Ketty Lester - Love Letters

Big thanks to G. Condon for peeling this one off in a nice summer mix available here. Composed in 1945 by Edward Heyman, who coincidentally also wrote the song that kicks off Viva mix #112. Beautifully hollow arrangement on this, with spooky organ backing kicking in at 1:01.

Donald Byrd: The Cat Walk

From the album of the same name with the following line up:

Donald Byrd: trumpet
Pepper Adams: baritone sax
Duke Pearson: piano
Laymon Jackson: bass
Philly Joe Jones: drums

Of course there are those who have other associations with "The Cat Walk".

And then, before you know what hits you, I hit you with this. Donald Byrd in 1993, with Guru, on Jazzmatazz vol 1.

"Everybody knows that they have times when they just want to lay back, kick their feet up, you know, listen to some good music, and just lounge."

July 2, 1962
Finjan Club, Montreal, Canada

Bob Dylan:
The Death of Emmett Till
Stealin'
Hiram Hubbard
Blowin' in the Wind
Rocks and Gravel
Quit Your Lowdown Ways
He Was a Friend of Mine
Let Me Die in My Footsteps
Still a Fool
Ramblin' On My Mind
Muleskinner Blues

WHAT TO WEAR FOR THAT SPECIAL OCCASION ?



Bespoke sartorial elegance: the Tuxedo Cat.

When it comes to grooming, tuxedo cats - an American expression, I believe - have it down pat. Naturally dressed to impress, a hand-me-down coat of the sleekest disposition will never let you down.

When my son was born, Biff - our elderly tuxedo - was like a surrogate sibling. As a younger, prouder night-stalker he would sally forth from our flat to forage under pub tables for party favours and return in the wee small hours of the morning smelling faintly of cigar smoke. I often wondered if he somehow held a secret hankering to hit the bigger casinos in Vegas.

He was a handsome cat, and in a certain light looked a little like Elvis.

Thanks again to Mike, Big B and Sheridan for allowing me to share centre-stage. And - as always - an especially big Thank You to Emmett for proferring a kindred hand of friendship. This time, at least, I think I was able to make the production duties a little simpler.

If I've sounded a little prickly these last few weeks you wouldn't be far wrong. Doing this stint has helped screw my head back on straight. Thanks, too, to everyone who left a comment.

To Fusion 45, moreover, for making it cool to lay it on the line. And to Brendan, over on The Rising Storm for walking it too.

Before I get too maudlin, let me explain this bottle is almost done. There are always too many toasts to make when you get right down to it. If the songs that follow strike you as overly cheesy, you're a better man than I.

download: JOHNNY CASH: I WALK THE LINE from "I Walk The Line" 45 (Sun) 1962 (US)

download: CAT STEVENS: FATHER & SON from "Tea For The Tillerman" LP (A&M) 1970 (UK; US)

download: CAT STEVENS: WILD WORLD from "Tea For The Tillerman" LP (A&M) 1970 (UK; US)

and, just because this 45 of impeccable genius came out a year too late to include it the other day:
download: THE ARCHIES: SUGAR, SUGAR from "Sugar, Sugar" 45 [Kirshner] 1969 (US)

posted by ib

BLUE RIDGE BARBED WIRE HASSLE AND DEEP-FRIED SOUTHERN CHICKEN.



Hasil Adkins (pronounced "Hassle," not "Haysil"): April 29, 1936 - April 25, 2005.

Anybody out there fond of the Cramps? Remember Lux Interior's crazed psychobilly b-side to 1981's "Goo Goo Muck" on I.R.S., "She Said" ? Well, the original One-Man-Band version by Hasil Adkins was just as manic and a whole lot more interesting.

Born and raised in Boone County, West Virginia - where he lived out his entire life - the young Adkins fashioned his first guitar from barbed wire and tin pails, beating out accompanying rhythms on milk cans and lard churns. Glued to his parents' radio beaming in an evening diet of Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams Sr, the star-struck boy could only conceive that these ghostly visitors must play all their intstruments themselves.

From Wiki:

'He was the youngest of 10 children, and was both severely depressive and hyperactive. Growing up in a tarpaper shack on property rented from the local coal company, Hasil attended 6 days of school total and never really worked at anything other than being a musician.'

Apparently, he didn't receive his first pair of shoes until he was five years old. Later on, he would often cite in interviews that his principal hero was Col. Harlan Sanders, the inventor of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Sounds familiar ? Fuck the Waltons, this was unadulterated rawk 'n' roll from the very start.

'Nicknamed "The Haze", Adkins claimed a repertoire of over 9,000 songs including over 7,000 original compositions, recorded scores of small, micro-label 45s, and is responsible for the birth of Norton Records, Psychobilly, and a dance called "The Hunch".'



Hasil Adkins was intentionally run down in his own back yard by a teenager on an ATV on April 16, 2005. He recovered sufficiently to identify the youth from a police mugshot, bud died from his injuries just ten days later. The photograph above of the teenage Adkins in Boone County bears an uncanny resemblance to an old snapshot of my father taken at much the same age. My dad died in 1982 of a massive cardiac arrest. I would like to think he would have appreciated the comparison.

download: HASIL ADKINS: SHE SAID from "She Said/Is This The End ?" 45 (Jody Records) 1966 (US)

download: HASIL ADKINS: CHICKEN WALK from "She's Mine/Chicken Walk" 45 (Air Records) 1962 (US)

download: HASIL ADKINS: WE GOT A DATE from "Out To Hunch (West Virginia Recordings)" CD (Norton Records) 1986 (US)

download: HASIL ADKINS: NO MORE HOT DOGS from "Out To Hunch (West Virginia Recordings)" CD (Norton Records) 1986 (US)

posted by ib

The Beatles: The Sheik Of Araby [1962]
Art Tatum: The Sheik Of Araby [1937]

This chestnut was written in 1921, with lyrics by Harry B. Smith and Francis Wheeler and music by Ted Snyder. (Ted Snyder is the man who gave Irving Berlin his start in show business, hiring Irving as a song plugger in 1909. Now that's old school.) The song was popularized by Eddie Cantor, who performed it in the 1922 Schubert stage show Make It Snappy. It was a hit before your mother was born.

The Beatles version was recorded on New Year's Day, 1962, as part of their audition for Decca records. Recorded at the Decca studios at 165 Broadhurst Gardens, London. With Pete Best on drums. Taken from this CD. George Harrison said the Beatles's version was inspired by Joe Brown, although as far as I can tell Joe's version didn't surface on record until this live version from 1963, which, as it happens, is rather different from the Beatles arrangement.

Art T's version was recorded on November 29, 1937 in New York City, and released on Decca records. (Unlike the Beatles, Art apparently passed his audition.) Taken from this CD. For more stride piano stylings, dig this Fats Waller version.

JOE MEEK: MADMAN ACROSS THE WATER ;
THE HITMAN AND HER




Robert George Meek: born, April 5, 1929, Newent, Gloucestershire ; died February 3, 1967, London

Over in the States you had Phil Spector, but at the same time here in pre-Beatles Britain there was Joe Meek, and what he lacked in business acumen he more than made up for with sheer homespun innovation, and an eccentricity which really got up the nose of the Soviet-style Politbureau which was the U.K. record industry.

Obsessed with the space-race, and determined to have his "Telstar" beamed across the world via sattelite in a global first, what lay at the nuclear core of his production technique was a Heath Robinsonesque collection of unravelling string and knicker elastic, with Meek miking up the bathroom in his (quite literal) studio-flat to create the tub-thumping drum sound which became his trademark. His secret weapon version of the Spector Wall-of-Sound in an imaginary cold war of his own making.

Hounded, like his peer Brian Epstein, for his sexual proclivities, the increasingly paranoid and out of control Meek shot himself dead in 1967 after a squabble with his boyfriend over money when it became clear he could no longer bankroll his obsessive bid for continued chart-topping domination. Or make his boyfriend a rolled gold superstar.



I recently watched an Arena documentary on Joe Meek in which his two brothers expressed their painfully sad recollections on why Joe was seduced and ultimately broken by the stellar lights of otherwordly ambition. Neither sibling was capable of bringing him back down to earth. Asked directly what was their favourite Meek production, one brother smiled fondly and turned to camera:

"The Cryin' Shames. Do you know that one ? That was a nice one. Lovely song."

Or words to that effect.

I can't argue with that. Turn up the reverb and dampen the lights.



Word of caution, though - lest you feel too sorry for Joe, ponder the even sadder fate of his landlady and erstwhile shoulder-to-cry-on, whom he coolly murdered seconds before turning the gun on himself. Classic case of wrong place, wrong time. Just as is the case with Phil Spector, guns and record producers don't make for a good mix.

download: THE CRYIN' SHAMES: PLEASE STAY (DON'T GO)

posted by ib

Eddie Condon and the Dixieland All-Stars: La Vie En Rose [1962]

"Few people, even among fellow players, follow Condon's own habits: boilermakers (whiskey with a beer chaser) at the bar and milk at home (he thinks milk will keep away ulcers)."
--From the 12.31.45 issue of TIME

Another in the series of versions of La Vie En Rose (see here). This with a Dixieland twist. Swizzinging.