Sid Laverentsplayed the classic song “Nola,” written in 1915 by pianist Felix Arndt (author of many player piano rolls). Laverents 1970 short film film Multiple SIDosis is one of the few amateur films to have been selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry [h/t wheels].
BTW, Newark Athelete (1891) is the oldest film in the NFR and runs about 10 seconds.
Workman on lunch break plays boogie woogie at the Public Piano in St Pancras Station, London. Some think he was just a plant in a public works suit, but so what. It’s all entertainment.
Guy fitted his cat with a GoPro to find out what it does while he’s away, and no, it doesn’t sleep [via].
Ever hear of David “String Bean” Akeman? No? Here’s a documentary of the comic/iconic speed banjo player. Video starts at 06:00 for his rendition of the traditional folk song “Li’l Liza Jane. [Related post here.]
Akeman and his wife were murdered by burglars at their rural Tennessee home in 1973. The killers took only a chain saw and some firearms and were later apprehended and convicted.
The Blasters perform “Jubilee Train” at the 1985 Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. (Check out the impressive list of performers at the link.)
“Buckjump” by Trombone Shorty – a nice retro-funk groove to wrap things up.
I’m embarrassed to admit that I once confused Nena (Gabriele Kerner of Hagen, West Germany) with Nina Hagen (Catherine Hagen of East Berlin, East Germany). Never again.
How ’bout something primal? Nothing better than Scottish tribal drums and bagpipes. Clanadonia is what it is, and it’s loud. “The Last of the Glaswegians” is going to be stuck in my head for days.
Amazing speed cellist Tina Guo jams it with Joe Bonamassa on “Woke Up Dreaming” at Carnegie Hall (June 2017?). Takes them a bit to get in synch, then it soars. Guo’s take on Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” is fun, too.
The [1976?] band consists of Muddy Waters on vocal/guitar, Bob Margolin guitar, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith drums, Jerry Portnoy, Harmonica and Luther “guitar” Johnson.
Meanwhile, I couldn’t find a live vid for this 1954 Detroit R&B classic. The ending is pure awesome.
There’s not much to say about the tragedy, both ongoing and pending, that hasn’t been said elsewhere. For those of you in the path of Irma with no means of escape, we pray for you. For you looters, please stay put, and move to lower ground.
Stay safe. You can replace your stuff, but you can’t replace your life.
I found this both oddly fascinating and mildly disturbing. It’s an a/v collage from 2013 somewhere near Lake Erie, yet it’s also kind of an appropriate soundtrack for the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey, and for those survivors who haven’t yet fully realized what they’ve lost.
What happens once the news crews are gone? What happens once the reality sets in that you survived the ordeal, but you’ve lost everything? Our prayers are with you.
Now about those looters and scammers…
For a long time, this was THE signature song of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, and in some ways his 1956 hit was a blues parody. In January of 2014, Samantha Fish picked it up and jammed it right down our throats with no apologies. Killer version.
Loved this proto-funk theme, and I love the Bo-Keys for rocking the retro soul grooves that I grew up with.
Have a great Labor Day Weekend, folks, and we’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff than your imagination can even tolerate. Or not.
“That was the time I was most frightened, waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a life jacket again.” –Shark hunter Quint [Robert Shaw] in the 1975 film “Jaws.”
Quint was referring to the tragedy of the USS Indianapolis, torpedoed in 1945:
Recently the USS Indianapolis, missing for 72 years, has been found in the Philippine Sea approximately three and a half miles below the surface. Story w/ pics here.
Woody James was 23 at the time of the attack and lived to tell about it. His story of horror is very understated:
“Sunday, the 29th of July was a quiet day. The sea was runnin five or six feet waves, just a beautiful day out. Didn’t do too much, read a book, did a little tinkerin as usual. Had the 8:00 to 12:00 watch and just got off at midnight. A guy relieved me about a quarter to twelve. I went down through the galley and had a cup of coffee. Then went to my compartment and got a blanket off my bed and went back up on deck. I slept under the overhang on the first turret. My battle station was inside it so in case general quarters sounded, I slept underneath it. Just got laid down good, using my shoes for a pillow as usual and the first torpedo hit. I was up and down between the deck and the overhang of the turret like Yankee Doodle Dandy. And, I wondered, ‘what in the hell is goin on?’
I got out of my blanket and started to roll out from underneath the turret and the other torpedo hit. Another Yankee Doodle deal, all over the place. I started to walk forward to see what I could see and what I seen was about sixty-foot of the bow chopped off, completely gone. Within a minute and a half, maybe two minutes at the most the bow is startin to do down. It filled up with water that fast. Everything was open below deck and the water just flooded in and we were still under way, just scoopin water. Complete chaos, total and complete chaos all over the whole ship. Screams like you couldn’t believe and nobody knew what was goin on. The word got passed down, “ABANDON SHIP”! It was maybe five minutes and we were really down in the water so we proceeded to abandon ship.”
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.
Tacky Raccoons 