Wednesday, August 24, 2016
WACKY WEDNESDAY: You Think I'm Psycho, Don't You, Mama?
But neither of those are the Leon Payne song I want to talk about today. I want to talk about one that has always seemed to be somewhat out of character for Leon.
"Psycho"!
I first heard this tune at Cafe Oasis in the early '90s, the first time I saw ex-Angry Samoan Gregg Turner play. It's a perfect song for Turner, a pretty tune full of black humor and strange plot twists. I assumed he'd written it. But he told me it was the work of "some old country guy" and that Elvis Costello had recorded it.
Actually a couple of old country guys recorded it -- first Eddie Noack back in the late '60s. He was a friend of Payne's. Then a Michigan singer named Jack Kittell in the early '70s. Costello didn't get to it until the early 80s during his Almost Blue period. (It can be found as a bonus on at least one version of Almost Blue.)
Here's Noack's version, followed by Costello's:
And many others followed. As Randy Fox wrote in Nashville Scene in 2012, "Psycho" became "a favorite cover song for many alt-country bands that skew to the weirder and darker side of country. Thus proving a great country song will always find its audience, once the world gets weird enough."
In his "Psycho" article Fox interviewed Payne's daughter Myrtie Le Payne, who told how her dad came up with this macabre song.
"Jackie White was my daddy's steel guitar player," [ Myrtie Le] says. "He started working with him in 1968, and the song came out of a conversation they had one day."
Fans of "Psycho" should recognize that name:
I saw my ex again last night mama / She was at the dance at Miller's store / She was with that Jackie White mama / I killed them both and now they're buried under Jenkins' sycamore
Fox wrote, "According to the story related by White, in the spring of 1968, he and Leon Payne were discussing the Richard Speck murders. Speck murdered eight student nurses in Chicago in July 1966 and was convicted and sentenced to death the following year. Being a history buff, Payne was familiar with the cases of many notorious mass killers, and the discussion soon turned to other famous cases — Charles Whitman, Ed Gein, Mary Bell and Albert Fish. That conversation directly inspired the song."
According to this, the opening line, "Can Mary fry some fish, Mama?" is a sly reference to Mary Bell, a child killer who was a child herself. Her life story makes me wonder whether she's the inspiration for Nick Cave's "The Curse of Milhaven."
Indeed, "Psycho" was an unusual song for Leon Payne. But maybe the seeds of it came from an earlier song, one I mentioned above, "Selfishness in Man":
Little children painting pictures of the birds and apple trees / Oh, why can't the grown up people have the faith of one of these / And to think those tiny fingers might become a killer's hand ...
You think that's psycho, don't you ...
Any way, here are a couple of more versions of "Psycho," first by an Australian band called The Beasts of Bourbon
And here's a fairly recent one I like a lot by another Australian, Mojo Juju
And here are more, including covers by Jack Kittel, T. Tex Edwards, Andre William & The Sadies, and more. Sorry, I couldn't find a Gregg Turner version anywhere.
For more deep dives into songs, check out The Stephen W. Terrell Web Log Songbook
Once Again, The Big Enchilada Heads for the Honky Tonk!
(Background Music: Fatman's Twist by Southern Culture on the Skids)
John Wesley Hardin by Jimmie Skinner
Just Tell Her I Loved Her by Joe Swank & His Zen Pirates
Bashful Rascal by June Carter
Truckdrivin' Son of a Gun by Dave Dudley
Brenda by Rev. Billy C. Wirtz
Chatham Jack by Billy Childish & The Blackhands
Turn Off What Marijuana Turned On by Basil McLaughlin
(Background Music: Steel Guitar Stomp by Hank Penny)
The Toadlickers by Thomas Dolby with Imogen Heap
Ol' Town Drunk by Clark Bentley
Second Fiddle to an Old Guitar by Jean Shepard
Booze is Good by Dan Whitaker & The Shinebenders
Girl on the Billboard by Del Reeves
Buffalo Gals by J. Michael Combs & Friends
(Background Music: Oakville Twister by The Hoosier Hotshots)
Hard Times by Martha Fields
Down on Penny's Farm by Jim Kweskin & Geoff Muldaur
Invisible Stripes by Eddie Noack
There's No Right Way to Do Me Wrong by The Miller Sisters
It's Our Home by Joe West
(Background Music: Black Mountain Rag by Jerry Rivers & The Drifting Cowboys)
Sunday, August 21, 2016
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, Aug. 21, 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
Sinner Man by Esquerita
I'm Cryin' by The Animals
Final Notice by GØGGS
Welcome to Star 65 by Alien Space Kitchen
Frankie Baby by Mojo Juju
Still I Dream of It by Brian Wilson
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Friday, August 19, 2016
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, Aug. 19, 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
John Wesley Hardin by Jimmie Skinner
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
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
Thursday, August 18, 2016
THROWBACK THURSDAY: Remembering John Wesley Hardin
Tomorrow marks the 121st anniversary of the killing of John Wesley Hardin, a true bad-ass Old West gunslinger. He was a cowboy, a fighter against reconstruction and an actual jailhouse lawyer who studied law while serving time for killing a sheriff's deputy in Brown County, Texas. He claimed to have backed down Wild Bill Hickok, who was sheriff of Abilene.
He was shot and killed in the Acme Saloon (no, this wasn't a Roadrunner cartoon) in El Paso on Aug. 19. 1895. Killed by a guy he'd previously hired to kill the husband of his girlfriend.
Hardin, the son of a Methodist preacher, claimed to have killed more than 40 people (though only 27 were confirmed.) One of his victims was a friend he killed for snoring.
But according to Frontier Times:
Hardin was an unusual type of killer, a handsome, gentlemanly man who considered himself a pillar of society, always maintaining that he never killed anyone who did not need killing and that he always shot to save his own life. Many people who knew him or his family regarded him as a man more sinned against than sinning.
Or as Bob Dylan might say, "he was never known to hurt an honest man."
Actually Dylan did say that in a song titled "John Wesley Harding." Dylan added a "g" to the outlaw's name and basically turned him into Robin Hood, a "friend to the poor" who "was always known to lend a helping hand." Though the hero of Dylan's 1967 song bore little resemblance to the real Hardin, it's still a fine little tune.
You can play it here:
But about eight years before Dylan's song, a hillbilly named Jimmie Skinner did a slightly more historically accurate account of Hardin's life. For example, the song correctly says Hardin "shot a man dead at the age of 15" and it does have him going to prison for killing a law enforcement officer (though in real life, Hardin was pardoned after serving 16 years of his 25 year sentence for kiling Deputy Charles Webb.)
If that melody sounds familiar, that's because Webb lifted it from another outlaw song, "John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man," recorded in 1928 by The Carter Family (and a million others after them and a few before them). John Hardy was completed unrelated to John Wesley Hardin. Hardy was a black man who was hanged for murder in 1894 in West Virginia. He'd killed another guy in a craps game. (Holy Stag-o-lee, Batman!)
Finally, I'm not sure what this last song is about. Maybe the singer who called himself John Wesley Harding. On;y Wesley Willis knows for sure and he's not talking anymore.
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
WACKY WEDNESDAY: It's David Koresh's Birthday!
Exhibit inside Branch Davidian church, Mount Carmel, Texas. I took this in July 2007 |
So as a second installment to my "Cult Music by Real Cults" series, I'm going to present some songs by the man born Vernon Wayne Howell.
Yes, before he went into the messiah business, Howell wanted to be a rock star. However he sounded liked some souped-up, third-rate Dan Fogelberg.
I can overlook that though. After all, he inspired the names of one of my favorite bands.
Here are some of his tunes.
This first one is especially terrible. A crappy recording of a bad band. But at least the lyrics are crazy.
This one actually reminds me of some of Charlie Manson's songs
Here are a couple of songs about Koresh and the Waco tragedy.
The first is from a 2007 rock opera called David Koresh Superstar by a band called The Indelicates
And here's a song that's hard not to like whatever your political leanings. It's by the late Russell Means (and produced by the one and only Simon Stokes!)
What the Hell, here's the Waco Brothers!
Sunday, August 14, 2016
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
Sunday, Aug. 14, 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
Live the Life by The Oblivians
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Like the Terrell's Sound World Facebook page
Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast! CLICK HERE
Friday, August 12, 2016
THE SANTA FE OPRY PLAYLIST
Friday, Aug. 12, 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
Sweet Thang by Gene Watson & Rhonda Vincent
Night Train to Memphis by Sleepy LaBeef
Hot Dang by Dale Watson
Food Chain of Fools by Rev. Billy C. Wirtz
Pennsylvania Turnpike by Al Scorch
Girl on the Billboard by Eddie Spaghetti
Fast Train Down by The Waco Brothers
Devil Outside the Door by Angry Johnny & The Killbillies
Another Clown by Mose McCormack
Tupelo Mississippi Flash by Jerry Reed
Meanest Jukebox in Town by Whitey Morgan & The 78s
I Swear I Was Lying by Kim Lenz
Something Stupid by The Mavericks & Trish Yearwood
West Wind by Jayke Orvis & The Broken Band
Tear Up the Honkey Tonk by Suzette & The Neon Angels
I Think Hank Woulda Done it This Way by The Blue Chieftains
Dear Brother by Hank Williams
Grey Skies by Southern Culture on the Skids
Back in My Day by The Handsome Family
American Trash by Betty Dylan
Parchment Farm by Ray Condo & His Ricochets
The Middle of Nowhere by Tony Joe White
Sweetheart of Sigma Chi by Martin, Bogan & Armstrong
Sympathy for the Devil by Danny Barnes
Ruby Are You Mad at Your Man by Carolina Chocolate Drops
Larry Mota by Joe West
Making Believe by Wanda Jackson
The Storm by Sturgil Simpson
Broken Down Gambler by The Wilders
When Two Worlds Collide by Roger Miller
Opportunity to Cry by Willie Nelson
Smile by Dex Romweber
CLOSING THEME: Comin' Down by The Meat Puppets
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
Thursday, August 11, 2016
THROWBACK THURSDAY: A Weimar Interlude
The new government for the next 14 years would be unofficially known as The Weimar Republic.
The Weimar Republic era wasn't an easy time for Germany, which faced hyper-inflation, crushing debt, depression and and the rise of National Socialism.
But culturally, the '20s truly roared in the Weimar Republic,
It was the age of the cabaret in which art, theater, music and cinema thrived.
In honor of the Weimar constitution, here are a few samples of popular German music of that era.
Let's start with big, bawdy Berlin Singer Claire Waldoff,
Here's Harry Jackson's Tanz Orchestra.
Adolf Ginsburg's Orchestra performs "I Found a Million Dollar Baby"
Finally here is Lotte Lenya singing "Seeräuber Jenny" in the film version of The Three Penny Opera. Her husband was Kurt Weill, who composed the music for the play. Lenya was in the original 1928 Berlin stage production of the play.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
WACKY WEDNESDAY: Golden Throats from the Vast Wasteland
Here is a bunch of songs by TV stars who probably wish they'd never sung them.
Let's start with Burt Ward, who portrayed Robin on Batman in the mid '60s. The song "Boy Wonder I Love You" is fairly typical '60s teen idol dreck. But it's teen idol dreck written and arranged by Frank Zappa! Plus, some of Zappa's original Mothers of Invention, including my late pal Jimmy Carl Black, played on the record.
As previously noted by Dangerous Minds, Ward wrote about the record in his 1995 autobiography, Boy Wonder: My Life in Tights.
They had incredibly long, scraggly hair, and clothes that appeared not to have been washed in this century if ever. These were musicians who became famous for tearing up furniture, their speakers, their microphones and even their expensive guitars onstage. They were maniacs!
... Their fearless leader and king of grubbiness was the late Frank Zappa. (The full name of the band was Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.) After recording with me, Frank became an internationally recognized cult superstar, which was understandable; after working with me, the only place Frank could go was up.
The following video proves him right
Perhaps the greatest TV news anchor to never exist was Ted Baxter, portrayed on The Mary Tyler Moore Show by Ted Knight. Here's an ode from Ted to another television journalist Barbara Walters from his 1975 novelty album Hi Guys. I'm still searching for the restraining order Walters surely filed after hearing this.
And in this clip from NBC's Hullabaloo, (a music show I watched back in the mid '60s even though it was hopelessly inferior to ABC's Shindig) Michael Landon -- Little Joe on Bonanza -- does the Freddie with Peter & Gordon
TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST
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