TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, November 2, 2008
KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M.
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
A Night With the Jersy Devil by Bruce Springsteen
Evil Hoodoo by The Seeds
I Just Might Crack by April March
Lightning's Girl by Nancy Sinatra
Liz the Hot Receptionist by Jesus H. Christ & The Four Hornsmen of The Apocalypse
If He's Good Enough for Lindy by Oscar Brand
Death Letter by Charlie Pickett & The Eggs
Hi Ho Baby by Lightning Beat Man
The Goo Goo Muck by Ronnie Cook & The Gaylads
Hello Lyndon by Oscar Brand

Poison by Hundred Year Flood
Helicopter by Fred Schneider & Deadly Cupcake
Tricky Dickie (Was a Rock-n-Rolla) by The Dick Nixons
Snacky Poo by The Del-Mars
James K. Polk by They Might be Giants
Nina by Wau y Los Arrrghs!!
I Fought the Law by The Clash
Harding You're the Man for Us by Oscar Brand
Space Bop by Mike Edison & The Rocket Train Delta Science Arkestra
Yes! Yes! Yes! by Edison Rocket Train

LOU REED SET
All songs by Lou except where noted
Oh Jim!
Romeo Had Juliet
Lonsesome Cowboy Bill by The Velvet Underground
Hooky Wooky
Paranoia Key of E
The Bed

Miss Behive by Howard Tate
Rehab by Amy Winehouse
Democracy by Leonard Cohen
Big American Problem by Drywall
People Have the Power by Patti Smith

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, October 31, 2008
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time
Host: Steve Terrell

101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org

OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos
Mr. Undertaker by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Wild and Free by Hank Williams III
Jungle Fever by Charlie Feathers
Hillbilly Monster by James Richard Oliver
Wouldn't You Know by Billy Lee Riley
Penny Instead by Charlie Pickett
Bullet in My Mind by Zeno Tornado & The Boney Google Brothers
Hush Money by The Collins Kids
The Hydrogen Bomb by Al Rogers & The Rocky Mountain Boys

North to Alaska by Johnny Horton
Hillbilly Fever by Little Jimmy Dickens
Crazy Arms by Jerry Lee Lewis
5,000 Country Music Songs by Ry Cooder
Indeed You Do by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
TV Party by The Asylum Street Spankers
I'm a Fool to Fool Around With You by Hank Thompson
Ghost Woman Blues by George Carter

Down Thru the Holler by Hundred Year Flood
The Wicked Things by Boris McCutcheon & The Saltlicks
How Will You Shine by The Gourds
Million Dollar Funeral by Califone
Forbidden Angel by Mel Street
Snatch It and Grab It by Freddy Hart
Pilgrim on a Train by Gann Brewer
The Bum Hotel by Uncle Dave Macon

Werewolf by Michael Hurley
Murder's Crossed My Mind by Desdemona Finch
Everything is Broken by Bob Dylan
The Gallows by Possessed by Paul James
You Can't Trust Them by Fred Eaglesmith
Something to Think About by Willie Nelson
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

OH, A WISE GUY, EH?

Admittedly, I have a hard time envisioning Barack Obama as Moe, but I'm a sucker for the Stooges, so I'm going to post this thing.

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: BACK TO BERLIN

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
October 31, 2008

Lou Reed’s Berlin is known as the most depressing album in rock ’n’ roll history.

It was released in 1973, and the critics hated it, calling it bloated and overblown and a huge downer. The public ignored it nearly as thoroughly as did the radio industry, which had made a daring and unlikely hit out of Reed’s gay-life celebration “Walk on the Wild Side.”

Indeed, Berlin was a full-force dive into the wild side. It’s a song cycle about a drug-doomed young couple that involves bad dope, domestic violence, crazy promiscuity, the Child Protective Services, and ultimately, suicide.

As Terry Allen would sing, “Ain’t no Top 40 song.”

And yet Berlin has held up amazingly well through the years. Harrowing lines like “somebody else would have broken both of her arms” and “Caroline says as she gets up from the floor/‘You can hit me all you want to/But I don’t love you anymore’” are no less politically incorrect now than they were 35 years ago, but the sad story of Caroline and Jim is an unflinching look at the dark impulses of love and obsession.

In December 2006, Reed and film director Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) recorded a concert film over a five-night stint in Brooklyn. The DVD, called Lou Reed: Berlin, and the CD, titled Berlin: Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse, were released this month.

The original Berlin band was basically a rock-royalty supergroup that included bassists Jack Bruce and Tony Levin, Steve Winwood on organ and harmonium, and drummer Aynsley Dunbar. There are some great players on the new version, too, including original Berlin guitarist Steve Hunter and two bassists, longtime sideman Fernando Saunders and Rob Wassermann. Reed’s backup chorus includes soul belter Sharon Jones and bizarro warbler Antony Hegarty. There are strings and horns and even the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.

The emotional punch is still there.

The thing about Berlin is that it doesn’t waste a lot of time focusing on the happy times between Jim and Caroline. By the time the ironic “Happy Birthday” segment in the intro plays, grim reality is starting to overshadow any giddy romance. The title song is a bittersweet memory of a small café. The guitar and a bluesy piano add a sad counterpoint to Reed, who wearily intones, “It was very nice, oh honey, it was paradise.”

“Lady Day,” which Reed has kept in his live repertoire for years, still sounds potent, with Reed spitting out his description of the hotel Caroline called home. “It had greenish walls/A bathroom in the hall.” You’d thinking he was singing about hell’s most horrible pit.

If anything, the new version of “Oh Jim” is even stronger than the original. Drummer Tony “Thunder” Smith lives up to his nickname in the song’s intro. There’s a tense guitar conversation between Reed and Hunter and a cool call-and-response with Reed and Jones.

But the real core of Berlin has always been the final three songs.

“The Kids,” which deals with the government removing Caroline’s children from her home, is the one that always gets to me. On the St. Ann’s version, Reed fully gets into the character of Jim, practically shouting the lines, “Because number one was the girlfriend from Paris/The things that they did, ah, they didn’t have to ask us/And then the Welshman from India, who came here to stay.” By the end of the song he’s railing against “that miserable rotten slut.”

As in the original, the song ends with a recording of crying children shouting “Mommy! Mommy!” (A weird little tale about the original song from the All Music Guide: “To ensure that the horror of the song truly hit home, producer Bob Ezrin set up a tape recorder in his own home, then, when his children returned from school, told them that their mother was dead. At least, that’s the legend.”)

This is followed by “The Bed,” a somber, almost whispered, suicide song. “This is the place where she lay her head when she went to bed at night/And this is the place our children were conceived/candles lit the room brightly at night/And that odd and fateful night.”

In the new version, the Brooklyn Youth Choir adds eerie, angelic background sounds. Watching the DVD and seeing the sweet faces, you’re almost tempted to scream, “Get those kids outta there! That’s no place for children!”

But unlike the original album, Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse doesn’t stop at “Sad Song.” It includes the encores — “Candy Says” (vocals by Hegarty) and, because this is a Lou Reed concert, after all, a rousing “Sweet Jane.”

But fitting in best with the mood of Berlin is “Rock Minuet,” an overlooked tune from Reed’s 2000 album Ecstasy. It’s an eight-minute descent into sexual violence and murder — an acoustic number occasionally fortified by some truly monstrous electric-guitar solos.

The new Berlin: come for the drugs and suicide, stay for the back-alley throat slashing.

UDALL AHEAD BY 15 PERCENTAGE POINTS

Republican Steve Pearce might have been aided by the televised debates between him and Democrat Tom Udall. According to Rasmussen Reports, Pearce gained five percentage points on Udall in the past two weeks.

However, that's just a dent. Udall still leads Pearce 56 percent to 41 percent, according to Rasmussen.

Since Rasmussen's last poll, which was conducted on Oct. 13, Udall lost a little and Pearce gained a little in the favorability ratings.

Udall is now viewed favorably by 58% of voters, down from 64% two weeks ago. Forty percent (40%) view the Democrat unfavorably, up from 33%. Pearce is viewed favorably by 49%, up from 43% two weeks ago. The Republican is viewed unfavorably by 47%, down from 53% in the last poll.

As reported in today's Roundhouse Roundup, Rasmussen found Barack Obama beating John McCain 54-44 percent. (Click HERE for more info.)

According to the poll, (500 likely voters interviewed Tuesday), Gov. Bill Richardson gets good or excellent ratings from 48 percent of New Mexico voters , while 20 percent give him a poor rating.