Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012 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
OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Strychnine by Barrence Whitfield
Set Aside by ? & The Mysterians
You Better Hide by The Ding Dongs
Let Me Freeze by Mark Sultan
Goin' Back To L.A. by Johnny Otis & Delmar Evans
Oh Babe by Andre Williams
Bell Air Blues by Drywall
Heebie Jeebies by The Gun Club
The Doorway by Pierced Arrows
Pretty by Rocket from the Tombs
Fall on You by The Plimsouls
Changes by Moby Grape
Why Pick on Me by The Standells
When the Girls Are Rocking by The 99ers
Shake This Feelin' by The Liquid Vapours
Betty by Johnny Dowd
Clever Way to Crawl by Persian Claws
I Wish You Would by The Fleshtones
My Struggle by The Black Lips
Selling That Stuff by McKinney's Cotton Pickers
My Top 10 Favorite Covers set
Stairway to Heaven by Tiny Tim & Brave Combo
Goldfinger by Peter Stampfel
Sugar Sugar by Wilson Picket
Banana Splits (the Tra La La Song) by The Dickies
I'm the Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised by Eugene Chadbourne
Little Rug Bug by NRBQ
I Wanna Be Sedated by Two Tons of Steel
Stormy Weather by The Reigning Sound
Surf's Up by David Thomas & Two Pale Boys
One For My Baby by Iggy Pop
The Rocky Road to Dublin by The Young Dubliners
Beer, Broads, and Brats by The Polkaholics
Love Miner by O Lendario Chucrobillyman
Rockin' Bones by Flat Duo Jets
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
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Friday, Feb. 10, 2012 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
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Big Balls in Cowtown by Waylon Jennings
Honky Tonk Merry Go Round by The Stumbleweeds
Down Down Down Down Down by Dale Watson & The Texas Two
Tennessee Rooster Fight by The Howington Brothers
Beautiful Blue Eyes by Red Allen & The Kentuckians
Pass the Peacepipe by Peter Stampfel
Chinese Honeymoon by The Great Recession Orchestra
Dirty Dog Blues by The Modern Mountaineers
Oklahoma Hills by Jack Guthrie & His Oklahomans
High by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
String's Mountain Dew by Stringbean
I Like Drinking by The Gourds
Live Set (Pickers Remember Kell Robertson)
When You Come Off of the Mountain by Mike Good
Mr. Guitar by Kevin Hayes
Great Big Donut by Tom Irwin
Madonna on the Billboard by Bob Hill
I'll Probably Live by Jason Eklund
Julie's Neon Shoes by Mike Good
Prison Walls by Kevin Hayes
Me and You and The Wind by Jason Eklund
Writing it Down in the Rain by Mike Good
Junkie Eyes by Bob Hill
(CD break) As Long As You've Still Got a Song by Kell Robertson
Tell 'em What I Was by the whole crew
Dust off Them Old Songs by Jason Eklund, Mike Good & Tom Irwin (recorded)
When a House is Not a Home by Roger Miller
Old Rattler by Grandpa Jones
Santa Cruz by The Imperial Rooster
Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms by Buster Carter & Preston Young
A Woman's Intuition by Johnny Paycheck
What Do I Care by Eddie Spaghetti
Road to Hattiesburg by Robert Earl Reed
One Has My Name, One Has My Heart by Jimmy Wakely
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican Feb. 10 2012
Almost all bands and singers on the face of this Earth do cover songs. Some are
interesting at best, but more frequently they are mediocre. (Sometimes they’re
horrifying, but I think I’ll save those for a future column.)
But every so often, a cover version will be better than the original — because
of a stronger vocal performance like, say, Prince’s version of Joan Osborne’s
“One of Us”; or a more soulful performance like Gram Parsons’ cover of Roy
Orbison’s “Love Hurts” (and being more soulful than Orbison isn’t easy); or
having higher energy, like about half the covers that The Cramps ever recorded.
Sometimes a cover will barely resemble the original — good examples being the
Elvis songs that The Residents recorded on their 1989 tribute album,
The King & Eye.
What makes a cover memorable? For starters, it has to add some new dimension or
have a different angle from the original. It could be a new context or maybe
done in a different genre. Humor usually helps, and in my book, bizarre is a
bonus.
Here are my top 10 favorite cover songs of all time until the end of history
(until maybe I think of some others).
1. “Goldfinger” by Peter Stampfel from the album
You Must Remember This.
The 70-something founding member of The Holy Modal Rounders recorded his daffy
version of the classic James Bond movie theme just a few years ago. It features
Stampfel on the banjo and his signature cartoonlike vocals, backed by what
sounds like a tuba, a sax in the closing moments, and is that steel drums I hear
in there?
2. “Stairway to Heaven” by Tiny Tim & Brave Combo from the album
Girl. When I reviewed this album in the ’90s, I noted that if Van
Morrison heard this, he’d be jealous that he didn’t cover “Stairway” with an
arrangement like this.
Dr. Chadbourne in Albuquerque2007
3. “I’m the Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised” by Eugene Chadbourne from the
album There’ll Be No Tears Tonight. Chadbourne is known for his wild
improvisational acoustic-guitar playing and taking familiar songs into
unfamiliar territory. At the beginning of this track, he announces that Johnny
Paycheck is one of his favorite country singers. I believe him, and I believe
the man loves country music. But unless you’re already a Chadbourne fan, you’ve
probably never heard Paycheck done like this before. He sings the lyrics like he
means them and plays guitar like a space alien on trucker’s crank. This album is
full of covers of honky-tonk classics done in Chadbourne’s own peculiar way,
including Paycheck’s hit “Take This Job and Shove It.”
4. “Stormy Weather” by Reigning Sound from the album
Time Bomb High School. I don’t think Judy Garland did it this way, but
Greg Cartwright’s exuberant take on this chestnut is irresistible This isn’t the
first time this song appeared in the world of rock ’n’ roll. A vocal group
called The Five Sharps did a doo-wop version in the 1950s.
5. “Surf’s Up” by David Thomas and Two Pale Boys from the album
Surf’s Up. I believe in my heart that this song is Brian Wilson’s greatest moment. It’s
so dark and full of lyrical enigmas that if the current nostalgia-act version of
the Beach Boys attempted to play the song in concert, half of their audience
would bolt in fear and revulsion. And if they heard Thomas warbling this
meandering eight-minute version, there would be blood. This avant-garde
deconstructed dirge is a commendable attempt to plumb the depths of Wilson’s
melancholic masterpiece. But in the end, despite the inspired weirdness of this
version, Wilson’s original still remains more mysterious and powerful.
The Dickies look pretty much like this too
6. “Banana Splits (the Tra La La Song)” by The Dickies from the album The
Incredible Shrinking Dickies (though I first heard it on their live album We
Aren’t the World). I was too old to really get into The Banana Splits Adventure
Hour when that Saturday morning show started twisting young minds in the late
’60s. But something tells me Dickies frontman Leonard Grave Phillips watched it
every week. The show starred four people in funny animal costumes — a dog, a
gorilla, a lion, and an elephant, kind of like a live-action cartoon or
human-scale puppet show. I think they were supposed to be some kind of rock
band. I believe the same thing is true of The Dickies. In fact, they’re one of
the longest-lasting Los Angeles punk bands ever to crawl out of the gutter.
Phillips and his pals took the Banana Splits theme song up to warp speed.
7. “I Wanna Be Sedated” by Two Tons of Steel from the album
King of a One Horse Town. I don’t know much about this turn-of-the-century country rock band, but for
years this has been my favorite Ramones cover. I’ve always thought that The
Ramones should have done a cover of Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places.”
8. “Little Rug Bug” by NRBQ from the albumDummy.
This one’s for the late NRBQ drummer Tom Ardolino, who died early this year.
Andolino was a connoisseur of
song poems
— songs with lyrics written by some wanna-be songwriter who responded to one of
those “Put Your Poems to Music” ads and had his work recorded (at a price) by an
overworked crew of studio musicians and singers.
9. “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)” by Iggy Pop, from the
album Party (2000 CD reissue ). This version of the smoky Johnny
Mercer/Harold Arlen classic barroom ballad is good, but my favorite is still the
one I got in the early ’90s on a bootleg called
We Are Not Talking About Commercial Shit, on which Mr. Pop berates and curses an unruly crowd for several minutes until
he finally croons the slow, slinky song in his bruised baritone.
10. “Sugar Sugar” by Wilson Pickett from the album Right On.
Nobody covered The Archies like the wicked Pickett.
