And speaking as we were yesterday of the late great Frankie Lymon, here's The Amboy Dukes -- featuring you know who -- covering Lymon's "I Am Not a Juvenile Delinquent" in 1969.
I was going to say that apparently Ted Nugent was an asshole even back in the day, but I really don't know what I think about this. I mean, it genuinely seems like a song these guys actually dug -- unless I'm very much mistaken, they're doing it straight, if not particularly well compared to the original. But strictly from a commercial standpoint, I find it confounding that a punk-psych/blues-rock band in the late 60s thought doing a faithful version of a doo-wop classic was going to endear them to the hippie audience. I mean, Sha Na Na hadn't played Woodstock when this was recorded. It's also possible, it occurs to me, that this was supposed to be some kind of ironic-but-not-really Frank Zappa weasel move.
On the other hand, Nugent still claims that he had no idea that his breakout hit -- "Journey to the Center of Your Mind" -- was about drugs.
So yes -- he was already an asshole back in the day.
Friday, March 07, 2014
Thursday, March 06, 2014
Words Fail Me -- The Even MORE Ultimate Edition
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers...
...absolutely fricking live, with no lip-synching, on the Frankie Laine television program in 1956.
I should mention that Lymon wrote and performed this song at the age of 13.
Sweet Jeebus: To think that a couple of years later people thought Michael Jackson was such a big deal.
Also: Somebody remind me again why I'm supposed to give a crap about that Lorde shit?
[h/t Sal Nunziato]
...absolutely fricking live, with no lip-synching, on the Frankie Laine television program in 1956.
I should mention that Lymon wrote and performed this song at the age of 13.
Sweet Jeebus: To think that a couple of years later people thought Michael Jackson was such a big deal.
Also: Somebody remind me again why I'm supposed to give a crap about that Lorde shit?
[h/t Sal Nunziato]
Wednesday, March 05, 2014
The Answer to a Question That Has Plagued Me For Four Decades
To wit: Why hasn't Bruce Springsteen ever covered The Easybeats "Friday on My Mind"?
It's obvious now: He was waiting till he toured Australia.
It's obvious now: He was waiting till he toured Australia.
Tuesday, March 04, 2014
Words Fail Me -- The Ultimate Edition
Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, live in Australia last week, covering The Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive." Beautifully shot and with great sound.
I'm having a very tough week, so I really don't have the energy to give this the exegesis it deserves.
But let's just say that, on reflection. this performance makes a lot more sense, both conceptually and just as music, than I would have believed before I watched it.
I'm having a very tough week, so I really don't have the energy to give this the exegesis it deserves.
But let's just say that, on reflection. this performance makes a lot more sense, both conceptually and just as music, than I would have believed before I watched it.
Monday, March 03, 2014
And Now, in Honor of the Current Geopolitical Shenanigans in the Vicinity of Russia...
..from the 1956 rock film The Girl Can't Help It, please enjoy one of the great surreal moments in the history of American cinema -- the extremely vavavoom Julie London and her fabulously sultry rendition of...
...wait for it...
..."Crimea River."
Thank you, I'm here all week. Try the veal. Also -- tip your waitresses and bartenders, they all have massive drug habits to support.
The recorded version of "River," which Julie is lip-synching in the movie, derives from her debut album (above), which was released in 1955 (complete with cheesecake cover photo of London, which became something of a trademark on her subsequent album releases). The song (and album) were produced by Julie's second husband (and later co-star on TV's Emergency), the great Bobby Troup (who wrote "Route 66," among other notable accomplishments).
I think it's an absolutely genius single -- a brilliantly minimalist arrangement (just guitarist Barney Kessel and acoustic bassist Ray Leatherwood), coupled with London's all-but-perfect phrasing (she had, as she famously said, "only a thimbleful of a voice," but man it sounded great and did she ever know how to use it) and then a discreet little bit of echo as the record fades out.
What I did not know until yesterday was that the song itself (which has been covered about a zillion times by everybody from Barbra Streisand to Joe Cocker) is by a songwriter named Arthur Hamilton (also hitherto unknown to me), and was originally written to be sung by Ella Fitzgerald in the 1955 movie Pete Kelly's Blues; the song was dropped before the movie was released, however. The film's star was Jack (Dragnet) Webb, who London was married to at the time; presumably she heard a demo of the song and liked it enough to claim it as her own.
I should add that The Girl Can't Help It (Troup wrote the Little Richard-sung title song, by the way), while never less than fun, has a reputation as the first great rock film which it only occasionally deserves.
Yes, the "Cry Me a River" montage with London is a great proto-rock video; the segment with a young and gorgeous Abby Lincoln...
...should probably not be witnessed by impressionable teenage boys; and the club scene featuring the aforementioned Little Richard (and his lethal road band The Upsetters) is truly jaw-dropping.
But some of the other musical performances -- notably including Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent -- are criminally truncated, and while writer/director Frank Tashlin's cynicism about the workings of the music business and the nature of pop celebrity is bracing (even today), the whole thing is obviously an outsider's satire, and as a result it often doesn't quite ring true.
Still, TGCHI is definitely worth seeing; to my surprise, you can get it over at Amazon but only as part of a Jayne Mansfield collection with The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw and the very funny Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter. Sounds like a pretty good idea, actually.
...wait for it...
..."Crimea River."
Thank you, I'm here all week. Try the veal. Also -- tip your waitresses and bartenders, they all have massive drug habits to support.
The recorded version of "River," which Julie is lip-synching in the movie, derives from her debut album (above), which was released in 1955 (complete with cheesecake cover photo of London, which became something of a trademark on her subsequent album releases). The song (and album) were produced by Julie's second husband (and later co-star on TV's Emergency), the great Bobby Troup (who wrote "Route 66," among other notable accomplishments).
I think it's an absolutely genius single -- a brilliantly minimalist arrangement (just guitarist Barney Kessel and acoustic bassist Ray Leatherwood), coupled with London's all-but-perfect phrasing (she had, as she famously said, "only a thimbleful of a voice," but man it sounded great and did she ever know how to use it) and then a discreet little bit of echo as the record fades out.
What I did not know until yesterday was that the song itself (which has been covered about a zillion times by everybody from Barbra Streisand to Joe Cocker) is by a songwriter named Arthur Hamilton (also hitherto unknown to me), and was originally written to be sung by Ella Fitzgerald in the 1955 movie Pete Kelly's Blues; the song was dropped before the movie was released, however. The film's star was Jack (Dragnet) Webb, who London was married to at the time; presumably she heard a demo of the song and liked it enough to claim it as her own.
I should add that The Girl Can't Help It (Troup wrote the Little Richard-sung title song, by the way), while never less than fun, has a reputation as the first great rock film which it only occasionally deserves.
Yes, the "Cry Me a River" montage with London is a great proto-rock video; the segment with a young and gorgeous Abby Lincoln...
...should probably not be witnessed by impressionable teenage boys; and the club scene featuring the aforementioned Little Richard (and his lethal road band The Upsetters) is truly jaw-dropping.
But some of the other musical performances -- notably including Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent -- are criminally truncated, and while writer/director Frank Tashlin's cynicism about the workings of the music business and the nature of pop celebrity is bracing (even today), the whole thing is obviously an outsider's satire, and as a result it often doesn't quite ring true.
Still, TGCHI is definitely worth seeing; to my surprise, you can get it over at Amazon but only as part of a Jayne Mansfield collection with The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw and the very funny Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter. Sounds like a pretty good idea, actually.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Welcome to My Nightmare Mid-Life Crisis
You have may have heard that Bruce Springsteen -- who, to be fair, has always fronted the best cover band in rock history -- has been playing some, shall we say, unexpected songs by other people on his current Australian tour.
Ladies and germs, please enjoy The Boss and Eddie fricking Vedder in the land Down Under doing "Highway to Hell" last week.
And if you don't find that confounding, wait till you see the song I'm gonna post on Monday.
I should add that this was taped in Melbourne. Let's just hope they gave Miss Fisher...
...a backstage pass.
Ladies and germs, please enjoy The Boss and Eddie fricking Vedder in the land Down Under doing "Highway to Hell" last week.
And if you don't find that confounding, wait till you see the song I'm gonna post on Monday.
I should add that this was taped in Melbourne. Let's just hope they gave Miss Fisher...
...a backstage pass.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
It's Been a Good Day So Far -- Why Should I Tempt Fate?
To my knowledge, no musician or pop culture figure whose work I admire and enjoy has died today. So I'm taking the rest of Thursday off.
We'll take our chances together with something new on Friday.
Also -- somebody asked about that Remains documentary I mentioned yesterday. Here's the trailer.
I can't seem to find a download site for the whole thing, so if you want to watch the rest -- and believe me, the film behooves beholding -- you're gonna have to buy a bootleg copy somewhere, as the official DVD seems no longer to be available.
We'll take our chances together with something new on Friday.
Also -- somebody asked about that Remains documentary I mentioned yesterday. Here's the trailer.
I can't seem to find a download site for the whole thing, so if you want to watch the rest -- and believe me, the film behooves beholding -- you're gonna have to buy a bootleg copy somewhere, as the official DVD seems no longer to be available.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Chip Damiani 1945 -- 2014
Oh hell -- I just learned that Damiani, the drummer of garage punk gods The Remains died unexpectedly last Sunday.
Here he is, kicking major ass in 1966, on my favorite track from the band's legendary live in the studio album.
And if you don't know who the Remains are, go watch this fabulous documentary about them. The title says it all: America's Lost Band.
Have I mentioned that this death shit is really starting to piss me off?
P.S.: I forgot to mention this -- possibly because it still sort of blows (heh) my mind -- but it is worth noting that Remains keyboardist Bill Briggs III (the band's preppy heartthrob) is the brother of legendary first generation porn star Marilyn Chambers.
Hey -- they don't call rock-and-roll the Devil's music for nothing.
Here he is, kicking major ass in 1966, on my favorite track from the band's legendary live in the studio album.
And if you don't know who the Remains are, go watch this fabulous documentary about them. The title says it all: America's Lost Band.
Have I mentioned that this death shit is really starting to piss me off?
P.S.: I forgot to mention this -- possibly because it still sort of blows (heh) my mind -- but it is worth noting that Remains keyboardist Bill Briggs III (the band's preppy heartthrob) is the brother of legendary first generation porn star Marilyn Chambers.
Hey -- they don't call rock-and-roll the Devil's music for nothing.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Harold Ramis 1944-2014
I keep saying this, but je repete: This death shit is really beginning to piss me off.
Seriously -- if Egon Spengler can die, why should the rest of us even bother?
"I collect spores, molds and fungus."
I should add that Ramis' Groundhog Day is one of the greatest American comedies of all time. And one of the sweetest -- the protagonist (Bill Murray, never better) is a horrible SOB who is ultimately redeemed by love.
Seriously -- if Egon Spengler can die, why should the rest of us even bother?
"I collect spores, molds and fungus."
I should add that Ramis' Groundhog Day is one of the greatest American comedies of all time. And one of the sweetest -- the protagonist (Bill Murray, never better) is a horrible SOB who is ultimately redeemed by love.
Monday, February 24, 2014
Your Monday Moment of Words Fail Me: Special Gentlemen, Start Your Air Guitars! Edition
So the other day over at YouTube I chanced across part 1 of a series of video guitar tutorials that original Beach Boys' guitarist David Marks had done at the band's old stomping grounds -- Hawthorne High School. (The whole series is highly recommended, BTW -- entertaining, informative, and if you're a novice guitarist, a terrific teaching tool. But I digress.)
In any case, the big revelation of the video for yours truly was Marks' claim that the Beach Boys stole most of their original guitar sound from a song heretofore unknown to me.
To wit -- this 1958 single by the great Duane Eddy.
Which, as you can hear, they clearly did. (Incidentally, that track also appears on Duane's debut album of the same year -- Have 'Twangy' Guitar, Will Travel. Apart from everything else, 1958 was apparently the Golden Age of Album Titles.)
But later that same day, I stumbled across the real mindblower -- an equally unknown to me collaboration between Duane and The Ventures on an instrumental version of Bobby Fuller's classic "I Fought the Law"...
...which, IMHO, has guitar textures that wouldn't have been out of place on albums by Television.
Seriously, the stuff going on during the song's first bridge might as well be a late night jam session between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd. Okay, not quite that good, but pretty close and quite beautiful.
Have I mentioned that the intertubes are a truly wondrous thing?
BTW, I have no idea whether that track is some kind of a one-off or whether Duane and the Ventures ever did an entire album together; if anybody can enlighten me on this, I'll be their best friend.
In any case, the big revelation of the video for yours truly was Marks' claim that the Beach Boys stole most of their original guitar sound from a song heretofore unknown to me.
To wit -- this 1958 single by the great Duane Eddy.
Which, as you can hear, they clearly did. (Incidentally, that track also appears on Duane's debut album of the same year -- Have 'Twangy' Guitar, Will Travel. Apart from everything else, 1958 was apparently the Golden Age of Album Titles.)
But later that same day, I stumbled across the real mindblower -- an equally unknown to me collaboration between Duane and The Ventures on an instrumental version of Bobby Fuller's classic "I Fought the Law"...
...which, IMHO, has guitar textures that wouldn't have been out of place on albums by Television.
Seriously, the stuff going on during the song's first bridge might as well be a late night jam session between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd. Okay, not quite that good, but pretty close and quite beautiful.
Have I mentioned that the intertubes are a truly wondrous thing?
BTW, I have no idea whether that track is some kind of a one-off or whether Duane and the Ventures ever did an entire album together; if anybody can enlighten me on this, I'll be their best friend.
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