For this Wacky Wednesday, here's a tribute to my favorite waterfowl, the
Duck.
According to Wikipedia (which is always right about everything):
Duck is the common name for a large number of species in the Anatidae
family of birds, which also includes swans and geese. The ducks are divided
among several subfamilies in the Anatidae family; they do not represent a
monophyletic group (the group of all descendants of a single common
ancestral species) but a form taxon, since swans and geese are not
considered ducks. Ducks are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than the
swans and geese, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. Ducks are sometimes confused with several types of unrelated water birds
with similar forms, such as loons or divers, grebes, gallinules, and
coots.
So, sorry all you loons, divers, grebes, gallinules, and coots. This ain't for
you. These songs are for the ducks.
Let's start with the ultimate cartoon duck piano showdown from
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
This next one by the beautiful Carolina Cotton, makes me wish I was a damn
duck!
Eddie "The Chief" Clearwater walks the duck
Nobody has really done musical justice to the duck as much as this disco classic
from Rick Dees & His Cast of Idiots
OK, the next one is stretching it. It's not really about a duck. It's not
really really about oysters either. It's an old traditional American square
dance mutated before your very ears by the late great Malcom McLaren. It's from
his masterpiece album
Duck Rock.
And if I were a duck, I'd love this song.
Finally, just for weirdness' sake, here's a strange little band called Purple
Duck I found while messing around on
the Free Music Archive (The original video I had here disappeared, but here's another one)
You can keep your sensitive troubadours singing sweet pastoral melodies and hey nonny nonny. I like my folk songs full of senseless murder, greed, lust, betrayal and insanity.
One of my favorite Steeleye Span songs is "Edwin," which comes from their album Now We Are Six.
Not only is it a delightfully gruesome tale of young lovers vs. truly evil parents (Spoiler Alert: The truly evil parents win!) It also has a great guitar lick that I shamelessly appropriated for my own song, "Child of the Falling Star."
Basically, it's the story of young Edwin, a sailor who went off to earn some gold, returning seven years later to his true love, Emma, whose family apparently runs some inn, basically a Bed-and-Breakfast of Doom. Edwin gets a room there, but that night as he sleeps, Emma's "cruel parents" sneak in his room, chop off his head, take his gold and dump his body in the sea to send him floating back to the Lowlands Low.
Here's the song.
Besides the music and the basic story of the song, Steeleye's "Edwin" has some lines that are simply unforgettable, starting with the very first one, "Come all ye wild young people and listen to my song ..."
Then there's "Young Edwin he sat drinking till time to go to bed/ He little thought a sword that night would part his body and head ..."
And then the not-so happy ending: "And Emma broken-hearted was to Bedlam forced to go / Her shrieks were for young Edwin that plowed the lowlands low. "
But Steeleye, it turns out left out a few verses, including a key one, in which Emma tells Edwin to go stay at dad's inn for the night -- and not to tell him his true identity. She planned on meeting him there in the morning What could possibly go wrong?
A version of "Edwin" appears as "Edwin in the Lowlands Low" in The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, edited by Ralph Vaughan Williams and A.L.Lloyd in 1959.
"This was an extremely widespread song in England, Scotland, Ireland and even more so in North America, where dozens of versions have been collected," the songs notes say. "... The song was also printed by everybody who was anybody in the broadside trade, but, on present evidence, only from the 1820s onwards. The plot would seem a natural for the melodrama stage or the cheap nineteenth century `shocker' novel ..."
That must be why I like it so much.
I hadn't listened to "Edwin" in a few years. But a few nights ago, listening to an iTunes mix of old Lomax field-recordings, the song "Diver Boy" by a lady named Ollie Gilbert from Timbo, Arkansas popped up.
Appearing on the collection Southern Journey Vol. 1: Voices from the American South, this was recorded in 1959. Young Emma is in this one, though the unfortunate "diver boy" is named Henry. Emma's brother, however, is named "Edward." It's the brother who helps his murderous dad here, while in Steeleye's songs it's Emma's parents.
Here's Ollie's version:
Natalie Merchant recorded a very similar version of "Diver Boy" on her 2003 album of (mostly) old folk songs The House Carpenter's Daughter.
So in the Steeleye Span song, Emma ends up shrieking in the insane asylum, while in the version done by Ollie Gilbert and Natalie Merchant, Emma merely scolds her dad and brother. ("Oh father, you're a robber ...")
Neither tells what happens to the creepy dad and whoever helped him murder Emma's beau.
But the Mainly Norfolk website documents a 1979 recording by a singer named Peter Bellamy, in which an angry "Young Emily" threatens the old man, “Oh father, cruel father, you will die a public show .." This line is found in other versions of the song. But Bellamy includes this final verse, which I've yet to see elsewhere:
Now Young Emily's cruel father could not day or night find rest, For the dreadful deed that he had done he therefore did confess. He was tried and he was sentenced and he died a public show For the murder of Young Edmund so dear who ploughed the lowlands low. Justice at last!
Listen to Bellany's stark acoustic verssion version here:
Read more about "Edwin," "Diver Boy" or whatever you want to call it at the excellent Murder Ballad Monday blog (on the website for the venerated Sing Out!, one of the greatest folk music publications) and at Mainly Norfolk, a "comprehensive overview of recorded traditional and contemporary English folk music".
And what the heck. Here's a bonus throwback to an ancient time.
Sunday, Feb. 22, 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
Openng Theme: Let It Out, Let it All Hang Out by The Hombres
My Ding Dong Daddy Don't Daddy No More by Joe "King" Carrasco
Jailbait by The Flamin' Groovies
Spin That Girl by LoveStruck
Soviet by The Grannies
Miedzynarodówka (The Internationale) by Zuch Kazik
Why? by Johnny Dowd
Racehorse by Wild Flag
A New Wave by Sleater-Kinney
96 Tears (en Espanol) by Question Mark & The Mysterians
Celluloid Heroes by The Kinks
New Age by The Velvet Underground
Beloved Movie Star by Stan Ridgway
Tomorrow by The Fluid
I Fought the Law by The Clash
Knock Three Times by The A-Bones
Train Crash by The Molting Vultures
Come Back Bird by Manby's Head
Night of Broken Glass by Jay Reatard
Final Stretch by The Oblivians with Quintron
No Sudden Moves by Dengue Fever
Sado County Auto Show by The Cramps
Ain't it Strange by Patti Smith
Sisters of the Moon by Camper Van Beethoven
You Are What You Is by Frank Zappa
Don't You Just Know It by The Sonics
I Started a Joke by The Dirtbombs
Wishlist by Pearl Jam
Irene by Pere Ubu
Say We'll Meet Again by Lindsay Buckingham
Closing Theme: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, Feb. 20, 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 a great bunch of dames, Frances Carroll & The Coquettes.
I stumbled across a shorter version of this 1940 Warner Brothers music short -- just the segment featuring "our charming little drummer" Viola Smith -- a couple of weeks ago when some fellow rock 'n' roll freak posted it on Facebook.
The film was directed by Roy Mack, who was responsible for a lot of music shorts in that era. Sadly, only Carroll and Smith and tapdancer Eunice Healey are identified in the Internet Movie Database. But another Coquette was Smith's sister Mildred Bartash, who played clarinet and sax,
From 1938 to 1941 Viola flourished in a highly acclaimed all female band that she and her sister Mildred organized, called The Coquettes. The Coquettes were so successful, and she as their drummer so popular, that Viola and her drum set graced the cover of Billboard Magazine on 24 February 1940.
So just sit back and enjoy some hot swing from this remarkable band.
And here's an interview with Viola Smith from a couple of years ago. She's still alive and 102 years old.
Those familiar with the music of Stan Ridgway know that despite this singer's natural talent, the real secret of his success is a talent scout and big wheel by the name of Jackie "Teak" Lazar.
Not only is Jackie the brains behind Ridgway's career, at least since Ridgway's departure from Wall of Voodoo, he's also had roles in Ridgway videos and, yes even at least one guest vocal on a Ridgway album.
Back in 2002, Jackie appeared on a hidden track on Ridgway's album Holiday in Dirt. It was a sensitive rendering of Charlie Rich's greatest hit, "Behind Closed Doors." Some purists argued that the track should remain hidden, but I beg to differ.
In fact I bet you'll agree that no one knows what goes on behind closed doors with Jackie.
Spotify users can hear it below:
About three years after the release of Holiday in Dirt, Ridgway released a wonder video collection of songs from that album. "Behind Closed Doors" was there, but I think another actor portrayed Jackie. (Sorry, I can't find any Youtubes of that video. (The DVD seems to be out of print, but you can buy it at Amazon at a decent price.)
But even before "Behind Closed Doors," Jackie appeared in The Drywall Incident, a music and video project involving Ridgway's band Drywall. (I can't find the video by Carlos Grasso anywhere online, but the music is wonderful and you can buy it HERE)
And Jackie starred in Ridgway's 1995 video of "Big Dumb Town."
Jimmy on the cover of Hicks' Where's the Money?
Some say that Jackie is a distant cousin of Jimmy the Talking Dummy, who used to be part of the road crew for Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks.
Though Jackie "Teak" Lazar recordings are rare, you can still find him singing some American classics on MP3s ((that I think originally were posted on Ridgway's website many years ago.) Three of them -- "Always on My Mind,""A Very Good Year" and "The Wayward Wind" are HERE.
Just don't believe the hideous lies and slander in the very last line in small print at the bottom of the page.
Hoppin' Horny Toads! This Big Enchilada episode is bringing you some fine hillbilly sounds old and new -- honky-tonk, rockabilly, bluegrass, roadhouse boogie, cowboy songs and barroom weepers -- by a dangerous array of artists old and new.
(Background Music: Mississippi Muddle by Hank Penny & His Radio Cowboys)
Harper Valley PTA by Syd Straw & The Skeletons
I Dig Dangling Participles by The Harper Valley PTA
Borrow Me Some Money by Augie Meyers
I'm Goin' Huntin' Tonight by Martha Lynn
Cowboy Song by Slackeye Slim
Drivin' Nails in My Coffin by Larry Wellborn
Don't Thrill Me No More by J.D. Wilkes & The Dirt Daubers