TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, June 6, 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

Too Cool to Dance by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

A Self Inflicted Wound by The William Loveday Intention

Hide Another Round by Dinosaur Jr.

Wynona's Big Brown Beaver by Primus

The Lucky Ones by Mudhoney

Psychotic Sweetheart by The Gears

KFC Called the Cops on Me by MFC Chicken

13th Floor City by Deguritieni

I'm Not a Man by Suzi Moon

Murdered Out by Kim Gordon

Mick Jones Nicked My Pudding by Dropkick Murpheys

Burn the Flames by Roky Erikson

Whiskey Drinkin' Woman by Joecephus & The George Jones Massacre with J.D. Pinkus & Luther Dickinson 

Lost Dead Island by Laino & The Broken Seeds

Weaver Wear by Quintron & Miss Pussycat

Just Say When by Reigning Sound

Big Zombie by The Mekons

Bees of The Invisible by Churchwood

Chimelong by Danger Cutterhead

The Fall by Ty Segall

Oswald Defence Lawyer by The Fall

Groove's Too Shallow by Jessica Lee Wilkes

This Cat's in the Doghouse by Rosie Flores

Trust No One by Kim Lenz

What Now My Love by Stan Ridgway

Wildebeest by The Handsome Family

Loser by Dave McMurray, Bettye Lavette & Bob Weir

I'm Growing Old by Tom Jones

Thank You for Hearing Me by Sinead O'Connor

CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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THROWBACK THURSDAY: Happy Birthday, Memphis Minnie

 

On this day in 1897 a girl named Lizzie Douglas was born. She went on to become one of the most influential blues singers of the early 20th Century under the name "Memphis Minnie."

And not only did she sing, she played a mean guitar as well.

From the Memphis Music Hall of Fame:

She sang about being “born in Louisiana, raised in Algiers” (a town just across from New Orleans), but that was poetic license. She was actually born in Mississippi, raised in Walls, a small farming community in DeSoto County south of Memphis, according to US Census data uncovered by Dr. Bill Ellis. She learned music early on, getting a guitar for Christmas at the age of 8. She was a wild child, running away from home for the last time at 13, heading for the bright lights of Beale Street, where, as “Kid” Douglas, she quickly made a name for herself with the jug bands and string groups that played on the street and at Memphis’ Church Park. Life was hard for a homeless kid and she grew up fast, earning a reputation for toughness, both personally and musically.

In the early 1920s, the most popular blues performers were Bessie Smith and the other classic blues singers - bejeweled women standing in front of jazz bands singing Tin Pan Alley blues. By contrast, Minnie’s style was far more raw and personal, and it endured long after that first blues craze.

She moved to Chicago in the 30s, and there bested Big Bill Broonzy in a guitar "cutting contest." It was Broonzy's 40th birthday, June 26, 1933. According to this post on the American Blues Scene site:

The prize for the contest was a bottle of gin… and a bottle of whiskey.   The club was packed, standing room only, anticipating the contest.  The booze was flowing freely and everyone was excited.  The crowd buzzed.  Judges picked for the contest were Sleepy John Estes, Richard Jones, and of course, the man in the middle of Chicago blues during that time, Tampa Red.  ...

Tampa Red called Broonzy to the stage.  As soon as he walked up there, it is rumored the crowd cheered for 10 minutes before he even started a song.  He played two songs: “Just a Dream”, one of his personal best, and followed it with “Make my Getaway.”  The crowd roared.  He had done all he could.  Memphis Minnie was up next.  Tampa Red called her to the stage.  Instead of cheers, she was greeted by an eager crowd, who whispered and hushed each other into silence.  She also played two numbers: “Me and My Chauffeur Blues” and “Looking the World Over.”  However, as she finished her first song, the crowd cheered for over 20 minutes. ...

Memphis Minnie had won, just as Broonzy feared.  Estes and Jones approached Minnie, and lifted her onto their shoulders, carrying her around the club.  Big Bill got the last laugh, though.  While the crowd – and Minnie – were busy celebrating the victory, he snatched the bottle of whiskey and drank the whole thing.

Minnie, who had been in poor health for years, died in Memphis following a stroke in  in 1973. She was buried in her home town of Walls, Miss.

One of Minnie's first recordings in 1930 was "Meningitis Blues," a track on which she was accompanied by The Memphis Jug Band.

Perhaps Minnie's best-known songs was "Me and My Chauffeur Blues." 

On this song, "When the Levee Breaks" actually features Minnie's husband Kansas City Joe on vocals. But she wrote the song and plays guitar on it. Led Zeppelin would later seriously mutate this tune.

Here's some "Drunken Barrelhouse Blues":

And here's a little Hoodoo:

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, May 30, 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

Foggy Notion by Velvet Underground

All I'm Saying by Alien Space Kitchen

You Ain't Me by Reigning Sound

Nail My Dick to the Wall by The Toy Trucks

Sick to the Bone by Laino & The Broken Seeds

My Pal the Tortoise by Thinking Fellers Union Local 282

5 Anos de Aca by Rolando Bruno y Su Orquesta Midi

Set Me Free Rosalie by Los Lobos

Where is the Moon by Southern Culture on the Skids

Pig Ears by The Barbarellatones 

That's Alright With Me by The Knoxville Girls

Taco Dreamin' by KevBev

If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me, Kill Me by Hickoids

The Flame That Killed John Wayne by The Mekons

Look Down That Lonesome Road by Roy & The Devil's Motorcycle

Something's in the Air by Honshu Wolves

Happy Birthday Bob! 

Everything's Broken by Bob Dylan

Gotta Serve Somebody by Shirley Caesar 

Those Fabulous '60s by National Lampoon

Senor (Tales of Yankee Power) by Willie Nelson & Calexico

Royal Jelly by Dewey Cox

Blind Willie McTell by Bob Dylan

A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission) by Simon & Garfunkel

(Background Music: Mr. Tamborine Man by Duane Eddy)

Help Me Scrape the Mucous from My Brain by Ween

No Confidence by Simon Stokes

Big Boss Man by Tony Joe White

Bad Trick by Ray Wylie Hubbard

Poor Ellen Smith by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings

Down in the Willow Gardens by The Everly Brothers

Charlie James by Peter Case

Tile We Meet Again by Peter Stampfel

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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WACKY WEDNESDAY: The Musical Legacy of Marion Robert Morrison

 One hundred fourteen years ago, May 26, 1907, in Winterset, Iowa, Marion Robertson Morrison was born.

You may know him as "John Wayne" king of the cowboy movies.

Though he died of cancer in 1979, Marion was in the news because of his embrace of white supremacy in an old Playboy interview. His political conservatism was no secret. Hell, he publicly supported Sen. Joe McCarthy in the 1950s and for awhile was a member of the John Birch Society.

This post is to re-fight that battle. This is a music blog, so if you want to argue politics, take it to Twitter. 

John Wayne made a major contribution to rock 'n' roll when Buddy Holly and fellow Crickt Jerry Allison picked up the Duke's catch phrase from his 1956 movie The Searchers. You might have heard this before:

Some John Wayne movies themselves had very bitchen songs. Here are a few of them, starting off with "My Rifle, My Pony and Me" featuring Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson (from Rio Bravo, 1959.) 

I don't think Walter Brennan is really playing harmonica here.

Johnny Horton found the bonanza gold with this theme from North to Alaska (1960)

Also in 1960, John Wayne starred as Davy Crocket in The Alamo, which had this song by Marty Robbins:

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) is my favorite John Wayne movie. I also love the song of the same title, performed by Gene Pitney and written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. The song didn't actually appear in the movie, but Pitney says Paramount Pictures paid for the recording.

To conclude, The Mekons did a song in the 1990s celebrating, in their own peculiar way, the legacy of Marion Robert Morrison:

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, May 23, 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

The Holygram's Song (Back From the Shadows Again) by Firesign Theatre

Let's Do it Again by The Reigning Sound

Fast (2300 AD) by The Ghost Wolves

Roll With Me by The Devils

Spells and Magic by Laino

The Trip by The Rockin' Guys

La Bondad y La Maldad by Electric Shit with Walter Daniels

Call Me by Southern Culture on the Skids

Wade in Bloody Water by The Grannies

Basketball Bender by KevBev

Black Cat by Black Pumas

The Motor City is Burning by John Lee Hooker

Justine Alright by The Sadies with Heavy Trash

Down to the Bone by Legendary Shack Shakers

Hoodoo by Johnny Dowd

No Tellin' When by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

Albuquerque by Dave Alvin

Memo from Turner by Mick Jagger

Pow Wow Highway 89 by Roy & The Devil's Motorcycle

Sticky Hulks by Thee Oh Sees

Miss Misery by Jocephus & The George Jonestown Massacre with Ruyter Suys & Greg Martin 

Take It Back by Dinosaur Jr.

Mustache Queen by The Barbarellatones

The Loneliest Clown by Robbie Quine 

Gator Gator by The Krayolas

Dallas Seen the Last of Me by Joe "King" Carrasco

Pronto Un Doctor by Rolando Bruno y Su Orquesta Midi

Chosen Few by Dropkick Murpheys

I Won't Lie by Tom Jones

Swing Low Sweet Chariot by Homer Henderson

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

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast CLICK HERE

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Blue Jean Baby Queens

She's Venus in blue jeans... 

On this day in 1873, 148 years ago, German-American businessman Levi Strauss and Jacob C. Davis, a Lithuania-born tailor working in Reno, Nevada, filed for a patent for a type of trousers that would become "an icon of American culture, and quite possibly the world’s most popular article of clothing."

Blue jeans.

As explained in Smithsonian Magazine: 

It all started in 1871, when tailor Jacob Davis of Reno, Nevada, had a problem. The pants he was making for miners weren’t tough enough to stand up to the conditions in local mines; among other issues, the pockets and button fly were constantly being torn. “A miner’s wife came up to Davis and asked him to come up with pants that could withstand some abuse,” says curator Nancy Davis (no relation), from the American History Museum. Davis looked at the metal fasteners he used on harnesses and other objects. “At that time, he came up with the riveted trousers.”

As local miners snapped up the overalls he made with rivet-strengthened stress points and durable “duck cloth,” a type of canvas, Davis realized he needed to protect his idea. “He had to rush, due to the fact that these worked really well,” says Nancy Davis. “He realized he had something.” Lacking the money to file documents, he turned to Levi Strauss, a German immigrant who had recently opened a branch of his family’s dry-goods store in San Francisco, and the two took out a patent on a pair of pants strengthened with rivets.

... In the latter half of the 20th century—decades after Strauss’ death in 1902—blue jeans achieved widespread cultural significance. “They really come to their apex in the 60s and 70s,” Davis says. “The interesting thing is that this particular type of pants, the blue jeans, have become international,” she adds. “It’s what people think of. When they think of America, they think of blue jeans.”

In the 1950s, blue jeans became a symbol of tough-guy cool.

"James Dean’s costume department in Rebel Without a Cause, for example, used denim to mark out their leading man as a smoldering icon of youthful rebellion," wrote Tristan Kennedy in Vice a couple of years ago.

And naturally that smoldering  image of youth rebellion leaked over into rock 'n' roll.

Rockabilly wizard Gene Vincent had at least two songs that mentioned blue jeans in the title. The first was "Blue Jean Bop" from 1956:

Then  in 1957 came Gene's "Red Blue Jeans and a Ponytail":

But you didn't have to be a hard boppin' rockabilly to dig the denim. One teen-idol schmaltz peddler, Jimmy Clanton linked this style of trousers to Roman goddesses:

Neil Diamond knew the appeal of Jacob W. Davis' fashion innovation:

So did David Bowie:

The country music world also produced songs about blue jeans. Here Mel McDaniels celebrates unrestrained gawking at the buttocks of denim-clad hillbilly gals:

And all Conway Twitty wanted to do was get into the jeans of a rich faux-cowgirl

WACKY WEDNESDAY: The Stupid Pleasures of Nepo-Rock ('60s Edition)

 

Often in small-town politics, success comes not from what you know or even who you know. It's who you're related to. And sometimes that's the case in the rock 'n' roll biz. 

Nepotism isn't all that rampant in the world of rock. But back in the 1960s there were several acts that definitely benefitted from having famous parents. (Not that this phenomenon stopped 50 years. Think Jakob Dylan, Julian Lennon, Wilson-Phillips, Dweezil Zappa, Miley Cyrus, Shooter Jennings, etc.) While much the music made by the children of famous entertainers is pretty bad, some actually is quite good. 

Here are several examples of what we'll call Nepo-Rock, mostly from the 1960s, when I was in elementary school and junior high.

Let's start with Dino, Desi and Billy. Dino was the son of Dean Martin while Desi was the son of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, thus making him the inspiration for Little Ricky on I Love Lucy. Billy Hinsche isn't the spawn of famous folks. (And he's the only one who continued a career in music, going on to become a touring member of The Beach Boys. And his sister Annie married Carl Wilson, which I guess was another form of nepotism.)  

Here's DD&B's first and biggest hit, a watered-down mutation of "Louie Louie":

Here is the son of comedic great Jerry Lewis, though I'm not sure that the French consider Gary Lewis to be a genius. With his band The Playboys (not to be confused with Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys or John Fred & His Playboy Band).

Full disclosure: I saw Gary Lewis & The Playboys live at Wedgewood amusement park in Oklahoma City back when they hot. (But I liked Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs,  who I saw at Springlake amusement park around the same time, much better.)

Gary's biggest hit, of course, was "This Diamond Ring." But he had several successful singles, and the one below, "Save Your Heart for Me," was a cheesy delight:

Noel Harrison was the son of actor Rex Harrison. I hardly ever heard Noel on the radio, but he was a frequent guest on TV variety show in the mid '60s Around the same time that daddy Rex was delighting children and talking to the animals as Doctor Doolittle, young Noel was singing pensive tunes such as "The Windmills of Your Mind" and this one, a tragic cautionary tale for wayward youth:

While Dino, Desi and Gary were pretty lame, and Noel Harrison was kind of interesting, there is one celebrity child who stood out. Being the daughter of Frank Sinatra -- who in. addition to being one of the world's most famous singer also ran a record company (Reprise) -- certainly didn't hurt her career. But I believe Nancy Sinatra would have made it anyway with her talent, charisma, sex appeal and her not-so-secret weapon of producer, songwriter and collaborator Lee Hazelwood.

I've already blogged not too long ago about Nancy's biggest hit, but here's one I've always liked a little more. Not only is it the best, "get-away-from-me-you-creep-or-my-boyfriend-will-beat-the-crap-out-of-you" song this side of The Angels' "My Boyfriend's Back," it's also got that great out-of-nowhere psychedelic freakout in the middle: