My beloved 15-year-old fuzzy-faced mutt Rocco Rococo left this earthly plain this week, so I'm dealing with some real pain here.
So this Wacky Wednesday is for Rocco. It's a set of wacky tunes about man's best friend. I think my best friend would wag his tail for these.
Let's start out with Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs ode to a cartoon canine lawman, Deputy Dawg.
"Marie Provost" is Nick Lowe's sardonic ode to Marie Prevost (he calls her "Provost") the one-time movie star who died in January, 1937, She died of malnutrition, basically drinking herself to death at the age of 38. According to Hollywood legend -- perpetrated by a chapter in Kenneth Anger's scurrilous Hollywood Babylon -- she was eaten by her own pet dachshund, Maxie. That gruesome tale is widely disputed, though it inspired Lowe's song.
Hey Hey it's The Monkees singing this dumb doggy ditty from their first album
Rockabilly Ronnie Self offers this shoulda-been-a classic tune that's not only a bitchen rocker, but also an pioneering experiment in radical grammar: "Ain't I'm a Dog."
Finally, here's Rocco's favorite house rocker, Hound Dog Taylor playing a tribute to Howlin' Wolf
Rocco Rococo in happier days. Photo by Helen Sobien
Sunday, June 11, 2017 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Hound Dog by '68 Comeback
One Arabian Night by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
Bo Diddley is Crazy by Bo Diddley
Mr. Investigator by Ex-Cult
Lay Down by Left Lane Crusier
Two Thumbs Up by Rattanson
Let's Get Funky by Hound Dog Taylor
All the Good's Gone by The Ghost Wolves
Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby by The Beatles
Hittin' on Nothing by The Detroit Cobras
Hooch Party by MFC Chicken
The Whip by The Creeps
Devil Time by Satan & The Deciples
The Gasser by The Fleshtones
Bums by Dean Ween Group
I Wanna Be Your Dog by The Stooges
I'm Hurting by The Dustaphonics
The Cook Who Couldn't Cook by Bingo Gazingo
Questions I Can't Answer by The A-Bones
I'd Kill For Her by The Black Angels
Get Out of My Face by Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons
Goin' Underground by The Molting Vultures
Baby I'm Your Dog by Stomping Nick & His Blues Grenade
Baron of Love Part II by Ross Johnson & Alex Chilton
Cathy's Clone by The Tubes
Children of Production by Parliament
I Don't Like the Blues No How by John Schooley
Deputy Dog by Sam the Sham & The Pharoahs
The Cell by The Mekons
Witness by Benjamin Booker
Run Through the Jungle by Gun Club
Jungle by J.C. Brooks
Death's Head Tattoo by Mark Lanegan
Toy Automatic by Afghan Whigs CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, June 9, 2017 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
Look at That Moon by Carl Mann
Hello, I'm a Truck by Red Simpson
It's Not Enough by The Waco Brothers
That's What She Said Last Night by Billy Joe Shaver
Buckskin Stallion by Jimmie Dale Gilmore & Mudhoney
Trouble, Trouble by Shinyribs
Eight Weeks in a Barroom by Marti Brom
Pickin' Off Peanuts by Seven Foot Dilly & His Dill Pickles
That's How it Goes by Meat Puppets
Up to No Good Livin' by Chris Stapleton
On the Road Again by Nas
I'm Walking Slow by Miss Leslie
Ain't No Sure Thing by Bobby Bare
Precious Memories by The Blasters
11 Months and 29 Days by Dave Alvin
You Can Be My Baby Now by The Backsliders
Something I Said by Ray Condo & The Hardrock Goners
Salty Songs of the Sea
Haul Away Joe by The Scallywags
Blow the Man Down by The Jolly Rogers
Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest by Salt Sea Pirates
Good Ship Venus by Loudon Wainwright III
Keep on Truckin' by Hot Tuna
East Side Boys by Martin Zeller
Down in Sinaloa by Panama Red
The Only Man Wilder Than Me by Merle Haggard & Willie Nelson
If the River Was Whiskey by Charlie Poole
Bring Me The Meat by L.A. Rivercatz
Americadio by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
Misery Without Company by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Just in Time by Valerie June
I'm Going Home by Slackeye Slim
Cold Hard Truth by George Jones 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
So to honor the world's oceans, here are a bunch of sea shanties, pirate songs and other salty songs of the sea.
Let's start with one that Popeye used to like, "Blow the Man Down" as performed by the Robert Shaw Chorale
Here is a classic shantie called "Haul Away Joe," done a Capella by a contemporary Irish group called The Eskies. I'm not sure why the lead singer shouts "Timmy!" at the end of each version, I don't think it has anything to do with Southpark. (The Clancy Brothers do it too.)
Here's an archetypal pirate song, "Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest" as performed by The Roger Wagner Chorale. This song originally came from Robert Lewis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island in 1883, Stevenson only wrote the chorus:
Fifteen men on the dead man's chest Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
But in 1891, Kentucky journalist Young Ewing Allison expanded the snippet into a full-blown poem and published it in the Louisville Courier-Journal (where he was the editor.) Allison called his work "The Derelict," Here's a version by a band called The Jolly Rogers -- live in Muskogee, Oklahoma
"Barnacle Bill the Sailor" was considered pretty ribald and randy when Frank Luther recorded it in 1928. Of course, I learned far filthier lyrics to in as a teenager at Methodist Youth camp.
Speaking of filthy, here's "Good Ship Venus," as performed by Oscar Brand. (And even he cleaned it up a little.)
Finally here's my favorite sailor song, Jacques Brel's "Port of Amsterdam," as sung by Dave Van Ronk. When I was in Amsterdam a few years ago I searched for a restaurant that served fish heads and tails but couldn't find any.
For another great old sea-faring song, check out my Throwback Thursday post on "Hanging Johnny" from a few onths ago,
Before we existed the cloning began The cloning of man and woman When we're gone they'll live on, cloned endlessly It's mandatory in heaven For one brief shining moment, rock 'n' roll was overrun by renegade
clones Pat Benetar & Roger Capps
Maybe it was The Boys from Brazil, the 1976 novel by Ira Levin, turned in
to a movie two years later, which was about Nazis cloning Adolf Hitler.
Or maybe it was the 1973 Woody Allen science fiction Sleeper, which
involved a government plot to make a clone from the nose of the dictator. He had
died in a rebel bombing and the nose was all that remained.
Or maybe it was the story -- suppressed by the lame-stream media -- about the
clone of Elvis Presley, who escaped his mad scientist creators. (As far as I
know, nobody ever claimed the $100,000 reward, so he's probably still out
there.)
Whatever sparked it, from the mid '70s through the early '80s, the concept of
human cloning was responsible for a bunch of rock, pop and funk songs.
Below are some of the best of these.
Let's start with the funkiest, George Clinton and Parliament, whose album,
The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein set a high bar for the clone tunes
that would follow. Here's the song "Children of Production."
In 1977 Now, the third album by the San Francisco proto-New Wave group
The Tubes, included a song called "Cathy's Clone." None other than Captain
Beefheart played sax on the track.
Cloning showed up on on Pat Benetar's 1979 debut album
In the Heat of The Night
in the form of "My Clone Sleeps Alone." Did Miss Pat foresee the eventual
decline of clone rock? "No naughty clone ladies allowed in the '80s," she
sang.
Alice Cooper had one of the last Clone Rock tunes, his 1980 single "Clones
(We're All)," later to be covered by The Smashing Pumpkins.
And yes, in 1981 I made a little Cajun-flavored contribution to Clone Rock
...
Sunday, June 4, 2017 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Lake of Fire by Meat Puppets
You're My Pacemaker by Archie & The Bunkers
Watch Out Woman by Travis Pike & Brattle Street East
Life on the Dole by Molting Vultures
Tallulah by Cowbell
They Ring the Bells for Me by Reverend Beat-Man
Teenage Barbarian by Rattanson
The Mad Daddy by The Cramps
Bundle of Joy by Dean Ween Group
Get on Board by Dead Moon
That's When I Reach For My Revolver by Mission of Burma
Stand for the Fire Demon by Roky Erickson
Burning Love by Rev. Tom Frost
Cowboy George by The Fall
Web in Front by Archers of Loaf
Why Do You Think You Are Nuts by Sharon Needles
Ballad of Soloman Jones by Jon Langford's Men of Gwent
Traveling Alone by The Mekons
The Hand of John L. Sullivan by Flogging Molly
Down in the Beast by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Dead Meat by Pussy Galore
Claw Machine Wizard by Left Lane Cruiser
Off the Ground by Benjamin Booker
Stalin Wasn't Stallin' by The Golden Gate Quartet
Luna Goona Park by The Wipeouters
Down by The Water by PJ Harvey
I Got Lost by Afghan Whigs
Estimate by The Black Angels
Is That You in the Blue by Dex Romweber Duo
Sycamore Tree by Xiu Xiu CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, June 2, 2017 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
The Crawdad Song by The Meat Purveyors
Truck Stop at the End of the World by Bill Kirchen
Pop a Top by Nat Stuckey
I Ain't Got Nobody by Merle Haggard
Big Dummy by Tommy Collins
Better Bad Idea by Sunny Sweeney
Big Game Hunter by Andy Anderson
Grandpa Stole My Baby by Moon Mullican
Root Hog or Die by June Carter
Shakedown by Valerie June
Creepy Jackalope Eye by Steve Earle & The Supersuckers
I'm at Home Getting Hammered by Jesse Dayton
Totally Totaled My Car by L.A. Rivercatz
I Can't Tell the Boys from the Girls by Lester Flatt
Cryin' to Cryin' Time Again by Dale Watson & Ray Benson
Cryin' Time by Nancy Sinatra
May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose by Little Jimmy Dickens
Brown Eyed Women by The Grateful Dead
Payday Blues by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
I'm Leavin' by Rhonda Vincent
Soul on the Move by Martha Fields
Chew Tobacco Rag by Pee Wee King
Suzie Anna Riverstone by The Imperial Rooster
Stupid Boy by Gear Daddies
Who Was That Man by Nick Lowe
Small Town Saturday Night by Wheeler Walker
Livin' on Love by Ray Campi
Wake Up Baby by Sonny Boy Williamson
Untitled (track 2) by Charlie Tweddle
San Antonio Stroll by Tanya Tucker
It's Not Right by John Wagner
Laredo by Snakefarm
Marie by Leon Redbone
St. Pete Jail by Panama Red
Cheater's World by Amy Allison
Cold Hard Truth by George Jones CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page Check out this month's hillbilly episode of The Big Enchilada, Where the Jackalope Roam Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
It's June 1 and what better time to show some appreciation for singers named June.
First let's start with June Allyson, a dancer, singer and actor born Eleanor Geisman in The Bronx in 1917. In the 1940s she became known as "the girl next door." Here's a number called "When" from a movie called The Opposite Sex."
June Christy was another June who wasn't born a June. (She was born Shirley Luster in 1925) Christy's big break in show biz is when she landed the job as singer for Stan Kenton's band following the departure of Anita O'Day in 1945. Here's an appearance on High Hefner's first TV show, Playboy's Penthouse.
June Tabor is a wonderful British folk and pop singer. I first heard her in 1976 with Maddy Pryor on their album Silly Sisters. Here's a song she did with The Oysterband.
Valerie June Hockett, known professionally as just Valerie June probably is way too young to be part of Throwback Thursday. But much of her rootsy music hearkens back to the 20s and 30s. Here's a bluesy tune called "Workin' Woman Blues."
Finally here's my favorite June of all, the lovely June Carter, later known as June Carter Cash. Sometimes June is overshadowed by her own family. Her mom (and aunt and uncle) were The Carter Family, major pioneers of country music. And her husband was a guy named Johnny Cash. But in the 1950s, June had her own career, singing songs and performing sweet hillbilly comedy. Here's a heartache song, which follows some funning around with Marty Robbins on some TV show.
A recent podcast posted on Radio Mutation re-sparked my fondness for so called "outsider music." It was a an old radio show, preserved on Archive.org, from 2010 called Runny Noise from CJLO in Montreal.
The DJ, a lady named Danielle, used several selections from Irwin Chusid's classic Songs in the Key of Zcompilations, plus several she'd found on her own,
So what is this "outsider music"? I'll yield to Chusid (as one should in this area):
Outsider musicians are often termed "bad" or "inept" by listeners who judge them by the standards of mainstream popular music. Yet despite dodgy rhythms and a lack of conventional tunefulness, these often self-taught artists radiate an abundance of earnestness and passion. And believe it or not, they're worth listening to, often outmatching all contenders for inventiveness and originality... Since I started doing Wacky Wednesday, I've featured several outsider musicians including Tiny Tim and Wesley Willis. And just a few months ago I featured Christmas music by outsiders.
Below is a sampling of outsider artists singing songs good (or bad) for any time of year.
Let's start with Charlie Tweddlewho recorded a psychedelic mess of an album of untitled songs called Fantastic Greatest Hits back in the early 70's. It originally listed the artist's name as "Eilrahc Elddewt" (Charlie Tweddle backwards.) Today Charlie still makes music, but he's made a decent living not as a hit-maker, but as a hat-maker.
Bingo Gazingo, born Murray Wachs, was a New Yorker whose unique style defies description. The New York Times tried though. "... his trademark songs most closely resemble free-verse beat poetry, and he delivers them in a mesmerizing chant, sometimes screamed, sometimes shouted or growled." Bingo died on New Year's Day 2010, reportedly hit by a cab.
Mark Gormleyis an ex-Marine whose songs were discovered more by fellow Florida musician Phil Thomas Katt, who hosted a public access TV show called The Uncharted Zone. Katt produced some appropriately cheesy videos that helped make Gormley an internet sensation. Here's my favorite:
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy is a titan of outsider music. The Lubbock, Texas native (born Norman Carl Odam) got national exposure in 1968 on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (a performance in which he stormed off the set because he felt the cast was making fun of him.) I once wrote of this artist that his "wild cries and spontaneous `wooo-hoooo' declarations are those of pure Earthly joy. Billy The Kid probably made near-identical noises while escaping from the Lincoln County jail. ... Don't worry about "understanding" whatever it is The Legendary Stardust Cowboy says or does. Just bask in the freedom he represents."
New Creation was a Christian rock band from Vancouver in the late '60s. I once described them as a "Bible-soaked cross between The Shaggs and The Partridge Family (there was a mother-son team in the band) The New Creation played like a garage-band apocalypse."
For this episode we're going out to the country -- way out to the country where the cowboys are horny and so are the rabbits, the land of the mystic horned hare known as the jackalope. Postcards sold in the western states say the jackalope "sings with a voice that sounds almost human." So do most of the wonderful artists included in this show.
Sunday, May 28, 2017 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
The Sky is a Poisonous Garden by Concrete Blonde
Give Her a Great Big Kiss by New York Dolls
Groove is in the Heart / California Girls by Crocodiles
Long Way Down by Sons of Hercules
Chicken in a Hurry by MFC Chicken
If a Man Answerrs by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
Turn My Head by The Molting Vultures
Right on You by Benjamin Booker
Main Offender by The Hives
Baby, I'm in the Mood for You by Dion
Simone on the Beach by The Mekons
69 by The Four
Grab as Much as You Can by The Black Angels
Bunny Run by The Ghost Wolves
Will You Teach Me by Mark Sultan
Mr. Rolling Stone by The Hard Times
OUTSIDER MUSIC SET
Walking on the Moon by Pamela Lucia
Cut the Mullet by Wesley Willis
Big Ole Bear by Little Howlin' Wolf
My Pal Foot Foot by The Shaggs
We're Going to Texas by What's Your News
Like a Monkey in a Zoo by Daniel Johnson
Sodom and Gomorrah by New Creation
Lift Every Voice and Sing by Shoobie Taylor
I'm Just the Other Woman by The MSR Singers
True Love by Tiny Tim and Miss Sue
You like this crazy stuff? Check out this podcast on Radio Mutation, an aircheck from a July 18, 2010 show by a D.J. named Danielle on CJLO, a Montreal station
The Spotlight Kid by Captain Beeheart
Slip Inside This House by 13th Floor Elevators
Feel the Pain by Dinosaur Jr.
Tijuana Hit Squad by Deadbolt
Singing in the Rain by bPetty Booka CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican May 26, 2017
“Anger is an energy,” John Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten, informed us a few decades ago. Considering that wisdom, Texa$ Platinum, the new album by The Ghost Wolves, is one of the most energetic I’ve heard lately.
The Austin couple of singer/guitarist Carley Wolf and her husband, drummer Jonathan Wolf, rock hard and wild with lyrics and song titles (“Attitude Problem,” “Whettin’ My Knife,” “Strychnine in My Lemonade”) that seem to seethe with vexation. And yet somehow listening to them only makes me grin.
Carley Wolf has a pixieish, girly voice that wouldn’t seem out of place in some of my favorite Japanese girl-punk bands. Actually, the first time I heard her, I thought of KatieJane Garside, the singer of the early-’90s group Daisy Chainsaw (“Love Your Money”). Carley is also a heck of a guitarist.
Her hubby Jonathan is not only downright powerful on the skins, he also adds subtle iggly-squiggly, sci-fi synth effects. The result is a refreshing take on the tried-and-true minimalist garage-y sound.
Summing up the spirit of the album is a track called “Noisy Neighbors (Yuppie Scum),” which features a recording of what sounds like some hapless neighbor coming to the door and meekly asking the group to keep the noise down. This prompts Carley Wolf to scream “Nobody likes a crybaby!” while the band unleashes a defiant blast of noise.
This is followed by a frantic little tune called “Crybabies Go Home,” a message to any fuddy-duddy neighbor or anyone else who would bring them down with trivial complaints.
Texa$ Platinum is brimming over with irresistible songs. “Triple Full Moon” starts off with nearly a full minute of the Wolves singing over a drum beat. This is basically a love song, with the refrain “You’re so good being bad with me.” And my favorite at the moment is a track with a very un-punk title: “Bunny Run.” It’s a fast-paced rocker bouncing off a bluesy guitar riff and features tinkling piano.
Curiously, the album ends with a low-fi acoustic hillbilly song called “DYGKD.” You might have fooled me into thinking this is some scratchy old field recording from the backwoods, except that Carley’s voice is recognizable. Don’t ask me what the title means. Don’t ask me to decipher the lyrics, either. I just think it’s cool that the band ends an album full of rage with a sweet wink and a joke.
Long may The Ghost Wolves howl.
Also recommended:
* Death Song by The Black Angels. Speaking of bands from Austin, the Angels are flying again.
This group, which has been around for more than a decade, is perhaps more responsible than any other for launching the modern-day “psychedelic rock” movement.
But unlike many bands who claim that description, The Black Angels actually live up to both the psychedelic and the rock sides of the equation. Often, so-called psychedelic rock is too spacey, with annoyingly meandering noodling. Or it’s so fey and precious it makes Donovan look like Randy “Macho Man” Savage — and makes me want to whack a hobbit in the head with a shovel.
But The Black Angels — even back in their early days, when they were fond of 14-minute sound odysseys — have a tough sound that has never fallen into those traps. Like the best groups of the original psychedelic daze, the Angels’ reverb-drenched garage-rock roots are always apparent. Their heads may be in some bizarre Dr. Strange dimension, but their feet are on the ground.
There are lots of solid rockers on this album. One of my favorites has a not very peace-and-love title: “I’d Kill for Her.” The guitars scream while Alex Maas sings a tale of love and death: “She was so loaded/And mesmerizing/I had to follow/Her black horizon/No, I will not kill for her again.”
Even stronger is “Hunt Me Down,” with its thunderous brontosaurus beat, while the bouncy “Grab as Much (As You Can)” — was this inspired by our current president? — has a bass line similar to the Beatles’ “Taxman” and an ending that might have been inspired by “A Day in the Life.”
Meanwhile, “Comanche Moon,” which concerns the genocide of the American Indian, starts out with a Byrds-y folk-rock guitar hook that soon yields to an Allmans-esque “Whipping Post” riff.
Velvet Underground fans will immediately catch the significance of the album’s title — though nothing on this record sounds like the folkish, Dylan-influenced “The Black Angel’s Death Song” from the Velvets’ debut.
The final two tracks here seem to be a nod to it, though. “Death March” sounds like a descent into the underworld, with drums that suggest the band is ready for battle. Maas’ voice sounds downright ghostly. The final tune is a six-minute dirge called “Life Song,” which may be closer to Pink Floyd than The Black Angels have ever come before.
* BBQ byMark Sultan. This is the latest solo album by Canadian Mark Sultan, a one-man band who is also half of the two-man band known as The King Khan & BBQ Show. He plays guitar and drums (via foot pedal) at the same time.
But Sultan’s real strength is his soaring voice. While a number of the better-known one-man outfits with roots in the punk racket play a hopped-up version of the blues, Sultan’s best songs are rooted in doo-wop and/or early soul.
Right now my favorite on this album is “Rock Me,” in which he makes a credible stab at being the best living Sam Cooke impersonator.
Ya like the videos?
Here are a couple from The Ghost Wolves.
Remember, nobody likes a crybaby!
Some folks like water, some folks like wine. But I like the taste of strychnine in my lemonade ...
Here are a couple of new Black Angels songs
And here's my favorite song on the latest Sultan album
As the Wolf Brand Chile ads used to say, "Friends, that's too long."
As I said last year, Scopitone was a company that in the early to mid '60s, filmed hundreds of music clips featuring pop stars -- and many who weren't quite up to star status -- singing their songs, usually with busty bikin-clad dancers doing the frug and Watusi behind them.
Those were the days!
And all these film clips were played on a coin-operated machine, manufactured in France, called the Scopitone 450. It basically was a jukebox hooked up to a 26-inch TV set that played 16mm film clips.
You can learn more about the machines HERE and see some crazy examples of Scopitone videos below.
When I saw that a pretty blonde named January Jones was the star of several Scopitone films, I thought how would that be possible? The actor who played Betty Draper in Mad Men wasn't even born then. But this January Jones is a Mad Men-era singer who knew how to stuff a wild bikini. Here she is singing "Up the Lazy River."
Here are April Stevens & Nino Tempo, who probably are best known for their mid-'60s hit cover version of the song "Deep Purple." But here they do "Land of a Thousand Dances." This cover is so lame would make Wilson want to picket and turn Cannibal of the Headhunters into a vegetarian. But was anyone listening to the music?
Here's Gale Garnett, who had hit in the '60s witha song called "We'll Sing in the Sunshine." How ya like these taters?
Sonny King croons a tasteful "I Cried for You."
Finally, here's the queen of Scopitone, the incomparable Joi Lansing.
Peter Kürten: He's looking at the river but he's thinking of the sea
The Axeman of New Orleans was a guy who liked to break into people's houses -- and murder them with their own axes (or sometimes a straight razor) in New Orleans back in 1918 an 1919.Most of his victims were Italian Americans. He never was caught, at least not for the six or seven murders he committed. His identity remains a mystery.
Like the Son of Sam and the Zodiac Killer decades later, The Axeman sought publicity for his crimes. In March, 1919 he sent a taunting letter to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. And like Charlie Manson, he apparently dug music.
Here's the infamous letter:
Hell, March 13, 1919 Esteemed Mortal:
They have never caught me and they never will. They have never seen me, for I am invisible, even as the ether that surrounds your earth. I am not a human being, but a spirit and a demon from the hottest hell. I am what you Orleanians and your foolish police call the Axeman. When I see fit, I shall come and claim other victims. I alone know whom they shall be. I shall leave no clue except my bloody axe, besmeared with blood and brains of he whom I have sent below to keep me company. If you wish you may tell the police to be careful not to rile me. Of course, I am a reasonable spirit. I take no offense at the way they have conducted their investigations in the past. In fact, they have been so utterly stupid as to not only amuse me, but His Satanic Majesty, Francis Josef, etc. But tell them to beware. Let them not try to discover what I am, for it were better that they were never born than to incur the wrath of the Axeman. I don't think there is any need of such a warning, for I feel sure the police will always dodge me, as they have in the past. They are wise and know how to keep away from all harm. Undoubtedly, you Orleanians think of me as a most horrible murderer, which I am, but I could be much worse if I wanted to. If I wished, I could pay a visit to your city every night. At will I could slay thousands of your best citizens, for I am in close relationship with the Angel of Death. Now, to be exact, at 12:15 (earthly time) on next Tuesday night [March 19, 1919}, I am going to pass over New Orleans. In my infinite mercy, I am going to make a little proposition to you people. Here it is: I am very fond of jazz music, and I swear by all the devils in the nether regions that every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in full swing at the time I have just mentioned. If everyone has a jazz band going, well, then, so much the better for you people. One thing is certain and that is that some of your people who do not jazz it on Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the axe. Well, as I am cold and crave the warmth of my native Tartarus, and it is about time I leave your earthly home, I will cease my discourse. Hoping that thou wilt publish this, that it may go well with thee, I have been, am and will be the worst spirit that ever existed either in fact or realm of fancy. The Axeman
This inspired composer Joseph John Davilla to write an instrumental rag that year called "The Mysterious Axman's Jazz (Don't Scare Me Papa)." Years later it would inspire The Tombstones to do this song, "Axeman of New Orleans."
Ed Gein has been the subject of several rock songs. The Plainfield, Wisc. man liked to create arts and crafts with human skin -- some he dug up from nearby graveyards, and some from women who he killed. He was arrested in 1957 by police who found all sorts of grisly souvenirs in his house including Nine masks of human skin; bowls made from human skulls; human skin covering several chair seats; a belt made from female human nipples; a lampshade made from the skin from a human face ... and other fancy stuff.
Gein inspired Hitchcock's Psycho, as well as other horroe movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The character of "Buffalo Bill" in The Silence of The Lambs has a lot of Weird Eddie in him.
He also inspired several rock 'n' roll tunes, most notably Slayer's "Dead Skin Mask." But I'm going to post something I just recently stumbled on, "Good Old Ed Gein" by The Pornscars a German psychobilly band. (Thanks to Jack Samuel of the Rocking the Garage Google-Plus Group for this one.)
Did I mention Son of Sam, the 1970s New York killer who was only following orders from a demonic dog? The Dead Boys did this song not long after David Berkowitz's killing spree.
Dead Moon were at their spooky best when they sang about cannibal killer Jeffrey Dahmer, another Wisconsin maniac, in "Room 213." (Check out my post about Dahmer songs HERE.)
Finally, Randy Newman's haunting "In Germany Before the War" is the tale of Peter Kürten, the “Vampire of Dusseldorf" who committed all sorts of depraved murders and sexual assaults. Among the crimes he admitted was the killing of a nine-year-old girl in 1913. He was executed by guillotine in 1931.
Sunday, May 21, 2017 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Death March by The Black Angels
Skintrade by The Mekons
Out of the Question by The Seeds
Alligator Wine by Fifty Foot Combo & Reverend Beat-Man
You Must Be a Witch by Dead Moon
Two Ton Feather by Dion
In Heaven by The Pixies
Jesus Christ Pose by Soundgarden
The Black Dog Runs at Night by Angelo Badalamenti
The Grace by The Molting Vultures
Strychnine in My Lemonade by The Ghost Wolves
Broken Racehorse by The Blind Shake
Staying Underground by Destination Lonely
Astral Plane by The Modern Lovers
It's Suicide by Mark Sultan
Kiss My Sister's Fist by The King Khan & BBQ Show
Up in Flames by Koko Taylor
Baby Please Don't Go by Them
In Dreams by Roy Orbison
I Must Be the Devil by Glambilly
Beehive by Mark Lanegan
Apocalyptica Blues by Blind Butcher
Mother Sky by CAN
Blues Without Reason by The Vagoos
Blue Velvet by Bobby Vinton
The Spell by Afghan Whigs
Dark Night of the Soul by Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse with David Lynch
Ain't But the One Way by Julian Cope
Sycamore Trees by Jimmy Scott
Port of Amsterdam by Dave Van Ronk
Questions in a World of Blue by Julee Cruise CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, May 19, 2017 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
You're Crazy for Taking the Bus by Jonathan Richman
Little But I'm Loud by Rosie Flores
She Gave Up on Herself by Miss Lesley
Hogtied Over You by Billy Bacon & The Forbidden Pigs with Candye Kane
The Other Woman by Loretta Lynn
Bus Breakdown by Dale Watson & Ray Watson
Humpty Dump Jump by L.A. Rivercatz
Griselda by Yo La Tengo
Bonaparte's Retreat by Holy Modal Rounders
Pablo Picasso Never Got Called Redneckerson by Frontier Circus
New Mexico Blues by John Wagner
Don't Leave It Lie by Shinyribs
Queen of the Minor Key by Eilen Jewell
What Makes Bob Holler by Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys
Sweet Kind of Love by Don Walser
God's Problem Child by Willie Nelson with Tony Joe White, Leon Russel & Jamie Johnson
This Land is Our Land Redux by Slim Cessna's Auto Club
The Hand of the Almighty by John R. Butler
Get Up and Go / Fiddle Tunes by David Bromberg
Hello, I'm a Truck by Red Simpson
On the Road Again by Memphis Jug Band
Waiting for a Train by Jimmie Rodgers
One Bad Shoe by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Rusty Cage by Johnny Cash
Make it Up to Mama by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
No Glory by The Eagle Rock Gospel Singers
You Don't Hear Me Crying by Modern Mal
I'm Gonna Love You by Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Hope the High Road by Jason Isbell
She Never Spoke Spanish to Me by Joe Ely
Long Black Veil by Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard
Lesson in Depression by James Hand
Country Bumpkin by Cal Smith 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
OK, my advice to you is to quit reading this blog post and go sit yourself in front of your TV -- or your iPad or whatever you use for a TV these days -- and start watching the PBS series American Epic.
It's a 3-part series about American roots music in the early 20th Century, co-produced by Jack White and T-Bone Burnett and narrated by Robert Redford. There is lots of rare footage and photos, a soundtrack full of spooky old country, blues and folk classics and interviews with living musicians -- Charlie Musselwhite, Taj Mahal, Willie Nelson etc. -- talking about how this music enriched their lives.
Episode 1 of the series is already available. "The Big Bang" focuses on two great acts from the 1920s, The Carter Family and The Memphis Jug Band, discovered by Ralph Peer, the Columbia Records A&R man who traveled the south seeking recording artists, black and white, to appeal to rural audiences. (You can watch on your computer HERE.)
Below is a trailer for the series, followed by some songs that are featured in that first episode.
Here's Jimmie Rodgers, foreshadowing MTV by 50 years or so,
Here are Maybelle and Sara Carter reunited on The Johnny Cash Show in 1970. Johnny says it's their first time performing together in 27 years (though actually they'd recorded together in 1963 and did a bunch of shows together in the '60s.)
I love whoever decided to film this song by Whistler's Jug Band way back when.
In American Epic, the rapper Nas compares jug band music with gangsta rap. “These guys are talking about carrying guns, shooting something, protecting their honor, chasing after some woman who’s done them dirty. It didn’t start with hip-hop. It started a long time ago. It started with America.”
Here's The Memphis Jug Band singing about what Kinky Friedman calls "Peruvian Marching Powder."
The strange and wonderful Jonathan Richman turned 66 on Wacky Wednesday Eve,
Tuesday May 16.
Richman and his band The Modern Lovers, in their early-'70s incarnation, was a
pioneering post-garage, pre-punk band from New England. Richman was a Velvet
Underground fanatic, though his own vision was much less dark and far more
whimsical.
By the end of the '70s Richman's sound was getting softer, more acoustic, more
chidlike, Through the years he's stayed true to his oddball vision.
A personal note: Back in 1998 I got to open for Jonathan when he played in
Santa Fe. Truly one of the highlights of my own tacky music career.
Below are some of my favorite Jonathan tunes.
Here's one from one his frequent appearances on
Late Night with Conan O'Brien in the early '90s.
And here's another Conan performance. Everybody loves those vampire
girls.
Going back to 1987, here's a tribute to Jonathan's favorite Marx brother.
Gregg Turner does a fine cover of this Jonathan favorite.
Speaking of people who've covered Jonathan, here are a couple of versions of
Modern Lovers songs, starting with an acoustic take on "Pablo Picasso" by Iggy
Pop.
And here's Joan Jett singing Jonathan's song about New Mexico's state bird.
And here's the first Jonathan song I ever heard back in the mid '70s. It's still
one of my favorites.
Drummer Tommy Larkins with Jonathan Richman at Meow Wolf last year
Sunday, May 14, 2017 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Kickin' Child by Dion
Right On You by Benjamin Booker
Why Have You Changed by Thee Vicars
Don't Go Messin' by The Molting Vultures
Typical Girls by The Slits
Acid Drops by Public Image Ltd
Straight from Hell by Destination Lonely
Mom by Joe West
Tubes World Tour by The Tubes
I Need Somebody by Deniz Tek & James Williamson
Never Far From Where the Wild Things Are by James Williamson & Lisa Kekaula
1848 Now! by The Mekons
Now by The Plimsouls
Your Auntie Grizelda by The Monkees
Triple Full Moon by The Ghost Wolves
My Wild Love by The Doors
Gonna Murder My Baby by Pat Hare
Still Rollin' by Left Lane Cruiser
The Trip of Kambo by O Lendario Chucrobillyman
Drunk on Destruction by Mark Lanegan
Light as a Feather by Afghan Whigs
Old Tape of Memories by Laino & Broken Seeds
Sweet Simple Life by Demolition Doll Rods
My World is Empty Without You by Lee Fields & The Expressions
Midnight Hauler by Eleni Mandell
My Happiness by Elvis Presley
My Way by Sid Vicious
Always by Leonard Cohen CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, May 12, 2017 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
Every Kind of Music But Country by Robbie Fulks
Kangaroo Blues by Cliff Bruner's Texas Wanderers
Big Shoes by Faron Young
Railroad of Sin by Sturgill Simpson
Shooting Star from Texas by Wayne Hancock
Holy Ghost Rock 'n' Roller by Jesse Dayton
Life of a Fool by Paul Burch
Nightmare of a Woman by Deke Dickerson
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry by Little Richard
Rainmaker by Tusker
Dust on Mother's Bible by Buck Owens
Kit Kat Clock by The Bottle Rockets
700,000 Rednecks by Nikki Lane
Old Timer by Willie Nelson
About to Find Out by Margo Price
Slide Off of Your Satin Sheets by D.M. Bob & The Deficits
My Bucket's Got a Hole in It by Jawbone
Still Around by Scott H. Biram
I Will Survive by Peter Stampfel & The Ether Frolic Mob
It Makes No Difference by Shannon McNally
Nobody to Blame by Chris Stapleton
The End by Peter Case
The Dust I Own by Laino & Broken Seeds
High, Low and Lonesome by The Dinosaur Truckers
Stranger in Town by Dave Alvin
Good Ship Venus by Loudon Wainwright III
Trouble by Lauria
All Apologies by Iron Horse
Fairfax Story by David Bromberg
Same God by Calamity Cubes
I Bid You Goodnight by Any Old Time String Band 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 May 12, 2017
You can’t really talk about the counterculture without talking about the music. It’s one-third of the mystic voodoo trinity of sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.
I’ve purposely avoided overused, overplayed selections — “White Rabbit,” “Born to Be Wild” — that you always hear on era soundtracks, oldies radio, and cheesy ’60s compilations. Behind the usual choices are some overlooked diamonds.
Let’s start with a couple of contributions from New Mexico:
The Mighty Tusker, Left to right: Eliza Gilkyson, Steve Lindsey, Dennis Overman, Baird Banner, Dennis Culver and David Gilliland
* “Rainmaker” by Tusker. This was a band of local hippie types, featuring the vocals of longtime Retrospecto. It sounds as refreshing now as it did back then. The band included favorite daughter Eliza Gilkyson, plus Santa Fe music stalwarts like Dennis Overman, David Gilliland, Baird Banner, Steve Lindsey, and Dennis Culver. Overman still says Tusker is his favorite band. I thought I’d heard “Rainmaker” on local radio back in the late ’60s or early ’70s, but I guess, like Alex Jones, I’ve had so many big bowls of chile that my memory’s shot. It wasn’t actually recorded until the mid-’70s. Still, this tune, written and sung by Gilkyson, belongs on any list of great counterculture songs. “Rainmaker, where did all your dancers go?/Did we lose them one and all just like we lost your buffalo?” Then the chorus: “We can dance, people, bring that rain down from the sky/We don’t have to let the land go hungry or run dry/We can dance and bring Rainmaker back before we die.” Overman recently recalled, “I remember we played it at Paolo Soleri ... which was actually risky at an outdoor venue. ... That song made it rain a few times.” After being out of print for decades, Gilkyson included it on her 2005 rarities album Retrospecto. It sounds as refreshing now as it did back then.
* "I Wanna Come Back (From The World of LSD)” by The Fe-Fi-Four Plus 2. Though they never became famous, a bunch of Albuquerque kids created one of the first — and one of the finest — psychedelic songs ever released. And it was recorded at Norman Petty Studios in Clovis, where a decade before, Buddy Holly worked his magic. The band, originally known as the Playmates, played at teen dances all over the state and even opened for nationally known bands like The Yardbirds and Question Mark & The Mysterians. Their guitar player, Eddie Garcia, had been a member of The Champs (“Tequila!”). In an interview a few years ago in the online Lance Monthly (published by Dick Stewart, owner of Albuquerque’s Lance Records, which released the song), keyboardist Victor Roybal said, “We were looking for a new and original sound. Much of what we had been doing [was] performing top 40 sounds which people requested to hear. Danny [Houlihan, the singer] came up with the song and we all liked the sound.” For my money, “World of LSD” was even more powerful than psychedelic anthems like The Strawberry Alarm Clock’s “Incense and Peppermints” or The Electric Prunes’ “I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night).” Houlihan didn’t have “too much to dream.” He sounded like a kid scared out of his wits by hallucinations. Or maybe not. Roybal told Lance Monthly, “After the release of the 45-rpm [on Lance Records], the song was characterized as ‘anti-drug.’ I don’t think that was the intent, however.”
* “Coo Coo” by Big Brother & The Holding Company. This is a mysterious old minor-key
British folk song turned into a blistering psychedelic jam by Janis Joplin and her undeservedly underrated band. On some live versions that have surfaced, Janis doesn’t even sing until the second verse, which comes well after the halfway point. I’m firmly in the camp that believes Janis never should have left the ragged-but-righteous Big Brother. This song gives ammunition to that argument.
* “Livin’ With the Animals” by Mother Earth. This was a classic hippie band from the Bay Area that never quite made it that big, though singer Tracy Nelson was sometimes touted as the next Janis Joplin. But this tune, the title song of their first album, was sung and written by Texas-born Powell St. John, who also wrote songs for the 13th Floor Elevators. It’s a funny blues, complete with electric fiddle. The protagonist reminds me of some hapless R. Crumb character, a poor dude who’s the target of con artists, neighborhood toughs and an unfaithful girlfriend who’s “got some other sucker in her bed.”
* “Fat Angel” by Jefferson Airplane. Donovan wrote this one, reportedly about Mama Cass Elliott, Bless Its Pointed Little Head.
and in it, he name-checked the Airplane: “Fly Jefferson Airplane, get you there on time.” The Airplane returned the favor by covering the song, making it tougher and less droney, the first recorded version appearing on the live album
* “Mercy I Cry City” by The Incredible String Band. Speaking of Donovan, I bet you thought that he made the hippiest, dippiest, trippiest British music of the 1960s. Not even close. That honor would fall to the dynamic duo of Robin Williamson and Mike Heron, better known as The Incredible String Band. And when they were good, they were wonderful. Their album The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter was their masterpiece, and the best song on it is “Mercy,” which sounds like a jug-band song as performed by Druids who’ve been listening to Ravi Shankar and English Music Hall 78s.
* “What’s Become of the Baby” by The Grateful Dead. When you’re talking about the
counterculture, the Grateful Dead is beyond obvious. Probably no other band is so closely associated with the movement. You could argue that a better-known song like the hippie-go-lucky “Truckin,’ ” or maybe “Sugar Magnolia,” better represents the group’s contributions to the era far more than this dark, dreary, near-unlistenable eight-minute drug dirge. But “What’s Become of the Baby,” with its distorted, meandering vocals, weird background noises, and a pace that’s excruciatingly slow — even for the dadgum Grateful Dead! — shows the group at its most sonically experimental. And the mostly unintelligible lyrics seem to hint at something tragic or maybe even evil (“But where is the child who played with the sunshine and chased the cloud shape to the regions of mind?”).Was this some crib death the commune covered up? Perhaps a Satanic sacrifice? A strange metaphor you can’t quite figure out? Really, what happened to this damned kid?
Enjoy many of these hallowed hippie sounds on this YouTube playlist:
