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. 😎

How Do You Say "These Kids are a Riot" in Yiddish"?

And speaking as we were last week(?) of bands that deserve to be big for their group moniker alone, please enjoy pride of Bergen, Norway neo-pop rock classicists Herr Nilsson, who I'm assuming without proof (or any facility in Norse patois) are named in honor of the guy who sang that song about putting the lime in the coconut (and much much else beside).

That's from a just released new album called Good Morning Rock and Roll; they've have been around since the early 'aughts, however, and I should add that apart from the amusing nom de musique, I really really also like them for their attitude.

From their press kit:

Much like Lennon & McCartney wrote catchy hooks out of practical necessity—lacking a tape recorder, they had to hum melodies until their next meeting—Mr. Nilsson crafts buoyant pop tunes out of sheer survival instinct.
"The songs simply have to be good," explains frontman and principal songwriter Terje Bringsvor Nilsen. "Otherwise, at least one of us loses interest, and our rehearsals devolve into alcohol-infused knitting clubs."

In any case, you can hear more of their music and find out more about them generally over HERE.

La Fin de La Semaine Essay Question: Special "And Reverend Green Be Glad to See You" Edition

Okay, I'll have some more to say about last night's Ringo Starr show here in Forest Hills, AKA The Paris of the Northeast, next week.

For now, let's just say we had a much better than expected time. Ringo was in fine form -- funny, charming, and a monster on the skins -- and the supporting folks (including a couple of Totos, the bass player of the Average White Band, and Colin Hay of Men at Work) covered themselves in glory, both in support and in their solo turns. Plus, I'd totally forgotten what a beautiful (and power pop adjacent) song "Photograph" is. In other words, a splendid time was had by all.

Which leads us, inevitably and inexorably, to the subject of today's business. To wit:

...and the pop star/musician, living or dead, you would most like to see/have seen as a member of Ringo's All-Starr Band, is...???

Discuss.

In case you're wondering, here's my nominee.

And in case you're wondering why -- well, forgetting how great a singer the guy is, I just think it would be a total gas to hear Ringo getting down to that Memphis Hi Records groove thing, which I have no doubt whatsoever that he could deliver with his customary aplomb.

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

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

An Early Clue to the New Direction

So -- if today's title has led you to suspect something Fab Four-related, give yourself a High Five, because you're right.

More specifically, this very evening a certain Shady Dame and I will be attending a performance by ex-Beatles pagan skins pounder Ringo Starr...

...and his latest incarnation of the All-Starr Band at historic Forest Hills stadium. Which is more or less in our proverbial back yard.

And apart from the splendid time that is guaranteed for all, said show is even more historic because the last time Ringo played there was in 1964 (specifically, August 8th of that year) with his old band.

I'll have more to say about the show tomorrow, but in the meantime a coveted PowerPop NoPrize© will be awarded to the first reader who gleans the significance of all of the above to the theme of Friday's Weekend Essay Question.

You're welcome very much. 😎

Songs I'd Forgotten Existed, Let Alone Loved (An Occasional Feature): Special "Where's Vin Scully When You Need Him?" Edition

Oish, an obscure Brooklyn Dodgers reference in today's title. Mea culpa. 😎

In any case, that's brilliant Australian pub rock/New Wave band The Sports and their utterly fab 1979 hit "Who Listens to the Radio", a song which seems newly relevant given the once unthinkable levels of drivel that now pollute our air waves here in the third decade of the 21st century; sometime soon I really gotta do a think piece on the larger issues raised by that. I would also like to add that the guitar player on the right hand side in the video has some of the coolest jumping stage moves in the history of rock-and-roll.

BTW, for some reason I thought that came out on Stiff Records originally, but a Google search suggests otherwise; if any hard core collectors/vinyl nerds out there can clear up that confusion, I'd be happy to award them a coveted PowerPop No-Prize© for their trouble.

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

The Bermuda Triangle one is freaking brilliant, I'll tell you that for free. 😎