|
Go to Segments
1-20 |
21-40 |
41-60 |
61-80 |
81-100 |
101-120
| Segment 61 |
Adding a horn section to your rock and roll outfit doesn’t make you a jazz combo any more than adding strings makes you a chamber orchestra. But when groups like The Electric Flag, Blood, Sweat, and Tears, and Chicago showed up with their big, honking horn sections, the rock press had to call them something and they decided to call them jazz-rock. Hey, the guy was blowing a saxophone, he said to his editor. Still, it was a misnomer since, with few exceptions, the groups didn’t really stray into the compositional or improvisational territory of true jazz. You want jazz rock? Try Bitch’s Brew by Miles Davis or something by Soft Machine or John McLaughlin.
So what do we call today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl? Well, let’s just say it’s a big load of brassy rock, mixed with some rocky funk, and spiced here and there with some Latin flavors. We’ve got six tracks broken into eight parts and, quite by accident, it turns out that seven of the eight come from the West Coast. Chicago being the odd fellow in the set. First, we’ve got Tower of Power out of Oakland, then, it’s across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco where we’ll hear from Cold Blood, Santana, and Donna Jean and the Tricksers, then it’s up the coast a bit, to the Emerald City, one of my favorite bands from one of my favorite towns, Ballinjack, an outfit formed in Seattle in 1969 by some guys who were childhood pals with Jimi Hendrix. Ballinjack recorded a couple of really good records for Columbia and Mercury and why they didn’t break through to a larger audience is another one of life’s great mysteries. In the second half of the set, from Ballinjack’s debut album, we’ll hear “Hold On,” a song that provides a great little drum segue into Chicago’s “Free” and back again, so keep your hearing holes open for that. But to get things started, let’s just head on down to the nightclub and hope it doesn’t show while we’re driving down the road that we had too much to drink.
|
| Tower of Power |
Down to the Nightclub |
| Cold Blood |
Down to the Bone (part 1) |
| Donna Jean and the Tricksters |
Weight of the World |
| Santana |
Waiting |
| Cold Blood |
Down to the Bone (part 2) |
| Ballinjack |
Hold On (part 1) |
| Chicago |
Free |
| Ballinjack |
Hold On (part 2) |
Formed in Seattle in 1969, that’s Ballinjack from their debut album on Columbia records. The next year they were on the road, opening for their childhood pal, Jimi Hendrix on his Cry of Love tour. We just heard Ballinjack’s “Hold On” done in two parts with Chicago’s “Free” segued into the middle, using all those drum licks from Daniel Seraphine and Ronnie Hammon. The first half of the set was a Bay Area sample platter featuring bands and players who moved around so much it’s impossible to explain all the overlaps, but we’ll give it a shot. We started with Tower of Power, a band formed in Oakland by Emilio Castillo. We heard their funky classic, “Down To the Night Club” from their second album, Bump City. Tower of Power’s first album was on Bill Graham’s San Francisco Records. That’s the same label that signed Cold Blood. And, over the years, you’ll find more than a few members of Tower of Power playing with Cold Blood who we heard doing “Down to the Bone” instead of the nightclub, a track featuring percussion by Pete and Coke Escovedo who were with Santana at various points in time.
And in the middle of the set we heard a track called “Waiting”; it was the first song on the first side of the first album from Santana, an album featuring Tower of Power on horns; that came out in 1969. Thirty-nine years later, Donna Jean Godchaux , the only woman allowed on stage with another Bay Area band, The Grateful Dead, showed up with Tricksters. We heard one of the many great tracks from their debut album in 2008, a song called “Weight of the World.” And that, my friends, is all we have time for today. If you’re looking for the set lists and show commentaries, I’ve got ‘em posted my website along with scandalous photos, notions, toiletries, and cosmetics. I’m Bill Fitzhugh, thanks for listening. I’ll be back some day with another batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl and I hope you’ll join us, right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 62 |
Anybody tuning in late for today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl might be confused and think they’d tuned in up at B.B. King’s Bluesville. Confused maybe, but they won’t be sorry. From the Way Back Studios, it’s Bluesville in the Deep Tracks. Where all that rock and roll came from in the first place. But of course there’s blues and then there’s blues. Right? I mean, in the beginning, it was all rural and acoustic. Field hollers and spirituals. Melismatic vocals rendered in twelve bars with flatted third, fifth, and seventh notes of the scale. Sexual metaphors riding in on bent notes. Get your mojo working and let me play with your poodle, if you know what I’m saying. But it was one thing to play an acoustic guitar and blow harmonica at a rent party or a levee camp with a small crowd of workers so tired they couldn’t make a peep. But after WWII and the great black exodus from the south, those rural acoustic blues had to adapt if they wanted to be heard in those big noisy cities. Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf showed the way. They plugged it in and turned it up. But even before that, you wanted to be heard in a crowded juke joint where the skin ball was letting the deal go down and men were throwing dice and hollering about the snake eyes, you had best go electric.
So it was born on the plantations and juke joints of the Mississippi Delta. Towns like Leland, Greenwood, and Clarksdale. But it grew up in St. Louis, Kansas City, and Chicago where you couldn’t get away with that was slow, old, draggy stuff. Up there the jobs were better. Everybody had a few nickles to rub together and they wanted to dance. So you had to pick up the pace. Next thing you know, the jump blues showed up and brought some wailing saxophones with it. So we’ll do a little of that too. But for starters, let’s hear from one of the great new voices in the blues, a personal friend of mine, a guy I went to high school with back in Jackson, Mississippi. . .
|
| Zac Harmon |
Yazoo City |
| Finis Tasby |
Mercy's Blues (I Believe) |
| Eric Clapton |
Hideaway |
| William Clarke |
Complainer's Boogie Woogie |
| Bob Dylan |
Summer Days |
| Big Joe Turner |
Shake, Rattle, and Roll |
| Howlin' Wolf |
Highway 49 |
Never hurts to have a good nickname if you’re going to sing the blues. I mean, if you had to choose between hearing some guy named Chester Burnett or one named Howlin’ Wolf, who you gonna pick? We just heard old Chester doing “Highway 49.” That was from the infamous London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions with his admirers, Steve Winwood, Bill Wyman, and Eric Clapton who we heard earlier in the set covering Freddie King’s “Hideaway.” Now Highway 49 is the other highway cutting through the Mississippi Delta besides the one that gets revisited and resurfaced every now and then, Highway 61. 49 runs right in front of the old Hopson Plantation and takes you down to Jackson, by way of Yazoo City, which happens to be the title to the first song in the set. Written and performed by my friend Zac Harmon, a guy I went to high school with back in Jackson. Zac has earned a trophy case of music awards, including the Sirius-XM Nation’s Best new Blues Artist in 2005. Check his website for his schedule and get out to see him if he’s playing anywhere near you. You’ll be glad you did.
There were a couple other guys in the set you might not have heard of. Somewhere between Chicago Blues and California swing we had the late, great William Clarke blowing harp and singing the “Complainer’s Boogie Woogie.” And Finis Tasby, a man who traveled an awfully long road before recording his great record, Jump Children. We heard him doing “Mercy’s Blues (I Believe).” Elsewhere, Big Joe Turner, like a one-eyed cat peepin’ in a seafood store doing the jump blues classic, “Shake, Rattle, and Roll.” Before that, Blind Boy Grunt, also known as Bob Dylan, checked in with “Summer Days.” Sucking the blood out of the genius of generosity, I’m Bill Fitzhugh, wishing I’d written that one. Instead, I’ll be working on another batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl, satellite delivered sooner or later from the Way Back Studios to the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 63 |
Some song titles are self-explanatory. For example, “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” You don’t need a PhD to figure that one out. Other titles are somewhat more cryptic, like Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35.” Nowhere in the lyrics is there is any mention of, nor explanation for, these women. Who are they? Why are they numbered? We may never know. Even with all the resources of the Internet, I can’t find a good explanation for that one. And then there’s the song that got me started on today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl. It’s called “Paul B. Allen, Omaha, Nebraska.” Being an instrumental, there are no clues to be found in the lyrics. It’s on the album Them Changes by the late great Buddy Miles. I’ve had this record since it came out in 1970 and I always wondered who “Paul B. Allen” was. Well this time, the Internet delivered. I found the Facebook page for Paul B. Allen III. So I sent him an email and he wrote write back. He said Paul B Allen, Senior was his grandfather. He and Paul B. Allen, Junior owned and operated Allen’s Showcase lounge, the hottest nightclub in Omaha in the 1950’s and 60’s. Greats like Fats Domino, Red Foxx, and James Brown all performed there. And it wasn’t just big acts. They like to nurture new artists as well, and among those was a young local guy by the name of Buddy Miles. Paul B. Allen III, by the way, is the lead vocalist of the current incarnation of The Platters.
As for the rest of the set, we cover a lot of ground. No fancy segues or mash-ups, it’s more like a relay team with each song handing the baton in perfect stride to the next. Now, on the one hand, you might get disgusted and start thinking that I’m strange. On the other hand, you must know you have a certain charm and feel the time is right. Either way, let’s take a cue from George Ivan Morrison who said: ‘Hey, Mr. DJ, I just want to hear some rhythm and blues music on the radio.’ So, on the radio, here’s Buddy Miles with “Paul B. Allen, Omaha, Nebraska.”
|
| Buddy Miles |
Paul B. Allen, Omaha, Nebraska |
| Fleetwood Mac |
Spare Me a Little of Your Love |
| Steely Dan |
With a Gun |
| Van Morrison |
Domino |
| Blues Brothers |
Soul Finger |
| The Buckinghams |
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy |
| Chicago Transit Authority |
Questions 67 and 68 |
| Graham Parker |
Heat Treatment |
You gotta admire a guy with the courage to rhyme swallow, hollow, follow, and wallow. That’s Graham Parker, title track from his album, Heat Treatment. Before that, Chicago Transit Authority. Now despite extensive and rigorous research, I still have no idea what “Questions 67 and 68” are. The lyrics themselves consist of only five or six questions. And while the title is a lyric, it’s sung only once at the very end of the song but without any explanation of what those questions are or what the preceding 66 might have been. Before that, from 1967, “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” from The Buckinghams, produced by the same guy who produced the Chicago, James Guercio. The song was written by Joe Zawinul of Weather Report fame and was originally a hit instrumental for the Cannonball Adderly Quintet in 1966. In the middle of that most precious wellspring of contemporary music, a song and a band which historians in the far future might catalogue under 20th Century pre-light-emitting-diode euphoric. Jake and Elwood. The Blues Brothers covering the Bar-Kay’s classic “Soul Finger.” Before that, Van Morrison’s “Domino,” Fleetwood Mac with Christine McVie’s “Spare Me a Little of Your Love,” and Steely Dan with a story about a man with a gun in his hand. The kind of guy who pays his bill by leaving another man lying in the rain. That’s from Pretzel Logic.
At the top, the late great Buddy Miles from Them Changes, an album the All Music Guide calls, “quite simply, one of the great lost treasures of soul inspired rock music.” We heard the instrumental “Paul B. Allen, Omaha, Nebraska,” for reasons explained earlier. And mercy, mercy, mercy, we’re all out of time. I’m Bill Fitzhugh, thanks for listening. I’ll back sooner or later with a fresh batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl and I hope you can join us, right here, in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 64 |
The way I figure it, if something sounds nice, why not do it twice? Even at the risk of being redundant, repetitive, and redundant. I’ve been guilty of worse. So, today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl is like a rerun except that it’s all brand-spanking new. A semi-fraudulent case of deja vu, if you will because somewhere in the echos of the Way Back Studios you can still hear a mix we laid down one time with Willie Deville, Dire Straits, and J. J. Cale. And now it’s happened again . . . sort of. Last time, we had the “Assassin of Love” with a “Six Blade Knife” under a “Cajun Moon.” This time we’re dealing with a “Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl,” who mixes nicely into Dire Straits’ “Water of Love,” which in turn flows smoothly into J.J. Cale’s “Don’t Cry Sister.” Now true, technically, it’s Mink this time instead of Willie Deville but that’s getting into semantics and what’s the point? A Deville by any other name is just a Cadillac. That’s all in the second half of the show.
But first, something completely different: four songs from four albums that have one thing in common. The moody and atmospheric production of Daniel Lanois. Probably most famous for his work with rockers like U2 and Peter Gabriel, Lanois has also spent his share of time in the studio with more acoustic artists. In 1995 he played on and produced Wrecking Ball for Emmylou Harris, two years later, he did the same for Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind. A year after that, he and Willie Nelson holed up in an old movie theatre in Mexico to record Teatro, and in 2003 he hooked up with Billy Bob Thornton to produce The Edge of the World. In fact a lot of people don’t realize that Lanois produced the soundtrack to Thornton’s Academy Award winning film, Sling Blade. Steve Earle’s hiding in there somewhere as well, I’ll let you figure that out yourself, but first, from his second solo album, here’s Billy Bob Thornton.
|
| Billy Bob Thornton |
The Edge of the World (reprise) |
| Emmylou Harris |
Goodbye |
| Bob Dylan |
It's Not Dark Yet |
| Willie Nelson |
Everywhere I Go |
| Mink DeVille |
Mixed Up Shook Up Girl |
| Dire Straits |
Water of Love (excerpt) |
| J. J. Cale |
Don't Cry Sister |
I remember a Rolling Stone review of one of J.J. Cale’s albums where the reviewer called him a ‘Dust Bowl Dire Straits.’ And the All Music Guide said Dire Straits built their sound on the laid-back blues-rock of J.J. Cale. Which just goes to show I’m not the only one who thinks this way. Here, we put ‘em together so you could hear it for yourself, as we went from J.J. Cale’s “Don’t Cry Sister” into “Water of Love” from Dire Straits. Leading us into Dire Straits, a guy who sometimes sounds a lot like Mark Knopfler. We heard Mink Deville’s “Mixed Up Shook Up Girl” from his great debut album Cabretta that came out in 1977. A year later, when Dire Straits released their first album, I was struck by how much their sounds had in common. Ten years later, much to my surprise, Knopfler ended up producing Deville’s album Miracle. And speaking of producers...
The first half of that set was a sample platter of what can happen when you let Daniel Lanois into the control room. Actually, he not only produced the first four tracks in that set, he played on them as well. Starting out on an instrumental from Billy Bob Thornton’s second solo album, we heard the reprised to “The Edge of the World” with Billy Bob on drums and Lanois on everything else. After that, from Emmylou Harris, a Steve Earle composition called “Goodbye” with Steve sitting in on guitar. Then it was Mr. Lanois and Mr. Dylan from Time out of Mind we heard “Not Dark Yet” and that led us to Willie Nelson from a terrific album called Teatro. A song called “Everywhere I Go” featuring Emmylou Harris on background vocals. Well, it’s like Bob said, Shadows are falling and I’ve been here all day. It’s too hot to sleep and time is running away here in the Way Back Studios. Hey, If you’re looking for the set lists, I’ve got ‘em posted on my website so you can drop by and check ‘em out, and see what else goes on around here. I’m Bill Fitzhugh, thanks for listening. I’ll be back next time with another batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl and I hope you’ll join us, right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 65 |
Chester William Powers, Jr., isn’t exactly a household name. But everybody knows his work. Among the songs he wrote was “Get Together,” a top five hit for The Youngbloods. He also wrote a bunch of songs for Quicksilver Messenger Service, including the only one of their songs to break into the top fifty, a track called “Fresh Air.” So how come his name doesn’t ring a bell? Well, in the case of “Get Together” it’s probably because that song is so strongly associated with Jesse Colin Young and the Youngbloods. As for “Fresh Air” and all the other songs he wrote for Quicksilver, it’s probably because he wrote most of them under a pseudonym. For example, he wrote “Fresh Air” under the name Jesse Oris Farrow. Other times he called himself Jackie Powers, but most of us know him as Dino Valenti, one of the founding members of Quicksilver Messenger Service. Unfortunately, Dino (or Chester) had a habit of getting arrested for drug possession. And not only arrested, but convicted, and sentenced to a couple of years in jail which explains why he was only occasionally in the band.
In any event, a year after “Fresh Air” was on the charts, Quicksilver recorded “I Found Love,” written by band member Gary Duncan. The two songs are completely different. But there’s one part of both songs that’s nearly identical which is why they’re the songs at the heart of today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl. The common element is in the chorus of both songs, and that’s where the Hand Mixing comes in. But you’ll have to wait for the second half of the set to hear the segues that resulted. Before we’re done, we’ll hear nine songs done in thirteen parts. Including The Tourists, Santana, James Brown, and Ducks Deluxe. But first, from the Way Back Studios, let’s start with another one of our haphazard comparisons of Roger McGuinn and George Harrison. Starting with one of the single greatest chords in all of rock ‘n’ roll…
|
| The Beatles |
Hard Day's Night |
| The Byrds |
Feel a Whole Lot Better |
| Ducks Deluxe |
Please, Please, Please (part 1) |
| Beatles |
Please Please Me |
| Ducks Deluxe |
Please, Please, Please (part 2) |
| Tourists |
I Only Want To Be With You |
| Quicksilver Messenger Service |
I Found Love (part 1) |
| Quicksilver Messenger Service |
Fresh Air (part 1) |
| Santana |
Persuasion |
| Quicksilver Messenger Service |
Fresh Air (part 2) |
| Quicksilver Messenger Service |
I Found Love (part 2) |
| Quicksilver Messenger Service |
Fresh Air (part 3) |
| James Brown |
I Got To Move |
The Godfather of Soul could go on all night doing that vamp and in fact he almost did – that goes on for over seven minutes but I ran out of time and figured a little James Brown was better than none at all. The origin of that record is as convoluted as some of JB’s paternity suits, so try to keep up. The album title (In The Jungle Groove) comes from an August 1970 recording that remains mostly unissued. They took the opening rap from the album, that part where he yells, “Hit me!” And they tacked it onto the beginning of “I Got To Move” which comes from that same 1970 recording session. We heard the second of two versions that James recorded, both of them restructured from his 1967 hit “There Was A Time,” which was itself an extension of an earlier hit called “Let Yourself Go.” In The Jungle Groove was essentially a compilation of stuff recorded between 1969 and 1971. Some of the tracks had been released only as singles, others had been on albums, but in different mixes, and “I Got To Move,” was previously unreleased in any form.
Coincidentally, James Brown’s first big hit was titled, “Please Please Please.” And near the top of the set, doing a different song with that same title, we had Ducks Deluxe followed by the Beatles with “Please Please Me.” In the middle of the set, The Tourists, a British synth pop band featuring Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart a year before they became Eurythmics. We heard their cover of the Dusty Springfield hit, “I Only Want to Be With You.” The second half of the set was a doozy of Hand Mixed Vinyl, five-parts Quicksilver Messenger Service, and one part Santana. We took “Fresh Air,” broke it into three pieces, and mixed it with “I Found Love” broken into two parts, and mixed back and forth during the oooooos. And we stuck Santana’s “Persuasion” into one of the breaks in between because that’s what we do here in the Way Back Studios. I’m Bill Fitzhugh, thanks for listening. I’ll be back next time with another batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl. Right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 66 |
All due respect to the novel, but for my money, the best Frankenstein is the 1931 film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale with Boris Karloff as the flat-headed monster with bolts in his neck. Unlike the original tale, in the movie, we have Fritz the hunchback robbing graves to gather the gooey parts used to create the creature. A torso here, a leg there, and, the crowning touch: the brain of a deranged criminal. It’s just like how we put our sets together here in the Way Back Studios. So this is one I suspect Mary Shelly would have liked. It’s a modern vinyl prometheus. A tale of displaced passion and brutalism – a veritable rage against the industrial revolution, or maybe just the machine that was the music industry circa 1975. At least that’s how the whole thing starts.
Today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl is a case of inanimate matter imbued with the spark of life at 33 1/3, organic parts from different sources, rendered into twenty-six minutes of what F. Scott Fitzgerald described as the real dark night of the soul, where it’s always three o’clock in the morning, day after day. A bleak reflection of modern life, anxiety and dread, madness, death, fear of judgement, existential brooding, and sexual anxiety. A trek into the first third of a modern day Divine Comedy. A veritable Dante’s Inferno of synthesizers and sound effects from Edgar Winter and Gino Vanelli. Cymbols like a steam engine struggling to pull out of the station on a “Hellbound Train.” Slow, yet relentless at first, the pace and the pulse quicken until it’s a runaway and you’re strapped onto the front of the thing like Jon Voight on a hellish ride into a netherworld of garish nightmarish images. No brakes, no one at the wheel. Go ahead, son, have a cigar.
|
| Pink Floyd |
Have a Cigar |
| Savoy Brown |
Hellbound Train (part 1) |
| Pink Floyd |
Shine On You Crazy Diamond |
| Savoy Brown |
Hellbound Train (part 2) |
| Edgar Winter |
Frankenstein (excerpt) |
| Gino Vanelli |
Mama Coco |
| Edgar Winter |
Frankenstein |
They Only Come Out at Night. And with the outfits and haircuts they’re sporting on the album cover, you can understand why. The Edgar Winter Group, available in quadrophonic at the time which was 1972, which explains the outfits and haircuts. That was originally titled, “The Double Drum Solo” but that got changed to “Frankenstein” because the song was assembled from parts of different takes of a longer composition. And they weren’t working with ProTools either. This was back in the day when they were cutting magnetic tape with razor blades, strips of tape draped all around the studio which they then had to physically rearrange and splice back together with adhesive tape, hence the Frankenstein reference. That’s got everything but a bolt in its neck. I read somewhere that it’s the second most popular rock instrumental behind Booker T and the MG’s “Green Onions.” Earlier we took the famous synthesizer part from the end of the song to come out of the abrupt conclusion of Savoy Brown’s “Hellbound Train,” which we bifurcated in order to slip in several parts of Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.”
And the synthesizer-driven “Mama Coco” was Gino Vannelli and his brother Joe from the album Storm at Sunup. At the top, Pink Floyd again, this time with guest lead vocal by Roy Harper who stepped in after Roger Waters strained his vocal chords doing “Shine on You Crazy Diamond.” Anyway, wishing you were here having a cigar in the Way Back Studios, I’m Bill Fitzhugh, thanks for listening. We’ve got the set lists and show commentaries, along with all those scandalous photos posted at billfitzhugh.com and you can also track me down on Facebook and Amazon. You might be surprised at what you find. I’ll be back with another batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl next time and I hope you can join us, right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 67 |
Lemme ask you a question. Have you ever wondered what The U.S. Copyright Act of 1909 has to do with many of your favorite songs? Well, today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl is happy to provide the answer. It all starts with a one-chord blues, a riff that Cub Koda said launched a million other songs. It also launched a lawsuit forty-three years after the original song was recorded. That song was “Boogie Chillen” by a guy out of Clarksdale, Mississippi, name of John Lee Hooker. The lawsuit was known as La Cienega v. ZZ Top. Here’s the background: Hooker first recorded “Boogie Chillen,” in 1948. He did it again in 1950, and again in 1970 with Canned Heat. Hooker and his partner, Bernard Besman, formed the publishing company La Cienega Music, but they relied on state common law copyright to protect the composition instead of complying with the requirements of the Copyright Act of 1909. Now, ZZ Top released “La Grange” in 1973. Hooker and Besman eventually filed suit in the Central District Court of California, claiming “La Grange” was too similar to “Boogie Chillen” and they were owed royalties.
However, the original case and subsequent hearings before the California Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ended up not even dealing with the issue of whether “La Grange” was derived from “Boogie Chillen” (which it obviously was). But rather whether “Boogie Chillen” had already fallen into the public domain when ZZ Top did their deriving. All of that hinged on the failure by Congress in 1909 to define what exactly constituted ‘publication’ of a song. And, perhaps more importantly, Besman’s failure to renew the song’s copyright for a second 28 years (which he could have done) thus making the whole thing a moot point. So with that, let’s step out of the Way Back Studios and head on down to Hastings Street and Henry’s Swing Club, see what all the fuss is about.
|
| John Lee Hooker |
Boogie Chillen (part 1) |
| Van Morrison |
Boogie Chillen (part 1) |
| ZZ Top |
La Grange (part 1) |
| Rolling Stones |
Shake Your Hips |
| ZZ Top |
La Grange (part 2) |
| Canned Heat |
Woodstock Boogie |
| Norman Greenbaum |
Spirit in the Sky |
| Canned Heat |
Fried Hockey Boogie (excerpt) |
| Foghat |
Chateau Lafitte Boogie (excerpt) |
| Van Morrison |
Boogie Chillen (part 2) |
| John Lee Hooker |
Boogie Chillen (part 2) |
As I mentioned at the top of the show, “Boogie Chillen” was at the center of a lawsuit in the 1990s when John Lee Hooker and his partner, Bernard Besman, sued ZZ Top claiming “La Grange” violated their copyright. Six years later, as a result of the lawsuit, Congress passed several amendments to the Copyright Act of 1909 which effectively overturned the original decision (which had been in ZZ Top’s favor) after which Hooker and Besman settled for the always popular undisclosed amount. Now, according to All Music Guide, there are 138 versions of “Boogie Chillen” – but that’s only the number of songs that used the original title. As we just heard, there’s no shortage of bands that took the basic riff, added some lyrics, and called it their own.
For example, we heard part of Canned Heat’s “Woodstock Boogie” and their “Fried Hockey Boogie,” neither of which gives credit to John Lee Hooker. We also heard the part of Foghat’s “Chateau LaFitte Boogie” where they break into Hooker’s riff like they owned it. One question that remains is why they didn’t sue Slim Harpo or a lot of other artists. As we just heard, The Rolling Stones covered Slim Harpo’s “Shake Your Hips” and they made it sound even more like Hooker than Harpo had. And there were lots of other songs that might have prompted an attorney to file suit. Among those that derive from Hooker’s original composition, is Junior Parker’s “Feelin’ Good,” Sammy Lewis’s “Feel So Worried,” and Slim Green and the Cats from Fresno with the “Old Folks Boogie.” (Which is not the same as the Little Feat song.) And, as we heard in the middle of the set, Hooker’s riff even shows up in Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit In the Sky.” Well, the list goes on from Hastings Street to Henry’s Swing Club to The Way Back Studios but we’re outta time and we gotta boogie. I’m Bill Fitzhugh, thanks for listening. I’ll be back with another batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl next time right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 68 |
When you turned on the radio in the early Sixties, you weren’t going to hear a lot of international influence in the music. Things were All American back then. In a typical twenty minutes you might hear Elvis, The Four Seasons, Johnny Mathis, Brenda Lee, Chubby Checker, and Neil Sedaka. That’s what the Top Forty sounded like. But then, in November of 1962, along came Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass with their first big hit, “The Lonely Bull.” Over the next five years, they landed thirteen songs in the Top 40, all of them with, what must have seemed at the time, that exotic south-of-the-border sound. They even made “Zorba The Greek” sound like he was from Guadalajara.
Two years later, Stan Getz jumped on board with his Top Five bossa nova hit, “The Girl from Ipanema.” And a couple of year later, Sergio Mendez and Brazil ’66 joined the crowd. After that, you weren’t surprised when you turned on the radio and heard the Baja Marimba Band, Hugh Masakela, or Ray Barretto. And when FM radio came along, we got our Latin rhythms from Santana, War, Osibisa, and Malo. Well, today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl got its start when I was listening to The Mongo Santamaria Band’s cover of Hancock’s “Watermelon Man.” That led me to another jazz composition, also done in a Latin style. The group El Chicano had a big hit with a version of Gerald Wilson’s “Viva Tirado.” From there I just let the congas and bongos take us from one country to another and from one song to the next. Rhythms from South America, Africa, and Cuba. Bits of tangos and rumbas. Mambos and salsas. And loads of batucada. And somehow in the middle we end up with Leonard Cohen and Roxy Music, but the beat went on. A sultry Latin mood pushed by that tumbao rhythm. So, “Oye Como Va,” as they say. Listen how it goes, this rhythm’s good for dancing.
|
| Mongo Santamaria |
Watermellon Man |
| Paul Simon |
Further To Fly |
| Leonard Cohen |
Here It Is |
| Roxy Music |
My Only Love |
| El Chicano |
Viva Tirado |
| Santana |
Oye Como Va |
If that on line encyclopedia can be believed, the opening line of “Oye Como Va,” literally means, listen how it goes. But colloquially it’s more like, ‘Hey, check it out.” This rhythm’s good for dancing, or something along those lines. That classic track is a great example of musical recycling. Santana covering the late Tito Puente’s composition which I’m led to believe is actually a rewrite of another tune composed and recorded in the 1930s. Before that, more recycling. From 1970, the group El Chicano, formerly the VIPs, with their cover of Gerald Wilson’s “Viva Tirado” which, thirty years later, ended up as the basis for Kid Frost’s Chicano rap single, “La Raza.” At the top, all the way from Havana, we heard Mongo Santamaria who played with Tito Puente, Perez Prado, and many others. Here he covered Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man,” a song Herbie recorded on his first solo album. Paul Simon after that with another serving from his international sampler platter, this time with all that Brazilian percussion, that batucada, from Rhythm of the Saints, a track called “Further to Fly” featuring Ringo Starr on guitar of all things.
That led us into Leonard Cohen’s moody little samba, or tango or whatever it was from the album, Ten New Songs. This one called, “Here It Is.” And there was something about the mood of that song that led me to Roxy Music and the one tune in the set that got in on mood alone, a track called “My Only Love” from the album Flesh and Blood. And now it’s time to gather my bongos and congas and rumba on out of here. By the way, if you’re just dying to find out more, it’s all on my website and the Facebook pages and Amazon, so be sure to stop by next time you’re surfing around. From the Way Back Studios, I’m Bill Fitzhugh back sooner or later with another batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl and I hope you’ll join us, right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 69 |
There’s a two-way street leading to the Way Back Studios. A digital drive, paved with e-mail and I figured now was as good a time as any for shoutin’ back to the likes of Gary standing on a corner in Patagonia, Arizona, Ian in Canada who grooved on one of our Latin sets, and Steve in Las Vegas who keeps buying records no matter what Jo says. There’s Dave somewhere in Southern California, Neil in Indianapolis, and Andrew of the Deep South Radio Hour. We heard from Sneaky Pete’s pal, Lisa, Blake who enjoyed our Reefer Madness set, and Denise who swears she’s just another slave to rock and roll. Then there’s Steve in Illinois and Tim Crowe who both read “Pest Control” and got all my Bob Dillon jokes. Kevin’s listening in Hartford, Connecticut, Artie and Mary are sitting on the patio in Texas, I think, and Ron in the Netherlands listening on line. And let’s not forget Sweet as Pie Peggy down in Baton Rouge and Brenda at Johns Hopkins Dept of Neurosurgery where they don’t have any rocket scientists, just brain surgeons. There’s Lenny in Lake Mary, Florida, and the Reverend Mark Christian who swears he listens to the show religiously. Well, amen to that.
Every now and then I even get suggestions for segues. Scott in Cleveland always has good ideas, Michael delivered one we did with Wings and Rocky Horror, and my pal Kim at U.S. Fish and Wildlife? She’s the one who had the idea about Traffic and Leon Russell that turned out so good. Now, the suggestion that got me started on today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl comes from my friend Steve Larson. It’s a segue he used to do at KBPI-FM in Denver involving a riff that Deep Purple admittedly stole from It’s a Beautiful Day. After that we’ve got a Deep Track from Audience and an instrumental from Van the Man. But we’ll start with a little sorcery. Steeleye Span’s version of an English folk tune about the ugliest witch in the North Country. And as long as were singing about women with special powers, we’ll hear Donovan’s perplexing package of provocative paranoia from 1966. I keep waiting for some rapper to do a cover version of the song, probably call it, “Season of the we-atch.” Here’s Mr. Leitch.
|
| Donovan |
Season of the Witch |
| Steeleye Span |
Allison Gross |
| It's a Beautiful Day |
Bombay Calling |
| Deep Purple |
Child In Time (edit) |
| Audience |
Buy Me An Island |
| Van Morrison |
Instrumental |
If you’re looking at your radio for the song title and it says “Instrumental” and you’re thinking, duh, I can hear it’s an instrumental, what’s it called? It’s called “Instrumental.” Van Morrison with Georgie Fame and the boys from Too Long in Exile. Before that, going deep into the tracks, that was Audience swinging in the coconut trees and swimming in the sea. From their album Lunch, a track called “Buy me an Island.” Before that, testing the limits of heavy metal excess, and plagarism, we heard a part of Deep Purple’s “Child in Time.” According to the liner notes from one of their greatest hits collections, Deep Purple stole that organ riff from It’s a Beautiful Day’s “Bombay Calling” which explains why we heard that just before the purple. A segue I got from my pal Seattle Steve Larson. It turns out that organ riff wasn’t the only thing Deep Purple took from David LaFlamme’s Bay Area band. The instrumental line for Deep Purple’s “Wring That Neck” was, as they say, borrowed from It’s a Beautiful Day’s “Don and Dewey.”
At the top of the set we got all folked up with some Scottish and English troubadourism, starting with Donovan’s “Season of the Witch” followed by a traditional English folk tune about the ugliest witch in the north country, “Alison Gross.” Steeleye Span from 1973 and their album Parcel of Rogues. And, just so you know, if you’re looking for the set lists or the show commentaries I’ve got posted on my website, billfitzhugh.com along with lots of naughty photos and the truth behind all the rumors. And don’t forget, the beatniks are out to make it rich, the rabbits are running in the ditch, and you’ve got to pick up every stitch here in the Way Back Studios. We like to keep it neat. I’m Bill Fitzhugh, thanks for listening. I’ll be back again next time with another batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl and I hope you can join us, right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 70 |
As you know every now and then we’ll take a closer look at one of the many subgenres of music that make up this vast library we call the Deep Tracks. And with that in mind, we’re gonna put the spotlight on the country side of album rock featuring Way Back Studio favorites like the Outlaws from their debut album. We’ll also hear some of Rusty Young’s steel guitar with Poco featuring Timothy B. Schmidt before he flew over to join the Eagles. Steve Stills and Manassas give us one that’s as country as they ever sounded and Jonathan Edwards delivers a beauty called “Don’t Cry Blue.” But you’ll have to wait because that’s that’s all in the second half of the set. First, let’s go back to somewhere around 1970 when Leon Russell hooked up with Denny Cordell to form Shelter Records. I don’t know who their A&R guy was, for all I know it was just Denny and Leon. But whoever it was, was good at the job. Along with Leon’s early records, Shelter released albums by Tom Petty, J.J. Cale, Dwight Twilly, Willis Alan Ramsey, Jim Horn, and the group that got us started on today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl: Richard Torrance and Eureka.
Their second release on Shelter was called Belle of the Ball, came out in 1975. Among the many great tracks on the album is one called “Singing Springs” and I swear it sounds like it might have come from a Doobie Brothers album, say Stampede, which features the song “Neil’s Fandango” which sounds like a continuation of “Singing Springs” which explains why we put the two of ‘em back-to-back. Now, by coincidence, one of the guest artists on the Stampede album was Ry Cooder, a guy who’s been described as an acoustic instrument fetishist, and I think in the positive sense of the phrase. We’ll hear Ry’s “Great Dreams From Heaven” from his fine album Into the Purple Valley. But first, here’s a One Man Dog, sweet baby James Taylor, “Back on the Street Again.”
|
| James Taylor |
Back on the Street Again |
| Ry Cooder |
Great Dreams From Heaven |
| Richard Torrance and Eureka |
Singing Springs |
| Doobie Brothers |
Neil's Fandango |
| Outlaws |
Stay With Me |
| Poco |
Another Time Around |
| Manassas |
Don't Look At My Shadow |
| Jonathan Edwards |
Don't Cry Blue |
That’s Jonathan Edwards from his debut album in 1971, a record remembered mainly for the big hit, “Sunshine” which is a shame because the entire album is an absolutely great mix of singer-songwriter, folk and country stuff. Another album like that, but twice as long is Manassas, the rare two-record set that was brilliant from top to bottom. Song-for-song, I think it’s better than Chicago’s first two albums which are two of my favorites. In fact, for my money, that first Manassas record holds up as well or better than Exile on Main Street, Layla, The White Album, or any other two record set you care to name. Each side of the album had a theme and a title. Here we heard “Don’t Look at My Shadow” which comes from side two, the country side, which was called The Wilderness. Before that we went “Another Time Around” with Poco, from the album Cantamos.
In the middle of the set, we did a little musical juxtaposition to show the similarities between Richard Torrance and Eureka’s “Singing Springs” and “Neil’s Fandango” from the Doobie Brothers. We followed that with the Eagles-like harmonies and shimmering guitars of The Outlaws from their great debut album, a great country rock sing-along called “Stay With Me.” At the top of the set, James Taylor from an album recorded mostly in his home studio, One Man Dog, we heard “Back On The Street Again,” followed by that beautiful instrumental “Great Dreams From Heaven” from Ry Cooder’s Into The Purple Valley. Well, like Mr. Edwards said, The highway’s just a two lane road, connected either way, and I’ve seen enough of this end for a while. If you want to see the other end, drop by my website or track me down on Amazon or Facebook and see what there is to see. I’m Bill Fitzhugh. Thanks for listening. I’ll be back another time around with a fresh batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl and I hope you’ll join us, right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 71 |
We have rules here in the Way Back Studios. We also have exceptions to those rules. More about that in a minute. A few years ago, after long, thoughtful deliberation and a couple of drinks, I reached the conclusion that the music commonly referred to as Classic Rock originated (more-or-less) between 1964 and 1977, roughly from the time of the Beatles first appearance on Ed Sullivan to the Band’s Last Waltz. For more on that you can read my novel Radio Activity. A little over a decade of music derived from previous decades and previous generations and distinct from what was to come. Around 1977 this era of classic rock began evolving into corporate arena rock while simultaneously being displaced or influenced by punk, new wave, and disco.
As far as I’m concerned, “Classic rock” – in the common use of the phrase – is the music recorded during that time frame by the generation of artists born in the 1940's: Lennon and McCartney, Jagger and Richards, Page and Plant – that generation. Musicians who grew up listening to and expanding on the music of two previous generations, the blues men born after the turn of the century, guys like Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters and the generation of rock and roll originators who were born in the 1930's: guys like Elvis, Duane Eddy, Little Richard, and Jerry Lee Lewis. Regular visitors to the Way Back Studios know that we usually stay within the confines of this definition of classic rock. And that brings us back to what I mentioned at the top because today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl is all about the exceptions to the rules. We don’t usually stray into the mid 80s but here we go. 1985 and 86 saw new albums by Steve Winwood, James Brown, Eric Clapton, and The Pretenders. Of course you can make a good argument that the Pretenders don’t qualify as classic rock artists since they debuted in 1980 and their music was quasi-punk and new wave pop but Chrissie Hynde had all the swagger of Jagger so, for her, we’ll make an exception. The final exception in this set is a group called Guadalcanal Diary who debuted in 1983. Here, they’ll take a riff from the Beatles “I Call Your Name” and turn it into the Fear of God.
|
| Guadalcanal Diary |
Fear of God (part 1) |
| Eric Clapton |
It All Depends |
| James Brown |
How Do You Stop? |
| Pretenders |
Hymn To Her |
| Steve Winwood |
The Finer Things |
| Guadalcanal Diary |
Fear of God (part 2) |
| The Beatles |
I Call Your Name |
Completing a rare set from the mid 1980's, that's Guadalcanal Diary, a band out of Marietta, Georgia. We took a track called Fear of God and broke it in half to bookend the set of exceptions to the rules. And yes, that opening guitar lick comes from the Beatles I Call Your Name, a great segue waiting to happen some other time. Before that, the other relative youngster in the set, thirty-five year old Chrissie Hynde at the time, from the Pretenders album, Get Close and the song, Hymn to Her. That's h-y-m-n, hymn to her.
In the middle of the set, proving this music's not always a young man's game, we heard from James Brown who was near sixty when he recorded his album Gravity produced by Dan Hartman who, as it turned out did some background vocal work on forty year old Steve Winwood's album, Back in the Highlife from which we heard The Finer Things. And in that tangled web we so often weave, that was Steve Winwood playing synthesizer on the James Brown track How Do You Stop?
Elsewhere in the set, forty-something year old Eric Clapton, produced by thirty-something Phil Collins back in 85, the album Behind The Sun, the track It All Depends with Chris Stainton and Peter Robinson doubling up on synthesizers to sound a lot like . . . Steve Winwood. And that concludes our set of exceptions to the rules of the Way Back Studios. I'm Bill Fitzhugh, rooting through the shallower end of the Deep Tracks. Thanks for listening, I'll be back next time with something else all together right here, on XM 40.
|
| Segment 72 |
As far as I know, the only song written by Duane Allman and recorded by the Allman Brothers Band was “Little Martha” the 2:08 acoustic gem from Eat A Peach that Duane wrote and recorded shortly before his death. Leo Kottke called it the most perfect guitar song ever written. Well, today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl takes its cue from this beautiful acoustic duet and features eleven other tracks that are all about the acoustic guitar. We’ll hear some other little acoustic gems, in the form of instrumentals from Buckingham Nicks, Cheryl Dilcher, and the aforementioned Leo Kottke among others and we’ll mix them with a few vocals from Simon and Garfunkle, James Taylor, and the Doobie Brothers.
But back to Little Martha for a second. The story goes that Duane had a dream where Jimi Hendrix showed him the tune’s melody in the bathroom of a Holiday Inn, using the sink’s faucet as a fret board. Duane Allman and Barry Oakley are buried side-by-side in the Carnation Ridge section of Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia. The band members spent a lot of time at the cemetery back in the day, sometimes playing music, sometimes engaged in other activities. It’s also where they found titles for at least two of their songs. “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” and “Little Martha,” named for twelve year old Martha Ellis who died in the 1800s and whose grave is topped by a statue of a little girl. Like Elizabeth Reed, Little Martha is named for one person but is actually about someone else. Allman is said to have written the tune for his girlfriend at the time, woman by the name Dixie Meadows. If there’s a prettier song in all of the Deep Tracks, I can’t think of it. Here’s “Little Martha.”
|
| Allman Brothers |
Little Martha |
| James Taylor |
You Can Close Your Eyes |
| Simon & Garfunkle |
Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall |
| Jefferson Airplane |
Embryonic Journey |
| Buckingham Nicks |
Stephanie |
| Doobie Brothers |
Slat Key Soquel Rag |
| Cheryl Dilcher |
Butterfly |
| Leo Kottke |
Can't Quite Put It Into Words |
| Paul Simon |
Duncan |
| Doobie Brothers |
Toulouse Street |
| America |
Don't Cross the River |
That’s America from their album Homecoming with “Don’t Cross The River.” Before that, one of the two Doobies in that set, the title track from Toulouse Street. Earlier we heard their instrumental, “Slat Key Soquel Rag” tucked into the instrumental portion of our program where we also heard “Stephanie” from Buckingham Nicks and “Butterfly” from Cheryl Dilcher. After that, one of the finest fingerpickers in the pack, Mr. Leo Kottke doing one called “Can’t Quite Put It Into Words” which wins the award for best title for an instrumental. After that, we heard the Paul Simon classic, “Duncan.” We started the set with the Allman Brothers’ “Little Martha” followed by James Taylor doing a pretty little song called “You Can Close Your Eyes.”
Elsewhere, another instrumental, “Embryonic Journey” from Jefferson Airplane a song that makes me think of early Simon and Garfunkle every time I hear it and I dare say that’s the only song by Jefferson Airplane that does so. That’s Jorma Kaukonen bringing his peerless playing to the platter. Now I found a couple of Simon and Garfunkle tracks that worked with “Embryonic Journey” including, “Kathy’s Song” but I settled on “Flowers Never Bend With the Rainfall” from the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and wouldn’t you know it, we’re all out of Thyme. I’m Bill Fitzhugh, thanks for listening. We’ve got all the set lists and show commentaries posted on my website in case you’re trying to remember the name of that song you liked so much, so drop by and poke around billfitzhugh.com. While you’re doing that, I’ll be here in the Way Back Studios cooking up a fresh of All Hand Mixed Vinyl for next time, when I hope you’ll join us right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 73 |
In the time it takes to listen to today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl, the average person could walk a mile in my shoes. Or walk a mile for a camel. And by mile I mean the statute mile: 5280 feet, not to be confused with the nautical mile which varies in length but on average is just over six thousand feet. And I’m not talking about the Roman mile either, which was exactly five thousand feet, or the 6720 foot Irish mile or the Scottish mile, which weighs in at 5928 feet and is also known as the Royal Mile. The mile we’ve come to know and love originated by statute of the English parliament in 1592. So you’re probably asking yourself: How the hell’d they come up with 5280 feet? Well, 415 years ago somebody thought it made sense to have the mile be the length of eight furlongs. A furlong being the length of ten surveyors chains, each of which is 22 yards long (which is also the length of a cricket pitch, and probably without coincidence or simple explanation). So twenty-two times ten, times three, times eight, equals 5280 feet. That’s the how, don’t ask me the why.
In any event, the basis for today’s set was laid down forty years ago and roughly sixteen hundred statute miles (as the crow flies) from where I sit here in the Way Back Studios, on the dusty fringes of Los Angeles. A guy by the name of Bruce Owen at WJDX-FM, did a segue involving the Who and the Byrds. He simply overlapped the drum and guitar lick at the very end of “Eight Miles High” and the similar lick that opens “I Can See For Miles.” Not only do the songs go together musically, there’s the added benefit of thematic unity. From there, I just rooted through the Deep Tracks for some other songs with similar characteristics and we ended up with a set that’s 2,608 miles away from nowhere that somehow takes us from Peter, Paul, and Mary to the Who in an orderly fashion. How? Well, to paraphrase Confucius: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single song by Hedy West.
|
| Peter, Paul, and Mary |
500 Miles |
| Cat Stevens |
Miles From Nowhere |
| James Taylor |
Nothing Like a Hundred Miles |
| Pretenders |
2000 Miles |
| Fleetwood Mac |
Miles Away |
| The Byrds |
Eight Miles High |
| The Who |
I Can See For Miles |
In 1965 the British government started a program to make all their road signs metric – but the program was put on hold a few years later and never started again. And that’s a good thing. I mean who’s going to sing along with “I Can See for Kilometers”? We just heard the Who from The Who Sell Out. Before that, the Byrds with “8 Miles High” which, in the metric system, would be 12.874 kilometers high, which just doesn’t work for the song. The story behind the song is that while the Byrds were on tour in England, Gene Clark, who suffered from aviophobia, asked Roger McGuinn about their plane’s altitude. Roger said they were probably seven miles high. But when they wrote the song they opted to take the plane up to 42,000 feet, as eight miles high scanned better. It was the Byrd’s last top 20 single, peaking at #14, and it probably would have gone higher but for the hysteria spurred by knuckleheaded radio programmers who caved in to pressure not to play the song because of its alleged celebration of drug use. Roger McGuinn has said that his guitar work in the song, especially the introductory solo, was inspired by John Coltrane’s sax work on the song “India” from Live at the Village Vanguard.
At the top of the set, Peter, Paul, and Mary with “500 Miles,” from their debut in 1962. After that, Cat Stevens took us “Miles From Nowhere,” at which point we ran into the Walking Man himself, James Taylor, explaining how there’s nothin’ like puttin’ a hundred miles between you and whoever breaks your heart. Then we went another “2000 Miles” with the Pretenders, followed by Fleetwood Mac doing “Miles Away” at which point we’d reached the end of the road for today’s show, with miles to go before we sleep here in the Way Back Studios. And remember it’s less than a mile to my website where we keep all the set lists and show commentaries, so drop by billfitzhugh.com and poke around. I’m Bill Fitzhugh, thanks for listening. I’ll be back next time with a fresh batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl and I hope you’ll join us, right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 74 |
They said all you need is love. Maybe that’s true. But even if that’s all you need, it’s not all you get. Love’s a powerful force and one to be reckoned with but it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. In the same way that up has no meaning without down, that white makes no sense without black, and left doesn’t exist unless there’s right. You can’t have love without having hate. I suspect it’s what Freud was writing about in: “Antithetical Meanings of Primary Words.” But I never read it so I can’t say for sure. In a metaphorical way, we can apply the laws of physics. For every action there’s an equal and opposite RE-action. Let’s call that Newton’s Third Law of E-Motion. Love and hate are opposite sides of the same coin. It’s like William Congreve said, “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned.” And that was back in 1697 so this ain’t exactly a new idea.
Now if it’s true that songs are the sounds that emotions make, how come love songs outnumber songs of hate? My guess is the reason there are more love songs is because songwriters are such a romantic lot. They see relationships through rose colored glasses and they wear their hearts on their sleeves. And even when they acknowledge the negative side of love, it’s usually with self-pity, me and my broken heart, poor poor pitiful me. Well, self-pity’s one way to respond to having your heart broken, but it’s not the only way. And today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl takes a look at the alternative. It’s a set for anyone who’s had a broken heart and got pissed off about it. And while there aren’t nearly as many hate songs as there are love songs, there are still too many to fit in one set. We had to leave out the J. Geils classic. Been through diamonds, been through minks, been through it all. Love stinks. And while Lou Reed’s “Vicious” would have worked, turns out somebody stole my copy of Transformer, otherwise we’d have heard Lou suggesting his former flame should just swallow some razor blades. All you need is love? Here’s Kip Addotta.
|
| Kip Addotta |
Separation |
| Persuaders |
Thin Line Between Love and Hate |
| Loudon Wainwright III |
Whatever Happened to Us? |
| Tonio K. |
H-A-T-R-E-D |
| The Kinks |
Hatred (a Duet) |
| Harry Nilsson |
You're Breaking My Heart |
| Jimi Hendrix |
Hey Joe |
| Pretenders |
Thin Line Between Love and Hate |
Wrapping up a hateful little head-time theme-trip, that’s Chrissie Hynde explaining how the sweetest woman in the world can be the meanest woman in the world, if you make her that way. And what’s the other line in that song? Action speaks louder than words? Well in addition to the two versions of “Thin Line Between Love and Hate” we heard about Joe, taking some action with that gun in his hand. That’s just one of the ugly outcomes that’s possible when affairs of the heart crash and burn. Of course as Harry Nilsson showed, you don’t have to shoot anybody to show that you’re pissed off. You can just curse at ‘em the way does in “You’re Breaking My Heart.” That’s from his album, Son of Schmillson, which reminds me of the title of a Spooky Tooth album: “You broke my heart so I busted your jaw.” Somewhere in the middle Tonio K from his debut album, Life In The Foodchain, we heard my all-time favorite pissed-off-ex-lover-song: “H-A-T-R-E-D”. The line in there about Jackson Browne and “Fountain of Sorrow” is priceless.
The Kinks were in there too with “Hatred (a Duet)” -- “Why don’t you just drop dead and don’t recover? You hate me and I hate you. So at least we understand each other.” A couple of comedians in there as well, at the very top we heard Kip Addotta with a bit called “Separation” from his album “I Hope I’m Not Out of Line” and that was Loudon Wainwright III explaining how they used to be in love but now they are in hate, she used to say he came to early but turns out she’s the one came too late. Well, much as I hate to say it, we’re all out of time. Thanks for listening, I’m Bill Fitzhugh and you can track me down on Amazon or Facebook or my website, billfitzhugh.com. Otherwise, just stick around and I’ll be back with a fresh batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl sooner or later, and I hope you’ll join us, right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 75 |
Not long ago I told a story about a Dave Mason concert that I never made it to thanks to the work of a vigilant Highway Patrolman. Well, it turns out I’m not the only one with a tale to tell about a show they planned to attend before life intervened. To my surprise, the police were involved in only one of these stories. So you’re probably wondering what else could keep a true rock and roll fan from seeing their favorite artist? Well, today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl has the answer. I’ve got tales of hurricanes, funerals, and parents, specifically Richard’s mom down in Plantation, Florida and Craig’s folks in New Jersey. More about them later.
First let’s return to 1969. John and Cathy were dating and decided to hitchhike from Buffalo down to the Atlantic City Pop Festival. First three days of August, a couple of weeks before Woodstock. On the bill: Joni Mitchell, Frank Zappa, Three Dog Night, Johnny Winter, and a dozen other major acts. John and Cathy got to Atlantic City with two rides. The way John remembers it, there was a hurricane watch in effect when they arrived. Doing a little research, I found out it was actually Tropical Storm Anna, but the guy who gave them the ride to Atlantic City talked it up like it was a Category 5 hurricane. Still, instead of fleeing the city, John and Cathy got a room in a boarding house and panhandled on the boardwalk to stay fed. A few days later, having never set foot on the festival grounds, they were hitchhiking back to Buffalo when a limo pulled over and offered a ride. Inside was the Grease Band, Joe Cocker’s backup group. They took John and Cathy to breakfast, then drove ‘em all the way to New York City. By the way, John and Cathy have been married now for 37 years. As a side note, John admits that one time he missed a Yardbirds show because he was siting in the parking lot of the venue, so goofy he couldn’t figure out how to get into the building.
I’ll tell you about Richard, Craig, and Heidi after the show. Right now, just imagine a giant rotating stage with one band following another, like a lazy Susan of rock and roll. From the Way Back Studios, here’s another All Hand Mixed Vinyl Concert.
|
| Climax Blues Band |
You Make Me Sick |
| Grateful Dead |
Big Boss Man |
| Three Dog Night |
Eli's Coming |
| Rolling Stones |
Street Fighting Man |
| Johnny Winter |
Good Morning Little School Girl |
| Frank Zappa |
Big Leg Emma |
| Joni Mitchell |
Carey |
Joni Mitchell wrapping up another Hand Mixed Vinyl concert with “Carey” from Miles of Aisles. We also heard some Zappa, Johnny Winter, and Three Dog Night Live at the Forum. We started the set with the Climax Blues Band followed by the Grateful Dead doing “Big Boss Man.” And that’s for Heidi who sent an email about a show she missed back in 1995. She was supposed to celebrate Father’s Day at Giant’s Stadium with her dad and the Grateful Dead. Sadly, Heidi’s grandfather passed away the Friday before the show. The funeral was on Sunday, the day of the concert. So she missed it, the concert, not the funeral. Making matters worse, Jerry Garcia passed on six weeks later. So Heidi missed her last chance to see Jerry with the band.
In the middle of the set, the Stones from Get Yer Ya Yas Out, which brings us to Richard’s story. A high school junior in Massapequa, NY in 1972. Sitting in class one day, filling out postcards for a lottery, hoping to get tickets to a Stones show at Madison Square Garden. He mailed in a fistful of the cards and didn’t think about it again until later that summer, while he was in Ithaca, taking some classes presumably because he wasn’t paying attention that day he was filling out the postcards. Anyway, Richard’s on the phone with mom when he asked if he’d gotten any mail while he’d been gone. She said, “Yeah, you got something about some concert tickets.” Arrggh. It’s enough to give a Stones fan 19 Nervous Breakdowns. Turns out she didn’t mention it because she didn’t think Richard would be able to get down to the city from Ithaca, figured there was no point in bringing it up.
And finally, there’s Craig from New Jersey who says he missed Lynyrd Skynyrd opening for The Who because he’d been grounded for “getting in trouble with the law.” Well that covers a lot of ground but we’re out of time so we’ll have to pick up with Craig’s sordid life next time. If you’ve got a concert story to tell, send me an email and I’ll share it with the class. I’m Bill Fitzhugh and you can find the set lists, show commentaries, and my email address at billfitzhugh.com. I’ll be back next time with another batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl and I hope you’ll join us, right here n the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 76 |
I believe it was St. Matthew, chapter 7, verse 7 who said, “Ask and it shall be given to you.” Now I never thought that would apply here in the Way Back Studios, but today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl just goes to show you never know. See, not long ago I asked everyone with a favorite old segue or with an idea for a new one to drop me line. Much to my surprise, I heard from Rick, Steven, Kimberly, Jeff, Frank, Beth, and Michael, all scattered around the Sirius-XM Nation, from Oregon, Michigan, Georgia, and places that went unnamed. Between cranking out the tax returns, Scott in Cleveland has LOTS of good ideas, mostly involving at least one record I don’t have in my spotty little record collection, but I’m working on it, so keep those ideas and tax returns coming.
Fortunately I had the albums necessary for two other ideas that came in, though I bet the first one’s not done the way its author intended. In his email Michael said, “there’s a dialogue portion in Wing’s ‘Rock Show’ about halfway through that I’m almost certain would segue with the dialogue part of “Time Warp” from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Well, I tried it and couldn’t make it work, maybe I was doing it wrong. But I found another way to mix the two songs that works just fine so that’s what we’ll hear. After that, we’ve got a nice mix idea from our buddy Kim at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She said she was wading through the Deep Tracks one day when she heard Leon Russell’s “Prince of Peace” and that made her think of Traffic’s “Medicated Goo.” She thought the two might make for a nice segue and sure enough, it’s a beauty. I put Kim’s and Michael’s mixes together but still came up a little short on time so I went fishing for something to fit at one end or the other and again much to my surprise, ended up with three guys with acoustic guitars, starting with the great, Michael Gulezian. From Unspoken Intentions, here’s “20 Park Avenue.”
|
| Michael Gulezian |
20 Park Avenue |
| Taj Mahal |
Country Blues Number 1 |
| Paul Simon |
Armistice Day |
| Wings |
Venus and Mars |
| Wings |
Rock Show (part 1) |
| Rocky Horror |
Time Warp |
| Wings |
Rock Show (part 2) |
| Traffic |
Medicated Goo (part 1) |
| Leon Russell |
Prince of Peace |
| Traffic |
Medicated Goo (part 2) |
There’s the Prince of Peace along with Pretty Polly Possum, Freaky Freddy Frolic, Aunty Franny Pricket and Uncle Lou, all helping themselves to a little bit of Traffic’s “Medicated Goo.” That’s a mix suggested by Kim down in Georgia. Before that my interpretation of an idea that came from an All Hand Mixed challenge sent by Michael who might be in Connecticut or may be down in Florida not far from Kim, he didn’t say. He did say he thought there might be a good segue involving Wings and Riff Raff, the character played by the mastermind behind the Rocky Horror Picture show, Richard O’Brien.
We heard the title track to “Venus and Mars” which segues on its own into “Rock Show” which has that false ending which is where we slipped into the “Time Warp” before returning to Wings for the exciting reprise. So a big Way Back Studio thanks to Kim and Michael for their contributions to today’s set which opened with that great acoustic guitar instrumental, “20 Park Avenue” by Michael Gulezian. After that, Henry St. Clair Fredericks, aka, Taj Mahal doing “Country Blues #1 .” We followed that with Paul Simon, grousing about his congressman in “Armistice Day.” Which really isn’t about the anniversary of the end of World War One so much as it’s about Paul being tired of waiting on his duly elected representative to show up and do something.
I’ve waited such a long time, I’ve about waited all I can here in the Way Back Studios which is another way of saying that, my friends, is all we have time for today. But tomorrow, let’s say you’re looking for the set lists and show commentaries, well, you can find ‘em posted on billfitzhugh.com along with some scandalous photos, the unsanitized biography, and various notions and sundries. I’m Bill Fitzhugh, thanks for listening. I’ll be back some day with another batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl and I hope you’ll join us, right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 77 |
Way back near the dawn of time, the cheapest way to have music in a bar was to put a jukebox in the corner. Somebody else provided the equipment and the customers payed by the song. Problem was all the silence between songs prevented any momentum from building up. But all that changed with the introduction of the club deejay. And today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl is dedicated to one of the pioneers in the field, a guy outta Brooklyn by the name of Francis Grasso. He’s credited with inventing what’s called the slip cue. He’s also thought to be the first deejay to beat-match records, seamlessly mixing from one song to another. Now, that was easy during the disco era, when deejays categorized their records by beats per minute. But before the simple beat of disco, Grasso was working with increasingly complicated rock albums whose tracks weren’t so easy to blend. He was famous for playing two songs simultaneously for long stretches. From what I’ve read, it was around 1969 that Grasso came up with his most famous mix where he took the percussion break from Chicago’s “I’m a Man” and laid it over the psychedelic mid section of Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love.’
And that’s exactly what we’re gonna do, but with a little something extra because I found a way to break the two songs into five parts with the big overlap in the middle. Now since that’s only a total of thirteen minutes, I took a pair of previously assembled sets that, coincidentally, involve Zeppelin along with Grand Funk, and an excerpt from “Aqualung” to complete the set. But even then, we came up a few minutes short. Now, I suppose you could make the argument that I should just leave well enough alone, but I’d argue otherwise. And by argument I mean a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition, not just the automatic gainsaying of any statement another person makes, that’s just simple contradiction. Well, here I’ll let these guys explain.
|
| Monty Python |
The Argument Clinic |
| Led Zeppelin |
Living Loving Maid |
| Jethro Tull |
Aqualung (excerpt) |
| Grand Funk Railroad |
Aimless Lady |
| Led Zeppelin |
Good Times, Bad Times (part 1) |
| Led Zeppelin |
Whole Lotta Love (part 1) |
| Chicago Transit Authority |
I'm a Man (part 1) |
| Led Zeppelin |
Whole Lotta Love (part 2) |
| Chicago Transit Authority |
I'm a Man (part 2)[actually both Zeppelin and CTA] |
| Led Zeppelin |
Whole Lotta Love (part 3) |
| Led Zeppelin |
Good Times, Bad Times (part 2) |
That’s part two of “Good Times, Bad Times” one of three Zeppelin tracks in that set, all of which came from 1969, but from two different albums. Their debut was released in January of that year, featuring the song we just heard. Nine months after that was released, they dropped their second album which gave us “Living Loving Maid” which we heard near the top and “Whole Lotta Love” which we broke into three parts and mixed with Chicago Transit Authority’s “I’m a Man” broken in two. And we did all that in honor of the late, great New York club deejay, Francis Grasso, the guy who invented slip cueing and beat matching, the indispensable tools of the modern club deejay. The last thirteen minutes of that set is my variation of how Mr. Grasso used to mixed “I’m a Man” and “Whole Lotta Love” back in 1969 when he was deejay at night clubs like Haven and Sanctuary. There’s an entry on the All Music Guide website that gives Mr. Grasso his due, check that out for more details. Before all that we did a mix coming out of Grand Funk Railroad’s “Aimless Lady” and into Zeppelin’s “Good Times, Bad Times” using the identical drum beats.
We broke the Zeppelin in two, put the good times at the top, the bad times at the bottom. And why not? Earlier in the set, a segue I used to do back on the FM, going from the abrupt ending of “Living Loving Maid” into the middle part of “Aqualung.” And at the very top of the set, just for the funny of it, we heard Monty Python’s “Argument Clinic,” featuring the connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition such as: if you’re looking for the set lists or the show commentaries, you can drop by my website, billfitzhugh.com. I’m Bill Fitzhugh, thanks for listening. I’ll be back with a fresh batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl next time and I hope you can join us right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 78 |
I'm going to ask you a straightforward question: isn’t it true that you have, perhaps unwillingly, acquired a certain habit through association with certain undesirable people? That’s a line from Reefer Madness, the cult classic from 1936. A cautionary tale about innocent high school students lured into sampling the evil weed, a tragic mistake that leads invariably to hit-and-run driving, manslaughter, rape, suicide, and a gradual descent into madness. The sweet pill that makes life bitter, the film’s poster said. Women cry for it, men die for it. On the other hand, I understand it makes good rope and that rhymes with dope. [“Marijuana! Marijuana, Exhibit A.”]
Compared to Reefer Madness, today’s batch of All Hand Rolled Vinyl takes the alternative view on the subject. And it doesn’t matter if you’ve never smoked it in your life -- or if you did but you didn’t inhale. If you were listening to FM rock radio in its heyday, you can probably sing along with most of these songs. And by all means, feel free. And there’s no shortage of songs to choose from, in fact, due to time constraints we didn’t have room for some of our favorites like “I Got Stoned and I Missed It” and the rest of “Coming into Los Angeles.” And you know the chronic wasn’t just a popular subject for the rock and roll crowd. Those jazz guys got there first. Cab Calloway did “Reefer Man” in 1932, a good decade before any of the Classic Rock generation was even conceived. Fats Waller came out with “The Reefer Song” in 1943 the year Mick Jagger was born. We’re going to open and close the set with a funny little monologue that comes from Paul Davis’s album Southern Tracks and Fantasies, talking about the marijuana problem on the streets of Jackson, Mississippi. So from the Way Back Studios, light up or leave me alone, here’s a set that’s ghanja getcha.
|
| Paul Davis |
Magnolia Blues (spoken intro only) |
| Brewer & Shipley |
One Toke Over The Line |
| Jonathan Edwards |
Shanty |
| Jesse Winchester |
Twigs and Seeds |
| John Prine |
Illegal Smile |
| Fraternity of Man |
Don't Bogart Me |
| Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen |
Stems and Seeds Again Blues |
| New Lost City Ramblers |
Wildwood Weed |
| New Riders of the Purple Sage |
Panama Red |
| Little Feat |
Don't Bogart That Joint |
| Paul Davis |
Magnolia Blues (spoken outro only) |
She’s like a rainbow coming, colors in the air. Acapulco Gold. Angola black. Jersey green. Mexican brown. Tennessee blue. And of course Panama red. Doesn’t matter if you call ‘em left handed cigarettes or wacky tobaccy. That was a major cash crop of songs about the Wildwood Weed. Somewhere in that cloud of smoke we heard the New Lost City Rambler’s version of the Don Bowman/ Jim Stafford song with the happy ending. Those two guys sittin’ on that sack of seeds. Before that, Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen all of whom had a bad case of the Stems and Seeds again Blues, that’s from Deep In The Heart of Texas. Earlier in the set, Jesse Winchester had a similar complaint about how the twigs and seeds just don’t deliver the punch that the old head needs. We opened and closed with the spoken word intro and outro to “Magnolia Blues” where that feller’s talking about the police not being able to control the marijuana on the streets of my home town, Jackson, Mississippi. That’s from Southern Tracks and Fantasies, an album by the late Paul Davis.
We followed that with Brewer & Shipley’s classic, “One Toke Over the Line” followed by Jonathan Edwards from his great debut album. Fill it, light it, shut up, and close the door. Let’s lay around the shanty and put a good buzz on. From the soundtrack to Easy Rider we heard “Don’t Bogart Me” by the Fraternity of Man, with a reprise of the chorus courtesy of Little Feat. And John Prine was in there with that “Illegal Smile” of his, from his debut album in 1971. Well, I think the pipe’s about out and so is our time. Thanks for listening, I’m Bill Fitzhugh and you can read all about it at billfitzhugh.com or look for me on Amazon or your favorite social media site. Either way, I’ll be back with another batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl before you know it. [TOKE] And I hope you’ll join us, right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 79 |
Three things you can count on in this world. Death. Taxes. And today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl. A man I’ll call Scott G, back in Cleveland, was knee deep in both death and taxes one night as he prepared a decedent’s final tax return while listening to Deep Tracks. Speaking of death, the late Tommy Bolin came on with “Post Toastee” and somewhere in the song Scott thought he heard a possible segue with Dave Mason’s “Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave,” which sounds like the punch line to a tax joke. As you probably know, “Post Toastee” is a nine minute cautionary tale about the very thing that killed Tommy Bolin at the tender age of 25. He’s one of two artists in this set who died tragic early deaths, more about that later. Anyway, Scott sent an email about the idea and next time I was out here in the Way Back Studios, I got under the hood and looked at the thing. Turns out Scott was onto something.
“Post Toastee” breaks down into three parts, so my job was figuring out the hows and whens and wheres of merging two other tracks into the transitions. Long story short, it turns out the Dave Mason breaks into two parts that fit in the second break and at the end of “Post Toastee.” So I still needed something to slip into that first break. And once again, death reared its fearsome head. Instinct made me grab the first studio album by the late Jaco Pastorius where I found a track that worked like nobody’s business. I can’t say for sure, but I think it’s called “O-kon-kil-e y Trompa.” Even if I said that wrong, you’re still gonna love the sound of the mix. So that’s the bulk of the set. At the top I tacked on one by those Disgraced Schoolboys, The Kinks, a song called “The Hard Way.” But we’re going to start with something from one of my favorite albums of 1980. Willie Nile’s debut, a track called “Vagabond Moon.”
|
| Willie Nile |
Vagabond Moon |
| The Kinks |
The Hard Way |
| Tommy Bolin |
Post Toastie (part 1) |
| Jaco Pastorius |
Okonkile y Trompa |
| Tommy Bolin |
Post Toastie (part 2) |
| Dave Mason |
Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave (part 1) |
| Tommy Bolin |
Post Toastie (part 3) |
| Dave Mason |
Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave (part 2) |
Seems the simple things are hardest to explain. That’s from Alone Together, Dave Mason’s first solo effort after leaving Traffic. We heard that off the original pressing of the album which was done in that very cool, multi-colored marble-looking vinyl. The album featured most of the big names who played with Joe Cocker on the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour. Delaney and Bonnie, Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge and others. The idea to mix “Shouldn’t Have Took More Than You Gave” with Tommy Bolin’s “Post Toastee” came from our pal Scott G in Cleveland. But those two songs weren’t enough for a whole show, so I added “O-kon-kil-e Y Trompa,” that electric bass, French horn, and percussion instrumental earlier in the mix, courtesy of the late Jaco Pastorius who was born the same year as Tommy Bolin. Two enormous talents with equally enormous drug problems. Jaco had the added burden of mental illness and ended up broke, homeless, and beaten to death at the age of 35 by a nightclub bouncer somewhere in Florida, the same state where Tommy Bolin died of a drug overdose at the age of 25.
“Post Toastee” by the way, was the last song Tommy Bolin played while opening a show for Jeff Beck in December of ‘76. Still alive and well at the top of the set, we heard Willie Nile doing “Vagabond Moon” from his debut album. If you can track it down, get it. It’s a fabulous album. We also heard “The Hard Way” from The Kinks album Schoolboys in Disgrace. You do it your way and I’ll do it my way and we’ll see who’s the one to survive in the Way Back Studios. I’m Bill Fitzhugh, thanks for listening. In case you’re wondering, we’ve got the set lists and the show commentaries posted on billfitzhugh.com, along with everything you ever wanted to know about that guy Carl Hiaasen called a ‘deeply disturbed individual.’ I’ll be back sooner or later with another batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl and I hope you can join us. Right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
| Segment 80 |
I’ll be right up front and tell you this one doesn’t make any more sense than a necktie that’s fallen asleep or a carpet that needs a haircut. But it works like a man in baggy pants with a lonely face and a crazy grin. It started one day when I picked up a compilation album called Teen Beat, featuring instrumental rock singles recorded between ‘57 and ‘65, the heyday of such stuff. Had B. Bumble and the Stingers on it, The Piltdown Men, and the Phil Upchurch Combo, among others. But today’s batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl was triggered by Track 3 on Side 1. Guy named Sandy Nelson played drums for The Teddy Bears, Phil Spector’s band that had a hit with “To know him is to love him.” Sandy later recorded several albums on his own and had a minor hit with a track called “Let There Be Drums” which is the song that got me started on today’s set.
Not long after getting the record, I heard the end of side 2 of Abbey Road, you know that big drum part leading into “The end” [INSERT DRUM PART] and I could just imagine Ringo and Sandy tangling in a wild and wooly drum segue that’s worth waiting for. But that wasn’t enough. I still needed fifteen minutes. So I backtracked from “Golden Slumbers,” and that turned the first half of the set into a parade of desperate men wading deep into retro-introspection and alcohol, urgently reaching out to tell their tales of love, hope, and disillusionment. What was it Leonard Cohen said to Janis Joplin? ‘You said you liked handsome men, but for me you’d make an exception.’ Something like that. And who can forget Don McClean’s line: ‘You know I’ve heard about people like me, but I never made the connection.’ It doesn’t matter if you’re lying in a burned out basement with the full moon in your eyes or if the telephone’s out of cigarettes. Listen to the words in the first half of this set and the segues in the second. And remember, some people are in a hurry to leave, but Tom Waits.
|
| Tom Waits |
The Piano Has Been Drinking |
| Bruce Springsteen |
Wild Billy's Circus Story |
| Leonard Cohen |
Chelsea Hotel No. 2 |
| Don McClean |
Crossroads |
| Neil Young |
After the Goldrush |
| Beatles |
Golden Slumbers |
| Beatles |
Carry the Weight |
| Sandy Nelson |
Let There Be Drums |
| Beatles |
The End |
That’s the lazy man’s version of hand mixing. I just used the existing segues from the medley on the second side of Abbey Road – it’s really just a collection of songs and snippets of songs that George Martin and Paul McCartney put together from various recording sessions. We heard “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” and “The End” which contains the only drum solo Ringo ever recorded for the Beatles. And that’s what led me to insert Sandy Nelson’s 1961 hit, “Let There Be Drums.” I stumbled on that track a few months ago at a used record store and decided to put it in that set. Probably hadn’t heard the song in 35 years. Then a week or two later I happened to tune into Tom Petty’s Buried Treasure show and he was playing that song. What’re the odds of that?
The first half of that set was a regular singer-songwriter convention. Tom Waits got us started with “The Piano Has Been Drinking” from his album, Small Change, followed by Springsteen doing “Wild Billy’s Circus Story” about the fat lady, big mama, Missy Bimbo, yawning while the man-beast sniffs his popcorn. After that we checked in to Leonard Cohen’s “Chelsea Hotel #2”a song said to chronicle his relationship with Janis Joplin. That’s from his album New Skin for the Old Ceremony. After that the guy who can kill you softly with his song, Don McClean with a track called “Crossroads.” As the last piano note decays at the end of the song, we dreamed we saw the nights in armor coming, saying something about the queen. Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush,” a name he borrowed from the title of a screenplay written by his friend, the actor, Dean Stockwell. There were children crying and colors flying all around the Way Back Studios and that’s a sign that we’re out of time. Thanks for listening. I’m Bill Fitzhugh. back sooner or later with a fresh batch of All Hand Mixed Vinyl and I hope you can join us, right here in the Deep Tracks.
|
Go to Segments
1-20 |
21-40 |
41-60 |
61-80 |
81-100 |
101-120
|