Here's a strange little political battle that brought back memories, mainly bad, of my home state.
Seems like the Oklahoma State Legislature was just about name "Do You Realize" by The Flaming Lips as the official state rock song.
But then, Lips bassist Michael Ivins showed up at some ceremonial deal at the state Capitol wearing a bright red hammer & sickle T-shirt.
Oh boy ...
Politicians were aghast. Commies! Traitors! What kind of message does this send to the children?
Read about it HERE in the good old Daily Oklahoman.
A majority of the state House of Representatives passed a resolution for the song. But it didn't get the 51 votes needed to pass it.
But Gov. Brad Henry stepped in and used an executive order to declare "Do You Realize" the official Oklahoma State rock song. Henry said the Lips have made "creative, fun and provocative rock music" for more than 20 years. There's some kind of official ceremony in OKC on Tuesday.
Of course not all Okies agree. Some commenter on the Oklahoman site called them a "cussing tele-tubby band." Sounds like a cool new sub-genre to me.
Speaking of bad memories, this reminds me of the time when Okemah, Okla. was in the planning stages of erecting the statue of its most famous native son, Woody Guthrie. The Oklahoman was beside itself. A statue of a known communist? What next, the paper asked, a statue of his hippie son Arlo?
But politics aside, is "Do You Realize" the best choice?
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens & The Buckaroos Tall Tall Trees by Roger Miller I Still Miss Someone by John Doe & The Sadies Dying is Easy by The Sadies with Kelly Hogan Belladona by Goshen Sweet Young Thing by The Monkees Country Playboy Special by The Pine Leaf Boys Driving My Young Life Away by Wayne Hancock Crazed Country Rebel by Hank Williams III Crawking Eye by Deano Waco & The Meat Purveyors Made For the Blues by George Jones Mama's Gonna Shorten Your Days by Butterbeans & Susie
Why Do I Feel Like Running by Big Al Anderson Already Gone by The Tarbox Ramblers Don't Buy a Skinned Rabbit by Blind Boy Grunt Cajun Joe (The Bully of The Bayou) by Doug Kershaw Tears and Wine by Billy Miles Brooks Lookin' for a Ride by John Egenes East Side Boys by Martin Zellar Haul Off and Love Me by Jean Shepard
Dan Hicks Set All Song by Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks except where noted The Diplomat Where's the Money? The Buzzard Was Their Friend Ragtime Cowboy Joe Walkin' One and Lonely by Maria Muldaur I'll Tell You Why That Is by Dan Hicks with Tom Waits It's Not My Time to Go
18 Wheels of Love by Drive-By Truckers Murdering Oscar by Patterson Hood Soldiers Get Strange by Jason Isbell Drink Me by The Dolly Ranchers CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican April 24, 2009
UPDATE: This just in from FanMan: Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks Saturday, June 27 Santa Fe Brewing Co. Patio
Here's the short version of this review: Tangled Tales, the new album by Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, is Hicks' best album since he began his big comeback at the turn of the century — which means it's his best since his heyday in the early 1970s. Not bad for a cranky old codger rapidly approaching the big 7-0.
A little history of Hicksville for the newcomers: Hicks, in the mid- to late-'60s, was the drummer for a seminal San Francisco psychedelic outfit called The Charlatans (not to be confused with The Charlatans U.K., who came much later). Even back in his Charlatan days, Hicks had a genuine love for Western swing, traditional jazz, vaudeville, jug-band blues, country, and other American roots sounds. So he started a crazy little side project — Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks — that featured acoustic instruments and two female singers he dubbed The Lickettes.
Soon the side project would become his top priority. He left The Charlatans and recorded an album. Original Recordings was an admirable effort, with a couple of tunes that would become Hicks staples through the years —"I Scare Myself" and "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away." But it wasn't until the next album, Where's the Money? — featuring a new pair of Lickettes — that the Hot Licks reached its stride. The group recorded two more albums, Striking It Rich (featuring the definitive version of "I Scare Myself") and Last Train to Hicksville (its subtitle, The Home of Happy Feet, provided a name for my favorite program on KUNM-FM 89.9).
And then in 1973, at the height of their popularity, Hicks and the Hot Licks broke up. Usual rock 'n' roll bummers, I suppose. After that, Hicks seemed to blow away. There was one album in 1978, It Happened One Bite, with Hicks and several of his old band mates. (It was recorded a few years earlier for a Ralph Bakshi cartoon feature that was shelved until the '80s.)
Hicks basically sat out the '80s and early '90s, at least as far as recording goes. His next album wouldn't come until 1994 — a live set called Shootin' Straight with a band called the Acoustic Warriors. Despite the discouraging lack of Lickettes, it was a decent album with some fine songs — which are reappearing slowly on Hicks' recent albums. (Five, yes five, of those songs appear on Tangled Tales.)
In 2000, Hicks returned, as did the Hot Licks name, with Beatin' the Heat. Since then, he released another studio album, 2004's Selected Shorts, plus two live albums.
Tangling the tale: The first difference a Hicks fan might notice between Tangled Tales and his two previous studio records is that the new one doesn't have a bunch of guest vocalists. Heat featured Hicks with Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Ricki Lee Jones, and Bette Midler. Shorts had Hicks singing with Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffett, and Gibby Haynes. While one has to admire the perversity of any album featuring Jimmy Buffet and one of the Butthole Surfers, such pairings sometimes seem to be based more on marketing than artistic considerations.
But on Tangled, the only guest stars are instrumentalists — harmonica giant Charlie Musselwhite, mandolin man David Grisman, and blues guitarist Roy Rogers. In each case, these aces enhance Hicks' sound without overwhelming it.
As noted above, nearly half of this album consists of songs from the long-out-of-print Shootin' Straight. Considering four others are cover tunes, that probably indicates that Hicks' songwriting is slowing down. You can't hold that against him, though. Heck, what has Willie Nelson written lately? Truth is, the new versions of "Who Are You?" (featuring some fine harp from Musselwhite), "Savin' My Lovin'," "13-D," "The Rounder," and "A Magician" are superior to the 1994 live versions. Maybe it's the addition of the Lickettes (who these days are Roberta Donnay and Daria).
Hicks' choice of covers hits the target, too. The song "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" was written especially for Dan Hicks (decades before his birth). I can't believe he's never recorded it before. Also a natural choice is "The Blues My Naughty Baby Gave to Me." A far less obvious choice though is Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues." But, aided by Rogers' slide guitar and those lovely Lickettes, this somehow evolves into a Dan Hicks song before your very ears.
Even more surprising is Hicks' inclusion of "Song for My Father," written by jazzman Horace Silver. It's slow and smoky, almost a bosa nova. It might remind old Hicks fans of "I Scare Myself." But what's unlike the Hicks we thought we knew is the raw sentimentality of the lyrics, a sweet tribute to the narrator's father. In the past when Hicks has done sentimental — I'm thinking of songs like "My Old Timey Baby" — it has usually been campy. That's not the case here. And it works just fine.
One of my favorites is "The Diplomat," a jaunty little tune. It contains weird lines that haunts a listener through the whole album: "I go in to cash a check so I can buy a fern/The bank is out of money and besides it's not my turn." I'm not sure why the image of Hicks buying a fern — and standing in line at the bank to accomplish that — seems so funny. But it is.
And then there's the title song, which is a fast-paced bopper featuring Hicks and the ladies scat-singing. It's an impressive display. That comes right before the album ender, "Let It Simmer," which slows things down as Hicks advises listeners to slow down and take it easy. As the song winds down, a male chorus sings in the background "Where's the money? Where's the money?," which hearkens back to the early days of Hicks' career.
Hicks knows by now that there ain't no money in the music biz for the likes of him. Thankfully, he still does it for the love.
Sunday, April 19, 2009 KSFR, Santa Fe, N.M. 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell Webcasting! 101.1 FM email me during the show! terrell@ksfr.org
OPENING THEME: Let it Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres Tubby by Los Straightjackets In My Brain by Pierced Arrows It's Not Real by Ravin' Blue Butthole Surfer by The Butthole Surfers Big Black Baby Jesus of Today by The Black Lips Don't Tease Me by Question Mark & The Mysterians Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend by Nekromantix Down on Me by Big Brother & The Holding Company Everyone in Town Wants You Dead by Singing Sadie
You Must Fight to Live on The Planet of the Apes by The Mummies Planet of the Apes by Frankenstein Drag Queen Down in the Beast by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion We Do, Wie Du by The Monks Pretty Lightning by The New Bomb Turks Ghost Rider by Alan Vega Crack Head Joe by Little Freddie King The Happy Wanderer by The Polkaholics
Chet Boghassa by Tinariwen Brimful of Asha by Cornershop Dum Maro Dum by Asha Bhonsle And You Are Becoming an Indian by Kazik Mr. Orange by Dengue Fever Consulat by Cheba Nouria Start Wearing Purple by Gogol Bordello Cler Archel by Tinariwen
Walk on Water by Otis Taylor Got a Thing on My Mind by Sharon Jones You Messed Up My Mind by James Carr Let Me Down Easy by Bettye Lavette CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Tinariwen, a bunch of Tuareg tribesmen with traditional garb and electric guitars from Saharan Mali. Their only drum is a conga-like derbouka. But believe me, they rock -- in a hypnotic kinda way.
Four of the six members (excluding the electric bassist the derbouka man) and take turn singing and playing guitars, so there's lots of variety. I don't know his name, but the guy in the gold robe, (pictured above with turquoise-colored guitar) was a crazy guitarists. His tunes were the best.
Of course, I didn't understand a word they sang. But according to the All Music Guide, Tinariwen's music has been banned in Mali and Algeria, so they must be saying something important.
One disappointing thing was that the group's leader Ibrahim Ag Alhabid wasn't there. I understand he wasn't there last time the group was in town. Is Ibrahim the Brian Wilson of Tinariwen?
No matter, this band was super.
And hey, I just learned that all three of their albums are on eMusic, including the one I didn't have! CLICK HERE
