Working with Warner's 50-piece orchestra under the direction of conductor Milt Franklyn, Stalling scored each cartoon in about three hours at a staggering rate of at least one a week, absorbing the influences of current pop hits, classical symphonies, and the like, and then quoting whatever seemed to fit ...

And, according to The Stephen W. Terrell (Music Web Log) "It's hard to imagine the music of Spike Jones or Frank Zappa without Carl Stalling." (Steve Terrell 2021)

Stalling learned to play piano at the age of six. By the time he was 12, he started a career as a pianist at silent movie theaters. (Silent movies depended on live musicians for their "soundtracks." I remember my grandmother telling me that as a girl in Oklahoma City she had a big crush on a clarinet player who worked in the band at her local silent movie joint. She called him "Clarinetti," but that's a whole other topic.)

But before silent movies had the opportunity to die, Stalling's career took an upward turn when, working at the Isis Movie Theater in Kansas City, he met a young filmmaker named Walt Disney who admired his work.

In 1969 interviews, (compiled and published in 1971, a year before Stalling's death) the composer told Michael Barrier, Milton Gray, and Bill Spicer that he met Disney in the early 1920s:

He used to come to the Isis Theater, where I played the organ and had my own orchestra. This was music to accompany silent movies, and I played the whole afternoon and evening. When I wasn't at the organ, I'd be conducting, or playing the piano and conducting. I had a pianist for a number of years, and then I just conducted. Walt was making short commercials at that time, and he'd have us run them for him. We got acquainted, and I had him make several song films. The End of a Perfect Day, showing a sunset…Victor Herbert's A Kiss in the Dark. The words would come on one at a time, with the music. This was before sound, of course.

Like Disney before him, Stalling, in the late 1920s, left Kansas City for Hollywood. He scored a couple of Mickey Mouse shorts for Disney. But probably his most memorable work there was his music for Disney's Silly Symphonies series. The first of these (1929) was called The Skeleton Dance. From that same interview:

The Skeleton Dance goes way back to my kid days. When I was eight or ten years old, I saw an ad in The American Boy magazine of a dancing skeleton, and I got my dad to give me a quarter so I could send for it. It turned out to be a pasteboard cut-out of a loose-jointed skeleton, slung over a six-foot cord under the arm pits. It would "dance" when kids pulled and jerked at each end of the string.

Listen to Stalling's music and shake your bones!

Stalling left full-time employment Disney Studios in 1931 to freelance for Disney and other studios. In 1936 he was hired by Warner Brothers, where he'd work for the next 20-plus years. Here's a medley of some of his early work there: 


Here's one especially appropriate for Wacky Wednesday, "Porky in Wackyland" (from 1938, along with "Dough for the Do Do" from 1949.) 

If you play this one backwards you'll hear a sinister voice saying "Elmer Fudd sucks cocks in Hell!"


Sunday, November 07, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, November 7, 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
Justine by The Righteous Brothers
You Can't Hide by Al Anderson
Bulbs of Passion by Dinosaur Jr.
Woman Alone by Nots
Little Girl by John & Jackie
I Believe the Woman by Pocket FishRMen
Agile, Mobile and Hostile by The Goldstars
Bad to the Bone by Sloks
Born in a Barn by Scroat Belly
Don't Let Go by Bloodshot Bill
Rawhide by Legendary Shack Shakers

Mystery Writers by Divine Horsemen
Ice Cream Phoenix by Jefferson Airplane
Crawl by Eilen Jewell
Turncoat by Imperial Wax
Monkey Business by Eddie Hill
The Ray Charles-ton by Chubby Checker
Truckin' My Blues Away by Blind Boy Fuller

Bionic Trunk by Old Time Relijun
The Torture Never Stops by Frank Zappa
On My Way to Houston by Powell St. John & The Aliens
Broke Down by Mal Thursday
Willow Gardens by The Meat Purveyors
No More Hotdogs by Hasil Adkins
Tallahassee Lassie by The Flamin' Groovies

Merseysong by Rico Bell & The Snake Handlers
Not Long Ago by The Mekons
Cry Cry Cry by Sally Timms
Pappa Was a Rollin' Stone by Ray Wiley Hubbard & The Band of Heathens
I Pity the Fool by Bobby "Blue" Bland
The Virginian by Neko Case & Her Boyfriends
Pale Blue Eyes by The Velvet Underground
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page

Thursday, November 04, 2021

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Happy Birthday Tommy Makem

 


On this day 89 years ago, Tommy Makem, who with his pals The Clancy Brothers helped popularize traditional Irish music in the U.S. during the 1950s and '60s, was born in County Armagh in Northern Ireland.

Happy birthday, Bard of Armagh!

Makem, whose parents both were musicians, emigrated to these United States in 1955, first going to Dover, New Hampshire 

According to his obituary in The New York Times:

His uncle took him to New York in 1956 for the St. Patrick’s Day parade, at which he met two of the Clancy brothers, Paddy and Tom. He already knew Liam Clancy, who soon returned from Ireland and joined the group. After one of their first appearances, Pete Seeger, the folk singer, and Alan Lomax, the folklorist and musicologist, encouraged them. Bob Dylan, in the early days of his career, solicited songwriting tips from Mr. Makem.

Tommy, who played banjo, tin whistle and other instruments, began recording with the Clancy boys as a group for Tradition Records. Their first release together was titled The Rising of The Moon: Irish Songs of Rebellion. After an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1961, the group signed with Columbia Records.

Makem left the Clancys in the late '60s to pursue a solo career, but he always was best known as the Clancy Brother who wasn't really a Clancy Brother. In 1975 he teamed up with his old bandmate Liam Clancy to form a duo that lasted 13 years.

He died in 2007 at the age of 74.

So let's get on with the music.

Here's Tommy with the Clancys on Ed Sullivan in 1961:


Here Tommy & The Clancys perform "We Want No Irish Here" at a 1963 White House event for President John F. Kennedy:


Here's Tommy & The Clancy Brothers in 1965 on the very first episode of Pete Seeger's  television show Rainbow Quest on WNJU-TV (Channel 47), a New York City-based UHF station . Tommy sang lead on "Butcher Boy":


Finally, here's Tommy in his later years singing "Four Green Fields."




Sunday, October 31, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

 



Sunday, October 31, 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 
Lil' Reapers
Coolest Little Monster by Zacherley
Devil Dance by The A-Bones
Corpse Grinder by The Meteors
The Devil's Coming by Stud Cole
Bo Meets the Monster by Bo Diddley
Haunted Horror Howl by Dave Del Monte & The Cross Country Boys
I'm in Love With A Ghost by Mal Thursday
Voodoo Stomp by The Saucer Men
Monster Blues by Dex Romweber
It's Halloween by The Shaggs

Demons are a Girl's Best Friend by Necromantix
Walk Like a Zombie by Horrorpops
Dead Man's Slide by Shouting Thomas & The Torments
Dangerous Weirdos by The Zombie Dandies
Halloween Hell by The Goldstars
Creeps Me Out by Robbie Quine
(She's My) Vampire Girl by The Groovy Ghoulies
Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man by Concrete Blonde
Haunted House Blues by Bessie Smith

Living Dead Girl by Rob Zombie
You've Become a Witch by The Electric Mess
I Think of Demons by Roky Erickson
She's Wicked by The Fuzztones
Hoodoo Party by Tabby Thomas
Tombstone Rock by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers
Devil Baby by The Monsters
Voodoo Doll by Deadbolt
Satan's Bride by Gregg Turner

I Hear Voices by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
She's Fallen in Love With The Monster Man by  Screaming Lord Sutch
Halloween by Ron Haydock & The Boppers
The Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon by The Cramps
It's Your Voodoo Working by Charles Sheffield
Captain of the Creeps by Oh! Gunquit
The Vampire by T. Valentine & Daddy Long Legs
Look Out, There's a Monster Coming by The Bonzo Dog Band
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Wednesday, October 27, 2021

WACKY WEDNESDAY: A Satanic Serenade by Anton LaVey

 


It almost being Halloween, what better time for some sweet, creepy calliope music from the founder of the Church of Satan?

Anton Szandor LaVey died Oct. 29, 1997 -- so we're just two days away from the 24th anniversary of that strange and mournful day.

Born Howard Stanton Levey in Chicago in 1930 (Really? What kind of Satanic priest is named "Howard"?!?!?), shortly after he was born, his family moved to the San Francisco Bay area. LaVey claimed he left high school to join the circus -- first as a roustabout, then later as a calliope player.

In 1966 he founded the Church of Satan, appointing himself as high priest.

But before you work yourself into a Satanic panic, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica:

LaVey presented Satanism not as the practice of evil or as the worship of an actual Antichrist but as a kind of ethical egoism. According to LaVey, traditional religions were fundamentally hypocritical and dangerously inhibited the physical tendencies and emotional needs that were vital to human life. He claimed that his brand of Satanism was inspired by his having noticed as a teenager that the men he saw at church on Sunday, praying to God for absolution, were the same ones he had seen at burlesque shows on Saturday night. LaVey’s Satanism was in fact atheistic: the opposition between God and Satan represented for him the struggle between hypocrisy and repression on the one hand and indulgence and liberation on the other. LaVey was also not a nihilist: he instructed his followers to obey the law, and he taught that indulgence in pleasure could be beneficial only if it did not harm others. 

But he always was a showman. And during his life, in addition to the books he wrote about Satanic philosophy, LaVey recorded three albums: The Satanic Mass, Satan Takes a Holiday, and Strange Music (which later was released with a slightly different tracklist as The Devil Speaks (& Plays).

As the Allmusic Guide says, "... like any good horror movie, LaVey and his music do indeed haunt and, for some, delight."

So let's start out with LaVey's delightful version of "Harlem Nocturn." This is from the 1993 documentary, Anton Szandor LaVey - Speak of the Devil. Here he also talks about his loving relationship with the calliope.


Lavey loved those gypsy love songs

A happy little ditty called "Gloomy Sunday." (Vocals by his wife, Blanche Barton. I actually wish he'd chosen Singing Sadie.)

Finally, it's time to swing your Honolulu Baby!

Happy Halloween!

LaVey with his friend Jayne Mansfield

Sunday, October 24, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, October 24, 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
Big Black Witchcraft Rock by The Cramps
Wicked Waters by Benjamin Booker
That Certain Female by Charlie Feathers
Demon Death by Southern Culture on the Skids
Devil Baby by The Monsters
Mean Blue Spirit by The Dead Brothers
Not Fade Away by HeadCat
Pokin' Aroubd by Mudhoney
North to Alaska by Johnny Horton

Fixin' to Crawl by Churchwood
Help You Ann by Lyres
Psychobitches Outta Hell by Horrorpops
The Stranger in Town by John Trubee & The Ugly Janitors of America
Get Down With It by The Woggles
I'm a Mummy by The Fall
Filthy by Nick Curran & The Lowlifes


A Celebration of Bloodshot Records
All songs from Bloodshot releases

Plenty Tough and Union Made by The Waco Brothers
Way Out West by Moonshine Willie
Keep the Home Fires Burnin' by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Every Kind of Music But Country by Robbie Fulks
I Was Drunk by Alejandro Escovedo
Child of Mercy by The Yawpers
Ghost of Mae West by Trailer Bride
Hey Little Girl by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
The Raven by The Flat Five

I Walked In While He Was Changing Your Mind by Rex Hobart & The Misery Boys
I'm So Lonesome Without You by Hazeldine
My Old Drunk Friend by Freakwater
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart by JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound
Bad Way to Go by Lydia Loveless
Snowbird by Sally Timms
All the Fame of Lofty Deeds by Jon Langford
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Thursday, October 21, 2021

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Lotsa Musical Birthdays on October 21



October 21 is the birthday of many amazing musical giants of various styles and genres. Happy birthday all!

On this day in 1915 Owen Bradley was born in Westmoreland, Tenn. He became renowned as one of country music's greatest producers in the 1950s and '60s. He was the subject of an episode in the current season of the Cocaine & Rhinestones podcast. And though he's most famous for his behind the scenes work for other artists -  Ernest Tubb, Roy Acuff, Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline, Bill Monroe, Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty etc. -- Bradley also recorded some songs under his own name. Here's one from 1949 with vocals by Jack Shook and Dottie Dillard:

John Birks Gillespie, better known as "Dizzy," was born in 1917. He was a colossus of be-bop and he did it all with a bent trumpet. Here he is in France in 1971 playing "Night in Tunisia":


Cuban singer Ãšrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso, aka Celia Cruz, was born in Havana in 1925. Here she is playing in Zaire in 1974


Derek Bell, best known as the harpist for The Chieftains was born in Belfast in 1935. This is from a solo album called (I'm not kidding!!) Derek Bell Plays With Himself:


Blues rocker Elvin Bishop was born in 1942 in Glendale, California.


Erick Lee Purkhiser was born in 1946. The world later got to know him as Lux Interior of The Cramps. He was the maddest daddy!


Other musicians born on Oct. 21 include country singer Mel Street (1935); British Invader Manfred Mann (1940); soul guitarist Steve Cropper (1941); Beau Brummel singer Ron Elliot (1943 -- not to be confused with Florida rocker Ronny Elliott); weirdo rocker Julian Cope (1957); Queens of the Stone Age singer Nick Oliveri (1971) and singer songwriter Josh Ritter (1976).

Happy birthday all!


Sunday, October 17, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST




Sunday, October 17, 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
Psychotic Reaction by The Cramps
Dirt by Lou Reed
Hillbilly Zombies by Deadbolt
Lonesome, On'ry and Mean by Henry Rollins
Too Hot to Handle by Jayne Mansfield
Bug Zapper by The Control Freaks
Jumpin' Jack Flash by Alex Chilton
Lo Stregone (The Witch Doctor) by Fred Buscaglione

Last Grave by Sloks
Sad Songs by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Nutbush City Limit by Black Diamond Heavies
Baby OK by Izobel Garcia
One Dark Day by Dave Del Monte & The Cross Country Boys
All Black and Hairy by Screaming Lord Sutch
Waxman by Ty Segall
Dragnet for Jesus by Sister Wynona Carr
Camptown Races by Freddie & The Dreamers

Stand for the Fire Demon by Roky Erickson
This Wondrous Day by The William Loveday Intention
Captain of the Creeps by Oh! Gunquit
The Boogie Disease by Doctor Ross
Infeccion by Nestter Donuts
Sneaky Jesus by Chuck E. Weiss
Only Black Man in South Dakota by Andre Williams
A Bloody Life by Reverend Tom Frost

Lonely Street by Carl Belew
Working Woman by Shinyribs
Haunted House Blues by Bessie Smith
Demon in My Head by Joe Buck Yourself
Los Canarios by Rudy De Anda
Cerrickfergus by The Chieftains with Van Morrison

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

WACKY WEDNESDAY: Freddie & The Dreamers Deep Cuts

 


Say the name "Freddie & The Dreamers" and Americans of a certain age (read: old) reflexively will start moving their arms and legs in a quasi-jumping-jack style and singing in a bad British accent, "I'm telling you now, I'm telling you right away ... " or,  "It's the thing to do, kids will envy you / Do the Freddie ..."

And this, Freddie and band have gone down in history as a two-hit wonder.

But this British invasion band, which put Manchester on the rock 'n' roll map two decades before The Fall, recorded more than 20 singles and several albums between 1963 and 1968, when the original group disbanded.

Freddie Garrity died in 2006 at the age of 69.

So this Wacky Wednesday we celebrate Freddie's less celebrated songs.

I remember seeing this one on Shindig in the mid '60s:


I remember this minor Freddie hit very fondly. I always thought it was The Dreamers' strongest tune, even though it wasn't nearly as popular as "Do the Freddie":


The first time I actually paid attention to this song was a version by The Hentchmen, with guest Jack White,  about 20 years ago. "Some Other Guy" is a Lieber and Stoller tune originally recorded by American R&B singer named Richie Barrett in 1962. Soon after that it was recorded by a British band called The Big Three, after which it became a frequent cover by Mersy Beat/British Invasion groups, including a little combo of Fab Moptops, who frequently played it on stage. 

As "Some Other Guy" shows, Freddie was hardly averse to doing cover songs. For instance here's a Stephen Foster tune:


And like Sun Ra, Freddie & The Dreamers even did an album of Disney songs. This one's super:




Sunday, October 10, 2021

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

 




Sunday, October 10, 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
Bayou Fever / The Jellybutt of Timbuktu by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
Stoney Path by Divine Horsemen
Hide Another Round by Dinosaur Jr.
Stroll In Hell by The Goldstars
Psychedelic Freakout by The Barbarellatones
The Boss Wants to Party With You by Quintron
Bridget the Midget by Ray Stevens

Little Annie Fanny by The Kingsmen
Leave My Bed by The Routes
Toe Cutter Thumb Buster by Thee Oh Sees
Smell My Tongue by The Monsters
Fisticuffs by Primus
Oxycontin Girl by The Claypool Lennon Delirium 
Boo! by Bonzo Dog Band
Scream by Lindsey Buckingham


DESTINATION SOUNDWORLD!

People from Another World by The Jive Five
That Makes It by Jayne Mansfield
Psycho Serenade by Big Jay McNeely
Lonely by Sleepy LaBeef
Fever by Kay Martin & Her Body Guards
Destination Moon by Dinah Washington
The Fang by Nervous Norvus
Delicious by Jim Backus & Friend
Rock Doc by Louis Jordan
The Night is So Lonely by Gene Vincent & The Blue Caps
Shanty Tramp by Betty Dickson

Polka Dot Dress by Southern Culture on the Skids
Living for the City by The Dirtbombs
I'm Going to Leave You Baby by Lazy Lester
How the Light Knows by Shinyribs
Come Closer by Honshu Wolves
The Observations of a Crow by Marty Stuart
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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FOLK REMEDY Playlist


Sunday, October 10, 2021
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
8 am to 10 am  Sundays Mountain Time
Substitute Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM

Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's the playlist :

Never Did No Ramblin' by The Folksmen
Last Train from Poor Valley by Norman Blake
In Tall Buildings by John Hartford
Grey Funnel Line by Peter Case
The Murder of Leo Frank by Mark Rubin
Blind Willie McTell by Bob Dylan
Poor Carrie Anne by Al Duvall

Lonesome Dove by Almeda Riddle
The Burglar Man by Bob Carpenter
The Irish Soldier and the English Lady by Neil Morris
Poor Ellen Smith by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
Dreaming My Dreams with You by Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell
Headed South by Martha Fields
Back in Your Kitchen by Tommy Shaw

Red-Neck Hippie Romance by Bobby Bare
Asleep with Both Eyes Open by Possessed by Paul James
Saucy Sailor by Steeleye Span
Cakes and Ale by Silly Sisters
Railroad Blues by Sam McGee
Greenville Strut by Sarah & Daddy Stovepipe
They Don't Rob the Trains Anymore by Ronny Elliott

Powers and Horror by Chivalrous Amoekons
The Fame of Lofty Deeds by Jon Langford
Fear and Beer by The Mekons
That's How Every Empire Falls by John Prine
16 Miles of Chain by Tami Neilson
My Eyes by Tony Gilkyson
The Crawdad Song by The Meat Purveyors


Thursday, October 07, 2021

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Bear Family's Destination Series

For my birthday last month I was lucky that both of my kids gave me generous Amazon gift certificates. And by some weird coincidence I'd just discovered that the venerated German record label Bear Family, in just the past couple of years, had released a fantastic series of CD compilations featuring wild old (mostly from the 1950s and early '60s)  R&B, rockabilly, doo-wop, country, blues and warped pop, each title beginning with the word "Destination."

For years I thought of Bear Family primarily as the source of exhaustive, 10-CD sets of obscure hillbillies, blues shouters and early rockers -- all of which sound great but would set you back hundreds of bucks. Case in point: on the label's home page at the moment they're selling a 16(!) CD box set called R&B in DC 1940-1960 , 20 hours of music and a 352-page hardcover book, all for a mere $273.04. 

But these Destination compilations are actually affordable (especially when my kids are paying), about $12 each and each disc has at least 30 tracks.

And all of them are retro delights with bitchen album art and comprehensive liner notes.

I bought all six Destination compilations

So I'm going to post a song from each of the five compilations I bought. Here's one of my favorites from Destination Forbidden Planet, which consist of Sputnik-era sci-fi themes (including a few weird old movie trailer clips). It's none other than Louis Prima, contacting intergalactic civilizations.


Similar to Destination Forbidden Planet, the Destination Moon compilation is about going to the moon, which was very much on the nation's mind in the '50s and '60s. Here's Lenny Welch, best known for his 1963 version of "Since I Fell for You," in a flight to the lunar surface.


There is no vaccination for either rocking pneumonia or the boogie woogie flu. Therefore, there are no shortages of tunes about doctors, nurses, hospitals, and medications, as Destination Health (subtitled "Doc Feelgood's Rock Therapy") proves. This song by Macy Skipper was covered by The Cramps.


We've all walked down Lonely Street at some time or another, and some of us have even been guests in that street's most famous hotel. Here's the first song from Destination Lonely Street, Gene Vincent covering the 1956 hit by country singer Carl Belew (which is the closing track on the CD)


Now let's get to the sex.

There are two volumes of Destination Lust, each stacked with breathy vocals and suggestive lyrics full of double, maybe triple, entendres. Both volumes include some sexy Golden-Throat Hollywood bombshells including Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Ann-Margret, Elke Sommer and the ever delightful Mamie Van Doren. From Volume 1, here's Mamie with "Separate the Men from the Boys."



From Volume 2, (subtitled "Chicksville USA,") here's a lesser-known singer, Pat Morrisey with a slinky little number called "Trapped in the Web of Love."


To conclude, here are a couple of Bear family promo videos for a couple of these Destinations







TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, October , 2024 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM  Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell E...