Month: November 2013

Saturday Matinee: Swamp Edition – Talking Heads, Ry Cooder, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band & Swamp Dogg

Talking Heads‘ classic “Swamp” performed at the London Wembley Arena 1982. It was released the following year, creeped me out, and I became a TH fan.

Ry Cooder‘s swamp-rock cover of Elvis’ “All Shook Up” may have been posted here before but so what –  it’s awesome and it fits the theme of this post.

“Now, Amos Moses was a Cajun. He live by hissef in da swamp.”
This is the best cover of Jerry Reed‘s “Amos Moses” I’ve ever heard. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band took it and made it nasty. (This 1976 video is from the German TV show Pop Scop.)

Jerry Williams Jr. aka Swamp Dogg  at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam 10 June 2010. “Synthetic World” has a very cool 60s R&B groove.

That’ll do for this edition of The Saturday Matinee. Have a great shopping spree, folks.

The .Gif Friday Post No.308 – Hamster Eyeballs, Rambovine & Balancing Baby

Hamster Eyeballs

Rambovine

Balancing Act

[Found here, here. and here.]

Happy Thanksgiving

Retro Thanksgiving

It amazes me to think that in September 1620, 102 people were so fed up with the English monarchy that they were willing to risk a dangerous late-season voyage across the Atlantic (that lasted over two months at sea) to a new land to establish a free colony.

Disease, scurvy, starvation and weather exposure took their toll, and half of them died before the following spring. In March of 1621, the survivors sought to establish Plymouth Rock, ventured ashore, and met an escaped British slave named Squanto who spoke English.

His first words to William Bradford were:
“Dude. This is a swamp. You f’d up. Y’all gonna die an’ stuff.”
Bradford replied, “Bro, WTF?”
“Here. Plant some of this, but put a fish under it.”
“Dude, no way.”
“Way. Just do it.”
“K.  By the way, we got a plow.”
“Get out. You got a what? What you need a plow on a boat for?”
“We got one. You got an ox?”
“Ordered one on Amazon, but he ain’t showed up yet. They walk slow.”
“Cool. We’re gonna pop some pheasant for supper. Y’all wanna come?”
“Hell yeah. We’ll bag some Bambi and see you about 4.”

And the rest is history.

Have a great holiday, folks, and never forget the Reason for Thanksgiving.

[Image from here.]

The Curse of The Red Shirt

Red Shirt Curse

“Sorry, lil’ buddy, but it’s true. You’re a goner within 10 minutes of the first commercial.”

The only one who escaped The Curse Of The Red Shirt was Scottie. He was strong. He was invincible. He was Lt. Commander Scott.
[Image found here.]

Big Little Green Army Men

Green Army Men

Yeah, we had ’em.

We’d split them up, Germans vs. Allies, set them up in the dirt, then each of us would shoot rubber bands at the opponent’s “army.” If the rubber band knocked over a soldier, he was taken off of the battlefield as KIA.

If you shot a rubber band off your thumb, hit or miss, it became part of your opponent’s arsenal. If you were a good shot but too aggressive, you might run out of rubberband ammo and lose the battle. Strategy & Tactics for 8 year old boys.

[Found here, via here.]

Saturday Matinee – RIP JFK & 1963 Radio

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by a communist named Lee Harvey Oswald. I was very young, but I remember understanding that something terrible had happened.

JFK was indisputably the last conservative democrat to hold the Office of the Presidency, and the loss still echoes.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On a lighter note, in 1963 one of my prized possessions was a transistor radio that I listened to constantly, and I wasted a large number of batteries by falling asleep with the radio on my pillow.
Here are three favorites.

No. 10 in the Billboard rankings for 1963: The Impressions‘ “It’s All Right.” Curtis Mayfield was with the group from 1958 – 1970. The vid is from the TV show “Hollywood A-Go-Go” in 1965.

Martha & The Vandellas, live at The Apollo. Martha Reeve’s voice still blows me away.

The Chantays performed Pipeline live on The Lawrence Welk Show in 1963. According to the liner notes on their album, the oldest member of the band from Santa Ana California was 17 when they invented surf-rock.

This was the also the age of the “girl groups.” Before lil’ Bunk was in the double digits of age he liked girls, just couldn’t admit it to his buddies, and was secretly in love with Ronnie Spector, Skeeter Davis, Barbara Lewis and The Chiffons, but not Leslie Gore – what a whiner.

Have a great weekend, folks.

The .Gif Friday Post No.307 – FoxTongue, Hot Dog In The Fridge & Pup Can’t Ski

Fox Tongue

Dog Chiller

Dogs Cant Ski

[Found here, here and here.]

James Brown was Stillborn.

James Brown Star Time 1 James Brown Star Time 2

James Brown Star Time 2a

Not to disparage the late Butane James, but being born dead and recovering is one helluva fetus. Aside from that, this compilation is completely awesome.