Saturday Matinee – African Raccoons, Toni Tee and Liquid Wisdom & The Specials

Raccoons stirrin’ up sh*t.

Toni Tee & Liquid Wisdom on a bus. They play a cool variety of music (reggae, rock, funk, soul, hiphop, punkadelic) but it’s tough to find a vid with decent a/v on the Utoobage. [h/t Bunkessa – yeah she scored two hits this week; this one and the one above.]

Can’t fight corruption with con tricks;
They use the law to commit crime.
And I dread, dread to think what the future will bring,
When we’re living in gangster time.

The Specials performed their 1979 hit “Gangsters” (with Lily Allen) at the Glastonbury Festival 2007. (The music was lifted from Prince Buster‘s 1964 ska hit “Al Capone.” Have a listen.)

Have a great weekend, folks, and let’s see what happens tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Summertime Blues (1958 to Whatever).

From the UToobage description:

“Though Eddie Cochran was only twenty-one when he died, he left a lasting mark as a rock and roll pioneer. Cochran zeroed in on teenage angst and desire with such classics as ‘C’mon Everybody,’ ‘Something Else,’ ‘Twenty Flight Rock‘ and ‘Summertime Blues.’ A flashy stage dresser with a tough-sounding voice, Cochran epitomized the sound and the stance of the Fifties rebel rocker.”

Lotta covers of that kickass song.

1962 The Beach Boys. A 14 and a 16 year old contributed to this recording.

1962 Johnny Chester

Ten years later, Blue Cheer broke ground in 1968 with a heavy metal version of Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues,” released ten years earlier. [This guy was on the SanFran scene in 1968.]

I heard that version when I was in 6th grade, and tried to decide if I liked it or not. Took me several years before I understood what they were doing, and I decided that I liked the original better. Hell, the name of the band was a brand of LSD named after a laundry detergent.

1975 The Who – According to Wiki they’d been playing Summertime Blues since 1967 so this version is out of chronological order.

1970 T. Rex

1975 Olivia Newton-John
1978 The Rolling Stones

1982 Joan Jett.  Hear The Ramones influence?

1987 Alvin & The Chipmunks
1992 Little River Band
2004 Rush
2009 The Black Keys

Cheech Marin, The Prophets, Levon Helm, Guitar Wolf, The Flying Lizards, Bobby Vee, The Crickets, Buck Owens, James Taylor, The Ventures, Dick Dale, Robert Gordon with Link Wray, Skid Row, Johnny Hallyday, Brian Setzer, MC5, Alex Chilton, and Marty Wilde have also covered the song.

Y’all can find the the other killer ccvers  on your own. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Earl Barton & Lisa Gaye, The Wolfgangs & The Reverend Horton Heat.

If you lived in that time period, you’d have done the exact same thing. Not me. Dig, man, I wouldn’t have been caught dead dancing plaid.

I don’t know anything about The Wolfgangs except that they rock and may or may not use illegal substances.

Very few bands can cover a classic Johnny Cash song like Folsom Prison Blues, but the Reverend Horton Heat did just that, and even cranked it up a notch.

Rock on, my friends. More stuff coming down the pipe.

Saturday Matinee – Portlandia Gutter Punks, Music From Hell & Joe Bonamassa Rips It

Heh. I’ve seen posers like this in Santa Monica and elsewhere in Southern California.

Dang [via].

Reminds me of Tom Waits’ “Conundrum” that he described as the sound of “a jail door closing behind you” and says it looks “kind of like a Chinese torture device.”

So many uncredited influences crammed into one awesome jam.

Have a great weekend, folks, and I promise we’ll never post the real names of your dogs and cats without permission.

Saturday Matinee – Bert The Turtle, Time for Sushi & Jaco Pastorious

Bert The Turtle showed children how to survive a nuclear attack – assuming they’re far enough away from Ground Zero to have time to react. The film was shown in schools from 1952 into the 1990s.

David Lewandowski‘s “Time for Sushi” (2017) is pure disturbed weirdness. (His 2013 vid “Late For Meeting” is a classic.)

The late Jaco Pastorius was one of the greatest jazz-funk fretless bass players in modern times, IMO. [Video h/t TITH]

Have a great weekend, folks. We’ll do something just as fun tomorrow.

“When Death Rides the Rubber” – Popular Mechanics, December 1932

Okay, so who the Hell gave Death a drivers’ license so it could pull this crap in the first place? Why is he selling used tires?

The used tire business has been around for decades, and there’s deceit involved. Check out this recent video:

[Found here via here.]

Saturday Matinee – Turbulence, Laurie Anderson, MiniMall & The We Five

This Is Your Captain speaking. We’re experiencing some minor turbulence and we ask that you stop screaming.” Wild rides were ridden on at the Birmingham Airport 23 February 2017 [via].

Okay, there’s a link to some surreal 1980s Laurie Anderson stuff above, so let’s go to 2010 live for fun.

Anderson was the Ken Nordine of the 80s (without the baritone voice).

MiniMall has a bit of a retro vibe and consists of:
Merced Stratton — composer, ukulele, vocals
Maral Ohan — composer, vocals
Allegra Rosenberg — composer, bass
Wynne Males — trumpet, vocals
Brennan Doyle — drums

[Merced & Wynne ate sandwiches on our rock-n-roll patio recently because Bunkessa knows them. They were all like harmonizing and musical and stuff.]

The “We Five” had this awesome hit in 1965, a cover of Ian & Sylvia‘s song “You Were On My Mind.”

Sylvia Fricker supposedly wrote it in a bathtub in Greenwich Village in 1962. Yeah it’s lip-synched, but it’s still fun as hell. One of these days I need to find out who the lead guitar on the left is because he rocks.

Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more of you-know-what.

Saturday Matinee – Milton Friedman, The Knitts & The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band

I don’t like the title of this YouTube video at all because mocking young naïve idealistic Marxists is not a good way to explain basic economic principles and move them toward a rational frame of thought. On the other hand, this video illustrates the patience, sentience, and simple brilliance of the late Milton Friedman.

OKAY NEXT.

The Knitts. I like the sound. Kinda retro, kinda young, kinda wow. There’s hope for music after all.

This video annoys the hell out of me, but it’s kinda fun at the same time. Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band is Rev. Peyton-Guitar, Washboard Breezy Peyton-Washboard, Ben “Birddog” Bussell-drums.

Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more really important worldly stuff.

Saturday Matinee – Wrestling Women, Listing Ships & Keith Ferguson

Women’s wrestling c.1950 features Ramona Isabella & Ethel Johnson vs. Babs Wingo and Marva Scott [via].

“Waiter, there’s a table in my soup.” -YouTube Commenter

It’s a compilation. Dates, locations and ships are not indicated, but that’s some serious listing. I’d have been hiding in my cabin and praying that the Dramamine didn’t wear off [via].

How about some retro rock?

This one dates from the mid to late 80’s during a resurgence of roots rock / rockabilly spearheaded by The Stray Cats. This was the heyday of The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Keith Ferguson was their left-handed bassman before he left to form his own band The Tail Gators (yeah, I have some of their vinyl). Ferguson died in 1997 at the age of 50 from liver failure according to Wiki.

Big Guitars From Texas didn’t hit my radar, but there they are, live at Dixie’s Bar and Bus Stop in Austin TX, and featuring Evan Johns, Don Leady, Denny Freeman, Frankie Camaro, Keith Ferguson and Mike Buck, Circa 1985-86.

Have a great weekend folks, and we’ll be back here tomorrow for more awesome.

 

14 June FLAG DAY – With Liberty And Justice For All.

with-liberty-and-justice-for-all

[Top image h/t Savage via FaceBook.]