Sunday, November 22, 2015 KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell Webcasting! 101.1 FM email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org Here's the playlist
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Jack Ruby by Camper Van Beethoven
Fish in the Jailhouse by Tom Waits
Highway 61 Revisted by Bob Dylan
Accelerated Emotion by The Fleshtones
Lose Your Mind by The Seeds
A+ on Arson Class by Rocket From The Crypt
Twist Man by Dead Cat Stimpy
Sai'een by Mazhott
A Man for the Nation by John Lee Granderson
November by The Rockin' Guys
Howl by J.C. Brooks & The Uptown Sound
Give Me Back My Wig by Hound Dog Taylor
Ax Me by JJ & The Real Jerks
Crazy Pills by Quan & The Chinese Takeouts
Little Blonde Girl by Any Dirty Party
Lee Harvey was a Friend of Mine by Homer Henderson
A Man Amongst Men by Big Joe Williams
Livin' in Chaos by The Sonics
No, I'm Iron Man by Butthole Surfers
Now I Step Over Your World / Punch Me Again, Now Ya Drunken Idiot by John Trubee & The Ugly Janitors of America
Screwdriver by The BellRays
Land of 1,000 Dances by Jello Biafra & The Raunch and Soul All-Stars
Darlin' Corey by Oh Lazarus
Moonlight Motel by Gun Club
Falafel King by Rolando Bruno
Tinde by Tinariwen with Lalla Badi
Venom Party by The Vagoos
Make You Mine by The Black Lips
The River in Reverse by Allen Toussaint & Elvis Costello
Full Moon in the Daylight Sky by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
President Kennedy Gave His Life by Mary Ross
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, November 20, 2015 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist : OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
Mudflap Girl by The Misery Jackals
Pigsville by The Waco Brothers
Shadows Where the Magic Was by James Hand
FBI Top 10 by DM Bob & The Deficits
Here Am I, Oh Lord, Send Me by Alvin Youngblood Hart
It'll Be Me by The Malpass Brothers
Sister Kate by Oh Lazarus
Whiskey in a Jar by Hazeldine
Blind Man's Penis by John Trubee & The Ugly Janitors Of America
Don Houston by Slackeye Slim
Anything Goes at a Rooster Show by The Imperial Rooster
Revelation Blues by Garner Sloan
Paranormal Girlfriend by Jim White vs. The Packway Handle Band
Devil in Her Eyes by Calamity Cubes
Down to the Bone by Legendary Shack Shakers
Three Bullets by Electric Rag Band
Fuck Off by Audrey Auld
Stranger in Town by Dave Alvin
I Pity the Poor Immigrant by Richie Havens
Worried Mind / A Man I Hardly Know by Eilen Jewell
Jailhouse Tears by Lucinda Williams with Elvis Costello
One Has My Name, The Other Has My Heart by Jerry Lee Lewis
All My Rowdy Friends by The Supersuckers
Big Things by James McMurtry
There Stands the Glass by Ted Hawkins
Shake Sugaree by David Bromberg
Dover to Dunkirk by Jack Hardy
Opportunity to Cry by Willie Nelson
Evicted by Peter Case
The Beast in Me by Nick Lowe
Where I Fell by Robbie Fulks CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
I don't know what got into me a year ago this week, but only one day after debuting my Wacky Wednesday feature on this blog,
I launched Throwback Thursday to explore the music and musicians of decades past. The original intent was to spotlight music from before I was born -- and echoes of those old sounds in more contemporary music. I haven't strictly adhered to that, but nearly all of my Throwback posts are based on music from at least 50 years ago.
Frequently on Throwback Thursday I'll select an old song, try to give a little history about it and show various versions of it to show how it's evolved.
I'm pretty sure this is a complete list of those tunes with links to the original posts. If I left out any you know of, please let me know. (I threw in a couple of Wacky Wednesday songs plus a few from a few years before I started Throwback Thursday as well)
One year ago, on Wednesday, Nov. 19, I unleashed a new weekly feature on this here web log.
Wacky Wednesday, was created, I wrote, "to introduce you, the reader to strange, funny and/or confounding music -- the type of "unclaimed melodies" that the Firesign Theatre's Don G. O'Vani was talking about when he said, `if you were to go into a record store and ask for them they would think you were crazy!' "
I've tried to live up to that mission statement. Some weeks work better than others, but I think I've provided you guys with a lot of wackiness this past 12 months.
My very first post was a salute to a musician named Bob Purse who I'd just discovered on the Free Music Archive.
Below are videos and other mementos of the first year of Wacky Wednesday. Keep the wackiness alive!
Early on, I wrote about a song that tore at the soul of a youngster (yours truly) who loved The Beatles as well as Allan Sherman. The day I posted this, I showed it to my oldest grandson, then 3. He looked at me bewildered and asked, "Why does Pop hate The Beatles?"
I wish I knew, kid, I wish I knew!
Wacky Wednesday has explored the musical legacy of Muhammad Ali.
Bad karaoke is usually good for some good wholesome fun (and cheap laffs).
In honor of the 41st anniversary of the resignation of President Nixon, I did a Wacky Wednesday full of Watergate songs. Here is one I stumbled across while searching for another song.
On April Fool's Day I looked at a cruel prank that cost The Dwarves a record contract.
Big mea culpa here: I've been playing Eilen Jewell's music for years on The Santa Fe Opry for years now and I've been mispronouncing her name. I've called her "Eileen," I've called her "Ellen," I've called her "Zsa Zsa" (OK, I'm just lying there), everything but her actual name, which, (as I found out tonight listening to some of her YouTube videos) is pronounced "EEL-un."
But the point is, I have been playing her songs on the radio for years, and I only play the stuff I like. So I heartily recommend you catch her show in Santa Fe this Thursday (November 19). She'll be playing at the Center for Spiritual Living, 505 Camino de Los Marquez. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Buy tickets HERE.
This is a homecoming of sorts for Eilen. She attended St. John's College around the turn of the century and she's said many times in interviews that her first public gigs were busking at the Farmer's Market here.
So be there at her show. Until then, enjoy a couple of her videos:
Sunday, November, 2015 KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell Webcasting! 101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org
Here's the playlist
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Mercury Blues by David Lindley
Don't Slander Me by Roky Erikson
I Guess You're My Girl by The Vagoos
Dial Up Doll by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Tuned Out by JJ & The Real Jerks
Baby Doll by The Del Morrocos
Rickshaw Rattletrap by Churchwood
The Claw by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Why You Leave Me by T. Valentine & Daddy Long Legs
Eclipse Boliviano by Rolando Bruno
Naspare by Cankisou
Bemin Sebeb Letlash by Mahmoud Ahmed
Tamiditin by Tinariwen
Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child by Rev. Johnny L. Jones
Yesterday, following my Tune-Up column on The Seeds: Pushin’ Too Hard documentary, which is showing at the Jean Cocteau next week, my KSFR crony and fellow Seeds fan Sean Conlon sent me an email about the time he went to a Sky Saxon show 25 years ago.
With Sean's permission, I share the email here:
"Bring me the hula girls!"
In 1990 I visited a friend in San Francisco and he told me we were going to see another friend's band open for Sky! I was surprised because I'd heard Saxon had burned out and disappeared, but my friend told me he'd seen a reunited Seeds share a bill with Love a few months earlier, and that Sky had been in fine form. So we head down to the venue, which turns out to be the lobby of a seemingly deserted SRO hotel in the Tenderloin. There was a hand-drawn cardboard sign on the door, and that was apparently the only advertising that had been done for the gig besides word of mouth. There were maybe 20 people in the dimly lit room. There was a bar, but no stage; just a corner that had been cleared out. In another corner was Sky, sitting with 5 or 6 hippie chicks. They were young, maybe about 20. He looked old, and in bad shape. During my friend's opening set (they were sort of a Toiling Midgets-wannabe band. In 1983 the Midgets had been our upstairs neighbors in the Mission district.) Sky's entourage got on the dance floor and hula-hooped. Things were looking up. There was a problem, though. Sky hadn't brought a band. I'm not sure if he thought the promoter was going to provide one, or if he just forgot. He asked my friend's group to back him, although they didn't know any of his material. No worries, he said, just do your thing and I'll work with it. So they noodled around while he recited some verse and a few lines from Pushin' Too Hard, and sang "Mr Mojo Risin'" over and over while the hippie chicks continued with the hula hoops. After about 10 minutes of this, Sky went back to his table in the corner, the entourage packed up and they all left. I'm still not sure if it was the best or worst show I ever saw.
So there you have it.
Don't forget the The Seeds: Pushin’ Too Hard is showing at the Jean Cocteau Cinema (418 Montezuma Ave., 505-466-5528) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 18, and Thursday, Nov. 19. The doc’s director, Neil Norman will be on hand for Q & both nights.
I don't think hula hoops will be provided.
And don't forget tomorrow night's Terrell’s Sound World on on KSFR-101.1 FM. here I'll be playing a special segment featuring the music of the Seeds, Sky Saxon, and lots of cool bands covering their songs. The show starts at 10 p.m. with the Seeds set starting at the 11th hour.
Friday, November 13, 2015 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
Tobacco Road by Southern Culture On The Skids
Drinking Problem by Audrey Auld
Tied by The Yawpers
MisAmerica by Legendary Shack Shakers
Still Sober (After All These Beers) by The Banditos
Streets of Bordeaux by Texas Martha & The House of Twang
Oui (A French Song) by Terry Allen
Swing Troubador by Christine Albert
When First Unto This Country by David Bromberg
Yuppie Scum by Emily Kaitz
Crazy Crazy Lovin' by Johnny Carroll
Hot Rod Lincoln by The Satellites
Blackeyed Susie by J.P. Nestor
No Judgement Day by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
In New Orleans (Rising Sun Blues) by Dave & Phil Alvin
Cigarette Party by Dex Romweber Duo
LSD by Wendell Austin
UFO on Farm Road 318 by Sidney Ester
If You Mess with the Bull by Luke Reed
Long White Cadillac by Janis Martin
The Over You Rag by Electric Rag Band
Crazy Heart by Augie Meyers
Sorry You're Sick by Mary Gauthier
Bad Dog by Ted Hawkins
Dried Out River by Dad Horse Experience
Lucille by The Beat Farmers
Dust Off The Old Songs by Jason Eklund, Mike Good & Tom Irwin
Mary Lou by Kell Robertson
Big Train From Memphis by Mary & Mars
Cold Black Hammer by Joe Ely
My Walking Stick by Leon Redbone
Legend in My Time by Leon Russell Green Fields of France by Dropkick Murphys CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican November 13, 2015 Thursday, June 25, 2009. A beloved and influential innovator of modern popular music is dead. A stunned nation mourns.
Actually, most of those stunned and mourning people that day were grieving for some guy named Michael Jackson. But not me. The only tears I shed that summer day were for Richard Marsh, better known as Sky Saxon, the singer of one of most important ’60s-garage, proto-punk (and don’t forget flower power) bands in rock ’n’ roll history.
I didn’t care about the King of Pop! On that sad day, I looked to the Sky!
Saxon and his band, the Seeds, are now the subject of a well-researched, thoroughly entertaining, and totally rocking documentary called The Seeds: Pushin’ Too Hard.
I’ve been a Seeds fan since I was in junior high in the mid-’60s, which was back when their song (“You’re) Pushin’ Too Hard” was first a big hit. That tune fit in perfectly with some of the great snot-rock of the era such as “Dirty Water,” “96 Tears,” and “Psychotic Reaction.” but until this film I didn’t really know that much about Saxon or the Seeds.
The Seeds
First of all, this was a real band, not just a charismatic singer with a bunch of sidemen. Director Neil Norman (whose father Gene Norman signed the group to his GNP Crescendo Records) includes footage of recent interviews with former Seeds keyboardist Daryl Hooper (whose Wurlitzer electric piano with heavy tremolo made early Seeds records unforgettable) and fuzztone-guitar pioneer Jan Savage, as well as some footage and taped commentary of drummer Rick Andridge, who died in 2011.
I also didn’t realize that Saxon himself had been knocking around Hollywood for as long as he did, trying to get a break in the showbiz game. Born in Utah, he first went to Tinseltown in the late ’50s, initially signing to a label co-owned by Fred Astaire. Some of those quasi-doo-wop songs, which he released under the name “Little Richie Marsh,” can be found on YouTube today. They’re kind of cool, but you’d never realize these songs are the seeds of the Seeds.
The magic didn’t really start until Little Richie hooked up with Hooper and Andridge, a couple of high school pals who moved to Hollywood from their hometown of Farmington, Michigan. They started out covering the usual early rock classics. Things started to happen after they began writing their own songs.
Like many rock docs, much of the story told comes from famous folks who are fans of the film’s subject. Here we have the likes of the late Hollywood creep Kim Fowley, Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys, members of the ’80s girl band the Bangles, Johnny Echols of the group Love, and others.
Iggy opines from his throne
My favorite celeb testimony in Pushin’ Too Hard is Iggy Pop, who says The Seeds “gave a lot of people a vocabulary.” Of Saxon, Iggy says, “Besides his great name, which is super cool, he doesn’t sound stoppable. He sounds like you can’t stop him or shut him up. ... He couldn’t really sing, but neither can anyone else who’s any fucking good.”
Watching the rise of the Seeds is exciting, and watching their fall in the documentary is painful. Norman presents the case that it was too much ego, as well as too many drugs, that led to Saxon’s decline and the disintegration of the band.
After two snarling, rocking albums came Future, an ill-conceived, badly executed third album — an artsy experiment, probably influenced by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and all the other “rock is art” idiocy of the era. The Beach Boys’ Johnston grouses, “I didn’t want to hear the Seeds with harps.” (Perhaps he didn’t recognize the irony here — a lot of people said the same thing about the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds.)
Saxon’s appetite for LSD became a problem. “On stage it was like talking to a six-year-old,” a bandmate says. He tended to adopt stray humanoids who took advantage of his generosity and trust. Saxon’s house became a “flophouse for degenerates,” Savage says. “People fed Sky’s ego, giving him dope. He lost his edge.”
The Seeds broke up in 1969. Saxon apparently went to seed. (I apologize for that.) He lost his house, and folks would see him walking the streets or “wandering around the hills playing the flute,” according to one account in the film.
Saxon in later years
At one point in the ’70s, Saxon became involved with a utopian communal experiment (none dare call it cult) in Hollywood that ran a popular Sunset Strip health food restaurant (which is the subject of another fine documentary, The Source Family, released in 2012). Saxon was given a new name, “Arelich Aquarian,” by the group’s head honcho Father Yod. The former rock star worked in the restaurant and moved to Hawaii with the group when Yod decided it was time to flee the mainland.
There were reunions and reformations of the Seeds. Saxon recorded several solo albums (I have Transparency, which was released a few years before he died. It’s not bad, though it’s not the Seeds).
He eventually moved to Austin, where he worked with a band called Shapes Have Fangs. At the time of his death, he’d been planning on a tour with the contemporary versions of the Electric Prunes and Love.
The Seeds: Pushin’ Too Hard is showing at the Jean Cocteau Cinema (418 Montezuma Ave., 505-466-5528) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 18, and Thursday, Nov. 19. The doc’s director will be on hand both nights.
Tune in to Terrell’s Sound World on Sunday, Nov. 15, for a special segment featuring the music of the Seeds, Sky Saxon, and lots of cool bands covering their songs. The show starts at 10 p.m. with the Seeds set starting at the 11th hour. That’s on KSFR-101.1 FM.
This one is for all the Willie McBrides and the other forgotten heroes of forgotten wars. And for Kurt Vonnegut too.
Yesterday was Veteran's Day, a day to honor the men and the women who have served in the military. Veteran's Day was born in 1945 after the end of World War II.
But it started out as something different: Armistice Day. A day to mark the end of a war. Kurt Vonnegut spoke of Armistice Day in his 1973 novel Breakfast of Champions. (I was going to look for this passage in in my battered old copy of the book to use here, but those wackos at Wonkette made it easier for me to copy and paste.)
I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind. Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ Day is not.
Indeed, I've heard lots of speeches by lots of politicians on Veteran's Day thanking veterans for their service and praising the military in general. But rarely do you hear them talk about the horror of war.
Eric Bogle
So in that spirit of Armistice Day as descried by Vonnegut, I'm going to share some moving songs about World War I -- and some of the most powerful anti-war tunes ever sung by human beings.
The first two were written by Eric Bogle. a Scottish folksinger who immigrated to Australia decades ago.
Both of the songs tell of the horrors of the War to End All Wars. And the first time I heard both of them I incorrectly assumed each was written by someone who had to be personally acquainted with that war. Actually Bogle wrote both of these songs in the 1970s.
To my ears the best versions of these Bogle songs are by Celt-Punk bands. Here is "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" as recorded by The Pogues for their seminal 1985 album Rum, Sodomy & The Lash.
Bogle wrote the song "No Man's Land," which came to be better known as "The Green Fields of France" after visiting a graveyard in the French countryside and coming across the grave of an Irish soldier named Willie McBride who was killed in 1916. Here's the recorded version by The Dropkick Murphys from their 2005 album The Warriors Code.
Lastly here's John McCutcheon's "Christmas in the Trenches." I know it's a little early, but as McCutcheon says in the introduction to this live performance, the story needs to be told 365 days a year.
As I've said here many times before, I'm a huge fan of an amazing if obscure series of albums calledTwisted Tales from the Vinyl Wastelands.I've been a devotee of these crazy CDs ever since my friend Sean at KSFR alerted me to their existence.
Through the years I've played dozens of songs from Twisted Tales and on my radio shows and even did a segment of them on an episode of The Big Enchilada podcast.
So what is Twisted Tales From The Vinyl Wastelands?
As described in its own promo, the "series takes the listener on a dark adventure, a wrong turn into a bizarre, alternate world of American country music performed by small town, unknown hicks ..."
And as I wrote, "... in Twisted Tales you’ll find story songs, answer songs to popular hits of the day, and novelty songs. There are topical songs ripped from the headlines of the time and politically incorrect songs — some probably racist, or at least shockingly unenlightened. The tracks are full of sex. But there are usually tragic consequences attached to lovemaking. It’s the same with liquor and drugs or being a hippie."
Well here's some long-awaited news. Vinyl Wastelands mastermind G Minus Mark (who has a bitchen podcast called Truckers, Shuckers, Freaks and Geeks) has reimagined, reconfigured, reshuffled and reconfluberated Twisted Tales into a new series with original artwork by Olaf Jens, which will be available on vinyl and digital as well as CD.
Volume One, called UFO on Farm Road 318, is available now. Volume Two, Beating on The Bars is set for release next month, You can order both HERE.
And you can listen to all the songs from Volume 1 below (and download them HERE)
The original Twisted Tales CDs, 15 volumes, I believe, can be found at Norton Records.
Sunday, November 8, 2015 KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell Webcasting! 101.1 FM email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org Here's the playlist
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Spend the Night by The Sonics
Hey Darling by Sleater-Kinney
Poor Queen by Thee Oh Sees
No Confidence by Simon Stokes
Crankcase Blues by Mudhoney
The Sharpest Claws by The Dirtbombs
Bo Diddley is Crazy by Bo Diddley
Hanged Man by Churchwood
Rappin' Rodney by Rodney Dangerfield
Evil Hoodoo by The Seeds
Sheeba by Sky Saxon
Cooking for Television by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
One Kind Favor by Canned Heat
It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry by Bob Dylan
Mother-in-Law by Jello Biafra & The Raunch and Soul All-Stars
I Got Spies Watching You by Figures of Light
It's a Man Down There by Sir Douglas Quintet
After the Rain by Mission of Burma
Love Comes in Spurts by Richard Hell & The Voidoids
Friday, November 6, 2015 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org Here's my playlist : OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
Semi Truck by Commander Cody
The One That Got Away by Legendary Shack Shakers
Beaten and Broken by Robbie Fulks & The Mini-Mekons
Apartment 34 by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Monkey on the Moon by Gene Hall
Pardon Me I've Got Someone to Kill by Andre Williams & The Sadies
Pappa's on the Rooftop by Dave & Phil Alvin
Scorched by The Satellites
Pick a Bale of Cotton by Flathead If There Wasn't Any Cows by Luke Reed
All Dressed Up for Trial by Peter Case
Big Fat Love by John Prine
Big Old Pussy Cat by John Riggs
Living With the Animals by Mother Earth
Big Fat Nuthiin' by Bottle Rockets
Tom Dooley by Bobby Bare
(All songs by Kell except where noted)
Cool and Dark Inside
Guns, Guitars and Women
Go On Home by Jason Eklund, Mike Good & Tom Irwin
Mary's Bar
Star Motel Blues Wine Spodee Odee
Down the Bar From Me
I Always Loved a Waltz
I'll Walk Around Heaven With You by Blonde Boy Grunt & The Groans
Emotional Needs by Uncle Monk
My Side by Electric Rag Band
The Long Way Home by Hot Club of Cowtown
Worried Mind by Eilen Jewell
Lonesome Suzie by The Band
The Ballad of Maverick by George Thorogood
Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me by Mississippi John Hurt CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Kell Robertson live at the Oasis, Santa Fe circa 2004
Four years ago this Saturday, Nov. 7, Kell Robertson, poet, songwriter, country singer, storyteller and self-described old drunk left this world at the age of 81.
You don't know Kell Robertson? Well educate yourself, dammit! Read the profile I did on him for No Depression in 2004. Read the obituary I did for him in The New Mexican four years ago. And please lose yourself in the wonderful website some of his friends put together for Kell.
I still think about the old troublesome desert rat all the time. I think about his stories, his b.s., his phone calls that always seemed to come when I needed a good laugh. And I especially think about those soulful songs he left behind.
Here are a couple of those tunes that have popped up on YouTube
We'll start with "I'll Probably Live."
This next one, "Cool and Dark Inside," has always been my personal favorite of all his songs. And this video is nice because it's got footage of Kell at Mary's Bar in Cerrillos.
And this is a song he sang on my radio show, The Santa Fe Opry back in 2008. "Wine Spodee Odee," of course is not a Kell original. But there's no denying he put his own unique stamp on it. I turned it into a video just a few days ago, using some snapshots I'd taken of the man.
And here's a radio feature the late Joe Day did about him right after he died. (We also lost Joe earlier this year. Damn I get tired of writing obits about my friends!)
I'll be commemorating Kell on tonight's Santa Fe Opry. It's on KSFR, 101.1 FM or www.ksfr.org at 10 p.m. Mountain Time. Come on in. It's cool and dark inside.
It was 49 years ago this week when the world lost a gentle Goliath of American music, Mississippi John Hurt.
Born in the 1890s to a sharecropping family in Carroll County, Miss., Hurt taught himself to play guitar. Though agriculture was the way he earned his living, he sometimes played at parties in and around his Avalon, Miss. home. Hurt recorded 12 songs for Okeh Records. They didn't sell well. Okeh went broke during the Depression Hurt went back to farming.
But in 1952, two of his songs -- "Frankie" and "Spike Driver Blues" -- appeared on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, exposing Hurt to a wider, whiter audience
And then came the wild rush of the early '60s folk boom, when roving armies of young record collectors combed the rural South searching for authentic old blues and hillbilly recording artists of yore. Hurt living near his hometown of Avalon, Miss. was found by musicologist Tom Hoskins.
Soon Mississippi John was the star of folk festivals and the big city coffee-house circuit, appearing on the same bills as "re-discovered' bluesmen like Son House and Skip James. His self-taught, syncopated finger-picking style was studied, copied and celebrated by a new generation of guitarists.
I didn't discover John Hurt until about three years after he died. In 1970, when I was a senior in high school, I decided I needed to start listening to some actual blues music.
For years I was familiar with names like John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and B.B. King by way of blues-soaked rock bands like The animals, The Rolling Stones and, later Canned Heat and Cream. And several years before I'd seen Howlin' Wolf play on Shindig with the Stones at his feet. But I didn't have any actual blues records in my collection. So that Christmas I asked my mom to get me a blues album -- any blues album.
Mom was fairly hip for someone of her era. She gave me my first Bob Dylan album, Bringing it All Back Home, before I'd even heard of the guy. But she was not a blues scholar. So to make sure I got a decent blues record for Christmas, she went downtown to The Candyman (which she didn't realize was named for a Mississippi John Hurt song!) and asked a clerk for a suggestion.
Whoever it was sold her a Hurt album (that later was reissued on CD under the title of Legend) that had a bunch of his greatest tunes including "Pay Day," "Louis Collins," "Trouble I Had All My Days," "Stack-O-Lee Blue" and a wistful little song of despair called "Let The Mermaids Flirt With Me."
No, it wasn't exactly the blues. Mississippi John's music was influenced by blues, gospel, ragtime, white hillbilly records and all sorts of sounds that drifted into rural Mississippi. While it wasn't exactly what I asked for, the album and the man playing album became favorites for life.
Thanks again, Mom!
To commemorate his death (Nov. 2, 1967) and to celebrate his life, here are a couple of videos of Mississippi John Hurt singing on Pete Seeger's TV showRainbow Quest,which originally aired on a New York UHF station.
Here's "You Got to Walk that Lonesome Valley:
Here's Hurt covering Leadbelly
And here's the song that remains my favorite to this day.
This following song is a tribute to Hurt written by Tom Paxton and recently revived by Jack White. But my favorite is the version by Dave Van Ronk, which I first heard when I saw him in Santa Fe in 1980.
And just in case you never heard him sing that "Candyman" ...
What comedians do best: Tell jokes, tell funny stories, make wisecracks, point out the absurd.
Notice what not is on that list is "sing songs."
Yet every now and then an American will decide to stretch out and make some sort of pop record. And sometimes these tunes even make the charts. Most the time these are novelty records, extensions of a funny man's comic personna.
Sometimes they're just absurd.
Here is a glance at that strange entertainment phenomenon.
Let's start with The Three Stooges. By the late 1950s, Curly Howard was dead, as was another Howard brother Schempp. Moe and Larry tried a third stooge named Joe Besser for a couple of years, but he didn't work out. Then they hooked up with a guy named Joe DeRita who bore a resemblance to Curly Howard. DeRita became known as "Curly Joe," and the final stage of the Three Stooges' lengthy career began.
By this point, with an eye on the television market, the Stooges were becoming more "kid friendly." (though as an actual kid, even then I vastly preferred the two-reel shorts from the '30s and '40s.) And in 1959, Moe Larry and Curly Joe went to the recording studio to make a children's album.
One of the songs was called "Swinging the Alphabet." It would appear on several of their 1960s records. But it wasn't a new song. The Stooges had performed it back in 1938 in a two-reeler called Violent is the Word for Curly. This is the version that lives in our hearts:
I'm not sure why Soupy Sales decided to record this dumb parody of teen-dance-craze hits in the mid '60s. The youth of America already loved him for his irreverent kiddie show, Lunch With Soupy Sales. But I have to admit I bought the damn 45 of "Do the Mouse" when I was a kid. I wish I still had it. Here's Soupy on Hullabaloo.
Bill Cosby (I know, I know) tried his hand at music in the mid '60s. He had a hit with "Little Old Man," which was based on Stevie Wonder's "Uptight." And this golden throat released an album called Silver Throat, which mostly consisted of funked up blues and soul standards. His "Mojo Workout" actually was a mutation of Muddy Waters' "I Got My Mojo Workin'." But now when you hear Cos singing, "I got my mojo workin' and I'm going to try it out on you" it sounds pretty ominous, now that we know what we know.
Rodney Dangerfield was born to rap. In 1983 he strung together a bunch of his greatest "No Respect" one-liners, made 'em rhyme and slapped on some early hip-hop beats and "Rappin' Rodney" was born. The video below, which appears to be part of some TV variety show, has cameos by Andy Kaufman and Robert Urich (who I first thought was Pete Rose until a friend set me straight).
Unlike Soupy and Rodney, comedian Eddie Murphy's mid '80s hit "Party All the Time" wasn't a novelty song. It was written by Rick James, bitch! And lately he's been recording reggae with Snoop Doggy Lion or whatever his name is. And it ain't bad. Below is that first Murphy hit.
The Stooges' musical career took a turn for the weird by the late '60s
Sunday, November 1, 2015 KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell Webcasting! 101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org Here's the playlist OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
KaBouri by Cankisou
Dumb All Over by Frank Zappa
Just a Little Bit by Jello Biafra & The Raunch and Soul All-Stars
Betty vs. the NYPD by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Mr. Farmer by The Seeds
Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White by The Standells
Louise by Undercover Bonobos
Headlock on My Heart by The Fleshtones
Radar by Mr. Bear & His Bearcats
Gravy on My Mashed Potatoes by Dee Dee Sharp
Doing the Watusi by Mr. X
The Wah Watusi by The Orlons
I'm a Full-Grown Man by Barrence Whitfield
Fool in Love by Marcia Ball, Angela Strehli & Lou Ann Barton
Everybody Free by Alex Mairano & The Black Tales
Down in the Valley by Otis Redding
Get Right With God by The Mighty Blytheville Aires
Jesus is on The Mainline by The Whirlwinds
Soldiers of The Cross by Reverend Lonnie Farris
Holding His Hand by Leola Brown Radio Gospel Singers
Heard it Through the True Vine by Flora Molton
Sometimes I Feel Like I'm Already Gone by Rev. Johnny L. Jones
Come by Here by Hightower Brothers
Children Are You Ready by The Violinaires
Lord, Lord, Lord by The Apollos
Ain't it a Shame by Echos of Harmony
My Troubles Are So Hard by Ethel Davenport
All These Things by Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint
Heart of Stone by Joe Louis Walker
Johnny Mathis' Feet by American Music Club
Welfare Bread by King Khan & The Shrines Their Hearts Were Full of Spring by The Beach Boys CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, October 30, 2015 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
(It's a) Monster's Holiday by Buck Owens
Cold by Legendary Shack Shakers
I Created a Monster by Glenn Barber
I Wanna Be Your Zombie by Slackeye Slim
Your Friends Think I'm the Devil by The Imperial Rooster
Smash That Radio by The Electric Rag Band
Big Bad Bill is Sweet William Now by Emmett Miller
Outside a Small Circle of Friends by Phil Ochs
The Ghost and Honest Joe by Pee Wee King
Garden of the Dead by Pine Hill Haints
Cocaine Cowboy by Terry Allen
The Gayest Old Dude That's Out by Uncle Dave Macon
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican October 30, 2015
A few years ago in this column, right around this time of year, I published a list of songs I called “Beyond the ‘Monster Mash,” a list of rock ’n’ roll horror tunes for people who, after 50-some years, are sick to death (insert evil laugh) of the “Monster Mash.”
But this year I’m not going to make another list. Instead, I’m going way back to the days before rock ’n’ roll, the 1920s and ’30s, to the era of hot jazz and the smooth crooner.
I’m not claiming that there were any Roaring ’20s Roky Ericksons or Depression-era Rob Zombies. But every once in a while some singer got the bright idea of recording a novelty song about devils, ghosts, dancing skeletons, and other topics that were spooky and/or morbid. Many of these can be found in a compilation released several Halloweens ago on Legacy Recordings: Halloween Classics: Songs That Scared the Bloomers Off Your Great-Grandma.
While I can’t say I’m familiar with 1920s singer Fred Hall, I immediately recognized his contribution to this collection. “’Taint No Sin (to Take Off Your Skin)” was part of Tom Waits’ 1993 album The Black Rider. On Waits’ nightmarish version, author William S. Burroughs provided rather atonal vocals, encouraging listeners to “take off your skin and dance around in your bones.” Except for the lyrics, Hall’s version sounds like an archetypal upbeat speakeasy jazz number. I see visions of skeletons dancing the Charleston.
So most of the performers here are lesser-knowns, and the songs they sing, for the most part, are even more obscure.
The album starts off with a chipper little tune called “Hush Hush Hush (Here Comes the Boogie Man)” performed by British bandleader and BBC regular Henry Hall — who is more famous for “Teddy Bears’ Picnic,” which he recorded in 1932, the same year as “Boogie Man.” “Hush Hush Hush” begins, “Children, have you ever met the Boogie Man before/No, I’m sure you haven’t, for you’re much too good, I’m sure.” Then vocalist Val Rosing gives the kiddies practical advice on how to ward off the evil one.
Halloween Classics has another song about the same guy, “The Boogie Man” by Todd Rollins & His Orchestra. Here the title character is something of a sexual predator, threatening “bad little girls like you.” Rollins croons, “I’ll torture you and hunt you/I’ve got you where I want you/A victim of my dark and dirty plot/And at the slightest whim/I’ll tear you limb from limb.” What kind of message does that send to the children?
There are a couple of tracks by country artists of the day, and, blow me down, both singers involved sound more like Popeye than Jimmie Rodgers. One is “Minnie the Moocher at the Morgue” (yes, another Minnie song) by Smiley Burnett, who in the ’60s played train engineer Charley Pratt in Petticoat Junction. T
he other is “Ghost in the Graveyard” by The Prairie Ramblers, who later became more famous when they started backing up Patsy Montana.
A couple of my favorites on Bloomers deal with a creepy old man named Mose. Rube Bloom and His Bayou Boys recorded “Mysterious Mose” in 1930. Later that year, a different recording of the song became the basis of a Betty Boop cartoon. New Orleans trumpet man Wingy Manone does another about “Old Man Mose,” whose main offense is that he died and was discovered by a neighbor not fond of dead people.
This tune has been covered by Louis Armstrong as well as Betty Hutton. And there is also an obscene version (I’m not kidding) recorded in 1938 by Eddy Duchin’s band with singer Patricia Norman.
Just like the best metal, psychobilly, and garage songs of modern times that deal with Satan, ghosts, and monsters, the best songs that scared the bloomers off our great-grannies were humorous ways of confronting our fear of death and other unknowns. They allow you to acknowledge your impending death and the boogeymen who haunt your nightmares. You can’t beat ’em, so join ’em. Dance around in your bones.
Here are some Halloween treats and tricks on the web:
* Santa Fe’s favorite busker sings about New Mexico’s favorite ghost: On a recent Saturday at the Santa Fe Farmers Market, J. Michael Combs agreed to sing a song about La Llorona while my faithful camera crew (actually just me and my iPhone) recorded a video of it. Check it out:
▼ Surfing spooks: Surf music and horror themes have gone together at least since the days of the 1966 teen beach flick The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini.
Portland visual artist J.R. Williams, who has been responsible for a ton of free retro rock ’n’ soul underground compilations, has a new volume of his Halloween Instrumentals series on his blog, featuring bitchen rock instrumentals interspersed with radio ads for cheesy horror flicks.
Mostly there are obscure bands, but you’ll also find tracks by The Ventures, Duane Eddy, and R&B great Bill Doggett.
▼ The 2015 Big Enchilada: My latest podcast is my annual Spooktacular, which includes a couple of tracks from Songs That Scared the Bloomers Off Your Great-Grandma. You can find that HERE. (Or right below)
