Category: Music

Saturday Matinee: LURCH!

Rock n Roll at it’s peak.  Check it out, yo!

But there’s more to his story. Besides being a household word for rock n roll and gettin’ hot babes, the late Ted Cassidy played TWO parts in “The Addams Family” TV Series.  Lurch was one of them… the other was “Thing.”

From the Wikipedialoids:

“Lurch (Ted Cassidy) is the household butler. Morticia and Gomez summon him by means of a bell pull in the form of a hangman’s noose, which rings the massive bell located in the mansion’s bell tower; the resulting gong shakes the entire house when the bell’s noose is pulled. When Lurch appears (usually immediately or within seconds thereafter), he responds with an extremely deep-voiced, “You rang?”

“According to IMDb, Lurch was intended to be a non-speaking part, as the Charles Addams cartoon character was silent; however, Cassidy improvised the line during his audition, and it was so well-received that it became a feature of the character. When questions are posed to him, Lurch’s primary response is a deep throaty rumbling and, at times, tremendously annoyed sound, which the family nonetheless interpret as spoken words. Superhumanly strong (he cleans the family car by simply lifting it and shaking it out like a rug), Lurch often plays the harpsichord (the music is actually played by The Addams Family composer Vic Mizzy).

“Lurch is very high-minded about visitors; when a plainclothes policeman (played by George Neise) visited the family, Lurch patted him down and regarded him suspiciously when he found his gun. Neise showed Lurch his badge, whereupon Lurch returned the gun.

“Lurch occasionally regards his employers’ activities with some dubiousness, but only as any servant might regard the idle rich, not because he does not share their macabre tastes.”

As far as the Addams Family goes, Lurch was my 2nd favorite.  Carolyn Jones (Morticia Addams), well, um, you know.  Cassidy also appeared in several episodes of:
Star Trek;
I Dream of Jeannie;
Wild Wild West;
and The Six-Million Dollar Man (as Bigfoot).

Y’all can forget his cameo on Batman, too… or not.

Cassidy ALSO appeared in the movie “Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid” in this Classic Scene.

As a completely unrelated aside, anyone curious about what the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten is up to these days?  Seems he’s turned Shatner on us. Promise.

BONUS! For all of our loyal readers and supporters of Tacky Raccoons, please welcome our SPECIAL MYSTERY GUEST!

Saturday Matinee: Ebo Walker & Black Napkins & Sticky Notes

EBO WALKER

Now Ebo Walker was born in Kentucky,
and raised by his daddy on a hillside farm,
He took up fiddle playing just for fun,
that’s the last work that Ebo Walker done.

Well Ebo Walker, he left Kentucky
’cause Ebo’s daddy said durn your hide,
You won’t plant corn, and you won’t make hay,
you sit on the porch and play that thing all day.

Well Ebo Walker, he walked and he fiddled and he walked and he fiddled and he fiddled till he died,

But I’ve heard tell when the winds is down and the moon shines bright, and the leaves are brown,
You can hear old Ebo fiddlin’ all around.

The Dillards (as the Darling Boys) on the Andy Griffith Show, around 1960 sumpm.

The Dillards in Denmark, 1999.

[Related Post here.]

Pure Oddness. Now for something completely different.

FZ on the Mike Douglas Show, 1976, playing “Black Napkins” with the studio band.  Amazing benign culture clash. [This is part one of a two part interview… kinda slow to load, and we may have linked to this one before.  So what.]

Zappa’s “Black Napkins” live on MTV’s Halloween BFD, 1981.

No slinkys? Use Post-It Notes!  [via here.]

Saturday Matinee: Tammet, Clarke & Dawe, Bob & Ray, The Bobs, The Rays, The Silhouettes, and RAY CHARLES

Daniel Tammet is amazing.

Clarke and Dawe.  Full story can be found here.

Here’s Bob and Ray.  Google them for more classic straight faced funnies.

The Bobs’ A capellaness is only mildly annoying and somewhat entertaining.

The Rays, with “Silhouettes on the Shade.”

The Silhouettes’ “Get A [lipsinch] Job.”

The Late Great Ray Charles:  “Shake A Tail Feather!” from the movie “The Blues Brothers.” (Watch for Steve Cropper & Duck Dunn, with Matt “Guitar” Murphy.)

[Related posts: Cropper & Dunn be here and here.  More Blues Brothers here.]

Saturday Matinee: We lost a couple of greats this week. Jerry Reed & Bill Melendez.

“Amos Moses” was my favorite Jerry Reed song. My younger sister had the 45rpm record, and I didn’t.  (But I knew all the words, and she didn’t.)

Chet Atkins is a treasure, and Jerry Reed was a classic. There’s more of J.R.’s Pickin’ n’ Grinnin’ at RockHoppers. (Dan, you beat me to it!) God bless Jerry.

Here’s Chet Atkins with Suzy Bogguss.

And here’s Suzy Boggus with Chet Atkins.

Bill Melendez.  You’ve seen his stuff.  You’ve heard his stuff.  Seems kinda appropriate that there is no video, and I relive part of my childhood whenever I hear this song.

Saturday Matinee: Sheep, Rutles, Spinal Tap & Paul Simon

Deep down, humans are basically herd animals; subconsciously we like to be part of a group. We all want to belong and to be accepted (no matter how bizarre the requirements for joining that group) as part of the herd.

This clip from Alan Funt’s Candid Camera shows this absurd detrimental human trait in action:

[Found at the always excellent Neatorama; Utoobage link here.]

Some of y’all prolly never heard of the Rutles, and for good reason.  The Beatles blatantly stole their style and wind throughout the 60’s and into and out of the 70’s.  All the girls in Bunk’s elementary school screamed whenever a picture of Stig was posted on the school restroom door.  Honest. [Utoobage link here.]

This is another great band you may have missed if you blinked.  Here’s Spinal Tap’s classic from 1967:  (Listen to the) Flower People. My sister had this 45 rpm (only one she had) and played it non-stop.  Gawd I hated these guys.

I remember the day I bought this album. It was a spring day, I had laundry to do and didn’t have any quarters, so I cashed in a bunch of albums and bought this, putting off the laundry for another week.

Although I had mixed feelings about the 1960’s Simon and Garfunkel thing, this was just Simon, and chicks digged him.  Anyone who can toss lyrics like “I can call you Betty” and “roly-poly little bat-face-girl” into the same pop song and get away with it amazed me.  It also has one of the greatest looped 3-second bass riffs I’ve ever heard.

It wasn’t until I saw this video that I realized just how tall Paul Simon really is. [Utoobage linkoid here.]

Saturday Matinee: Black & Blue Danube Waltz, Jambalaya, Boil That Cabbage Down & an awful day.

Spike Jones & His City Slickers were amazingly talented but very corny.

Homer & Jethro grew up on corn, and were musically talented as well.

The Smothers Brothers sing “Boil That Cabbage Down” that includes the history of the Trans-Continental Railroad.

Rodney Carrington‘s song about an awful day (and it’s worse than finding pumas in the crevasse).

Saturday Matinee: When Day Breaks

Cool animation.

Talking Heads:  Wild Wild Life

The Ramones:  Sheena Is a Punk Rocker

Tom Waits:  Downtown Train

And now for our Feature Presentation:
ATTACK OF THE KILLER PARASITES!

[Tip o’ the tarboosh to the entirely bitchin’ Miss Cellanea.]

Humpy-Blogs.com

ONE YEAR! ONE MEASELLY FREAKIN’ YEAR!

Here’s TACKY RACCOON’s Very First Post from 3 August 2007. I didn’t know what I was doing at the time, and I’m still not entirely sure that I know now.

The image of the laughing (?) raccoon is from (appropriately enough) SayNoToCrack, Anita Bath’s original clean humor website.  She got me started on all this absurdity, then I stepped in it and tracked it all over the carpet.

Thanks gobs for all your encouragement, help, and stuff, and especially for all y’alls comments and linkoids.  Do we keep on keepin’ on?

In no particular rank or order, thanks to Anita Bath, Ben Dover, sarahenity, Diesel, Miss Cellanea, Marshal Penguin, Alpaca the Awesome, Angry Duck, M.Wolfe, SpartanWolf, VE, raincoaster, Phil Cordery, Amy Oops, Casual Jan, archiearch, Dan Rockhopper, Kitty, PlaneTross, Tony, SinisterDan, Bobby Bieber, yellowjkt, Janessa Vapors, Slippy Lane, Wendy, Dolph, Bonnie Phumph, suchabastard, Gregoire, Necromancer, Lannie Foosers, Cheese Duck, S. Le, Pete Aldin, Tooncie Crumbler, Queen Rosebud, The Hypocritical One, Valdoor, kanadianbakin, Fake, Howlin’ Betty, tbonky, Damon, Chiqui, Jody Foster, Robert Foster, Foster Brooks, Albert Brooks, Lonnie Brooks, Brook Shields, Cheesy007, Shar Pei, Kung Pao, Chez Yuan, Stiletto, Walter C., and way too many others to name…

Like James S., Wheels, nothere, Pancho Opcionweb, Rickspoems, Feng, Cornel,  jah, sandy, Weird, Tanja Forster, osa glass,  Courtney M., Mishele, Jack, Ben Vereen, Fluffman86, Nick Adams, Monique, wrekehavoc, Vincent Castro, tara, James, KFC Rules, Saha, Layla,  indianamatt, hustler 1, Fritz, DUDR_1, Beeper, BB King, Albert King, Albert Alligator, Albert Ammons,  Meade Lux Lewis, Philip Johnson, Robert Johnson, Johnny Johnson, Chuck Berry, Haile Berry, Barry Mann, Barry Goldwater,  Chuck Norris, the Captain and Toenail, Walt Kelly, Kelly Blue-Book, Booker T., Mr. & Mrs. T, T-Bone Walker, Johnny Walker, Walker Texas Ranger, Jim Baldwin, johnrobert, Frankie, jayle, Tarlow, Elle, Butch, Sue Dunham, ineedacar, GH, Mark, Moon, l3utterfish, Moneymoose, tarbabyjim, RosebudDLS, Meg, minotaurny, B Dear, Jeff, anomalous4, Criss Angle, Reuben Miller, fenderflip, Alex, Nessa, Trailer Thoughts, Haus Cremlingen, Girl Fren, Jayne, Lee, Gumpy Weeblers, and the very first commenter on this website, BOSSY.

Thanks also to Eoin Shaloo for helping me with my irrational and compulsive research for this post.

Cordially & Sincerely,
BUNK & THE FAMILY STRUTTS

[Vote for Tacky Raccoons at Humor-Blogs.com!]

Saturday Matinee – Sneakers

Rock n’ Roll Spy Dudeness:  Johnny Rivers’ Secret Asian Man.

Here are a few others you may or may not recobanize:

Paranoia on free broadcast analog TV.  The intro to “The Prisoner” starring Patrick McGoohan was the best of the best.  Explained everything you needed to know to understand this excellent series… sorta.

Saturday Matinee – Nobody Like Me + Slide City: Cooder, Raitt, Hooker, Block & Coetzee (and then the B-52s)

Before we get to our main feature, I found this at the last minute.  For those of you that think the “Summer of Love” was all hippies and beads and tie-dye and bell bottoms and pot, check this out:
IT’S 1967 AND PITTSBURGH ROCKS!

(Note that the Dickies covered “Nobody Like Me” in 1983, George Thorogood covered it in 1982, which had been covered by the Human Beinz in 1967, originally recorded in 1962 by the Isley Brothers.  As if you didn’t know.)

Ry Cooder is considered the greatest slide guitarist of the last 30 years. Here’s his version of “Jesus on the Mainline.”

The great Bonnie Raitt (also considered the greatest slide guitarist of the last 30 years) sleazes it up with the great John Lee Hooker (considered to be the greatest slide guitarist of the last 1,000 years) on “I’m in the Mood.”

Nice slide from Rory Block with her cover of Robert Johnson‘s “Terraplane Blues.”

Hannes Coetzee: No bottleneck git-fiddle here, just a soup spoon.  [If it doesn’t play, try here.]

Who doesn’t like the B-52s, especially a catchy song with no rhymes at all?  [Found here with lyrics.]