Harlem Nocturne, The Viscounts (1959)
The Viscounts’ only hit was released in 1959 and peaked at No. 53 on Billboard’s Top !00. It was re-released in 1966 and made it to No. 39.
[Top image: I was looking for something to go with the music and found Fleur de Guerre, a vintage model from the UK. Her Twitter profile states, “I like old stuff, wrestling & heavy metal.”]
Buckin’ and beer. Buck dancing is related to clogging, flat footing, step dancing, and this film from the 1950s refers to it as skiffle. You already know about beer.
Roy Buchanan, aka “The World’s Greatest Unknown Guitarist,” from a PBS documentary 1971. Buchanan was most famously associated with a 1953 Fender Telecaster nicknamed ‘Nancy’. In 1988 he was arrested for public intoxication and was found hanged from his own shirt in the Fairfax County Virginia Jail. He was 48.
Pete Anderson was “the very first true rocker in the entire former Soviet Union” and formed The Swamp Shakers in Riga, Latvia, in 2009. Anderson passed away in 2016, but The Swamp Shakers continue performing as a trio.
Getting kinda late, so I’ll wrap this up and send it off to the internest. Have a great weekend, we’ll have more fun tomorrow.
Alalaké, Bembeya Jazz National (1971)
Formed by vocalist Aboubacar Dembar Camara in 1961 and specializing in modern arrangements of Manding classic tunes, Bembeya Jazz National won the first two national Biennial festivals in 1962 and 1964 and was crowned National Orchestra (of Guinea-Bissau) in 1966. The songis from a live album, Hommage a Demba Camara, recorded during a 1971 concert.
Mary Lou, Young Jessie (1955)Recorded by 18 year-old Obediah Donnell Jessie (1936-2020) who later spent some time with The Flairs, The Coasters, and the Obie Jessie Combo. It was his younger brother, actor DeWayne Jessie, who portrayed Otis Day in “National Lampoon’s Animal House.” Jessie was also related to Blind Lemon Jefferson.
In 2016, Korean tourist Jun-Hyuk Choi asked to borrow the bass and sat in with some buskers in Florence, Italy. The trio is Romdraculas Firenze.
Influenced by a number of genres including nuevo flamenco, rock, and heavy metal, Rodrigo y Gabriela eventually got tired of the Mexican rock scene. In 1999, despite not speaking English, they moved to Dublin, Ireland and were a hit. They’ve done much more since. More about them here.]
Aw yeah! The Eels vid is an odd one, kinda fits my attitude. The song was released in Japan in 2001, U.S. in 2002, on the album of the same name. The video volume is a bit low, so if you turn it up, turn it back down so you don’t blow your spickers.
Messer Chups doesn’t appear in my “suggested for you” Utoobage, but I know where to find them: St. Petersburg, Russia. They’re listed under vampire space zombie surf rock. Oleg Gitaracula – Guitar; Zombierella – Bass; Rockin Eugene – Drums
“While Messer Chups’ mostly instrumental sound is hard to neatly categorize, it’s safe to say that it would be embraced by fans of rockabilly, horror punk, vintage surf records, Italian slasher films, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Pulp Fiction, lounge music, the theremin, The Cramps, and the theme song from The Munsters.”
Hey, Utoob. Just because I click on a random video out of curiosity doesn’t mean that I like garbage like this, so you can remove it from the “suggested for you” list. I’d really appreciate it, because I’m only interested in finding the really good stuff.
Three day weekend for some of you out there, but we’ll hold down the fart until you return. See you then.
Booker-Loo, Booker T. & The MGs (1967)This live recording is from the “Hit The Road Stax” european showcase tour that included performances in England, Norway and France. Steve Cropper described it: “It was just a mind-blower. Hell, we were just in Memphis cutting records; we didn’t know. Then when we got over there, there were hoards of people waiting at the airport, autograph hounds and all that sort of stuff. I didn’t know what it was all about. That was something that happened to Elvis or Ricky Nelson, but it didn’t happen to the Stax-Volt band. It didn’t happen to Booker T. & the MGs.”
“…and packs an impressive top speed of 100mph.” Good God.
[Found here.]
Billy Gibbons covers R. L. Burnside. From the YouTube comments: “Just hit play on this one and my 6 year old son immediately yelled from across the room ‘is that was ZZ TOP?!'”
R. L. Burnside was born in Lafayette County, Mississippi, learned from Mississippi Fred McDowell who lived in the next county over. Burnside and his family, tired of the life of sharecroppers, moved to Chicago in the early 50s. Subsequently his father, two uncles and two brother were murdered there. In 1959 he returned to Mississippi, was convicted for murder himself, and served time at the Parchman Penitentiary.
“I didn’t mean to kill nobody. I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head and two times in the chest. Him dying was between him and the Lord.”
The Obscuritones self describe as “Close harmony and rockin rhythm. Like the Andrews Sisters singin with the Stray Cats after a night out with the Cramps.” Okay, almost, but not bad for this sextet from the UK, and their album got a decent review.
Have a great weekend and we’ll do something tomorrow for sure.
Schwinn 24, King Arthur & the Carrots (1966)Kinky Friedmanformed King Arthur & the Carrots while in college, and they recorded one 45rpm. Flip side was Beach Party Boo Boo, cover version here.
[Top image: Created from a kindergartner’s drawing of a car? Nope. It’s El Super Auto del “Potro” Rodriquez, Ingenario Popular. The owner, Alberto Rodriguez (of Deán Funes, Córdoba, Argentina) left a message in the vid comments.]
“True fun, not fake fun.” June Foray and Bill Scott were my heroes, two of the most recognizable and ubiquitous voices of my childhood. They also did the morning traffic reports as Rocky and Bullwinkle in Boston. At 02:01, Rocky and Bullwinkle introduced a Kiss song on WBCN.
Cliff Richard & The Shadows had some stiff competition – check out the Billboard Hits for 1960. Sir Richard holds the record as the only act to make the UK singles charts in all of its active decades (1950s–2000s). The Shadows were Richard’s backup band (1958-1968), and they reunited in 2020 to play their 1960 hit Apache.
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp is a Led Zeppelin cover, named after Bron-Yr-Aur, a house in Gwynedd, Wales, and based on Waggoner’s Lad, a song by Bert Jansch that appeared on his album Nobody’s Fault But Mine. Go figure. I almost forgot – Devil In A Woodpile is awesome.
Possibly the greatest Ramones cover that’s not a Ramones cover. Green Day had some great stage moves, too. Yeah, I know, it doesn’t fit in with the other vids, but it clicks with me somehow.
Good God. It’s 2:30am. I’m outta here, see you in a few.
