Saturday, August 21, 2021 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
Sharkey's Night by Laurie Anderson
Thunder by The Mekons
Welcome 2 America by Prince
Let the Devil In by TV on the Radio
Son of a Bitch's Brew by The Invertebrates
We're Laughing by The Psychedelic Aliens
Funky Tonk by Miles Davis
Nebulae by Sun Ra
Bright New Day by John Trubee & The Ugly Janitors of America
A Real Indication by Xiu Xiu
Jack Paints it Red by The Thought Gang
Twisted Flower by Cold Sun
Organ Mission of Love by S.T. Mikael
Terraplane by Captain Beefheart
Help Me Somebody by Brian Eno & David Byrne
Hunted by a Freak by Mogwai
There's No Such Thing as the Masses by Sue Ann Harkey
It's been nearly six years since I blogged about the twisted world of
song-poems on a Wacky Wednesday.
Well, friend, that's too long!
Today I'm going to feature some examples of actual musicians, some of whom you
might have even heard of, who have covered some classic song poems.
Their love is obvious.
But first, I know many of you who somehow missed
my post in 2015 might be scratching your head, or other parts of your body wondering
"What in tarnation is a `song-poem' ?"
Quoting again from the brilliant, if crazed, now out of print compilation
called I'm Just the Other Woman,which I reviewed in
The New Mexican back in 2001.
You've seen those ads in the back of supermarket tabloids, detective
mags, movie rags and girlie books: “Song Poems Wanted. Your poems turned
into songs by professional musicians. Send immediately for FREE evaluation
...
Of course, its a scam. It's been going on for years — a century by some
reports.
You send in your poem and the company sends you back a glowing
evaluation. Your song has true hit potential. Now all you need to do is
send in $100 (or whatever the going rate is these days) and your poem will
be put to music and recorded in an actual recording studio by some of the
nations top session musicians.
... Theres always the implication that this recording will be sent around
to the top A&R people at major record companies. And of course you'll
get a few copies of the record to show your friends; in fact some
song-poem companies actually have put out compilations.
The liner notes also point out that "this sleazy little corner of the music
industry has attracted a subculture of fans who collect and groove on the
strangest and most unintentionally funny song-poems they can unearth."
Here I'll spotlight the work on some members of that subculture who have
performed song-poems. And each of those tunes will be followed by the
original.
Let's start with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's version of "Beat of the
Traps," which appeared on their outtakes compilation Mo' Width.
Somehow Spencer's version sprang from this tune sung -- or shouted -- by the Pavarotti of the Song-Poem, Rodd Keith. The Allmusic review of Spencer's album said the Blues Explosion's take is "never as weird as the original, hard as it tries. "
Iconic iconoclast R. Stevie Moore included John Trubee's "A Blind Man's Penis" (originally titled "Peace and Love") as part of a medley with a couple of other classic American songs.
Trubee, who for decades has created wild music, usually under the name "John Trubee & The Ugly Janitors of America" wrote the lyrics in the '70s as a young man (was a teenager at the time) and paid some fee for a song-poem company to write the melody and record it. The country-fried singer is Ramsey Kearney, a monster of song poem vocals. Here's the original that made us all fall in love:
Texas singer Gretchen Phillips made a few changes to one of the greatest song poems in human history. Note, despite the title listed for this video, the correct title is "Gretchen Phillips Says Yes."
And here's the original disco version, about an actual president, sung by the amazing Gene Marshall:
Sunday, August 15, 2021 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Baby Doll by The Del Moroccos
Society by The Routes
Jezebel by Bernadette Seacrest
Glam Racket by The Fall
Chaise Lougue by Wet Leg
Do You Understand by Sinister Six
Get Some Help by The Control Freaks
Ain't I'm A Dog by Ronnie Self
Not Me by The Orlons
Necrophiliac in Love by The Blood Drained Cows
World of Freaks by Harry Perry
It's a Hard World by The Seeds
Nude Sexuality in the Afternoon by John Trubee & The Ugly Janitors of America
Black Plague Blues by Figures of Light
Subliminal Fascism by Fishbone
Stop Breaking Down by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
What Do They Watch by King Salami & The Cumberland 3
Golden Shower of Hits by The Circle Jerks
We Are Normal by Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
Walking to You by Dinosaur Jr.
Waiting for the Bus by Violent Femmes
You're Crazy for Taking the Bus by Jonathan Richman
Sunday, August 8, 2021 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrell(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Sinner Man / Hey Miss Lucy by Esquerita
Face of the Screaming Werewolf by The Fleshtones
Oliver Plunkett's Head by Too Much Joy
President by ET Explore Me
Bad Dumplings by Hipbone Slim & The Knee Tremblers
It's OK by Dead Moon
Fire in the Western World by The Dirtbombs
Many Whores Copulate for Money by John Trubee & The Ugly Janitors of America
One Tin Soldier by The Dick Nixons
Tiger Man by John Schooley
Baby You Crazy by Nick Curran & The Lowlifes
The Clown of the Town by Reverend Beat-Man
Wild Man by The Shadows of Knight
Treat Her Right by Los Straitjackets starring Mark Lindsey
Hit the Road Jack by The Cat
Crazy Mixed Up World by Ray Condo
Mexican Radio by Wall of Voodoo
Your Haunted Head by Concrete Blonde
Ain't Got a Worry by Roy & The Devil's Motorcycle
You Knock Me Out by The Tenants
Hot Biscuits and Sweet Marie by Lincoln Chase
Humans by Pocket FishRmen
Junior's Whoop by Junior Wells & The Aces
A Man and His Dog by Joe Ely
Give My Love to Rose by The Flatlanders
No Help Wanted by Dale Watson
Tangled Web by Harvey McLaughlin
Swing Low Sweet Chariot by Homer Henderson
Vampire by Bernadette Seacrest
Give Me Wine or Money by The Mekons
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
On August 5, 1957 -- which wasn't long before I turned four years old -- the
ABC network debuted an afternoon teenage dance show hosted by a clean-cut guy
from Philadelphia named Dick Clark.
Known as "America's Oldest Teenager," Clark had been with the show's precursor, "Bandstand," which aired on local TV in Philadelphia. (WFIL, now WPVI). The original show had been around since 1952. Clark came aboard in 1956. When ABC asked local affiliates for suggestions for a an afternoon show, Clark lobbied for "Bandstand" to go national.
According to Clark's obituary (he died in 2012 at the age of 82) in the Los Angeles Times, "Clark and “American Bandstand” not only gave young fans what they wanted, it gave their parents a measure of assurance that this new music craze was not as scruffy or as scary as they feared. Buttoned-down and always upbeat, polite and polished, Clark came across more like an articulate graduate student than a carnival barker."
That obit discusses that first national show:
"...from the no-frills Studio B of WFIL-TV on Market Street in Philadelphia, Clark greeted a national television audience for the first time with the backdrop of a faux record store, a concrete floor and crowd of giddy teens in clean-cut mode: Ties for boys, no slacks for girls and no gum chewing were the rules from the first day."
Indeed Clark's innate square demeanor made for a pretty weird show. Most of the time American Bandstand simply played current hits and showed teenagers dancing. The guest artists who came to th studio never played live. They just lip-synched.
Clark used “Bandstand” as a springboard for various business schemes. He became an artist manager, a music publisher and had his fingers in record-pressing plants as well as a distribution business. America's Oldest Teenager had partial rights to more than 100 songs and, according to the Los Angeles Times, "had his name on the financial paperwork of more than 30 music-related businesses."
Those wheelings and dealings led him to testify before Congress during the payola scandal in 1960. Though he testified that he never accepted any money to play records on the show, ABC made him sell off his business holdings that some saw as conflicts of interest.
Here are some videos of American Bandstand through the years:
Here's Jackie Wilson. According to the Internet Movie Data Base, Jackie
appeared on Bandstand five times between 1957 and 1965. "Lonely Teardrops" was
released in 1958, so I expect this clip was from one of his two appearances on
the show that year.
I'm thinking the following clip might just be the only Andre Williams song
ever to be played on Bandstand. This version is by James & Bobby
Purify (which was the first version I ever heard.) I also like Dick Clark's
Dr. Pepper commercial that introduces it, though I wonder if the "Proud Crowd"
he mentions was a precursor of the Proud Boys.
Dick Clark, as he shows in this 1967 interview with The Jefferson Airplane,
was in tune with the far-out youth of the Swingin' '60s. He asks bassist Jack
Cassidy a very insightful question: "If you gave $100,000 to a hippie ..."
American Bandstand lasted until 1989. At the beginning of that decade,
he had a 19-year-old Prince on the show:
Also in 1980, there was something Rotten on Bandstand.
But one group you never heard on American Bandstand was The Tandoori
Knights (King Khan & Bloodshot Bill, who wouldn't be around until about 20 years after Clark's show went off the air.) Here is the Tandooris' lament about
that fact:
