Sunday, Aug. 11, 2019 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
Rock 'n' Roll Murder by The Leaving Trains
Astral Plane by The Modern Lovers
The Green Door by Jim Lowe
I'm Cramped by The Cramps
Can't Slow Down by Alien Space Kitchen
Life on the Dole by The Molting Vultures
Unaccompanied by Sleeve Cannon
China Grove by Hickoids
Into the Valley by Kazik & Zdunek Ensemble
In A Parallel World by CTMF
Ask the Angels by Patti Smith Group
Cocaine Blues by Wayne Kramer & The Pink Fairies
Radio by Ty Segall
Oiuja Board Lies by L7
Wet Bar by Ross Johnson
Photographer Baron Wolman on Woodstock stage
Some guy named Carlos in the background
WOODSTOCK SET
Plastic Fantastic Lover by Jefferson Airplane
I Want to Take You Higher by Sly & The Family Stone
Mean Town Blues by Johnny Winter
Can't Turn You Loose by Janis Joplin (vocals by Cornelius Flowers)
You Just Don't Care by Santana
In Praise of Sha Na Na by The Dead Milkmen
It's Killing Me by DBUK
Fear by Eilen Jewell
Night Time is the Right Time by Bettye LaVette, Andre Williams & Nathaniel Meyer
I Want You To Hurt Like I Do by Randy Newman CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Today is birthday of one of the greatest soul men of the 20th Century, Joe Tex.
He was born Joseph Arrington, Jr. in Rogers, Texas. There is some dispute about the year of his birth, most sources saying 1933, though a website dedicated to him says that date is "misreported" and that he actually was born in 1935.
He died in 1982, just five days after his birthday,
Tex began his recording career at King Records in 1955. In 1958, he signed with Ace Records.
Here's one he did for Ace that year, an "answer" song to a Coasters hit:
But he didn't get a big hit until 1965, with a gospel-marinated plea for fidelity called Hold On to What You've Got."
Probably my favorite Joe Tex songs comes from 1971
And for the record, nobody except Bobbie Gentry herself did a better version of "Ode to Billy Joe."
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican Aug.2, 2019
TThirty-some years ago a woman broke up with me. In her attempt to explain, she said something to the effect of “I’m a Beatles person, and you’re an Elvis person.”
She was half right.
It’s true I believed then, as I do now, in the Holy Scripture that says, “Thou shalt not have any kings before thee except Elvis.” (I forget whether that’s in the Bible or the Constitution.)
But it was totally unfair to question my devotion to the Fab Moptops, whose cosmic significance I was convinced of since about halfway through their performance of “All My Loving” on The Ed Sullivan Show that February night in 1964.
So, even though I normally look down upon sappy nostalgia, I wanted to see the movie Yesterday (directed by Danny Boyle). It has an unusual, if implausible, premise. Basically, some kind of trans-dimensional space warp — or something — strikes the Earth and changes history, leaving a world where certain things no longer exist, including Coca-Cola, cigarettes (gee, that’s too bad), and The Beatles.
The only person who remembers the band is a young singer/songwriter/guitar picker named Jack Malik (played by Himesh Patel). He apparently was spared the shared cultural amnesia by the fact that he was hit by a bus while riding his bike at the exact moment a worldwide power outage occurred.
I hate when that happens.
Jack learns of this weird predicament when, after he gets out of the hospital, he tries to sing the song “Yesterday” to a group of friends. They like the song but think it’s a Malik original. They've never heard the song and never heard of The Beatles.
And this leads our hero to a glorious scam. If The Beatles don’t exist and nobody’s heard their songs — and if Apple Corps isn’t around to send cease-and-desist letters — he can record them himself and pass them off as originals.
What could possibly go wrong?
Imagine had Ed Sheeran never existed
Basically, the con job works — at least, at first. Jack cuts some demos that start getting internet buzz. He gets a visit from Ed Sheeran. (He’s apparently a real guy! I Googled him and he’s some kind of musician. Who knew?) Jack becomes Ed’s opening act, and Ed, nice guy that he is, sets him up with a big-deal recording contract and a comically cold-blooded, cutthroat manager, Debra Hammer (Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon), who immediately became my favorite character. She’s everything that’s wrong with the music industry boiled down into one horrible individual.
But as Malikmania grows to Beatles-like levels, Jack’s feeling guiltier and guiltier. At one point, after performing the song “Help!” in a rooftop concert (reminiscent of the scene in the Beatles documentary Let It Be), he suffers a mini-breakdown, screaming, “Please help me!”
John Lennon would appreciate this particular song being used for this troubling moment. He wrote it during the early days of The Beatles’ superstar status. “The Beatles thing had just gone beyond comprehension,” Lennon told Playboy in 1980. “I was fat and depressed and I was crying out for help.”
The friend who saw Yesterday with me noted that the songs used in the movie overwhelmingly were Paul McCartney tunes. That’s true, and it’s one of my quibbles with the movie. I’m an Elvis person, but I’m also a Lennon person. In general, I prefer John’s songs to Paul’s.
Case in point: When Jack and Ed are having their little backstage songwriting contest — which makes Ed realize what a mighty genius Jack is — which song does Jack choose? “The Long and Winding Road,” which has to be the worst dud The Beatles ever recorded. Producer/murderer Phil Spector, who The Beatles hired to complete Let It Be (the group’s final album), turned a kinda pretty if inconsequential ballad into overwrought orchestral fluff.
Why wouldn’t Jack choose something magical and crazy like “Strawberry Fields Forever,” or even something simple but devastatingly raw, like “No Reply”? Or something to warp everyone’s head, like “Helter Skelter”?
Some critics have made a valid point that the film’s assumption that Beatles songs would conquer the world and make girls scream in 2019 the way they did in 1964 doesn’t hold water.
Even if Jack did have a cold-eyed, soulless manager like Debra Hammer and a big-time rock star like Ed Sheeran behind him, would today’s youth actually like and buy his music, or would they dismiss it as “dad rock”? The movie itself hints at this problem in an early scene when, after Jack sings “Yesterday,” a friend tells him it’s good, but not as good as Coldplay.
But that line of thinking didn’t distract me much while watching Yesterday, any more than the likelihood of a power outage altering history was a deal-breaker.
One reason I can overlook these flaws is because I saw the story as a metaphor for how younger generations seem to forget fairly recent cultural touchstones that were so important to us oldsters.
How many times have I babbled about some old band — or song, or movie, or TV show, or politician — and a younger friend or colleague just stared blankly? That’s as frustrating for me as it is for Jack Malik when his friends don’t know who Ringo Starr is.
Bonus: Had The Beatles Never Existed We'd Have Never Heard These Covers
Headcoatees sing "Run For Your Life."
The Breeders play "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" Junior Parker IS the "Taxman."
I’m funny how? I mean funny like I’m a clown? I amuse you?
Today would have been the 87th birthday of the late character actor Ted Cassidy, the man who played the Frankenstein-like butler Lurch on television's beloved The Addams Family.
Happy birthday, Ted!
Cassidy died in 1979, but Lurch still lives in the hearts of the true.
Devoted Addams Family fans know that Lurch had vocal talents beyond his trademark growling and catch phrase, "You rang?" He was a rock 'n' roll star ... or might have been.
Here's a scene in which his musical talent is discovered:
Just like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Howlin' Wolf and so many great talents, Lurch got a spot onShindig.
And back during his 15 minutes of musical fame, Cassidy showed he had real Red Sovine chops on this country talking song, which was the B-Side of "Do the Lurch."
Finally, on this Wacky Wednesday, here's Lurch doing a wacky Wednesday dance
Greetings citizens of the galaxy and welcome to this month's spacey, racy episode of the Big Enchilada This month we're slipping the surly bonds of Earth and taking a joyride to the stars. That's one small step for podcast, one giant leap for podcastkind.
Shout out to my grandson Gideon Brake who provided the artwork for this episode.
And remember, The Big Enchilada is officially listed in the iTunes store. So go subscribe, if you haven't already (and gimme a good rating and review if you're so inclined.) Thanks.
