Engine "Barrett's Privateers"

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Engine
Crescent Fire Co.
CD
(Sister Ruby, 1994)

There used to be this club in town where bands played. The first time I went there, I believe it was to see a couple of fine local combos: Magic Bone and the Go-Devils. My friend James's band, who are not local, played there several times, and he just loved the place. If you ever happen to see him (a relatively easy thing to do when his band Yo La Tengo are playing), ask him how much he enjoyed playing at The Point. Wear a raincoat, if you do, though, 'cause his head will likely 'splode into a million bloody chunks of brain and bone. Then, you can make sausage.

James's musical boss, of sorts, Gerard Cosloy, had a band for a while in the early '90s called Envelope. A band sporting that name was announced as playing at The Point, so I went to check them out, Gerard being a nice guy with good taste in music. Well, it was a different band with the same name. I don't think I ever did hear the real thing.

The other band on the bill that fateful night, however, was a local group called Engine. I ended up digging their set quite a bit, in fact. Several years later, me not being all that up on local music at the time, I discovered they had released two CDs, so I bought 'em, and today's tune is from the first one. For this particular number, they wrote the music, but the words are by Canadian folkster Stan Rogers.

Their second album, A Good End to Memory, featured an almost completely different line-up, but the sound is pretty much the same, albeit a bit more expansive, with horns 'n' such.

Aside from the two albums, they also had three cuts on a compilation of local bands. You might notice one of them is Babyfat. They later changed their name to Ultrababyfat, due to there being another Babyfat already extant. They also later gained bassist Britta Phillips, who went on to join Luna and is now half of Dean & Britta, who are kinda like Luna if you killed two of them.

NOTA BENE: Years after The Point closed, I happened to see their weekly ad in an ancient-ish copy of Creative Loafing, a local free rag that covers music, among other things. Whaddya know, KoЯn and Limp Bizkit played together at The Point. Golly.

Grateful Dead "The Same Thing"

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The Grateful Dead
Historic Dead
LP
(Sunflower/MGM, 1971)

Man, I used to hate the Grateful Dead. I just despised them, you know? I thought the song Deadhead by The Teen Idles was hilarious:

Riding that train
High on cocaine
The music's really lousy
The fans are a pain

Trouble behind
Trouble ahead
Only good Deadhead
Is one that's dead

I've often wondered how they felt when Grateful Dead co-founder/leader Jerry Garcia died fifteen years or so later.

Sorry . . . tangent complete . . .

A number of years back, for some reason unknown to me despite the fact that the idea came from my own brain unit, I decided to buy a used copy I found of the reissue of their third album, Aoxomoxoa, replete with beaucoup bonus traxoa. I ended up really diggin' the long, drawn out, pyschedelic jams therein, and, naturally, started buying whatever I could snag from that period. My collection now sports twenty Grateful Dead albums (!). I should add, however, that they are almost all live recordings and nearly entirely from 1970 and earlier.

There are three exceptions to the above, two of which are sonic cut-up experiments: 1991's Infrared Roses, which features live recordings from the late 80s/early 90s mucked about with by soundman Bob Bralove, and 1996's massive Grayfolded, an amazing double-CD featuring recordings of Dark Star, spanning November 14, 1967 through September 13, 1993, that have been chopped, folded, contracted, expanded, etc. by John Oswald into two epic Plunderphonic versions of said piece: Transitive Axis (59:59) and Mirror Ashes (46:46). The third exception is Dick's Picks, Volume Two: Columbus, Ohio 10/31/71.

Today's song, however, comes from a legally released, but long unavailable, album from 1971 that featured live recordings made at the Avalon Ballroom in 1966. The Same Thing is a Willie Dixon song, and, to the best of my knowledge, this is one of only three versions of it by the Dead that have been released. In addition to this particular recording, there's one from 1967 in the So Many Roads boxset, plus a much later recording on Dick's Picks Volume 27: Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland, CA, December 16, 1992.

There's another album of Avalon Ballroom recordings, also on the Sunflower label, called Vintage Dead. Anyone have a spare copy?

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Jimmy Wray & The Shreveport Boys "Little Bo Peep"

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Jimmy Wray & The Shreveport Boys
Rockin` in Louisiana
vol. 2
compilation LP
(White Label Records, 19??)

Time for a little hometown pride, y'all.

I was born in Shreveport, LA and spent the first 181 months of my life there, i.e. fifteen years plus a month. While I lived there, I was not aware of any local music at all. Sure, I went to see bands, but only big, out-of-towners. The closest I came to seeing a local band was seeing Hot Sauce open for Styx on January 1, 1977. Hot Sauce were from Dallas, TX, a three or four hour drive away. About all I remember is the guitarist wore a silver leather jacket and had a very long, coiled red guitar cord. That and they were terrible, and I wanted them to go away.

Oh, and I also saw Bliss, from Tulsa, OK. I was told years later that Bliss opened for the Sex Pistols in Tulsa, and I've just confirmed that they did, about six months before I saw them. Wow! The main things I remember about them were the singer had HUGE, frizzed out hair and they played a metal version of The William Tell Overture. When I saw them, they opened for REO Speedwagon and Rainbow. My friend Marshall and I were there to see the latter, and left after the former's first, crappy song.

Anyhow, local music from Shreveport? Sure, we had the Louisiana Hayride, a hugely influential country music showcase and radio show, but that was about it, to the best of my knowledge. Aside from that, the only group I know of from my hometown is avant garde lunatics The Residents, whom I featured here several months ago.

So, now that that's out of the way . . .

When I saw this Dutch LP, the title immediately grabbed my attention. I flipped it over, and noticed the artist for three tracks on side two was Jimmy Wray & the Shreveport Boys. Luckily, the store where I saw it is very cool about playing things for customers, and it sounded pretty good. The remaining tracks on that side are just credited to Jimmy Wray, by the way.

Who is Jimmy Wray, aside from the handsome young man in the pictures? Let's ask the liner notes, shall we?

The second side of the LP contains only unreleased material by the mysterious JIMMY WRAY. Nothing is remembered of him in the studio except that he worked hard and the reasons for not issuing any of his material is long forgotten. Why though is left for you to decide. As his recordings demonstrate he was yet another cat who tried his heart out without any resultant recordings being issued, that we know of anyway.

Perhaps it might have something to do with him singing about scoring cocaine (in a different song) a decade or so before Lou Reed was singing about waiting for his dope dealer? Regardless, the above is the entirety of what the compilers of the LP chose to share with us. Most of the material on his side of the record is original, but this song is my favorite, and it pops into my head all the time, and it's a cover. I've tried researching it to find out more about it, but to no avail. It's credited to Mills/Eskew. Knock yourself out!

Merrill Womach "Sweet, Sweet Spirit"

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Merrill Womach
Merrill Womach in Quartet
LP
(New Life Records, 1977)

When I saw this album in the used bin at Tower Records in Atlanta, I thought the text was in Cyrillic. After pulling it out for a closer look, I discovered it was actually a gospel album from the mid/late 1970s by a guy from Spokane, WA, resting place of my nine-year-old appendix.

According to the liner notes:

Widely known for his unique vocal achievements in sound, Merrill is the first one to produce multiple stereophonic recordings. Through a series of delicately performed recordings of his own voice singing the various parts, he has produced duets, trios, quartets and even a 42-voice precision male chorus. Accompanying Merrill in many of his concerts are taped symphony orchestration backgrounds which are the result of years of research and development.

In addition to being a master of recording technique, Womach was also the victim of a fiery plane crash on Thanksgiving Day, 1961, just over seven months after my parents got married. This is the cause of his horrific facial scarring. Yes, it's not a horror movie makeup job; the poor guy actually looked like that.

As would be expected, nearly the entire album is graced with the sort of instrumental backing one might expect on a Caucasian gospel album of the period: dreadful. This particular track, however, is completely a cappella, albeit severely multi-tracked. I actually quite like it.

Tom Jones "Act of Mercy"

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Tom Jones
Do You Take This Man
LP
(EMI Columbia, 1979)

Yeah, I know . . . I've posted two Tom Jones songs already. I can't help it; I am obsessed.

The lil' goodie today comes from what would appear to be Tom's rarest album, Do You Take This Man. As you might guess from the cover, it's quite discofied. Normally, I can't stand disco, but I'll make the occasional exception.

It's impossible for me to say with absolute certainty that this his Tom's rarest, but I can say that it took me years to find a copy. For the longest time, based on the lack of information about it on the 'net, I thought it might be one of the 57 bazillion compilation albums out there. In addition, it was released in 1979, the same year that Rescue Me was released over here on my side of the pond from Wales. If you think the front cover's something, you should see the picture inside the gatefold. Tom is resplendent in chesty hirsuteness, and that belt buckle you can see on the front? It's enormous! The cover pic does not do it justice. It'd probably be quite handy for hand-to-hand combat. Oop! Pun not intended.

Much as I love Tom, I'm not sure if I would be able to decide between Do You Take This Man and Rescue Me which has the ickiest cover.

Anyhow, today's track was apparently originally done either by disco queen Vicki Sue Ring My Bell Robinson or Hamilton, Joe Frank & Dennison, formerly known as Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds; both released versions in 1976. I listened to a bit of a clip of VSR's recording on YouTube, and I have to say Tom's version is better. Then again, with Tom, that's usually the case.

Now, I'm just not familar enough with disco to know if the repeating string figure is common, or if Madonna flat out stole it for Vogue. I'll let you be the judge. Sorry the clip below isn't the original video, and is a different mix. Madonna won't allow embedding from YouTube, so we head to Vimeo for Robert Jeffrey's version:

I performed to MADONNA's VOGUE in the Summer of 1991 when my parents took me to Hampton Beach Casino in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. A business in the casino at the time gave tourists the chance to lip-synch to their favorite pop songs in front of a blue screen background, and I was lucky enough to partake that summer.

Donald Shirley "Secret Love"

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Donald Shirley
Tonal Expressions
LP
(Cadence Records, 1955)

Back in the days before I was borned, or even close to it, my mother bought records. Sure, my dad did, too, and most of their collection he likely acquired, but I found several albums with her maiden name written across the fronts when I raided their obsolete-to-them record collection several months ago. Ha! I deftly, electronically erased it from this one, however; no stealing my identity!

Donald Shirley was not a name I had heard before, but something about the title, Tonal Expressions, and the cover intrigued me. Unfortunately, when I returned home to my beloved (and my) turntable, I discovered it was in rather terrible condition. The little snippets on which I decided to risk my stylus sounded interesting, however. I took a gander on-line, and found a super cheap used copy of a double-CD, pairing it with his next-and-second album, Piano Perspectives. Woohoo!

My initial visual impression was, indeed, warranted; it's a wonderful album (and Piano Perspectives is no slouch, either). It's mostly a mellow affair, as Shirley primarily plays jazz standards, Tin Pan Alley numbers, and show tunes. He doesn't just play them, however; he plays in and around them. Arrangements go out the window and bits of other tunes often slip in and out and through the pieces. It's a sumptuous yet understated affair, lush but never saccharine.

My favorite piece, and today's jukebox selection, Secret Love, was a bit young to be a standard yet, as it was written only a couple of short years earlier for the 1953 film Calamity Jane (see below), starring Doris Day, whose TV show, the imaginatively named The Doris Day Show, I loved as a child.

And now, let's give the album's liner notes the floor for a bit, shall we?

Let us begin simply by saying that Don Shirley is a pianist. With all that this term implies, it is used here in its fullness to designate the stature of this musician. The kind of piano he ploys may now be, and most certainly and more acutely will be in the future, open to debate.

We would not be inclined to categorize him as a classical or as a jazz musician although with the public that is likely to happen. We would go further and say that his kind of music does not seem to hinge between the two although this is the designation he is likely to receive by many. We would go one step further and say that of all the things that might be consigned him, he is most nearly to become the artist embodying the suffusion of the classics and the modern.

These are strong statements to make. They would be so if the artist here considered were an established one. It is dangerous to claim them when he is beginning the ascent. We allow his musical history and what you will hear in this and forthcoming albums to be the proof.

In considering his background, you should know that his first teacher was his mother, that he was born in Kingston, Jamaica on January 27, 1927, that at the age of nine he was extended on invitation to study theory with Mittolovski at the Leningrad Conservatory of Music, that he later studied with the famous organist Conrad Bernier, and that he studied advanced composition with both Bernier and Dr. Thaddeus Jones at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C.

Shirley mode his concert debut with the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra in Boston June 25, 1945, with Dean Dixon as guest conductor. In 1949 he received an invitation from the Haitian government to play at the Exposition Internationale du Bi-Centenaire De Port-au-Prince followed by a request from Archbishop Le Goise and President Estime for a repeat performance the following week. Upon Arthur Fiedler's recent trip to Chicago, Shirley was again extended on invitation to appear with the orchestra in June 1954.

With such a background, it is evident that Shirley is a highly respected legitimate musician possessing great technical skill and an innate musical ability. He displays also great tenderness and emotional depth which render his performances inspiring.

Yeah, Secret Love may not sound like something you'd expect from this blog, but I absolutely adore this album! Sadly, my mother is getting up in years, and, when I asked her about it, hoping to please her by my liking it, she only vaguely remembered Shirley's name.

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Carl Stone "Wave Heat"

Carl Stone L.A. Mantra II 2 x cassette compilation (Trance Port Tapes, 1984)

So a good deal of the USA has been suffering through a heat wave as of late, and where we live is no exception. In celebration of this, our HVAC unit decided it was time to give up the ghost sometime early Saturday morning. Oh, the AC worked fine, but the fan that actually blows the cool (or warm, in winter) air through the ducts and into the house crapped out. I.e., it stopped moving. According to the thermostat, the temperature has hovered around 89°F (32°C) inside our house for the past several days! At night, it would cool to a positively frigid 88°F. It's amazing the difference a single degree can make, really. That difference is, of course, NONE. >:-( Sitting in the sweltering heat outside on the porch, where it was cooler than inside, the song "Heat Wave," popularized by Martha and the Vandellas the year I was borned, started coursing through my weary brain. Just the chorus, though. Over-and-over-and-over-and-over-and-over-and-over-and-over-and-over-and-over . . . You get the point. At some point, I remembered Carl Stone's sliced'n'diced version of "Heat Wave" from the L.A. Mantra II cassette compilation, released the year I hit the big two one. Now that we have a completely new HVAC unit, and finally have inside conditions cool enough for me to sit at the tape deck and computer, I present it to you, my loyal listeners, as a gift.

3 Teens Kill 4 "Tell Me Something Good"

3 Teens Kill 4 No Motive LP (L'Invitation au Suicide, 1984)

I can't think of what to write. I love the song, but I'm not inspired at all. This post has been sitting here for days waiting for me to finish it, though, so, here it is.

Slow Horse "Wicked Game"

Slow Horse Slow Horse CD (Freebird Records, 1999)

What a long, strange week it's been, eh? I got stuck on the write-up for the next piece I'd chosen, and hit a mental roadblock. More like smashed into it and declared totaled by my insurance company. So, I finally decided to ditch it, and go with something else. I featured a song from Slow Horse's eponymous, doomtastic debut album a while back, and Devil Dick, of the awesome blog The Devil's Music, requested I post their cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game,", from that same album. So, without further ado, here 'tis.

Fraser & DeBolt "Don't Let Me Down"

Fraser & DeBolt
Fraser & DeBolt (with Ian Guenther)
LP
(Columbia Records, 1971)

I remember listening to today's song for the first time, and thinking, That's a Beatles song! By the time it was done, however, I started to doubt myself. I checked the songwriting credits on the label, and, indeed, it was the Lenny Mac half of the Fab Four. Sure, it was just a b-side, but it's a pretty great song, nonetheless. This interpretation, however, replaces the electric-rock-quartet-plus-guest-keyboardist backing with two acoustic guitars and a fiddle, played by guest Ian Guenther. It also boasts a rather different arrangement (surprise!). It's the final track on Fraser & DeBolt's stunning debut album, and is a beautiful closer. The whole album is an impressive mélange of acoustic, folk rock and atonal, avant garde experimentation. I can honestly say I've heard little else similar to it, as their second album, With Pleasure, was recorded with a full backing band and a reigning in of atonality (it's still a wonderful album).

When I bought my first device for burning CDRs from my stereo ('twas a stereo component CD player/recorder), the very first things I burnt were the two Fraser & DeBolt albums and the first two Hanatarash albums. Fallout Records released a pirate version of the first album on CD and LP a few years back, if you want to find a relatively inexpensive copy. I was all excited when it came out 'cause I thought it was legit. It arrived in the mail and looked suspicious to me, and my suspicions were confirmed when the first song on side two was preceded by a very loud needle drop. Great quality control there, bozos; you should be crushed. Fallout was the successor to Radioactive Records, after they got busted. I guess Fallout got busted, too, as they now release stuff under the name Phoenix Records.

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*I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone cover Genesis, come to think of it. On the other hand, the lone time I saw Axehandle they did a devastatingly heavy and acrimonious cover of Phil Collins' I Don't Care Anymore. I was bummed that it didn't end up on their sole album. Or their soul album, which does not exist.

Today's selection gets the friend recommendation tag as my friend Marlo Donahue suggested I check them out when I told her 15 years or so ago that I was getting heavily into Tim Buckley. I kept my eyes peeled and came across a copy of With Pleasure a year or two later, and loved it.

Kim Salmon and The Surrealists "Je t'aime"

Kim Salmon and The Surrealists Just Because You Can't See It . . . . . . Doesn't Mean It Isn't There LP (Black Eye Records, 1989)

I'm finally starting to hopefully feel a bit better, so onward with the very long "week" of cover tunes. Today's selection was inspired by one of my reader/listeners asking recently at a dinner party if the original version of this song was for real, since it's rather stupid. I think that's the word she used. She knows who she is, so she's most welcome to correct me here. We were discussing French pop music, btw, and the original of this was written by Serge Gainsbourg. I've got three different versions of this tune by Kim Salmon and The Surrealists, and I decided to go with the studio version from their second album. There are also live versions on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre EP, which came as a bonus disc with initial copies of the Australian pressing of their Sin Factory album, and on the Kneel Down at the Altar of Pop reunion show CDR from a few years back.

Gumball "A Love Supreme"

Gumball Revolution on Ice CD (Sony Records [Japan], 1994)

"A Love Supreme" is one of those jazz covers that's been done enough that it's pretty much a cliché. Well, too bad! Today's piece is a cover of it, featuring some lovely, screaming psychedelic guitar skree from ax-meister Don Fleming. As you may know, these days many CDs come out in Japan with extra songs for the Japanese market; that was the case with this one. I already had the album in question, Revolution on Ice, when I stumbled across a Japanese pressing in a bargain bin. Hooray! Gumball arose from the demise of the somewhat similarly named B.A.L.L., who had also featured Fleming on guitar and Jay Spiegel on drums. On their 1989 European tour, however, bassist Kramer just up and quit. They soldiered on for a bit longer, I guess, as I saw them with bassist Guy Pinhas at the Circus in Gammelsforf, near Munich, West Germany. It was an insane show. I'm not sure if Guy knew the songs or not, but he played like a madman. Don shredded away on the guit, and Jay held down the rhythm. The highlight of the show was the encore; roadie Joey Pea came out in a green lamé dress and feather boa, and they did a slammin' cover of The Stooges' "Funhouse."

Slaraffenland "Take on Me"

Slaraffenland Sunshine CD EP (Home Tapes, 2008)

To quote The Damned, I'm "Sick of Being Sick." I've had the flu, or something similar, for the last week, hence the lack of posts. I'm still sick, but feeling up to posting at the moment, so you get one! No kisses, though. I'm not sharing my germs; they're MINE MINE MINE!!! One of the things I love about covers, is a cover can take a song one absolutely loathes and make it listenable, nay, even enjoyable! Today's example comes courtesy of Denmark's Slaraffenland, from their fourth release, the Sunshine EP. Now, I'm not gonna say who did the original, but I'll link the video after the jump. I just searched it out on YouTube, and, yep, I still hate it. Were it not for the innovative video techniques, including ripping off Altered States, I doubt it would've been the massive hit it was. I discovered Slaraffenland, btw, via the bargain bin at my favorite local record store. Their second album (and third release, overall), Private Cinema, was in the bin of oddly shapped stuff and it really grabbed my eye and pulled. Hard. See, it was packaged in a little hardback book, rather than a jewelcase or digipak. On top of that, the band name was interesting, the artwork was neat, and IT WAS PINK! Sold!

Job's Daughters "The Prophecy of Daniel and John the Divine (Six-Six-Six)"

Job's Daughters The Prophecy of Daniel and John the Divine/Sinner Man 7" single (Nuf Sed Southwestern Radio Church, 1991)

And so we begin covers week! Now, as I was driving around town on Saturday (i.e., yesterday), I was writing down ideas in my cute lil' notepad app in my HTC Tilt 2 smartass phone. I did this, of course, only at stop lights and when waiting at the drive-through window at my dealer. Ninth on my list of idears was this little platter, which I first heard on a mix tape my buddy James made for me eons ago (like, probably twenty years ago, seeing as this record is almost old enough to drink in the USA). When I pulled it out of one of my many crates of little records, the cover made it disturbingly obvious that it had to be today's song. Anyhow, I fell in love with the song, and the first copy I saw for sale, I snapped up. As you can tell by the price sticker, it was in a bargain bin; yes, it took me well over a decade to stumble across one. So, anyhow, I looked at the credits, and it's a COVER! And it was originally recorded by The Partridge Family The Cowsills, at that! How crazy is that? I've still never heard the original, so my apologies if this adds nothing new to it. Six more goodies in store in the next few days! And next month will be an entire theme month! Unless I change my mind, of course.

The Residents "Satisfaction"

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The Residents
Satisfaction
7" single
(Ralph Records, 1976)

So, I'm back!

I've decided to start doing the occasional (or maybe frequent) (it's my blog–you can't stop me) theme week, starting today.

So . . .

This week's theme is Lightning's (that's me) favorite guitar solos. 'Cause, like, I'm a guitarist. Of sorts. Well, I own several guitars. Sometimes I even touch them.

First out of the box has one of my favorite solos and also happens to be my favorite cover song of all time. I bought this as I was easing into punk rock in my 17th year, and it was an ear opener, all right. Up until then, I'm not sure I'd ever heard anything so gloriously ugly. The guitarist on this charming piece is Phil Lithman, better known as Snakefinger. I can't remember where I read this, or who wrote it, but it's a perfect description: Snakefinger plays all the wrong notes in all the right places.

I've flagged this as both USA/Louisiana and England for a good reason. Firstly, The Residents are originally from Shreveport, LA, as am I. Secondly, Snakefinger is a Brit, and he's the soloist. So there. He was formerly a pub rocker in the UK, btw. His playing and singing with Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers is not the sort of thing that would lead one to expect . . . this.

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I cheated on the cover for this one. The pictured cover is the original 1976 issue, which was something like 200 copies. I ripped this from my 1978 repress, which was 30,000 units, allegedly.

Kim Salmon and The Business "Love Me"

Kim Salmon and The Business Saving Me from Me CD single (Half a Cow Records, 1999)

Happy Valentine's Day! What could be better than an anguished song about unrequited love? How about an anguished song about unrequited love written Dudley Moore for the brilliant 1967 film Bedazzled, written by and starring Duds and his pal Peter Cook? How about an anguished song about unrequited love written Dudley Moore for the brilliant 1967 film Bedazzled, written by and starring Duds and his pal Peter Cook, as covered by one of my favorite artists of all time? You're absolutely right! NOTHING! [video of the scene itself after the jump]

Dump "The Words Get Stuck in My Throat"

Dump Women in Rock CD EP (Shrimper, 1999)

This one is for listener VirginiaM, who commented in the previous post: I won't be happy until you've featured the actual true very best horror film doomed-heroine warble: "Words Get Stuck in My Throat" from Gargantua. Well, luckily for all y'all out there in internetland, I don't own that. Besides, she couldn't even get the movie title right; it's The War of the Gargantuas. All is not lost, however! The mysterious James did a swell cover of "The Words Get Stuck in My Throat" with his one man band Dump, so here it is for your listening pleasure. I say mysterious, by the way, only because in re-reading my post about his band the Maynards, I realized I never mentioned his last name; it's McNew.

Dagmar Krause "Song of a German Mother"

Dagmar Krause Radio Sessions CD EP (Voiceprint, 1993)

If I had to pick my favorite vocalists of each gender, they'd be Tom Jones (male), Dagmar Krause (female), and Antony Hegarty (transgender) of Antony and the Johnsons.