WACKY WEDNESDAY: Take the Skinheads Through the Tulips

Live in Columbus! Tiny Tim & Camper Van Beethoven

In what had to have been Camper Van Beethoven's strangest concert of their early career, on October 26, 1986, the band found themselves backing the one and only Tiny Tim at a bar in Columbus, Ohio.

Yes, that Tiny Tim. The man who brought us "Tiptoe Through the Tulips," the scraggly-haired falsetto-voiced freak who was all over the ukulele some 40 years before bands like Beirut made the uke hip.

Yes, there was Camper, backing Tiny on timeless classics like "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," "If You Knew Susie," and "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey."

And don't forget God and country. Tiny and Camper roared through "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" and "You're a Grand Old Flag."

Most all of the tunes are under two minutes long and many are less than 60 seconds. Too bad D. Boone already had died by this point. Tiny could have hired The Minutemen.

In an interview in 2013 with The Atlanta Music Guide, Camper's Jonathan Segel said the show was the funniest moment in the group's career.

We pulled up at Stache’s in Columbus, OH, and saw the bill was Camper Van Beethoven and Tiny Tim, and the promoter met us outside and said he had promised him we’d be his back up band. He was like a grandma, and he did not rehearse us at all, just said: you’ll know the songs, I’ll just tell you how fast to go and what key. And sure enough, before the song, he would wave a hand and say “in D, Maestro!”… that was it.


CVB's singer David Lowrey talked about the Columbus gig  just a few weeks after the show in a radio interview preserved at the Live Music Archive.

 "It was an experiment in new colognes, I think. ... state-sponsored cologne terrorism. ... What he did is he just came out and he told us, `Well, I'll tell you what keys the songs are in and I'll kind of indicate the tempo and you guys just figure it out. And we did."

(Lowrey says this about three minutes into the interview)

Camper Van Beethoven isn't the only rock band to back Tiny Tim. In the '90s he did a live album with The New Duncan Imperials as well as a studio album with Brave Combo.

Unfortunately, there was no professional recording done at the Camper Van Beethoven show in Columbus.

But somebody was recording it, and it's on the Live Music Achive. Audiophiles can exit right now, but everyone else enjoy it on the player below. Tiny comes on right after Camper's regular set:



And just for the heck of it, here's Tiny's amazing take on "Stairway to Heaven" with Brave Combo.

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, January 11, 2015 
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(at)ksfr.org

Here's the playlist below
Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE 
Enjoy the brand new episode HERE

Get Friendly with the Latest Big Enchilada Podcast Episode

Welcome to the first Big Enchilada episode of 2015. The Big Enchilada only wants to be your friend, So sit back and enjoy this friendly rock 'n' roll. We won't hurt you. Honest. 

DOWNLOAD | SUBSCRIBE | FACEBOOK | 

 SUBSCRIBE TO ALL GARAGEPUNK PIRATE RADIO PODCASTS |

Here's the playlist:
(Background Music: The Westhell by The West Hell 5)
Electric Mind Machine by Electric Mind Machine
Voodoo Mirror by Iguana Death Cult
Treat Her Right by Bluebonnets
I'm a Trashman by Deke Dickerson & The Trashmen
Poor But Proud by Johnny Dowd 
Hej Młody Junaku (Hey Young Brave One) by Zuch Kazik

(Background Music: Beat Party 1 by Richie & The Squires)
The Thing That Wouldn't Leave by The Electric Mess
Chemtrailer Trash by Churchwood
A Yellow Mellow Hardtrop by Ray Johnson & The Bystanders
Make Some Time with You by John Schooley
Bird Brain by Scovilles
Trouble Hurricane by The Grannies
Two Lovely Black Eyes by Charles Coborn

(Background Music: Ya Ha Bi Bi by The Sheiks )
Golden Surf II by Pere Ubu
Camera (Queer Sound) by Thee Oh Sees
Jailbird by Narco States
Teenage Jamboree by The Dusters
Before I Let You Go by Frantic Flattops
It's Over by Ty Segal 

Play the silly thing below:

BIG ENCHILADA 80: Friendly Rock 'n' Roll by Steve Terrell on Mixcloud

THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST

Friday, January 9, 2015 
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM 
Webcasting! 
10 p.m. to midnight Fridays Mountain Time 
Host: Steve Terrell 
101.1 FM
email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist below:




Check out some of my recently archived radio shows at Radio Free America
Like the Santa Fe Opry Facebook page 

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Steve Terrell is proud to report to the monthly Freeform American Roots Radio list

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Two Lovely Black Eyes

Here's an old song from the English Music Hall tradition that came to me via a British Invasion band that doesn't get nearly enough respect:

Herman's Hermits.

The song is called "Two Lovely Black Eyes." It first appeared on the long out of print 1966 album Both Sides of Herman's Hermits. What made this album different was that on Side Two there were four songs that came from the Music Hall, which basically was a British cousin of American vaudeville. Music Hall started out around 1850 and lasted well into the 20th Century. Although it was considered rther corny by the time rock 'n' roll came around, its influences can be heard in certain songs by British invasion bands including The Beatles  (think "When I'm 64"), The Kinks, The Bonzo Dog Band and even The Rolling Stones ("Something Happened to Me Yesterday")

And Herman's Hermits. One of their biggest hits, "I'm Henry the VIII I Am" came straight out of Music Hall, first recorded by Harry Champion in 1911.

Besides "Two Lovely Black Eyes," Both Sides included "The Future Mrs. 'Awkins," "Oh Mr. Porter," and "My Old Dutch."

Curiously, on the album the songwriting credits of all of these songs go to someone named Kenny Lynch. There was a British pop star by that name around that time (he recorded a cover of The Beatles' "Misery" before The Beatles recorded it.) I can't swear if he's the same Kenny Lynch claiming credit for these four songs.

Trouble is, all four of these were written by others.

Albert Chevalier wrote "The Future Mrs. 'Awkins" and "My Old Dutch." George and Thomas Le Brunn wrote "Oh Mr. Porter."

And "Two Lovely Black Eyes" was written in 1886  by Charles Coborn. He also first recorded it. (He actually recorded several versions, some of which with the chorus sung in several languages.)

Take a listen:


Coborn wrote the words, but he borrowed the melody from an older song called "My Nellie's Blues Eyes." Here's a version of that by Irish tenor Dennis Day.


But back to the lyrics:

The words Colson wrote in the 1880s are different that the ones Herman sang in the '60s. Colson sang about getting beat up in overheated political arguments.

Strolling so happy down Bethnal Green
This gay youth you might have seen,
Tompkins and I, with his girl between, 
Oh! what a surprise!
I prais'd the Conservatives frank and free,
Tompkins got angry so speedilee,
All in a moment he handed to me,
Two lovely black eyes!

Next time, I argued I thought it best,
To give the conservative side a rest.
The merits of Gladstone I freely pressed, When
Oh! what a surprise!
The chap I had met was a Tory true,
Nothing the Liberals right could do,
This was my share of that argument too,
Two lovely black eyes!

The moral you've caught I can hardly doubt
Never on politics rave and shout,
Leave it to others to fight it out, if
You would be wise
Better, far better, it is to let,
Lib'rals and Tories alone, you bet,
Unless you're willing and anxious to get,
Two lovely black eyes!

CHORUS:
Two lovely black eyes!
Oh! what a surprise!
Only for telling a man he was wrong,
Two lovely black eyes!

But in the version I've been carrying around in my head for almost 50 years, the singer got his black eyes from a jealous husband, then his own jealous wife.

Strolling with me mate down Petticoat Lane
I fancied this bird, so I asked her her name
Pointed to her husband - six foot two
Oh, what a surprise

Two lovely black eyes, two lovely black eyes
Only for telling the man he was wrong, I got two lovely black eyes

Strolling with the bird down Bethnell Green
Suddenly find my wife I have seen
Oh what a rumpus, oh what a din
She blacked my eyes with the rolling pin

(I got) Two lovely black eyes, two lovely black eyes
Only for telling my wife she was wrong, I got two lovely black eyes

Two lovely black eyes, two lovely black eyes
Only for telling my wife she was wrong, I got two lovely black eyes

Two lovely black eyes, oh what a surprise
Only for telling the man he was wrong, I got two lovely black eyes

Two lovely black eyes, oh what a surprise
Only for telling my wife she was wrong, I got two lovely black eyes

CHORUS:
Two lovely black eyes!
Oh! what a surprise! (etc etc)

Maybe it was the mysterious Kenny Lunch who rewrote Coburn's song.

Anyway, enjoy it: