WACKY WEDNESDAY: Strolling With The Zombie

 Just a few days before Halloween, it's a good time to celebrate a ghoulishly catchy singalong written by the late Roky Erikson: "I Walked With a Zombie."

The song comes from Roky's classic horror era, when he was cranking out titles like "Bloody Hammer," "If You Have Ghosts" and "Don't Shake Me, Lucifer." (Although the original 1981 copy of The Evil One by Roky Erikson & The Aliens -- a cassette tape recording of my pal Alec's LP -- didn't have the song, subsequent CD releases do.

The title of the song comes from a 1943 movie directed by Jacques Tourneur for RKO. It's the tale of a nurse who "is hired to care for the wife of a sugar plantation owner, who has been acting strangely, on a Caribbean island." It's basically a rewrite of Charlotte Bronte's 1847 novel Jane Eyre. except it's set in the Caribbean.  And it's got zombies.

Here's the trailer for the movie:

Getting back to Roky's song, as I said above, this tune is a singalong. The lyrics are simple:

I walked with a zombie

I walked with a zombie

I walked with a zombie last night

It's so simple, other musicians found it easy to cover. Here are a few of those, starting with Jack Oblivian, who's leading some kind of zombie uprising on the streets of Memphis:

Mike Edison (The Raunch Hands, Edison Rocket Train, etc.) also walked with a zombie:

As did Cheetah Chrome, with the band Dead City, whose singer,  Joe Dias, took a few little liberties with the lyrics:

I hated the first cover of "Zombie" I heard. This was by R.E.M. for the 1990 Roky tribute album, Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye. Onenthing that pissed me off was when Michael went into a corny Boris Karloff imitation in one of the latter verses. When I reviewed the album for Terrell's Tune-up, I wrote something to the effect of "Michael Stipe never walked with no zombie. But Roky Erikson did."

And here's Roky's famous walk:

Have a safe and meaningful Halloween!

For more deep dives into songs, check out The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Songbook

And if you like spooky music, check out the latest Big Enchilada podcast, Spooktacular 2020

BIG ENCHILADA 148: SPOOKTACULAR 2020

 

Boo! Twelve years ago this month, I unleashed my very first podcast full of tacky Halloween humor, dumb audio clips and crazed ghoul-adjacent rock 'n' roll. The podcast quickly evolved into The Big Big Enchilada, and the Spooktacular became an annual monstrous tradition of terror. 

Remember, The Big Enchilada still is officially listed in the iTunes store. So go subscribe, if you haven't already (and please, gentle listeners, give me a five-star rating and review if you're so inclined.) Thanks. 

DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBE | MIXCLOUD | FACEBOOK | iTUNES! |

Mixcloud is now the official home of Radio Mutation

Here's the playlist:

(Background Music: Satan Takes a Holiday by Anton LaVey)

The Night by Alien Space Kitchen

Ghostified by Persian Claws

Goin' to a Graveyard by The Fuzztones

Phantom Girl by The Breakers

Vampire Twist by Brave Combo

Champagne Halloween by St. Paul & The Broken Bones

(Background Music: El Vampiro by El Vampiranos)

I Hear Voices by Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Shadow World by Undercover Bonobos

Wicked Wanda by The Monsters

Chillidos en la Noche by Los Eskeletos

Night of the Phantom by Larry & The Blue Notes

Land of Spook by Drywall

Ghost in My Boot by Johnny Foodstamp

(Background Music: Lost on Ghost Road by Torn Down Units)

My Daddy is a Vampire by The Meteors 

I'm Your Frankenstein by ChazDaddy

Vampires and Failures by Grandpaboy

Haunted by God by Lonesome Ghost

Stand by Your Ghoul by The Cavemen

(Background Music: It's a Scream (Halloween Mix) by Figures of Light (featuring DJ Chrisz)

Play it below:

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, October 18, 2020
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

Superbird/Tricky Dick by Country Joe & The Fish

Welcome to My Nightmare by Alice Cooper

Something to Believe In by The Woggles

Give Me the Hammer by Mud City Manglers

Make My Move by Acid Fascists

Down Home Girl by The Mummies

It Came From Beyond by The Barbarellatones

(Background Music: Let’s Go Trippin’ by Dick Dale)

She Caught the Katie by Taj Mahal

Thinking ‘bout Me by Fuzzstainz

Teenage Lobotomy by The Ramones

Problem Child by Four More

Laserbrain by The Electric Mess

What Happened to Delila? by The Mekons

Hatt Slough Bridge Deathwish Trip by TAD

Surrender My Heart by Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons

Let’s Do Wrong Tonight by Simon Stokes with with Annette Zilinskas,

(Background Music: Rokula by Los Straitjackets)

Cracklin’ Rosie by Shane MacGowan & The Popes

Non-State Actor by Soundgarden

Penetration by Iggy & The Stooges

$ I Got Money $ by Ghost Wolves

Black Diamond Express Train To Hell Part One by John Schooley & His One-Man Band

People Get Up and Drive Your Funky Soul by James Brown

Question of Life by Fishbone

Ya Ha Ba Be by Ana Threat 

Honey Don’t by The Beatles

(Background Music: Spooky Bongos by Beach Girls & The Monster)

How I Love You (I’m Telling’ the Birds and the Bees) by Loudon Wainwright III

I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead You Rascal You by Dr. John

I’m Going to Give it to Mary With Love by Cliff Edwards 

Jack, You’re Dead by B.B. King

The Meanest Jukebox in Town by Alvin Youngblood Hart

In Tall Buildings by John Hartford

I Woke Up in a Fucked Up America by Lonnie Holley

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Want to keep the party going after I sign off at midnight?
Go to The Big Enchilada Podcast which has hours and hours of music like this.

CLICK HERE

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Jonathan Toledo, Thou Art Avenged

 

This week's destruction of the Soldier's Monument in the center of Santa Fe's Plaza after decades of controversy  (read about that HERE) reminded me of an obscure song by a forgotten band of the late 1980s.

I'm talking about a group called The Toll from Columbus, Ohio fronted by a singer named Brad Circone. The Toll's debut album was titled The Price of Progression. I reviewed it in the March 3, 1989 issue of Pasatiempo, just a couple of months after I started my music column, Terrell's Tune-up.

The song I'm talking about is "Jonathan Toledo. "It was one of three songs on the album clocking in at more than 10 minutes. But it's the one I remember most because it hit close to home.

“Jonathan Toldeo made his home in New Mexico,” Circone repeats again and again in the refrain.

When Circone starts his [spoken] narrative, the locale becomes more specific. He is apparently describing the Palace of the Governors.

“I walked myself gently across the park / The elderly Indian women, they were all lined up against the wall / And I bet the reason that they have their backs against the wall / Is because they’re afraid we’re going to stick another knife in the / And then they’d really have to fall.”

(I noted in my review that the vendors would look pretty stupid if they sat facing the wall.)

Circone then describes the museum gift shop and how wrong it is for “the culture of shambles … the culture of shame” to sell “Indian artifacts.”

He then goes across the street to the Plaza and becomes outraged by the Soldier’s Monument. In Circone's words there was an inscription that said, "This is in memory of all those white soldiers who lost their lives clearing the land for us to settle upon."

The inscription, of course didn't literally say that. However a plaque on one side of the obelisk commemorated  “heroes” who died in battle with “savage Indians.” (Of course, in the early '70s, a time in which the racist sentiment on the monument was under attack, some guy, dressed as a workman, quietly went to the Plaza one afternoon and chiseled off the word "savage." This vandal, who I've always thought of as a clever outlaw hero never was caught. And I don't believe he's ever come forward.)

Though The Price of Progression has been out of print for years, it recently became available digitally on iTunes and on Spotify.

Here's "Jonathan Toledo":

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Songs That Taj Taught Us

As a young music dog growing up in the 1960s, I first became acquainted with great American blues artists due to the noble efforts of British rockers like The Rolling Stones and The Animals. And later my appreciation of blues from bygone eras grew deeper -- especially country blues artists -- thanks to the noble efforts of contemporary musicians like Henry Saint Clair Fredericks, better know to the free world as Taj Mahal.

Taj is still kicking at the age of 78. And some of those old songs he recorded are immortal. Here are just a few of them.

Let's start out with this Sleepy John Estes tune called "Diving Duck Blues." (Taj's version is HERE)

The opening line of the song, "If the river was whiskey and I was a diving duck" has been used in some adaptations of another song, "Hesitation Blues," (sometimes called "If the River Was Whiskey,") which Taj also covered. This is a 1930 version of that by hillbilly giant, Charlie Poole:

Taj loved Robert Johnson and covered his song "Walkin' Blues."

This probably is my favorite Taj song ever. He got it from Henry Thomas, a Texas-born bluesman who recorded it in 1928. Before I was familiar with Taj's version of "Fishing Blues," I'd already heard The Lovin' Spoonful's stab at it. Taj's version though sounded true and authentic.

And, leaving the realm of country blues, Taj did a funky version (with Linda Tillery) of R&B titan Louis Jordan's "Beans and Cornbread."

Check out Taj versions of older songs on The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Song Book:

Black Jack Davy

The Cuckoo

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