Another Excuse For A Freeform Friday 5 Fiasco

Well ... I guess i'm getting ahead of myself, but since Thursday is technically my Friday... hey why not throw up a few tracks and we'll count it as a Friday 5 batch.

That way I won't have to mess with the pooter for y'all 2 morrow...

Heck, perhaps I will get sooooo blurred tonight runnin from club to club that I won't even be able to see a computer properly until well after noon on Friday. I guess that just makes me lazy & crazy or something, but what's wrong with Another Excuse...

Soulwax - Another Excuse ( DFA Mix)

Seems like Republican Senator George Allen is making a few excuses this week...

Before I get ya started on an mp3 downloading frenzy , I thought I'd slip in some George Allen video from that ever popular YouTube site...

That son of an NFL team coachin' son of a bitch, George Allen slipped in his own Macaca this week. The infamous clip is embedded below, so check it out ya if ya wanna how we do politics in my former home state of Real Virginny...

I guess it should come as no surprise that a guy whose Dad's team was called the Redskins might have a few racist bones in his body, but apparently he ain't done picking on Indians. This time however the Indian in question is not the native american variety , but a campaign volunteer of the East Asian persuasion.




Sadly the kid he is singling out amongst his good ol' boy supporters is not a foreigner or named Macaca, which is a derogatory term referring to someone you think is on par with a small asian monkey. Ironically, Allen derides his Senate opponent for being in LA, where Allen was born, and yet derides as an alien the young University of Virginia student videographer with the last name Sidarth who was actually born in Virginia, unlike Allen. Webb's campaign was quick to note that not onl was he familiar with the area, Sidarth the videograher had stayed nearby at a relatives of Webb's home just the night before.

Anyhow, moving right along, I thought I'd toss in the new timely as ever video for Slayer's Jihad. Heck even the NY Times is on their tip this week, so why not me...

Lately I've been digging in the crates for y'all, ousting crusty old vinyl cuts for digitizing and uploadin' em to yer webbly world. So maybe I'll veer off course just a bit and give ya some more of that 21st century sugar & shite y'all crave. Here's that hipster band of the summer, no not those underground mash up mavens Gnarls Deathly Cunt for Bootie or whatever you were thinking, but the rip roaring 70's boogie rawk sounds of Wolfmother... as seen on TV etc.

Wolfmother -Apple Tree

Now let's kick start this oldies party portion of the show & get the way back machine humming...

As long as we are talking about Apples, let's try and stay on that subject ( and no I don't mean insert hype about yer spanking new I-Pod, love for Steve Jobs or a new faster OS upgrade). I'm talking bout American Apple Trees and the noted experts of their time The Andrews Sisters. These dames helped lift our hopes through a nasty time known as the sequal to World One One, which for lack of a better term, we shall call World War II.

Their lilting sisterly harmonies came in over the Armed Forces Radio from USO shows like some sort of sonic salve for the drafted boys stuck in foxholes, or k.p duty aboard some drifting aircraft carrier in some godforsaken corner of the Pacific. The song here was a lil' false blast of reassurance for G.I Joe or Jack, Eugene or whatever his name was, as he waited out the brutal wars end. In the Andrews Sisters voices our nervous soldier could imagine that his girl back home wasn't getting fingered & knocked up by some lazy unpatriotic 4F draft dodger, while he was dodgin' Nazi & Jap bullets and catching crabs from foreign hookers.

Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
Anyone else but me, anyone else but me, no, no, no
Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
'Til I come marchin' home


Don't go walkin' down Lovers' Lane with anyone else but me
Anyone else but me, anyone else but me, no, no, no
Don't go walkin' down Lovers' Lane with anyone else but me
'Til I come marchin' home

I just got word from a guy who heard
From the guy next door to me
The girl he met just loves to pet
And it fits you to a T
So, don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
'Til I come marchin' home



Don't give out with those lips of yours to anyone else but me
Anyone else but me, anyone else but me, no, no, no
Watch those girls on foreign shores, you'll have to report to me
When you come marchin' home

Don't hold anyone on your knee, you better be true to me
You better be true to me, you better be true to me
Don't hold anyone on your knee, you're gettin' the third degree
When you come marchin' home

You're on your own where there is no phone
And I can't keep tabs on you
Be fair to me, I'll guarantee
This is one thing that I'll do
I won't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but you
'Til you come marchin' home

Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me
I know the apple tree is reserved for you and me
And I'll be true 'til you come marchin' home

The Andrews Sisters - Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree ( With Anyone Else But Me)



Is this a great war loving country or what?

It's just too bad that that pesky Supreme Court is down on Bush's right to just wiretap, detain, torture & f*ck with whomever looks funny anymore...what's the world coming to?

I Ask That Ye Get On The Bandwagon & Support Our Troops Now, (before they all come back charged with war crimes, or disfigured, damaged, frustrated, homicidal & meaner than skunks and start shootin' their wives & future co-workers).


Our next downloadable contestant is from Brooklyn originally, but now resides in The Golden State...

As a teenager Brian Hyland had a huge novelty hit in the summer of 1960 with "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka dot Bikini". Hyland's haunting 1962 followup song "Sealed With A Kiss" sunk so deep it was a hit out the gate, and had a sappy second life, mysteriously reappearing on the top 40 charts again in 1975. His 1962 single release of "Warmed Over Kisses (Left Over Love)," was yet another top 40 success. By 1970, he had switched labels & gears several times, but Hyland was not through developing as an artist and had Del Shannon produce his third gold record "Gypsy Woman". The song is a Curtis Mayfield composistion that went up the charts to #3, some 17 positions higher than the Impressions original version. All in all he placed 22 songs on the charts in 11 years between 1960-1971. Here's that vinyl sourced version of Gypsy Woman, , a song that is available on a CD only through a special order via Hip-O Select, Universal Music's more or less semi-lame ass copycat version of a Rhino style reissue label.

Brian Hyland - Gypsy Woman

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My 5 blast ends today with the magical melting pot sounds of Joe Bataan , the Afro-Filipino Latin King of NYC in the early 70's. While doing a stint for auto theft in Coxsackie State Prison, Joe got serious about music, playing piano & trumpet in the prison and after release, around the neighborhood. . Amazed that doo-wop & R&B was merging with Latin grooves, Joe started making records within 6 months of getting seriously involved in the boogaloo scene. His first LP for Fania was actually entitled "Gypsy Woman" in '67, and like Brian Hyland, (whose mentioned in this post), he too had success covering the great 1961 Curtis Mayfield composistion with a new flair. After leaving Fania, Joe actually headed the influential but obscure Ghetto Records label, and founded the well known Salsoul label in NY which was later sold to CBS. He was a pioneer in sound & soul, and being street savvy, in 1980 he became one of the first to rap on a record, "Rap-O Clap-O".

This track below is from a 1972 Fania Records release, and is a cover of an already popular Tommy James & Shondells tune from a few years earlier. Basically Joe takes the tune and gives it some psychedelic East Harlem street cred. His fans came from a rainbow of backgrounds, and included Mestizos, Puerto Ricans, Filipinos, Afro-Cubanos and even influential gay white club DJ's like Larry Levan & Arthur Baker. In the early 70's Joe was one of the first American artists to play behind the iron curtain in Eastern Europe, and has a large cul following despite his relative commecial obscurity. He more or less left the music business by the 80's , and even worked as a counselor for juveniles in the New York State Department of Justice. Lured out of retirement, he released a new album in the new millennium on the Vampisoul label.

Visit this website linked below to see a win media clip taken from a DVD of his Sept 2005 triumphant comeback show in SF last year. It was his first appearance in the Bay Area since his 1974 appearance at Herbst Theater.

http://www.joebataan.net/News.html

Joe Bataan - Crystal Blue Persuasion

awww ... would it really hurt to slip one more track in...

at least it will make it an even number eh?

here's anotha classic Joe Bataan cut for ya, from the 1972 LP released on Fania called St. Latin's Day Massacre...

Joe Bataan - I Wish You Love pt 2


anyhow, have a good end of the summer sorta weekend ...

Ol School ION Snappin n Cracklin

uh, lasterday I think I mentioned that I bought a new ION turntable that has a handy USB output for my pooter, so I can now more easily convert vinyl embedded classic tracks for posting as mp3 files. I just loves me some old snappin & cracklin vinyl on my new fangled toy, and boy ... you whipper snappers will be getting lots more oldies from around here...

Here's a random batch for now...

These are tracks I recently converted from the dusty vinyl realm to the dusty digital realm fer yer downloadin & i-podding pleasure... likely most are out of print, or just plain scarce even if ya can dig em up.

This next cut was from a 45 I knew I had to pick up when I saw the songwriting credit listed as Naomi Neville. I had never heard of the group or the label, but I knew that Naomi Neville is a pseudonym for none other than Allen Toussaint. Turns out the Stokes were a group from Houston featuring Allen and the Fayard brothers that cut some cool instrumental tracks while Allen was awaiting his discharge form the military. These sides were cut for ALON records ( that's NOLA backwards y'all). The label was an imprint managed by Allen's then partner Joe Banashak. Once he was out of the military, Allen left Banashak whom he was having differences with to join Marshall Sehorn and form Sea-Saint Studios. The Stokes tracks are fairly rare, the major one being a little ditty known as Whipped Cream, a track that Toussaint released in 1965, but Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass took a cover version up the charts, leaving Toussaint's original in the dust. Here's the B-side a tune called Piecrust.


The Stokes - Piecrust


Clarence Reid is a notorious Miami based figure in R&B, you may have heard of his albums released under his pseudonym Blowfly, a recent release just turned up on Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles imprint. His career is filled with footnotes that make him ever interesting to muscologists, what with almost 4000 songs published by BMI under his name. Some are huge million seller hits pened for soulful luminaries like Betty Wright ( "Clean Up Woman,") and Gwen McRae ("Rockin' Chair" etc), and he didsome writing & production for the multi platinum machine that is Harry Wayne Casey ( aka KC & the Sunshine Band). His Blowfly material has been sampled by the likes of Eminem, Ice T and P Diddy, but here on this old school track though is Reid under his own name, kickin' down a classic funky jam that is a dance floor burner that needs no dirty comedic gimmick to catch your attention. Released circa 1969 on Henry Stone's Atlantic affiliated Alston label, it features the Memphis horns and gets a righteous groove up in no time. The tune hit #7 on the soul music charts back in the day. I see that Rhino has finally done the righteous remaster & reissue job, but here it is in all it's cracklin' glory off an old school vinyl 45 that's been buried for years.

Clarence Reid - Nobody But You Babe



Louisiana Rockabilly legend Dale Hawkins cut Susie-Q first as a demo in 1956 at KWKH Radio in Shereveport, the tape was picked up by Chicago's Chess brothers for distro through their Checker label. The record features future Elvis backing band member James Burton on guitar, he was just 15 at the time. Burton was a child prodigy of sorts who had already played in the Louisiana Hayride backing group, but the older Hawkins instilled a love of the blues into him as well.

Here's a pic of Dale on the right and on the left, the guy that made him lots o

f money, that being John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival. A little over 10 years after the original ha faded from the scene, CCR recut & revitalized Hawkins lil' rockabilly number and turned it into a a perennial classic rock radio fave.

Dale Hawkins - Susie Q

In addition to co-composing & cutting the famed Susie Q, in the 60's Dale later was an A&R guy for RCA involved with Harry Nilsson, and produced single hits like Judy In Disguise ( with glasses) for John Fred & the Playboys and the bubblegum psychedelia classic Western Union for the Five Americans.

anyhow, that's all fer now ye radio rejecting rebels... gotta go... the work day is calling...

Hump Day 5

Yo

kinda busy at work, but I thought it might be cool to sneak a lil Hump Day 5.

Last night I splurged and bought myself a USB enabled turntable which makes converting from vinyl to mp3 a snap. I was eyeing the beastie at Urban Outfitters of all places since last December, and well I had a couple bucks in my lil pocket, or make that a couple hundred, and went for it.

I coulda maybe saved a few dozen dollars by ordering from some discounter's website, but I wanted instant gratification, and something to do until the wee hours.

Here's the first couple conversions I did last night...

I proudly present my first mp3 encodes off some cool crusty ol' vinyl stored in a hall closet.

As you may have read in my previous post this week , Elvis died 29 years ago today. One of Elvis early publishers was a woman named Mae Boren Axton , (who co-wrote Heartbreak Hotel for Elvis). Her son Hoyt is featured below.

This track is off a rare LP that Hoyt released first as The Balladeer in 1962, and was was reissued in 1963. The LP is supposedly live at The Troubadour, although the on the reissued version the audience is pretty durn quiet if there is one, I understand they were erased. On the LP he is accompanied on some songs by young Roger aka JIm McGuinn, then of the Chad Mitchell Trio, and later of the Byrds.

Hoyt was great singer/songwriter, and is far too underated in my opinion considering the volume and chart impact of his work. The song here was a big hit for The Kingston Trio, and Hoyt actually reaped little from the song's success due to a bad contract. The tune eventually appeared on 3 Billboard charting albums but Hoyt made a mere $800.00 from the song

..."I was just a kid with a guitar living in a car... How could I sue when the whole point of the song was how I didn't give a damn about a greenback dollar?

"

Hoyt Axton - greenback dollar ( don't give a damn about...)

Hoyt who lived a very interesting life, died at age 61 in Bitteroot Valley Montana October 27 of 1999 of heart failure, but left us a legacy of music, movies and stories.

This friendly popular folk singer born in Duncan Oklahoma in 1938 eventually turned movie actor penned Three Dog Night’s biggest song Joy to the World and many other hits during his heyday in the 60's and 70's. The young Hoyt was an All-American athlete replete with football scholarship to Oklahoma State University, which he soon left to join the U.S Navy. During his military stint he was the heavyweight champion boxer in his task force division of 35 ships.

After serving in the armed forces, he arrived in Nashville with a guitar on a tip from his mother Mae Boren Axton

Hoyt soon split Tennesee for California's burgeoning folk scene during the early 60's. He played the clubs in San Francisco's North Beach and made the scene in L.A as well.

Roger McGuinn (aka Jim McGuinn) remembered Hoyt Axton as a struggling
singer who taught him a tune backstage in 1962 at the Troubadour in
L.A. "We recorded it live at the Troubadour later that week, and when it
came out, I was surprised to see the credit "Here as well is the
delightful Australian folk ballad, Brisbane Ladies, on which
Jimmy McQuinn of the Chad Mitchell Trio harmonizes with Hoyt." In
spite of the misspelled name, I was glad to have been able to sing with Hoyt.
I really loved the song too!" The song appeared on Hoyt's debut LP for
the Horizon label, McGuinn later formed the Byrds with David Crosby.

Paying Dues, Paying Bills

In the late 60's Steppenwolf eventually recorded Axton's The Pusher
and Snowblind Friend, two dramatic denouncements of the dark side
of drug use. John Kay, a young aspiring singer and dishwasher also used
to see Axton perform in the early 60's around L.A. He later told Axton, 'When you sang 'The
Pusher,' I'd come out of the kitchen with a towel in my hand, saying that if I ever get a band, I'm gonna record that song'."The Pusher, in particular, paid off at a good
time for Hoyt: "I had two houses, three kids, two cars, $400 in the bank
and bills to pay. The bank repossessed the Mercedes-Benz, and said I'd never
get credit again," he remembers. "One Saturday morning, I went to
the mailbox and there was a check for $14,000 for the use of the song in the
film Easy Rider".










Hits like Never Been To Spain ("but i kinda
like the music") and The No Song ("No, no, no, I don't
smoke it no more") which went to number three on the U.S. charts for the
newly solo ex-BeatleRingo
Starr helped keep the money rolling in.










His songs
seemed to showcase his optimism and singular sense of humor. A
version of Joy to The World by Three Dog Night became the
biggest selling record of 1971 ("Jeremiah was a bullfrog...").
Axton’s own singing hits included Boney Fingers ("Work
your fingers to the bone, what do you get? Boney fingers"). When
the Morning Comes, a duet he recorded with Linda Ronstadt from
1974's Life Machine album, which went to number one on the Canadian
charts.

As the singer songwriter trend dried up in the latter 70's Axton continued to
record for his own label Jeremiah, began in '78. 1979's Rusty Old Halo album
produced his last two major hits, "Della and the Dealer" and the title track. Other artists to record his music over time included Elvis, Cher, Joan Baez, Waylon Jennings, John
Denver, Glen Campbell, Tanya Tucker,Arlo Guthrie, Martha Reeves and
even 90's punk band Ten Foot Pole.

Axton had numerous negative music business dealings with many labels and by the early nineties his work on Horizon, A&M, Vee-Jay and MCA was mostly left out of print by short sighted label execs. Maintaining a steady concert schedule was a priority throughout the seventies and eighties that found Axton away from his Lake Tahoe home & on the road playing as many as 300 dates a year.

Music wasn't his only bag though, and thankfully He also got in front of the camera, first guesting on "Bonanza" circa 1965 and then eventually many TV programs including "Hootenanny", "Hee-Haw",
"Diff'rent Strokes","The Dukes of Hazzard", "Trapper John MD","WKRP in Cincinatti"
as well as popular feature films like "The Black Stallion" and "Gremlins". His voice was used in many TV commercials for Busch beer, Pizza Hut, and even McDonald's where he was the singing lumberjack who introduced the then-new Big Mac. Hoyt reportedly liked doing commercials so much he didn't even consider it work. He also did voiceover narration for educational films. He bought his ranch in
Montana, after playing a sheriff in the movie ''Disorganized Crime,'' filmed there in 1988.



He suffered a debilitating stroke in 1996, and a then suffered a demoralizing medical marijuana bust in 1997 for which he received a three year deferred sentence and was fined $15,000. His health was not good these last few months, including advanced complications from diabetes, spending most of his time in a wheelchair. Axton finally passed away a few days after suffering a heart attack during surgery in a Montana hospital .



A spokesperson for the Academy of Country Music told Associated Press after his death "There was nobody that didn’t like Hoyt,".


If y'all are good, or at least show some interest ... I'll due a more comprehensive look back at the prolific career of Mr. Axton soon

------------------------------

this next Hump Day 5 tune was produced by Chinn & Chapman , the British tag team who brought us Sweet & later on even worked with Blondie. Their 70's female idol at the time was Suzie Quatro, who was also known as Leather Tuscadero an the Happy Days TV Show. This particular song is taken from the 1975 LP, Your Momma Won't Like Me. Known as a raunchy rocker who was a big influence on Joan Jett, here she takes a softer style song that Peggy Lee had a good run with back in the 1950's. I couldn't resist playing with the bass boost on the EQ & added some short unnecessary echo & phaser effects here and there into it as well. Forgive me, but it was pretty dull without em & I just couldn't resist ...

Suzi Quatro - Fever 1975 ( re eq'd & fkd w/ by moi)



Here's a cut from a new compilation covering the late 60's and early 70's work of Hugh Masakela... If you are not familiar with this African musical maestro, y'all might wanna look into his career, and the impact of his musical innovations which are on par with Miles Davis and Fela Kuti. Married for a time to the great singer Miriam Makeba, they were like the first couple of African Pop Music. This track is from 1975, on Hugh's own label CHISA which he had hoped would become the African equivalent of Motown.


Hugh Masekela -
Afro Beat Blues

here's another song from the same collection
From The Vaults Of Chisa 1965-1976

Hugh Masekela - Mahlalela

Here's another earlier Masekela track, a big hit for him in 1967 entitled Grazing In The Grass

Hugh Masekela - Grazing In The Grass





anyhow... I really gotta go... so see ya latahz ...