Long before cable television, back in the early to mid '60s, dozens of pop and rock stars were filming hundreds of music clips for what amounted to a proto-MTV.
It was centered around a contraption, manufactured in France, called the Scopitone 450, which basically was a jukebox hooked up to a 26-inch TV set that played 16mm film clips.
The technology had been around since at least the 1940s when "Soundies" -- black and white clips played on coin-operated machines -- were briefly the next big thing in show biz.
The Scopitone machine was a huge improvement over the old Soundies model, For one thing, a customer could chose among a wide array of film clips. The clips were in color.
And best of all, as the art form evolved, most the Scopitone clips were filled with scantily-clad go-go girls whose shimmying put Sister Kate to shame!
... the message in these videos is clear: T&A! The in-your-face sexiness of the images is a stark contrast to the rather unsexy, often downright lame songs. To see more explicit non-static imagery, one would have had to go to the trouble of attending a peep show or tracking down a stag film. The Scopitones' absurdly enthusiastic buxom women were chosen to attract the male gaze on a small screen across a smoky bar, with the promise of a peek at more skin...in the next video.
But let's start with one of the milder ones. Debbie Reynolds' production company was responsible for many of the Scopitones. But the bump and grinding is kept to a minimum here -- though wholesome Debbie sure could work her pretty pink petticoats in this Golden Throat take on "If I Had a Hammer."
But wait, it gets wilder. Check out the bikinis and beehives in this " Pussycat a Go-Go medley by Stacy Adams & The Rockabilly Boys (no, they ain't rockabilly)
Jody Miller was best know for "Queen of the House," and answer song to Roger Miller's "King og the Road." Here she sings a George Jones song. But I don't think Possum done it this way ...
Joi Lansing, one of the queens of the Scopitones, sings one of my favorite songs from a Matt Helm movie.
And here's one in which i actually like the music. It's a song I first heard by The Searchers done by a group called George & Teddy & The Condors. And oh, yeah, there are go-go girls ...
Something was always cooking at Scopitone
(Hat tip to my friend Deborah and our mutual friend Tim for sending me down the Scopitone path.)
'60s nostalgia has been an annoying cultural phenomenon for way too many years.
In fact I'm pretty sure it's been plaguing the national imagination since
sometime in the early 1970s.
But back in the late '60s, some major (and minor) rock and pop musicians were
busy perpetrating a nostalgia for music from even earlier eras.
Think of songs like "Winchester Cathedral" by one-hit wonders The New Vaudeville
band, or "When I'm 64" and "Honey Pie" by The Beatles.
The Rolling Stones did their part in 1967 on the last track of
Between the Buttons. Most folks think the lyrics of "Something Happened
to Me Yesterday" are about an LSD trip, though the additional of of the woozy
sax and trombone (played by Brian Jones) give the tune a whimsical British
Music Hall feel.
By the last 30 seconds of the song, the whole thing has morphed into a faux
dance band radio broadcast with Mick Jagger serving as the smarmy announcer,:
"So from all of us to all of you, not forgetting the boys in the band and our
producer Reg Thorpe, we'd like to say God bless. So if you're out tonight, don't
forget, if you're on your bike, wear white ..."
Jagger has been quoted saying, "The ending is something I remember hearing on
the BBC as the bombs dropped." Take a listen:
Speaking of late '60s songs framed as live radio broadcast, a singer named Guy
Marks had a minor hit in 1968 with this little treasure called "Loving You Has
Made Me Bananas" that sounded like a Bizarro World version of a depression-era
big band dance program. An announcer (Marks himself?) starts it off:
From the Hotel Sheets in downtown Plunketville, the Publican Broadcasting
Company presents the Music of Pete DeAngelis and his Loyal
Plunketvillevanians. Here in the beautiful gold, yella, copper, steel, iron
ballroom of the Hotel Sheets in downtown Plunketville, overlooking the
uptown section of downtown Pottstown!
Then it gets downright silly.
I'm not sure whether this song came before or after a similar recording by San
Francisco psychedelic heros Moby Grape. Their album WOW, released in
April 1968 had a strange song called "Just Like Gene Aurty, a Foxtrot." This was
a Skip Spence composition that featured a guest musician named Arthur Godfrey
(!) I'll let Graham Reid of the
Elsewhere
blog tell the story:
So just before "Just Like Gene Autry: A Foxtrot" on the 33 rpm album, a
voice came on and invited listeners to get up and change the speed of their
player to 78 (most players at the time had speeds of 33, 45 and 78, some --
like the one in my house -- even had 16rpm). And what you got was an orchestra lead by Wow
producer Lou Waxman and introduced by famous CBS radio and television
announcer Arthur Godfrey who also played banjo and ukulele on it. "Skippy bumped into Arthur at Columbia [Records]," said band member Jerry
Miller later. "The two of them were like Mutt and Jeff, cruising around
arm-in-arm. The funny thing was that Arthur Godfrey thought that Gene Autry
was the kind of music we did all the time."
Godfrey kicked off the proceedings: And now, emanating from the Secaucus Lounge of the fabulous Fandango Hotel
in Weehawken, New Jersey, we proudly present the celestial melodies of Lou
Waxman and his Orchestra, who ask the age old musical question...
And, with Spence crooning like Guy Lombardo on Thorazine, here's what
emanated:
So in conclusion, I'll let Frank Zappa have the final word:
Sunday, February 28, 2016 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
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Little Girl by The Syndicate of Sound
A plus by Figures of Light
Apartment Wrestling Rock 'n' Roll by Lightning Beat-Man
Welcome to the latest hillbilly episode of the Big Enchilada podcast, Hillbilly Hot Sauce. These hillbilly sounds are so hot they'll scorch your innards and make you squeal like a feral hog.
Friday, Febuary 26, 2016 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 :
OPENING THEME: Buckaroo by Buck Owens
Receiver by The Waco Brothers
Polk Salad Annie by Jason & The Scorchers
Bottle of Wine by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Let's Get Drunk by The Beaumonts
Gonna Love My Baby Now by T. Tex Edwards & The Swingin' Kornflake Killers
Whiskey Trip by Gary Stewart
Your Cousin's on Cops by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Dotted White Line by The Blues Against Youth
Lady Cop by Cousin Jody
Black Jack David by Loretta Lynn
Ain't a Goin' by James Hand
Too Late for Tequila by DM Bob & Country Jem
Tall Tall Trees by Roger Miller
I'm So Lonesome Without You by Hazeldine
Diddey Wah Boogie by Al Dexter
Ziggy Stardust by The Gourds
Poor White Trash by Rudy Preston
I Ain't Never by Webb Pierce
Worm by Reverse Cowgirls
Crow Jane by Oh Lazarus
All the Way Back Home by Dinosaur Truckers
Oh Susana by The Perch Creek Family Jugband
Back Street Affair by Brennen Leigh & Jesse Dayton
When the Helicopter Comes by The Handsome Family
Mermaids by Bobby Bare
Ain't Hurtin' Nobody by John Prine
Say It's Not You by George Jones & Keith Richards
Let the Jukebox Keep on Playing by Carl Perkins
Lost Highway by Willie Nelson, Ray Price & Merle Haggard
Runnin' from the Ghost of Your Past by Stevie Tombstone
Whiskey Girl by Gillian Welch
Ain't That Water Lucky by Paul Burch
Over the Next Hill (We'll Be Home) by Johnny Cash with Anita Carter
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican February 26, 2016
I don’t know how many times I’ve been asked “Where do you find this stuff?” by folks who read this column and/or listen to my radio shows and podcast. Mostly the question is asked by the sincerely curious, though sometimes the question is accompanied by a derisive smirk. My normal response is a half-joking, “I don’t find it. It finds me.” But in the case of the fantastic array of crazy, rocking, sometimes bizarre, and occasionally beautiful sounds I get from an obscure little German outfit called Off Label Records, I honestly don’t remember how I found it. All I know is that in the past four or five years, links to music-packed zip files just show up in my email and sometimes physical CDs appear in my mailbox (yes, shipped all the way from Europe). Off Label is a prolific little outfit, having released albums, EPs, and 7-inch singles by dozens of acts in the past few years, mostly from Europe, but also South America and Australia. Just recently I was happily surprised to find a new CD mailed by Off Label’s supreme commander, Johnny Hanke, in my box, a tasty little compilation called Off Label Werkschau 2009-2014 featuring most of my favorite Off Label artists. And better yet, nearly all of these are new songs (plus a few that saw very limited releases). So what kind of music is this? “Good music” is the short answer. But more specifically, Off Label specializes in the stuff I love the best. There is a healthy portion of wild, snotty garage-punk, represented here by, among others, The Vagoos, Jonah Gold & His Silver Apples, Lynx Lynx, Thee Verduns, and The Mokkers, an all-female German group that does a spirited cover of Thee Headcoatees’ “Wild Man.”
Pea & The Pees
Also, there’s a whole lot of warped country and folk. Louisiana expatriate DM Bob and his accomplice Speedy Jake do an inspired slop-bucket cover of Charlie Rich’s “Big Man,” while The Dad Horse Experience XL kick off the album with a banjo-led gospel romp, “Too Close to Heaven.” The Salty Pajamas’ “Rats in My Amp” is one of the more surreal selections here. The Dinosaur Truckers play a song called “All the Way Back Home” in their sweet ’n’ purdy German bluegrass style. And Pea & The Pees’ wacky hillbilly workout “Horse & Cows” would make Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs jealous.
O Lendário Chucrobillyman
Off Label is one of the world’s leading purveyors of loud, stripped-down, Bob Log-informed blues, and some of its major masters of this weird subgenre are present and accounted for on the compilation. My favorite is the Brazilian one-man sonic assault team O Lendário Chucrobillyman, who plays a song about a “Chicken Yodeling Woman.” Speaking of poultry, the Australian one-man band who calls himself Made for Chickens by Robots does a slow, clunky, and irresistible number called “Meatjuice Moustache,” while The Blues Against Youth, yes, another one-man guy, this one from Rome, shows off some hot licks on his song “Dotted White Line.” But there also selections on Werkschau that don’t fit neatly into any of these categories. For instance, Jenny & The Steady Go’s play straight-ahead rockabilly, while Reverse Cowgirls, a Dutch group, performing a tune called “Worm,” falls somewhere between country-rock and garage. The Coconut Kings, a Swiss band, sound a lot like the Squirrel Nut Zippers on “No Calypso Song.” And VulgarGrad, a band from Australia that specializes in Russian-style songs, sounds like an acoustic Gogol Bordello on the song “Ballroom,” though the singer sounds more like Popeye than Eugene Hütz. Chances are you’ve never heard of most — maybe not even any — of the musical acts on Werkschau. Don’t feel bad. I hadn’t either, before Hanke started sending me all this stuff a few years ago. Don’t let that stop you. You can find this compilation and all the other crazy Off Label music at their website, www.offlabelrecords.de, as well as the usual download sites. Here are some other recent releases from the company. And as fate would have it, all three of these acts have Bandcamp sites, so you can listen to their music and if you like it, do yourself and civilization a favor and buy it!
The Vagoos
* The Vagoos Love You. This is the second release by this German garage group, following their 2014 self-titled album. Love You is only six songs — and that’s my only complaint about it. If you like The Yardbirds and early Stones and songs like “(I’m Not Your) Stepping Stone,” you’ll hear those influences immediately. And they even include a hopped-up surf instrumental called “Vendetta.” The Vagoos’ Bandcamp page is www.thevagoos.bandcamp.com. You’ll also find their first album there. * Good Times by Oh Lazarus. Here’s an Italian group that loves good old early 20th-century blues, country jug-band and hot jazz. This album has Euro-filtered covers of songs like “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate,” “St. James Infirmary,” “Single Girl Again,” Skip James’ “Crow Jane,” and Tom Waits’ “Come On Up to the House.” Its Bandcamp page is www.ohlazarus.bandcamp.com. * Uneasy Grounds by Dead Cat Stimpy. You like those raunchy lo-fi one-man blues bashers like O Lendário Chucrobillyman and the others I mentioned above? Then Dead Cat Stimpy is for you. He’s a Dutch fellow who’s undaunted by inviting comparisons to one of America’s greatest in his song “Possessed by Robert Johnson.” But my favorite here is the aggressively rocking “Twist Man.” Stimpy’s Bandcamp page is www.deadcatstimpy.bandcamp.com. You can even find a free download of a live album there. Enjoy some videos from some of these Off Label bands. Here is Jonah Gold & His Silver Apples
A dirty song, an alleged music biz ripoff in which one of America's most revered musicians was the victim. And possibly --- just possibly -- a mysterious link to a murder in a New Orleans whore house.
That's my kind of music!
I's the story of the little ditty called "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate," an oft-recorded novelty tune that would become one of the biggest hits of the jazz age nearly 100 years ago.
The lyrics of the song that became successful are about a girl -- or sometimes a boy -- who goes to a dance with his or her sister Kate who amazes and delights everyone there by her prowess in dancing the Shimmy -- a controversial dance craze that was leading the youth astray right before the 1920s began to roar.
Here's the chorus:
Oh, I wish I could I shimmy like my sister Kate; She shimmies like a jelly on a plate. My mama wanted to know last night, What makes the boys think Kate's so nice. Now all the boys in the neighborhood, They know that she can shimmy and it's understood; I know that I'm late, but I'll be up-to-date When I shimmy like my sister Kate.
Here's a 1922 recording by Leona Williams
So where did Kate learn to shimmy?
Even though a pair of New Orleans musician and pubisher Armand Piron is credited with the song -- sometimes sharing the glory with musician Clarence Williams, Louis Armstrong long claimed he knew Kate before she even shimmied.
Laurence Bergreen, in his biography, Louis Armstrong An Extravagant Life told Armstrong's story of "Sister Kate." Armstrong said that when Kid Ory hired him, he told the young coronet player he should "Work up a number so we can feature you once in a while," So he did,even creating a little dance to go with it. Bergreen writes:
Bergreen describes the song as 'an unashamedly filthy thing" which was titled "Keep Off Katie's Head" or, sometimes "Take Your Finger Out of Katie's Ass" The lyrics Bergreen quotes in the book though don't seem all that dirty:
Why don't you keep off Katie's head? Why don't you keep out of Katie's bed? It's a shame to say this very day
Kate Townsend
She's like a little child at play.
Bergreen also says "Katie's Head" is possibly inspired by the stabbing death of Kate Townsend, "a Storyville madam who'd been barbarously murdered years before."
Kate Townsend, who ran a high-class cat house on Basin Street, was killed in 1883 during a drunken quarrel by her longtime "fancy man" Troisville Sykes. A jury found him not guilty.
As much as a bordello murder adds some dark, romantic appeal to the song, I'm skeptical. Townsend was killed about 35 years before Armstrong started performing "Katie's Head." There's not much that even hints at any killing or violence of any kind in the lyrics of either the dirty or clean version of the song.
Except perhaps the line, "It's a shame how you're lying on her head /I thought sure you would kill her dead ..."
Still, I think that's a stretch.
Getting back to Satchmo, Bergreen writes:
When Louis sang this to a packed house at Pete Lala's one, "Man, it was like a sporting event. All the guys crowded around an they like to carry me up on their shoulders." It wasn't just the song that got the crowd so excited, it was the little dance Louis did with it, his version of the Shimmy. which was just beginning to appear in cities around the country, scandalizing proper folks ... "One night, as I did this number I saw this cat writing it all down on music paper. He was quick man , he could write as fast as I could play and sing. When I had finished he asked me if I'd sell the number to him. He mentioned twenty five dollars. When you're only making a couple of bucks a night that's a lot of money. But what really put the deal over was that I had just seen a hard-hitting steel gray overcoat that I really wanted for those cold nights. So I said `Okay' and he handed me some forms to sign and I signed them. He said he'd be back with the cash, but he never did come back."
A young Louis Armstrong
The stranger was Clarence Williams, who Bergreen describes as "the first important black musician in New Orleans ..." Williams and Armand Piron, who started the first black-owned music publishing business in New Orleans, published Artmstrong's song in 1919.
"They changed the music slightly, gave it a faddish title -- "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate -- cleaned up the lyrics," Bergreen said.
The song became a hit.
So yes, young Louis, according to the story, sold the rights to what's been called "The first jazz hit of the 1920s" for an overcoat. And he never even got paid for it.
But did Armstrong actually write it? In his 1987 book I Remember Jazz: Six Decades Among the Great Jazzmen, Al Rose recalls a 1939 interview with an ailing Piron, who, in so many words, suggested Armstrong take his finger out of Katie's ass.
Asked about Armstrong's claim about "Sister Kate," Piron said, "that's not Louis' tune or mine or Pete's either. [Pete is New Oreans jazzman Peter Bocage, who was present at Rose's interview.] That tune is older than all of us. People always put different words to it. Some of them were too dirty to say in polite company."
Whoever wrote it, Sister Kate still shimmies among us. Enjoy a few versions of this classic song.
The Original Memphis Five had an early hit with this instrumental take.
WWII pin-up girl Betty Grable took a crack at this song -- including an introduction I'd never heard before.
The first version I ever heard, when I was in junior high, was by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their 1967 debut album
The late David Bowie used to perform "Sister Kate" in the mid '70s as part of a medley with an old soul tune "Footstompin'" (Note the guitar riff he'd later use on "Fame.")
And just recently, this cool little band from Italy called Oh Lazarus recorded it for their album Good Times.
