Category: Retro & Vintage

Monday Paparrazi

This image has been sitting around in the cooler for too long. Rather than dump it, this is for the Monday Morning Warriors who make it all happen.

[Found here.]

Saturday Matinee – Country Dick Montana Tribute, The Blasters, Levi & The Rockats, The Reverend Horton Heat, Johnny Carroll & His Hot Rocks

Nice tribute to the late Country Dick Montana at The Belly Up in Solana Beach, CA, November 2010. From the Utoobage:

Dave Alvin sings the song “Beat Generation“, and is joined by members of the Beat Farmers, Candy Kane, Peter Case, Mojo Nixon, Cindy Lee Berryhill, and others…

Here’s Dave Alvin & The Blasters with “Marie Marie.” I saw them at the Whiskey in 1980.

Another band from the punkabilly scene: Levi  & The Rockats on the Mike Douglas Show, 1979. (That hepcat on bass is hilarious.)

Reverend Horton Heat’s “Psychobilly Freakout.” [Don’t watch if you’re epileptic…]

Johnny Carroll & His Hot Rocks “Rockin’ Maybelle” is the real deal from about 1957.

Too hot to handle and too cold to hold. Those should keep you jumpin’  jivin’ and wailin’ for a while. See you back here tomorrow.

Food To Go

[Found here.]

By Wednesday, Johnson Had Gone Scooters.


[Found here.]

Saturday Matinee – The Starwars Zone, Keith Richards, Chuck Berry, Johnny Johnson, Silvan Zingg & Johnny Winter

[Found here.]

Poor Keith. Just couldn’t follow directions. Johnny Johnson‘s blank stares are great.

Here’s Johnny Johnson’s version of Meade Lux Lewis‘ “Honky Tonk Train Blues.”

Here I was thinking that Pinetop Smith wrote HTTB, and the wiki proved me wrong just in time. Unfortunately there are no videos of Pinetop Smith in action, but Silvan Zingg is awesome. From Switzerland, here’s “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie.”

Now how to wrap this up…

Yep, Johnny Winter‘s “Mojo Boogie” does it. Have a great weekend, folks and be back here for more fun tomorrow.

Drink This.

It’s delicious. NOW DRINK IT, DAMMIT.

[Found here.]

Saturday Matinee – AGW Explained, Pug Sings Batman Theme, Jackson Browne & David Lindley Rip Off Originals, The Everly Brothers Rip Off Jackson Brown & The Original Zodiacs Rocked

Okay, before some copyright dweeb tries to attack me for slander, that title is pure sarcasm. It’s a joke.

I hadn’t seen this entertaining summary, but apparently it’s been bouncing around the internest for a while.
[h/t whatever]

Here’s a Blast from the Past, and it’s exactly as I remember it.
[h/t John DiFool]

Here’s a video that I bet you’ve not seen. Jackson Browne with David Lindley, live on Buenafuente, singing a compilation of Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs’ “Stay” and “Love Is Strange,” a 1957 hit by Mickey & Sylvia.  (Note that the original version of “Stay” was the shortest song –  99 seconds – ever to become a No. 1 Hit.)

Here’s “Love Is Strange” <—-click) as performed by The Everly Brothers:

“Stay” is perhaps the greatest doowop song of all time, given the amount of doo and the wopness, all compressed into a hit that runs a minute and a half plus 9 seconds. There is only one vid on the Utoobage of the original performance, and here it is:

That makes the requisite number of five videos complete. Have a great weekend folks, and be back here tomorrow for more stuff.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 183 – Transformer


[Found here.]

Folks, I’m getting IO errors, can’t paste more .gifs into this post, so instead, here’s a linky to entertain you until I can figure out the problem over the weekend.

Independence Day 4 July 1918

I might have posted these before. They are envelopes decorated by my great-grandfather and mailed to his son (my grand-uncle) who was stationed in France in the U.S. Signal Corps in WWI. Walter received them on 10 August 1918, and replied with this letter:

“…I saw a peach of an air battle last night. Believe me that is exciting stuff to see them diving and darting around like a couple of birds. That’s about all I can tell you. I can’t tell you who licked. Some of the best fliers are located near us. I guess there are a few “aces” among the bunch.

…Pap says the war will be over in a year making it July 4th 1919. I don’t want to shatter his hopes but I think about the fall of 1920 myself. That is simply my estimate. Maybe last longer or maybe  not as long.”

Late last year I asked Walter’s daughter if she’d allow me to post her father’s letters, in sequence beginning in February 1918, as if in real time. For personal reasons she declined, and I’ll respect her wishes.

Meanwhile, I hope all of you still have the same number of fingers and toes as you did yesterday at this time.

Saturday Matinee – Sh-Boom, Monsters, Brazil, Take Five in 4 & Reggae Hit L.A.

The Chords‘ original A Capella  version of Sh-Boom.

Nice collection of Ray Harryhausen‘s greatest hits.

If you’ve never seen Terry Gilliam‘s excellent movie Brazil this would be a good weekend to watch it. Twice.

There’s something very wrong with taking Dave Brubeck‘s classic “Take Five,” completely missing the musical pun involved (5/4 time) and turning it into a ska version (in 4/4). Aside from that blasphemy, it’s kinda fun.

Punk Funk Reggae Ska compilation, courtesy The Aggrolites. I like.

Have a great weekend folks, see you back here tomorrow for more fun.