Category: Music

Saturday Matinee – FAIL fail, Original Star Trek, Robert Klein, Friends of Distinction, Cornelius Brothers, War

FAIL fail = WIN
Reminds me of the 2nd .gif  here.

The original Star Trek was the best. Check out how young Kirk and McCoy look [via].

I might have posted this before, but Robert Klein was truly funny occasionally. If anyone has a clip of his classic “I Can’t Stop My Leg,” lemme know.

Classic summer song by The Friends of Distinction.

Here’s The Cornelius Brothers in Ft. Lauderdale in 1983, reprising their hit from 1972. (The video link above jumps to other stuff; couldn’t find a solitary link of a live show.)

Also from 1972, here’s War‘s live version of “Slipping Into Darkness.” Early 70s funk was awesome. Have a great weekend, folks, and be back here tomorrow for more funk and games.

Saturday Matinee – Dinocuts, Wanda Jackson, Louis Prima & Betty Boop, Spotniks and Ricky Skaggs

Awesome marketing concept, but it targets the wrong people, unless you’re into shrinkwrap. Nice appropriate soundtrack, though.

Wanda Jackson! Who says women can’t do rockabilly?

Whoever did this Betty Boop / Louis Prima mashup gets a hat tip from me.  Whoa. Hold on there. Looks like it’s time for some Spotniks!

Yep. The Spotnik’s Theme from 1963, a band from the UK, sounding an awful lot like lots of other bands from 1963.

Let’s wrap this up with some awesome gospel from Ricky Skaggs, the greatest mandolin player since Bill Monroe. Have a great weekend folks. See you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Sushi, Percy, Grappelli, AatW, Bob Wills

I kinda suspected this. Not. [via Cynical-C]

Percy Faith’s “Theme From A Summer Place” was one of my favorites for reasons I really can’t explain; I just liked it, especially when the french horns kicked in. [via The Chawed Rosin]

Here’s another song that’s way up in my favorites. “Blue Moon” was composed by Rogers and Hart in 1934, and Stéphane Grappelli treated it with respect.

Asleep at the Wheel paid homage to Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. [via Huck Funn]

Don’t know who Bob Wills was? Here’s a video to show you what y’all have been missing. Meanwhile, have a great Independence Day weekend, folks, and don’t forget to put your flag out tomorrow.

Brilliant Marketing Ploy

Fortunately for you there is NO video evidence on the Utoobage to redeem these musical wonders, so we can only guess what they sounded like, and it’s a safe assumption that the t-shirt sales were as successful as their autographed debut album.

Now about their groupies… nope. Not even gonna go there.

[Image found here.]

Saturday Matinee – The Clarks, Dan Akroyd, Eubie Blake, Tandy & Randy Newman

The Clarks! Tip o’ the Tarboosh to coldwarrior.

Dan Akroyd plays James Cotton‘s version of Ike Turner‘s Rocket 88.

Eubie Blake was awesome. He was 95 in 1978 when this interview was recorded.

During the break there’s  an advertisement for the troublesome RadioShack TRS-80 computer system, using magenetic tape cassettes for data storage. Only cost $599! That’s about $2,000 in today’s dollars. Later on, after users complained about problems with the cassette drives, Tandy eventually offered an awesome 5MB hard drive accessory, about the same size as a PC today, for $1,500 – a whopping $4,900 today.

Okay, 1978 was probably the peak of the (gag) disco phase, and the birth of R&B pop love anthems. There is absolutely nothing that ranked in the top 20 that I’d post here, except for maybe for the Stone’s “Miss You.” Worst song they ever did IMO.

On the other hand, this song made No. 41, and Randy Newman gets kudos for writing the most misunderstood song of the year:

Have a great weekend, folks, and meet me back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Swamp Rock, Ben E. King, Boz & Anson

I love this. Swamp rock with the most bizarre low budget video I’ve run across (found here) and it’s not even Cajun.

The video for The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band‘s new song Clap Your Hands was shot in one day in a barn in Indiana. All of the dancers, artists, freaks, weirdos, cowboys, kids, donkeys, bunko steerers, chickens, and regular folks, who are all Hoosiers, all volunteered their time and talent because they believed in the song and the band. The video was directed/produced by the acclaimed music video producer Kevin Custer (Lil Wayne, Soldja Boy, Flogging Molly) who remarked the day of the shoot, it would have cost a fortune to get all of these props back in NYC. To which The Rev. Peyton replied, These arent props they are just crap you find in a barn!

Ben E. King‘s great song as performed by a variety of performers. [Tip o’ the Tarboosh to Leeuna for posting it.]

Cbullitt tossed this one into the comments section a few days ago, and now I have new respect for Boz Scaggs. Here he is with Anson Funderburgh and an allstar lineup, including Blue Lou Marini.

Have a big ‘ol honkin’ great weekend folks.

Saturday Matinee – Laurie, Suzanne & Joanne

The always odd Laurie Anderson can’t pronounce the Espaniel worth a Me Air Duh, but she’s entertaining in her own way.

I was gonna segue into Suzanne Vega, but I forgot how depressing her songs were. So then I looked for Suzy Bogguss, and remembered that I’d already covered her on an earlier Saturday Matinee Post.

So I’m thinking of Suzanne songs and decided to  go with Michael Nesmith’s “Joanne”  because it rhymes. But there are no decent vids on the Utoobage that do justice for the ex-Monkee’s greatest hit, except for this:

Meanwhile, here’s Joanne’s greatest hit. Have a great weekend folks.

Saturday Matinee – American Dialects, W.C. Clark & the Fabulous Thunderbirds

American regional dialects are curious, and when I hear one I haven’t heard in a while I try to identify where the speaker grew up. If you listen closely, you can hear the ancestral accents and phrasing as well: English to the north, Scottish and Irish to the south. As for me, I have no accent, but Mrs. Strutts says I do… I sound a lot like central Ohio mixed with some faint Texan stuff. (Here’s a simple online test if you’re curious what accent mix you have.)

W.C. Clark backed by The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and featuring Angela Strehli is an awesome mix of Texas blues. Never heard of W.C. Clark? Try this:

Yep, that’s Stevie Ray Vaughan with W.C. Clark. Next question?

Saturday Matinee – Hambone & Hoodlin’, John Mayall & Captain Beefheart

“Learn that you’ll be goodndave.” Now google “eefing.”

Although Jimmy Riddle was one of the last great Eeefers, the Nashville R&B TV show “Night Train” once featured Joe Perkins‘ “Little Eeefin’ Annie.” Jimmy Riddle was the background “eeefer,” and Perkins lip synched it.

Later on, Jimmy Riddle explained it. [Related post, featuring the Hambone Boys, here.] Now, let’s clear the air a tad, with this:

Yep, that’s the great John Mayall. He kicks it at about 1:50 in. Not exactly hambone or hoodlin’ but he’s got it down. Have a great weekend, folks, see you tomorrow.

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Whoa, hold the presses. Just found this excellent clip of  Captain Beefheart’s venture into R&B. Now we’re rollin’. Dim the lights, last song, slow dance, ladies’ choice.

Saturday Matinee – Fartin’ Dancin’ Dogs, Howlin’ Wolf, CTA, RLJ,


My dog used to fart, look at me and leave, but of course that’s exactly what I did to him. Dogs are goofy, but they’re not stupid.


TechnoDog is techno.

Howlin’ Wolf, linked from here. He sang HARD.

Wowie zowie. Chicago Transit Authority, live in Japan in 1972 with crappy video gimmicks. Chicago was talented and underrated, but at least they brought horns back into rock and roll.  Later on, they became just another run-of-the-mill sappy woosband. Instead of this excellent jam…

…we ended up with “If you leave me now you’ll leave the very best part of me — oooOOOOhhno, baby please don’t go” garbage. Fuldkommen Gak.


Ricki Lee Jones got me going in the early 80’s with such a sultry sleazy hip coolness. She could have had me cheap. Hell, she could have had me quack. She could have had me, but she threw it all away, and I never looked back.