I've always been intrigued by the phenomenon of the "answer song," songs recorded in direct response to some big hit. It was as if the answer-song artist was forcing a conversation with the singer of the original tune.
If there was a popular tune about a bad relationship or break-up, an answer song would provide perspective from the other party involved. If it was a song involving current events, the answer song would provide a rebuttal.
There are some truly important artists who sang answer songs -- Etta James and Kitty Wells, to name a couple. But there is something so inherently tacky, so nakedly bottom-feederish about the whole game of trying to glom onto someone else's hit, I can't help but love the answer-song.
Did I mention Etta James? In 1955, she answered Hank Ballard's "Work With Me Annie" with "Roll With Me Henry." Ballard answered the answer song with a song called "Henry's Got Flat Feet (Can't Dance No More)."
Kitty Wells' "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" was a response to Hank Thompson"s "The Wild Side of Life."
I never realized that the girl The Big Bopper was talking to on the phone in "Chantilly Lace" was Jayne Mansfield!
Here's another telephone conversation set to song. The thing I love about Jeanne Black's answer to Jim Reeve's "He'll Have to Go" is the fact she complains about her ex-lover being a no-show at a date "just yesterday." But less than 24 hours later, she's lassoed some other funky dude who "Holds me much more tenderly than you." Girl moves fast!
But Ruby, why do you have to go to town?
A band called The Beach Bums, led by a young and apparently right-wing Bob Seger took Sgt. Barry Sadler's "Ballad of the Green Berets" and turned it into " protest against protesters," an attack on draft dodgers and war resisters.
And responding to Barry McGuire's famous protest tirade "Eve of Destruction" was this song by a jangly trio called The Spokesmen. The song basically says, "Hey Barry, why the long face? Don't you realize the advances in modern medicine and technology? And don't forget the work of the United Nations ..."
Though as a group The Spokesmen were a one-hit wonder, two members -- John Medora and David White -- had been songwriting partners for years. And they wrote some classics including "At the Hop," performed by Danny & The Juniors and Lesley Gore's proto-feminist "You Don't Own Me."
Sunday, June 24, 2018 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist : OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Why Can't We Be by Wild Evel & The Trashbones
Clever Way to Crawl by Persian Claws
Chunk of Steel by Hollywood Sinners
1970 by The Stooges
Til You Lie in Your Grave by Miss Ludella Black & The Masonics
Subsonic Dream by The Darts
Vibrator Violator by Moron's Morons
Buzz the Jerk by The Pretty Things
Shut Up Woman by Bo Diddley
Midnight Attractions by Archie & The Bunkers
Prehistoric Love by J.C. Satan
I Like It Like That by Gino & The Goons
Hippie Hippie Hoorah by Black Lips
Love is Simply a Dream by Reverend Beat-Man
Money Shot Man by Churchwood
Snake Farm by Ray Wylie Hubbard
Long Black Stockings by Tony Butala
Oh Marie by Louis Prima featuring Lily Ann Carol
Long Runs the Fox by The Bonnevilles
I'm Gonna Booglarize You, Baby by Captain Beefheart
Bad Man by Oblivians
Shout Bama Lama by Detroit Cobras
Cruel Friend by Nots
Up and Down by Chesterfield Kings
Tingling by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Surrender My Heart by Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons
White Collar Wolf by The Devils
Mule Train by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs
Medicaid Fraud Dogg by Parliament
Dionetics by The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black
Memphis by Karen Black
Damned If I Do, Damned if I Don't by Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
Break Bread by The Melvins
Fancy by Geraldine Fibbers
Blue Velvet by Bobby Vinton CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican June 22, 2018
Last year an album called Sidelong by an artist I’d never heard of named Sarah Shook (with her band The Disarmers) instantly became one of my favorite country albums in recent years. The album was already a couple of years old by the time I heard it, originally released back in 2015. Venerated “insurgent country” label Bloodshot Records of Chicago rereleased it last year, so the rest of the world could hear it. The North Carolina native’s unabashed, unaffected hillbilly drawl, her equally authentic defiant attitude, the way her band emulated the '70s “outlaw country” sound while never sounding hokey or retro, and Shook’s good old-fashioned songwriting chops added up to what just might be one important new artist.
So I was somewhat apprehensive a couple of months ago when I got a copy of Shook’s follow up, Years. How could this be as good as Sidelong, coming just a year later? Dare I listen to this when I’m bound to be disappointed?
But such anxiety quickly subsided. Years is no sophomore slump. Though no song on the new one grabbed me quite as hard as Sidelong’s “Keep the Home Fires Burnin’,” there is no shortage of memorable tunes here.
The 10 songs on this album are basically meditations on the end of a troubled relationship. “I'm afraid of losin'/Not afraid of losin' you,” Shook sings in “Good as Gold,” the opening song, So what’s she afraid of losing? “My heart, my pride/A wreck inside/Nothin' on this jukebox 'cept them blues …”
But don’t think the album’s full of confessional self-pity. Shook’s confidence, pride, and humor frequently shine through the heartache. In the next song, “New Ways to Fail,” she sneers, “It seems my way of livin' don't live up to your standards/And if you had your way I'd be some proper kind of lady/Well the door is over there, if I may speak with perfect candor/You're welcome to walk through it at any old time that you fancy.”
And then the wonderfully profane chorus: “'Cause I need this shit like I need another hole in my head.”
And I’m not sure whether it’s possible for a woman to be “cocky,” but Shook sure sounds that way in the upbeat country/rockabilly tune “Damned If I Do, Damned if I Don’t,” which is my favorite song on the record. She sings, “I didn't mean to stay out all night drinkin'/I didn't mean to stay out 'til the break of day/I didn't mean to stay out 'til the goddamn cows came home/Please believe me, it just happened this way.“
Even though on paper it sounds like Shook is pleading for forgiveness — and by the last verse, she’s begging for her lover, who’s locked her out of the house, to let her in — her voice doesn’t sound all that contrite. Damn if I don’t love Sarah Shook.
Also recommended:
* Clippety Clop by Holly Golightly and The Brokeoffs. For a whole decade now, sweet Holly and her partner known as Lawyer Dave have made wonderful funky country bluesy good-time music together from their farm near Athens, Georgia. But by day, the couple work together in another venture: a horse rescue operation.
The British-born Golightly — a veteran of the all-girl garage group Thee Headcoatees — has been involved with horses all her life, so it’s not really surprising that she’d record a concept album about her beloved beasts. All but four of the dozen songs on the new album are about horses. The other four are about mules.
Among the selections are some classic American songs. After kicking off with a laid-back take on “Mule Skinner” (a Jimmie Rodgers tune usually going by “Mule Skinner Blues”), the couple also put their stamp on the cowboy standard “Strawberry Roan,” “Stewball” (based on the earthy Leadbelly version, not the pretty one by Peter, Paul & Mary) and my favorite, “I Ride an Old Paint.”
Performed by Holly and Dave as an upbeat slop waltz with growling guitar, “Old Paint,” is an authentic cowboy song, published by Carl Sandburg in 1927. Since then, it’s been recorded by various folksingers, country artists, and movie cowboys. I first heard it by Loudon Wainwright III in the early '70s, and I’ve loved it ever since — even though I still don’t know what “throw the houlihan” means.
Other high points here include “Two White Horse,” which is lyrically related to the “One Kind Favor”/“See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” family. If you don’t listen to the words that Holly and Dave sing, you probably wouldn’t realize that this jaunty little number is all about death and funeral rites.
Then there’s “Pinto Pony,” which was penned by an under-recognized songwriter named Paul Siebel, best known for “Louise,” recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker, Leo Kottke, and others. And on “Jinny Mule” Holly gets to show off her affinity for the blues, while Lawyer Dave sounds like he’s murdering both his guitar and his drums.
In truth the whole album is nothing but a joy. I love Holly and The Brokeoffs — and the horses they rode in on.
Here are some videos:
First some live Shook
This is the official video for "The Bottle Never Lets Me Down."
Unfortunately I can't find any videos for any song from Clippety Clop. But here's an old Holly & The Brokeoffs tune:
Ray Davies -- singer, songwriter and front man for The Kinks -- turns 74 today.
Happy birthday, Ray.
Born in Muswell Hill in North London in 1944, Davies and his younger brother Dave Davies. The two brothers began performing in bands together as teenagers. By 1964, The Kinks had a recording contract. And by that summer, they had a hit with a Ray Davies original, "You Really Got Me."
To honor Ray on his birthday, and to give a hint at how influential Davies and The Kinks have been, I'm going to present several videos of other artists performing Davies songs.
Kinks Kovers, as it were.
Let's start with "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," as done by The Chocolate Watchband
Here's Queens of the Stone Age with their take on "Who'll Be the Next in Line."
Sly & The Family Stone created a funkified version of "You Really Got Me."
Southern Culture on the Skids put the hillbilly in "Muswell Hillbilly."
The Fall practically made "Victoria" their own.
And The Murder City Devils sound like they're well acquainted with Old Demon "Alcohol."
Finally, here are The Kinks themselves on Shindig in the mid '60s. Damn, they were good!