This music can't help but make you feel good.
Enjoy some "Spike Driver Blues."
That's Pete Seeger introducing him. Not sure who the woman is. I wonder if Mississippi John ever answered her question at the end: "Why'd he have a big hammer?"
Monday, November 15, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, November 14, 2010
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@ksfr.org
OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Land of the Freak by King Khan & The Shrines
Catastrophe by Mark Sultan
Lovers Moon by The Tandoori Knights
Let Me Bang Your Box by The Toppers
By My Side by The Elois
Beer Time by The Ruiners
Zip My Lip by Pierced Arrows
Graveyard by Dead Moon
Two Bottles of Wine by Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
I Must Be Dreamin' by The Coasters
Back Off by The Diplomats of Solid Sound
Lovey Dovey by Otis Redding & Carla Thomas
There But For the Grace of God Go I by The Gories
A Natural Man by The Dirtbombs
Muck Muck by Yochanan
Daddy You Lied To Me by The Del Moroccos
Rockin' Man by Richard Berry
Pink Champagne by Don & Dewy
Nervous by Willie Dixon & Memphis Slim
Martin Eden by The Twilight Singers
Sin Eater by Legendary Shack Shakers
Le Mistrail by The Fleshtones
Amazons & Coyotes by Simon Stokes
Take Up The Slack Daddy-O by The A-Bones
Hot Rodding in San Jose by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
Jungle Fever by Grand Prees
Fattening Frogs For Snakes by Sonny Boy Williamson & The Animals
Pachuco Boogie by Orquesta Don Ramon
Pappa Legba by Pops Staples with The Talking Heads
I Walk on Gilded Splinters by Dr. John
Hoochie Koochie Man by Muddy Waters & The Electrik Mud Kats
Hoodoo Man by Junior Wells
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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@ksfr.org
OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Land of the Freak by King Khan & The Shrines
Catastrophe by Mark Sultan
Lovers Moon by The Tandoori Knights
Let Me Bang Your Box by The Toppers
By My Side by The Elois
Beer Time by The Ruiners
Zip My Lip by Pierced Arrows
Graveyard by Dead Moon
Two Bottles of Wine by Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
I Must Be Dreamin' by The Coasters
Back Off by The Diplomats of Solid Sound
Lovey Dovey by Otis Redding & Carla Thomas
There But For the Grace of God Go I by The Gories
A Natural Man by The Dirtbombs
Muck Muck by Yochanan
Daddy You Lied To Me by The Del Moroccos
Rockin' Man by Richard Berry
Pink Champagne by Don & Dewy
Nervous by Willie Dixon & Memphis Slim
Martin Eden by The Twilight Singers
Sin Eater by Legendary Shack Shakers
Le Mistrail by The Fleshtones
Amazons & Coyotes by Simon Stokes
Take Up The Slack Daddy-O by The A-Bones
Hot Rodding in San Jose by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy
Jungle Fever by Grand Prees
Fattening Frogs For Snakes by Sonny Boy Williamson & The Animals
Pachuco Boogie by Orquesta Don Ramon
Pappa Legba by Pops Staples with The Talking Heads
I Walk on Gilded Splinters by Dr. John
Hoochie Koochie Man by Muddy Waters & The Electrik Mud Kats
Hoodoo Man by Junior Wells
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Friday, November 12, 2010
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, November 12, 2010
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Wild, Wild Friday Night by Hasil Adkins
Chuckie Cheese Hell by Tim Wilson
Voodoo Bar-B-Q by Big John Bates
Get a Little Goner by Marti Brom
Baby He's A Wolf by Werly Fairburn
Kitty Car Scratch by Suzette Lawrence & The Neon Angels
Spitfire by Bill Logsdon & The Royal Notes
The Gravy Shake by The Defibulators
Lost to a Geisha Girl by Skeeter Davis
You Always Keep Me in Hot Water by Carolina Cotton with Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys
East Texas Red by James Talley
Hesitation Blues by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Hey Bub by Halden Wofford & The Hi Beams
Magpie Song by Delaney Davidson
Havin' a Ball by Kim Lenz & Her Jaguars
Untamed Love by Hipbone Slim & The Knee-Tremblers
Fort Wayne Zoo by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Are You Ready for the Country by Southern Culture on the Skids
Kansas City Star by Roger Miller
Talking Bear Mountain Massacre Blues by Bob Dylan
The Fourth Night of My Drinking by Drive-By Truckers
A Man I Hardly Know by Eilen Jewell
High on a Mountain Top by Loretta Lynn
Thirty Days in the Workhouse by Peter Case
You're Going to Love Yourself in the Morning by Brenda Lee & Willie Nelson
Black Wings by Ray Wylie Hubbard
The Big Battle by Johnny Cash
Walking to the End of the World by Amy Allison
A Girl In The Night by Ray Price
The New Bye and Bye by Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez
American Boy by Eleni Mandell
I Belong to the Band by Mavis Staples
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Wild, Wild Friday Night by Hasil Adkins
Chuckie Cheese Hell by Tim Wilson
Voodoo Bar-B-Q by Big John Bates
Get a Little Goner by Marti Brom
Baby He's A Wolf by Werly Fairburn
Kitty Car Scratch by Suzette Lawrence & The Neon Angels
Spitfire by Bill Logsdon & The Royal Notes
The Gravy Shake by The Defibulators
Lost to a Geisha Girl by Skeeter Davis
You Always Keep Me in Hot Water by Carolina Cotton with Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys
East Texas Red by James Talley
Hesitation Blues by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Hey Bub by Halden Wofford & The Hi Beams
Magpie Song by Delaney Davidson
Havin' a Ball by Kim Lenz & Her Jaguars
Untamed Love by Hipbone Slim & The Knee-Tremblers
Fort Wayne Zoo by The Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band
Are You Ready for the Country by Southern Culture on the Skids
Kansas City Star by Roger Miller
Talking Bear Mountain Massacre Blues by Bob Dylan
The Fourth Night of My Drinking by Drive-By Truckers
A Man I Hardly Know by Eilen Jewell
High on a Mountain Top by Loretta Lynn
Thirty Days in the Workhouse by Peter Case
You're Going to Love Yourself in the Morning by Brenda Lee & Willie Nelson
Black Wings by Ray Wylie Hubbard
The Big Battle by Johnny Cash
Walking to the End of the World by Amy Allison
A Girl In The Night by Ray Price
The New Bye and Bye by Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez
American Boy by Eleni Mandell
I Belong to the Band by Mavis Staples
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list
Thursday, November 11, 2010
TERRELL'S TUNEUP: YOUNG BOB'S DEMOS
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
November 12, 2010
It’s probably no big surprise to anyone who regularly reads this column that of all the many faces of Bob Dylan — folkie Bob, country Bob, gospel Bob, singer-songwriter Bob, Las Vegas Bob, etc. — my favorite is electric Bob. And it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t go to the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 or see a performance from that tour in 1966 where folkies were screaming “Judas!” at him. I’d have been the 12-year-old Okie kid in the cheap seats shouting “Turn it up!”
But even for us rock ’n’ roll die-hards who secretly believe that Dylan’s career really began with the rockabilly/Johnny Cash-informed “Mixed Up Confusion” instead of with all those acoustic ditties, there’s no denying that the genius that is Dylan — the rebelliousness, the humor, his grasp on history, and his insights into the American character — is readily apparent in his earliest songs.
That’s the main thing I pick up from the latest (ninth) volume of Dylan’s Bootleg Series, titled The Witmark Demos 1962-1964.
Here is a kid in his early 20s who was about to transform the entire song-publishing industry — as well as expand our concept of folk music and the boundaries of rock ’n’ roll — singing earnestly in that tiny studio at M. Witmark & Sons, his New York publishing company in those days.
These versions of his songs were not meant to be heard by the general public. They were recorded quickly and transcribed into sheet music so the publishing company could pitch them to other recording artists. Back in those days, few singers actually wrote their own songs. (That custom was changed not in small part through the efforts of one Bob Dylan.)
The sound quality is lo-fi, not to mention inconsistent. Some tracks truly sound like bootlegs. There are false starts and obvious mistakes. For instance, “Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues” begins with a Dylan cough. And he stops after one of the verses, explaining that he’d recited the wrong punch line to a verse.
So basically, although there are several of Dylan’s best-known songs included in this collection — “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” “Masters of War,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” (played on piano), and (of course) “Blowin’ in the Wind” — this is a collection for fanatical fans who like to see how the Dylan sausage is made.
I like the more obscure cuts the best. You’ve got to wonder how many times must record companies put versions of “Blowin’ in the Wind” on a Dylan album. (The answer, my friend ...)
One of my favorites is “Bear Mountain.” As with some of the more “serious” tunes Dylan wrote during this period — “Ballad of Hollis Brown” and “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” come to mind — this song was ripped from the headlines. Dylan read a newspaper account about an ill-fated Father’s Day cruise up the Hudson River. Someone had counterfeited tickets, and the overloaded boat sunk well before it reached Bear Mountain.
Several were treated for injuries, but nobody was killed. Dylan saw the wicked humor of the situation and, according to legend, wrote the song overnight. “Just remember wakin’ up on a little shore/Head busted, stomach cracked/Feet splintered, I was bald, naked.” I still laugh when pondering how a boating accident can make you bald.
Another old favorite here is “Rambling, Gambling Willie.” Like “Bear Mountain,” this was recorded back in 1962 but never made it to an “official” album until the first Bootleg Series collection in the early ’90s. (Most real Dylan fans heard these from real bootlegs long before there were CD box sets.)
The melody of “Willie” came directly from the Irish song “Brennan on the Moor,” which Dylan’s pals the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem recorded back in the folkie days. Willie Brennan was a Robin Hood-like “brave young highwayman” who divided his loot with “the widow in distress.”
Dylan’s Will O’Conley shared his winnings with the poor as well. But apparently a large chunk of his income also went to child support. He’s a womanizing card shark who had “twenty-seven children, yet he never had a wife.” Dylan Dylan assures us “ He supported all his children and all their mothers too.”
And who would have ever thought that “Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues” would ever be relevant again? Dylan says, “Well, I investigated all the books in the library/Ninety percent of ’em gotta be burned away/I investigated all the people that I knowed/ Ninety-eight percent of them gotta go.”
Unfortunately, the sound quality of this version is so bad that it seriously detracts from the listening experience. (Someone has to be responsible for that. The Commies? The vast right-wing conspiracy?) Seek out instead the live versions on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6: (his 1964 concert at Philharmonic Hall) or The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3.
The Witmark sessions also have a few gems I’d never heard. One of these is “Gypsy Lou,” an ode to what sounds like the sexiest heartbreaking hobo girl alive — “a ramblin’ woman with a ramblin’ mind/Always leavin’ somebody behind.” And downright lovely is y tune about looking at trains and recalling a friend who died a tragic death.
One thing these demos do is show how Dylan was appropriating old blues tunes as his own from the beginning. “Standing on the Highway” is basically a rewrite of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads.” And “Poor Boy Blues” owes a small debt to Leadbelly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” and a big debt to Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning.”
If you think Dylan dropped this habit, listen to his composition “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” from 2006’s Modern Times or “If You Ever Go to Houston” from last year’s Together Through Life.
Bob Dylan turns 70 in May. Not quite as amazing is the fact that the Dylan Bootleg Series will be 20 years old next year. I’m hoping the next one will be full of rockers. Or maybe a duets album of recordings and live songs he’s done with others. Maybe Sony can find two CDs worth of Dylan stuff from the ’80s that didn’t suck. Maybe a crazy rocked-out show from “The Never Ending Tour” from the last 10 years or so.
Even if Volume 10 consists of songs Dylan sang in the shower, it’s bound to add to the enigma that is Bob.
.
November 12, 2010
It’s probably no big surprise to anyone who regularly reads this column that of all the many faces of Bob Dylan — folkie Bob, country Bob, gospel Bob, singer-songwriter Bob, Las Vegas Bob, etc. — my favorite is electric Bob. And it’s probably a good thing that I didn’t go to the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 or see a performance from that tour in 1966 where folkies were screaming “Judas!” at him. I’d have been the 12-year-old Okie kid in the cheap seats shouting “Turn it up!”
But even for us rock ’n’ roll die-hards who secretly believe that Dylan’s career really began with the rockabilly/Johnny Cash-informed “Mixed Up Confusion” instead of with all those acoustic ditties, there’s no denying that the genius that is Dylan — the rebelliousness, the humor, his grasp on history, and his insights into the American character — is readily apparent in his earliest songs.
That’s the main thing I pick up from the latest (ninth) volume of Dylan’s Bootleg Series, titled The Witmark Demos 1962-1964.
Here is a kid in his early 20s who was about to transform the entire song-publishing industry — as well as expand our concept of folk music and the boundaries of rock ’n’ roll — singing earnestly in that tiny studio at M. Witmark & Sons, his New York publishing company in those days.
These versions of his songs were not meant to be heard by the general public. They were recorded quickly and transcribed into sheet music so the publishing company could pitch them to other recording artists. Back in those days, few singers actually wrote their own songs. (That custom was changed not in small part through the efforts of one Bob Dylan.)
The sound quality is lo-fi, not to mention inconsistent. Some tracks truly sound like bootlegs. There are false starts and obvious mistakes. For instance, “Talking Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues” begins with a Dylan cough. And he stops after one of the verses, explaining that he’d recited the wrong punch line to a verse.
So basically, although there are several of Dylan’s best-known songs included in this collection — “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” “Masters of War,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” (played on piano), and (of course) “Blowin’ in the Wind” — this is a collection for fanatical fans who like to see how the Dylan sausage is made.
I like the more obscure cuts the best. You’ve got to wonder how many times must record companies put versions of “Blowin’ in the Wind” on a Dylan album. (The answer, my friend ...)
One of my favorites is “Bear Mountain.” As with some of the more “serious” tunes Dylan wrote during this period — “Ballad of Hollis Brown” and “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” come to mind — this song was ripped from the headlines. Dylan read a newspaper account about an ill-fated Father’s Day cruise up the Hudson River. Someone had counterfeited tickets, and the overloaded boat sunk well before it reached Bear Mountain.
Several were treated for injuries, but nobody was killed. Dylan saw the wicked humor of the situation and, according to legend, wrote the song overnight. “Just remember wakin’ up on a little shore/Head busted, stomach cracked/Feet splintered, I was bald, naked.” I still laugh when pondering how a boating accident can make you bald.
Another old favorite here is “Rambling, Gambling Willie.” Like “Bear Mountain,” this was recorded back in 1962 but never made it to an “official” album until the first Bootleg Series collection in the early ’90s. (Most real Dylan fans heard these from real bootlegs long before there were CD box sets.)
The melody of “Willie” came directly from the Irish song “Brennan on the Moor,” which Dylan’s pals the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem recorded back in the folkie days. Willie Brennan was a Robin Hood-like “brave young highwayman” who divided his loot with “the widow in distress.”
Dylan’s Will O’Conley shared his winnings with the poor as well. But apparently a large chunk of his income also went to child support. He’s a womanizing card shark who had “twenty-seven children, yet he never had a wife.” Dylan Dylan assures us “ He supported all his children and all their mothers too.”
And who would have ever thought that “Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues” would ever be relevant again? Dylan says, “Well, I investigated all the books in the library/Ninety percent of ’em gotta be burned away/I investigated all the people that I knowed/ Ninety-eight percent of them gotta go.”
Unfortunately, the sound quality of this version is so bad that it seriously detracts from the listening experience. (Someone has to be responsible for that. The Commies? The vast right-wing conspiracy?) Seek out instead the live versions on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 6: (his 1964 concert at Philharmonic Hall) or The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3.
The Witmark sessions also have a few gems I’d never heard. One of these is “Gypsy Lou,” an ode to what sounds like the sexiest heartbreaking hobo girl alive — “a ramblin’ woman with a ramblin’ mind/Always leavin’ somebody behind.” And downright lovely is y tune about looking at trains and recalling a friend who died a tragic death.
One thing these demos do is show how Dylan was appropriating old blues tunes as his own from the beginning. “Standing on the Highway” is basically a rewrite of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads.” And “Poor Boy Blues” owes a small debt to Leadbelly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” and a big debt to Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning.”
If you think Dylan dropped this habit, listen to his composition “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” from 2006’s Modern Times or “If You Ever Go to Houston” from last year’s Together Through Life.
Bob Dylan turns 70 in May. Not quite as amazing is the fact that the Dylan Bootleg Series will be 20 years old next year. I’m hoping the next one will be full of rockers. Or maybe a duets album of recordings and live songs he’s done with others. Maybe Sony can find two CDs worth of Dylan stuff from the ’80s that didn’t suck. Maybe a crazy rocked-out show from “The Never Ending Tour” from the last 10 years or so.
Even if Volume 10 consists of songs Dylan sang in the shower, it’s bound to add to the enigma that is Bob.
.
Sunday, November 07, 2010
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, November 8, 2010
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@ksfr.org
OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Chicken Flop by Hasil Adkins
Psycho by The Sonics
Big Fat Alaskan by Donnie and the Outcasts
Doghouse by The Screamin' Yee-Haws
Hog-Eyed Man by Th' Legendary Shack Shakers
Killer 45 by The Immortal Lee County Killers
I Came From Hell by The Monsters
I Don't Dig Your Noise by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Journey To The Center Of A Girl by The Cramps
I Lost My Kielbasi by Dave Stacey
Tandoori Party by The Tandoori Knights
Dumb All Over by Frank Zappa
Hetero Skeleton by Butthole Surfers
Everythinng's Wild in Wildwood by The Treniers
Evil! by Grinderman
Busload of Faith by Lou Reed
Go Berserk by Mark Sultan
Leyenda Negra by Movie Star Junkies
Vaseline by Kid Congo Powers
Lusty Lil Lucy by Nick Curran and the Lowlifes
My Time Will Come by Andre Williams
She's a Liar by Thee Ludds
Love/Hate (Eat Me Alive) by The Ruiners
Surfbored by Make-Overs
She Can Rock by Little Ike
Cosmic Shiva by Nina Hagen
Kurious Oranj by The Fall
Tombstone Blues by Bob Dylan
New York Is Killing Me by Gil Scott-Heron
Last Train by Mavis Staples
The Wallflower (Roll With Me Henry) by Etta James
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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@ksfr.org
OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Chicken Flop by Hasil Adkins
Psycho by The Sonics
Big Fat Alaskan by Donnie and the Outcasts
Doghouse by The Screamin' Yee-Haws
Hog-Eyed Man by Th' Legendary Shack Shakers
Killer 45 by The Immortal Lee County Killers
I Came From Hell by The Monsters
I Don't Dig Your Noise by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Journey To The Center Of A Girl by The Cramps
I Lost My Kielbasi by Dave Stacey
Tandoori Party by The Tandoori Knights
Dumb All Over by Frank Zappa
Hetero Skeleton by Butthole Surfers
Everythinng's Wild in Wildwood by The Treniers
Evil! by Grinderman
Busload of Faith by Lou Reed
Go Berserk by Mark Sultan
Leyenda Negra by Movie Star Junkies
Vaseline by Kid Congo Powers
Lusty Lil Lucy by Nick Curran and the Lowlifes
My Time Will Come by Andre Williams
She's a Liar by Thee Ludds
Love/Hate (Eat Me Alive) by The Ruiners
Surfbored by Make-Overs
She Can Rock by Little Ike
Cosmic Shiva by Nina Hagen
Kurious Oranj by The Fall
Tombstone Blues by Bob Dylan
New York Is Killing Me by Gil Scott-Heron
Last Train by Mavis Staples
The Wallflower (Roll With Me Henry) by Etta James
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, April 13, 2025 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell Em...
-
Remember these guys? I'm not sure how I missed this when it first was unleashed a few weeks ago, but Adult Swim — the irrevere... -
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican January 14, 2011 Junior Kimbrough is dead. R.L. Burnside is dead. Paul “Wi... -
Sunday, May 26, 2013 KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell Webcasting! 101.1 FM email...
