WACKY WEDNESDAY: One Year of Wacky

One year ago, on Wednesday, Nov. 19, I unleashed a new weekly feature on this here web log.

Wacky Wednesday, was created, I wrote, "to introduce you, the reader to strange, funny and/or confounding music -- the type of "unclaimed melodies" that the Firesign Theatre's Don G. O'Vani was talking about when he said, `if you were to go into a record store and ask for them they would think you were crazy!' "

I've tried to live up to that mission statement. Some weeks work better than others, but I think I've provided you guys with a lot of wackiness this past 12 months.

My very first post was a salute to a musician named Bob Purse who I'd just discovered on the Free Music Archive.

Below are videos and other mementos of the first year of Wacky Wednesday. Keep the wackiness alive!

Early on, I wrote about a song that tore at the soul of a youngster (yours truly) who loved The Beatles as well as Allan Sherman. The day I posted this, I showed it to my oldest grandson, then 3. He looked at me bewildered and asked, "Why does Pop hate The Beatles?"

I wish I knew, kid, I wish I knew!



Wacky Wednesday has explored the musical legacy of Muhammad Ali.



Bad karaoke is usually good for some good wholesome fun (and cheap laffs).



In honor of the 41st anniversary of the resignation of President Nixon, I did a Wacky Wednesday full of Watergate songs. Here is one I stumbled across while searching for another song.



On April Fool's Day I looked at a cruel prank that cost The Dwarves a record contract.

One of my favorite Wacky Wednesdays was one about "Cult Classics" -- by real cults.



And one Wednesday I featured songs by, about and associated with Popeye.




One Wacky Wednesday I wrote about that strange night in 1986 when Camper Van Beethoven served as Tiny Tim's pickup band. The complete show, starting with Camper's set, can be heard in the player below.




And not very long ago, in belated honor of R. Crumb's birthday, I explored the cartoonist's contributions to music.



One week we had a musical battle royal with songs by and about wrestlers. Here is a heartbreaker.



One week I looked at the history of "Louie Louie," including the your-tax-money-at-work FBI investigation of the subsersve song:

The FBI's Investigation of Louie Louie;

And the world of Bollywood is rarely short on wackiness.



This world isn't getting any saner. Something tells me there will be plenty of wackiness to mine in the year ahead.

Please come back to this blog tomorrow for a very special Throwback Thursday.

Eilen Jewell in Santa Fe Thursday

Big mea culpa here: I've been playing Eilen Jewell's music for years on The Santa Fe Opry for years now and I've been mispronouncing her name. I've called her "Eileen," I've called her "Ellen," I've called her "Zsa Zsa" (OK, I'm just lying there), everything but her actual name, which, (as I found out tonight listening to some of her YouTube videos) is pronounced "EEL-un."

But the point is, I have been playing her songs on the radio for years, and I only play the stuff I like. So I heartily recommend you catch her show in Santa Fe this Thursday (November 19). She'll be playing at the Center for Spiritual Living, 505 Camino de Los Marquez. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Buy tickets HERE.

This is a homecoming of sorts for Eilen. She attended St. John's College around the turn of the century and she's said many times in interviews that her first public gigs were busking at the Farmer's Market here.

So be there at her show. Until then, enjoy a couple of her videos:

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November, 2015 
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell
Webcasting!
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org


Here's the playlist

OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Mercury Blues by David Lindley
Don't Slander Me by Roky Erikson
I Guess You're My Girl by The Vagoos

Dial Up Doll by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Tuned Out by JJ & The Real Jerks

Baby Doll by The Del Morrocos

Rickshaw Rattletrap by Churchwood

The Claw by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages

Why You Leave Me by T. Valentine & Daddy Long Legs

Eclipse Boliviano by Rolando Bruno

Naspare by Cankisou

Bemin Sebeb Letlash by Mahmoud Ahmed

Tamiditin by Tinariwen

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child by Rev. Johnny L. Jones

Seeds/ Sky Saxon Set

Satisfy You by The Seeds

Can't Seem to Make You Mine by Alex Chilton

It's a Hard Life by The A-Bones

Moth and the Flame by Simon Stokes & The Heathen Angel Band

Stems and Flowers by The Chesterfield Kings

You Gotta Ride by Sky Saxon

The Wind Blows Your Hair by Purple Merkins

No Hay Mas Qui Dar [Pushin' Too Hard] by Los Shains

900 Million People Daily The Seeds

Price Tag by Sleater-Kinney

Lovecrimes by The Afghan Whigs

Queen Jane Approximately by Bob Dylan

Wish That I Was Dead by The Dwarves

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Hula Nite with Sky Saxon

Yesterday, following my Tune-Up column on The Seeds: Pushin’ Too Hard documentary, which is showing at the Jean Cocteau next week, my KSFR crony and fellow Seeds fan Sean Conlon sent me an email about the time he went to a Sky Saxon show 25 years ago.

With Sean's permission, I share the email here:

"Bring me the hula girls!"

In 1990 I visited a friend in San Francisco and he told me we were going to see another friend's band open for Sky!  I was surprised because I'd heard Saxon had burned out and disappeared, but my friend told me he'd seen a reunited Seeds share a bill with Love a few months earlier, and that Sky had been in fine form.  


So we head down to the venue, which turns out to be the lobby of a seemingly deserted SRO hotel in the Tenderloin.  There was a hand-drawn cardboard sign on the door, and that was apparently the only advertising that had been done for the gig besides word of mouth.  There were maybe 20 people in the dimly lit room.  There was a bar, but no stage; just a corner that had been cleared out.  In another corner was Sky, sitting with 5 or 6 hippie chicks.  They were young, maybe about 20.  He looked old, and in bad shape.  

During my friend's opening set (they were sort of a Toiling Midgets-wannabe band.  In 1983 the Midgets had been our upstairs neighbors in the Mission district.)  Sky's entourage got on the dance floor and hula-hooped.  Things were looking up.

There was a problem, though.  Sky hadn't brought a band.  I'm not sure if he thought the promoter was going to provide one, or if he just forgot.  He asked my friend's group to back him, although they didn't know any of his material.  No worries, he said, just do your thing and I'll work with it.  So they noodled around while he recited some verse and a few lines from Pushin' Too Hard, and sang "Mr Mojo Risin'" over and over while the hippie chicks continued with the hula hoops.  After about 10 minutes of this, Sky went back to his table in the corner, the entourage packed up and they all left.  

I'm still not sure if it was the best or worst show I ever saw.

So there you have it.

Don't forget the The Seeds: Pushin’ Too Hard is showing at the Jean Cocteau Cinema (418 Montezuma Ave., 505-466-5528) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 18, and Thursday, Nov. 19. The doc’s director, Neil Norman will be on hand for Q & both nights.

I don't think hula hoops will be provided.

And don't forget tomorrow night's Terrell’s Sound World on on KSFR-101.1 FM. here I'll be playing a special segment featuring the music of the Seeds, Sky Saxon, and lots of cool bands covering their songs. The show starts at 10 p.m. with the Seeds set starting at the 11th hour.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, November 13, 2015
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
Tobacco Road by Southern Culture On The Skids
Drinking Problem by Audrey Auld
Tied by The Yawpers
MisAmerica by Legendary Shack Shakers
Still Sober (After All These Beers) by The Banditos
Streets of Bordeaux by Texas Martha & The House of Twang
Oui (A French Song) by Terry Allen
Swing Troubador by Christine Albert

When First Unto This Country by David Bromberg
Yuppie Scum by Emily Kaitz
Crazy Crazy Lovin' by Johnny Carroll
Hot Rod Lincoln by The Satellites
Blackeyed Susie by J.P. Nestor
No Judgement Day by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
In New Orleans (Rising Sun Blues) by Dave & Phil Alvin
Cigarette Party by Dex Romweber Duo
LSD by Wendell Austin

UFO on Farm Road 318 by Sidney Ester
If You Mess with the Bull by Luke Reed
Long White Cadillac by Janis Martin
The Over You Rag by Electric Rag Band
Crazy Heart by Augie Meyers
Sorry You're Sick by Mary Gauthier
Bad Dog by Ted Hawkins
Dried Out River by Dad Horse Experience
Lucille by The Beat Farmers

Dust Off The Old Songs by Jason Eklund, Mike Good & Tom Irwin
Mary Lou by Kell Robertson
Big Train From Memphis by Mary & Mars
Cold Black Hammer by Joe Ely
My Walking Stick by Leon Redbone
Legend in My Time by Leon Russell
Green Fields of France by Dropkick Murphys
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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