Powderfinger is one of my favorite Neil Young songs, but this my favorite version.
“Who are we to say the boy’s insane?” – Kinky Friedman on Charles Whitman,
Yeah, Friedman was being sarcastic, and yeah, Whitman was insane. Okay, let’s lighten this up just a tad.
I dare you to watch less than the full clip. Steven Wright is the greatest one-liner comedian since Henny Youngman.
Have a great weekend, folks. We’ll be back tomorrow whether you like it or not.
Might have been better with four NFL cheerleaders in skimpy wet chamois skins, but that’s just my non-judgemental politically correct sexist micoagressional opinion [via].
That’s one of the best songs by one of the best bands ever.
That’s one of the best covers of one of the best songs by one of the best bands ever.
Have a great weekend, folks, and remember that President’s Day is a construct designed to minimize the historical importance of both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, two of the greatest and most influential Presidents in the history of the United States of America.
The origins of the Moon Walk.
Sugar Chile Robinson was a 7 year old blues & boogie woogie piano prodigy. I wondered what happened to him and found this. Here he is in 2007 at the age of 69:
Let’s move on to something completely different.
I’d heard of neither Ola Belle nor Zane Campbell until today but both were and are awesome.
Have a great weekend, folks. There’s more in the hopper.
This is kinda cool [found here].
1971 – When Rock & Roll Met Bluegrass. It’s part of an Earl Scruggs tribute video. Click on the link to the Utoobage to see the awesome lineuup of players. “Easy Chair” is sappy as hell, and it’s one of my all-time favorite songs.
1969’s Altamont Speedway Concert was to be California’s answer to 1967’s Woodstock, but turned to disaster once the concert promoters thought it was a good idea to hire the Hell’s Angels as security. (It was as stupid as if the promoters of Burning Man had hired M-13 and the Zetas to keep the peace out in the middle of the desert).
Now THAT is important. 90 year old voices from 90 years ago. Just think of what they witnessed in their lifetimes, and think of what your grandchildren will witness in theirs.
Have a great weekend, folks, and it’s not too late to plan for a crockpot full of Bunk’s Chili for your Sunday StuporBlow Party.
The Fabulous Bingo Brothers: Eric Idle and Neil Innes ca. 1975.
“Protest Song.” I remember this parody of Bob Dylan by Neil Innes. “I suffered for my music, and now it’s your turn.”
I attempted to play that song years ago: the vocals, harmonica and guitar parts are easy, but I discovered that I can’t do any two of them at the same time. More recently I found that I can’t type transcripts from audio either, no matter how much I slow down the recordings. I guess it’s a brain fluke, or maybe it’s tied into being left-handed. I dunno, Babs…
Let’s go retro x 1943.
That there’s some incredible dancing that hurts to watch. From the UToobage description:
[It’s] a clip from the movie “Stormy Weather” (1943) featuring Cab Calloway and his orchestra performing “Jumpin Jive”. After awhile they let the Nicholas Brothers jump in and lend their feet to the action.
Doug & The Slugs (recorded 1977-1992) were a popular band from Vancouver. Founder Doug Bennett passed away in 2004, but here’s one of his last perfomances.
Have a great weekend, folks. More to come.
Not sure what to make of this. The son of one of the greatest blues guitarists ever appeared on a Chicago children’s TV show in 2010 and lip-synched his way through the embarrassment. In the YouTube comments, his grandaughter posted her kudos:
There are a lot of Utoobage entries for Elmore James, but I couldn’t find any live video performances, so let’s go with some covers, with links to the original recordings.
In 1972, The Allman Brothers Band covered “One Way Out” (1961).
In 1980, ZZ Top covered Elmore James’ Dust My Broom (1951) which was itself a cover of Robert Johnson’s recording (1936).
In 1984, George Thorogood & Albert Collins nailed Elmore James’ Madison Blues (1960).
Great stuff that. Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.
Bonus:
“We need some untranslatable Russian Stuff.” Young Russian thugs messed with the wrong construction workers [via]. On the other hand, here’s the same crane, so the vid was probably staged for the lulz. They’re apparently in the auto reclamation business.
“Hang ‘Em High” is a musical theme composed by Dominic Frontiere for the soundtrack of the 1968 film of the same name. Though it was first covered by Hugo Montenegro, whose orchestra recorded a full album of music from the film, the tune became a hit in an R&B instrumental version by Booker T. & the M.G.’s that charted #9 Pop and #35 R&B [Quote & links via Wiki].
Merle Travis was a national treasure. Country pop is nothing compared to country swing, and check out that unusual picking style.
Heck, let’s go one more just for fun.
Have a great weekend, folks, and remember that the traffic goes back to default on Monday.
What a pretty Christmas song.
BR5-49 took their name from Hee-Haw skits featuring Junior Samples as a used car salesman who proffered BR-549 as a five-digit phone number. It was also the number of an International Trucks engine used in tractors and fire trucks and the designation meant Broad-Ring cylinder 549 cu. in. It was a powerful heavy-duty low-rev gas hog that got 3 mpg max.
Sorry, I got distracted chasing down obscure modern-day trivia. Not.
The Moron Brothers are a hoot. They sell coffee, too.
Bach’s Christmas Oratorio Suite (1734) as performed by Septura. They’re a brass septet from London who don’t know how to dress properly, so turn your head away and listen instead. They are very good.
Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukah to all.
Pure awesome. Girl in the stripes gets my vote [via].
“The Wrecking Crew” recorded some killer stuff, and you’ve likely never heard of them because they weren’t named “The Wrecking Crew” until 1990. Their peak years were 1962-73 when they worked with Phil Spector. They weren’t a solid unit as the musicians came and went, but the music WAS solid, no matter who was sitting in at the time.
Tommy Tedesco, one of the greatest session musicians ever, was a member of the post-defacto-named Wrecking Crew. Tedesco was one of those rare people who, if told something was a musical instrument, could play it flawlessly.
Now about “The Memphis Group.” Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, Al Jackson & Booker Jones provided the backup for some amazing recording artists, but you already knew that.
Have a great weekend, folks and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.
Don’t know much about these two, but I’ll say this. Christopher Ameruoso has a nice cigar-box slide style, but he’d do better without his cutesy mugging. On the other hand, any woman who can slap a lime green stand-up bass like Sonia Sanchez gets my vote.
Serious PsychoPunkaBilly there, and Sanchez slaps the hell out of that bass. Let’s take it down a notch. I was about to post The Rave Ups’ classic “In My Gremlin” but maybe we should go with this instead.
What a great groove. The Rave-Ups were underrated and deserved more recognition IMO, but MO doesn’t count, by the way.
Have a great weekend, folks, and we’ll do something different tomorrow.
P.S. To the guy who got out of his truck to tell me that my brake lights were out, THANK YOU. It explains a couple of close calls I saw in my rear view mirror…
Tacky Raccoons 