Category: Videos

Saturday Matinee – Jerry Lee Lewis, Joan Jett, The Blasters, Big Joe Turner

Great cover of Johnny O’Keefe’s “The Wild One.”  Here’s Jerry Lee Lewis’ version of “Wild Child.”

Although Iggy Pop did a great cover (here’s the instrumental track if you want to sing along), Joan Jett’s version is pretty good, and looky who shows up on the street.

Speaking of covers, here’s The Blasters’ 1981 version of Little Willie John’s “I’m Shakin’.” From the Wikipud:

Phil Alvin explained the origin of the band’s name: “I thought Joe Turner’s backup band on Atlantic records – I had these 78s – I thought they were the Blues Blasters. That ends up it was Jimmy McCracklin. I just took the ‘Blues’ off and Joe finally told me, that’s Jimmy McCracklin’s name, but you tell ‘im I gave you permission to steal it.”

Big Joe Turner was a great big band blues singer in the early days of rock and roll rhythm and blues. “Shake, Rattle and Roll” was his first big hit in 1954, but was coopted by Bill Haley & His Comets (who cleaned up the lyrics for the white folks).

That’s all for now, have a great Memorial Day Weekend, see you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – TUC, Fleet Foxes, Sirens, SRV & Neil with Bruce doing Hendrix doing Dylan

The Unknown Comic, LIVE! [I showed up once as The UC at a party in college, came in unannounced and ran through 15 minutes of cheap jokes, left to change clothes and toss the bag, and returned as myself. People were still asking the host “How did you get HIM to show up?”]

Bunkarina turned me on to this vid from the Fleet Foxes, a band out of Seattle.

Fleet Foxes reminded me of the soundtrack to “Cold Mountain,” but since I couldn’t find a video of the Sacred Harp Singers of Liberty Church, I’ll go with “O Brother Where Art Thou” and The Song of the Sirens.

Okay, we’re gonna break out of that deadend theme and jump to a Stevie Ray Vaughan classic, “Texas Flood.”

Here are Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young completely blowing a rock classic. “All Along The Watchtower” was an acoustic Bob Dylan song that Jimi Hendrix electrified and made a hit. Even Dylan started playing Hendrix’ version.  The lyrics make no sense, but if you reverse the order of the verses, it does. Kinda.

Have a great weekend, folks, be back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Mull, Martin, Plastics, Grisman & Garcia, King & Preston &, um, Willis

Martin Mull in 1973 gets back to his roots in the Lake Erie delta.

Martin Mull’s college roommate was Steve Martin who was no slouch on banjo.

Awesome. I can play the plastic scale, too, but putting it into a high-speed vid makes the grade.

Now THIS is really annoying, so much so that I’m not going to post it here. You’re on you’re own, and I dare you to listen to the whole tutorial.  I couldn’t do it, but I can listen through this:

David Grisman & Jerry Garcia doing B.B. King’s classic “Thrill is Gone.”

To close it out, here’s B.B. King himself with Billy Preston and, um, Bruce Willis on harp. Have a great weekend folks, and remember that most of us can play harp better than Bruce Willis, who’s got no business at all in that lineup.

Saturday Matinee – Handel, Ibexspeak, OC Fair Fail, Redbone, Cooder & Beefheart


Handel’s Messiah [Tip o’ the Tarboosh to Savage.]

Argument with an ibex. No subtitles needed. [via]

Interview with ice sculptor at Orange County Fair 2010.

Haven’t had any Leon in a while. When he was on the Tonight show, he didn’t know what Diddy Wah Diddy meant… or so he claimed.

Ry Cooder covered Diddy Wah Diddy, too.

Here’s Captain Beefheart’s version of a different  Diddy Wah Diddy, and with that we’re out until tomorrow. Have a great weekend folks.

[Update 7 August 2010 – Forgot to add that The Fabulous Thunderbirds did a great cover of Bo Diddley’s “Diddy Wah Diddy.” Couldn’t find a video for either versions.]

Saturday Matinee – World’s Strongest Redneck, Derek, Bob, Gatemouth & Johnny, and Buddy Guy

Redneck washing machine. When Steve McGranahan‘s not bending cast iron skillits for charity, this funny guy makes videos.

“Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad?” was one of Derek & The Dominos’ greatest hits.

One of my favorite Wailers songs.

Here’s a 44 year old Clarence Gatemouth Brown with a 32 yearold Johnny Jones playing  “Chicken Fat” in 1968. [via]

Happy 74th Birthday to Buddy Guy, one of the last original bluesplayers.  Here’s a guy who left the south for Chicago and played for sandwiches to keep from starving.

Have a great weekend, folks. See y’all back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Cows & Cycles, Kim Wilson, W.C. Clark, Angela Strehli, Jimmy Vaughan, Little Walter, Coco Taylor, Howlin’ Wolf, Leon Redbone, and a link to Marion Harris


Cows & Cows & Cows. (Tip o’ the tarboosh to Bunkarina.)


If that wasn’t odd enough, try Cycles. (Thanx, Possum.)


Whoa. Whatta lineup. Kim Wilson, backed by Jimmy Vaughan and W.C.Clark with Angela Strehli. Might have posted the vid before, but so what.


Little Walter was an excellent harp player. Here he is with Coco Taylor in 1967, playing Howlin’ Wolf’s “Wang Dang Doodle.”


What was truly pitiful in the 60s was that the Brits were the ones to reintroduce American blues to Americans. (Look who introduces the great Howlin’ Wolf on this clip.)


Let’s wrap up with a healthy dose of Leon Redbone. Poor video, but a nice version of this song from 1916.

Have a great weekend, but be back here tomorrow for more fun.

Saturday Matinee – FAIL fail, Original Star Trek, Robert Klein, Friends of Distinction, Cornelius Brothers, War

FAIL fail = WIN
Reminds me of the 2nd .gif  here.

The original Star Trek was the best. Check out how young Kirk and McCoy look [via].

I might have posted this before, but Robert Klein was truly funny occasionally. If anyone has a clip of his classic “I Can’t Stop My Leg,” lemme know.

Classic summer song by The Friends of Distinction.

Here’s The Cornelius Brothers in Ft. Lauderdale in 1983, reprising their hit from 1972. (The video link above jumps to other stuff; couldn’t find a solitary link of a live show.)

Also from 1972, here’s War‘s live version of “Slipping Into Darkness.” Early 70s funk was awesome. Have a great weekend, folks, and be back here tomorrow for more funk and games.

Saturday Matinee – Dinocuts, Wanda Jackson, Louis Prima & Betty Boop, Spotniks and Ricky Skaggs

Awesome marketing concept, but it targets the wrong people, unless you’re into shrinkwrap. Nice appropriate soundtrack, though.

Wanda Jackson! Who says women can’t do rockabilly?

Whoever did this Betty Boop / Louis Prima mashup gets a hat tip from me.  Whoa. Hold on there. Looks like it’s time for some Spotniks!

Yep. The Spotnik’s Theme from 1963, a band from the UK, sounding an awful lot like lots of other bands from 1963.

Let’s wrap this up with some awesome gospel from Ricky Skaggs, the greatest mandolin player since Bill Monroe. Have a great weekend folks. See you back here tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – Sushi, Percy, Grappelli, AatW, Bob Wills

I kinda suspected this. Not. [via Cynical-C]

Percy Faith’s “Theme From A Summer Place” was one of my favorites for reasons I really can’t explain; I just liked it, especially when the french horns kicked in. [via The Chawed Rosin]

Here’s another song that’s way up in my favorites. “Blue Moon” was composed by Rogers and Hart in 1934, and Stéphane Grappelli treated it with respect.

Asleep at the Wheel paid homage to Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. [via Huck Funn]

Don’t know who Bob Wills was? Here’s a video to show you what y’all have been missing. Meanwhile, have a great Independence Day weekend, folks, and don’t forget to put your flag out tomorrow.

Saturday Matinee – The Clarks, Dan Akroyd, Eubie Blake, Tandy & Randy Newman

The Clarks! Tip o’ the Tarboosh to coldwarrior.

Dan Akroyd plays James Cotton‘s version of Ike Turner‘s Rocket 88.

Eubie Blake was awesome. He was 95 in 1978 when this interview was recorded.

During the break there’s  an advertisement for the troublesome RadioShack TRS-80 computer system, using magenetic tape cassettes for data storage. Only cost $599! That’s about $2,000 in today’s dollars. Later on, after users complained about problems with the cassette drives, Tandy eventually offered an awesome 5MB hard drive accessory, about the same size as a PC today, for $1,500 – a whopping $4,900 today.

Okay, 1978 was probably the peak of the (gag) disco phase, and the birth of R&B pop love anthems. There is absolutely nothing that ranked in the top 20 that I’d post here, except for maybe for the Stone’s “Miss You.” Worst song they ever did IMO.

On the other hand, this song made No. 41, and Randy Newman gets kudos for writing the most misunderstood song of the year:

Have a great weekend, folks, and meet me back here tomorrow.