Tag: Music

Saturday Matinee – MJ, Freedom, Rain, Smack, Frankie & Johnny & Satchmo

Okay, let’s get it out of the way.  I’m talking Michael Jackson.
Click here and here.  Done.

Freedom. Worth fighting for.

Ivan Maximov‘s “Rain Down From Above.”  (Found here. For previously posted/linked Maximov animations,  click here.)

Set up smackdown [via].  These guys show up in a couple of other videos, so I suspect it was staged.  I thought it was funny.

Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers live, 1956, and not lip-synching.  (MJ’s dad certainly took notice of Lymon’s talent and success.)  Diana Ross’ 1981 version, complete with Frankie’s eye-roll, is here.

This is bizarre.  Louis Armstrong and Johnny Cash playing a 1930’s Jimmie Rogers song.  The guy who posted this to the Utoobage added this comment:

“I would have never guessed, but Louis Armstrong was a guest on the Johnny Cash Show. This and the story about Satchmo and Jimmie Rogers show how diverse musical tastes these men had and once again that music is a great connector.
This is from episode 38, Oct., 28, 1970 and must be one of Satchmo’s last performances. He was such a great performer right to the end and the Nashville audience and Johnny just loved him.
Louis Armstrong cracks everybody up at the start of the song: ‘Let’s give it to ’em in black and white.'”

Other news. Two folks on our blogroll could use some words of encouragement.

Chiqui had a stroke, and is recuperating, although he’s lost some use of his hands.  His english is almost as bad as my spanish, but you might want to leave a comment here.  Here’s an alternate link to a (poor) spanish-to-english translation: here.

Crotchety Old Man has some other nasty maladies, but I’m sure he’d like to hear from you, too.  Click here to leave a comment.

[Updated broken link for Maximov vid}



Saturday Matinee – Powr

The Powr of One…
[via Woosk.]

Powr-ful Stuff – the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

Soul Powr – JB

Towr of Powr.

Saturday Matinee – Lokotv, Cheers, Buddy Guy & GE Smith, Kid Ramos, Flo & Eddie

Odd.  Consider it a cartoon before the main feature.

Best opening sequence for Cheers without the cloying theme song.

Buddy Guy talks about how his career began with a salami sandwich.  True rags-to-riches story. (G.E. Smith backing.)

I was prowling for some early Thunderbirds when I found a name I’d forgotten about.  Here’s Kid Ramos and Los Fabulocos cranking on “Burnin’ the Chicken” in New Braunfels, Texas, 21 March 2009.

This is the funniest version of Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me, Babe.”
The Turtles made a mockery of  pop love songs, but created a decent string of hits anyway. Flo and Eddie eventually joined Frank Zappa’s Mothers.  (Mrs. Strutts pointed out that Eddie dances the Freddie at the end of the clip.)

Saturday Matinee – Kid Ory’s Muskrat Ramble

Kid Ory was one of the greatest trombonists and band leaders of the 20th Century.  One of the early jazz pioneers, his career spanned decades and influenced uncountable others. From Wikipedia:

Kid Ory had one of the best-known bands in New Orleans in the 1910s, hiring many of the great jazz musicians of the city, including, cornetists Joe “King” Oliver, Mutt Carey, and Louis Armstrong; and clarinetists Johnny Dodds and Jimmie Noone.

For many years I thought King Oliver formed the band. Here’s Kid Ory’s band in 1959, playing “Muskrat Ramble,” a song he wrote in the 1920’s.  [Bonus: Interview with Kid Ory.]

Satchmo got his start playing 2nd trumpet in King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band, later married the piano player Lil Hardin. Here’s Louis Armstrong’s version of “Muskrat Ramble.”

Country Joe MacDonald blatantly and unashamedly ripped off Kid Ory’s tune (probably without paying royalties) and warped it into a sarcastic war protest song.  Here he is in his blissfully ignorant glory (apparently without the Fish) at Woodstock 1969.

Here’s a kinda related video:  Small Faces’ “Tin Soldier.” There’s a reason they had few TV appearances and I don’t think Spinal Tap could’ve topped that spastic performance. [Found via Mogadonia.]

Just sealed it. I’m going to hell for connecting Kid Ory with Spinal Tap Lego animation.  I am very sorry and I promise that it won’t happen again as far as you know.

Saturday Matinee: Watchmen, Evil Rainbow Pollution, Weather Report

[Folks, I still got some computer glitches left over from earlier this week.  I had to go into safe mode just to uninstall Microdork’s Service Pack 3.  Unfortunately  the uninstall takes some stuff with it that affects FireFox as well as some other applications.  The computer was limping, now it’s walking. Tomorrow I hope to get it running again.  Guess I gotta buy more RAM.]

A friend “let” me read his cellophane-clad mint copies of the Watchmen twenty years ago. I was amazed at the level of artwork as well as the entire concept, but the final episode sucked donkeys big time.
[Karen found and posted this here.]

This video reassures me that people like her are allowed to vote.  And really now, what is oozing out of our ground?
[Video rediscovered at Wombat247.]

Weather Report was way ahead of their time jazzbo wise, or maybe they hit it at just the right time in order to get my attention.  Jaco Pastorius was amazing.

Saturday Matinee: Jerrie Thill, Ray McKinley, Gene Vincent & Clifford Stoll.

We have a very eclectic combination this weekend.  You’re gonna like ’em.

Oddness alert: Jerrie Thill, and  Allee Willis. [Found here.]

Ray McKinley‘s band with “Big Boy” (featuring Imogene Lynn) and “Jive Bomber.” These appeared in a 1942 short that included “St. Louis Blues.”

Gene Vincent & the Blue Caps’ “Baby Blue” from the 1958 movie “Hot Rod Gang.”  Oh yeah.

18 Minutes with Clifford Stoll, an amazing guy with a lot of things he’s not going to talk about.  (This is the same guy who more recently was mocked for a Newsweek article he wrote in 1995 regarding the future of the Internest… and was wrong.)  I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the inspiration for Dr. Emmet Brown,  played by Christopher Lloyd, in the movie “Back To The Future.”  This one is mandatory viewing here, so grab a snack and a beverage and watch the whole thing.

[Found at Neatorama.]

Saturday Matinee: Planet Drum, Sirens, Spelling Bee Champ, Wright

Here’s Micky Hart’s Planet Drum from a few years back.  (I have one of the Planet Drum CDs that I play at full blast from my porch on Halloween.  I love the way it echoes around the neighborhood, even if Mrs. Strutts hates it.  When she’d complain, I’d switch to Tom Wait’s “Bone Machine.”  She doesn’t complain about Planet Drum anymore.)

The Sirens from “O Brother Where Art Thou” sang a song both pretty and dangerous.  Great movie.

Spelling Bee pro.  Great recovery.

Ferret nail trimming tips (via AAF.)

Steven Wright… well, you know what they say.  C’mon. You know.

Saturday Matinee: Hollies, Checkmates, Guitar Strings, Waits & Satchmo

The Hollies’  “Just One Look”  was a 1964 cover of Doris Troy’s 1963 hit. [More tomorrow.]

[Via Ms. C.]

[Via EK.]

Since Phil posted a TW vid, here’s a reposte.  Tom Waits never sings the same song the same way twice.

One of the prettiest songs ever sung.  Oh Yeah.

Saturday Matinee: Christmas Present & Psst

1906-st-nick

According to the source, this clip was found in New Brunswickeshire England, in the basement of a home once owned by one of the founders of the Salvation Army.  It’s bean carbon dated to about 1925.

Brian Setzer’s rockin’ version of Elvis’ rockin’ version of “Santa Claus Is Back In Town.”

Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” choreographed with lights.

It’s not Christmas to Bunk unless he hears this version by the Ronettes.  (Note that in the video the horse is bustin’ butt and that he also has windshield wipers.)

Q:  What’s Christmas without the Ramones?
A:  Christmas.

[Update 22 December 2008–

Plane Tross has noticed and verified a significant congruence between this post and a previous one: “It’s amazing that when you play “The Ramones” song it’s in perfect sync with “Honka Chickm” below it.”

That’s gotta be one of the best comments ever on this blog. Thanks gobs, Plane. Comments like that are what make me wanna get out of bed almost every morning.]

Saturday Matinee: Hambone, Jeff, Doc, Sonny & Terry

Hambone is the traditional folk music consisting of rhythms produced by slapping oneself and making noises without singing.  It traces its history to the pre-civil war South, and was probably introduced by west african slaves.  Regardless of your musical tastes, Hambone is harder than it looks.  Try it yousef and you’ll see.

The Hambone Brothers showed up occasionally on the long running TV show, “HeeHaw.” The guy on the left was cool, but the guy on the right always creeped me out.

[Presurfer reminded me about ’em.  Honest.]

Jeff Holt does Hambone with the always amazing Doc Watson.

Holt and Watson doing “Soldier’s Joy” and “Ragtime Annie.”

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, with Pete Seeger on banjo.  Terry’s breath control and “whoopin'” on harmonica was directly related to Hambone, if you didn’t notice.  (Unless I’m mistaken, Sonny and Brownie also had a small cameo on the first Blues Brothers movie.)

And finally, a public service announcement from Plaxico Burress.

[Found here.]