Since retirement, I enjoy drinking my morning coffee out on the old
front porch when the weather is nice and warm.
This morning, after about a half a cup, I came back inside. It was too chilly.
It's Sept. 23 and I think summer time is over. So let's celebrate
"Summertime."
This classic song started on Broadway, composed in 1935 by George
Gershwin with lyrics by DuBose Heyward, for the musical Porgy and Bess. The lullaby soon became a jazz standard and made its impact in other genres of popular music as well.
Here's the first recording of it from 1935 featuring soprano Abbie Mitchell on vocals and Gershwin on piano. Abbie's part doesn't start until about 2 minutes in:
Here's the version by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, who did an album
of Porgy and Bess songs in 1959:
The very first version I ever heard was Sam Cooke's. And it's still a doozie:
Soul singer Billy Stewart had a hit single with the song in the '60s. Dig the
10-gallon hat here:
Many members of My Generation believe that "Summertime" started with Big
Brother & The Holding Company. It didn't, of course, but Big Brother's version was beyond powerful. Here's a 1969 live performance by Janis
Joplin after she went solo:
Doc Watson, with his son Merle, took the song to the country:
And more recently, the Swiss band Die Zorros (featuring the unstoppable Reverend Beat-Man) took it to the Bizarro World:
The cool weather is nice, but don't be a stranger, summertime! I like it best when the livin' is easy!
Sunday, September 19, 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
Hand Full of Sand by Divine Horsemen
Baby Please Don't Go by Them
Exotic Store by Sloks
I'm Going Back by Grys Grys
Suzie by Coyotes y Krotal
Smash the Fascists by Pocket FishRMen
Confessions of a Psycho Cat by The Cramps
You Don't Know by 13th Floor Elevators
Hey Man! You Just Made My Day by Harry "The Hipster" Gibson
Crime to Be Poor by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
CIA Man by The Fugs
The Greatest Whole by King Khan & Saba Lou
New Big Prinz by The Fall
Come and Have a Go If You Think You're Hard Enough by The Mekons
Bongo Stomp by Little Isidore & The Inquisitors
Do You Remember What You Did by Nolan Strong & The Diablos
Mother of Earth by The Gun Club
O Christine by The Reigning Sound
Shopping Like a Mormon by 50 Watt Whale
Save the Whales by Country Joe McDonald
ICU by The Control Freaks
Mi Eganaste by The Fleshtones
What's His Name by Joey Quiones & The Sinseers
Wooden Heart by Elvis Presley
Driftwood 4023 by Mitch Webb & The Swindles
24 Hours from Tulsa by Shinyribs
What Are You Looking for by King Shark
My Love Is by Bernadette Seacrest
Lily of the West by Bob Dylan
Juanita by Sturgill Simpson
Far From Any Road by The Handsome Family
Dreaming My Dreams by Waylon Jennings
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Sunday, September 19, 2021 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting!
8 am to 10 am Sundays Mountain Time Substitute Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show!
terrel(at)ksfr.org Here's the playlist :
The Lost Ones by Ted Hawkins
Sugar Baby by Dock Boggs
Hog of the Forsaken by Michael Hurley Do the Boogie Mama by Yank Rachell & His Tennessee Jug Busters
Get Up in the Morning Soon by Gus Cannon
Fishing Blues by Henry Thomas
Booger Country Blues by Nick Shoulders
Going Down That Road Feeling Bad by Doc & Merle Watson
Oh Darlin' by Blaze Foley
Give Me That Old Time Religion by Joseph Spence
Ragtime Cowboy Joe by Peter Stampfel
World Gone Wrong by The William Loveday Intention
Crazy Mixed Up World by Ray Condo
Crawdad Song by Jerry Lee Lewis
Long Time Gone by The Flatlanders
Charlottesville by Jesse Dayton
J'Entendes Siffler Le Train / 500 Miles by Martha Fields
Pretty Polly by The Dead Brothers
Down South Kosher by Mark Rubin
Flora, the Lily of the West by Tim O'Brien
The Coo-Coo Bird by Clarence Ashley
I'm Satisfied by Mississippi John Hurt
Railroad Bill by Ramblin' Jack Elliott
Oh Ambulance Man by The Memphis Jug Band
Rambling Gambler by The Dixon Brothers
Jesus Don't Love Me by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
The Awful Parts of Me by Rachel Brooke
Alabama Pines by Jason Isbell
Come Down Angels by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
When I think of songs about the Vietnam war, the first one that comes to my
mind Country Joe & The Fish's
"I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag," However, for anyone who was out of diapers in 1966, the best known Vietnam song probably is "The Ballad of the Green Berets"
by Sgt. Barry Sadler (a New Mexico native, born in Carlsbad in 1940). For some weird reason, Sgt. Barry's song got tons more
commercial radio play than Country Joe's.
Encyclopedia Brittanica
says Sadler's patriotic song with the military beat and bugles "reached No. 1
on the Billboard Top 100 chart in late February [1966] and stayed there
for five weeks, going on to sell more than nine million records. The album
sold some two million copies and hit No.1 on Billboard’s best-selling albums
chart in early April."
Though it was more corny than a field in Nebraska, I believe part of the
appeal of Sadler's song was that the singer knew what he was singing about.
Unlike John Wayne, who later starred in a spectacularly bad movie called
The Green Berets (the soundtrack of which used a choral arrangement of the song), Sadler
was no poser. He was a real combat veteran, a medic with the Green Berets who was nearly lost a
leg after he stepped on a punji stick booby trap the year before he
became a recording star.
Look ma, no beret!
He released one other album in 1966 called The A-Team, then the next year he dropped the "Sgt." from his stage name and released another album, Back Home, in which he posed in civilian attire (with no beret!) and contained songs not dealing with warfare.
But "Green Berets" was such a colossal hit, all of Sadler's subsequent musical efforts paled and failed in comparison. The public was quickly turning against the war and Sadler's songs that followed seemed like faint echoes of the one song of his we know.
After his music career stiffed, Sadler turned to writing. Starting in 1977, he wrote more than 30 adventure novels, most of which were part of a series called Casca: The Eternal Mercenary. (Casca was the Roman soldier who speared Jesus on the cross. The Son of God wasn't amused, so he cursed Casca to live and fight wars until the Second Coming. (Other authors took over the series after Sadler died.)
Sadler's life became more troubled in the late '70s, as this 1989 Los Angeles Times story shows. He'd basically become a major lush and a womanizer. In 1978, while living in Nashville, Sadler shot and killed a wanna-be country singer named Lee Emerson Bellamy. The dead man was the ex-boyfriend of a woman with whom Sadler was having an affair. Bellamy allegedly was stalking and harassing the woman.
During a confrontation in his girlfriend's apartment parking lot, Sadler shot Bellamy, who'd reached for his pocket. Sadler thought he was pulling a gun, but in reality he was reaching for his car key. Sadler pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to four to five years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. However, according to the Times, "The judge later reduced the sentence to 30 days with two years’ probation. Sadler got off after 22 days on good behavior."
After all, silver wings upon his chest ...
In the early '80s, Sadler moved to Central America, where he wrote some of his Casca books. He also allegedly got involved with mercenaries, ran guns and trained the Contras for Nicaragua's civil war. (The Times article says, "The people who claim to know Sadler best say he nurtured the mercenary image only to sell books."
Almost exactly 33 years ago, on September 7, 1988, Sadler was shot in the head in Guatemala City. According to Brittanica, "Witnesses and the police said he accidentally shot himself. Others claimed he was the victim of a robbery or assassination attempt." He was brought back to the U.S., where he died in November 1989.
Even though it's hard for people my age to have avoided "The Ballad of the Green Berets," only the most die-hard Sgt. Barry fans know the rest of his musical repertoir. His follow-up was a song called "The A-Team," which, disappointingly, has nothing to do with Mr. T. (And for reasons best known to RCA Records, was not on the album of the same name.)
Here's the B-Side of "The A-Team"
Sgt. Barry loved the women. He undoubtedly was thinking of some Hotlips Houlihan -- or several -- when he wrote this song.
Here's another tear-jerker from the Sarge
Finally here's one of Sgt. Barry's non-military tunes
Sunday, September 12, 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
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
The Show is Over by The Fleshtones
25th Floor by The Divine Horsemen
Far Away by Sleater-Kinney
Erased by Ty Segall
Long Way Down by The Ar-Kaics
Drug Me by ET Explore Me
Ode to a Mermaid by Robbie Quine
Let the Mermaids Flirt With Me by Mississippi John Hurt
