Tune in to this Spazztastic tribute to Davy Jones from Music To Spazz By.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Opry Almanac With Roger Miller! (Re-Post)
Opry Almanac on Network Awesome
Ralph Emery hosted Opry Almanac on WSM-TV in Nashville from 1963 - 1966. On this particular episode, guests Roger Miller, Charlie Louvin and Thumbs Carlisle had been out partying the night before. The party is still going on during this early morning appearance on live television.The band includes:
Jimmie Colvard: Guitar
Thumbs Carlisle: Guitar
Beggie Cruiser (Adair): Piano
Bobby Dyson: Fender Bass
Buddy Rogers & Jerry Allison: Drums
Jerry Allison from the Crickets also makes a brief appearance on the show. This may be the only footage in existance of Opry Almanac as most of the master tapes were recorded over or destroyed. All the live commercials, weather and news are here as well as Thumbs Carlisle being played on stage to the Batman Theme!
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Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Big Walter Price
Big Walter Price of Pack Fair & Square fame has passed away at age 97. Via the Houston Press.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Fifty Years Ago This Week In Upstate South Carolina
Ed. note: you can hear Country Earl's radio program under the "Aircheck" section on the right side of this here blog.
Thank You Friends
To all the ladies and gentlemen that made the first Ichiban fundraiser a huge success, thank you!! Special thanks to the Ichiban All-Stars: Takeshi Tadatsu, J.R. Williams, Spike Priggen, Rex, Dave the Spazz, Gaylord Fields, Jukebox Mafia, Dr. Filth, Matt Fiveash, Greg G, Mike Adler, Ted Barron, Chris T, J.W., Julie, Station Manager Ken and Jimmy "The Brain".
And thanks to all you Ichibaners for pledging to keep the obscure hits coming!! You rock.
Big Star - Thank You Friends
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Fool's Paradise
Pledge to WFMU and Fool's Paradise with Rex today from 1-3 PM EST and you could win this fabulous CD!!!
Friday, March 2, 2012
Ichiban One-Liners 3
Arted by Takeshi Tadatsu
Compiled by Debbie D
Compiled by Debbie D
The WFMU fundraiser ends on Sunday. Pledge now and tune in to Chris T from 3-5 PM EST! Don't be an obtuse cretin!! This is your last chance to get Ichiban One-Liners Vol. 3!
Ronny Kay - A Flight For Drums
The Gardenias - Houdini
Los Salvajes - Al Capone
The Trashmen - Church Key
The Sandals - 6 Pak
The Teen Beats - Big Bad Boss Beat
The Pagents - Big Daddy
Albert Collins - I Don't Know
Baby Sticks and the Kingtones - Pigmy
Barney Kessel - Honey Rock
Los Locos Del Ritmo - Morelia
Chuck Gallegos & the Fabulous Cyclones
Billy Davis & the Legends - Spunky Onions
Casual-Aires - Thunderbird
The Chantays - Move It
Dick Dixon and the Roommates - The Caterpillar Crawl
Duke Jenkins - Shake It
The Genteels - Take It Off
The Tornadoes - Shootin' Beavers
The Hollywood Hurricanes - Beavershot
Joe "Guitar" Tubbs - Loaded Guitar
The Hi-Fives - Fujikami The Warrior
I.M. Joe - Ouch
Travis Wammack - Scratchy
Thursday, March 1, 2012
The Crazy And The Cool
Let's have Ichiban's boys of May 2011 set the stage for you.
Homer & Jethro - Ballad Of Roger Miller (mp3)
March Is Roger Miller Month On Ichiban
Roger Miller is one of my all time heros. Second only to Rufus Thomas. Let's get the biggest hit out of the way.
King Of The Road (mp3)
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Fabulous Prizes!!
Tune in and make a pledge to Fool's Paradise this Saturday from 1-3 PM! You could score this new CD! Plus, I will personally thank you live on the air!!
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| $15 or more |
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| Equadors - Sputnik Dance! |
Joe Tex Month, Day 29: Cast the first stone
Here it is, the final day of Joe Tex Month, and we have arrived at Joe Tex's final LP - He Who Is Without Funk Cast the First Stone. After this record, he had a few 12" singles before his untimely death at 49, from a heart attack.
Despite being relatively clean for his entire life, apparently Joe was partying too hard in the late 70s and early 80s. According to Buddy Killen, "During his last four years he staged a marathon of self-abuse. It was as if he was trying to make up for lost time."
Some of the 70s tendency to overindulgence perhaps could explain the inconsistent nature of He Who Is Without Funk.
For the most part the songs are just a generic ode to the power of funk and there's more relentless vamping than camping it up. There's a disco remake of "Hold What You're Got". But there is one true, crazed bit of Texian genius, THE TITLE TRACK. It ties in many of the strands of JT's career and serves as a fitting closer to the month.
There is a woman at a disco. She has been dancing. She's started to sweat. And she's started to stink. The rest of the dancers, repulsed by her body odor, decide to stone her to death to get rid of her foulness. Suddenly Joe appears as some kind of Disco Jesus, and teaches them all a lesson in dancefloor etiquette. He argues that all who enter the disco sweat, and all who sweat get "funky", and so he who is without funk should cast the first stone. "Hit her with the rock!" He challenges. "Bust upside her head if you can!" Remember - this is a man who has been busting people upside their head since his first single. You can't say Joe didn't learn a thing or two in his life in soul.
Unable to argue with this logic, the dancers agree to dance together in stinky peace, and JT leaves them with the 10 commandments of the dancefloor.
And now, because I have been to the mountain this last month, I've come back with those 10 commandments, slightly retranslated to be more Ichiban appropriate. Hey, retranslating scripture to the advantage of the translating agency is common practice, so I figure I'm golden.
BEHOLD & LIVETH BY THESE WORDS, THOU ICHIBANNERS:
"1. If thou did not want to get funky, thou never should have got on the dancefloor.
2. Surely thou kneweth thou wouldeth get funky, if ever thy got on the dancefloor.
3. We all sweateth and doeth get stanky whenever we get on a dancefloor.
4. We should not hate, love thee one another, get on down on the dancefloor.
5. Do not stone, love thee one another, get on down on the dancefloor.
6. Now the time cometh, and so I must goeth - to check on the other dancefloors.
7. When I returneth, I want you all to be getting down on the dancefloor.
8. Behold I cometh when thou not knoweth, so get on down on the dancefloor.
9. The music is funky, and it sure is goodeth, get on down on the dancefloor.
10. Peace be unto thee my people, get on down on the dancefloor.
FUNK UP THE DANCEFLOOR!"
What can be said in response to that but AMEN?
Thanks to all the great Ichiban bloggers and commentators for teaching me so much about my favorite soul artist this month. It's been great to witness the power of an aggregate group of bloggers first-hand.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled jungle 45 of the week, already in progress.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Goin' Out To Hollywood (MP3)
Bill Emerson - Goin' Out To Hollywood
So here's a mighty fine record by Bill Emerson, who lays out the inspired tale of a backwoods country boy with a plan to head west to Hollywood, stoked up on visions of movie stardom, limousines, and flashy Fender guitars.
Is it country, rock & roll, or maybe rockabilly? All of the above, I guess, but to tell you the truth I think it's mostly in the ear of the beholder.
Mad For Ichiban
Chris T. of Aeriel View loves the Ichiban stream so much that he went out and bought five internet radios so that he can listen in nearly every room of his home. Where there is no dedicated internet radio, he uses his stereo or regular radio. This is easily accomplished by using the WFMU phone app.
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| Bathroom |
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| Bedroom |
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| Living Room |
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| Office |
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| Studio |
Chris will go LIVE this Friday, March 2, 3-5 PM looking for your monetary support of WFMU and Ichiban! Tune in and do the Popeye with him!! And please make a pledge to support the obscure hits of the 50s and 60s!
Joe Tex Month Day 28: The Disco Years
After coming out of retirement in 1975, Joe had a string of singles on Dial, but it wasn't until 1978, when he jumped labels one final time, to make his final comeback, the always suprising Bumps and Bruises. The sound is pure late 70s soul, but the songs and themes are vintage JT. While it may not look it, this is probably the best record JT recorded post-Happy Soul. The album was a hit, largely because of its lead track, "Ain't Gonna Bump No More with No Big Fat Woman", the other side of the coin of "Skinny Legs and All". Could Joe find no middle ground in his choice of dance partners?
The rest of the album is filled with similar songs sending up the 70s - Tex style. The songs are back to being wonderfully specific instead of the more generic moments on parts of I Gotcha & Spills the Beans. Several songs are credited to songwriter Benny Lee McGinty, who gets several co-writing credits with Tex on his next two albums.
"Jump Bad" in particular is a classic piece of 70s jive storytelling - it's the tale of Run Down the hustler getting royally whooped upside the head by a grandma who doesn't take kindly to him accosting her in front of the check cashing place. Tex is a comedic virtuoso here, playing Run Down, the Grandma, and the narrator.
"We Held On" is a classic Tex soul country number, with a similar melody to "Games People Play", and it should have been a hit. There's also songs where Joe decides to have an operation to remove his hands and one where one of his buddies dances with a "sissy" while preaches tolerance. Side one never stops giving it up. One major problem - there's only one rap on the whole record, a spoken intro on "There's Something Wrong", but it's not by Joe! Who the heck dares to "rap" on a Joe Tex record but JT?
His second Epic record was Rub Down. Early collaborator James Booker was on the session, and the title track has Joe admitting that he can't dance as good as his old rival James Brown. So the roots are in place, and there are a couple of fine raps, particularly on the freaky slow jam version of "I Gotcha". The songs, however, aren't quite up to snuff overall, and this one fulls into the category of FOR COMPLETISTS ONLY.
JT fittingly returned to Dial for his final LP. More on that tomorrow - the FINAL DAY of Joe Tex Month. Tune in for one more mind boggling piece of wisdom.
28 Rounds and Still Swinging!
Ed. note: "I Mess Up Everything I Get My Hands On", "Leaving You Dinner" (mp3s) Also from Bumps & Bruises.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Joe Tex month, day 27: The Funk Years
Well, Ray Charles must have been right, because in 1972 Joe had his biggest hit yet, "I Gotcha"! This song fully launched Joe into the funk era, topping the R&B chart and hitting #2 on the pop.
The album had a number of "I Gotcha" soundalikes and a few ballads. It's not peak Tex, but it's not a bad record either. I think, however, I prefer Spills the Beans.
Spills the Beans was the last JT album before his temporary retirement. It's more of a return to traditional Tex sound, with a couple of funk numbers thrown in to remind you that this is the "I Gotcha" guy. The more contemporary numbers reflect the "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" style of social consciousness, like "A Mother's Prayer" and the apocalyptic "Living the Last Days".
But more in keeping with Joe's strengths are the hilarious "King Thaddeus", one of the all time great songs about a rooster, right up there with Sam the Sham's "The Cockfight", and, best of all, "Papa's Dream", the song that inspired the album's title and weird cover. It's right up there with "Grandma Mary" in terms of being a great reminiscence of his time growing up, and is tragic and uplifting at the same time.
And it was covered by Johnny Cash, ca. 1975, as "Look at them Beans".
In 1972, on the heels of his biggest hit, Joe retired from the recording industry, changed his name to Jusef Hazziez, and devoted his life to the Muslim faith, spending his time preaching in the service of Elijah Muhammad. However, upon Muhammad's death in 1975, Tex secured permission from the church to get back into the game.
An initial 1975 session yielded some singles and several unreleased tracks, comped together on the rather fine 2 LP collection of rarities Charly issued in the mid 80s, different strokes. This record is well worth tracking down, as it has material dating back from '65 that can only be found here.
Taken together, the 1975 tracks make for an OK album on the level of Spills the Beans. But it wasn't the full bore comeback material he was looking for. That would have to wait until '78, where Joe would prove he still had a virtually inexhaustable supply of crazed novelty songs about women with unusual proportions.
Bonus cut: here's Austin rock and rollers The Hard Feelings, featuring Joe Tex afficianado John Schooley, whomping the stuffing out of "You Said a Bad Word" from I Gotcha.
Bonus click: Domino9, who's been contributing a number of great observations and corrections to Joe Tex month in the comments sections, has been assembling a website devoted to the life and music of the Dapper Rapper. Check it out.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Thanks A Lot!!
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| $75 Pledge |
Thanks to everyone who's already pledged to the WFMU 2012 marathon!! One more week to go. Tune in live this Friday from 3-5 PM when Chris T will be giving away fabulous prizes and thanking you on the air for your pledge. You can help keep Ichiban streaming commercial-free 24 hours a day!!
The Trashmen - Church Key
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
Debbie Does WFMU
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| I have prizes for you! |
Tune in today 3-5 PM EST! This is my one and only marathon show this year. Today is the day to show your support to WFMU's Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban. See you on the radio!
Joe Tex month day 24: The Soul Clan
In 1968 Joe Tex found himself in yet another one of those situtations where he was ahead of his time and involved in something that has interesting echoes in modern day soul, r&b and rap: the Soul Clan.
Originally conceived by Don Covay and Solomon Burke, the original Soul Clan was supposed to be the following individuals: Covay, Burke, JT, Wilson Pickett, and Otis Redding.
The idea was that these huge soul stars would record together, pool their resources, and become a positive force for the black community. They would take the proceeds from their recordings and set up trust funds for their children and for the community. The concept was sort of like an early version of, say, Roc-a-Fella records, and was in part inspired by Sam Cooke's forming of SAR records - the notion that the best way for black entertainers to achieve financial independence by setting up their own collective.
Unfortunately, Otis died in the plane crash, and Pickett backed out, claiming he didn't need to be a part of the Soul Clan, that he had plenty of hits on his own. Redding was replaced by Arthur Conley, Pickett by Ben E. King. The group released their first 45, which was supposed to set them on a pathway to world domination.
But the only thing that ever came of the Soul Clan concept beyond that 45 was a single, dodgy, compilation LP.
The recording itself also has something of the vibe of later hip-hop singles, where rappers guest on each other's records - all the vocals were done around a pre-recorded backing track in separate studios at separate times, with the performers each taking a verse, doing their own schtick and call outs, based around their own hits and personas. The Soul Clan never really met in the studio.
Solomon Burke claimed the Soul Clan 45 was stopped on its run up the charts by mysterious corporate forces, who shut the record down.
"The Soul Clan was deliberately destroyed because we were becoming a power structure. Our interest as a Soul Clan was to build a financial empire, and once that was found out, we were destroyed."
Whether this is true, or if it's more likely that the Soul Clan single didn't top the charts because it depends more on star caché than truly good songs or artistic chemistry, is at this point a matter of speculation. It's still a heck of a thing to get to listen to.
King, Tex, Covay, Pickett and Burke - from an apparently disastrous
attempt at a reunion gig in the early 80s
Peter Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music is the source for this post. The book remains a great read 26 years later.
J.R. Williams' Ichiban One-Liners!!!
Make a pledge of $50 or more to Ichiban before today at 5 PM EST, and you could win this fabulous compilation of Ichiban One-Liners by our own J.R. Williams!! Check the complete track listing HERE!
*Please specify that you would like your pledge to be credited to Ichiban! Otherwise, I won't see it and you won't be entered!!
Help keep us on the air for another year!!
The Tradewinds - Gotcha
Thursday, February 23, 2012
More Golden Gassers!!
Tune in to Music To Spazz By tonight from 9 PM - Midnight when head chimp, Dave the Spazz tap dances for your dollars to keep WFMU on the air for one more year. These are desperate times and desperate times call for desperate measures! Gaylord Fields will personally thank you on the air!!!
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| $75 pledge |
Joe Tex month day 22: The "uptown" albums
After recording his two greasiest records in '68 and '69, the ever attuned-to-the-times Tex switched up his sound for his next two records, going for the slightly more sophisticated soul sounds of the early 70s. Not that JT was going to in any way go all Isaac Hayes on us, but these records do represent an attempt to sophisticate the hard southern soul of JT, with mixed results.
It mostly works on the With Strings and Things album. For one thing, it's only about half transitional - much of it is business as usual. It's like there were some standard Textracks in the can and a slightly more uptown session was recorded to justify the name. Tex even talks about the fact that he's in transition on the album's hit, "You're Right, Ray Charles", which we discussed in the Dapper Dropper post.
There are many other snazzy songs on this LP. The lead track, "Everything Happens on Time" has one of the oddest arrangements of any JT song, and Joe responds with a lyric that is another wild metaphor typical to the man who spent a lot of his time buying books, digging gardens, and picking plums (in the same old soup).
"Take My Baby a Little Love" is a killer mover with many classic lines, like: "I've got to stop being the town clown before I tear myself down!"
And "A Little Friendly Advice" is one of those weird "addressed to a specific individual male with a single syllable first name" songs we've heard throughout Joe Tex Month. It is probably also his best pure country song.
Joe's next album, From the Roots Came the Rapper, is one I have never been able to crack the code on. There is just so much wrong with it. From the outset - look at that weird mod cover - what does that have to do with our down-home, nitty-gritty philosopher?
The album was recorded in Muscle Shoals studios with Eddie Hinton and some of his fellow Shoalers, so the playing is fine, but this really does sound like Joe trying to make an Isaac Hayes album. There's only one original on the record, and one of the two "raps", on the tediously eternal version of Burt Bacharach's "I'll Never Fall in Love Again", is one of the few times I can't connect with a Tex sermon. Sure there's some ringer songwriters - future Ichiban month candidate Jerry Williams Jr. (aka Swamp Dogg), Don Covay, and the Left Rev. Eugene McDaniels, but overall things just feel off.
I suspect that the main reason the record doesn't really launch is because it's produced by Dave Crawford and Brad Shapiro, rather than Joe's main man, Buddy Killen. It's the only record that Killen didn't produce after Joe joined Dial, and it shows. JT sounds more uptight and serious than usual, and the whole thing is just kind of a drag. Anyone who has any insight into why this album is worthwhile is encouraged to open my ears to it.
A new direction was coming, though, as was Joe's biggest hit yet.
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