Sunday, April 28, 2024
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell Email me! terrell(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
O.K., I'll admit this is a pretty dumb idea.
It came to me yesterday after I ran into my friend Dan during my afternoon walk along the Santa Fe River Trail and he mentioned a Ty Segall album called Fudge Sandwich. For some reason that reminded me of Primus' album Pork Soda.
Then it got worse.
So here's. selection of songs from albums named for dishes you've probably never consumed -- and never would want to.
My drink order? How about a frosty can of ...
I see the soup d'jour is Goat Head Soup.
I can' decide between the Burnt Weenie Sandwich ...
I was born in a dump / Mama died and my daddy go drunk...
These are the first words of a song that became one of the most covered tunes of the 1960s, though the covers have gone well beyond. "Tobacco Road" is the story of poverty, sentimentality and a young man's determination to better his circumstances. Or maybe "sentimentality" shouldn't be part of that description, as in the last verse, the singer declares his desire to "blow it up and start all over again."
It sounds like some ancient blues song, something John or Alan Lomax might have picked up from some half-drunk sharecropper or mean-eyed Angola Prison inmate.
But, no, it was written by John D. Loudermilk, a country and pop songwriter from Durham, N.C. He wrote it and was the first to record it 1959 (and released in 1960).
Loudermilk, in a 1988 interview in American Songwriter, spoke of the origins of what probably is his best-known song:
I got the idea for writing that song from a road in our town that was called Tobacco Road because it was where they rolled the hogsheads full of Tobacco down to the river to be loaded onto barges. Along that road were a lot of real tough, seedy-type people, and your folks would have just died if they thought you ever went down there.
He didn't mention that "Tobacco Road" previously had been used as a title of a 1941 movie directed by John Ford, as well as a 1933 Broadway play, both of which were based on a 1932 novel of the same name by Erskine Caldwell.
But that's neither here nor there. The movie, play and novel largely have been forgotten, while the song is a classic. It's been recorded by everyone from Edgar Winter to David Lee Roth; from Hank Williams, Jr. to The Jefferson Airplane ... and lots of folks in between.
Here's that original 1960 version by Loudermilk:
But Loudermilk's version failed to become a hit. It wasn't until the 1964 British Invasion, when a one-hit-wonder band called The Nashville Teens recorded it. And yes, their one hit was indeed wondrous:
The Devil Didn't Make Me Do It by Twin Temple
Jesus Christ Pose by Soundgarden
Dead Moon Night by Dead Moon
Here & Now by Black Angels
Betty by Johnny Dowd
Can't Sit Down by Wolfman Jack & The Wolf Pack
Good Man by Heavy Trash
The Lover's Curse by A-Bones
Mess Around by Eilen Jewell
Don't Get Weird by Boris McCutcheon
Send Me Some Lovin' by Little Richard
Don't Let Her Know by Ray Charles
Ain't No More Cane on the Brazos by The Band
Count Every Star by The Ravens
Singing Bones by The Handsome Family
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
I went out for my daily afternoon walk yesterday in the cold and the wind. I wore my loudest, tackiest Hawaiian shirt, initially out of ironic defiance of the elements I supposed. But not long after I got home from that miserable trek, I learned the true reason for my fashion choice:
Mojo -- real name Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr. -- died after a heart attack while aboard the annual Outlaw Country Cruise, where he's participated as a performer and emcee for years. He was 66.
I think fellow Mojo fans will appreciate that the first thought to pop into my head after reading this sad news about Mojo dying on a cruise ship was "Elvis needs boats, Elvis needs boats ..."
Like most of his fans, I suppose, I first became a Nixon devotee after seeing the insane video of his signature song, "Elvis is Everywhere."
Not long after seeing that landmark video in the '80s, Mojo and his washboard rubbing partner Skip Roper came to Albuquerque, the EL Rey Theater I think, so I got to see him live. One outstanding memory from that show: Mojo at one point went out went out into the crowd (the first time I'd ever seen slam-dancing to acoustic music!) and stood on a table or chair to serenade the revelers below. I was standing right behind him. During the song he turned around and spoke directly to me:
"Stop lookin' at my butt!"
I saw him again a couple of years later inn Santa Fe, when he performed with his super group, The Pleasure Barons, which included Dave Alvin, John Doe, Rosie Flores, Katy Moffatt and a tall, gangly deep-voiced maniac called Country Dick Montana, who Mojo often referred to as his "de-mentor."
And a few years after that, during one of my first South by Southwests, I saw a brief afternoon Exhibition Hall Mojo performance.
That was the last time I ever got to see him. I'm really kicking myself now for somehow never making it to one of Mojo's notorious SXSW parties at the Continental Club.
But like Celine Dion's heart, Mojo's music will go on. As I've seen all over various social-media posts since yesterday "Mojo is Everywhere!" So here are some of my favorite Mojo tunes.
This one is on the very first Mojo album I ever bought. It's called "I'm Gonna Dig Up Howlin' Wolf":
Here's a video that MTV did NOT want you to see, starring Mojo with Wynona Ryder as Debbie Gibson:
Speaking of The Pleasure Barons, here's a track from that band's only album, Live from Las Vegas, with Mojo covering Jerry Reed:
And here's one from Prairie Home Invasion, Mojo's album with Jello Biafra:
Finally, here's the song that made us all fall in love.
Don't cry. Mojo's with Elvis now.
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Heart Attack and Vine by Lydia Lunch
Burn Baby Burn by The Aqua-dolls
Break Through by Old Time Relijun
My Best Friend by Ty Segall
98% by ET Explore Me
Red Head Walking by Beat Happening
Hoodoo Hop by The Courettes
Give Him a Great Big Kiss by The Shangri-Las
Nootmare by Psychedelic Porn Crumpets
Perm Act by Thee Oh Sees
Transdemic Baby by Ekko Astral
Bury My Bone by The Residents
Femme Fatale by Twin Temple
Smiling Face by WITCH
Homowo by The Psychedelic Aliens
The Seven by Primus
Not Me by The Orlons
Brain Dead by Sons of Hercules
Keep Warm by The Minks
It's Not Love, But It's Not Bad by Eli "Paperboy" Reed
Fist by The Ghost Wolves
Drunk Dial Me by Hamell on Trial
Nothing Makes Me Happy by The Gawks
Mama's Favorite Son by Slackeye Slim
Georgia on a Fast Train by Margo Price & Waylon Payne
She Blinded Me With Science by Thomas Dolby
The Silencers by Vikki Carr
Marie Laveau by Dr. John
Dollar Bill Bar by Sierra Ferrell
I Was Drunk by Alejandro Escobedo
Love Letters by Ketty Lester
Far From Any Road by The Handsome Family
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Sunday, April 28, 2024 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrel...