Tammy (no last name known) was a child recording star in her homeland of Puerto Rico. She has two LP's and a half of her own (one half shared with Julio Angel, the Puerto Rican equivellent of Paul Anka in the 60's). The records are a mixture of popular songs, some traditional music and amazingly rockin' tunes.
I think her best is 'Perro Que Ladra (no muerde)' - a dog that barks does not bite - (pretty much a cover of 'Shaggy Dog').
'Una Chica Ye Ye' is another goodie!
I found the 2 a Go Go LP in a thrift store for .25 cents on my honeymoon, I'd say it was a pretty good deal.
Crayons to Perfume is coming soon to WFMU's Ichiban Soul, hosted by Glynis Ward, DJ girlgroupgirl
When one thinks about great rockabilly records of the late 50's & early 60's, more often than not "Lake Tahoe" does not come to mind.
But that's exactly where Jim Burgett & his band first set up shop at the American Legion hall in 1957.
The boys gained enough notoriety on the scene that Columbia came calling, and in 1961 Burgett released the spooky minor-key ballad "The Living Dead" b/w "Let's Investigate."
After this, Burgett returned to cut two discs on the Modesto, California ORO label that released his first single "I Believe In You" b/w "Live It Up" in February 1960.
These recording sessions produced his arguably most well-known track "Scene Of The Crime" b/w "I Wouldn't Dare" in 1963. The same year saw the release of "Pauline" b/w "This Is The Night."
Burgett's only other major label 45rpm release was " Now I Taste The Tears" b/w "Innocence Is To Blame" on MGM in 1969.
Jim Burgett now lives in Las Vegas, where he still performs on a regular basis.
Today, May 22, marks the 100th anniversary of the day that the immortal Sun Ra first arrived on Earth. To celebrate his centenary, here is a collection of links that will both entertain long time acolytes of the intergalactic one as well as inform those who are just discovering this titan for the ages. First up, you can listen to last Sunday's broadcast on WNYC when David Garland welcomed Michael D. Anderson (aka the Good Doctor and Dr Bop) and WFMU's Irwin Chusid to talk about the legacy of Sun Ra and the new reissues of his music that the two of them are overseeing. An informative and entertaining hour of music and conversation that should not be missed.
Type "Sun Ra" in the search box on YouTube and you will find an endless supply of music and video clips. But here are a few longer videos that will give you a fuller picture of his singular genius. Sun Ra: Brother from Another Planet is a one hour BBC documentary from 2005 directed by Don Letts, an excellent overview of his life and career, featuring interviews with Wayne Kramer, John Sinclair, Archie Shepp, members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, and many others along with lots of vintage performance footage.
Sun-Ra: A Joyful Noise is a 1980 jazz film by Robert Mugge documenting performances by Sun Ra and His Arkestra in Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Baltimore, along with interviews and rehearsal footage.
Sun Ra: Prophet of Music is a half-hour episode of Detroit Black Journal, originally broadcast on WTVS television in 1981.
Space is the Place, filmed in 1972 and released in 1974, is Sun Ra's feature film. An utterly unique blend of science fiction, surrealism, comedy and jazz, Space is the Place is essential viewing for fans of Sun Ra's music and psychotronic movie fans alike. (edit: upon revisiting this post a year later, the YouTube link I originally provided has been removed. I have replaced it with a version of the movie which is split into six parts, below is Part 1).
All of this audio and video should be plenty to keep everyone busy on this most holy of days. But to continue keeping up on all news Sun Ra, bookmark the Sun Ra Arkive and follow it on Facebook. I also recommend a new paperback published by the good folks over at KICKS Books, This Planet is Doomed: The Science Fiction Poetry of Sun Ra, collected from tape recordings and transcriptions culled from the Sun Ra Archives.
Sun Ra left this astral plane on May 30, 1993, but there is no doubt that he is still out there, perhaps living on his native Saturn, watching us from afar, or more likely zigzagging across the universe and spreading his message to interplanetary life in galaxies we mere mortals don't even know about yet.
1 Ferrante & Teicher: Midnight Cowboy 2 Frankie Calen: (Help Me) Telstar 3 Diane Renay: The Company You Keep 4 The Chanters: Bongo, Bongo 5 Bob Crewe: An Angel Is Love 6 The Moons: Gammera 7 The Baby Dolls: Now That I've Lost You 8 Kai Winding feat. Kenny Burrell: Surf Bird 9 The Cheese Cakes: Heading For A Heartbreak 10 Ichabod & The Cranes: Supermarket Of Love 11 The Vampires: The Creep 12 Johnny Thunder: Horror Show 13 The Crystals: My Place 14 Tracey Dey: Any Kind Of Love 15 The Tymes: Street Talk 16 Carmen Taylor: My Son 17 The Archies: The Weatherbee 18 Frankie Valli: Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You 19 The Bob Crewe Generation: The Black Queen's Beads 20 Johnny Cymbal: Robinson Crusoe On Mars 21 Gene Pitney: The Last Two People On Earth 22 Robert Mosley: Goodbye My Lover Goodbye 23 Bobby Shad & The Bad Men: I Want You Back 24 Rita Pavone: Don't Tell Me Not To Love You 25 Declaration Of Independence: Morning Glory Man 26 The Cinderellas: Please Don't Wake Me 27 Reparata & The Delrons: Saturday Night Didn't Happen 28 Quadrangle: She's Too Familiar Now 29 Errma Franklin: Abracadabra 30 Eddie Rambeau: The Train 31 The Cherry People: Don't Hang Me Up Girl 32 Ferrante & Teicher: Lay Lady Lay 33 Gene Pitney: Just One Smile 34 The Shangri: Las: Past, Present And Future 35 Teri Thornton: Why Don't You Love Me 36 Tracey Dey: I Won't Tell 37 Gene Stridel: Where Does That Leave Me 38 Shirley Ellis: I See It, I Like It, I Want It 39 Steve Karmen: Let's Get Down To It 40 The Heatwaves: Nowhere To Go 41 The Unclaimed: Memories Of Green Eyes 42 Diane Christian: It Happened One Night 43 The Brass Ring: Rosemary's Baby 44 Donna Lynn: When Your Heart Rings, Answer (Don't Hang Up On Love) 45 Vinnie Bell: Shindig
Here's the Billboard magazine (10/08/1966) promoting Johnny Dollar's then-new 45rpm recording of Windburn. What tickles me is the reference to "pure country" which is perhaps a little surprising in light of the fact that the recording was positively saturated with the sounds of country fuzztone guitar! And that is, to be sure, a fine thing.
Here's both sides of a solidly rockin' mid-1960s effort from the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Georgia. The top side's a booze-oriented tribute to / rip-off of The Newbeats' big 1964 hit Bread And Butter and the flip's the Little Walter standard.
Here are a couple of news items via the Jet magazine archives (02/24/1955 and 11/03/1955, respectively) detailing wildman Wynonie Harris's clashes with touchy neighbors in Brooklyn and Long Island.
I'd give just about anything to see a photo of the flashing sign on his Long Island lawn reading "The World's Greatest Blues Singer Lives Here." As the great Dizzy Dean once said, "it ain't bragging if you can do it."
Harvey Pekar (and not R. Crumb as I originally said), via Kicks magazine. Thanks to The In Crowd for setting me straight in the comments.
UPDATE: Third and final try...what we see here is R. Crumb's artwork, accompanying a story by Harvey Pekar. Thanks to Matt Fiveash for illuminating me.
1968 - Paramount Pictures - D: Otto Preminger S: Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, Alexandra Hay, Groucho Marx, Frankie Avalon, Fred Clark, Michael Constantine, Frank Gorshin, John Phillip Law, Peter Lawford, Burgess Meredith, George Raft, Caesar Romero, Mickey Rooney, Arnold Stang, Slim Pickens, Richard Kiel, Harry Nilsson.
Now here's something completely different. And by different, I mean different compared to,... well, just about anything I've ever seen. Long left stashed in the Paramount vaults and only wondered about by those who missed it in its initial run, this is Otto Preminger's misguided attempt at one of those "generation gap" films that were becoming more and more prevalent around 1968. The plot is comedic mash-up of hippiesploitation and a gangster movie. Jackie Gleason is a retired mobster living a legit life with his wife (Carol Channing) and their hippie daughter. One day, a mob boss (named "God" and played by Groucho Marx!) sends a couple of guys over to pull Jackie out of retirement for one last hit on a snitch (played by Mickey Rooney). Resistant at first, he eventually relents and gets put in the same prison as Mickey so he can do the hit. But before that can happen, someone slips "the Great One" some LSD, Gleason trips balls, and his whole worldview is blown away. In a sense, it almost becomes a PRO-drug movie if you can believe it! While he's in the slammer, his house becomes a playground for his daughter's hippie friends, and eventually Carol Channing, dressed in full pirate regalia leads the kids in a siege of God's boat. Oh, and did I mention there's musical numbers? Or that it was endorsed by Timothy Leary? Yeah, this is one strange piece of celluloid - worth watching for its jaw-dropping absurdity, the parade of famous Hollywood actors who somehow signed on for this, and its time-capsule quality, but mostly because the scene where Jackie Gleason trips in his prison cell is positively epic.
1964 - Industria Cinematografica Apolo (Brazil) - D/S: Jose Mojica Marins
Today's selection marks the occasion of its creator's 78th birthday. Jose Mojica Marins, better known to the world as Coffin Joe, was born on March 13, 1936, and is still alive and kicking, frequently seen on tv in his native Brazil. He created the Coffin Joe character in 1963, for this film, possibly his greatest work, At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul. Marins described the conception of Coffin Joe in a 2006 interview:
"In a dream saw a figure dragging me to a cemetery. Soon he left me in front of a headstone, there were two dates, of my birth and my death. People at home were very frightened, called a Priest because they thought I was possessed. I woke up screaming, and at that time decided to do a movie unlike anything I had done. He was born at that moment, the character would become a legend: Coffin Joe. The character began to take shape in my mind and in my life."
This was the first Coffin Joe film. It was followed by This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (1967), and, forty years later, Embodiment of Evil (2008), completing what is known as the Coffin Joe Trilogy. He revived Coffin Joe many times over the years, though not always as the central character, in films including Awakening of the Beast (1970), The Bloody Exorcism of Coffin Joe (1974), and Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind (1978).
And now, our feature presentation.
Special bonus feature, Damned: The Strange World of Jose Mojica Marins (2001 documentary)
