tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54949827320557415852024-03-04T21:50:33.123-08:00On The RecordRichardSibellohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17543114830570878541noreply@blogger.comBlogger112125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494982732055741585.post-8858399398348232132014-05-30T06:54:00.003-07:002014-05-30T06:54:56.333-07:00BOBBY POWELL - I'M NOT GOING TO CRY OVER SPILLED MILK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There is soul, and then there is SOUL. This is SOUL. <br />
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Most of the really great deep soul records of the 1960s were NOT made by Motown, Stax/Volt, or even the hallowed Atlantic label. The deepest ones were made on small southern labels by artists who played regionally, had one or two hits, and disappeared from the national eye. Dave Marsh (among others) calls these folks "journeyman" soul singers. A more apt name cannot be found. Like journeyman baseball players, they go from team to team (in this case, record label to record label), never becoming a superstar, never becoming well-known, but always dependable, always giving you your money's worth.<br />
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The blind singer-pianist Bobby Powell was probably the greatest soul singer out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Born there in 1941, he was playing piano and singing in the church by the time he was 6. Educated at the Southern University School for the Blind, he decided to pursue music as a career, namely gospel. He knocked around with a few local gospel groups (he may have cut a gospel 45 for the Cherokee label in 1959 credited to "Bobby Powell and The Glorylanders" - the record exists, but I don't have it, and can't confirm it's the same Bobby Powell), but, as always, money was the problem. So Bobby went secular, hooking up with local producer Lionel Whitfield. Whitfield had a small label of his own, Whit Records, and Bobby started cutting soul 45s there.<br />
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Powell's second 45 for Whit, "That Little Girl Of Mine", received some airplay in local markets, but the B-side, Powell's version of the blues standard "See See Rider" (done by Powell as "C. C. Rider") took off in a big way. Whitfield's small label couldn't handle the demand, so the larger Jewel label - owned by Stan "The Record Man" Lewis - stepped in to distribute the record (but Whitfield was shrewd; he wouldn't sell Powell's contract to the larger label, and most of Powell's releases were still on Whit, including "C. C. Rider"). The record actually hit #1 on the Cash Box national R&B chart (though it only got as high as #12 on Billboard's R&B chart), and Bobby Powell was a national R&B star.<br />
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The ride didn't last long. The follow-up on Whit, the excellent "Do Something For Yourself", hit #39 on Billboard's R&B chart, but each successive record sold less and less. It also didn't help that Whitfield and Jewel terminated their distribution deal in late 1966, with the New Orleans-based Dover Records taking over (thereby guaranteeing poorer distribution).<br />
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The quality of Powell's records, however, never wavered. In 1967-1968, Powell put out killer sides like "Question", "I Care", and his version of The Staple Singers' "Why (Am I Treated So Bad)" (and its equally-excellent flip, "Thank You"). Unfortunately, few people outside the southeastern states heard them. To make things even worse, the Atlantic label was riding high with Clarence Carter, whose sound was VERY similar to Powell's.<br />
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Whitfield became dissatisfied with the job Dover was doing in getting Powell's records on the market, and called his old buddy Stan Lewis from Jewel Records to distribute Whit once again. Jewel wasn't interested, since they were doing very well distributing their own 45s on their Ronn and Paula labels, along with the Jewel label itself. However, Lewis reasoned, if Whitfield was interested in selling his label to Jewel, then he might do a deal. Whitfield sold (though he retained a percentage - again, shrewd) and the record featured here was the first issued under the new deal.<br /><br />It absolutely AMAZES me that "I'm Not Going To Cry Over Spilled Milk" wasn't even a MINOR hit. It's simply one of the greatest soul ballads ever recorded. Powell's vocal alone is worth the price of admission, but the horns (which sound like the Memphis Horns, but probably aren't) really put this record over the top. Bobby's lover is leaving him, and he's gonna face the future like a man - whether it kills him or not. But he's DEFINITELY not gonna let her see him cry.<br /><br />I used to play this one a lot on my radio show, and one day I received a phone call from Ron Delesner, he of the LiveNation ticket scam/empire. He told me he LOVED my show, thought I was the best soul DJ he'd ever heard, blah, blah, blah. He went on and on about some of the records I played, especially "I'm Not Going To Cry Over Spilled Milk", and said his good buddy Van Morrison was listening and really loved that one, too. Could I possibly make a CD of my best (obscure) soul tunes for him and for Van and send them to his office? Being young and stupid, I said "SURE!!". But I also saw an opportunity; I went to the "management" at WFDU-FM (I put quotes around the word because the only thing that those bozos "managed" to do was keep the top brass of Fairleigh Dickinson University at bay while they sat around their offices and did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING all day) and told them that RON DELESNER of LiveNation loved my show, and perhaps we could get some underwriting money out of him, since he's a fucking gazillionaire.<br /><br />(Let me explain "underwriting": a commercial radio station charges money for advertisers to put commercials on their station; that's how radio stations make most of their money. In the world of college radio, however, commercials are not allowed. But, there is a loophole; advertisers ARE allowed to "underwrite" an hour of non-commercial programming, and in return they will have a 30-second spot played ONCE an hour, at the TOP of the hour, telling the audience about said underwriter. The underwriter can buy - sorry, "underwrite" - as many hours as it pleases, so you can hear the same spot once every hour. So, really, there's almost NO difference between "underwriting" and "commercials".)<br /><br />"Management" told me to sit tight, and they'd write a formal letter to Mr. Delesner asking for underwriting consideration. I figured since they probably knew more about this than I did, I'd let them handle it. I gave them Ron's office address, and waited for the money to roll in to the station (since I certainly wasn't getting any of it). <br /><br />Weeks passed. Nothing was done.<br /><br />Meanwhile, I finished the CD and burned two copies of it. I called his office to confirm the address, and got Ron right away. He was warm, engaging, said he was looking forward to the CDs, and that I should call him if I needed anything. So I sent them - along with a letter asking him if he was interested in underwriting my little radio show (I had to take the bull by the horns at this point, because of the GREAT job that WFDU-FM "management" was doing in reaching out). <br /><br />Well, I might as well have written "I HOPE YOUR MOTHER DIES OF CANCER" in the letter. I didn't hear back from Ron Delesner, and when I called his office a couple of weeks later, I was told he "wasn't in". I called again the next day, and was told the same thing. I called <i>again </i>a week later and was told that "Mr. Delesner will be out of the office for a few weeks, since he's hanging out on tour with Neil Young" (<i>that</i> sounds like a laugh-a-minute). I got the message; I never called again.<br /><br />So, if Van Morrison decides to cut "I'm Not Going To Cry Over Spilled Milk", you know where he got the idea. I'd also say Ron Delesner owes me something, but what could he give me? Crappy tickets to one of the crappy artists he charges an arm and a leg (and then rapes you with a "service charge") for? No thanks. I'll sit here with my Bobby Powell 45s, which are better than ANY concert that Ron Delesner could promote.<br />
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To listen to more of this great soul singer, get his greatest hits <a href="http://www.oldies.com/product-view/57796O.html">here</a>.<br />
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Bobby Powell - I'm Not Going To Cry Over Spilled Milk (Whit 6900) - 1969<br />
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They called her The Blonde Bombshell. She was a real piece of, uh, Florida sunshine.....dated Bobby Darin for a couple of years, drove the men wild everywhere she went.....then suddenly retired.....ladies and germs, I give you Jo Ann Campbell.<br />
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Born on July 20, 1938, in Jacksonville, Florida, Jo Ann entered music school at the age of four. By the time she reached high school, she was an accomplished dancer and was also the drum majorette for her school's band. At 16, she traveled to Europe with the USO as a dancer, and upon her return moved to New York and became a member of the Johnny Conrad Dancers, who often made appearances on the Colgate Comedy Hour and Milton Berle's show.<br />
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But music was still in her in her blood, and in 1956 Jo Ann signed with Point Records (a division of RKO Pictures) and released her first single - "Where Ever You Go"/"I'm Coming Home Late Tonight". The record flopped, but Jo Ann's good looks got her noticed by Alan Freed, who put her on his stage shows and introduced her to several cronies of his, like Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman.<br />
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Buchanan and Goodman were, of course, riding high with their series of "flying saucer" novelty break-in 45s, and were looking to expand their music business activities. They formed several record labels, a publishing house, and began scouting new talent. When they saw Jo Ann, they immediately signed her to their newly-formed Eldorado label in late 1956. Dickie Goodman wrote the A-side of the first single, "Forever Young", but Jo Ann, who had been writing her own material, contributed the rockin' "Come On Baby" for the flip. The record got good airplay on Freed's show on WINS in early 1957, and was a strong seller in the New York area, though it never broke nationally. After one more single on Eldorado, Buchanan and Goodman split up their partnership and folded the label.<br />
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Lucky for Jo Ann that she had good connections. Eldorado was distributed by George Goldner, the mastermind behind most of the great New York doo-wop labels like Gee, Rama, Roulette, End, Tee Gee, Mark-X, Juanita and a dozen others. Goldner liked Jo Ann's style, and it didn't hurt that his buddy Alan Freed (not to mention Jocko Henderson) was spinning her records, so he signed her to his Gone label in late 1957.<br />
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In November, 1957, Jo Ann's first Gone disk, "Wait A Minute", started burning up the airwaves in New York. Over the next two years, Jo Ann released a series of first-rate 45s, such as "You're Driving Me Mad", "Happy New Year Baby" (written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield), "You-oo", and the two-sider "Mama (Can I Go Out Tonight)" (written by Bo Diddley) backed with Jo Ann's own "Nervous".<br />
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By late 1959, with the payola scandals knocking Alan Freed out of the picture, and George Goldner's gambling problem forcing him to sell Gone (and End, and Roulette, and a dozen other labels) to Morris Levy, it was time to make a move. She signed with ABC-Paramount in 1960, and immediately had her first national chart hit with "A Kookie Little Paradise". The flip side, "Bobby Bobby Bobby", was obviously a tribute to her then-beau (though soon-to-be-ex-beau) Bobby Darin. Unfortunately, ABC usually saddled Jo Ann with sugary "pop" material, and the few times she recorded really good stuff (like her own tune "Duane", a love song to Duane Eddy, complete with "twangy" guitar), the label didn't promote it properly. She did get a featured spot in the Joey Dee film <i>Hey! Let's Twist</i> singing "Let Me Do My Twist" (see the clip <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMe3FGzJnac">here</a> - WOW!), but by mid-1962 her records were no longer selling, and after two years Jo Ann left ABC-Paramount behind her.<br />
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Signing with Cameo Records out of Philadelphia, she scored her biggest all-time hit right out of the box, with "I'm The Girl From Wolverton Mountain" (an answer record to Claude King's "Wolverton Mountain", obviously). But once again, Jo Ann's career took another shot in the foot when the follow-up, "Let Me Do It My Way", failed to chart.<br />
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The record featured here was Jo Ann's last 45 under her own name, and it was her best. "Mother, Please!" was based on a popular commercial (at the time) for Anacin pain relief, written by Kal Mann and Dave Appell. Appell's killer band (and the Cameo-Parkway studio group) The Applejacks back up Jo Ann on her super-tough vocal, with super-tough lyrics describing a girl who longs to get out there and, uh, "live a little", despite the warnings from her irritable mother about how rotten all men are - "You know I've got to take love and live a little/and what will be, will be/sure, you feel tense and irritable/but don't take it out on me!" Sounds like Mother was a wild child who got knocked up and daddy ran off, leaving her to raise little Jo Ann with the knowledge that all men are creeps (and I'm sure Mom is "tense and irritable" for more reasons than having a daughter that won't listen to her).<br />
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After this 45, Jo Ann got married to record producer (and former member of her backing band) Troy Seals. They teamed up to make a few 45s as "Jo Ann and Troy" for Atlantic in 1964-1965 (and even had a minor hit with "I Found A Love Oh What A Love"). They also made several appearances on Dick Clark's "Where The Action Is" in 1965, but early in 1966, Jo Ann decided to retire from the music business and raise a family, and she's never looked back. She's still around, but has decided to have her legacy speak for itself. We miss you, Blonde Bombshell.<br />
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Jo Ann Campbell - Mother, Please! (Cameo 249) - 1963<br />
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Ah, yes, we return to those heady days of 1963, and another bit of lunacy from the Cleopatra label, which I've discussed at great length <a href="http://ontherecordshow.blogspot.com/2011/02/kar-simone-i-want.html">before</a>. <br />
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I literally have no idea what to say about this one. I can't even understand the words. Only thing I CAN say is that it's got a good beat, it's easy to dance to, and the personnel on this record are Kenny Clay on "lead" (you can't really say he's singing here), Timmy Scudder, Butch Henry, and Melvin Edwards. Oh, and since the last post about Cleopatra Records, I found out that the label was out of Hazlet, NJ (exit 117 on the Parkway to my fellow New Jerseyans), NOT New York. KIND OF LIKE THE 2014 SUPER BOWL.<br />
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The Tabbys - Hong Kong Baby (Cleopatra 1) - 1963<br />
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HEY!!! Remember me???<br />
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Been a busy boy these past few months - got a new (and better) job, and I got engaged to my long-time girlfriend!! Planning the wedding now, but I had a few hours on my hands today, so....<br />
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I always found it fascinating (and fun) when classic rock and rollers (as opposed to classic rockers) remade songs by other classic rock and rollers. Examples - Elvis remaking Chuck Berry's "Promised Land" in 1974, Buddy Holly remaking "Bo Diddley" or Chuck's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", and Jerry Lee Lewis remaking.....well, <i>anything</i>.<br />
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It's been written many times over the years how Jerry refers to himself as a "stylist" - in other words, he can take ANY song and tailor it to his particular style. Very, very few artists can pull this off - Elvis and Ray Charles are the only other examples I can think of right now. Jerry Lee usually gets overlooked because, well, he's crazy as a loon, but check out the material he's recorded over the years - he's remade stuff from Ray Charles, honky-tonk classics like "You Win Again", old folk tunes like "Carry Me Back To Old Virginny", Motown (he did a killer - pardon the wording - version of Barrett Strong's "Money" in 1961), blues tunes like "Hi-Heel Sneakers" - and it ALL sounds like the songs were written specifically for Jerry Lee.<br />
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The Killer doesn't even care if it's someone else's signature song. I mean, when someone says "Good Golly Miss Molly", you immediately think of Little Richard (even though he didn't have the original released version - The Valiants released theirs a couple of months before Richard). Jerry Lee doesn't give a shit what you think. He's gonna do "Good Golly Miss Molly", he's gonna do it <i>his</i> way, and you're gonna love it anyway!<br />
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While it doesn't match Little Richard for sheer rockin' mania, Jerry Lee's version does have a certain energy of its own, especially with his semi-hiccuping vocals and the great drumming (probably by J. M. Van Eaton). Even the chorus in the background adds to it!<br />
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Definitely the second best version ever. Unless you ask Jerry Lee, of course.<br />
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Jerry Lee Lewis - Good Golly Miss Molly (Sun 382) - 1962<br />
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In. Tense.<br />
<br />
I don't know anything about Chris Morgan and The Togas, other than the fact that this was their second out of two singles (their first, a version of Bob Dylan's "Baby, I'm In The Mood For You", was simply credited to "The Togas") and that Chris Morgan later hooked up with Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers who produced a pair of Bell label 45s for Chris in 1969. Also, they were probably from California.<br />
<br />
Oh, and I know one other thing - when I first heard this on some college station I swore that it was The Animals. You will, too.<br />
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Chris Morgan and The Togas - Would You Believe (Love Is Dead) (Challenge 59330) - 1966<br />
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As the saying goes, there's no such thing as a bad title for a country song - because the worse it is, the better. After all, this is a genre that has given us sweet melodies with names like "If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body, Would You Hold It Against Me", "You're The Reason Our Kids Are Ugly", "I'm Gonna Hire A Wino To Decorate Our Home", and the immortal "Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart".<br />
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Those of you keeping score, add this one to the list. I first heard this on an old reel-to-reel tape my father had (<a href="http://ontherecordshow.blogspot.com/2011/01/charlie-louvin-i-dont-want-it.html">remember?</a>) and have been obsessed with it ever since. Turns out Lamar Morris was the lead guitarist for The Bama Band, who were Hank Williams, Jr.'s backing group. I'm guessing Hank had some pull with MGM, and got his buddy Lamar a contract. For his first 45, Lamar wrote "Kleenex" with Mack Vickery, who would go on to write a few of Jerry Lee Lewis' 1970s country hits (including the just plain dirty "Meat Man"). If not for anything else, "Kleenex" should be considered a great country 45 for its opening lines - "You can send me a box of Kleenex/Make it the biggest one they've got/'Cause since it seems I'm gonna be your ex/I know I'm gonna cry a lot".<br />
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Now, anyone who rhymes "Kleenex" with "your ex" is either a genius or a loony. I'm going with loony here. Let's face it, you couldn't have too great a stronghold on reality if you were touring with Hank, Jr. in the 60s and 70s, writing with a guy who once put out a live LP from a women's prison (and was one of Jerry Lee's best buddies, albeit one whom Jerry Lee never shot), AND allowed your first solo session to be produced by the truly certifiable Jack Clement (who had a gigantic swing installed in his living room and wrote the aforementioned "Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart"). But, hey, so what? If we only allowed sane individuals to make records, there wouldn't be any <i>good</i> ones.<br />
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By the by, Lamar's still alive and kickin'! Check out his <a href="http://www.lamarmorris.com/?pg=home">website</a>.<br />
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Lamar Morris - Send Me A Box Of Kleenex (MGM 13586) - 1966<br />
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"Best band I ever hired" - Casey Kasem.<br />
<br />
Thee Midniters. The best band to ever come out of East L.A. Unfortunately, their records were seldom heard OUTSIDE of East L.A. But for those lucky folks who saw them live, or owned their records, these guys were unbeatable. They could do it ALL -rock any house, croon sweet ballads, raise the roof with a little soul, even get political (dig up their "The Ballad Of Cesar Chavez" 45 for that). In East L. A., these guys were like the BEATLES.<br />
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The group started out in the early 60s, evolving from a band known as The Gentiles (!!!) and playing local clubs and entering contests known as "Battle Of The Bands". They called themselves The Midnighters, but soon changed their name to THEE Midniters to avoid getting sued by Hank Ballard and his group of Midnighters. In those days, the group wore masks over their eyes for that extra air of mystery. The group's lead singers were Little Willie Garcia (aka Little Willie G) and Lil' Ray Jimenez. Jimenez left in 1964 to go solo (and made a single for the Impact label), but Little Willie G soldiered on.<br />
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The group's fortunes changed in late 1964 when one of their live shows was recorded by their manager, Eddie Torres, who got the group a deal with local L. A. label Chattahoochee Records. One of the group's signature songs was the old Chris Kenner tune "Land Of 1000 Dances", which the group released as their first single. With the support of DJ's like Huggy Boy (Dick Hugg) on KRLA and Godfrey on KTYM, the disc got heavy airplay. However, at almost exactly the same time, another group from East L.A., Cannibal and The Headhunters, released their version, which eventually became the bigger hit. As for who came up with the "naaah, na-na-na-naaah" riff (which is not on Kenner's version), we'll probably never know. Little Willie G says he came up with it, but according to Bob Shannon and John Javna's book <i>Behind The Hits</i>, Frankie "Cannibal" Garcia (no relation to Willie G) forgot the words one night and improvised the lick on the spot. Who knows? Who cares? Despite losing the hit to Cannibal, "Land Of 1000 Dances" became the biggest hit Thee Midniters ever had, hitting #67 nationally.<br />
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After several follow-ups on Chattahoochee (including "Whittier Blvd.", a wild instrumental, and the killer garage-rock 45 "I Found A Peanut"), manager Eddie Torres formed his own label, Whittier Records, in early 1966. Thee Midniters immediately had a big hit in L.A. with the label's first release, "Love, Special Delivery", and Whittier was on its way, though on a small scale - they didn't have the distribution of a larger label, so the records pretty much stayed in the L.A. area.<br />
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The 45 I'm blogging about now has a weird history. In early 1967 the group released their fourth single for Whittier - "The Walking Song (Shouldn't You Wonder)"/"Never Knew I Had It So Bad". Even though "The Walking Song" was the A-side, "Never Knew I Had It So Bad" started getting big-time spins in L.A., so Eddie Torres re-released "Never Knew I Had It So Bad" as an A-side, and put the group's version of Solomon Burke's "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" on the flip. That was kind of a strange move, because usually a canny label boss would put a song on the flip that was one of <i>his</i> copyrights, to make even more money off of a hit record (this is why sometimes you find old 45s with alternate B-sides). But Eddie Torres apparently didn't care or didn't know any better.<br />
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In either case, I'm certainly glad he did what he did, because this version of "Everybody Needs Somebody" puts an ass-whipping on every other recording of it (yes, <i>including</i> Wilson Pickett's, though not by much)!! Supposedly recorded live (though who knows - many times it was studio cuts with audience noise dubbed in), the band is absolutely ON FIRE and at its garagiest and grungiest, with Little Willie G contributing one of his most soulful vocals ever!!<br />
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Thee Midniters went on from there, but with Little Willie G going solo in late 1968, the group lost a lot of its drive. That combined with the frustration of not having national success (and the money that came with it) caused the group to call it quits in 1969.<br /><br />For many years, Thee Midniters' records remained buried in the L.A. scrap heap, and the group, though a local legend, were all but forgotten about. But over the years, this group has gotten the respect it so richly deserves. Norton has reissued several of their singles and an LP called <i>In Thee Midnite Hour</i>, but if you really want to get the full effect of the incredible range of these guys, check out the Micro Werks CD box set called <i>Thee Complete Midniters</i> (though, be forewarned, since the master tapes were lost long ago, and vinyl copies had to be used, the sound isn't quite CD-quality).<br />
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If you want to hear more of Thee Midniters (and other East L.A. groups), check out this AMAZING <a href="http://wwwyoufoundthateastsidesoundcom.blogspot.com/">blog</a>.<br />
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Thee Midniters - Everybody Needs Somebody (Whittier 504) - 1967 <br />
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I am more than happy to say that my buddy John Clemente has finally released the new, expanded edition of his book "Girl Groups: Fabulous Females Who Rocked The World"! So in honor of John (and girl group aficionados throughout the world), I'll blog one of the toughest, coolest girl group records of all time - "I'm Gonna Steal Your Boyfriend" by The Teardrops.<br />
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The group, consisting of Wanda "Wendy" Sheriff, Dorothy "Sunny" Dyer, Pat "Punkin" Strunk, and Linda "Lin" Schroeder, started in Cincinnati in 1961. Dorothy, Pat and Linda all went to the same high school, and Dorothy and Linda soon formed a duo, singing in local parks and teen hangouts. One night, they went to a spot called The Tulu Club, a place sponsored by local radio station WSAI, and run by one of their DJ's, Ron Britton. As the band was playing onstage, Dorothy and Linda began singing along. The bandleader heard them and asked them to come up on stage to sing with them (today, the musician's union would put the kibosh on that). They were such a hit that they decided to form a group and get into the music business. They recruited Pat Strunk a short time later, and they worked as a trio for a little while, playing teen dance clubs in and around Cincinnati.<br />
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At one gig, the Teardrops were booked on the same bill as a band called The Matadors, whose guitarist, Bud Reneau, was co-owner of a small record label called Saxony Records. After the show, he called his partner, Paul Trefzger, to tell him about this great girl group he'd just played a gig with. Soon the trio was signed to Saxony, and shortly afterward they were joined by a fourth member - Wanda Sheriff. Wanda's hobby was hairdressing, and
if you've ever seen pictures of The Teardrops (there are quite a number
in John's book), the first thing you'll notice is the group's wild
hairdos, with Wanda's being the wildest of all!<br />
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In early September of 1964, the Teardrops had their first session at the legendary King Records Studios, and the first single from the session was "Tonight I'm Gonna Fall In Love Again"/"That's Why I'll Get By". "Tonight....", with Linda Schroeder on lead, became a huge hit in Cinncy, and the group was on its way to the big time, touring all over Ohio and Kentucky while the DJs in Cincinnati wore out their needles on the Saxony 45.<br />
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But that's not the record I'm featuring here......their follow-up, in early 1965, is the pick for this blog post - "I'm Gonna Steal Your Boyfriend". Dorothy Dyer took the lead on this one, with one of the toughest, bitchiest vocals this side of the Real Housewives of New Jersey. Starting with handclaps and an irresistible "doom-bop-a-dooji-bop, whoa-ho", the record roars in like an angry dad picking up his teenage daughter from a frat party. Basically, the singer is pissed off because she sees her best friend treating her man like dirt and decides, "screw her, he's gonna be mine" - and is <i>proud</i> of it! Again, the record got some airplay in the Cincinnati area, but the record didn't sell as well as its predecessor - possibly because Trefzger decided to change the label design from something accessible (a nice light blue label with a large stylized "S" at the top) to something dark, obscure, and just plain <i>plain</i> (see the pic above).<br />
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The group fared better with their third single, "Tears Come Tumbling", which was such a huge hit in the midwest (and Philadelphia and Boston) in late 1965, that Trefzger and Reneau leased the record to Musicor, who released it in early '66. Despite all the airplay, the record never charted on a national level. The group cut one more single for Musicor, "I Will Love You Dear Forever", which flopped completely (though Trefzger re-released it on his reactivated Saxony label in 1993). The group soldiered on for a while, playing the Cincinnati club circuit as members came and went, but decided to call it quits in 1969.<br />
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The Teardrops were probably one of the best "girl groups" you've never heard of (and of course the idiots at Rhino completely missed the boat by not including them on their girl groups box - SHAME on you, Sheryl Farber and Gary Stewart). But you can become very familiar with their material easily - Saxony Records is still doing business, and you can buy Teardrops CD's (and even original 45s!!) on their <a href="http://www.saxonyrecordcompany.com/for-sale.html">website</a>. <br />
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A lot of the research (okay, ALL of the research) for the factoids presented in this blog post was done by my good buddy John Clemente, and you CANNOT call yourself a girl group enthusiast unless you have a copy of his book "Girl Groups: Fabulous Females Who Rocked The World". Even if you have the one from a few years ago, you need to buy this new edition. First of all, it's THREE TIMES as thick as the old book, has MANY more articles on many more artists, plus there's a TON of rare and cool pix crammed in there!! You can get it <a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000539165/Girl-Groups.aspx">here</a>. So buy the book. Now. I said NOW!!! <br />
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The Teardrops - I'm Gonna Steal Your Boyfriend (Saxony 1008) - 1965
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I recently picked up a whole bunch of blues 45s on the Excello label from an online seller in Texas. Got 'em on the cheap, too! The great thing about old blues 45s is that they are like cheeseburgers - they're basically all the same, but they're always good. You just wouldn't want to live on a steady diet of 'em....<br />
<br />
Anyway, pretty much all the Excello 45s in the lot were by three artists - Lonesome Sundown, Lazy Lester, and Lightnin' Slim. I already had a half-dozen Lightnin' Slim Excello 45s, but he must have made a million of 'em because no matter how many I get, there's always a whole lot more that I don't have. There were a number of Lightnin's good ones in this bunch - "Tom Cat Blues", "Winter Time Blues", "I Just Don't Know" and this one, from early 1963. I threw it on the ol' Thorens TD124 and let 'er rip, and got my HEAD BLOWN OFF! Not only is the band chugging out a bone-crushing shuffle, and not only is Lightnin' Slim singing like he wants to win First Runner-Up for the Jimmy Reed Award For Mumblin', but the one lyric I can clearly make out is such a killer that I'm surprised Willie Dixon didn't write it first: "I'm so EVIL, pretty baby, my SHADOW'S scared to follow me!"<br />
<br />
The question then became: why was Lightnin' Slim not at least as well-known as Muddy, Wolf, Sonny Boy and those other famed blues cats?<br />
<br />
So I did a little research. Lightnin' Slim (real name: Otis Hicks, 1913-1974) made his first records for Louisiana producer/label owner Jay D. Miller (who would figure prominently in the Excello Records story and also run the infamous Reb Rebel label, which released pro-segregation recordings throughout the late 60s) in 1954. Miller had a label called Feature Records, which released Lightnin's "Bad Luck Blues", and it became a local hit. After releasing two more singles on Feature, Jay Miller realized there was quite a market for blues recordings (up to that point, most of the 45s on Feature were country records), but also realized that running a label was becoming a pain in the ass. So he folded Feature in early 1955 and leased Lightnin' Slim's next record to Johnny Vincent's Ace label. I'm guessing Johnny wasn't exactly forthcoming with the cash generated from Lightnin's record, because Miller ended up making a deal with Ernie Young's Excello Records as an independent producer - Miller would make records in his studio in Crowley, LA, and Excello would press, release and distribute them.<br />
<br />
Lightnin' Slim debuted on Excello with "Lightnin' Blues" in late 1955. It sold well throughout the South, and Jay Miller was in business. He continued with many more successful 45s (and 78s) by Lightnin'. In 1956 Miller added Lonesome Sundown and Lazy Lester to his roster of blues artists, and it was around this time that Lightnin' Slim started bringing his brother-in-law to his sessions, a guy named James Moore (who would later become famous as Slim Harpo).<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, while Excello was one of the biggest labels in the South, they didn't have a national distribution network. While you could find Excello product in almost every record shop from Florida to southern Indiana to Texas, you'd be hard-pressed to find Excello 45s anywhere else (at least, until the early 1960s, that is). You <i>could</i> order Excello 45s through the mail (did I mention Ernie Young also owned Ernie's Record Mart, one of the biggest mail-order record houses in the country?) but back in those days, mail-order sales weren't charted by <i>Billboard</i> magazine. Plus, let's face it, you weren't gonna hear Lazy Lester or Lightnin' Slim on the radio unless you were in the South (the Chess brothers, up north in Chicago, circumvented this problem by buying a station, WVON, and, to be fair, they also had a fantastic rapport - read: payola - with other Chicago stations and Alan Freed, who pushed Chess product in Cleveland and New York). So Lightnin' Slim became a phenomenon in the southern states, but never went national (and international) on the level of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Sonny Boy Williamson. Which is unfortunate, because Lightnin' Slim's records are highly prized by those in the know, and some blues historians rank him right up there with Muddy and Wolf.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, Lightnin' didn't make much money in the deal with Jay Miller and Excello (big surprise there), so he stopped making records in 1966 and moved to Michigan to work in a foundry casting metal for auto parts. Fortunately, he was re-discovered by some blues freaks in 1970 and he re-signed with Excello (this time without Jay Miller) and began making LPs for them, spending the rest of his life touring in the US and Europe in blues festivals.<br />
<br />
Lightnin' Slim died from stomach cancer on July 27, 1974, aged 61. <br />
<br />
Those of you who dig the blues, pick up on some Lightnin' Slim. You won't be disappointed.<br />
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Lightnin' Slim - I'm Evil (Excello 2228) - 1963 <br />
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One of the great mystery singles out of Detroit....on the label that gave Motown a serious run for its money for a few years in the mid 1960s.<br />
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Since I can't tell you anything about Juanita Williams, I'll tell you about Golden World Records, and its sister labels Wingate and Ric Tic. I promise, it's a good story.<br />
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Golden World Records was started in 1961 by Detroit businessman Eddie Wingate and his partner, Jo Anne Bratton. Wingate was a known wheeler-dealer about town, and by the early 60s owned a taxicab company, several cafes, a motel and, eventually, Detroit's most famous supper club, The Twenty Grand. In fact, he was so well-known within Detroit that Berry Gordy, shortly after forming Motown, asked Wingate to be his business partner. Eddie turned him down flat, figuring he could do what Berry was doing and make all the money for himself!<br />
<br />
By January, 1962, Golden World had its first release - "I Wonder" by Sue Perrin. For the next year and a half, Golden World (and its subsidiary Ric Tic) would release eight singles, none of them even coming close to being a hit - not even in Detroit. One reason for this may have been that they weren't Detroit records - Wingate did all of those early recordings in New York City, mainly because he couldn't find studio musicians in Detroit that were up to his standards. But the talent pool must have gotten better by the summer of 1963, because that's when Wingate decided to record exclusively in Detroit. Wingate redesigned the label art for his records and started a new numbering system for his catalog (1962-1963 Golden World 45s were in a 100 series - the new system started at 1). In September, 1963, the revamped Golden World released its first single - Willie Kendrick's "Take This Train". But, despite some good releases, Wingate's companies still didn't have anything resembling a hit.<br />
<br />
Enter The Reflections. A white doo-wop group from Detroit, they had a smash hit with their first waxing for Golden World - "(Just Like) Romeo And Juliet". The record sold close to a million copies, and Eddie Wingate was in the money. The first thing Eddie did was form a new label and name it after himself - Wingate Records. The second thing he did was build his own recording studio, called Golden World.<br />
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Here's where it gets interesting: Wingate was always on the lookout for the best musicians in Detroit, and some great musicians came to Golden World from an unlikely source - Motown Records. Seems that Berry Gordy, Jr. was a bit stingy when it came to paying his house band, so whenever they got a chance, The Funk Brothers would lay down tracks for Eddie Wingate at Golden World. It didn't take long for Gordy to find out what was going on (hell, all he had to do was listen to some Golden World/Ric-Tic 45s) and, the next time the Funk Bros. came to Motown to play, he fined them $100 each. Eddie Wingate got wind of this and, according to legend, crashed the Motown Christmas party and paid the guys back double on the spot!<br />
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Gordy had good reason to be angry - not only did Wingate make him look like a fool at his own office party, but Golden World's sound was getting a little too close for Motown's comfort. Not just the sound; Wingate even had singers who <i>sounded</i> like established Motown artists. Motown had Diana Ross, Wingate had Barbara Mercer ("Hey!!", "Doin' Things Together With You"). Motown had Little Stevie Wonder, Wingate had Little Carl Carlton ("Nothin' No Sweeter Than Love"). Motown had Marvin Gaye, Wingate had J. J. Barnes ("Say It"). That's not even counting Edwin Starr, who made some of the best non-Motown Motown 45s for Ric-Tic in 1965-1966. The competition was too fierce; something had to be done.<br />
<br />
Gordy finally set up a meeting in September 1966, and made Wingate an offer he couldn't refuse; a reputed $1 million for the studio, the house publishing company (Myto Music) and the entire artist roster of Golden World and Wingate (which wasn't much at that point), PLUS Edwin Starr's contract. Eddie was allowed to keep the Ric-Tic label active (where the hits continued with artists such as The Fantastic Four, The Detroit Emeralds and The Flaming Ember), but closed Golden World and Wingate Records.<br />
<br />
Apparently, around 1968 Eddie Wingate got tired of the record biz, and called on Berry Gordy once again. Gordy bought out what was left of Wingate's empire (though he only got the Fantastic Four out of the deal) and the Golden World/Wingate/Ric-Tic label family was no more.<br />
<br />
The Juanita Williams 45 above (remember what I was talking about originally?) is a great example of the way Wingate operated - a high-quality production by a great singer singing a great song, but six months later you'd find yourself asking "whatever happened to....?" I don't know what happened to Juanita Williams, but she (and Eddie Wingate) made one hell of a good record here.<br />
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NOTE: I woulda posted this A LOT sooner, but DivShare apparently decided to hire lobotomized monkeys to oversee their servers and I couldn't upload the audio file. Honestly, DivShare, you have ONE job - to store mp3's. If this is too hard for you, you should shut down and refund my money. Morons.<br />
<br />
Juanita Williams - Baby Boy (Golden World 18) - 1964<br />
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Once again, Wikipedia is good for a laugh. They seem to think that Hank Williams, Jr. spent the first ten years of his career imitating his dad. Really, Wikipedia? Have you LISTENED to those records? Yes, he RECORDED a lot of his father's songs, but he didn't really sound like Hank Sr. In fact, I actually prefer the early singles to the stuff Bocephus did later (when he became an "outlaw" country singer and a shill for Monday Night Football).<br />
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Hank Jr. seems to have been around forever, and there's a good reason - he got an incredibly early start, making his first records for MGM in late 1963 at age 14, and had his first hit in early 1964 with a remake of his dad's old hit "Long Gone Lonesome Blues". When listening to the record I'm blogging about today, remember that Hank Jr. was SIXTEEN YEARS OLD when he recorded it.<br />
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Sixteen. He already sounds 40 when he sings the opening line - "Down at work it's gettin' bad/It's gettin' kinda rough as a cob/My boss done told me/better get my mind back on my job". He probably WAS sixteen going on 40 at that point, with a domineering mother trying to push Hank Jr. into pale imitations of his father's music, without being able to assert himself legally and break away from the path his mother set him on (he finally got away from her in the early 1970s).<br />
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In any case, I just wanted to post this because it's a cool country number (written by John D. Loudermilk) with bluesy guitar licks and great drums. And no rowdy friends. <br />
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Hank Williams, Jr. - You're Ruinin' My Life (MGM 13392) - 1965<br />
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Wow! Has it really been a month since I blogged last? Damn work keeps getting in the way......<br />
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Anyway, I thought I'd throw a curve here and spotlight an LP track instead of a 45 (though this track SHOULDA been on a 7-inch slab o' waxy goodness). It's by a group that were called the M&M boys, the Maggs, Mag Men, etc., but they were officially known as The Magnificent Men - and magnificent they were.<br />
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The term "blue-eyed soul" gets thrown about quite a bit - I've heard it used in reference to everyone from David Bowie to Scott Walker to Frank Sinatra (in fact, if you want a good laugh, check out Wikipedia's entry for "Category: Blue Eyed Soul Singers"). But the term was coined for white singers who were singing in the new soul style of the 1960s - acts like Wayne Cochran, The Rascals, Ronnie Milsap, Roy Head, Len Barry, The O'Kaysions, The Shades Of Blue, The Soul Survivors and, of course, The Righteous Brothers, who were probably the first act to have that tag appended to them. But the best blue-eyed soul act of all was The Magnificent Men, from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They had almost everything - TWO fantastic lead singers (David Bupp and Buddy King) who also wrote much of their material, a steady leader in drummer Bob "Puff" Angelucci, and the rest of the guys (Jim Seville, Tom Hoover - later replaced by Billy Richter, Terry Crousore and Tom Pane) were absolute killer instrumentalists and singers. They were the FIRST white act to headline at the Apollo Theater (and James Brown himself was so impressed that he jumped up on stage with them for one 45-minute set). They also played landmarks of the chitlin' circuit like the Howard Theater in Washington, D. C. and the Uptown Theater in Philadelphia (where they recorded their legendary live LP). Unfortunately, they were signed to Capitol Records, who literally had no idea what to do with them.<br />
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The group was formed in the early 1960s from the remains of two rather large (and racially mixed) bands - the seven-member Del-Chords (who had a great 45 called "Your Mommy Lied To Your Daddy") and the nine-piece Endells (who had a semi-hit in Philadelphia called "Vicky"). When several of the white members from both groups started jamming together, they formed a third group, calling themselves The Magnificent Seven. They also started getting a lot more gigs, since booking agents were a bit wary of hiring their old bands because they were racially integrated.<br />
<br />
They soon signed with Capitol, and changed their name to The Magnificent Men. Their first single, "Peace Of Mind", written by Bupp and King, was a top ten R&B hit in Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago. The follow-up, "Maybe, Maybe Baby", got airplay in New York on WMCA and got the Mag Men invited to the Apollo as headliners.<br />
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But on a national level, nobody knew who these guys were. Despite the regional success of their first two 45s, neither of them charted nationally, on either the pop or R&B charts (in fact, they only charted twice in their whole career, with "I Could Be So Happy", which hit #93 pop, and "Sweet Soul Medley", taken from the live LP, which was their biggest pop hit at #90. They never hit the national R&B chart). Their first two LPs, <i>The Magnificent Men</i> and <i>Live!</i>, were decent sellers, but again, neither one charted.<br />
<br />
In October, 1967, the group decided to travel to Chicago to try and change their fortunes, working with producer Carl Davis and arranger Sonny Sanders on a session. Unfortunately, only ONE song was released from that session, and this was it. "Nobody Treats Me The Way You Do" was written by Marvin Smith, lead singer of The Artistics (who the Mag Men patterned their harmonies after) and is one of the finest examples of blue-eyed soul - hell, just SOUL - in existence. <br />
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Capitol couldn't have cared less. After two LPs and a bunch of 45s that didn't chart, the group's welcome was wearing thin. So Capitol pushed the group towards what used to be called "supper-club soul" - standards with a slightly soulful bent. This direction came to fruition on the group's third Capitol LP, <i>The World Of Soul</i>, an uneven album in which great group originals such as "So Much Love Waiting" and "It's Got To Be Love" were mixed in with standards such as "September Song", "Alfie" and "Everybody's Got A Home But Me". The Maggs handled these well, but the one Chicago track that was included on the LP sticks out like a sore thumb (and, typical of the corporate ways of Capitol, Carl Davis was <i>not even credited</i> on the LP jacket, though strangely Sonny Sanders was). <br />
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Released in early 1968, the LP bombed, and the novelty of a white group singing soul was beginning to wear off (The Rascals, after their huge 1968 hit "People Got To Be Free", suffered the same fate, dropping down the charts dramatically with their next few 45s). Funk and harder-edged soul were beginning to take over, and the Mag Men were left behind. A switch to the Mercury label didn't help matters; the LP<i> Like A Ten Cent Movie</i> and two singles (including a version of Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay") had few takers. David Bupp left the group shortly afterwards, and the group disbanded in 1973.<br />
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<br />
Supposedly, a film about the group is near completion. See the trailer <a href="http://popdose.com/soul-serenade-the-magnificent-men-peace-of-mind/">here</a>. But don't wait for the film. Get every piece of wax you can by this group. You will NOT believe your ears.<br />
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The Magnificent Men - Nobody Treats Me The Way You Do (Capitol ST 2846) - 1968
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<embed wmode="transparent" height="94" width="422" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://www.divshare.com/flash/audio_embed?data=YTo2OntzOjU6ImFwaUlkIjtzOjE6IjQiO3M6NjoiZmlsZUlkIjtzOjg6IjI0MDgyMjYwIjtzOjQ6ImNvZGUiO3M6MTI6IjI0MDgyMjYwLWE5MyI7czo2OiJ1c2VySWQiO3M6NzoiMjE1OTgzMiI7czoxMjoiZXh0ZXJuYWxDYWxsIjtpOjE7czo0OiJ0aW1lIjtpOjEzNjgwMTkxMzQ7fQ==&autoplay=default"></embed></object>RichardSibellohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17543114830570878541noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494982732055741585.post-48741456819692388122013-04-16T15:54:00.000-07:002013-06-14T05:02:39.542-07:00THE MONKEES - GOOD CLEAN FUN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was having a (somewhat) friendly argument with some online cronies over who the father of country-rock really is - Gram Parsons, Rick Nelson or Mike Nesmith. Of course, it ultimately doesn't matter, because now, really BAD country-rock is what passes for country nowadays (with a few exceptions, of course: George Strait, Alan Jackson, Billy Currington when he's in the mood). But it really was amazing how many good points were brought up in the argument, like how Bob Wills was the first guy to try and combine country with an R&B/rock and roll feel (instead of the other way around). Nesmith himself has said that Rick Nelson was the guy who pointed the way to country-rock. Gram Parsons? OVERRATED AS ALL HELL. R<span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment419608948124522_420346111384139}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2]"><span class="UFICommentBody" id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment419608948124522_420346111384139}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2].0"><span id=".reactRoot[1].[1][2][1]{comment419608948124522_420346111384139}.0.[1].0.[1].0.[0].[0][2].0.[0]">ich kid, nothing to do, liked country, had good dope, hung out with some degenerates, screwed Emmylou Harris, OD'd. Fuck him.</span></span></span><br />
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Me? It's a toss-up between Nesmith and Nelson. But I gotta say, old wool-hat made the more interesting records, with or without The Monkees. Or both, in this case (yes, it's a Monkees record, but none of the other three Monkeemen are on this song). As with a lot of Nesmith compositions, the title is mentioned nowhere in the song. Mike was kinda weird like that - or was he? More on that later.<br />
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I was actually lucky enough to see Mike Nesmith in concert twice - once with The Monkees in late 2012, and once solo this past Friday (April 12, 2013). They were two completely different concerts. While the Monkees concert was more fun, the solo concert was more interesting (no big surprise). The Monkees did what was expected - they did hit after hit, did the "Head" LP in its entirety, and did a tribute to their fallen comrade, Davy Jones. With the solo concert, I had NO idea what to expect. Mike came out, acknowledged the cheers - and swung right into "Papa Jean's Blues"!! Turns out that was the only time he acknowledged the Monkees all night - which was fine with me. I was there to hear the best of his solo material - "The Grand Ennui", "Rio", "Some Of Shelley's Blues", "Different Drum", and the hits "Joanne" and "Silver Moon". Mike played 'em all, and he prefaced each song with a little spoken vignette, putting each tune into its own framework. It was a nice way to link the songs together, and to give us a glimpse of Nesmith's thought process (obtuse as that may be).<br />
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Now some folks might think that Mike, in giving his audience these vignettes, is talking down to them. If he is, he can't be blamed. Mike Nesmith is one of two artists (Scott Walker is the other one) who, no matter what they do, will always be imprisoned by their earlier personas, never being forgiven for their artistic growth, and never being forgiven for looking forward instead of backward. The Scott Walker of 1968 - young, beautiful to look at, singing Jacques Brel songs and standards in that honeyed, rich baritone - is never coming back, and those who love 1968 Scott revile the material that Walker's made since <i>Climate Of Hunter</i> in 1984; they refer to those albums as "that weird crap". As much as the audience last Friday came to hear Mike's solo material, most of them were wearing Monkees T-shirts and I'm sure some of them wished that Mike would put on his green wool hat with the pom-pom on top and play that 12-string Gretsch guitar and play "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round?" or "Salesman" or "Love Is Only Sleeping". Nope. Not gonna happen. Mike's playing what Mike wants to play - Michael Nesmith songs. Therefore, he's already got a strike or two against him before he comes out. Not that the songs aren't good, but they can't compete with old-fashioned TV and music nostalgia - and they shouldn't have to. But they do, at least in the minds of the people who go to see him perform. Like Scott Walker, Mike's music needs to sink in a few times before it can be truly appreciated for the genius work that it is, and, to be fair, Mike has always had an obscurantist streak in his writing, leaving you scratching your head and saying, "what does he mean by<i> that</i>?" So his explanations of the music he's making, while a bit peevish on some levels, become totally necessary when facing an audience that doesn't really understand him anyway.<br />
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The above record is just one of those examples. For years, I could never figure out why he named this tune "Good Clean Fun". Listening to the lyrics, it's just a guy waiting for a plane carrying his girlfriend who he hasn't seen in over a year. Big deal. But sometime in the 1970s, someone interviewed Nesmith and asked about this song (I wish I could remember who, so I can give them credit), wondering if there was more to it than meets the ear. Nesmith admitted that the song's last line, "I told you I'd come back / and here I am", is actually meant as a threat, and that the song's narrator means to do his (ex) girlfriend great harm. Hence the ironic title "Good Clean Fun".<br />
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Anyhoo, I thought I'd end this by saying this is the 100th post for "On The Record"!! Do I get some kind of syndication deal? No? Oh, well, I'll just keep going anyway. Thanks to all the readers out there for showing your support!!<br />
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The Monkees - Good Clean Fun (Colgems 5005) - 1969
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I first heard about this record through a good friend of mine, John Grecco, who was the associate producer for the "One Kiss Can Lead To Another" girl groups box set that Rhino put out a few years ago. While the box set itself was pretty good, having to WORK on the box set was a bad experience for me. I helped out on that box with publishing information and a few label scans (none of which made it to the booklet). I spent a LOT of time doing research, and what did I get for my efforts? NADA. Zilch. Zip. Zero. I didn't get an invite to the release party (well, actually, I did, but would have had to pay full price for the tickets like any schlub off the street). Hell, I also didn't even get a COPY OF THE BOX SET!! My girlfriend, bless her heart, bought me one a couple of Christmases ago, which is the ONLY reason I have a copy. <br />
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FUCK Rhino.<br /><br />This was one of the tunes selected for the box set that didn't make the final cut (somewhere in my files I have the first draft of the track listing - I think it was about 115 - 120 songs). One of the big problems in putting the set together was that it had such a Euro-girls point of view (probably due to the fact that Rhino decided to hire Sheila Burgel to write the booklet notes for the track listing - she loves that Euro-crap), so a lot of good American girl-group records were passed over in favor of the inferior but oh-so-hip European imitations.<br /><br />This one's actually pretty good, though. Beverly Jones was an English lass who hooked up with a beat group called The Prestons for this one 45, released in the UK in October, 1964, and in the USA in January, 1965. The A-side, a mod version of Martha and The Vandellas' "Heat Wave", was a waste of time; the band cooks, but Beverly was never gonna come close to Martha Reeves' vocal. The flip, though, has some balls. Written by Prestons' lead guitarist Roger James, "Hear You Talking" is an atypical girl group lament; instead of threatening to beat up a girl who is vying for her man's affections, she lays down the rules to her GUY - no talking about your ex, or I'll CUT YOU DEAD! (and the organist is playing like he knows she means it!) Sounding like a tougher version of Lulu, this one grows on me with each subsequent play. <br /><br />Unfortunately, that was it for Beverly Jones and The Prestons. They parted ways after this one single (and, honestly, I don't think the record got an actual release here - I've only seen promo copies of this, but have never seen a stock copy) and Beverly joined a group called The Mad Classix, later marrying their lead singer, Johnny Wells, and semi-retired to raise a family.<br /><br />Unfortunately, Beverly passed on last year, but left this one unforgettable 45 with us.<br /><br />For a good interview (and story) on Beverly Jones, click <a href="http://www.spectropop.com/BeverleyJones/">here</a>.<br />
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Beverly Jones - Hear You Talking (Swan 4202) - 1965
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Doo-woppers are obsessed with pigeonholing their music. They have a myriad of categories; white groups, black groups, bird groups, car groups, proto-soul groups, roots groups, kid groups, male group with female lead (it rarely works the other way around), gang groups, Italo-doo-wop groups. They also like to categorize by label; Chance, Red Robin, Rama, Gee, Vee Jay, Blue Lake are very desirable names to doo-woppers. If that wasn't enough division, they also like to categorize the songs themselves; nonsense lyrics, jungle songs, songs about Latin women, songs about Oriental women, pop-doo-wop, neo-doo-wop, Tin Pan Alley doo-wop, classic doo-wop, distaff doo-wop, a wop bop a loo bop a whomp bam boo doo doo boppa loo boppa poppa stoppa hoody waddy woo......<br />
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Which is one reason why I enjoy this record so much. It doesn't really fit into the accepted categories. First of all, it's on Duke Records, an outfit well-known for blues records by the likes of Bobby Bland, Little Junior Parker, Rosco Gordon, Fenton Robinson and the late, great Johnny Ace (in fact, it was Bland and Parker who discovered the group). Duke released VERY little in the form of group harmony, so it's not one of the labels the rabid doo-wop label collectors drool over. Second, instead of singing about some angel who makes their crazy hearts skip a beat, the El Torros are singing about an Indian warrior named Yellow Hand, who apparently was a REALLY big guy (sample lyric: "he used a giant redwood tree to make his canoe / a buffalo's hide to make just one shoe"). There's no Indian princess to steal his heart, no mother to tell him to find love, no nothing. In fact, the only other person mentioned in the song is Geronimo, who says that he obeys NO MAN except for Yellow Hand.<br />
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So, I'm going to start a new sub-category for all the doo-woppers - American-Indian-doo-wop!!<br />
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By the way, for a really good article on the history of the El Torros, look no further than <a href="http://www.uncamarvy.com/ElTorros/eltorros.html">here</a>.<br />
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The El Torros - Yellow Hand (Duke 175) - 1957<br />
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The Beau Brummels. Possibly my favorite 60s group (depending on what day it is....sometimes it's The Who). SCREW The Byrds, THESE guys were the first "folk-rockers" and the first "America's answer to The Beatles".<br />
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Though they only released 5 studio LPs and a handful of singles in the 1960s, the Brummels managed to encapsulate ALL the great influences of the era - folk-rock, mild psychedelia, Dylan, teenbeat garage, country-rock - in an amazingly clear and consistent body of work. If they only had better management, they could have gone all the way, or at least be in the same pantheon as more "hallowed" groups such as the aforementioned Byrds or Van Morrison or the Stones and the Beatles (and we'd actually be able to enjoy Beau Brummels tunes on so-called "classic rock" radio).<br />
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The group's two main members, Sal Valentino (real name: Salvatore Spampinato) and Ron Elliott met in high school in San Francisco, and began singing together. After graduation, Elliott went off to San Francisco State to study music composition, while Sal sang in sleazy clubs in North Beach and cut an unsuccessful single ("I Wanna Twist") in 1962. By early 1964 Valentino and Elliott were playing in a band together with bassist Ron Meagher, drummer John Petersen and Irishman Declan Mulligan, who played rhythm guitar. Calling themselves The Beau Brummels, they soon were playing the same sleazy North Beach circuit that Sal had played a couple of years before. But while most bands were playing covers of the top hits of the day, the Brummels mostly played Ron Elliott's original songs, making them a standout from the very start.<br />
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At one gig, they were spotted by two DJ's, Bob Mitchell and Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue, who worked at KYA, at the time San Francisco's top radio station. The two DJ's had a brand-new record label called Autumn Records (so named because it was formed in the autumn of 1963) which, at that point, had one artist signed to it (Bobby Freeman) and a young record producer named Sylvester Stewart, later known to the world as Sly Stone. Autumn had just had a big hit with their second release, Bobby Freeman's "C'mon And Swim", so Donahue and Mitchell had the cash to snap up the Brummels before anyone else. Looking back, the Brummels should have waited for another company to sign them.<br />
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In December, 1964, Autumn released the Beau Brummels' first 45, "Laugh, Laugh", which showed that, even with their first single, the Brummels were a force to be reckoned with. The folk and country influence was highly apparent, and in a rock and roll song in 1964, that just didn't happen. Plus Elliott's lyrics were FAR ahead of anything other songwriters were doing, even Bob Dylan and The Beatles (what other song can you name besides "Laugh, Laugh" that uses the word "smug"?). As a result, The Beau Brummels became the FIRST rock group out of San Francisco to make it big.<br />
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Unfortunately, Autumn Records was not prepared for the magnitude of success that the Brummels were having. Despite "Laugh, Laugh" going Top Ten in many large cities (including New York and Los Angeles), Autumn couldn't keep up with the demand for the record, and even though the sales were huge, they could have been larger if Autumn wasn't such a shoe-string operation. As a result, the record only hit #15 nationally, when it should have been a national Top Five hit.<br />
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Over the next year, the Brummels had several more mid-charting hits (including their only Top Ten, "Just A Little"), two LPs, and made appearances in the films <i>Village Of The Giants</i> and <i>Wild, Wild Winter</i> (and also made an appearance as "The Beau Brummelstones" on an episode of <i>The Flintstones</i>). But as the year of 1965 ground on, Donahue and Mitchell were losing money (and interest) fast, and in early 1966 Autumn crashed and burned. Donahue and Mitchell sold the Brummels' contract (and the contracts of several other Autumn groups) to Warner Bros. Records.<br />
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This should have been a good thing for the group - after all, WB at that point was riding high with Petula Clark, and was becoming a major player in the industry. Unfortunately, the management team of Donahue and Mitchell screwed it all up.<br />
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The Brummels had recorded a third LP for Autumn, full of Ron Elliott songs, that was basically finished. But when Autumn folded, and Donahue and Mitchell sold out, they tried to play slick with Mo Ostin at Warners. They sold the Brummels to Warner Bros., <i>but not their recordings</i>, either in the can or released already. So Donahue and Mitchell, after getting x amount of dollars for the Brummels, tried to squeeze more money out of WB by offering to sell them the third, unreleased Autumn LP. Warners told Donahue and Mitchell to shove it up their collective asses, and whisked the group into Mira Sound in New York to record an LP of cover versions of current hits. Called "Beau Brummels '66", the LP completely destroyed the group's credibility, guaranteeing that whatever they put out next would be cruelly ignored.<br />
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Also, the group was having internal problems. The line-up wasn't stable. Declan Mulligan either left or was booted from the group just before the second LP was released (he later sued them). Ron Elliott, a diabetic, couldn't handle the rigors of the road, and so was replaced for live dates by Don Irving, who became an official Beau Brummel on the "Beau Brummels '66" LP. But after that disaster was released, both Don Irving and John Petersen left the group (Petersen joining Harpers Bizarre, Irving drafted into the Army). And then there were three - Sal Valentino, Ron Elliott, and Ron Meagher.<br />
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With Elliott's diabetes (and move to L. A. to work as a session guitarist) making touring impossible, The Beau Brummels became a studio-only group. Ironically, the decision to stop touring resulted in the group's best work. The trio of Valentino, Elliott and Meagher recorded "Triangle", one of the best LPs of 1967. Released in July, 1967, it combined mild psychedelia with Tolkeinesque fantasy with a little country thrown in. It was an absolute artistic triumph for the group. Unfortunately, the record barely sold, only hitting the #197 spot on the LP charts. But it truly is a beautiful piece of work, right up there with Love's "Forever Changes" in the artistic winners circle of 1967 ("Sgt. Pepper" doesn't even come<i> close</i>.)<br />
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A month later, the above 45 was released. Most discographies place "Lower Level" as the B-side of the record, but I think the Brummels meant for this to be the A-side. They were well-known for releasing singles independent of their current LPs (examples: "Good Time Music", "One Too Many Mornings", "Two Days 'Til Tomorrow", "Here We Are Again" - none of these were on their original LPs, and in some cases are <i>still</i> hard to find). Also, while the flip of this single - "Magic Hollow" - is one of the highlights of "Triangle", it's not exactly single material. "Lower Level" fits the bill a little better. Warners didn't help matters by not designating a "plug side" for the single, but ultimately it didn't matter anyway, because almost no one bought it. Other San Francisco groups like the Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead and Sly and The Family Stone (the Brummels' old producer) became the darlings of the music press, while the original San Fran rockers, The Beau Brummels, were left in the dust.<br />
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A lotta people missed out. Starting with traffic noises, "Lower Level" plods along with Elliott's softly strummed acoustic. Then Sal's voice comes in, softly but firmly, singing about an elevator ride that's either an allegory for an LSD trip or life - "lower level now is clear / if you want to park it here / though we may seem cramped, we're not / you'll get your ticket stamped on top". Despite some nice guitar flourishes, the record really belongs to Sal Valentino's voice; expressive, soothing, soulful.<br />
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"Lower Level" went the way of "Triangle", destined for the cutout racks. Ron Meagher got drafted soon after the LP's release; Valentino and Elliott made one more LP for Warners, "Bradley's Barn" (another masterpiece which takes more of a country-rock stance) then called it quits. Valentino recorded solo for Warner Bros., later joined Stoneground, and hung around the San Francisco and New York rock scenes, highly respected by those in the know. Elliott stayed in L. A. as a session musician and songwriter, and worked with Van Dyke Parks on his legendary "Song Cycle" LP and with the Everly Brothers on their seminal 1968 country-rock LP "Roots". He also recorded a solo LP, "The Candlestickmaker", which is highly sought-after today. In 1975, the group reunited for a one-off LP and tour.<br />
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If it weren't for the mass stupidity of the record industry (and the Brummels' management), these guys would have been the superstars they deserved to be, instead of a nice little secret us cool kids know about. Still, I can't help but think Ron Elliott was watching the whole arc of their career with humor, with this line toward the end of "Lower Level":<br />
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"1, 2, 3, when we drop / it sure was nice to be on top".<br />
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The Beau Brummels - Lower Level (Warner Brothers 7079) - 1967
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<embed wmode="transparent" height="94" width="422" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://www.divshare.com/flash/audio_embed?data=YTo2OntzOjU6ImFwaUlkIjtzOjE6IjQiO3M6NjoiZmlsZUlkIjtzOjg6IjIzNzg0NDM5IjtzOjQ6ImNvZGUiO3M6MTI6IjIzNzg0NDM5LWRhZiI7czo2OiJ1c2VySWQiO3M6NzoiMjE1OTgzMiI7czoxMjoiZXh0ZXJuYWxDYWxsIjtpOjE7czo0OiJ0aW1lIjtpOjEzNjIwNTY5OTA7fQ==&autoplay=default"></embed></object>RichardSibellohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17543114830570878541noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5494982732055741585.post-8818764712470950082013-02-14T05:05:00.000-08:002013-02-14T05:05:12.105-08:00OTIS CLAY - THREE IS A CROWD<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Haven't had a lot of time to post lately - but since it was Otis Clay's 71st birthday on Monday, I just HAD to put this up!<br /><br />Long before finding national success with Willie Mitchell and Hi Records, Otis made some KILLER 45s for George Leaner's One-derful label out of Chicago, and this was the very first one - a real stomper!<br /><br />Too bad they didn't have a better sound engineer.....<br /><br />Apparently there are two pressings of this 45 - one without the sound effects at the beginning, and this one, that has the (rather crude) sound effects.<br />
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Otis Clay - Three Is A Crowd (One-derful 4834) - 1965
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AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!<br />
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Yep, that's how this record really starts, and it just gets wilder from there. This is one of the ALL-TIME get-your-ass-out-on-the-dance-floor-and-stomp 45s, the true missing link between Little Richard and The Sonics. Best part is, Bunker Hill never even TRIED to follow this up, keeping his rockin' rep completely intact.<br /><br />Of course, Bunker Hill isn't the real name of the performer who did this. It's David Walker, born on May 5, 1941. Walker was raised in the Washington, D. C. area, and soon gravitated to singing gospel. He joined the Sensational Wonders in the late 1950s and the group changed their name to the more famous Mighty Clouds Of Joy.<br />
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But like a lot of other gospel performers of that era, there was another side to Walker. While singing the praises of God on the stage, off stage he was beating the holy hell out of some of His subjects as a heavyweight boxer (compiling an 18-7 record) and working part-time as Archie Moore's sparring partner.<br />
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Then David Walker, gospel singer, met the Devil.<br /><br />Not literally, but close. Sometime in early 1962 Walker met writer/producer Vernon Wray, who had made several records under the name Ray Vernon in the 1950s. Vernon quickly introduced David Walker to his brother - Link Wray. Link had an idea - why not do a reverse Little Richard? Since Richard had given up rock and roll for the ministry, why not have David give up the ministry for rock and roll? So in mid-1962, David Walker, backed by Link Wray and his Raymen at Link's Three Track Shack recording studio in the hills of Maryland, recorded five of the wildest songs in rock and roll history - "Red Ridin' Hood And The Wolf", "Nobody Knows", "You Can't Make Me Doubt My Baby", "The Girl Can't Dance" and "Hide And Go Seek".<br /><br />Vernon got the group a deal with Larry Uttal's Mala label, but when it came time to put the records out, David Walker balked. See, he didn't want his name on the records, lest he suffer the backlash in the gospel community that Sam Cooke had gone through when <i>he</i> went secular back in 1957. So ol' Vern came up with the name Bunker Hill (after the even more ridiculous name of Four H. Stamp was rejected) and Mala pressed up "Hide And Go Seek" (split into two parts) as a single.<br /><br />The record started to get heavy airplay in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Seattle, Houston - pretty much everywhere except New York and Los Angeles (which is probably why it only hit #33 on the pop charts and #27 R&B, despite the fact that it hit Top Ten in many of the cities mentioned above). Bunker Hill was a national rage, and decided to take a break from the gospel world and tour with Link and his Raymen to promote "Hide And Go Seek".<br /><br />But Bunker Hill soon learned a lesson of the capriciousness of the music business. In late 1962 Mala released "Red Ridin' Hood And The Wolf" as the follow-up 45, and it promptly flopped. Larry Uttal and Mala lost interest, and Bunker Hill decided to go back to the Mighty Clouds Of Joy.<br />
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Almost a year later, in August, 1963, Mala decided to take the two remaining Bunker Hill tracks they had and put them out as the 45 shown above. They literally threw it out on the market, with hardly any promotion (though it did get a review in Billboard in mid-September, with the mag giving the hit pick to the B-side, the gospelly "You Can't Make Me Doubt My Baby". Billboard was usually wrong about these things), and that's why it's so hard to find original copies of "The Girl Can't Dance" today. Last I checked with popsike.com, original copies on Mala go for between 200-300 bucks, and even the <i>repros</i> go for 30-50 smackers (which makes NO sense, since Norton reissued the track on 45 in 2009)! I got mine at the legendary Allentown record show for 10 bucks - screw you, eButt!<br /><br />Out of the five songs recorded by Bunker and Link in that Maryland shack, "The Girl Can't Dance" was EASILY the wildest. Link's descending guitar riff (which runs through the whole song, and even serves as the guitar "solo"!!), Bunker's vocals which sound like the microphone was IN his mouth, and the killer drums of Link's <i>other</i> brother Doug Wray all make "The Girl Can't Dance" one of the GREATEST rock and roll records in history! Unfortunately for Bunker, 1963 radio wasn't touching it. Phil Spector, the Beach Boys, and cute novelties all dominated the airwaves that year (though the Trashmen's "Surfin' Bird" managed to get on the air, but <i>that</i> record truly exists in another dimension).<br /><br />No one really knows what happened to David Walker/Bunker Hill. After bouncing in and out of the Mighty Clouds Of Joy for a few years, he left the gospel world for good in the late 1960s. Some sources say he died in the early 1980s, some say he's still around, living in Washington D. C. <br /><br />Either way, he will never be forgotten by those who like their rock and roll RAW.<br />
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Bunker Hill - The Girl Can't Dance (Mala 464) - 1963
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I had never heard of this record until I read about it in Dave Marsh's book "The Heart Of Rock And Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made" (buy it <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Heart-Rock-Soul-Greatest-Singles/dp/030680901X">here</a>) about 15 years ago. The cool thing was that a) it was the last record essayed in the book (as # 1001), and b) neither Dave nor any of his friends had any idea who Joyce Harris was, or where the record came from.<br />
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Marsh tells a fascinating story; here's the short version: Marsh's friend Michael Goodwin went off to Cornell University in 1959, and soon went to work at the college's radio station, WVBR, as a jazz and folk DJ. Every year, during finals week, WVBR would have the "rock and roll marathon", where the regular playlist would be suspended and the student DJ's would spin rock and roll 45s for a week. Well, the day after finals were over, Goodwin locked himself in a studio with some blank tape reels and began recording all the 45s that his fellow students brought in. "No Way Out" was one of them, but Goodwin forgot to list the record on the tape box!<br />
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When Goodwin decided to listen to the college tapes a few years later, he couldn't identify "No Way Out", and spent YEARS trying to figure out what it was. Goodwin later became a writer, and would drop references to the mystery record in his columns. Still nothing. Goodwin finally found a copy of the record in the mid-1970s, but still had no idea of its descent (Goodwin guessed New Orleans).<br />
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Of course this was all before the internet (something <a href="http://rateyourmusic.com/list/goldwax317/factual_errors_in_dave_marshs_the_heart_of_rock_and_soul">this guy</a> doesn't seem to forgive Marsh for), when research meant RESEARCH, meaning you couldn't instantly access knowledge from a billion people in a mouse-click.<br />
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But now, since the internet exists, we can finish the story of Joyce Harris and "No Way Out" with ease.<br />
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Joyce Harris was born in 1939 in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and moved to New Orleans when she was a teenager (that Michael Goodwin had some ears on him!). She and her sister Judy would sing together often, and in 1958 Judy and Joyce cut their first single for the tiny Seville label (same label that had Ernie Maresca's "Shout! Shout! [Knock Yourself Out]"), recorded at Cosimo Matassa's famous studio. After two more 45s, for Decca and Dot, Judy got married, leaving Joyce to go out as a solo, recording one single ("The Boy In School") for the UT label in 1959. She left New Orleans and ended up in Mexico, performing in restaurants.<br />
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Lucky for Joyce Harris, a woman named Lora Richardson was on vacation in Mexico and heard Joyce sing in one of those restaurants. Lora was part-owner of a record label in Austin, Texas called Domino Records, which had already had some success with a group called The Slades, who had a minor hit with the original version of a song called "You Cheated" (this song was then covered by The Shields, who had the big hit with it in 1958). Richardson paired Joyce Harris with The Slades to record an "answer" record to their one hit (that Joyce wrote with Slades member Don Burch), calling it "I Cheated". The record flopped (mainly because "answer" records only worked when the first version was still on the charts, not two years later), but Richardson was unfazed.<br />
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She then paired Joyce with a black R&B group called The Daylighters, who were led by rhythm guitarist Clarence Smith (years later, Smith would change his name to Sonny Rhodes and have some success in the 1980s and 1990s in the blues field). Joyce had written another stormer of a song called "No Way Out". With Joyce's soulful delivery, Clarence Smith's interjections (including the famous "IIIIIII'VE GOTCHA"s at the beginning) and the Daylighters killer (and wonderfully off-kilter) backing, "No Way Out" became an unforgettable piece of wax. Released at the end of 1960 on Domino, the record began to sell quite a bit. So much, in fact, that by March of 1961 Domino leased the record to a Los Angeles label, Infinity Records (supposedly part-owned by Howard Hughes). Infinity released it in April, and secured an appearance for Joyce to make an appearance on "American Bandstand" on April 7, 1961 - IF ANYONE HAS A VIDEO OF THIS, LET ME KNOW!!!!<br />
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The record sold well in L. A., Texas and, oddly enough, in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, it never hit the national charts, but Joyce Harris was on her way - or so she thought. Domino Records folded shortly afterwards, and Joyce found herself without a label. "No Way Out" was still selling in L. A., so she moved there in early 1962. After a string of appearances in small clubs, Joyce hooked up with producer Ed Townsend and signed to his label, Serock Records. She cut one KILLER single, "Don't Knock It", but for some reason decided to change her name to "Sinner Strong" for this release. The record should have gotten some good airplay, but unfortunately it was released at the same time as "The Love Of My Man" by Theola Kilgore, also on Serock, and so Kilgore got all the promotion. <br />
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After that bit of bad luck, Joyce decided to go home to New Orleans. She cut one more 45 for the Fun label, owned by Eddie Bo, and started a residency at the Mask Lounge (in the Mardi Gras Lanes bowling alley), backed by the group who would later become garage-rock legends Dr. Spec's Optical Illusion.<br />
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Joyce is still around, living in Sun, Louisiana, playing mandolin and guitar for a bluegrass gospel group, living in semi-retirement. She did come out, however, for the 2010 Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans, and from all accounts tore the house up.<br />
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I'd like to thank the following websites for a lot of the info for this blog post (and you can click on the links to see pics of Joyce Harris - va va voom!).<br />
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<a href="http://www.colorradio.com/joyce_harris.htm">http://www.colorradio.com/joyce_harris.htm</a> <br />
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<a href="http://www.ponderosastomp.com/blog/2010/09/joyce-harris-the-mysteries-of-sinner-strong-revealed/">http://www.ponderosastomp.com/blog/2010/09/joyce-harris-the-mysteries-of-sinner-strong-revealed/</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.rockabillyhall.com/JoyceHarris.html">http://www.rockabillyhall.com/JoyceHarris.html</a><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_937769844"><br /></a>
<a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Joyce+Harris/+wiki?ver=1&ver=1">http://www.last.fm/music/Joyce+Harris/+wiki?ver=1&ver=1</a><br />
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I'd also like to thank Dave Marsh for writing about this 45 so many years ago. <br />
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Joyce Harris - No Way Out (Domino 905 / Infinity 005) - 1960 / 1961<br />
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Happy New Year!<br />
<br />
I figured I'd start 2013 with a really INSANE record. Plus, since it was Elvis Presley's birthday recently (happy birthday, Elvis, wherever you are), I thought I'd post the greatest remake of an Elvis song EVER.<br />
<br />
In his original version of "Jailhouse Rock", Elvis comes on as the coolest narrator ever, talking about what happens when the inmates decide to have a party, and Elvis is obviously one of the hipper cats in the prison. Dean Carter's version sounds like what the crazy guy in solitary would be singing.<br />
<br />
Dean Carter was the <i>nom de disc</i> of one Arlie Neaville, who started out in the late 50s making rockabilly discs for the Ping and Fraternity labels. In 1964, he and a member of his band, Arlie Miller (must've been a common name in Illinois) formed the Milky Way production studio and record label. Arlie had changed his professional name to Dean Carter for a single on Limelight in 1964, and decided to keep the name for his releases on Milky Way.<br />
<br />
If you ever see any 45s by Dean on Milky Way, GRAB 'em. They are simply some of the best examples of deranged rockabilly/garage/psych you'll ever hear. None was better than this two-sided monster from 1967. The A-side, "Rebel Woman", sounds kind of like Paul Revere and The Raiders jamming with Dick Shawn after they got into the acid-spiked punch at Johnny Paycheck's house. But the flip - WOAH! I often wonder if anyone ever played this version for Elvis, and what he must have thought.<br />
<br />
Arlie Neaville left the rock and roll world behind in 1972, discovering Jesus and becoming a gospel singer, which is what he does to this day.<br />
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Dean Carter - Jailhouse Rock (Milky Way 011) - 1967<br />
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It's that time of year again! No, not to wish everyone peace on Earth and good will toward men, but time for me to COMPLAIN about those radio stations that play NOTHING but "holiday favorites", in remade versions by the most HORRID people ever to set foot behind a microphone and an AutoTune program! Yaaaaaay!<br />
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You've heard me rant about this before - here in the NYC area, radio station WLTW (aka "Lite FM") has made it a holiday tradition to start bombarding us with "holiday favorites" (because heaven forbid they have the balls to say "Christmas music") about TWO WEEKS BEFORE THANKSGIVING! Thanksgiving! We've just put the Halloween decorations back in the attic and these clowns are shoving Christmas (er, sorry, THE HOLIDAYS) down our collective throats! ARRRRRGH!<br />
<br />
To make matters worse, as I've said time and time again, the station programs the most homogenized, safe, and BLAND versions of Chris - oops - HOLIDAY songs they can come up with. It's like the musical version of the pink slime they use in McDonald's food; extruded from a machine, like one long gigantic turd, no variation whatsoever. Only the bottom of the barrel here, folks; Rascal Flatts, Rod Stewart, oh, and I hear that Taylor Swift has now come out with a <i>nifty</i> new version of "Santa Baby" (JUST what the world needs). Also, it seems that, just for my own personal annoyance, the station contracts every one of the artists they play to do a version of "Silver Bells" - my LEAST favorite Chr - damn it, HOLIDAY song.....<br />
<br />
I think that's what annoys me most about the station; their insistence on calling the music "holiday favorites". Funny, every song they seem to play is a CHRISTMAS song. I've never heard any Chanukah (or Hanukkah, however you wanna spell it) songs on there, and I certainly haven't heard any Kwanzaa tunes (hell, I haven't even heard "Back Door Santa" on there, even in an inferior version by the likes of Keith Urban or Jason Mraz or Josh Groban).<br />
<br />
If I had the opportunity, I would LOVE to go to the station's studios, tie up the program director (or unplug him, since it's most likely a computer), and take over for a day. If I did, you'd hear some GOOD holiday music by folks like James Brown, Paul Revere and The Raiders, The Ventures, The Staple Singers - and this one, celebrating Kwanzaa, by Akim.<br />
<br />
Akim is the daughter of famed record producer Teddy Vann, who produced many, many soul and R&B artists in the 1960s, such as The Bobbettes, Johnny Thunder, The Sandpebbles, Dave "Baby" Cortez, Donald Height, and Frankie and The Classicals. <br />
<br />
But Teddy was much more than just a record producer; he was one of the first to get into the "black consciousness" movement in the 1960s. Calling himself a "born-again African", he gave his three children traditional African names - Akim, Kayode and Chinyere - and let his (and his childrens') hair grow out into a "natural". But lest you think Teddy was simply a black militant, he also preached multiculturalism; many of the Jews who lived in his neighborhood in Brooklyn noted that he could speak Yiddish almost as well as they could.<br />
<br />
In 1973, Teddy decided to take his oldest child into the studio with him to record an LP which celebrated the holidays - the holidays as HE saw them. Teddy did not want his children growing up thinking that there was no one to represent their people at Christmas time. So he wrote this tune and made it the title cut of the LP, and the LP's one and only single. It's probably the ONLY holiday song that wishes its listeners a Merry Christmas AND a Happy Kwanzaa.<br />
<br />
Hmmmm.....and Lite FM doesn't play this because.....? <br />
<br />
I mean, it fits in with their "multicultural" approach to programming..... could it be that, after all these years, the station is afraid of the term "black"? I dunno. But what I DO know is that I'm gonna blast this 45 at my house as long as I'm able to. Sure, I'll never be able to relate to the lack of cultural identity vis-a-vis white America that caused Teddy Vann to write this, but I can totally get behind a dude teaching his kids about their cultural heritage, making the holiday season an opportunity for EVERYONE to enjoy their holiday without fear of ridicule, and in the end, isn't that what America is SUPPOSED to be about?<br /><br />Of course, someone DID ridicule it - namely John Waters, filmmaker extraordinaire. He included "Santa Claus Is A Black Man" on a compilation called "A John Waters Christmas" (illegally) and then proceeded to call the record a "crackpot carol" and a "Christmas lunatic song". Teddy Vann was not amused. He sued Waters for improper use of the song in 2008; I don't know how the case turned out, since Teddy Vann died from cancer on December 6, 2009. <br /><br />No matter how you hear this record, I guarantee that it will become one of your favorite Christmas / Kwanzaa tunes!<br />
<br />
So, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and for you atheists, have a nice day. But I will not wish ANY of you a "Happy Holiday". <br />
<br />
Love, Scrooge.<br />
<br />
Akim and The Teddy Vann Production Company - Santa Claus Is A Black Man (Simtone 2001) - 1973
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As we come towards the end of another year, I get more and more melancholy. My standard line for the query "why don't you like New Year's Eve?" is "because I'm one year closer to being DEAD!"<br />
<br />
Happy, huh?<br />
<br />
Before you all think I'm a Gloomy Gus, I WILL say that that line doesn't matter to me so much anymore, because I'm waaaaaay too busy to be sitting round, waiting to die. But as I get older, I find I'm more concerned about the passage of time. For years my girlfriend (who is wise beyond her years) has been telling me, "you have NO concept of time". For the longest time I thought this meant that she was annoyed that I was always late getting somewhere. But I have finally figured out what she means; time moves, whether you like it or not, and you only have so much of it available to you. More simply put, get yo' ass in gear.<br />
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Another thing she may have meant about my lack of the concept of time is that time changes things. For years I lived by a strict set of rules, basically limiting myself to what I thought was "correct", never changing, never growing, because I was JUST PERFECT the way I was. Thank goodness I don't think like that anymore. I have new priorities, new responsibilities, and while that's as big of a pain in the ass as I always thought it would be, the rewards are much greater. I finally see that. Thank you Jessica.<br />
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Which is why I pull this old 45 out every December and listen, really <i>listen</i> to it. And that's not easy with Chris Kenner slurring his words like the drunken madman he was. I can't understand half of what he says on this record, but it sure sounds <i>important</i>. One of the few lines I do understand is "time makes the world go 'round / and time never forgets where you're bound / after they put you way down in the ground / it keeps movin' on." Chris follows up these lines by yelling "can I get a witness?" and a chorus answers each time with a huge "OH YEAH!!" It's a thrilling record, even if it is largely incomprehensible. Which is also a pretty good summation of Chris Kenner's career.<br />
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Chris Kenner (1929-1976) was one of New Orleans' greatest songwriters. He was also one of New Orleans' greatest drunks, and one pretty much cancelled out the other, unfortunately.<br />
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He made his first records, oddly enough, for the Baton label out of New York in 1956, but then got a record deal a little closer to home when he signed with Imperial in 1957. His first 45 for that label, "Sick And Tired", became a big local hit and caught the ear of Fats Domino, who remade the song the next year and had a big national hit with it (after buying a third of the royalties from the perpetually broke Kenner). Unfortunately, Kenner's follow-up, "Will You Be Mine", didn't do as well, and label prez Lew Chudd dropped Kenner from the roster, mainly because of his unreliability; he would regularly miss scheduled recording dates, or show up so drunk that it was hard to get a decent performance out of him.<br />
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Kenner knocked around a few more years, making records for local label Ron Records and a single for Lloyd Price's Prigan Records. In late 1960, Kenner wrote and recorded a tune called "I Like It Like That", and released it on a small New Orleans label called Valiant Records in early 1961. The record started to pick up heavy sales in New Orleans, but soon there was trouble; Valiant Records got a cease and desist letter from Valiant Records in California (later home of The Association and The Cascades). So they had to change the name of the label to Instant Records (no idea why) - but the record kept selling. Label owner Joe Banashak made a deal with Atlantic Records to distribute the disk, and it soon became the #2 record in the country, selling over a million copies, and Chris Kenner was on his way - or so it was thought.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, Chris shot himself in the foot again with a weak follow-up ("A Very True Story") which curtailed his chart career. He continued to make interesting records for Instant, however, writing the New Orleans standard "Something You Got" (later remade by Alvin Robinson, The Moody Blues, Chuck Jackson and Maxine Brown, and of course, Fats Domino) and a little tune called "Land Of 1000 Dances" (later remade by basically everybody). "I Like It Like That" was also remade by The Dave Clark Five, and it became a huge hit for them.<br />
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Kenner should have been rolling in dough at this point, with huge royalty checks coming in, but his fondness for the bottle neatly took care of that. He sold part of the publishing of "Land Of 1000 Dances" to Fats Domino in late 1962 (thereby ensuring Fats tons of royalties on a song he originally had nothing to do with), and did the same with "Something You Got" in 1964.<br />
<br />
Things only got worse. Kenner continued to record sporadically for Instant (when they could get him to show up) until 1968, when he was thrown in jail on a conviction of statutory rape of a minor. He served three years, and after his release in 1971 he continued his downward spiral, basically living on the street. He did manage to record one single for the Hep' Me label in 1973, but soon faded out of sight, passing away a month after his 46th birthday from a heart attack. If only he had listened to the opening lines of this record - "time changes things / it keeps movin' on". But for Chris Kenner, time didn't mean a thing, and he decided not to change his ways, and it ended up destroying him.<br />
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Chris Kenner - Time (Instant 3244) - 1962
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Yet another of the crazy assumptions made by rock critics is that most 1960s country music productions fell victim to the production style known as "countrypolitan", in which strings (not fiddles) and choruses (chorii?) were added to straight country music to make it more "palatable" to an "uptown" audience. These same critics also say that countrypolitan was a BAD thing. I'd have to disagree on all counts; sometimes the countrypolitan style really worked - like on records by Patsy Cline and Connie Smith, among others.<br />
<br />
Sometimes, however, a record was made to be straight country - no strings, no sweeteners, no Anita Kerr Singers. Like "Unmitigated Gall" by Faron Young.<br />
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Faron Young (1932-1996) was one of the GREAT honky-tonk singers of all time. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Faron had the advantage of being in close proximity to the #2 country radio show in the nation, "The Louisiana Hayride". For a time, the "Hayride" gave serious competition to The Grand Ole Opry as the top country music show on the radio, discovering and signing stars such as Hank Williams, Webb Pierce, Jim Reeves, Kitty Wells, Hank Snow, Johnny Horton, and some kid named Elvis Presley. Many of these stars were later snatched up by the Opry, but it was the Hayride that gave them their start. Faron got his foot in the door as a member of Pierce's band, but his playing and singing (and his Hollywood-style good looks) were too good to keep under wraps. By age 19 he had cut his first record, released by Gotham Records of Philadelphia (!!) and by age 20 he was signed to Capitol Records, having a #2 country hit with "Goin' Steady" in late 1952. Unfortunately, Faron was drafted shortly afterwards. Despite being unable to promote his records through concert appearances, Faron still managed a trio of Top Ten country hits - "I Can't Wait" in 1953 and "A Place For Girls Like You" and "If You Ain't Lovin'" in 1954.<br />
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But once Faron got out of the Army, he was unstoppable - during 1955-1956, every record Faron released hit the country Top Ten. He also began appearing in films such as <i>Hidden Guns</i>, <i>Daniel Boone: Trailblazer</i> and <i>Raiders Of Old California, </i>which was where Faron got his nickname, "The Sheriff". He became Capitol Records' biggest-selling country artist. He even cut some rockabilly sides during the late 1950s (check out "I Can't Dance", if you can find a copy), and continued to have Top Ten country hits through 1962, including his biggest hit, "Hello Walls", which was #1 for 9 weeks (and was written by one of Faron's buddies, Willie Nelson).<br />
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Then, in a shocking move, after 10 years with Capitol, Faron left the label and signed with Mercury at the end of 1962. But, as they say, the hits just kept on comin', with records like "The Yellow Bandana" and "Walk Tall" hitting the Top Ten.<br />
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But behind that Hollywood-handsome smile lurked a wild man. It was common knowledge that Faron liked to drink (hell, it was common knowledge that <i>everyone</i> in country music liked to drink), but Faron liked to play with guns while he drank - he used to like to come home drunk and shoot holes in his kitchen ceiling when he wasn't pointing the gun at his wife and threatening her. He also had a couple of drinking buddies in his band in 1960 - Roger Miller and Johnny Paycheck, two of country's most notable loonys. Faron was once famously quoted as saying, "I'm not an alcoholic, I'm a drunk!"<br />
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The above record, from 1966, is, in my opinion, one of Faron's best. Great fast-strumming acoustic guitar (sort of like a country Bo Diddley) which perfectly frames a great Mel Tillis lyric about an ex-lover who's come back (sample lyric: "Well how can you have the unmitigated gall / to come back now, expecting me to fall / right down on my knees and kiss your feet / feet that one day went-a-walkin' / out on me with a fast talkin' slob / you hardly knew his name / your mind is DERANGED").<br /><br />Faron continued to have big country hits all the way into the mid-1970s, but he didn't really need singing to pay the bills anymore, due to wide-ranging investments and his founding and publishing of The Music City News, which for years was sort of the C&W version of "Rolling Stone" magazine. The strange behavior also continued - in 1972 Young was fined for spanking a six-year-old girl onstage at one of his concerts (he claimed she spat in his face). After the hits dried up, Mercury dropped Faron in 1978 and he signed with MCA the next year. After a couple of years there, Young basically dropped out of sight for a few years, resurfacing with a few records on the independent Step One label, but only one of them, "Stop And Take The Time", managed to chart - at #100.<br /><br />Faron's health took a turn for the worse, and by 1991 he was no longer recording. Years of smoking had left him with emphysema and prostate cancer. The emphysema got so bad that Faron couldn't even sing a line without running out of breath or coughing. That depressing fact, combined with a poor mental state in which he was convinced that Nashville had turned its back on him (not surprising, considering how they've turned their backs on ALL the classic country artists in favor of Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood and some Justin Beiber-wannabe named Hunter Hayes) caused Faron to load up his gun one last time on December 9, 1996. But instead of pointing it at his kitchen ceiling, Faron Young pointed it at his own head and pulled the trigger. He died the next day, and Nashville had the unmitigated gall to suddenly recognize him again, putting his face up on a video screen for a few seconds on awards shows - a tawdry tribute to one of the greatest country and western singers of all time.<br />
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Faron Young - Unmitigated Gall (Mercury 72617) - 1966
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These days, Trini Lopez is pretty much known as a music footnote, a forgotten MOR crooner or worse yet, a punchline for brain-dead sitcom writers. This is, to say the least, unfortunate, because Trinidad Lopez III (b. May 15, 1937) is possibly the greatest of all Mexican rock and rollers, right up there with Ritchie Valens.<br />
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Trini's father, Trinidad Lopez II, was a singer, dancer, musician and actor in Mexico, but moved to America with his wife at an early age to make a better life for themselves. That "better life" didn't come easy. Mexicans were frowned upon, and Trini's parents had to survive by day labor and taking in other people's laundry.<br />
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Being a poor boy from the barrio, Trini soon began hanging out on the streets. He started running with a rough crowd of kids, and could have ended up as a gang member had his father not intervened. When Trini's father found out who his son was hanging with, he gave Trini the spanking of his life - literally. He beat the boy so badly that he felt incredible remorse, so he spent a hard-earned 12 dollars to buy his son a guitar, and taught him how to play it. Trini would always say that he owed his career to that spanking.<br />
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Soon young Trini was busking for coins on the street corners with his guitar, in between classes at Dallas' Crozier Tech High School. Unfortunately, the money situation for his family got worse, not better, and Trini dropped out to help his family pay the bills. By this time, he had gotten a small group together, and began gigging in small clubs around Dallas, eventually making it to the El Cipango Club, which was in the rich section of Dallas, singing the rock and roll hits of the day along with a few original tunes.<br />
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Trini's songwriting skills began to mature, and in 1958 he recorded his first single for the local Volk label ("The Right To Rock"), but the record almost never came out. Seems that the producer wanted Trini to change his last name for the record (much like Bob Keene persuaded Ritchie Valens to shorten his last name from Valenzuela). Trini refused and walked out the door (made sense, since Trini was getting lots of gigs in Dallas under his real name anyway). The producer relented, and Trini recorded his single. It wouldn't be the last time that Lopez would show how proud he was of his heritage and his roots.<br />
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Somehow, the Volk 45 came to the attention of someone at King Records in Cincinnati, home of Hank Ballard, Little Willie John, James Brown and many other great R&B stars. They signed Trini to a contract, and for the next two years King would fly Trini Lopez from Dallas to Cincinnati to record. Unfortunately, none of those records became hits, though two of them, "Don't Let Your Sweet Love Die" and "Nobody Listens To Our Teenage Problems", got good airplay in the Southwest. If you can ever find them, dig up Trini's King sides (you can find most of them <a href="http://www.discogs.com/Trini-Lopez-Sinner-Not-A-Saint-The-Complete-King-And-DRA-Recordings-1959-1961/release/3283193">here</a>). You'll find that these are some of the best rockers of the late 1950s.<br />
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After the King contract expired, Trini accepted an offer from The Crickets to become their new lead singer after Buddy Holly died (Trini had befriended Buddy in the late 50s). But after Trini drove out to California to meet them, he found that The Crickets weren't in much of a mood to work - they were still collecting fat royalty checks and having infrequent rehearsals. So, Trini was left in California with no contract, no bookings, and no money. He recorded a one-off single for the local Dra label (the killer "Sinner Not A Saint", later reissued on United Modern in 1964), and accepted a 2-week engagement at Ye Little Club in Beverly Hills as a soloist - just Trini and his guitar.<br />
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That two weeks turned into a year, and soon Trini moved into a residence at P. J.'s in Hollywood. He took the town by storm, and soon celebrities like Bobby Darin and Jackie Cooper were asking to sit in on drums. Don Costa from Reprise Records (Frank Sinatra's label) saw Trini one night and signed him to an eight-year contract with the label, and by 1963 Trini was a star, with hit records like "If I Had A Hammer" and "La Bamba" and hit LPs like "Live At P.J.'s". Gibson Guitars even asked Trini to design a guitar for them in 1964. He ended up designing two - the Lopez Standard and the Lopez Deluxe. Both are highly sought-after on the collectors' market. Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters swears by his. In 1965, Trini was asked to host an episode of "Hullaballoo", and, true to form, insisted that some of his Mexican compadres like Vikki Carr and The Sir Douglas Quintet appear with him.<br />
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The Reprise recordings, while good, show that Trini had to dilute his rocker tendencies for wider commercial acceptance. But every once in a while he'd sneak out a killer rocker like this one, as the B-side to his remake of Bobby Darin's "Jailer Bring Me Water". Dig Trini!!<br />
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NOTE: that's not a skip in the middle of the record - someone at Reprise was a really bad tape editor.<br />
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Trini Lopez - You Can't Say Good-Bye (Reprise 0260) - 1964
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After the seriousness of the last post, I think I should get back to doing what this blog does best - posting seriously NUTTY records you might not have heard before!<br />
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I don't know a whole lot about Ben Hughes. Apparently he was from the West Coast, making records for the Specialty, True and Hollywood labels (and may have made other records as "Sonny Woods" for Hollywood - I don't know, I don't have them). But the man could seriously rock.<br />
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I first heard this when The Hound spun it on his WFMU show - he only played it ONCE, but lucky for me I had my trusty pad and pen to write down the artist and title when he back-announced it. I managed to snag a copy for 5 bucks a few years later.<br />
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It's pretty obvious why this never became a hit - even though it rocks the house. Hughes, a big-voiced baritone, keeps singing about a sack that he fills with fruit as the backing group yells "SACK!" (and a guy in a high-pitched falsetto says "in the SACK!") .....but as the song goes on, you begin to realize he's singing about his "sack" on a MUCH more personal level, especially when he sings "I got a big-a, big-a sack, with a-fruit from A to Z / I'm gonna give the fruit to you, so you can like-a like-a me!"<br /><br />Dig it.<br />
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Ben Hughes - Sack (Specialty 630) - 1958
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