(I couldn't decide whether this post belongs in this blog or my politics blog, so I'm doing both)
I got a press release yesterday about the upcoming Republican National Convention. But it wasn't from the Republican National Committee or the Donald Trump campaign.
It was from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which is in Cleveland, the same city where the convention is being held next month.
The release basically was a pitch trying to get reporters who will be covering the convention (sadly, I won't be among them) to spend some time at -- and some ink on -- the Hall of Fame.
"As global attention descends upon Cleveland for the Republican National Convention, GOP leaders, journalists, convention-goers and tourists will all have one “must-see” destination on their list – The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame."
And what will they find there?
The news release said the Hall of Fame is "super-excited" about a new exhibit "Louder Than Words: Rock, Power and Politics," which "examines how music has both shaped and reflected our culture norms on eight political topics: Civil Rights, LGBT Issues, Feminism, War & Peace, Censorship, Political Campaigns, Political Causes and International Politics."
Included in that exhibit, the release said are artifacts such as:
* Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner” Fender Stratocaster from Woodstock.
* John Lennon’s acoustic guitar from the 1969 “Bed-ins for Peace.”
It takes The Village People to raise a child
* Original handwritten lyrics from Bob Dylan’s "The Times They Are a-Changin'," Chuck Berry’s "School Day," Neil Young’s “Ohio,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A” and Green Day’s “American Idiot.”
* Original Village People stage costumes.
* Artifacts related to the Vietnam War, the May 4, 1970 shooting at Kent State, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
Bed-ins for Peace! Black Lives Matter! Tin soldiers and Nixon coming! Village People!
I just have one question for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame:
You guys do realize this is a Republican convention, right?
Any time any of my music friends start preaching the Gospel of Vinyl -- how it's so rich and pure and the only way to listen to music, blah blah blah -- I say "humbug!" Why stop at vinyl records? Let's go all the way and bring back the wax, or even the tin cylinder!
Actually cylinder recordings, popularized by some guy named Thomas Edison, don't always ound that great. But the good folks at the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive have done a great job of collecting and in some cases, cleaning up the sound on these ancient recordings, though a few still are marred by scratches that sound like an Army marching over a field of potato chips.
From the first recordings made on tinfoil in 1877 to the last produced on celluloid in 1929, cylinders spanned a half-century of technological development in sound recording. As documents of American cultural history and musical style, cylinders serve as an audible witness to the sounds and songs through which typical audiences first encountered the recorded human voice. And for those living at the turn of the 20th century, the most likely source of recorded sound on cylinders would have been Thomas Alva Edison's crowning achievement, the phonograph. Edison wasn't the only one in the sound recording business in the first decades of the 20th century; several companies with a great number of recording artists, in addition to the purveyors of the burgeoning disc format, all competed in the nascent musical marketplace. Still, more than any other figure of his time, Edison and the phonograph became synonymous with the cylinder medium. ... Nonetheless, Edison's story is heavily dependent on the stories of numerous musical figures and sound recording technological developments emblematic of the period, and it is our hope that we have fairly represented them here.
This site has hundreds, if not thousands of digital recordings of cylinders from all over the world. Below is a small sample of four songs I like recorded between 1906 and 1920.
For reasons unknown to me, the UCSB folks won't let you embed their songs, so I found versions that are on good old YouTube. But click the links to find out more about these songs, and by all means explore this site.
This coming Sunday, June 19, will mark the third anniversary of the death of
Slim Whitman, a man some think of merely as a third or fourth tier country/pop
singer, best known for pioneering the "As-Seen-on-TV" record ads that
filled up the late-night television commercialscape in the '70s and '80s. Slim
and Boxcar Willie had to have been the Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf of this
bizarre little universe.
Here's a classic. As The Firesign Theatre's
Don G. Ovanni
would say, "If you asked for this in a store, they'd think you were CRAZY!"
But it's not that aspect of the man from Tampa's brilliant career for which I
want to honor him today. It's for his indispensable role in stopping the
great Martian attack of 1996.
This scene from a documentary I found on YouTube tells the story.
So thank you Slim Whitman for defeating the Martian menace. The Earth will
never forget!
We'll remember you!
(from Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses)
UPDATE 2024: I just stumbled upon a video of one of my favorite country
singers, Nick Shoulders singing a song to keep the Martians away!
Sunday, June 12, 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
Look in the Mirror by Gregg Turner
Rock a Go-Go by Alien Space Kitchen
Don't Stop to Dance by Reverend Beat-Man
Crawl Through Your Hair by New Mystery Girl
Never Enough Girls by The Sloths
Radio Danger by Skull Control
Not Going Home by He Who Cannot Be Named
Problems by Sex Pistols
Fire Spirit by The Gun Club
Shut Up by The Monks
Taxi Driver by The Rodeo Carburettor
Budokan Tape Try (Set Tapes High) by The Boredoms
Drowning Sex Hogs II TV Party Tonight by Black Flag
I Couldn't Spell !!*@! By Roy Loney & The Young Fresh Fellows Morning After Blues by Andre Williams
New York City by The Fleshtones
Dirty Traveler by Lonesome Shack
Work by Lou Reed & John Cale
Mr. Soul by The Pierced Arrows
Sold by Sulphur City
Oh Honey Baby Doll by Bloodshot Bill
No Confidence by Simon Stokes
I Got Your Number by The Sonics
Summertime Blues by Horror Deluxe
Right/Wrong by Night Beats
Strangers by San Antonio Kid
Don't Be Taken In by Miriam
Conjure Child by Tony Joe White
Hiawatha by Laurie Anderson
Love & Mercy by Brian Wilson
Evil Will Prevail / Bad Days by Flaming Lips
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, June 10, 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
Trucks, Tractors and Trains by The Dirt Daubers
Closing Time by The Pleasure Barons
Jibber Jabber by The Supersuckers
Granny's Got the Baby ('cause Mama's Doing Time) by Trailer Radio
Slipknot by Al Scorch
I Will Never Change, So Why Don't You? By Howard Kalish
Too Much Fun by Commander Cody & The Lost Planet Airmen
Word to the Wise by Bill Kirchen with Dan Hicks
My Rifle, My Pony and Me by Dean Martin & Ricky Nelson
Begging to You by Cyndi Lauper
Funnel of Love by Wanda Jackson & The Cramps
I Never Will Marry by Loretta Lynn
Old Chunk of Coal by Billy Joe Shaver
A Dime at a Time by Dallas Wayne
Let's Invite Them Over by Southern Culture on the Skids
Plastic Love by The Riptones
All Around You by Sturgill Simpson
Why Don't You Love Me Like You Used to Do by Tom Jones
Sam's Place by Buck Owens
Cool Rockin' Loretta by Joe Ely
Get It On Down the Road by Danny Barnes
The Golden Triangle by The Austin Lounge Lizards
South of The River by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Barely Legal by Jim Stringer
I Wanna Be Momma'd by Robbie Fulks
Sinner's Blues by Alex Maryol
Raise a Ruckus by Josh White
I Wish I Was Back in Vegas by Stevie Tombstone
Painted Horse River by Kell Robertson
Hard Livin' (Comes Easy to Me) by Red Eye Gravy
World of Fools by David Bromberg
The Virginian by Neko Case
Crazy for Me by Jaime Michaels CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican June 10, 2016
I’ve always had a soft spot for Cyndi Lauper.
I was intrigued that a year after it was released, “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” was still a top selection for Juárez strippers (or so I’ve been told). I dug the fact that she got pro-wrestling great Captain Lou Albano to play her dad in the video for that song. I thought it was cool that she got the title for her hit album She’s So Unusual from a song by Helen Kane (who many believe inspired the voice of Betty Boop) and that she sang, uncredited, the theme song of Pee-wee’s Playhouse in Kane’s Boopish style.
And I’ve long forgiven her for the demon-haunted nightmares I endured for months after hearing her dance remix of “She Bop” on speakers bigger than my car in an Amarillo disco while in an enhanced state of consciousness.
But beyond all that wacky stuff, Lauper has one amazing voice. I probably didn’t realize that until I saw her perform an incredible version of her hit “Time After Time” on TV back in the mid-1980s on a Patti LaBelle television special.
Lauper starts off singing on top of a piano. But by the second verse LaBelle comes in to harmonize and embellish. The two play with the chorus, harmonize, shout the lyrics at each other, and end about five minutes later on a whisper. I saw this again on YouTube last week for the first time since it aired. It’s even better than I remembered.
But I have to admit, I lost track of Cyndi Lauper. Every so often I heard about her latest attempted comeback, but I didn’t hear anything all that enticing. In fact I hadn’t sat down and listened to an entire Lauper album since her heyday.
Until recently.
Just a few weeks ago she released a country album called Detour. Yes, there’s our Cyndi Lauper in a prim, black, long-sleeved dress in a motorcycle sidecar, clutching her hat in one hand and an old suitcase in another. She looks like a 1880s schoolmarm heading out west where John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart can fight over her.
And yes, this is real, steel-and-fiddle, hard-core-honky-tonk music with crackerjack Nashville cats and guest stars including Emmylou Harris, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, and Willie Nelson.
She romps through C & W chestnuts like “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart”; “Heartaches by the Number”; Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn’s “You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly” (sung here with Gill); and the Wanda Jackson hit “Funnel of Love” (though my favorite version of this song is the one Jackson recorded with The Cramps a few years ago).
And, to her credit, Lauper doesn’t adopt any fake hick drawl. You still can hear the Noo Yawk in her.
There are a couple of tunes here on which she really shines. She nails the sadness of Skeeter Davis’ early ’60s hit “The End of the World.” (Web of Synchronicity: Davis was married to Joey Spampinato, formerly of NRBQ, a band that did a song about Captain Lou Albano! Coincidence?)
And even better is a little-known Marty Robbins song called “Begging to You.” If I had a beer, there would be a tear in it after this one. No, this isn’t essential country music, and it’s probably just a crazy little detour in her career. But it’s great to listen to Lauper again.
Lauper is scheduled to perform in Albuquerque at the Sandia Resort and Casino Amphitheater on Sept. 17.
Also recommended
* Full Circle by Loretta Lynn. This album, Lynn’s first in a dozen years, is a bittersweet triumph. She’s in her early eighties now, and we’ve lost way too many country giants of her generation in recent years, most recently Merle Haggard.
The first time I played this record all the way through, a morbid thought crossed my mind. Is this Lynn’s last one? Maybe that had something to do with the final song, the slow, acoustic “Lay Me Down,” which she sings with fellow octogenarian Willie Nelson. The refrain is “I’ll be at peace when they lay me down.”
I almost wanted to scream, “Nooooooooo!!!”
The good news: Her voice sounds as strong, clear, and spunky as ever. Could it be Pro Tools or some other studio trick? Who knows? I’m going to choose to believe not. If any of you cynics out there know anything different, do us all a favor and keep your yap shut.
Speaking of modern studio tricks, unlike her previous album, the Jack White-produced Van Lear Rose, there’s little in the way of fancy recording wizardry on Full Circle. The producers — Lynn’s daughter Patsy Lynn Russell and Johnny Cash’s son John Carter Cash — wisely keep the emphasis on Lynn’s voice and the songs.
And it’s a splendid selection of tunes. There are re-recordings of Loretta Lynn songs, including the proto-feminist “Fist City,” one of her late-’60s hits, and “Whispering Sea,” a country waltz that’s not one of her best-known numbers but is the first song she ever wrote.
A couple are countrified pop tunes, like “Band of Gold” and Doris Day’s “Secret Love”; some are Carter Family classics (“I Never Will Marry” and “Black Jack David,” which traces its roots to a traditional Scottish folk song); and there’s a bluegrassy take on “In the Pines.”
My favorite on this album is “Everything It Takes,” an “other woman” song that might have been a country hit 50 years ago, except Lynn wrote it fairly recently with Todd Snider. Elvis Costello sings harmonies.
And besides that devastating closing number, there are a couple of other meditations on Smiling Sgt. Death. These are “Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven” and “Who’s Gonna Miss Me?”
Stop torturing us, Loretta!
Video time!
Here's Cyndi Lauper performing a live version of an old Ray Price hit:
If only The Cramps could join her ...
Here is that duet of "Time After Time " on the 1985 Patti LaBelle TV special
Tuesday June 7 marked what would have been the 99th birthday of Dino Paul Crocetti, better known to the world as Dean Martin.
Do I really have to tell you who he was? Martin & Lewis. The Rat Pack. The weekly TV show in the '60s. The comedy roasts he hosted ...
Elvis Presley idolized him and I loved him too. When I was a kid, Dino and his devilish grin made me suspect that my parents' generation might not be as square as they'd have you believe.
Martin died in 1995
In honor of of man from Steubenville, Ohio, let's have some music, Here he is with Frank Sinatra having more fun that you or I had that night.
Here he is crooning and jiving through one of his hits, "Send Me the Pillow That You Dream On." The introduction, with Dino playing up his drunk persona, is nearly as good as the song.
Oh yeah, Dino was a singing cowboy too. Here he is with Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan in the John Wayne movie Rio Bravo.
And here's a song he recorded with The Easy Riders, a folk group that included longtime Santa Fe resident Terry Gilkyson.
I don't profess to be an expert on pow wow music or actually any form of Native American music. I just know that I like a lot of pow wow songs and several of the groups that perform them.
Pow wow music typical consists of several drummers, often pounding on a single large drum. The drummers usually sing though some groups have singers standing behind the drummers. As a casual listener and a certified pale-face, a good pow wow song can seem almost hypnotic, even meditative.
According to Encyclopaedia Britannica: Pow wow songs often reflect the style of music from the Plains area; the singers accompany themselves on a large bass drum, and the ensemble as a whole is known as a Drum. Each Drum includes three or more singers. Like many other aspects of 21st-century Native American life, pow wows generally promote indigenous culture, spirituality, and social unity.
But, as Eugene Chadbourne writes in the AllMusic Guide, "there are pow wow songs about getting drunk, eating pizza, how pretty a girl looks, and a myriad of other subjects."
Remember, pow wows are not religious ceremonies, they are social events. And despite that old stereotype of the somber, stoic red man, (do people still believe that weird old crap?) some of the songs are downright funny.
The Black Lodge Singers, led by Blackfeet tribe member Kenny Scabby Robe, have been the Rolling Stones of funny pow wow songs since they released their 1996 album Kid's Pow-Wow Songs. In reviewing that record 20 years ago, I described the first time I heard them play this song below
At first, you think you are listening to regular pow wow music the deep, steady beating, the jangle of bells, the unison chanting with occasional individual yelps and cries. But then you start discerning words in English: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto too! They're all movie stars at Disneyland ...
And the Black Lodge Singers sing another mouse song. One thing for sure, you don't have to be a kid to love these songs. (This one's for you, Melissa!)
Here is a more recent song from a group called Northern Cree from Alberta, Canada. The group founders are from the Saddle Lake Cree Nation but other group includes members from other Treaty 6 area nations. And despite this next song, Northern Cree does have a Facebook page.
Unfortunately many of the following songs are not on YouTube, so I created this Spotify playlist including pow wow songs about the 3 Stooges, Pink Floyd, Oscar the Grouch, re-imagined versions of American classic like "Earth Angel" and "Who Let the Dogs Out" and one bitchen tune about riding in your boogie van.
Sunday, June 5, 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
Bloody Mary by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
JuJu Hand by Handsome Dick Manitoba
Jack Pepsi by TAD
The Witch by Los Peyotes
Hall of Fame by Andre Williams
Ugly by SA90
High School Girls by The Gears
I'm a Trash Man by Deke Dickerson & The Trashmen
A House is Not a Motel by Marshmallow Overcoat
Shadows of Night by Dead Moon
Frankenstein by Pierced Arrows
Hey Mr. Rain by The Velvet Underground
The Boner by Geil & The Pimps
How to Fake as Lunar Landing by Alien Space Kitchen
Long Distance Call by The Super Super Blues Band
Back it Up by King Mud
Stop Breakin' Down by Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Thank You Sir, by Reverend John Wilkins
The Snake by Reverend Tom Frost
Golden Surf II by Pere Ubu
Ironclad by Sleater-Kinney
Burning Song by Jonah Gold & His Silver Apples
Feast of the Mau Mau by Screamin' Jay Hawkins
County Fool by The Showmen
Teddy Bear by Bette Stuy
Our Sacred Hate by He Who Cannot Be Named
Which End is Up by Miriam
Bad as Me by Tom Jones
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, June 3, 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
Wanted Man by The Waco Brothers
Baker's Half Dozen by Jim Stringer
Walkin' After Midnight by Cyndi Lauper
Company's Comin' by Porter Wagoner
Right Time by Nikki Lane
Country Girls Ain't Cheap by Trailer Radio
Winning the War on Drugs by Asylum Street Spankers
The Marriage Song by The Stumbleweeds
A Married Man's a Fool by Butterbeans & Susie
Travelin' Shoes by Tom Jones
Devil's in the Bottle by Dallas Wayne
Truck Drivin' Man by The Twang Bangers
Brace for Impact by Sturgil Simpson
I'm the Only Hell My Mama Ever Raised by Johnny Paycheck
Aunt Peg's New Old Man by Robbie Fulks
Mommy for a Day by Rhonda Vincent
I Got Mine by Frank Stokes
Brand New Cadillac by Wayne Hancock
Wreck of the Old 97 by Hank Williams III
Drive Drive Drive by Dale Watson
All the Way Back Home by The Dinosaur Truckers
Run Rosie, Run by Trailer Bride
Better Call Saul by Junior Brown
Mental Cruelty by Buck Owens & Rose Maddox
Open Pit Mine by George Jones
Just Like a Monkey by South Memphis String Band
My 45 by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Beautiful Losers by Beth Lee & The Breakups
Mama was a Trainwreck by Karen Hudson
Secret Love by Loretta Lynn
Naked Light of Day by Butch Hancock
The Angels Rejoiced Last Night by The Louvin Brothers
