So like, eh----hi. Spent the week going through even more boxes of thirtysome years of rock-related jiz that I ought to throw away but just don't have the heart to. When I do get back on ebay a whole lotta the magazines and whatnot I have gathered up o'er this period in time are bound to get the auctioneer treatment while I don't doubt that a nice portion will be tossed into the trash because like...who cares other'n a few anal retentives who don't have the money for this stuff anyway. Did find a few interesting things throughout the search like what remains of a late-eighties fanzine done up by a once-friend/now-enemy that was so cutting, biting and downright hoo-hah that the thing actually had me rolling in the aisles (or in this case smack dab outta my e-zy recliner)! However, since the guy is on my eternal hate list for fraternizing with the enemy I won't mention any of it. Now if he wants to read this blog or even make comments well, he's free to do so...not that I'm exactly up to PRINTING any of his spew (though I did about ten years back). But sheesh, if that fanzine ever came out it woulda been the biggest laff riot since ILSA: SHE WOLF OF THE SS!
Lewis's various prime time variety/comedy shows were long gone by this time (I occasionally would peek at his NBC show of the late-sixties and don't even remember any hubbub regarding his failed ABC series which I have written about before) but I still got my fill of Lewis considering how all his old movies with and without Dean Martin were popping up on the boob tube with regularity, and of course whenever I had the chance I'd tune into the Muscular Distrophy telethon on Labor Day just to catch the guy clowning it up despite the sleep deprivation, getting all woozed out and sometimes slipping in some "language" that I sure wasn't allowed to use around the house. I just couldn't get enough Jerry I'll tell ya!
When I got older I gotta admit that I began tiring of the guy (maybe it was a viewing of DON'T RAISE THE BRIDGE, LOWER THE RIVER that did it, or maybe the MAD peek inside Jerry Lewis's wallet article, or maybe it was them dirty jokes he was slipping in during the telethon) and watching those old moom pitchers just wasn't as exciting as they used to be for my pre-adolescent suburban slob ranch house kid self. At least those early movies and tee-vee programs were definitely worth an occasional viewing (especially on those nothing to do Sunday afternoons) and the guy was one who could deliver on some pretty hefty har-hars when the time and place fit. And who could deny that Lewis was an even bigger do-it-aller than we all thought. I mean, who else but Jerry could have his own DC comic (the last of their celebrity line to get axed and in 1971, a good five or so year after Bob Hope's) or ABC Saturday morning cartoon series not to mention a few thou other things that I'm sure none the obits mentioned. Sure he had a larger ego'n most H'wood bigshots but then so do most of these rock fandom dolts I have/had dealt with so what's the big hoo-hah anyway?
Anyway, yet another big name that I can remember hearing about since day uno has passed and you can bet that I'll be more affected by Lewis' passing than I would some big name who came up during my own physical if not mental growth and has been proclaimed some sorta "spokesperson" (sheesh!) for "my" generation and alla that comfy feely rot we've all be subjected to whether we like it or not!
Samuel Dunscombe & Tim Olive-ZANSHI CD-r (Kendra Steiner Editions)
"Zanshi: reside, vestigial traces, dregs. Zanshi is what is left after the core of an object, sound, image, has been removed" Them's the liner notes and I still don't know how the heck the team of Dunscombe and Olive made these sounds. The first of the two features this hum that reminds me of a basement dehumidifier on a hot August day kinda like the one I'm experiencing now (y'know them days when it was so hot and you'd spend the entire afternoon looking through stacks of old comic books trying to forget how sticky you are?) while the other sounded like the sperm being formed in Robbie the Robot's nuts---subdued gurgle that's bound to push through once Robbie has some hot dream about Univac. Well, can you think of a better way to describe the rather wondrous form of "musique concrete" (more/less) without looking like a phony intellectual thumbing through his Thesaurus looking for new ways to say "wowzer"???
Julie Driscoll-1969 CD-r burn (originally on Polydor Records, England)
Starts off with some interesting jazz rock moves that actually sound inspiring considering the time and source, then it gets a little dippy with some soft acoustic numbers but even those hold up surprisingly well without Brian Auger's organ wails. Let's face it, Driscoll was a fine femme vocalist whose tones really stood out against the yammering of the female competition of the day. Interesting neo-singer/songwriter effort that doesn't insult your sense of rockism propriety even with the low points. And the horn-laden tracks even add a whole dimension of vim that you never did get outta Chicago! Give it at least one little try.
Xhol Caravan-ELECTRIP CD (Garden of Delights Records, Germany)
These late-sixties platters with the hip covers always did seem kinda "chance-y" when delivering on the jamz, so I approached this one with quite a bitta caution. Sure I liked their Ohr release with the naughty title (never did hear the others) but I thought that one was perhaps too much of a Zappa-knockoff to appreciate for its own good ifyaknowaddamean. This pre-Ohr release (originally on Hansa Records) does have its share of late-sixties Mothers of Inventionisms to contend with but the sounds of the New English Jazz can thoroughly be discerned which does add a nice li'l ting to it all. Although ELECTRIP ain't gonna be one of those top beddy-bye spins to lull me into slumberland it's still a good enough jazz-rock-y excursion that actually does stimulate the nodes when the nodes most certainly need it.
GO! WITH THE TIMES CD-r burn (dunno the label it was originally on...probably some English one because like, who else?)
I should have a perpetual mad-on about this group since they stiffed me $20 on an order I had sent them THREE DECADES BACK, but I can't really stay angry even after all these years. I mean, there's a good chance that they never even GOT the order in the first place. So right now let's just say that the Times are off my hate list, though really I could use that twenty bucks just about now...
It's good. Nothing great but since this was perhaps the only way we could hear any of that Creation meets Who meets John's Children-styled rock at the time it does hold a certain nostalgic warmth for me. Good enough flash music that does dive into that early-eighties "twee" sound but then again nobody did twee like these English foppy revival groups of the early-eighties. Even with the soft sop these guys come off a whole lot more straightforward than the bands that came in their wake. Even has a version of Generation X's "Your Generation" that sounds like how the Who woulda handled in around '66. Let's face it, when the eighties were clocking out it all sounded so strained that I would have sworn I was listening to the aural equivalent of baby food. Goo!
PAUL BLEY & SCORPIO CD-r burn (originally on Milestone Records)
This is one of those early-seventies Bley platters where he decided to do a li'l "experimenting" with a synthesizer in order to look hip and with it. And it worked! Naw, this ain't no Weather Report fusion extrapolation but a pretty darn good attempt at taking the new thing of the sixties and (if you will pardon the expression) "jazzing it up" a bit. Dave Holland and Barry Altschul play their typical seventies under-the-beat best here, while Bley shines on both new and old numbers, the latter including "Ictus" which was not only written by Bley's former Mrs. Carla but must've made its fiftieth recorded appearance here.
YOU BET YOUR LIFE WITH GROUCHO MARX CD-r burn
I'm sure most of you reg'lar readers have been watching YOU BET YOUR LIFE ever since you were able to turn on a tee-vee set. Heck, I'll bet there are a few of you olde tymers who remember watching the show when it was originally being broadcast on NBC, and I for one can recall seeing Groucho asking the questions back when I was a mere kiddie on rainy Sunday evenings right before the prime time programming got into gear! (Sheesh, I even remember watching the show while a sick kiddiegardener and afterwards eating a whole can of Franco American macaroni that dad bought in order to cheer me up...and eating canned macaroni for the first time in my life as well!)
YOU BET YOUR LIFE also ran on radio (look up the exact dates yerself!) and thankfully a whole slew of 'em have survived, the shows popping up here being just two of 'em. Great listening not only for Groucho's actually funny patter (I prefer him in this setting rather'n with those brothers of his and yeah, I remember what Brad Kohler told me!) but for the quiz questions which don't wrack your brain as much as they do on JEOPARDY. And you better watch out, because next week the "secret word" is gonna be Fellman!
THE BEST OF CANNON'S JUG STOMPERS CD-r burn
Dunno the label this came out on either (if you wanna knowGoogle Duck Duck Go it yourself) but whatever label it is they shoulda gotten some sorta reward from the industry for producing such a fine collection of late-twenties/early-thirties jug band music. Of course the industry couldn't care squat about Cannon's Jug Stompers but I can...this is hotcha real down folk blooze that sounds as if it were recorded right at the plantation between breaks and rushed out to whatever adoring public there was to buy this...plunky banjo and guitar merge with actual oomphy jug sounds to make a real downhome kinda music I couldn't see the Lovin' Spoonful dirtying their autoharps with. If you like it primal and feral without the slickness that has affected music in general ever since the business became THE BUSINESS you might like that, and it even has a version of "Walk Right In" done thirtysome years before the Rooftop Singers struck gold with it (and where does that leave their version of a pre-Dead "Viola Lee Blues"?).
Various Artists-SENATOR BADMOON A-GO-GO-GO!!! CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
Here's another one that Bill must have sent me a good two or ten years back only I chance upon it now. Still plays swell and the selection's nothing to spurt snot over either, what with some pretty hotcha tracks by acts you've never heard of before and probably never will hear from again. Lemme take that back since we all know who Giorgio Moroder is and his version of the Creedence Clearwater Revival smasheroo "Bad Moon Rising" is on her, but other'n that how many of you have heard of George Goodman and his Headliners or Daisy Clan?
In all the tracks seem to range from fair enough bubblygum to cornballus country blues shuffle and jazzy schmooze for the Geritol set, and it all gets ya here (thump chest) in one way or another. Special surprise...Senator (hah!) Rosco Dean's "A Ballad to George Wallace" which takes the earlier "Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley" mode (complete with "Battle Hymn of the Republic" backing as if you're that dense) and uses the dadblamed thing to lionize the infamous Alabama Governor who was at the time of this recording recovering from his assassination attempt at the hands of Arthur Bremer, perhaps the blandest political assassin ever. Yes, you can say his truth is rolling on but my, would that be in bad taste!
***Well it was bound to happen and although by now it's older than Methuselah news lemme just drop a few words regarding the passing of none other than Jerry Lewis at the ripe old age of 91. Usually I wouldn't comment on these deaths if only because this blog ain't exactly WHATEVER HAPPENED TO... but sheesh, at one time Jerry Lewis was like, a GUIDING FORCE in my life! Y'see, when I was 10/11-years-old Lewis was one of my bonafeed heroes next to Bugs Bunny and Dennis the Menace (Tee-Vee and comic versions!). Back in those rather weirded out days I thought Lewis was the coolest thing since Bill Cullen (you can bet that when I hadda wear glasses I was glad because my hero Cullen wore glasses and now I could be even more like him) and you can bet that I used to watch his moom pitchers whether they were on local rerun or national first time around Tee-Vee---ya just couldn't escape 'em which was all the better for me.
Lewis's various prime time variety/comedy shows were long gone by this time (I occasionally would peek at his NBC show of the late-sixties and don't even remember any hubbub regarding his failed ABC series which I have written about before) but I still got my fill of Lewis considering how all his old movies with and without Dean Martin were popping up on the boob tube with regularity, and of course whenever I had the chance I'd tune into the Muscular Distrophy telethon on Labor Day just to catch the guy clowning it up despite the sleep deprivation, getting all woozed out and sometimes slipping in some "language" that I sure wasn't allowed to use around the house. I just couldn't get enough Jerry I'll tell ya!
 |
| You can catch Brad Kohler's imitation CREEM BTC logo in reverse if you strain your eyes hard enough. |
Anyway, yet another big name that I can remember hearing about since day uno has passed and you can bet that I'll be more affected by Lewis' passing than I would some big name who came up during my own physical if not mental growth and has been proclaimed some sorta "spokesperson" (sheesh!) for "my" generation and alla that comfy feely rot we've all be subjected to whether we like it or not!
***Some goodies this time. Most of this is courtesy of Bill Shute and Paul McGarry. Note to Bob Forward...RIP RIG AND PANIC still plays intermittently, though it's definitely the boom box's fault. Only one actual purchase by me which I gotta say is one more than I had expected. Aww c'mon, read the thing for once in your life!
"Zanshi: reside, vestigial traces, dregs. Zanshi is what is left after the core of an object, sound, image, has been removed" Them's the liner notes and I still don't know how the heck the team of Dunscombe and Olive made these sounds. The first of the two features this hum that reminds me of a basement dehumidifier on a hot August day kinda like the one I'm experiencing now (y'know them days when it was so hot and you'd spend the entire afternoon looking through stacks of old comic books trying to forget how sticky you are?) while the other sounded like the sperm being formed in Robbie the Robot's nuts---subdued gurgle that's bound to push through once Robbie has some hot dream about Univac. Well, can you think of a better way to describe the rather wondrous form of "musique concrete" (more/less) without looking like a phony intellectual thumbing through his Thesaurus looking for new ways to say "wowzer"???
***
Starts off with some interesting jazz rock moves that actually sound inspiring considering the time and source, then it gets a little dippy with some soft acoustic numbers but even those hold up surprisingly well without Brian Auger's organ wails. Let's face it, Driscoll was a fine femme vocalist whose tones really stood out against the yammering of the female competition of the day. Interesting neo-singer/songwriter effort that doesn't insult your sense of rockism propriety even with the low points. And the horn-laden tracks even add a whole dimension of vim that you never did get outta Chicago! Give it at least one little try.
***
These late-sixties platters with the hip covers always did seem kinda "chance-y" when delivering on the jamz, so I approached this one with quite a bitta caution. Sure I liked their Ohr release with the naughty title (never did hear the others) but I thought that one was perhaps too much of a Zappa-knockoff to appreciate for its own good ifyaknowaddamean. This pre-Ohr release (originally on Hansa Records) does have its share of late-sixties Mothers of Inventionisms to contend with but the sounds of the New English Jazz can thoroughly be discerned which does add a nice li'l ting to it all. Although ELECTRIP ain't gonna be one of those top beddy-bye spins to lull me into slumberland it's still a good enough jazz-rock-y excursion that actually does stimulate the nodes when the nodes most certainly need it.
***
I should have a perpetual mad-on about this group since they stiffed me $20 on an order I had sent them THREE DECADES BACK, but I can't really stay angry even after all these years. I mean, there's a good chance that they never even GOT the order in the first place. So right now let's just say that the Times are off my hate list, though really I could use that twenty bucks just about now...
It's good. Nothing great but since this was perhaps the only way we could hear any of that Creation meets Who meets John's Children-styled rock at the time it does hold a certain nostalgic warmth for me. Good enough flash music that does dive into that early-eighties "twee" sound but then again nobody did twee like these English foppy revival groups of the early-eighties. Even with the soft sop these guys come off a whole lot more straightforward than the bands that came in their wake. Even has a version of Generation X's "Your Generation" that sounds like how the Who woulda handled in around '66. Let's face it, when the eighties were clocking out it all sounded so strained that I would have sworn I was listening to the aural equivalent of baby food. Goo!
***
This is one of those early-seventies Bley platters where he decided to do a li'l "experimenting" with a synthesizer in order to look hip and with it. And it worked! Naw, this ain't no Weather Report fusion extrapolation but a pretty darn good attempt at taking the new thing of the sixties and (if you will pardon the expression) "jazzing it up" a bit. Dave Holland and Barry Altschul play their typical seventies under-the-beat best here, while Bley shines on both new and old numbers, the latter including "Ictus" which was not only written by Bley's former Mrs. Carla but must've made its fiftieth recorded appearance here.
***
I'm sure most of you reg'lar readers have been watching YOU BET YOUR LIFE ever since you were able to turn on a tee-vee set. Heck, I'll bet there are a few of you olde tymers who remember watching the show when it was originally being broadcast on NBC, and I for one can recall seeing Groucho asking the questions back when I was a mere kiddie on rainy Sunday evenings right before the prime time programming got into gear! (Sheesh, I even remember watching the show while a sick kiddiegardener and afterwards eating a whole can of Franco American macaroni that dad bought in order to cheer me up...and eating canned macaroni for the first time in my life as well!)
YOU BET YOUR LIFE also ran on radio (look up the exact dates yerself!) and thankfully a whole slew of 'em have survived, the shows popping up here being just two of 'em. Great listening not only for Groucho's actually funny patter (I prefer him in this setting rather'n with those brothers of his and yeah, I remember what Brad Kohler told me!) but for the quiz questions which don't wrack your brain as much as they do on JEOPARDY. And you better watch out, because next week the "secret word" is gonna be Fellman!
***
Dunno the label this came out on either (if you wanna know
***
Various Artists-SENATOR BADMOON A-GO-GO-GO!!! CD-r burn (Bill Shute)
Here's another one that Bill must have sent me a good two or ten years back only I chance upon it now. Still plays swell and the selection's nothing to spurt snot over either, what with some pretty hotcha tracks by acts you've never heard of before and probably never will hear from again. Lemme take that back since we all know who Giorgio Moroder is and his version of the Creedence Clearwater Revival smasheroo "Bad Moon Rising" is on her, but other'n that how many of you have heard of George Goodman and his Headliners or Daisy Clan?
In all the tracks seem to range from fair enough bubblygum to cornballus country blues shuffle and jazzy schmooze for the Geritol set, and it all gets ya here (thump chest) in one way or another. Special surprise...Senator (hah!) Rosco Dean's "A Ballad to George Wallace" which takes the earlier "Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley" mode (complete with "Battle Hymn of the Republic" backing as if you're that dense) and uses the dadblamed thing to lionize the infamous Alabama Governor who was at the time of this recording recovering from his assassination attempt at the hands of Arthur Bremer, perhaps the blandest political assassin ever. Yes, you can say his truth is rolling on but my, would that be in bad taste!
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