La Fin de La Semaine Essay Question: Special "Sing Along With 'Bitch'!" Edition

Okay, I'm too lazy to write a lame joke by way of the traditional intro at the moment, so let's just get -- directly and inexorably -- to the subject of the business at hand. To wit:

...and if you were somehow trapped in a sleazy karaoke bar and you were kinda drunk and wanted to sing along with a Rolling Stones song it would be...???

Discuss.

No arbitrary rules whatsoever, so just go for it. I should add, however, that today's post was inspired by accidentally discovering an instrumental-only track of one of -- IMHO -- the coolest Stones songs ever. Which I was planning, for the longest time, on going into the studio and overdubbing with a pathetic vocal by yours truly. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. 😎

And which song woould that have been? See below.

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choice(s) be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

Songs I'd Forgotten Existed, Let Alone Loved (an Occasional Series): Special "Yeah, Yeah, I Know -- It's Purple and Swims in the Ocean" Edition

I dunno if you guys heard any of Trump's rally yesterday, but let's just say that a) he was significantly more incoherent than usual and b) this song, which I hadn't heard in a million years, seemed suddenly relevant. 😎

The song, BTW, is off the Grape's 1971 attempted comeback album, which I found seriously disappointing when it was new, but I gave it a cursory re-listen while getting ready to post today and it seems to be better than I realized in my callow youth. I'll do the research and get back to you. 😎😎

Hey -- I'm a Three B's Kind of Guy From Way Back

Okay, everybody's doing this over at Facebook, so I figured I had to.

And don't give me any shit about this -- it's supposed to be the records that influenced the young you the most, not a list of the All-Time Greatest Albums Ever, which is totally different.

BTW, the song above goes out for my friend Nelson Bragg, who knows why. 😎

Tuesday's Music-Themed Cartoon Chuckles and Photo-Funny

I confess, I've been that dude-watching-your-band-play guy. 😎

Cinema Notes From All Over: The Golden Age of Comedy

So I saw the new documentary on Martin Mull (on Netflix) over the weekend. It's really terrific, but it was not what I was hoping for, i.e. lotsa laffs. I mean, yeah, it's mostly that for sure, but by the end it's turned into an unexpectedly deeply moving meditation on loss and intimations of mortality.

I was a huge Mull fan before he made it big on TV with Fernwood Tonight, and several of his albums (including the live record below) were among my most-played of the early '70s. Obviously, the guy was a genius satirical songwriter.

The film, of course, covers all that plus excerpts from the movie and TV work (the stuff with Fred Willard is beyond hilarious), his live club act (I saw him at the old Reno Sweeney's in Manhattan, and it was the funniest comedy show I've ever witnessed in person) as well as his totally seperate career as a painter, which was how he really identified himself, and with good reason.

But I wasn't prepared for the heaviosity; there's a scene toward the end where he and his musician/songwriter wife duet on a lovely and poignant song of hers that reduced me to a puddle of tears. Not exactly what I wanted on a Saturday night.

In any event, Who is Martin Mull? is a really impressive piece of work, and I highly recommend it.

La Fin de La Semaine Essay Question: "It's Quarter to Three, There's No One in the Place Except You and Me" Edition

Okay, since we're a day late (and a dollar short as well, come to think of it) let's skip the usual intro banter and get directly to the business at hand. To wit:

...and your favorite post-Elvis pop/rock/soul/folk/whatever album by a (in most folks estimation significant artist) that is way less well known/regarded than it should be is...???

Discuss.

Mine? As will come as no surprise to longtime readers it's this...

...which I am currently grooving to on a pristine vinyl reissue I snagged on-line late last summer.

In case you're not lucky enough to know it, the short version is that it's a collection of Sam's personal favorite blues, soul and gospel songs, recorded for Cooke's own label with the cream of Los Angeles session guys as his backing band, the whole thing designed to sound like the coolest live late night jam session in a smokey bar of all time, and boy does it ever. For reasons known only to the Lord, it went out of print amost immediately after it first appeared in 1963, and despite a CD reissue in the 90s, to this day it remains without question the greatest album by a major artist that most people don't know ever existed.

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend everybody!!!

Do You Remember the Great Folk Scare of the Early Sixties? Man, That Shit Almost Caught On!

Damn, this Welles kid has really got the stuff.

I've been saying it a lot lately, but one way you can tell we're living in truly disturbing times is that all of a sudden the folk music is getting good again. 😎

In any case, a new edition of the Weekend Essay Question goes up tomorrow -- sorry for the scheduling glitch.

Self-Indulgence Alert: Fifty Years of Moody Black-and-White Photography of Me!

From 1969...

...and from 2019.

In case you were wondering, the first pic is a frame cap from a pretty darn good student film shot at C.W. Post College featuring my then band God (what we were thinking?) at the height of the alleged counter-culture. The one on the bottom is from The Floor Models reunion show in this century, which officially marks the last time I will ever be glimpsed jumping up and down on stage.

You can watch the entirety of the film -- which is quite an amazing period piece, and only twenty or so minutes long -- over at YouTube HERE. The Tube also has very nice video excerpts from the Flo Mos show, but I'm too lazy to post the links. 😎

[h/t Laura Giantonio}

Songs I'd Forgotten Existed, Let Alone Loved: Special "Get Back to Me When A.I. Does Anything This Good" Edition

Okay, this song popped into my head unbidden yesterday. I have no idea why, alas, but in any case all I can add is -- wow.

I first heard this in late 2006 when it was used in a montage at the end of an episode of the short-lived (three episodes?) Ray Liotta TV crime show Smith, although I'm told it had also figured earlier on The O.C. In any case, I remember practically falling off the couch at the time and thinking it's the most bizarrely haunting thing I'd ever encountered. It's almost a whole new genre -- Android Doo-Wop, anybody?

Tuesday's Music-Themed Cartoon Chuckles

Hmm...I'm sensing a sort of recurring theme amongst today's entries. 😎