Category: Music

Saturday Matinee – Powr

The Powr of One…
[via Woosk.]

Powr-ful Stuff – the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Soul Powr – JB

Towr of Powr.

CB & FZ

vanvliet zappa_If Charlie Parker 090520

A seat at this table would have been priceless.

[Image from here by way of link from here.]

Saturday Matinee – Lokotv, Cheers, Buddy Guy & GE Smith, Kid Ramos, Flo & Eddie

Odd.  Consider it a cartoon before the main feature.

Best opening sequence for Cheers without the cloying theme song.

Buddy Guy talks about how his career began with a salami sandwich.  True rags-to-riches story. (G.E. Smith backing.)

I was prowling for some early Thunderbirds when I found a name I’d forgotten about.  Here’s Kid Ramos and Los Fabulocos cranking on “Burnin’ the Chicken” in New Braunfels, Texas, 21 March 2009.

This is the funniest version of Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me, Babe.”
The Turtles made a mockery of  pop love songs, but created a decent string of hits anyway. Flo and Eddie eventually joined Frank Zappa’s Mothers.  (Mrs. Strutts pointed out that Eddie dances the Freddie at the end of the clip.)

Name That Tune

no fair peeking!

[Found here. No peeking.]

Saturday Matinee – Funny Dude, A Capella, Slugs, and PF Live

Lotta truisms there;  video found in Archie’s Archives.

Don’t know who these folks are, but “Oh Gee” was a hit in 1955 by the Crows. Could be them.

The Persuasions were/are possibly the most underrated acapella group (featuring bass singer Jimmy Hayes, who Frank Zappa called “the human sub-woofer”).

“Legendary musician Frank Zappa and his wife Gail discovered The Persuasions (in a commercial sense) in 1968. At the urging and encouragement of a good friend of the Persuasions, David Dashev (who eventually became the groups producer and manager), Zappa listened to a tape of The Persuasions. Shortly after listening to the tape, Frank and Gail Zappa signed the group to their label. The Persuasions debut album ‘Straight’ was a mix of studio and live recordings released during the fall of 1970.”

(This group was featured here before, but unfortunately the videos were yanked by Utoob for seventy mental reasons.)

This is an old one from the Beeb, narrated by David Attenborough.  It’s cool, bizarre and gross at the same time, but it’s nature. I posted it just because  Thelit said her kids and their friends love this kinda stuff.  Go for it.

After the Slugs (wasn’t that a Grateful Dead tune, or maybe a Peter Sellars movie?) this may help clean your eye sockets. Other than the dopey devilpigs,  it’s all cool.

Saturday Matinee – Diesel Brown Skaggs Pops & Perkins

Diesel speaks about work, kids, farming, mafia, pirates. The Anti-Boxxy.

Alison Brown has got to be one of the best banjo pickers I’ve ever heard. Very few can play like this without the comfort of studio editing.

Here’s Ricky Skaggs on mandolin, 7 years old, with Bill Monroe, the Father of Bluegrass.

Here’s Ricky Skaggs’ classic “Highway 40 Blues” with the seminal bluegrass backup band, the Boston Pops.

Carl Perkins was one cool rockabilly cat.  He’s got an interesting back up band in this video… too hot to handle and too cold to hold.

Foggy Mountain Ladyland

Hendrix Pickin_Uncertain Times 090330

It all makes sense now, considering Jimbo Hendrix’ love of the ‘grass and his discography:

Hey Bud
Purple Hayes (tribute to Woody)
All Along the Wheat Flour
Breakdown Traffic
MooMoo Child
Stone Fence
Fox-N-Ladle
The Wind Cries Opal
(Many more classics were showcased at the Monterrey International Harvester Festival in 1970.)

Aside from Jimbo, The GrooveGrass Boyz mixed some Grand Ole Opry standards with funk, with Bootsy Collins on bass. Really.

yo lsn up yo @ “Walkin’ After Midnight” no wat m sayn yo.

[Image from Uncertain Times.]

SatMat* – 1973 Music Sucked (Except For This)

1973.  Ugh.  Rock N Roll was losing its edge, and then some unknown band like Focus got a lot of airplay, at least for a few minutes.  We did our best to ignore the yodeling, except for the Popeye part.  Here’s a rare live version of  “Hocus Pocus,” with Gladys Knight(?!) doing the intro.

1973 also brought this to our FM converters so we could hear it on our AM car radios.  Golden Earring‘s greatest hit, “Radar Love,” wasn’t their best song, but it was great roadtrip music.

1973  had THIS highlight, though:  Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” (before he went weeny on us).

1973 music sucked on a whole lotta levels never seen before.  Top BillBoard hits included:
“You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon
“Crocododile Rock” by Elton John
“Bad Bad Leroy Brown” by Jim Croce
“Top of the World” by the Carpenters
“There’s Got To Be A Morning After” by Maureen McGovern
“Tie a Yellow Ribbofdpnoa  oh man I can’t type any more of that garbage without gagging.

BUT THERE WAS THIS:

Gladys Knight was awesome. We were all Pips in the days of old (“Whoo-whoo!”). Then I lost my direction again with this:

Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” was being played on the radio about the same time brother Johnny Rick Derringer was getting airplay for “Rock And Roll Hoochie Coo.”  [cbullitt corrected me in the comments section.]


Johnny Winter was better at the blues, but he cranked on Dylan’s “Highway 61.” (Look for G.E. Smith on rhythm guitar.)

Dang. I could take this string for another dozen utoobage links, but I’ll cut it here… temporarily.

* “SatMat” means “Saturday Matinee.” It looked better abbreviated on the title.

Saturday Matinee – Uke Covers! Yay!

Excellent version of  The Foundations’ “Build Me Up Buttercup.”  You know she’s singing to YOU…  wait for it. (Bunkessa found this one.)

Well, gabba gabba hey.

*Jake Shimabukuro’s Ukelele Gently Weeps.

*Led Zep on Uke with eggs and sausage and hot coffee.

*Minitallica!

Don’t forget the trainwreck previously posted here.

Videos marked with (*) were recobamended by saraH, who should have her own website by now but doesn’t.  She’s been lurking around for a long time, dropping rare occasional comments about batmobile babe magnets.

[Tip ‘o the tarboosh to saraH… your eco-friendly VatoMobile is in the works.]

Saturday Matinee – SCOT TREK, Paris@140mph, 2x (Ol’ 55), Long May You Run.

The laugh track is unfortunate as this dealie is funny by itself.  I’ve got no idea what they’re saying. [Found here.]

“On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of  Paris early in the morning . The film was limited for technical reasons to 10 minutes; the course was from Porte  Dauphine, through the Louvre, to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur.

“No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit. The driver completed the course in about 9 minutes, reaching nearly 140 MPH in some stretches. The footage reveals him running real red lights, nearly hitting real pedestrians, and driving the wrong way up real one-way streets.

“Upon showing the film in public for the first time, Lelouch was arrested. He has never revealed the identity of the driver, and the film went underground.”

[Link and description via email. Apparently it’s been around for a while, but.  Tip o’ the tarboosh to Dan S.]

This was my introduction to Tom Waits, via the Eagles, and I  hated the Eagles from then on.  Looky here:

Ahhh. Yeah. The originals are always the best. Like this one: