Today I'm talking about a tune about another gypsy woman, a lady operating out of a
"quaint caravan" who "can look in the future and drive away all your fears.
"I see your bike ... it's someplace far away ...
it's in the Alamo
... in the basement!"
No, that's another fortune teller ...
This is about the best-known work of British songwriter
Billy Reid, "The Gypsy."
Basically it's a song about about an old fraud preying on desperate people. (Well, that's my framng.) The narrator here goes to see The Gypsy because he or she is worried about his or
her lover.
The Gypsy pounces!
... she looked in my hand and told me
That my lover would always be true
But the mark was rightly skeptical:
And yet in my heart I knew, dear
That somebody else was kissing you ...
And yet even so, the reassuring words along, (probably with the usual psychic mumbo jumbo), has gotten our lovelorn narrator hooked:
But I'll go there again 'cause I want to believe the Gypsy ...
There's one born every minute.
But don't get me wrong, I've loved this song ever since I heard the version by
Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs nearly 60 years ago.
Here's the original 1945 recording, performed by Welsh singer (and future wife
of James Bond actor Roger Moore) Dorothy Squires. She was Billy Reid's man
musical partner from the 30s through the early 50s.
Squire's version -- was titled "The Gipsy" -- has a
minute-long introductory verse not included in takes by other singers.
I sit alone and dream, dear
Dream of you night and day
Once you were here beside me
Now you are far away
I've had my fortune told me
Can I believe it's true?
Soon we shall be together
Living our life anew
Listen yourself:
But the song didn't make much of an impact on American ears until
The Ink Spots changed the "i" to a "y" and gave it their Ink Spot sheen:
Years before she saw the USA in her Chevrolet, Dinah Shore also wanted to
believe The Gypsy:
Louis Armstrong took The Gypsy to New Orleans (even though this was from a
concert in Chicago):
At least one doo-wop group, The Five Keys, ventured into that quaint caravan
for spiritual and romantic advice:
Here's that doo-wop colored Sam the Sham
& The Pharoahs version I mentioned above. This was on their second
album, which I still like even more than their first album with "Wooly Bully.":
For the past 20-plus years, my favorite version of "The Gypsy" is the one by Austin honky-tonker Cornell Hurd, which was on his album A Stagecoach Named Desire. Unfortunately it's apparently not on Youtube or any other place from which I can embed.
So instead, I'll go out with this honky-stomp version by another Texan, Doug Sahm with the Sir Douglas, from their 1971 album The Return Of Doug Saldaña:
Sunday, May 7, 2023 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
Threat Landscape by Robert Shredford
Get Off The Air by Angry Samoans
Fighting the Good Fight by Råttanson
Life's Not Like The Movies by The Jackets
Ding Dong Daddy by Nick Shoulders
Backstage at the Boneyard by Waco Brothers
The Devil's Chasing Me by Reverend Horton Heat
Girls are Dancing on the Highway by Weird Omen
Guru by Loudon Wainwright III
Tonight by MC5
Sharkskin Suit by Wayne Kramer
Heed The Warning by The Thanes
Umbrella Man by Churchwood
This Is Hi-Fi by Mission of Burma
Bird Brain by Kevin Coyne
You Lied To Us by The Mekons 77
I Want What Holly's Got by The Manxx
Ode To Billy Joe by Joe Tex
Sally Go Round the Roses by Question Mark & The Mysterians
Wrecking Ball by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Voodoo Mirror by Iguana Death Cult
Route 90 by Clarence Garlow
A Better Mousetrap by Mucca Pazza
Love Grows Where Rosemary Goes by Edison Lighthouse
I Can't Refuse by The Orchids
Standard White Jesus by Timbuk 3
Too Many Rivers by Willie Nelson
I'll Walk Out by Miss Leslie
I Do Believe by Waylon Jennings
If Oh I Could Be With You by Nolan Strong & The Diablos
This One's From The Heart Tom Waits & Crystal Gayle
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Just about everywhere you look in 2023 you see overstuffed think pieces and
sometimes dire and paranoid warnings about the dangers of artificial
intelligence or "AI." I actually hate that acronym worse than I hate most
acronyms because I always read it as "Al," as in my friend Al Faaet.
Why only yesterday I saw fearful headlines -- like
this one from the BBC
-- about "AI Godfather" Geoffrey Hinton's ominous departure from Google, which
he announced in a statement to the New York Times, that spelled out how
he now regrets his work.
He told the BBC some of the dangers of AI chatbots were "quite scary".
"Right now, they're not more intelligent than us, as far as I can tell.
But I think they soon may be."
What else could make a man give up what had to be a lucrative job?
Dr Hinton also accepted that his age had played into his decision to
leave the tech giant, telling the BBC: "I'm 75, so it's time to
retire."
Hinton envisioned nightmarish scenarios like Vladimir Putin giving "robots the
ability to create their own sub-goals."
Robots with sub-goals? Oh no!
But, Hinton warned, some of those sub-goals might be "I need to get more
power."
And thus began the long march of our robot overlords ...
I dunno.
My only interaction with AI at this point has been frustrating "conversations"
with chatbots on my cell phone company's website. I wish that robot would
acquire a sub-goal of being more helpful to customers.
But my brother Jack has played around quite a bit on ChatGPT,
a popular "artificial intelligence chatbot" unleashed to the unsuspecting
public late last year. Recently he and our friend Al -- not AI -- Faaet asked
the chatbot to tell them what it knew about Jack.
Nada.
Then they asked it what it knew about Al.
Same nothing.
But then Al suggested asking the AI about me. Three was a charm, even though
Jack typoed my first name as "Streve". Thus sprach the robot:
Here's that conversation:
User:
Tell me about journalist/musician Streve Terrell
ChatGPT:
Steve Terrell was an American journalist and musician who was born on
July 11, 1952, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and passed away on December 28,
2017, at the age of 65. He was a well-known journalist in New Mexico,
where he worked for over 30 years at the Santa Fe New Mexican
newspaper. In addition to his work as a journalist, Terrell was also an
accomplished musician and songwriter.
The Steve or "Streve" Terrell who lived-- and apparently died
-- in ChatGPT
Terrell began his career as a journalist in the 1970s, covering local
politics and culture for various newspapers in New Mexico. He joined the
staff of the Santa Fe New Mexican
in 1980, where he worked as a reporter and columnist for many years. He was
known for his insightful commentary on politics, music, and popular culture,
and he was a fixture in the Santa Fe community.
As a musician, Terrell was best known for his work with The Rounders, a
country-rock band that he co-founded in the early 1970s. The Rounders
released several albums and toured extensively throughout the United
States and Europe. Terrell also recorded several solo albums and
collaborated with other musicians throughout his career.
Throughout his life, Terrell was a passionate advocate for music and the
arts. He was a regular attendee at concerts and festivals, and he wrote
extensively about music in his journalism. He was also a mentor to many
younger musicians in the Santa Fe area, and he was known for his
generosity and kindness.
Steve Terrell was a beloved figure in the Santa Fe community, and his
contributions to journalism and music are still celebrated today. He was
known for his wit, his intelligence, and his passion for life, and he will
be deeply missed by all who knew him.
O.K., a few things ...
It got the date of my birth and I'm pretty sure the date of my death wrong.
Also, I didn't begin my career in journalism until 1980 but didn't start
working for The New Mexican for another seven years. My influence on
younger musicians is exaggerated, to say the least.
As far as my band "The Rounders" goes, what the living heck? I was never in
any such band. I didn't make any albums with or tour with any such band (I never even made it to
Europe until about 10 years ago).
Maybe there was a Streve Terrell who led The Rounders and died in 2017. Any of
my local musician friends remember such as person?
So, at least for the time being, I'm not going to lose much sleep over AI or
its sub-goals.
Which might just be exactly what the lurking robot menace wants!
On this day, 124 years ago in New Rochelle, N.Y. a first-generation
Italian-American boy named Walter Benjamin Lantz was born.
From the Hollywood Walk of Fame website:
Lantz was born in New Rochelle, New York to Italian immigrant parents,
Francesco Paolo Lantz and Maria Gervasi. ... Walter Lantz was always interested in art, completing a
mail order drawing class at age twelve. He saw his first animation when he
watched Winsor McCay’s cartoon short, Gertie the Dinosaur.
While working as an auto mechanic, Lantz got his first break. A wealthy
customer named Fred Kafka liked his drawings on the garage’s bulletin
board and financed Lantz’s studies at the Art Students League. Kafka also
helped him get a job as a copy boy at the New York American, owned by William Randolph Hearst. Lantz worked at the newspaper and
attended art school at night.
By the age of 16, Lantz was working in the animation department
under director Gregory La Cava. Lantz then worked at the John R. Bray
Studios on the Jerry On The Job
series. In 1924, Lantz directed, animated, and even starred in his first
cartoon series, Dinky Doodle.
He moved to Hollywood, California in 1927, where he worked briefly for
director Frank Capra and was a gag writer for Mack Sennett comedies.
Dinky Doodle! I got yer Dinky Doodle right here!
Woody's original, crazier look. (I've always liked this one
better.)
Lantz, who died in1994 ar the age of 93. worked in several studios in the early animation biz for years, creating
characters like Oswald the Rabbit and Andy Panda before Woody came knocking.
According to the origin story Lantz always told, it was during his 1941
honeymoon with actress Gracie Stafford at a lakeside cottage near Reno, Nevada
that he found the inspiration for his most famous character.
"We kept hearing this knock, knock, knock on the roof," Lantz told
The Los Angeles Times
in 1992. "And I said to Gracie, 'What the hell is that?' So I went out and
looked, and here's this woodpecker drilling holes in the shingles. And we had
asbestos shingles, not wood. So, to show you how smart these woodpeckers are,
they'd peck a hole in the asbestos shingles and put in an acorn. A worm would
develop in the acorn, and a week later the woodpecker would come back, get the
acorn and fly away, letting out this noisy scream as he flew away."
A honeymoon with woodpeckers, worms and asbestos. That sounds
romantic...
So, according to the story, Gracie suggested Lantz use an annoying woodpecker
for a new cartoon character. So he did.
But that' probably not what really happened. After all, Lantz got married in 1941 and Woody debuted in November 1940 as a supporting character in an Andy Panda short called "Knock Knock." So, unless they were time travelers ...
Whatever way it came down, the great Mel Blanc provided Woody's voice for the first few cartoons. But when Mel signed an exclusive deal with Warner Brothers, Gracie took over on vocal duties for Woody Woodpecker. It's her voice that most of us remember.
Because this is a music blog, let's take a look at the song stylings of the beloved woodpecker. There was plenty of music in Woody Woodpecker cartoons
We'll start out with some variations on a song I actually remember from the show:
Even woodpeckers love to polka!
Woodpeckers apparently also like opera:
I guess Woody also was a fan of The Trashmen:
But when most people think of Woody Woodpecker music, this song, recorded in 1948 by Kay Kyser (featuring Gloria Wood on lead vocals and Harry Babbitt's insane laugh) undoubtedly is the first thing that comes to mind:
Sunday, April 23, 2023 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
Louie, Louie by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
Killer McHann by The Jesus Lizard
He's A Whore by Big Black
Plan B (adopt a lap dancer) by King Automatic
Cuckoo At The World by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
