1 November was the 60th Anniversary of the first thermonuclear blast known as Operation Ivy Mike – 10 megatons set off on Eniwitok Atoll.
[h/t Soylent Green]
Papa Strutts was on the flagship USS Estes, and said that although they were miles away, the shock wave blew out all the light bulbs on the ship. He’s an official member of The Glow In The Dark Society.
Zippo tricks were a necessary evil growing up, at least they used to be a million years ago when we’d flip the cap on the downstroke and flick the wheel coming up, on our jeans. A quick 1-2 flourish. Zippos rock.
And that’s about as silly a performance of pure funk that I’ve ever seen. The Ohio Players, introduced by Helen “I Am Woman” Reddy in 1975.
That’s about all I can take for tonight. Have a great weekend, folks.
Serge Gainsbourg singing “Chez Les Ye-Ye.” Serge is Pee Wee Herman on sopors. He rocked, but not as much as Pierre Cassel whose shoes became glued to the floor during the video. Cassel’s son is a rapper named “Rockin’ Squat.” Go figger.
Personally, I think Robert Johnson was/is overrated, and his fame is due to his recordings covered by British rockers of the early 60s.
Yeah I know, Blasphemy. Johnson got picked, while others, like Papa Charlie Jackson were overlooked. I’m not an authority on musical anthropology, so take it for what it’s worth.
Jackson’s “Airy Man” showed up on a Yazoo Records album that the Missus gave me years ago. The chords were unusual, and the liner notes said this:
“Airy Man Blues,” a work in the key of D, illustrates Jackson’s most complex blues picking in the uptempo idiom at which he and very few other bluesmen excelled. Two fingers play melody and harmonies with support from a thumb which is quite steady within several different patterns. Often he executes complex or seemingly impromptu runs on three or more strings. The basic chord changes are:
D, D, G7, D; G, D, E, A/A7; D, D, G7, D; G7, D, E/A7, D. In the break he changes to B, B7, E, E7, A, A7 D/D minor, D.
Despite the length of these phrases and the comedy of his lyrics, the song is well within the basic blues idiom, lacking in all essential ragtime qualities except speed.
So I looked for a live vid of Papa Charlie Jackson, but instead found a cool tribute by “Gnarlemagne.” It works.
With that we’re out. Have a great weekend, folks and be back here tomorrow for more inane entertainment.
According to Wikipedia:
The song “Iko Iko” was written in 1953 in New Orleans by James “Sugar Boy” Crawford about two competing Mardi Gras Tribes/Krewes. “Jock-a-mo” was the original version of the song “Iko Iko” recorded by The Dixie Cups in 1965. Their version came about by accident. They were in a New York City studio for a recording session when they began an impromptu version of “Iko Iko,” accompanied only by drumsticks on studio ashtrays.
[Listen to it on the Utoobage here. Lyrics are in the notes.]
Other trivia: Crawford formed a band which local DJ Doctor Daddy-O named “The Chapaka Shawee” – Creole for “We Aren’t Raccoons.”
Fun Facts to Know and Tell. Have a great weekend, folks.
“If you want to go to heaven when you D.I.E.,
Put on your collar and a T.I.E.
If you wanna scare a rabbit out an L.O.G.,
Just make a little sound like a D.O.G.”
That’s Furry Lewis playing slide on “Kassie Jones,” a song he recorded in 1927. The video is from 1968. A few years later Joni Mitchell met with him and recorded “Furry Sings The Blues” in tribute.
Lewis despised Mitchell’s song and demanded she pay him royalties. “She shouldn’t have used my name in no way, shape, form or faction without consultin’ me ’bout it first. The woman came over here and I treated her right, just like I does everybody that comes over. She wanted to hear ’bout the old days, said it was for her own personal self, and I told it to her like it was, gave her straight oil from the can.”
Belton Sutherland was a Mississipi Delta bluesman. There is no Wiki article for him and little other information about him on the internest. There’s no entry for him in Lawrence Cohn’s “Nothing But The Blues” either. Sutherland was filmed in 1978 by Alan Lomax at Maxwell’s Farm, near Canton Mississippi.
“…Lomax rounded up folks even he hadn’t heard of, like Mississippi bluesman Belton Sutherland–a master musician who appeared during Lomax’s session with another singer and asked to ‘try’ the guitar.”
I was distracted yesterday by stuff in meatworld, so this Edition of The Saturday Matinee is a tad late. I promise that it’ll happen again.
This is a jawdropper. They wanted to demolish a masonry silo, yet save the roof “for the kids.” Rather than using explosives, they used sledgehammers. Watch the whole thing for the commentary, or jump to about 09:00 for the awesome.
[Short cutesy version found here.]
Kenny Wayne Shepherd, with some interesting sidemen. Soylent Green has the scoop. [Caution – some of his posts are NSFK & NSFW, which is unfortunate IMO. He’s got good stuff otherwise.]
To our fans (especially the one that runs all night in the bedroom): Please don’t burn up your motor and quit on us until the temperatures cool off a bit. As for the rest of you, see you back here tomorrow.
Communism 101. I laughed, but I cried, because I laughed, because it sums up what’s been going down for a long time. Note that the girl goes Galt. [via]
CheetahBot is awesome. Now get it to make a U turn, and the time-space continuum will dismantle itself in shame.
Zappa’s cover of the Allman Brother’s classic “Whipping Post” was classic. And with that we’re done for this classic episode. Have a great weekend, folks.
Aside from the more serious rhetorical oratory of the GOP Convention (previously discussed on The Blogmocracy and elsewhere) Clint Eastwood’s performance was the perfect break. It would have been the perfect warm up act for any candidate running against Obama, and he nailed it. Addressing the Empty Chair:
“What do you want me to tell Romney?
[…]
I can’t tell him to do that.
I can’t tell him to do that to himself.”
He nailed it with wit, timing, and sarcastic humor. He’s an actor who knows how to ad lib when the situation requires it. How much of his presentation was scripted and how much was off-the-cuff doesn’t matter. It worked.
Papa Strutts had an unfortunate adventure recently that required us to donate most of his belongings. Among those was a vinyl record collection that included this:
I didn’t have that classic album. While I was collecting Zappa, Papa Strutts was collecting Aerosmith, and he was way ahead of me on jazz.
There’s some classic Stan Kenton, composing with bizarre rhythms and intentional dissonance. Yet he owed a great deal to his predecessors, like Jimmy Dorsey & Bunny Berigan.
The interesting part of music, and jazz in particular, is that there is no single musician who can take claim for any particular classic. Everything is derivative until someone like Miles Davis comes along and rearranges the blocks.
Have a great weekend folks, and maybe we’ll rearrange some blocks tomorrow.
When a giant tortoise attacks. Warning – Not for the squeamish.
Building demolition time lapse. Warning – Not for the squeamish.
Routine traffic stop goes bad. Warning – not for the squeamish.
Cup stacking otter. Warning – Not for the squeamish. [via Jonco.]
Great compilation of pranks from around the world.
WARNING – DEFINITELY NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH.
Eventually we’ll get around to posting vids just for The Squeamish, but until then, have a great weekend folks. See you back here tomorrow, assuming you’re not squeamish.
Science declares 4 seconds of shaking removes 70% of the water off a wet dog, and 20% lands on you. Do aquatic mammals, like whales, orcas, dolphins & porpoises, shake off air? NEW STUDY! [Your tax dollars at work. Found here.]
The Specials revived ska in the 70s, and did the dog.
Rufus Thomas knew how to walk the dog decades ago, until his demise in 2001.
Due to some unfortunate happenings in the private sector, we’re going to cut this episode short. Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more slices of the stupid pie. =)
Tacky Raccoons 