Marvin Rainwater - Indian Momma (1:56)
Here's a breathtakingly cool Marvin Rainwater track with some extra snarl provided by a fuzztone guitar.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Rainwater Goes Fuzztone!
Monday, January 9, 2012
Monday Morning wake 'n' shake: GUITAR GABLE and KING KARL go Walking in the Park
Ever wonder what happened when Aunt Mary finally caught bald head Sally and Uncle John "ducking" in the alley?
Turns out, Sally gets a truly brutal tongue lashing, climaxing with the immortal quatrain: "I'm gonna tear you apart like a dishrag; ain't gonna give you a chance to cry - and when I get through, you know that you will have to get better to die!"
Sally flees. Uncle John gets dragged home and accepts his lot in life.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Don't Knock Elvis (MP3)
Felton Jarvis - Don't Knock Elvis
In celebration of what would've been Elvis Presley's 77th birthday, here's an odd artifact from a very early stage in the career of songwriter and producer Felton Jarvis (1934 - 1981).
Jarvis was Elvis Presley's producer between the years 1966 and 1977, when Presley died. While still struggling to make a name for himself, he recorded this Elvis Presley tribute 45, which was released on the tiny VIVA label in August, 1959. While in the Marines in 1955, Jarvis experienced a life-changing event when was lucky enough to catch a live Elvis Presley show in Norfolk, Virginia.
Upon getting out of the Marines, he returned to Atlanta and went to work as a sheet music printer at Bill Lowery's National Recording Company (NRC). At the time, the label was over-flowing with talented performers who, in less than a decade, would be national stars: Jerry Reed, Mac Davis, Joe South, Ray Stevens and Freddy Weller. Jarvis moved into songwriting and producing, making a name for himself in 1961 by producing Every Beat Of My Heart, the first R&B #1 hit (of eleven, in all) for a local band called the Pips, soon to be renamed Gladys Knight & The Pips. From NRC, Jarvis went to work for the ABC label, where he produced "Sheila" a huge national hit for Tommy Roe, another graduate of Lowery's NRC concern. After a few years at ABC, he moved over to RCA where he and Presley established a solid working relationship that worked out pretty well for both of them.
Welcome to the Marvin Rainwater Friendship Club
Marvin Rainwater Friendship Club Record (thanks to Billy Miller)
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Marvin Rainwater - The Haircut (MP3)
Marvin Rainwater - The Haircut (2:37)
Marvin's problem? His kid refuses to get a haircut, so Marvin rounds up one of his pals and they hatch a plan give the kid a haircut that even Sgt. Carter would love. Let's just say things don't exactly go according to plan.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Os Mutantes - "Caminhante Noturno" (English Version) (Chansons Du Bout Du Monde 7.20.69) Live in Color with Orchestra
Rare Os Mutantes clip from French TV, I don't think they ever recorded this song in English. cross-posted from Bedazzled.tv
Monday, January 2, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Fool's Paradise
Tune in today from 1-3 PM on WFMU to get yourself in the mood for Amateur Night. Rex will be playing some of the Fool's Paradise Favorite drinking songs of all time to coax the pink pussy cats out of the closet.
Tiny Tim's Crutch (via Grade "A" Fancy)
1 1/2 ounce Gordon's Gin
1/2 ounce Harvey's Bristol Creme Sherry
1/2 ounce brewed and cooled Lapsang Souchong tea
Put some sugar on a plate. Moisten the rim of a cocktail glass with a citrus wedge and dip glass into the sugar.
Stir all liquids over ice until very cold and strain into the cocktail glass.
Happy New Year from the Ichiban crew! Kancho!!
Rufus Thomas - Pink Pussy Cat Wine Spot
Friday, December 30, 2011
New Year's Eve with Nay Dog
On New Year's Eve 2004 Fortune recording artist Nathaniel Mayer dropped by Spazz HQ for the craziest party of all time; one that the neighbors are still probably pissed about. Nathaniel (for those that didn't know him) cut some incredible records in Detroit in the early sixties including the regional hit Village of Love. By the end of the sixties Nathaniel hit upon some tough times and for decades nobody could figure out if he was alive or dead. Unexpectedly, in 2003 Nathaniel (or "Nay Dog" as he liked being known) popped back on the scene and reignited his performing career. His voice was a little raspier but he still had the pipes. With charisma to spare, no one could work a crowd like Nathaniel and when he sang falsetto it was nothing less than spine chilling. Most of all he was sweet and funny and an all around great guy. What else could you possibly ask for in a soul legend? Nathaniel was cut down by a series of strokes in 2006 and his passing a couple of years later left a hole in many hearts.
Nay Dog was in town for the big Norton Soul Revue at Southpaw and he was in stellar form that night. When I asked him what he wanted to hear he requested Nathaniel Mayer songs. After singing along to every one of his records (with The Diablos' "Ali Coochi" thrown in), Nay Dog requested some Sex Machine-era James Brown, organized the room into two Soul Train dance lines and pretty soon things went from nuts to crazy. He also regaled us with a "dozens" rap that was so smutty it would have made Dolemite blush. Thanks to Billy Miller, Miriam Linna, Michael Hurtt and Dan Rose. I don't remember which one of you brought him to the party (as well as escorting him to the radio show the following night) but I do know one or more of you guys were responsible for this.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Arthur Alexander Month: The King James Version
Let's open up the Book of Alexander t0 KING JAMES & MEL's little known but magnificent New Orleansed-up take on "You Better Move On". Very snazzy early Gamble-Huff production.
Radio Alert!
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| Think Link! |
Tune in to Music To Spazz By with Dave the Spazz tonight from 9-12 when Christopher Kennedy stops by to discuss the Lost Photographs Of Deejay Tommy Edwards.
Listen Now!
Monday, December 26, 2011
Bad TV Beat: 'Blue Bloods'-- Once Riotous Cop Show Misses a Beat
By Gene Sculatti
As the Everly Brothers said, it’s “So Sad to Watch Good Love Go Bad.” Almost as sad, if you’re a fan of bad TV, is watching one of the species’ strongest contemporary contenders just roll over and play good. Unfortunately, that seems to be what’s happened in the second season of Blue Bloods, CBS’s Tom Selleck starrer about a tri-generational family of NYC cops. It’s a shame too, since the show started out as a shining example of one of the richest but least-traversed goofspaces in all of popular culture: Sentimental Fascism.
The SF genre’s best exponents were, of course, oak-solid, cedar-hewn Chuck Norris’ Walker, Texas Ranger (1993-2001) and the criminally undervalued The District, with Craig T. Nelson as Washington, D.C’s chief cop (2000-2004). Norris’ Walker walked a fine line between heart-tug subplots (to the distraught Latina slapping masa in a tortilla factory: “I’ll see that Jose doesn’t join the gang, Mrs. Garcia”) and Miranda-busting fuzz-play (warrantless door-kicks a specialty). Nelson’s Chief Jack Mannion grew misty around his dog or his single-mom assistant, but played hardball with softie judges, drug lords and his arch-nemesis, a Russky agent named Putin.
What made Blue Bloods such a comer was just what makes the best classic bad TV great: the commitment to craft—the creators’ on-time delivery of piping hot clichés of story and dialogue designed to satisfy loopy, often dated assumptions about the desires of the target demo. CBS’ 2010 decision to launch a series about a tough, conservative commissioner (“Frank Reagan”!), his dad (an ex-commish who rues the day when bulls had to stop using concealed “sappers” [blackjacks] to crack heads) , two cop sons and assistant-D.A. daughter surely reflects the network’s interpretation of the midterm elections as a huge cultural right turn. Clearly, the reasoning must’ve gone, the lumpenprole now crave a liberal-bashing law-and-order show, just as they did when Walker debuted—during the cultural dustup that presaged the Republicans’ 1995 Congressional putsch.
Selleck himself is a laff riot. His toolbox, once overflowing with enough affability and beefcake-lite appeal to power eight seasons of Magnum P.I., now holds just one item: gravitas. The duties of gig, moral grounds-keeping and paterfamilias weigh so heavily on his I-beam shoulders that deep sighs, solemn head-hangs and marathon silences are all he can manage. Those and snippy retorts to his mayor boss—in Season 1 a craven pol (aren’t they all?), in 2 a smug black manager who tells Frank that the city’s “old, white, Irish-Catholic days are over” and gets smacked with Frank’s reply that he, the noble mick, missed out on the benefits of affirmative action and a “community organizer” background. Hoo-boy! Plus, Selleck comes off about as ‘New York’ as you’d expect a 1962 graduate of Grant High, Sherman Oaks, California, to come off.
The kicks came fast when Blue Bloods debuted. How did we know the Reagans were blue-collar anti-elites? At Frank’s pad, kibitzing or enjoying communal Sunday dinners (with offspring a party of 10: those Irish-Catholics!), they drank nothing but beer—out of the bottle. Anti-intellectualism roamed the show like a python, crushing the slightest hint of world knowledge or book-learnin.’ College-educated rookie-cop son Jamie was relentlessly tagged “Harvard” by his dese-dem-and-dose sergeant , “Anthony Renzulli” (those kooky dagos!) and by his own older brother, Danny (ex-NKOTBer Donnie Wahlberg, sporting a Howard Devoto liver-slice haircut), who often reminded Jamie “Remember, you’re not in Cambridge anymore.”
Prosecutor daughter Erin Regan, who at least understood suspects’ rights, was routinely pilloried by Danny and daddy Frank (“Why do we bother catching the criminals if you’re just gonna let them go?”) and her grandfather. Frank’s pappy, ex-commissioner Henry Reagan, once berated Erin for pushing her pre-teen daughter onto an “arts” track in school, potentially ruining the Reagans’ sprint to a four-generation dynasty.
I tell you, it was rich. But now Blue Bloods has had its edges trimmed and usually resembles a run-of-the-mill procedural, its pro-active mildness besting the bad but unfunny Castle only by degrees. There may yet be hope, though. In a recent episode Sergeant Renzulli , at the apartment of a crime victim, asks her what’s playing on her stereo. “Shostakovich,” she answers. “Oh,” says Renzulli. “Sounds like the guy who makes my vodka!”
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Christmas Fun...or Christmas Misery. Choose Wisely!
(This post was supposed to go up around lunchtime, but I didn't press "post".)
WARNING: If you're having a bad Christmas, or are alone right now, I strongly urge you not to click on this one. Seriously. Proceed at your own risk!
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Friday, December 23, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Daddy's Drinkin' Up Our Christmas
Here's some indisputably bleak Yuletide "cheer" from Commander Cody & The Lost Planet Airmen, the pride of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Arthur Alexander Month: The Death of Joe Henderson
So... while browsing through old issues of Billboard for info about Mr. Alexander, I stumbled upon this article in the November 7, 1964 issue:
While on the one hand, this does answer the question of why I'd never seen any further records by Henderson, on the other, it just generates further questions. What causes a 27-year old to have a heart attack? A congenital heart defect? Amphetamines (certainly a common thing in the Music City)? Or something else? And why was he bunking with Arthur, rather than his wife and kids? Mrs. Henderson died in 2008, so she's obviously not a good resource.
I have no answers for those questions, but thanks to the efforts of crack digital librarian and first-rate spouse Mandy Mastrovita, I do know a few things about where Alexander was as his roomie lay dying:
If you're only going to have one song that people remember, you could do a lot worse than this.
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| "Social...Spin," Red and Black, October 22, 1964, p. 6 Presented online by the University of Georgia Libaries.
Homecoming 1964 at the University of Georgia would have been a pretty good weekend to crash some Greek parties. I can't say which one I would have chosen, though. How could you? Not just Mr. Alexander at Chi Psi, but The Five Du-tones, Eddie Floyd, The Tams, The Sensations (I'm assuming it was these Sensations), The Upsetters (minus Little Richard), The Catalinas, whichever sets of "Ambassadors" and "Vibratones" these were... even Dionne Warwick (or "Warlick", as they render it here) would have been worth seeing at that point. Of course, you'd have had to go to a frat party. And, since the Bulldogs apparently won their game by 21-7, they were probably especially wild and rowdy that night.
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| Chi Psi House, 320 S. Lumpkin St. |
Here's a tiny photo of the house where you'd have been attending the party in question; it was pretty new at the time, having only been built in 1960. The frat was kicked off campus for booze violations in the late '80s, and the building was razed in 2004.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Jungle 45's
Here is the complete "Jungle 45 of the Week" compilation that I have been sporadically putting up the last year and a half or so. Now you can download it in one fell swoop with a nifty cover by J.R. Williams!
Jungle_45's
Monday, December 19, 2011
Liza Jane
Cecil Surratt & Smitty Smith - Liza Jane (2:03)
Cecil and Smitty absolutely nail it here with their 1960 instrumental country take on an old standard.
Joyeux Anniversaire à la Reine du Rock Français!
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| Édith Giovanna Gassion, 19 December 1915 – 11 October 1963 |
I refer of course, to the "Little Sparrow", Édith Piaf, who would have been 96 today, though realistically, everyone knew she was never going to get that far (as it is, she was lucky to have made it almost halfway). You may question my characterization of her in the above title, but to that challenge, I offer her 1956 rendition of a popular Leiber & Stoller composition about the life and death of a leather-clad motorcyclist thug... and what's more Rock 'N' Roll than that?
Also: Happy Birthday wishes to the great Professor Longhair (he'd have been 93) and to Phil Ochs (who'd have been a mere 71, but like our featured artist, has now been gone as long as he was here).
* Pairhops zis ees bettair known to you feelthy Americain peegs undair eets original title, "Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots", as first recorded by ze Cheers.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
SUNDAY MOVIE! SHAKE, RATTLE & ROCK!
Enjoy this full movie free download!
OR GO TO WEBSITE: http://www.archive.org/details/ShakeRattleAndRock
Friday, December 16, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
One Hundred Years Ago Today
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| December 14, 1911- May 1, 1965 |
This Just In
Sugar Pie DeSanto on Fool's Paradise with Rex this Saturday 1-3 PM! See her live at the Bell House in Brooklyn on December 31st with Lee Fields!
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