Here’s the real question: “Would you rather look good or take a crap?” I’m really not sure what the correct answer is, but the options seem unnecessarily limiting.
[Crossposted here.]
Category: Retro & Vintage
The Original Turtle Wax
Sunday Matinee – Tim, Cab, James, Etta & Dr. John
Nice groove, tip from coldwarrior.
Cab Calloway’s “Reefer Man.”
Butane James lipsynchs to his classic in front of a bunch of white kids. Note that the footwork is not lipsynched.
Etta James was not pretty, but this song is, especially when she’s accompanied by Dr. John Rebennack, and to be fair, he’s never been pretty either.
Have a great weekend folks, what’s left of it, and be back here tomorrow.
Look at this MF Batman
Oh, the possibilities. Were it not for Feldman‘s death in 1982, this movie would have been pure awesome, especially if Mel Brooks had anything to do with it.
Here’s some trivia: Feldman suffered from Grave’s disease, an auto-immune/thyroid condition that caused his eyes to bulge. But that’s not what killed him. He was in a hotel room in Mexico City during the making of the movie Yellowbeard. MAD cartoonist Sergio Aragonés, dressed as an armed policeman for an unrelated film, startled Feldman when he showed up to introduce himself. Feldman subsequently died of a heart attack.
[Image found here.]
Saturday Matinee – Jerry Lee Lewis, Joan Jett, The Blasters, Big Joe Turner
Great cover of Johnny O’Keefe’s “The Wild One.” Here’s Jerry Lee Lewis’ version of “Wild Child.”
Although Iggy Pop did a great cover (here’s the instrumental track if you want to sing along), Joan Jett’s version is pretty good, and looky who shows up on the street.
Speaking of covers, here’s The Blasters’ 1981 version of Little Willie John’s “I’m Shakin’.” From the Wikipud:
Phil Alvin explained the origin of the band’s name: “I thought Joe Turner’s backup band on Atlantic records – I had these 78s – I thought they were the Blues Blasters. That ends up it was Jimmy McCracklin. I just took the ‘Blues’ off and Joe finally told me, that’s Jimmy McCracklin’s name, but you tell ‘im I gave you permission to steal it.”
Big Joe Turner was a great big band blues singer in the early days of rock and roll rhythm and blues. “Shake, Rattle and Roll” was his first big hit in 1954, but was coopted by Bill Haley & His Comets (who cleaned up the lyrics for the white folks).
That’s all for now, have a great Memorial Day Weekend, see you back here tomorrow.
“I Am Eating Candy.”
Although the book is sixty years old, Viktor Lowenfeld described the childhood stages of perception, via drawing and painting, and included a section on the blind and deaf. Lowenfeld was very perceptive and astute in using art to measure the mental progress of young ‘uns.
“I Am Eating Candy” is the title of a clay sculpture by an 11 year old blind and deaf girl who attended the Perkins Institution for the Blind in the late 1940s. It’s from a book entitled “Creative and Mental Growth – A Textbook on Art Education,” by Viktor Lowenfeld, Pennsylvania State College, published by The Macmillan Company, New York, 1950. Here’s the full plate:
I’m tempted to scan the entire book into .pdf format… it’s that awesome.
Saturday Matinee – Buena Vista Social Club; Tito, Poncho & Celia; The Iguanas
“El Cumbanchero.” The Buena Vista Social Club is awesome. Tip o’ the Tarboosh to Rodan for reminding me of them.
Continuing with Afro-Cubano jazz, here’s Tito Puente, Poncho Sanchez y Celia Cruz, with “Quimbara.” No idea what that translates to, but I guess it’s a dance style.
This was one of The Iguanas best songs, and the video doesn’t do it justice. (Here’s the studio version w/o video. As an aside, in the live video, the bass player looks like me in my 20s, but with a better haircut. Heh.) Since The Iguanas were from New Orleans, let’s move in that direction…
New Orleans is gonna be in the news again in a couple of days, but not for the right reasons. I suggest we ignore the msm and enjoy the music instead.
Have a great weekend and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.
Nose Harp
[Found in Strider’s awesome collection of crap.]
Saturday Matinee – TUC, Fleet Foxes, Sirens, SRV & Neil with Bruce doing Hendrix doing Dylan
The Unknown Comic, LIVE! [I showed up once as The UC at a party in college, came in unannounced and ran through 15 minutes of cheap jokes, left to change clothes and toss the bag, and returned as myself. People were still asking the host “How did you get HIM to show up?”]
Bunkarina turned me on to this vid from the Fleet Foxes, a band out of Seattle.
Fleet Foxes reminded me of the soundtrack to “Cold Mountain,” but since I couldn’t find a video of the Sacred Harp Singers of Liberty Church, I’ll go with “O Brother Where Art Thou” and The Song of the Sirens.
Okay, we’re gonna break out of that deadend theme and jump to a Stevie Ray Vaughan classic, “Texas Flood.”
Here are Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young completely blowing a rock classic. “All Along The Watchtower” was an acoustic Bob Dylan song that Jimi Hendrix electrified and made a hit. Even Dylan started playing Hendrix’ version. The lyrics make no sense, but if you reverse the order of the verses, it does. Kinda.
Have a great weekend, folks, be back here tomorrow.
Noses Revisited
I have rowses and rowses of noses and noses
And why they all growses I really can’t guess.
No lilies or roses, just cold-catching noses,
And when they all blowses, it’s really a mess.
They runs and they glowses, these sneezity noses,
They drips and they flowses, they blooms and they dies.
But you can’t bring no noses to fine flower showses
And really expect them to give you a prize.
But each mornin’ I goeses to water with hoses
These rowses of noses that I cannot sell,
These red sniffly noses that cause all my woeses,
Why even the crowses complain that they smell.
Why noses, not roses? Well, nobody knowses.
Why do you supposes they growses this thick?
But since there’s no roses come gather some noses —
I guarantee each one’s a good nose to pick.
–Shel Silverstein (1932-1999)
If you have a child and you’ve not purchased any of Shel Silverstein’s illustrated tomes, I hope your chili always burns, and that it always be cold. [Image found here.]
Tacky Raccoons 