GARY HEFFERN'S "LA LA LAND"

I've love this song by Gary Heffern for years, but lately it's taken on some personal meaning for me. By cosmic coincidence, Heff recently has made a video of the song. He says he still wants to do a couple of tweaks to the video, but he gave me permission to post this version here.

It's a sad one, but enjoy.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, January 11, 2009
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
Make it Rain by Tom Waits
One Kind Favor by Canned Heat
Wilder Wilder, Faster Faster by The Cramps
He's Making a Tape by Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of the British Empire
Knocked Out Cold by The Campus Tramps
Looking For a Girl by Stinky Lou & The Goon Mat with Lord Bernardo
Feeling Numb by The Fall
Pepito by Baby Gaby

I Heard Tell by The Ettes
His Perfect Love by The Dirty Novels
Psychedelic Swamp by The Fleshtones
I Want Two Wings by Rev. Utah Smith
Dragnet For Jesus by Sister Wynona Carr
The Holy Spirit by Rev. Lonnie Farris
Sinful Woman by Elmore James
Jail Bait by Andre Williams & Green Hornet
Bad Little Woman by The Shadows of Knight
Yeah I Never by The Fuzztones
Richard Nixon Set
Kathy's Letter by Kathy Hoffman
Nixon's Dead Ass by Russell Means
Watergate Blues by Howlin' Wolf
Watergate Blues by Tom T. Hall
Superbird/Tricky Dick by Country Joe & The Fish
We're All Water by John Lennon & Yoko Ono
Tricky Dick (Was a Rock-n-Rolla)/One Tin Soldier by The Dick Nixons
H20gate Blues by Gil Scott Heron
You Ain't Gonna Have ol' Buck to Kick Around No More by Buck Owens
Ohio by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Nixon in '96 by Dodoo Wah
Buckle Down with Nixon by Oscar Brand
Are the Good Times Really Over (I Wish a Buck Was Still Silver) by Merle Haggard
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

eMUSIC JANUARY

In addition to my 90 downloads for this month, I got a bonus of 50 extra tracks for luring a new eMusic member. (She got 50 free ones too). I have until April to use them, but, like a kid in a candy store, I've already used more than half.

So this'll be a long one!


* Rarities from The Bob Hite Vaults by various artists. Before he was a rock star -- anyone else out there remember Canned Heat's appearance on Playboy After Dark? -- he was best known as a collecter of old blues records.

I'm not sure whether he actually had a vault, but this collection of blues, good greasy R&B and proto-rock, compiled by a Dutch DJ named "Dr. Boogie" (if indeed that is his real name), is a delight. There's names you should recognize (Etta James, Johnny Otis, Bill Haley, who explains the "Birth of the Boogie") and some you've probably never heard of (Mad Mel Sebastian, The Hotshots, Googie Rene). Cool, cool surprises all.

And there's six from blues shouter Elmore James, none of them "Dust My Broom" (though "She Just Won't Do Right" refers to it.)

* 12 Roots n' Boogie Blues Hits by Stinky Lou & The Goon Mat with Lord Bernardo. It's hard-edged gutbucket blues trio from France. From Voodoo Rhythm, naturally.

This band has lots of personality. Stinky Lou plays a mean washtub bass, while Goon Mat handles both guitar and bass drum. Bernardo plays harmonica. And while their basic sounds is based on the ascended masters of Missiissippi, they don't try to hide their French accents.


* Dragnet for Jesus by Sister Wynona Carr. Definitely some of the coolest gospel I've heard lately. Sister Wynona, who hailed from Cleveland, was active in the 1950s. She toured with and was influenced by Rosetta Tharpe. She also worked as the choir director for The Rev. C.L. "Aretha's Dad" Franklin's church in Detroit.

This collection has several "novelty" gospel tunes, including "The Ball Game," "15 Rounds for Jesus" and the title song, which, yes, is a sanctified send-up of Jack Webb's famous TV show, which must be heard to be believed.

But don't dismiss her as a novelty artist. This lady could sing.

Later in the '50s she tried her hand at secular R&B. Her collection Jump Jack Jump! is on my "Save for Later" list.

* Cerebral Caustic by The Fall. Here's a mid '90s album by Mark E. Smith and company that I somehow missed. (They were prolific enough at that point and some of their labels were so obscure, it was easy to lose track of their releases.)

This album featured Brix, the former Mrs. Smith, back in the Fall fold for a brief time. I love the way she spits the title of the "Don't Call Me Darling" in the verses of the song as a classic Fall "Big New Prinz" riff pounds in the background.

Then Brix goes all Chipmunky on the seductively near-unlistenable "Bonkers In Phoenix." The crude electronica effects will make you worry that your speakers have been blown.

But what really sold me on this album is that there's a real live Ruben & The Jets cover -- "I'm Not Satisfied."

* G-Man by Sonny Rollins. I got inspired to download this one right after viewing the new DVD release of Robert Mugge's 1986 Sonny documentary Saxophone Colossus.

I enjoyed the film, especially for the live performance footage of an upstate New York concert. That's what is featured on this album.

Sonny plays here with Clifton Anderson on trombone , Mark Soskin on piano, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Marvin Smith.

The 15-minute title song that opens the album is a thrill ride from start to finish. There also are jumping versions of "Don't Stop the Carnival," for which Sonny drew from Carribean music, and his classic "Tenor Madness," which has a punchy trombone solo by Anderson.


* The Sultanic Verses by Mark Sultan. Sultan puts the BBQ in the King Khan & BBQ Show. This Canadian also is a veteran of Les Sexareenos.

On this album, he's a one-man band (joined here and there by stray pals) playing primitive but extremely catchy tunes.

"Mortal Man" is a minimalist soul revue. "Two Left Feet" (not the Richard Thompson song) is a joyful stomp.

And "Unicorn Rainbow Odyssey," a slow, greasy midnight plea, probably is the only song with "Unicorn" in the title that I'll ever admit to liking.


* Magnetic Hands: Live in the U.K. '72 to '80 by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Bands. This has gotta be a bootleg! Like the title implies these tracjs are taken from shows spanning eight. The sound quality varies track to track. (And note, the album is credited to Beefheart & His Magic Bands. His sidemen apparently changed a lot in that eight year period.)

The early tracks are interesting and, at least for true Beefhearteans, worth having -- a downright ominous "Orange Claw Hammer" from 1975! -- the later, better recording-quality tracks are amazing. "Abba Zabba," "Safe as Milk" and "Kandy Korn" are among these. But the best is the live version of "Hothead," probably my favorite latter-day Captain songs.


* Thatcher's Children by Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of The British Empire. The prolific Childish, who has been around for decades fronting bands like Headcoats, Thee Mighty Caesars, Thee Milkshakes, and others, establishing his rightful place as the high priest of garage music in the British Isles.

For more on this album, stay tuned for my next Terrell's Tuneup column. Watch this space. But in the meantime, do yourself a favor and at least download "He's Making a Tape," sung by the lovely Nurse Julie. Do guys in the 21st Century still make mix tapes to impress an intended conquest?

Plus:

* Seven tracks from Laboratory of Sound by The Fleshtones. I'd slowly been acquiring tracks from this 1995 album through the Pepsi Stuff/Amazon.com program. But that expired at the end of the year. (I was left holding four goddamn points, just one bottle cap away from one more download!)

This album was produced by Steve Albini, who at the time had gained notoriety for his work on major albums by Nirvana (In Utero) and P.J. Harvey (Rid of Me) -- not to mention his earlier work with The Pixies, The Breeders, TAD and his own groups like Big Black and Rapeman. Albini's famous for a raw guitar-heavy sound. And it works for The Fleshtones. I like this a zillion times better than their album Beautiful Light, which was produced by REM's Peter Buck the year before. In fact, maybe Albini was brought in as a back-to-basics antidote to Beautiful Light.


* The six tracks from Holland Shuffle by Andre Williams & Green Hornet that I didn't get last month. Like I said then, this live album was released in 2003 by Norton Records. It's a good companion to the old R&B shouter's Can You Deal With It, released last year, which made my Top 10 list for 2008.

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, January, 2009
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
You Ought to See Pickles Now by Tommy Collins
Fools Like Me by Cornell Hurd
Oh These Troubled Times by The Corn Sisters
Louisville Burglar by The Hickory Nuts
Back on the Road by Ronnie Hawkins
Sex Crazy Baby by Hasil Adkins
La Delaysay by The Pine Leaf Boys
The Ballad of Paladin by Johnny West
Be Careful (If You Can't Be Good) by Ray Condo & His Ricochets
You Win Again by Jerry Lee Lewis
Kids Say The Darndest Things by Tammy Wynette

15 Rounds for Jesus by Sister Wynona Carr
Let's Fall in Love Again Tonight by Hundred Year Flood
Hard Times by Rosie Flores with Janis Martin
Willin' by Steve Earle
Two Wings by Alvin Youngblood Hart
Take a Trip by Rev. Utah Smith
The Ballad of the Alamo by Marty Robbins
Don't Go Near the Indians by Rex Allen

Country Love/Fossil Contender by The Gourds
3 Shades of Black by Hank Williams III
The Squid Jiggin' Ground by Peter Stamfel & The Bottle Caps
Cherry Wine by Charlie Feathers
Slow Rider by Johnny Cash
Rig or Cross by Splitlip Rayfield

Don't Let Your Deal Go Down by Chris Darrow
Cheater's World by Amy Allison
A Picture From Life's Other Side by Hank Williams
Little Trona Girl by Ry Cooder with Julie Commagere
Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends by Joan Osbourne
In Tall Buildings by John Hartford
Going Where the Lonely Go by Merle Haggard
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets

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

TERRELL'S TUNEUP: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRICKY DICK

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
January 9, 2009


Back in 1996, when Oliver Stone’s Nixon had just been released, I wrote a “Tune-Up” column listing my favorite Nixon songs. Now, with the recent release of the movie Frost/Nixon (which hasn’t made its way to Santa Fe yet), here we go again.

That’s right folks, as I observed 13 years ago, Nixon never will get his face on Mount Rushmore, but during his time in office, he sure made an impression in rock — and other kinds of music.
So in honor of Nixon’s birthday on Friday, Jan. 9 — and in the spirit of recycling — here’s a revised list of my favorite Nixon tunes of all time.

In 1996, it was a Top 10 list. But since then I’ve discovered a couple of others that deserve to be here. So, without further adieu ...

The Tricky Dick dozen

* “Nixon’s Dead Ass” by Russell Means. Former American Indian Movement leader — and former New Mexico resident — Means wrote this shortly after Nixon’s death in 1994. Co-produced by biker-rock monster Simon Stokes, it’s a slow-stomping boogie that expresses frustration all the flowery things said on TV about the 37th president in the funeral coverage. “The crook’s resurrection is nearly complete/Behind the Orange Curtain they worship the geek/It’s making me mad, it’s making me sick/Did the world forget Tricky Dick/What could be going through these people’s heads?/ Everybody loves him now that he’s dead.”

* “Watergate Blues” by Howlin’ Wolf. From Howlin’ Wolf’s last studio album, The Back Door Wolf (1973), this tune is a celebration of Frank Wills, a security guard at the Watergate complex who noticed a of piece of duct tape that was keeping a door unlocked, which led to the discovery of the burglary in progress. “Don’t do us wrong, if you do, don’t make no mistake/Or we’ll blow the whistle on you/Just like we did at Watergate.”

* “Superbird (Tricky Dick)” by Country Joe & The Fish. In its original form, the song was about LBJ. But after Nixon’s rise, Joe McDonald added a verse in which he urged the new prez to “Go back to Orange County and take off your pants.”

* “Last Train to Nuremberg” by Pete Seeger. Seeger lists Nixon among a large group of Vietnam war criminals in the first verse (along with “both houses of Congress” and “the voters me and you”). In the last verse, the singer blasts King Richard for watching a football game and ignoring an enormous anti-war demonstration in Washington, D.C.

* “Ohio” by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Neil Young lays the deaths of four students at Kent State University squarely at Nixon’s feet. Amazingly, when The Isley Brothers covered this song, they took the president out of the song, making it “Tin soldiers with guns, they’re coming.” Even though they don’t give Nixon the credit he deserves, I still like The Isleys’ version the best.

* “We’re All Water” by Yoko Ono and John Lennon. “There may not be much difference between Chairman Mao and President Nixon/If you strip them naked.” That’s a happy thought.

* “Watergate Blues” by Tom T. Hall. Even though the Grand Ole Opry was one ofuld go without getting jeered at and spat on during his final days, not all country singers were true believers. Hall souped up the old ballad “White House Blues” (which was about the assassination of President McKinley). After a quick comic retelling of the 1972 election, Hall gets serious. He saw Watergate as a harbinger of totalitarianism. “Somehow my mind goes back to Betsy Ross/Nobody knows what this country has lost.”

* “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Here’s a simple-minded rebuttal to Howlin’ Wolf and Tom T. Hall. “Watergate does not bother me/Does your conscience bother you?” Play that dead band’s song, as Warren Zevon would say. Of course, by the time this became a hit, Nixon was out of office.

* “Are the Good Times Really Over ” by Merle Haggard. The Okie from Muskogee was once touted as a spokesman for Nixon’s silent majority. But by 1981, in this song lamenting all kinds of decay and dishonor, Hag longs for a time “back before Nixon lied to us all on TV.”

* “One Tin Soldier” by The Dick Nixons. It seems only natural that a true weirdo like our 37th president should become an ironic punk-rock icon. After taking the man’s name in vain, these jokers hilariously mix up the stories of Watergate and Billy Jack as well as the tale told in the Coven’s original version from the late ’60s of this inane wimp-rock finger-wagger. “Go ahead and hate Dick Nixon, go ahead and cheat a friend. ... On the bloody morning after, Richard Nixon rides away.” This song appeared on the Star Power compilation, Pravda Records’ send-up of the old K-Tel compilations advertised on late-night TV during the ’70s. But The Dick Nixons also released an entire album in 1992, Paint the White House Black, that’s full of Nixon songs — and was produced by none other than Memphis giant Jim Dickinson.

* “You Ain’t Gonna Have Ol’ Buck to Kick Around No More” by Buck Owens. Ol’ Buck parodies one of Tricky Dick’s most famous pre-presidency lies.

* “Bad Moon Rising” by Credence Clearwater Revival. Critic Dave Marsh Fogerty wrote this in response to Nixon’s 1968 election.

What the heck, let’s make it a baker’s dozen:

* “Nixon in ’96” by Doodoo Wah. The political humor is dated, to say the least, but this funny California folk duo, consisting of journalist Ron DeLacy and his pal Dave Cavanagh, summed up the politicians of the day (there’s a great line about Bill Clinton’s Vietnam days: “Instead of eatin’ artillery/He was cheatin’ on Hillary”). The singers decide, by default, that Nixon should return. Too bad he was dead.