Wednesday, March 25, 2020

WACKY WEDNESDAY:Is Make a (Too Much) Joyful Noise


Is there really any such thing as Too Much Joy?

The answer is yes -- at least in the 1980s and '90s when there was a fun little band from Scarsdale, NY responsible for a lot of funny tunes. on albums like Green Eggs & Crack; Son of Sam I Am and Cereal Killers.

Chances are you've never heard of them. TMJ never made it that big.

But during their short career, Too Much Joy had the distinction of being the only band:


* to get sued by Bozo the Clown;
* to be arrested in Florida for performing Too Live Crew songs in public (reckless endangering THE CHILDREN!);
* to be detained by the Secret Service over a drunken onstage rant about then-President Bill Clinton (Chelsea was in the audience);
* to have their own theme song embraced by Newt Gingrich; and
* to cover a Rod McKuen song.

Such accomplishments cannot be ignored.

In an interview in A/V Club in March, 2000, Too Much Joy singer Tim Quirk talked about the Bozo incident:

 On the vinyl release of Son Of Sam I Am, we wanted to drop in samples from various things. We didn't have any samplers or anything, so we just directly scratched the stuff off the turntables onto our master tapes, and one of the things we did was off an old Bozo The Clown record. It was the perfect introduction to the song "Clowns," because he said, "And then I found something in one of my pockets. It was about as big as your shoe, but it was shaped like a rocket." ...  It was the type of funny thing that got mentioned in various reviews and interviews, but what we didn't know was that Larry Harmon was apparently kind of vain, and has kept a clipping service going for all these years. Whenever there's a mention of Bozo, he gets it. So he [hears about] it, and not only is he vain, but he's also very litigious, believe me. ... Anyway, his attorney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Alias [the band's label at the time] saying, "You can't print any more of those albums, and we're gonna sue you if you do." 

It was only a 5-second sample on a little-known album on an indie record label, but, because of the lawsuit, when TMJ went to a major record label the Bozo sample was cut from the song.

Unfortunately I can't find a Youtube of the original version of "Clowns." But this fan-created video with a new intro is a lot of fun:



This next one needs no explanation:



Rod McKuen anyone?



Bozo might have hated them, but Newt Gingrich loved them. Again from the A/V Club interview:


We have a diehard Too Much Joy fan who worked for the Republicans in 1994, when they took over Congress. ... He was working for the Republican committee to help get congress re-elected, so he was constantly in meetings with Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey and the steering committee and all these people. ... One night, Newt Gingrich was giving this rallying-the-troops speech where he was talking about how they were going to bring change. He was saying how some people said he was a destroyer, but that he wasn't a destroyer; it's just that sometimes you have to knock things down in order to build something newer and stronger and better. This guy, who's a big fan, got all excited and said, "Wait a minute, I have the perfect song for this occasion. He runs out to his car, gets Cereal Killers, runs back in, and starts playing "Theme Song." ... And, according to him, everybody loved it and basically put it on repeat. They kept playing it and playing it and swaying arm-in-arm and throwing glasses into the fireplace and singing along with "Theme Song." 

Quirk didn't believe it and told the GOP fan as much. But a few months later, the fan came back a few months later with a letter from Newt  thanking the band for helping them win the congressional elections in 1994, and quoting the line, "To create, you must destroy."

I'm not a Gingrich fan, but I like the song also.



So smash a glass and cry, "too much joy"!



Sunday, March 22, 2020

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST





Sunday, March 22, 2020
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
9 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
Garbage Man by William Shatner
Baby, I'll Trust You When You're Dead by The Woggles
Upside Mine by Billy Childish & Holly Golightly
Raccoon City Limits by Black Smokers
Smash Shit Up by Dropkick Murphys
Strobelight by The B52s
Golden Surf II by Pere Ubu

Medication by Gregg Turner Band
Blu Wave by Sleeve Cannon
Laserbrain by The Electric Mess
Silver Monkey by The Copper Gamins
A Girl Like You by The Mummies
Sadness, Malaise & Other Southwestern Tragedies by Alien Space Kitchen
Strange Things Happen by Etta James
Tired of Being Alone by Al Green

Starry Eyes by The Records
Starry Eyes by Roky Erickson with Lou Ann Barton
Don't Fall Down by 13th Floor Elevators
America is Waiting by Brian Eno & David Byrne
Blood by REQ'D
Hey Boss by Hamell on Trial
Wimp by Jean Caffeine
Shoulder Pads by The Fall

Wolfmen by The Arttakees
Breakfast by Weird Omen
Been Down Too Long by Scott H. Biram
Cheap Thrills by Ruben & The Jets
The Definitive Tom Jones Medley by The Pleasure Barons
Tom Jones Levitation by Jon Langford & Skull Orchard
Nobody's Fault But Mine by Tom Jones

Burning Love by The Hickoids
The Whole Thing Stinks by Rico Bell & The Snakehandlers
Last Call at the Dixie Pig Harvey McLaughlin
Tell Me That You Love Me by Tami Neilson
Cowboys are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other by Willie Nelson
I Lay Awake by Swamp Dogg
Stay Away from the Crack by The Mighty Hannibal
We Live Dangerous by The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band
Stormy Weather by The Reigning Sound

7 Fresh Chicken Straight from the Trash by MFC Chicken
Watch Out Woman by Travis Pike & The Brattle Street East
Time Will Tell by The Fleshtones
White Lies by Purple Merkins
My Eyes by Tony Gilkyson
One for My Baby by Iggy Pop
A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow by Mitch & Mickey
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Thursday, March 19, 2020

THROWBACK THURSDAY: Sick Bed Blues



Is your brain numb from the non-stop onslaught of coronavirus news -- and the attendant deluge of White House gaslighting, partisan blather, moronic conspiracy theories and dumb jokes infecting social media?

No, this blog post is not the cure. But maybe I'll provide a little relief by posting a bunch of songs about infectious diseases, medical isolation and/or past pandemics.

Let's start with something by blues belter Essie Jenkins, a song titled "The 1919 Influenza Blues," in which she sang:

Down in Memphis, Tennessee
The doctor said it soon would be
In a few days influenza would be controlled
Doctor sure man he got had
Sent the doctors all home to bed
And the nurses all broke out with the same



Like Essie Jenkins, Blind Willie Johnson knew the real culprit: God!
In his song "Jesus is Coming," Johnson sang:

In the year of 19 and 18, God sent a mighty disease. 
It killed many a-thousand, on land and on the seas. 
Great disease was mighty and the people were sick everywhere. 
It was an epidemic, it floated through the air.

The doctors they got troubled and they didn't know what to do. 
They gathered themselves together, they called it the Spanish flu.



A decade after the Spanish flu did most of its damage, another visually-impaired bluesman, Blind Lemon Jefferson recorded a tune about pneumonia. the associated medical condition that's fatal to many flu victims -- and to those who have succumbed to coronavirus.

Blind Lemon didn't blame God. Instead he pointed the finger at a "low-down gal.":

Wearin' BVDs in the winter and prowlin' round in the rain
Runnin' down my baby give me this pneumonia pain



Meanwhile, in the mid 1930s, Big Bill Broonzy recorded a different song with the same name.

My friends told my wife, they done did all they could
They said "Put him in the hospital
Before he ruins the neighborhood ...



Mississippi-born Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James had the knack of making something bad seem downright terrifying. Here's his "Sickbed Blues," which appeared on his final album Devil Got My Woman,"in 1966. Although there was not a pandemic going on at the time, the lyrics speak to the despair of being isolated while suffering from illness:

I'm layin' sick, honey, and on my bed
I used to have some friends but they wish that I were dead
In awful pain and deep in misery ...
I ain't got nobody to come and see about me




Tuesday, March 17, 2020

CHICKEN SHACK PLAYLIST




Tuesday, March 17, 2020
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays Mountain Time
Substitute Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org

Here's my playlist :
Do the Funky Chicken by Rufus Thomas
You're Fine But Not My Kind by Johnny Otis
You Are My Sunshine by Richard Berry & The Pharaohs
Indian Red by Dr. John
Blow Mr. Jackson by Joe Liggins
Laughin' and Clownin' by Sam Cooke
The Rains Came by Joe Barry
Chicken Crazy by Joe Tex

Ride in My 225 by Spyder Turner
Mama Get the Hammer by Barrence Whitfield & The Savages
Short Fat Fanny by Larry Williams
Don't You Want a Man Like Me by Little Brother
I'm Mr. Big Stuff by Jimmy Hicks
Mr. Big Stuff by Jean Knight
Hang Tough by The Wild Magnolias
Confusion Blues by Jesse Belvin
Hide and Go Seek Part 1 by Bunker Hill
Never Swat a Fly by McKinney's Cotton Pickers

All These Things by Art Neville
Spirit in the Dark by Aretha Franklin with Ray Charles
Yata Hei by Keely Smith
Jump and Shout by T.B. & The Germs
Big Long Slidin' Thing by Dinah Washington
Baby Let's Play House by Arthur Gunter

I Feel Good by Lee & Shirley
Get it While You Can by Howard Tate
San Quentin Bait by Charlie "Boogie Woogie"" Davis
Hook and Sling by Eddie Bo
Junko Partner by James Booker
Five Months, Two Weeks and Two Days by Louis Prima
San Francisco Fan by Cab Calloway
Open the Door, Richard by Louis Jordan


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Sunday, March 15, 2020

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST



Sunday, March 15, 2020
KSFR, Santa Fe, NM
Webcasting!
9 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
Keep Your Hands to Yourself by The Georgia Satellites
Touch Me, I'm Sick by Mudhoney
Keep Your Distance by Richard Thompson
Don't Touch Me by Bettye Swan
Don't Touch Me There by The Tubes
Sadness in the Streets by Alien Space Kitchen
Clouds of Dawn by Dead Moon
I'm Gonna Dig Up Howlin' Wolf by Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper
Brown Eyed Handsome Man by Chuck Berry

Before the World Blows by by The Electric Mess
Big Hunt by The Artakees
I'll Go Crazy by James Brown
Liar Liar by The Castaways
You're Gonna Miss Me by 13th Floor Elevators
Neanderthal Love by Barnes & Barnes
Wade in Bloody Water by The Grannies
Bring Me My Shotgun by Lightnin' Hopkins

ST. PATRICK'S SET 
The Wearing of The Green by John McCormack
Finnegan's Wake by Dropkick Murphys
Donnegal Express by Shane MacGowan
Some Say the Devil is Dead by The Wolfe Tones
Brennan on the Moor by The Clancy Brothers
Suil Ghorm by Altan
Carrickfergus by Van Morrison & The Chieftains
Whiskey Makes Me Crazy by The Tossers
The Black Velvet Band by The Dubliners
Rocky Road to Dublin by The Young Dubliners


Home in the Country by Joe & Antionette McKenna
The Night That Pat Murphy Died by Fiddler's Green
Drunken Lullabies by Flogging Molly
Forty Deuce by Black 47
Body of an American by The Pogues

Fighting the Crave by L7
Organic Frequency by Mean Motor Scooter
I Ain't Cryin' by The Darts
Lowdown Monkey Blues by The Replacements with Tom Waits
Harar 1883 by The Mekons
Last Dance by Chivalrous Amoekons
Skeleton Key by Mark Lannegan

Home Again to You by Jono Manson
Don't Tell Me by Possessed by Paul James
Old Man by Black Pumas
Love Like Crazy by Jessica Lee Wilkes
Tennessee Blues by Bobby Charles
There Were Roses by Moloney, Keane, O'Connell & Carroll
CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis

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Want to keep the party going after I sign off at midnight?
Go to The Big Enchilada Podcast which has hours and hours of music like this.

Subscribe to The Big Enchilada Podcast CLICK HERE

TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD PLAYLIST

Sunday, April 28, 2024 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM, 101.1 FM  Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrel...