Sunday, November 5 , 2023 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell
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
It was 79 years ago today, Nov. 1, 1944, that singer, songwriter, humorist, novelist, failed political candidate and cigar aficionado Richard Samet Friedman was born in Chicago. A few years later the Friedman family moved to Texas and a little later still, young Richard became Kinky Friedman, king of the wild frontier.
I've previously, in Wacky Wednesday, celebrated Kinky's birthday, back in November 2016, where I explained how God led me to Kinky back in 1973 and how a couple of decades later, I got to open for him a couple of times at Albuquerque shows.
So today I'll just say "Happy birthday, Kinky!" and post a few songs that I hadn't previously,
To start off, here's a tune that didn't make Kinky popular in the hospitality industry. Oh, waitret ... :
With the current rise in anti-Semitism, this Kinky Klassic might be even more relevant than before:
This one explains an alternative use for religious pamphlets left in restroom stalls:
And, from the same concert as the video above, is another Kinky waitress song. But, though obviously satirical, it's full of pathos and full of heart. (But one thing I've always wanted to know: how many American truckdrivers actually order corn and how many truckstops actually offer beef on rye?):
Sunday, October 29, 2023 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell
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
It's Money That Matters by Randy Newman
Money by Wolfman Jack & The Wolfpack
Cape May Diamond by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Night of the Monsters by Robbie Quine
Greenback Dollar Bill by Louis Prima & Sam Butera
Graveyard by Dead Moon
Do the Pig by Rodd Keith
Blue Moon Baby by Dave 'Diddle' Day
$ Bill the Cowboy by Waco Brothers
Brother Can You Spare a Dime by Rudy Vallee
The Vampire Dog Of Jesus Christ by Gregg Turner Group
Old Hickory leads The Wonderful 99 at the Battle of The Alamo
In the late 1950s and early '60s there was a fun little trend in country
music. With songs like Johnny Horton's "The Battle of New Orleans,""El Paso"
by Marty Robbins, and Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John" suddenly there were all these
story songs on country radio -- with many of them crossing over to Top 40
stations.
With many such hits concerning historical events and characters, this
phenomenon sometimes is referred to as "faux folk." Some say faux folk was a
response -- basically a chance to cash in -- on the rising popularity of
actual "folk" music, such as the surprising success in 1958 of The Kingston
Trio's "Tom Dooley."
Also, I suspect that at some of these were reactions to current events of the
day. More on that later.
"The Battle of New Orleans" probably is the best known of the faux folk songs.
But Johnny Horton sang others as well, including "Sink the Bismark," a
historical song about more recent history, the 1941 sinking of a German
battleship during WWII:
In addition to "El Paso," (Fun fact: El Paso is the only city in New Mexico
that is not a city in New Mexico) Marty Robbins also sang of a bigger
violent skirmish in the great state of Texas. Robbins' "The Ballad of The
Alamo" was a tie-in with the 1960 John Wayne movie The Alamo. The
melody, which can be heard in the movie, was composed by Ukrainian-born
Hollywood soundtrack genius Dimitri Tiomkin (whose other "hits" include "Do
Not Forsake Me" from the Gary Cooper classic High Noon). The lyrics
were by Paul Francis Webster, who also wrote the words for "Black
Coffee," The Twelfth of Never" and the Spiderman theme (!).
There's no known recording of Marty Robbins singing "Spiderman."
Speaking of New Mexico, here's some faux folk from Johnny Cash:
Also from that era came "The Ballad of Davy Crocket," which tied in with the
huge Disney-inspired Crocket craze of the mid '50s. (Here's a good recent
podcast about
that phenomenon.) This version below appeared on a Doug Sahm album, with some help from The
Gourds:
I wrote about Claude King's "The Burning of Atlanta" in an old Tune-up column a few years ago. So being the pompous cheeseball that I am, allow me to quote myself:
This 1962 single was the follow-up to Claude King’s biggest hit, the country classic “Wolverton Mountain.” In many ways, the song — which concerns Gen. William Sherman’s torching of the Georgia city in Nov. 1864 — fits in the “faux folk song” phenomenon of that era ... But “Atlanta” has an edge to it, especially considering what was going on with the civil rights movement in the South in 1962. King singing, “We don’t care what the Yankees say, the South’s gonna rise again,” was more than a little charged in this context.
Like all trends in popular music, the faux-folk era ended quietly and faded into the mist of our memories. Many of the songs live on, "El Paso" being the best example. (The blast couple of times I've seen Marty Stuart, he's sung the song by that other Marty.)
But a few decades later, John Prine and Peter Case (who's appearing in Santa Fe on Nov. 12) co-wrote a little tune called
"Wonderful 99," which satirized the faux-folk era. It appeared on Case's 1992
album Six-Pack of Love.
The first verse goes:
You've heard about the dirty dozen and the tales of the green beret
The men that sank the Bismarck and the fighting C.I. A.
But if you're talkin' danger then one name comes to mind
Sunday, October , 2023 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell
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
Destroy All Monsters by Jad Fair & Samuel Locke Ward
Save All Monsters by Xposed 4Heads
The Price Of Love by Buddy Miller
Kool Thing by Sonic Youth
Headless Ghost by The Nightmares
Viking by Los Lobos
Stranger by Black Lips
Framed by The Robins
Only Time Will Tell by Movie Movie
Snake Doctor Blues by Jelly Jaw Short
The Payback by James Brown
Broken Heart Man by Yol Aularong
Killing Floor by Jimi Hendrix Experience
Are You Experienced? by Devo
Bloodstains On The Wall by Honeyboy
Grandma by Long John Hunter
Rock 'n' Roll Murder by The Leaving Trains
Mera Naam Bano Hey by Tandoori Knights
Zombie Walk by The Magics
This Funky Music Makes You Feel Good by WAR
Ice Pick by Johnny Dowd
Hush, Hush, Hush (Here Comes The Boogie Man) by Henry Hall
La Llarona by Kid Congo & The Pink Monkey Birds
Spooksville by The Nu-Trends
Stand Beside Me by The Dreamtones
My Dawlin' New Orleans by Lil' Queenie & The Percolators
Why I Cry by Pitiful Panics
I'm in the Ground for Good by The Newports
House Carpenter by Boris McCutcheon
Winter Garden by Steve Leon & The Accusations
West Virginia Waltz by Sierra Ferrell
Yesterday Is Here by Tom Waits
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
