Friday, July 8, 2016 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
Granny Panties by Broomdust Caravan
Gamblin' Man by Mike Ness
Devil's at Red's by Anthony Leon & The Chain
Way Out West by Moonshine Willie
Thank You Lord by James Hand
Don't Get Weird by Boris & The Saltlicks
Everybody Out by Al Scorch
Quit That Ticklin' Me by Bayou Seco
Robot Drone by Holly Wood
San Antonio Romero by Cathy Faber's Swingin' Country Band
Band of Gold by Loretta Lynn
My Tight Wad Daddy by Audrey Williams
Dead Bury the Dead by Legendary Shack Shakers
Kohrn Sirrup Sundea by Imperial Rooster
Drinking Champagne by Willie Nelson
A Girl Don't Have to Drink to Have Fun byThe Stumbleweeds
Rehab Girl by Joe West & The Sinners
Big City by Merle Haggard
No Relief in Sight by Dallas Wayne
Baton Rouge by Bill Hearne
Keep Your Mouth Shut by Beth Lee
TJ by Hickoids
Do You Think About Me by The Waco Brothers
Pins and Needles by Alex Maryol
Dance This Mess Around by Asylum Street Spankers
Rainbow Stew by Jason Ringenberg
Aunt Peg's New Old Man by Robbie Fulks (Coming to Los Alamos Aug. 5)
And thus a song that became known as "Bully of the Town" became popular with folk, blues and country musicians in the 20th Century.
Actually, though it sprang from the late 19th Century, where, credited to Charles Trevathan, it was originally known as "The Bully Song."
Musician and music writer Elijah Ward writes of the song.
“The Bully Song” was a huge hit in 1895 for a Scots-Canadian singer named May Irwin, who performed it in a stage play called The Widow Jones — which is also notable because a brief scene which she kisses one of the other actors was filmed by Thomas Edison in 1897 and hence is one of the first movie love scenes. Irwin followed with other songs about African American badmen, sung in exaggerated dialect — though, unlike most white singers who specialized in that sort of material, she did not wear blackface make-up — and she was one of the few pop stars of the late 19th century to record some of her hits, including “The Bully Song.” But Ward explains there is some evidence that the song predates Irwin's version. He quotes W.C. Handy saying he heard it in the early 1890s.
Songs of this sort could be tremendous hits sometimes. On the levee at St. Louis I had heard Looking for the Bully sung by the roustabouts, which later was adopted and nationally popularized by May Irwin. I had watched the joy-spreaders rarin’ to go when it was played by the band
Below is Irwin's recording of the song. Unlike some of the versions that followed, Irwin is explicit in her desire to give the bully a taste of his own medicine.
She also explicitly -- and repeatedly-- uses that well racist term that contemporary polite folk call "The N-Word." You'd think she was NWA or something.
So if you don't want to hear that word, don't press play! (Ward does a cleaned-up version of the song HERE)
Gid Tanner was rather vague about the circumstances of the song here.
Lead Belly's version is similar, though he gives some additional information -- i.e. the Bully "shot the woman down." I suspect Mr. Ledbetter wanted to kill the Bully, go to prison for it, then get released by writing a song sucking up to the governor of whatever state he was in.
Here's Jerry Reed doing a version -- without the racist language -- closer in spirit to May Irwin's original. This bully is a definite asshole. There's a violent confrontation and the bully loses. [ Note from 2025: The original video with Reed singing the song with Buck Owens and Roy Clark on Hee Haw has vanished from YouTube]
This is the latest in the day that I've ever posted a Wacky Wednesday.
Besides battling some bug (I got eight hours of sleep last night!) I've also been commuting to Albuquerque to cover legal proceedings, so I just couldn't do it this morning.
I was going to try to post this from the courthouse during the lunch break today.
But the public wi-fi there does not allow users to access any fun sites like Youtube or Blogspot -- both of which I need to do this work.
But enough of my sniveling excuses. Here's a Wacky Wednesday musical tribute to the American legal system.
Starting with Pigmeat Markham, of course:
Here's Wynonie Harris
Here's a classic from Moby Grape. [Disclaimer: this song does not reflect my personal feelings toward any of the many wise and hard-working men and women I know who have served on the bench.]
Sunday, July 3, 2016 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
An American is a Very Lucky Man by Fred Waring & The Pennsylvanians
4th of July by X
All By Myself by Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers
My Escape by Dead Moon
Gotta Get Fired by The Sloths
Gone Deep Underground by Stan Ridgway
They Took You Away by Gregg Turner
Listen by The Hotbeats
There's a UFO Up There by Travis Wammack
Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover by Bo Diddley
House Rockin' Boogie by Howlin' Wolf
Del Rio's Close Shave by The Fezz
I Hate You by The Sinister Six
Hey Gyp by The Orphans
Iron Dream by Kaos
Primitive Man by The Monsters
Work With Me Annie by Dave Van Ronk
We Want a Rock and Roll President by The Treniers
The Pusher by Left Lane Cruiser
Raise a Little Hell by Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Safety Zone by Lonesome Shack
Pimps Don't Like It by Juke Joint Pimps
Suzy's Cookies by King Mud Pucker Up Buttercup by Paul Wine Jones
Misery / Azael by The Devils
Crawl Through Your Hair by New Mystery Girl
Lonely Avenue by Sam Samudio
Zombie OUtbreak by Alien Space Kitchen
Harm's Way by The Ugly Beats
My Dark Heart by The Bonnevilles
Nothin' to Prove by Sons of Hercules
Old Man Mose by Pierre Omer's Swing Revue Swing Cremonia
Bang Bang by Gaunga Dyns
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
You lucky devils! You're about to be treated to an hour's worth of Hellfire sinful rock 'n' roll -- just as the Prince of Darkness intended it to sound. There is new music from The Sloths, Gregg Turner, New Mystery Girl, Left Lane Cruiser, The Vagoos ... and of course the latest sensation from Voodoo Rhythm, The Devils!
Last Sunday night (actually early Monday morning) driving home after doing Terrell's Sound World at KSFR, I tuned into the show that comes on after mine, Oil of Dog with Gary Storm. On that show Gary had Dick Rosemont, who has a Santa Fe record shop called Guy in the Groove -- as well as a cool website called the Originals Project.
What he does there is simply track original versions of popular songs. Plus, without pretending to be a completest, Dick tries to list as many subsequent versions as possible.
Hey, I like doing stuff like that! I figured correctly that I'd like his website.
That night on Oil of Dog, Dick and Gary were playing various versions of "I Fought the Law," which was a hit for The Bobby Fuller Four in 1966.
I knew that Sonny Curtis, a Buddy Holly crony from Lubbock, had written it. But until that show I don't think I'd actually heard the original version by Sonny Curtis with the (post Buddy) Crickets.
Here that is:
Rosemont writes, "Be forewarned that not everything included here will be big news to music fans!" And that's true enough. But even for a jaded old rock 'n' roll freak like myself, I found plenty of surprises just puttering around The Originals Project.
For instance, I did not know that someone had recorded "Walkin' After Midnight' -- one of my favorite stalker songs -- before Patsy Cline. But actually a lady named Lynn Howard, with a group called The Accents did in 1956 (The same year Patsy first recorded it.)
Likewise, I always just assumed that Big Bill Broonzy was the first to record "Key to The Highway" (which like everyone else my age, I first heard by Derek & The Dominoes in the '70s.) But actually it was recorded by a piano man named Charles Segar in 1940.
Now I knew that this '80s one-hit wonder called "Taco" wasn't the first to record called "Puttin' on the Ritz." (I still have a weird fondness from this video from the heyday of MTV.)
I knew it was written by Irving Berlin but I never knew who recorded it first. Rosemont's site informs us it was a guy named Leo Reisman, with Lew Conrad on vocals. And it's a Jazz Age delight.
Gilda Radner would have been 70 years old yesterday. Unfortunately, she died of ovarian cancer in 1989 before she turned 43.
An original member of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players in the early years of Saturday Night Live in the mid to early '70s, she was best known for her characters Roseanne Roseannadana, Emily Litella and Baba Wawa.
But she also did some wonderful comical music. Here are three songs to remember her by.
Let's start with a sweet, childlike ditty from her 1979 one-woman show on Broadway, “Gilda Radner: Live from New York”
Here she is paying tribute to the girl-group era as Rhonda Weiss (with The Rhondettes)
Sunday, June 26, 2016 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
Blow Up Your Mind by The Cramps
Circuit Breaker by The Pastels
Nogales by Gregg Turner
Here He Comes by New Mystery Girl
I Couldn't Spell !!*@! by Roy Loney & The Young Fresh Fellows
Radio Danger by Skull Control
Better Than You by He Who Cannot Be Named
Listen by The Hotbeats
Bittersweet Romance Song by The Dirtbombs
Times by Andre Williams
Stinkfoot by Frank Zappa
To the Floor by Lonesome Shack
Rollin' and Tumblin' by Canned Heat
Circus by Left Lane Cruiser
Medium Size Star Bound by The Blues Against Youth
I Can Only Give You Everything by King Mud
Before I Die by The Sloths
The Decline of Western Civilization by Alien Space Kitchen
Hideous Woman by The Melvins
Lemmy by The Come n Go
Alligator Brain by The Grafters
Wild Angel by James Bond & The Agents
Quick Joey Small by Kasenetz-Katz Super Circus
European Girls by BBQ
The Great Nations of Europe by Randy Newman
Rogue Planet by Thee Oh Sees
1880 or So by Television Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye by The Casinos Poet is Priest by Julian Cope
Hard Times of Old England by Steeleye Span CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, June 24, 2016 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
Hogtied Over You Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs with Candye Kane
Crazy Date by T. Tex Edwards
Killed a Chicken Last Night by Scott H. Biram
Lonesome Train by Dex Romweber
Waitress Waitress by Little Jimmie Dickens
Will Your Lawyer Talk to God for You by Norma Jean
Kitty Wells Dresses by Laura Cantrell
A Date With Your Memory by Cornell Hurd
Crackhead Lullaby by Red Eye Gravy
Cajun Stripper by Doug Kershaw
Your Time's Comin' by Dallas Wayne with Willie Nelson
Lady Cop by Cousin Jody
Band of Gold by Loretta Lynn
More of You by Chris Stapleton
Borrowed Angel by Mel Street
Gypsy Davy by Eric Hisaw
Three Diamond Rings by Trailer Radio
R.I.P. RALPH STANLEY
All songs by Dr. Ralph except where noted
Lift Him Up, That's All
Handsome Molly
Rank Stranger
Rose Conley
Drifting Too Far from the Shore by The Stanley Brothers
Pig in the Pen by Ralph Stanley & Doug Phelps
No School Bus in Heaven
I Only Exist by Ralph Stanley & John Anderson
Keys to the Kingdom by Ralph Stanley with The Cedar Hill Refugees
Short Life of Trouble
Stone Walls and Steel Bars by Ralph Stanley & Junior Brown
Little Mathie Grove
Will You Miss Me by Ralph Stanley with Pam Tillis
I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow by The Stanley Brothers
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican June 24, 2016
I don’t know. Am I getting too old for this stuff? I mean, what does it say when I discover a new — well, relatively new — album from an obscure garage band I like via the AARP?
Garage rock for today’s active seniors?
That’s right, the latest magazine of the AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons) has a feature on The Sloths, a Los Angeles band that started out in the mid-1960s.
No, I don’t subscribe. But maybe I ought to. After all, the AARP magazine last year published the first actual Bob Dylan interview in years and sent copies of his album Shadows in the Night to 50,000 random AARP the Magazine subscribers.
But while it’s easy to see that Dylan’s collection of Frank Sinatra standards (and by the way, he recently released a similar album called Fallen Angels) would appeal to the oldsters — which I define as people maybe three or four years older than me — The Sloths, as shown by their wild new record Back from the Grave, are still loud, raw, and sometimes even snotty. They’re a rocking band, not a rocking-chair band. The Sloths are definitely not for the "early-bird special" crowd.
Some ancient history of The Sloths: The group started in 1965 out as a band of high schoolers. They started getting gigs during that riotous era at Sunset Strip clubs like Pandora’s Box, The Whiskey a Go-Go, The Sea Witch, the Hollywood Palladium, sharing stages with groups like The Animals, The Doors, and The Seeds.
The Sloths recorded only once. It was a 45 whose A-side featured a primitive, angst-ridden, hormonal, Bo Diddley-fired tune called "Makin' Love."
Soon after “Makin’ Love” flopped, The Sloths broke up. Some members formed a new band called The May Wines that included a singer named Tom McLoughlin. They didn’t last long either. But though “Makin’ Love” didn’t sell much when it first came out, it became something of a holy grail for fanatical garage-rock record collectors. The song was included on one of the influential Back from the Grave compilations of the 1990s. (And yes, that was where they got the title for their new album.)
Getting included on the compilation stirred up new attention to the band. At one point the original single of “Makin’ Love” in its original picture sleeve reportedly was selling on eBay for $6,550.
Apparently that was one of Rummans’ inspirations for re-forming The Sloths. Rummans, the only original Sloth in its 21st-century version, recruited McLoughlin — who, since his May Wines days, has worked as a film director and writer (and early on, he actually studied the art of mime) — and other past musical pals.
Father Tom McLoughlin preaching to his flock at
the 2013 Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans
I got to see the new Sloths three years ago. They played at the Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans on a bill with several other garage-rock greats including The Sonics and The Standells. Though not as crazily intense as The Sonics (who are in the same basic age range), The Sloths played a credible and fun-filled set at Ponderosa. McLoughlin’s stage presence was remarkable.
At one point he was wearing a priest’s collar, then later a Mexican flag as a cape. During the instrumental break of the song “Never Enough Girls,” (which kicks off the new album) he tried to blow up a cheap plastic sex doll, but ran out of time (or breath) before he had to start singing the next verse.
As for Back from The Grave, it’s a fine collection of good basic rock ‘n’ roll that’s almost as good as The Sloths’ live show. Songs like “Never Enough Girls,” “Lust,” “A Cutie Named Judy” and a new recording of “Makin’ Love” show how smooth a transition from horny high school kids to dirty old men can be.
But the most interesting songs here are the ones in which The Sloths’ maturity is a major strength. There’s “One Way Out,” in which every verse is a brutal little story about a drug-addled teenaged girl, a divorcing couple, a soldier who snaps and commits an atrocity, and a suicidal kid who ends up preaching on the streets for some cult. McLoughlin tells the stories in a voice that’s sympathetic but not about to pull any punches.
And even better is “Before I Die,” in which McLoughlin turns on its head that famous youthful declaration by The Who. “I wanna be old before I die,” he sings to a chugging Yardbirds-like beat. Here the singer isn’t selfishly yearning to cram more sex, drugs, and money into his life, or to achieve some immortality. Instead he’s wanting more time to apologize to people he’s hurt, pay off his debts, and “say things I should have said long ago.”
Here’s hoping for a long second life for The Sloths.
Also recommended:
* Some of This is True by Alien Space Kitchen. Here is a tough-rocking but ultimately catchy-sounding Albuquerque trio who describe their sound as “garage-punk space-pop.” (They previously described their sound as "hot interstellar space punk for consenting adults.")
This, their second album (scheduled for release in July) is a strong follow-up to their 2012 debut, Just ASK.
In fact, the music on the new one is probably a little stronger. On Just ASK, the band basically was a duo, featuring singer-guitarist Dru Vaughter, and drummer (and singer) Noelle Graney. The new album is the first with bassist Mess Messal.
Like their first one, Some of This is True is full of songs full of inspired nonsense about spaceships and even space people.
The opening cut is called “Alien Agenda,” which starts off with a slow guitar riff that sounds like some serious Brit-folk-rock is about to be committed. Instead, the song explodes with one of the stronger rockers on the album. There are also the conspiracy-soaked “How to Fake a Lunar Landing” and “Welcome to Star 65,” which goes back and forth between funky/jazzy verses sung by Graney and a crazy punked-out response sung by Vaughter.
At the moment, my favorite songs here are the delightfully paranoid “The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization” and the raging song that follows it, “Better Daze.”
All in all, this would be a cool soundtrack for an alien abduction.
Alien Space Kitchen plays Friday, June 24, at Burt's Tiki Lounge in Albuquerque, with a lineup that includes Weedrat and The Dying Beds; music starts at 9 p.m. Video time!
Here's a song from the Sloths set I saw at the Ponderosa Stomp
This is the official video for "One Way Out."
And this is the original "Makin' Love."
And here are a couple from Alien Space Kitchen.
"Losing My Mind is on the new album.
This one originally was by an African psychedelic group, Witdh
And for all you AARP rockers, here's a message from Stan Ridgway ...
