Saturday, September 4, 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:
Heavy Voodoo by Lee "Scratch" Perry
Love and Death by Ebo Taylor
Cosmic Serenade by King Khan & The Shrines
Sar Di Va by Cankisou
Prosto by Kazik & Zdunek Ensemble
You've Got My Soul on Fire by Edwin Starr
Ronco Symphony by Stereolab
The Breather by M. Conn
The Particulate Black Soot on Sunset Boulevard by Gloop Nox & The Stik People
The Stranger in Town by John Trubee & The Ugly Janitors of America
Next only to The Banana Splits and possibly GWAR, The Village People are America's most beloved costume band. As Hillary Clinton would say, it takes The Village People to raise a child.
(No, I never get tired of that joke.)
Although this flamboyant disco ensemble hasn't had any hit songs since their
late-'70s glory daze, their biggest hit, 1978's "YMCA" is known to practically everyone. Hell, they even play it at Trump rallies. To a lesser extent, VP songs like "Macho Man," "In the Navy" and "San Francisco" still ring a few bells in the national consciousness.
But beyond those songs, practically all of The Village Peoples' joyous repertoire has sunk beneath our wisdom like a stone. But Hell's bells, the group produced five studio between 1977 and 1980, and a few more after that. So let's dive into the lesser-known material of this disco powerhouse, shall we?
Here the boys expressing their support for law-enforcement with a song called
"Hot Cop."
On this one, the Villagers praise Fire Island. According to the website
FireIsland.com, "A
weekend on Fire Island gets you back to nature. With all the biking, hiking,
swimming, surfing, beach volleyball, kayaking, and tennis, you can finally
break free of that monotonous gym routine." And according to the
testimony of one happy visitor, it's the "Best place on earth! Grew up in Ocean Bay Park. Still
remember crawling around in diapers ..."
They even shared a Bible story:
I've always liked this little gem, "My Roommate":
At the end of the Me Decade, the group asked an important question: Are you "Ready for the '80s"? Sadly, I don't think The Village People were.
It never got much radio play, but here is a latter-day Village People tune circa 1985, a song about a favorite
hobby of millions, "Sex Over the Phone" (There's a new lead singer here: Ray Stephens, not to be confused with this guy):
Sunday, August 29, 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
Bo Diddley is Crazy by Bo Diddley
Soul Typecast by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Land of the Freak by King Khan & The Shrines
Nasty Boogie by Champion Jack Dupree
House of Blue Lights by George Thorogood
Jungle Love by Hipbone Slim & The Knee-Tremblers
Ex-Lax Superstars from Hell Vomiting in Ecstacy by Gloop Nox & The Stik People
On this day in 1944, a girl named Maureen Ann Tucker was born
in Queens, New York. She grew up to become Moe Tucker, the drummer of weird
little group called The Velvet Underground, which didn't sell many records
while they were together, but went on to become one of the most influential
bands in rock history.
Tucker, who played standing up, is almost always described as a "minimalist"
drummer and often a "primitivist." But besides her pounding, she also occasionally took the spotlight,
contributing vocals to three Velvets songs. In contrast to main singer Lou
Reed's snarl, Tucker's voice was sweet, girlish, almost shy.
Reed wrote the song "After Hours," but he was quoted saying the tune
was "so innocent and pure" that he couldn't possibly sing it. So Moe did:
Another Velvet song featuring Tucker's voice wasn't all that sweet and
innocent. In fact Tucker sounds almost sinister here:
Moe's other Velvet Underground vocal number, "I'm Sticking With You," like "After Hours," sounds childlike and innocent, but more playful. And yet when you listen to the actual lyrics, you realize the song actually is darker than you might have thought: "You held up a stagecoach in the rain / And I’m doing the same / Saw you’re hanging from a tree / And I made believe it was me ..."
After the Velvets broke up, Moe released several solo albums. Here's a tune from the early '90s where she sounds like a precursor to the riot grrl movement. (Lou Reed's on guitar here.)
And here Moe sings "Eye of the Hurricane" with Jad Fair of Half Japanese. The song appeared on Half Japanese's 1993 album Fire in the Sky.
Finally, here's another song from Tucker's 1991 album I Spent a Week There the Other Night. She's backed here by ex-bandmates Reed, John Cale and Sterling Morrison, the first time those four recorded together since Cale left the Velvets more than 20 years before.
Sunday, August 22, 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
Money (That's What I Want) by Jerry Lee Lewis
Yes by Prince
Raspberry Beret by Hindu Love Gods
Living in the Heart of Love by The Rolling Stones
Redhead Girl by Coyotes y Krotal
I'm Always Right by The Control Freaks
Castrati by PocketFishRmen
I Ain't Crying by The Darts
Great Big Kiss by Johnny Thunders
Tupelo Joe by Chuck E. Weiss
Long Way Down by The Ar-Kaics
You're the One I Idolise by CTMF
Lost Dead Island by Laino & The Bad Seeds
Messin' With the Kid by Junior Wells
Violet Crumble, Cherry Ripe by The Fleshtones
Graveyard by Dead Moon
See What You Cause by Cold Sun
Rock of Ages by Homer Henderson
Human Breakdown of Absurdity by Norm Burns
Little Rug Bug by NRBQ
Beat of the Traps by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
I Lost My Girl to an Argentinian Cowboy by (unknown)
Deaf Woman's Vagina by John Trubee & The Ugly Janitors of America
Gold Digger's Rag by San Antonio Kid
Dream Operator by Annie McEnroe with Talking Heads
J'entends Siffler le Train / 500 Miles by Martha Fields
Treasure of Love by The Flatlanders
Bowling Green by The Everly Brothers
That's How I Got to Memphis by Tom T. Hall
The Kingdom of Heaven is Within You by 13th Floor Elevators
Where I Fell by Robbie Fulks
Since I Don't Have You by The Skyliners
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Saturday, August 21, 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 :
Sharkey's Night by Laurie Anderson
Thunder by The Mekons
Welcome 2 America by Prince
Let the Devil In by TV on the Radio
Son of a Bitch's Brew by The Invertebrates
We're Laughing by The Psychedelic Aliens
Funky Tonk by Miles Davis
Nebulae by Sun Ra
Bright New Day by John Trubee & The Ugly Janitors of America
A Real Indication by Xiu Xiu
Jack Paints it Red by The Thought Gang
Twisted Flower by Cold Sun
Organ Mission of Love by S.T. Mikael
Terraplane by Captain Beefheart
Help Me Somebody by Brian Eno & David Byrne
Hunted by a Freak by Mogwai
There's No Such Thing as the Masses by Sue Ann Harkey
It's been nearly six years since I blogged about the twisted world of
song-poems on a Wacky Wednesday.
Well, friend, that's too long!
Today I'm going to feature some examples of actual musicians, some of whom you
might have even heard of, who have covered some classic song poems.
Their love is obvious.
But first, I know many of you who somehow missed
my post in 2015 might be scratching your head, or other parts of your body wondering
"What in tarnation is a `song-poem' ?"
Quoting again from the brilliant, if crazed, now out of print compilation
called I'm Just the Other Woman,which I reviewed in
The New Mexican back in 2001.
You've seen those ads in the back of supermarket tabloids, detective
mags, movie rags and girlie books: “Song Poems Wanted. Your poems turned
into songs by professional musicians. Send immediately for FREE evaluation
...
Of course, its a scam. It's been going on for years — a century by some
reports.
You send in your poem and the company sends you back a glowing
evaluation. Your song has true hit potential. Now all you need to do is
send in $100 (or whatever the going rate is these days) and your poem will
be put to music and recorded in an actual recording studio by some of the
nations top session musicians.
... Theres always the implication that this recording will be sent around
to the top A&R people at major record companies. And of course you'll
get a few copies of the record to show your friends; in fact some
song-poem companies actually have put out compilations.
The liner notes also point out that "this sleazy little corner of the music
industry has attracted a subculture of fans who collect and groove on the
strangest and most unintentionally funny song-poems they can unearth."
Here I'll spotlight the work on some members of that subculture who have
performed song-poems. And each of those tunes will be followed by the
original.
Let's start with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's version of "Beat of the
Traps," which appeared on their outtakes compilation Mo' Width.
Somehow Spencer's version sprang from this tune sung -- or shouted -- by the Pavarotti of the Song-Poem, Rodd Keith. The Allmusic review of Spencer's album said the Blues Explosion's take is "never as weird as the original, hard as it tries. "
Iconic iconoclast R. Stevie Moore included John Trubee's "A Blind Man's Penis" (originally titled "Peace and Love") as part of a medley with a couple of other classic American songs.
Trubee, who for decades has created wild music, usually under the name "John Trubee & The Ugly Janitors of America" wrote the lyrics in the '70s as a young man (was a teenager at the time) and paid some fee for a song-poem company to write the melody and record it. The country-fried singer is Ramsey Kearney, a monster of song poem vocals. Here's the original that made us all fall in love:
Texas singer Gretchen Phillips made a few changes to one of the greatest song poems in human history. Note, despite the title listed for this video, the correct title is "Gretchen Phillips Says Yes."
And here's the original disco version, about an actual president, sung by the amazing Gene Marshall:
