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Images found here and elsewhere (via here).
Category: Retro & Vintage
Tortiloquacious Hot Links
(I Want A) Rock and Roll Guitar, Johnny Preston (1960)Preston’s biggest hit was Running Bear and made No. 1 on the pop charts in 1959. The “Indian” sounds on the record were performed by J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and George Jones.
Misheard Christmas song lyrics.
Who was Shorpy Higginbotham?
Party Hard is the best Christmas song you’ll hear all week.
Theater In The Round nativity play is fun (interactive vid).
5 Minutes of a Pink Oyster Mushroom Playing a Synthesizer.
Use of Gamification Techniques to Encourage Garbage Recycling.
[Top image: Antique folk art animal carvings with original paint from here.]
From the Archives: 1 year ago. 5 years ago. 10 years ago.
Houston Aerial Transp’t Co. 1925
Maybe it’s Transparent or Transplant. I’m going with Transplat.
Oh wait…
[It was known as] C.C. Cannan Field since 1918 and as an informal flying field and race track before that. In 1925 the field was purchased by Vince Hays for his Houston Aerial Transport Company. It was on this field that Shorty Walker and Guy Hahn made and flew their airplanes and aircraft engines. [Source]
[Top image found here, 1923 C.C. Cannan Field article found here, 1923 Detroit Free Press ad here.]
Saturday Matinee – Gillian Hills, Delbert McClinton, The J. Geils Band & Bobby Womack
“‘Tut Tut Tut Tut’ is indeed the Franco-phonetic way of imitating a busy signal. In the course of this two minute song, Hills huffs 7 TUTs in a row, four different times for a total of 28 TUTS. Then she adds another 15 or 20 during the fade. Who doesn’t love her TUTS?”
The song is featured in the 2020 TV miniseries “Queen’s Gambit” starring Anya Taylor-Joy, but Gillian Hills recorded “Tut Tut Tut Tut” in 1960, featured in the movie Beat Girl. An English version, Busy Signal was recorded by The Lollipops in 1965.
[Update – Corrected factual error. That is Gillian Hills in the video.]
“McClinton sounds EXACTLY like Peter Wolf!” – video comment
Delbert McClinton is the sound of Texas soul, and has the credentials, backing the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson II, Howlin’ Wolf, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Jimmy Reed. Eventually he had a national hit, playing harmonica on Bruce Channel‘s “Hey! Baby” in 1962.
“Wolf sounds EXACTLY like Delbert McClinton!” – video comment
The J. Geils Band on The Old Grey Whistle Test 1973 (before all that garbage they put out in the 80s). They also covered this song:
Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2009, Bobby Womack was slowing down by the time of this 2013 performance, and he passed away the following year at age 70. He first recorded “Lookin’ For A Love” with his brothers as The Valentinos.
Guess that’ll do it for now. Have a great weekend while you can, see you back here for dessert.
Hi, Bob!
Thanksgiving Day Parade
The early Thanksgiving Day parades often had a circus orientation, and hence the animal elements. Actual lions, tigers, and bears were trucked down city streets, traumatizing them and causing the elicitation of roars and growls that frightened observing children. Wisely, the use of living animals was abandoned after a few years, with animal balloons and floats substituted, together with some great vintage cartoonish stuff that was rather surreal.
[Image and text found here; previous Thanksgiving posts here.]
Saturday Matinee – The Gunfighter, Freddie Bell & the Bell Boys, The Bus Boys, and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band
“In a small town in the old west, a lone and weary gunfighter enters a saloon.” The Gunfighter is a classic short by Eric Kissack (narrated by Nick Offerman). NSFK content, language.
[h/t Andy D.]
Freddie Bell & the Bell Boys “Giddy Up A Ding Dong” (1956) as performed in Rock Around The Clock, (a showcase movie featuring DJ Alan Freed). The song was written in 1953 by Freddie Bell and his friend Peppino “Pep” Lattanzi.
The Bell Boys played covers of black R&B artists, including Big Mama Thornton’s Hound Dog. Elvis Presley heard Bell’s version and decided to record it in 1955. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band covered Giddy Up A Ding Dong (with matching choreography) in 1973.
The Bus Boys had a great retro sound and were featured on SNL and in the 1982 movie 48 Hours.
New Orleans’ famous Preservation Hall Jazz Band was founded by Pennsylvanian Allan Jaffe in the early 1960s as a dixieland revival group, and that song wasn’t at all what I expected.
Have a great weekend, folks. Be home by 9:59pm so the ‘rona don’t gitcha, or stay out to 10:01pm and you’ll earn some serious ‘vid-kickin’ braggin’ rights.
There’s a huge bug in the tent.
Saturday Matinee – The Darlings, The Dillards, New Grass Revival, Béla Fleck & the Flecktones, and Victor Wooten
The Darlings were a regular feature on the Andy Griffith Show, usually showing up whenever there was trouble brewing (like when Ernest T. Bass tried to woo Charlene Darling). The Darlings were The Dillards.
The Dillards, live at the Tonder Festival in Denmark in 1999. Entertaining intro to Ebo Walker, song starts about 03:45 in.
But there was also a real Ebo Walker, an upright bass player from Kentucky, and the song is not a tribute. From a Reddit discussion:
“Crazy story time. Ebo Walker’s real name is Harry Lee Shelor Jr, (there’s a song called Ebo Walker, which Harry took the name from). Harry cultivated and grew marijuana. He ended up shooting a Kentucky State Police Detective by the name of Darrell Vendl Phelps. He began serving a 50 year sentence in 1981.”
Shelor was released from prison in 2013, age 70.
Prior to his arrest in 1981, Harry Shelor/Ebo Walker was a founding member of The New Grass Revival.
New Grass Revival covers Townes Van Zandt‘s White Freightliner Blues (ca.1981). This lineup consisted of
Sam Bush – mandolin, fiddle, guitar, vocals
Pat Flynn – guitar, vocals
John Cowan – bass guitar, vocals
Béla Fleck – banjo, guitar, vocals
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, featuring Victor Wooten on fretless bass , his brother Roy “Futureman” Wooten on Drumitar. That’s one tight trio.
Victor Wooten won the Bass Player of the Year award from Bass Player magazine three times and is the first person to win the award more than once. In 2011, he was ranked No. 10 in the Top 10 Bassists of All Time by Rolling Stone.
That set of connections happened somewhat by accident, just like a lot of things these days. Find something fun to do this weekend accidentally, and when you’re done c’mon back here. Got some cool stuff for you to click on.
1920’s Demolition Derby
[Found in here.]
Tacky Raccoons 