Named after Alan Freed, the original Rock and Roll DJ and dedicated mostly to music & radio. See also my Classic Film & TV blog @ http://thesilverscreenchronicles.blogspot.ca/
For My CIUT 89.5fm in Toronto radio playlists; http://moondogsplaylists.blogspot.com/
~ George W. Johnson (circa 1846~1914) was one of the first major recording stars and certainly the first black recording star as well as being one of the most successful singers of the Victorian era. ..
~ Early life ~ Born a slave between 1846 and 1850 in Virginia, Johnson was raised by a white family who taught him to read and write. His musical training is unknown although he does not seem to have played any actual instruments, he sang minstrel songs as well as being a virtuoso whistler. After the civil war he made his way to New York and New Jersey where he earned a living as a busker in various minstrel and medicine shows becoming a fairly well known figure. ..
~ Recordings ~ When Johnson began recording is unknown but it is rumored that Thomas Edison himself chose Johnson to be one of the first singers to demonstrate his new tin-foil based recording device in 1879 because his clear, staccato baritone could reproduce well on the crude technology. If so these recordings have not survived but when the improved wax gramophones came along a decade later Johnson became much in demand. He recorded "The Whistling Coon" in 1890 for The Metropolitan Phonograph company and then quickly did the same for The New Jersey Phonograph Company, The North American and Edison. The song became the first real hit of the recording era selling for various companies (which would grow to include most of Edison's competitors such as Berliner, Victor, Columbia, Starr and Zonophone) as was common at the time. Due to the crude technology of the day (there were no masters) records were recorded straight to disk five at a time which meant that Johnson would have to sing the same song over again for hours and days in order to make multiple copies. However since he got payed by the song this meant he was able to make a decent living for over a decade singing the same few songs. ..
GEORGE W JOHNSON ~ "THE LAUGHING SONG";
~ Repertoire
~ The number of songs Johnson actually knew is unknown but he only recorded about a half dozen titles. Besides his first hit he later had even bigger hits with "The Laughing Song" and the " The Laughing Coon". Laughing in rhythm was a fad of the era and "The Laughing Song" (originally written by the white song writer Sam Devere as part of a minstrel show) is believed to have been the first million selling record, being recorded for numerous companies between 1894 and 1910. These records were also popular in Europe and Latin America since there was little language barrier to overcome and there are stories of copies of the "Laughing Song" turning up in (then) remote Africa, China, the Arctic and the South Pacific were they were used by missionaries to break the ice with the locals. In the 1922 documentary film "Nanook of the North" film maker Robert Flaherty is shown playing a copy of the record to charm his Eskimo hosts. For a time Johnson was probably the most heard person in the world along with the opera tenor Enrico Caruso. Johnson also recorded a few other titles including "The Whistling Girl","Listen to the Mockingbird" and "Carving the Duck", copies of which have survived along with at least two others which have not, "The Laughing Darkey" and "Uncle Ned's Dream". Johnson also recorded at least two comedy singles as part of Len Spencer's Minstrel Troupe. Spencer (who was actually white) was a popular leader of his own minstrel troupe as well as booking agent who became a manager for Johnson. Besides his recordings Johnson also continued to appear in vaudeville and minstrel shows in New York City and Atlantic City, New Jersey. ..
GEORGE W JOHNSON ~ "THE WHISTLING COON";
~ Decline and death ~ By the twentieth century recording technology had improved allowing for master copies to be recorded as well as allowing a greater variety of singers and musicians to record more clearly and these factors along with more sophisticated tastes effectively ended Johnson's recording career. His popularity also suffered from a mysterious scandal involving his being charged the death of his wife in 1899, Spencer and other performing friends rallied around and raised money for his bail and defense and the charges were quickly dropped . Johnson continued to record until 1910 but then went into retirement and the loyal Len Spencer gave him a job as doorman for the Lyceum Theater in New York. Johnson died forgotten in his apartment of unknown natural causes in 1914. ..
~ Surviving recordings ~ Copies of some of Johnson's recordings an both cylinders and disks have survived in various conditions and sound quality, some have turned up on a compilation entitled "Lost Sounds" on Archephone Records, others can be found on archival websites.
Members;
George W. Johnson ~ Vocals, Laughing and Whistling w/ various pianists incl/ Edward Issler ..
The 1996 book "Rolling Stone's Alt-Rockarama" book of lists and trivia contained a list entitled "100+ Alt-Rock Super groups we hope never happen". This was a list of band name mashups used to creat new stupid band names for ill advised supergroup pairings. Notable examples incuded;
Agnostic Front Line Assembly
Average White Band of Susans
Echo and the Bunnymen Without Hats
Greatful Dead Kennedys
The Husker Doobie Brothers
Iggy Pop Will Eat Itself
Kool and the Gang of Four
Marvin Gaye Bikers on Acid
Peter Murphy's Law
The Scoolly dB's
The Simply Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Soul 2 Soul Asylum
Steely Danzig
Swing Out Sisters of Mercy
Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love and Rockets
You get the idea.
Since I love stupid pointless trivia even more than I love stupid pointless band names here are a few of my own suggestions for this stupid pointless list;
The Aero-Smiths
Alien Sex Pistols
Altered Images In Vogue
The Amboy Dukes of the Stratosphere
Anti Black Flag
The Anti-Human League
Atomic 7 Seconds
Balaam and the Comsat Angels
Amy Bauhaus
Aprilwine and Iron
The Beaumarks Inside
The Body Count 5
The Big Bad Livers
The Black Flag of Convieniance
Black Lips Arkansas
Black Sabbath Flag
The Black Sabbath Keys
The Blue Cheer Demons
The Blue Demon Oyster Cult
The Blue Oyster Magoos
Blue Demon Rodeo
Blue Oyster Rodeo
David Bow Wow Wowie
Boy George Micheal
The Bullet Boys Brigade
The Chalk Circle Jerks
The Chocolate Watchband of Susans
Christian Death Angel
Christian Death of Samantha
The Chromosome Cranks
Courtney Love and Rockets
The Cowboy Mouth Junkies
The Cowboy Murder Junkies
The Crowded Housemartins
Curiosity Killed The Stray Cats
The Cutting Crewcuts
Dead Cats Can Fly
Dead Guy Smiley
The Dead Kennedys Can Dance
The Dead Milkmen Can Dance
The Death of Samantha Ronson
Deja Voodoo Glow Skulls
Deja Voodoo Machine
The Del Lords of the New Church
Destroy All Monster Magnets
Dexy's Midnight Run DMC
Dinosaur Jr. Gone Wild
The Dream Syndicate of Sound
D.R.Eyehategod
The Dropkick Peter Murphys
Emerson, Lake and Robert Palmer
Fifth Durutti Column
The Flamin' Groovie Sideburns
The Flat Duo Jetboys
The Fleshtonie Braxtons
The Florida Razorbacks
Gang of 4 Skins
Gaye Bikers on Scratch Acid
Generation X-Ray Specs
Generation XTC
Gentle Giant Sand
Girlschooly D
The Go-Go Go Betweens
The Grapes of Wrathchild
Great Big Black Sea
Haircutting Crew
Hayseed Dixie Chicks
Richard Hellacopter & The Voidoids
Richard Helmet & The Voidoids
Holy Fuck Rounders
Iron Maiden Wine
Lambchop of God
Latex Generation X
LL Cool J Macias
The Lords of Scratch Acid
L7 Mary Three
The MC5 Star
Machine hHead
Magnetic Fields of The Nephelim
The Meatloaf Puppets
The Men Without Hats They Couldn't Hang
Meshugga-Knight
The Mighty Clouds of Joy Division
Mojo Nixon and Skid Row
Modern English Beat
Monster Voodoo Glow Skulls
Motley 2 Live Crue
The Mudhoneycombs
The Murder City Rollers
My Cordelia's Dad is Dead
Nashville Pussy Galore
The New York Toy Dolls
Nine Inch Nails Below Zero
999 Below Zero
999 Inch Nails
999 Pound Hammer
Nine Pound Hammer Below Zero
Pee Wee King Cob Steelie
The Knoxville Girlschool
The Luna-Chixdiggit
Nurse With Sucking Chest Wound
Operation Poison Ivy
Orchestral Maneuvers in The Dark Carnival
Hank Pennywise
Four Platinum Non Blondes
Poison Ivy Idea
Pretty Pink Boy Floyd
Prince and The Deep Purple Revolution
Public Images in Vogue
Puddle of Mudhoney
The Pukka Orchestra Manouvers in the Dark
Raised By Guitar Wolves
The Randypeter Murphys
The Raybeat Farmers
The Real Kids on the Block
Redd Kris Kross
Reel Big Fishbone
Renaldo and the Meatloaf
The Romeo Voidoids
Roomfull of Blue Cheer
Roomfull of Blue Demons
Roomfull of Blue Oyster Cult
Roomfull of Blue Rodeo
Roxx Gang Children
The Roxy Music Machine
Run DOA
The Samhain Roberts Band
Screamin' Lord Baltimore
Screamin' Lord Buckley
Secret Police Affair
Septic Death Angel
Seven Mary Three O'Clock
Sex Gang Children of Bodom
The Shadows of Gladys Knight
Sham 69 Eyes
The Sick Boys Next Door
The Silver Apples in Stereo
The Soft Boys Brigade
The Soft Boys Machine
Sonic Youth Brigade
Southern Culture Club on the Skids
Stray Cats Can Fly
The Subhuman League
Super Furry Animal Collective
System of a Down By Law
The Talking Motorheads
Teenage Head Fanclub
Teenage Headpins
The Thin White Amboy Dukes
The Thin White Dukes of the Stratosphere
They Might be Gentle Giants
They Might Be Giant Sand
The Ten Foot Polecats
The Tragically Hipsway
The Trashmen They Couldn't Hang
The Trashmen Without Hats
Tuuli Live Crew
Twisted Sisters of Mercy
The 2 Live Krewmen
The 2 Live Crewcuts
The 2 Live Cutting Crew
Type O Negative Approach
Type O Negative Trend
Undertones on Tail
Vanilla Ice T
The Velvet Underground Revolver
The Viletony Toni Tones
The Wanda Jackson Five
The White Flag of Convieniance
White Zombie Stripes
The Young Fresh Lions
It took me about a half hour to come up with those, OK make that an hour, or more. So I have no doubt you can come up with more. No fair using the names of bands that are so obscure nobody can tell if you're just making shit up.
You think rock operas are absurdly long? How about free jazz solos? Emerson, Lake and Palmer? John Coltrane? Tangerine Dream? Amateurs all of 'em. Ladies and gentlemen I give you the reigning heavy weight champion (drum roll please); John Cage!
Whatever clever artsy idea you think you had, John Cage has already done it. Probably better too.
World’s longest concert will last 639 years By Maura Judkis (Washington Post)
You’d be praying for intermission if you attended even just a fraction of the world’s longest concert. Now in its 10th year, “Organ²/ASLSP(As SLow aS Possible),” by avant-garde composer John Cage, is just getting started. Composer, John Cage rehearses his 12-hour composition "Empty Words" in Hartford, Conn., in 1981. (Anonymous - ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The concert began in 2001 at the former St. Burchard church in Halberstadt, Germany, and is scheduled to conclude in 2640, for a duration of 639 years. Though Cage did not specify a duration for his piece, the length was chosen because the start date for the performance is 639 years after Nicolaus Faber built the first church organ. Other performances of the piece have lasted between 29 and 70 minutes.
The Halberstadt performance, by an automated organ, progresses so slowly that visitors have to wait months for a chord change (for one note change, in 2008, more than 1,000 visitors came to listen). They occur on the fifth of the month, but the next one isn’t scheduled until July 2012. The organ emits a low meditative hum at all times. You can hear it on the ASLSP Web site.
The performance is so slow that the organ it is being played on was not even complete before the music began. Pipes were added to the organ, which keeps the music steady thanks to a machine called a blower that provides a constant stream of air, in 2008.
Supporters can sponsor a note for a year with a donation of 1000 € or more. Those who donate can choose any year through 2640, and will receive a metal plaque with their name and year in the church.
Fans of Cage, such as board chairman of the town’s John Cage Organ Foundation, Rainer Neugebauer, say that the performance is a rebuke of hectic modern life.
“Everything does not need to happen so fast. If something needs a bit longer then it can give us an inner calm that is rare in normal life.”
Update, Nov. 28: There is competition for the world’s longest concert. On Twitter, Mark Polishook alerts Arts Post to Longplayer, a 1,000-year-long musical score that is being played by computers.
JOHN CAGE PERFORMS "WATER WALK" ON "I'VE GOT A SECRET" 1950's;
On October 21 Aaron Beamish, A.K.A. Aaron Arsenic, drummer with Toronto punk band Slow Motion Victory died when he was struck by a truck while he was skateboarding in the early morning and he died at the scene. He was only 2 but had already played with a number bands including Five Minutes to Glory, Sweet Lips and The Famous Monsters. But Slow Motion Victory were the most recent band, and the one most likely to actually be a success, having already gotten some buzz on CFNY after winning some sort of fan contest on Much Music. They're a basic pop punk band and not really on my radar, however they do have a cool version of the only Bryan Adams song that didn't suck.
Slow Motion Victory ~ "Run to you";
I knew him best from his earlier bands like the hardcore Five Minutes To Glory and The Misfits influenced Famous Monsters, who I booked a few times back in 2007-2008. They didn't have a cd but there is a Myspace page with some tracks on it.
The Famous Monsters ~ "Saturday Night" (live with dodgy sound);
Aaron was always a fun, upbeat, cheerful, friendly down-to-earth guy. And a great drummer too with a distinctive flailing but rock-solid style. We weren't really close but I remember running into him back in 2009 right after those lying scumbags at CKLN fucked me over and I was in a foul and bitter mood, he ran over and gave me a hug and offered to get me drunk. I don't drink but the gesture was sweet.
If he actually had lived to become the actual rockstar he clearly wanted to be I doubt it would have changed him. He still left behind a whole lot of friends, all of whom he deserved, and all of who already miss him.
A video someone put together of Aaron, (for some reason the music is from Blink 182);
Sean Bonniwell ~ Singer/keyboards w/1960's garage punk group The Music Machine. Did the classic "Talk Talk";
The Music Machine ~ "Talk talk";
Gene Kurtz ~ 1960's Bassist/songwriter with Roy Head on "Treat her right" ~ 69
Roy Head & The Traits ~ "Treat her right";
Kim Brown ~ Singer/guitarist for 1960's English/Finnish garage bands The Renegades and The Cadillacs ~ 61
The Renegades ~ "Brand new Cadillac";
Bob Brunning ~ English Rock and Blues bassist w/ John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown ~ 68
Some early R&B figures;
Hubert Sumlin ~ blues Guitarist on many of Howlin Wolf's 1950's hits on Chess Records ~ 80
Howlin Wolf w/Hubert Sumlin & Willie Dixon~ "Smokestack Lightning";
Jimmy Norman ~ American R&B singer/songwriter/producer. Worked with Irma Thomas, Jimi Hendrix, The Coasters, Bob Marley. Co-wrote "Time is on my side" ~ 74
Marv Tarplin ~ American guitarist and songwriter with Motown R&B group The Miracles. Although Tarplin stayed in the background, Robinson referred to him as his "secret weapon". He also worked on Smokey Robinson's solo records as well as Marvin Gaye and the Supremes ~ 70
The Miracles ~ "The tracks of my tears";
Wardell Quezergue ~ New Orleans 1950's & 60's R&B songwriter/producer w/ hits with Professor Longhair, “Iko Iko” by the Dixie Cups, “Barefootin’ ” by Robert Parker, “Groove Me” by King Floyd, “Mr. Big Stuff” by Jean Knight. ~ 81
Dixie Cups ~ "Iko Iko";
Sylvia Robinson ~ American 1950's R&B singer with Mikey Baker in Mickey & Sylvia. Later a record producer and record company co-founder of Sugar Hill Records ~ 75
Mickey and Sylvia ~ "No good lover";
George "Mojo" Buford ~ Blues harmonica player with Muddy Waters ~ 81
Muddy Waters & Mojo Buford ~ "Got my Mojo workin";
Jessy Dixon ~ American gospel singer ~ 73
Leonard Dillon ~ Singer with 1960's and 70's Jamaican ska and rocksteady group The Ethiopians ~ 68
The Ethiopians ~ "Train to Skaville";
Some folk and country figures;
Country Johnny Mathis ~ Not be confused with the pop singer, this Mathis was a country singer songwriter from the early 1950's to the 1960's recording for a number of labels as well as writing hit songs for Johnny Paycheck, Web Pierce and George Jones. ~ 77
Liz Anderson ~ 1950's Country singer and mother of singer Lynn Anderson ~ 81
Johnnie Wright ~ Country singer from the 1950's and 60's as part of Johnny And Jack with Jack Anglin until Anglin's death in a car accident in 1963. It was a benefit for Anglin's widow that Patsy Cline was returning from when her plane crashed killing her as well as Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins. Wright married Kitty Wells and was a songwriter with hits into the 1970's including "Seasons in the sun. ~ 97
Johnny & Jack ~ "I get so lonely" (w/ Ray Price and an intro by Roy Acuff);
Herbert "Bert" Jansch ~ Scottish folk rock guitarist both solo and with UK group Pentangle from 1968 to 1972 and then continuing on as a solo artist. He also played Banjo, Dulcimer, Concertina and Recorder. His guitar work is highly influential on British guitarists from Jimmy Page to Niel Young, Donovan, Nick Drake and later Johnny Marr. ~ 67
Pentangle ~ "Traveling song" & "Let no man steal your thyme";
Some jazzbos;
Sam Rivers ~ Bebop and Free Jazz sax, clarinet and flute player solo and w/Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Tony Williams, Anthony Braxton ~ 86
Al Vega ~ Boston based Jazz pianist w/Dizzy Gillespie, Betty Carter, Lester Young, Stan Getz, Billy Holiday ~ 90
Billy Bang ~ Violinist with Sun Ra 63
Sun Ra Arkrestra in Egypt;
Paul Motian ~ Jazz drummer w/Bill Evans, also played with Paul Bley, Keith Jarrett, Lennie Tristano, Warne Marsh, Joe Castro, Carla Bley, Charlie Haden, Don Cherry, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Lee Konitz and even Arlo Guthrie (Motian performed briefly with Guthrie in 1968-69, and performed with the singer at Woodstock) ~ 80
Aug. 1 was the 30th anniversary of MTV's first broadcast and here is the list of the first twenty video ever played on air;
THE BUGGLES ~ "VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR";
1. The Buggles ~ Video killed the radio star 2. Pat Benatar ~ You better run 3. Rod Stewart ~ She won't dance 4. The Who ~ You better you bet 5. PHD ~ Little Susie's on the up 6. Cliff Richard ~ We don't talk anymore 7. The Pretenders ~ Brass in pocket 8. Tod Rundgren ~ Time heals 9. REO Speedwagon ~ Take it on the run 10. Styx ~ Rockin in the Paradise 11. Robin Lane & The Chartbusters ~ When things go wrong 12. Split Enz ~ History never repeats 13. 38 Special ~ Hold on loosely 14. April Wine ~ Just between you and me 15. Rod Stewart ~ Sailing 16. Iron Maiden ~ Iron Maiden 17. REO Speedwagon ~ Keep on loving you 18. The Pretenders ~ Message of love 19. Lee Ritenour ~ Mr. Briefcase 20. The Cars ~ Double life
(The final video of the first day was "Carouselambra" by Led Zeppelin)
PAT BENATAR ~ "YOU BETTER RUN";
The generational breakdown was;
From The Old Guard; Rod Stewart (twice), Cliff Richard, Todd Rundgren, The Who (4)
From The New Wave; The Pretenders (twice), The Cars, The Buggles, Split Enz, Pat Benatar, Robin Lane & The Chartbusters, PHD (7)
From The Stadium Rockers; REO Speedwagon (twice), April Wine, 38 Special, Styx
Plus one from Metal (Iron Maiden) and one from Jazz Fusion (Lee Ritenour).
Geographically the breakdown is;
From the USA ~ REO Speedwagon (twice), Pat Benatar, Todd Rundgren, The Cars, 38 Special, Styx, Robin Lane, Lee Ritenour (8, or 9 if we count REO twice)
From the UK ~ The Who, Rod Stewart (twice), Cliff Richard, The Pretenders (twice), PHD (5, or 7 if we count the Pretenders and Rod Stewart twice)
Plus one from New Zealand (Split Enz) and one from Canada (April Wine).
Gender wise there is less balance with only three females (unless we count The Pretenders).
THE PRETENDERS ~ "BRASS IN POCKET";
The biggest lack of balance though can be seen in one area. The list is completely lilly white, with not one black artist in the bunch. This is no anomaly either, the policy of MTV in the early years was too play as little black music as possible so as to not offend middle America. There were a few acceptable black black artists of course; Stevie Wonder, Lionel Ritchie, Dinah Ross, Donna Summer, The Commodores, Pointer Sisters along with some vintage footage of Motown artists and Jimi Hendrix. But that's about it. Hip Hop? Forget it. Hip Hop actually had been around for a few years by then, mostly in New York and a few other urban centers in the North East, however most black neighbourhoods didn't have cable yet and would not be seeing MTV anyway (most rural areas wouldn't be getting it either), and the MTV brass were desperate not offend their mostly white suburban viewers and the advertisers who love them.
ROBIN LANE & THE CHARTBUSTERS ~ "WHEN EVERYTHING GOES WRONG";
This Lilly White policy started to get them flack from some in the media fairly quickly and during one interview David Bowie once caused a scene when he dared to ask one of MTV's unctuous hosts ON THE AIR why they didn't play more black music. What blasted the white wall of MTV though was Micheal Jackson and "Thriller".
THE WHO ~ "YOU BETTER YOU BET";
Micheal Jackson had actually been on MTV's "acceptable" list already for his previous "Off the wall" album as well as for his older Jackson 5 videos. However the "Off the wall" Jacko was a young, clean cut, smiling boy next door type. "Thriller" Jacko wore a leather jacket, a sneer borrowed from Elvis and dance steps borrowed from James Brown and MTV was reluctant to touch that one until Jackson's record company and management threatened to boycott all their artists from MTV until MTV caved in. Which they did with whatever dignity they could manage. As we all know "Thriller" only turned out to be the biggest selling album of all time a wielded a series of number one hit videos. Suddenly MTV looked like geniuses and just as suddenly they were looking around for the next Jacko.
SPLIT ENZ ~ "HISTORY NEVER REPEATS";
And then up popped Prince. Actually he had also been around for awhile and even recorded a couple of albums which sold quite well on the black music charts and got good reviews from both black and white critics. However white top 40 radio wouldn't touch him. Partly due to his X-rated lyrics but also due to his dirty-old-man costume of raincoat, heels, lipstick and speedos. After seeing the squeaky clean Jacko dominate the charts and airwaves Prince went back to his closet and came back with a look that combined James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Adam Ant along with a slightly more slick sound that would take him to the top as well, not only with black audiences but white one too. Thus did MTV contribute to the breaking down of racial barriers on the American airwaves, even if they had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the alter.
APRIL WINE ~ "JUST BETWEEN YOU AND ME";
Later MTV's latent conservatism (born of caution not politics) would cause them to completely miss out on the new post-punk American underground of the 1980's and 90's to the fury of the likes of The Dead Kennedys and others. It would be hard to deny that by then they deserved it too. I have written elsewhere on here comparing MTV with Canada's Much Music (who had their 25th anniversary last year) and there's no doubt that we got the better deal even before MTV gave up on music entirely and started turning out comedy jams and those loathsome reality TV shows. Still there was once a few years when MTV was the most powerful music broadcaster on the planet. And it wasn't always a bad thing.
Exhibit A;
"Hound Dog" ~ Big Mama Thorton w/ Buddy Guy;
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller were the greatest songwriters of the early rock & Roll/R&B era bar none. Their catalog reads like a how-to list for everything Rock & Roll, was, is and always should be. Which it is.
Exhibit B;
"Jail House Rock" ~ Elvis Presley;
How it took a couple of nice Jewish kids from New York to figure out how to take the the raw sounds of blues and doo-wop and modernize them for an new audience of white kids is one of those great unanswerable questions of pop culture history but Leiber and Stoller were there even before Phil Spector, Alan Freed, Bill Haley or Elvis. If not Sam Phillips. But while Phillips was a producer with a fine ear, he was no songwriter Leiber and Stoller were.
Exhibit C;
"Love potion number 9" ~ The Searchers;
The list of songs in their catalog includes no less than a hundred chart hits for a bewildering array of artists including, but not limited to;
The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Walker Bros, Rolling Stones, Ben E King, Drifters, Coasters, Wilbert Harrison, Beach Boys, Dion, Billy Thorpe, Searchers, Little Richard, The Crystals, Drifters, Brenda Lee, Bad Company, Tony Sheridan, The Hollies, Diamonds, Cheers, Freddie Bell, Big Mama Thorton, Jimmy Witherspoon, The Kinks, Lords, Groupies, Ronnie Hawkins, Dr.Feelgood, Otis Redding, Mickey Gilley, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Burnett, Gene Vincent, Albert King, Koko Taylor,Dave Clark Five, Manfred Mann, Paramounts, Del Shannon, Animals, Merle Haggard, Link Wray, Frankie Lymon, Carl Perkins, Wayne Fontana, Ventures, Freddie & The Dreamers, Sha Na Na (of course) and ...ummm...Alvin and the Chipmunks, several times.
Exhibit D;
"Poison Ivy" ~ Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs;
The Duo started out in the 1950's as writers with hits for such blues and R&B figures as Big Mama Thorton, Wilbert Harrison and Jimmy Witherspoon before they were surprised to find one of those songs, "Hound Dog", become a hit for a young largely unknown white kid named Elvis. They would write a series of other hit song for him including "Love Me", "Loving You", "Don't", "Jailhouse Rock" and "King Creole". However most of their time would be writing numerous hits for black artists like the Coasters and Ben E King throughout the 1960's.
Exhibit E;
"I'm a hog for you" ~ The Lords;
They would also also branch out into owning record label Red Bird Records, which issued the Shangri-Las' "Leader of the Pack" and the Dixie Cups' "Chapel of Love" which they did not write however. As producers they also acted as mentors to the young Phil Spector. They also won a ton of awards.
Exhibit F;
"Kansas City" ~ The Beatles;
As time went on their tastes went to more elaborate pop songs that would lead to hits for Edith Piaf and Peggy Lee. They would continue into the 1970's with hits for Stealer's Wheel, Earth Wind and Fire, Elkie Brooks, George Benson, Steely Dan and Mezzo-soprano Joan Morris and her pianist-composer husband William Bolcom, which had little to do with rock and roll.
Exhibit G;
"Ruby Baby" ~ Dion;
However they also lived to see their early Rock and R&B hots are still covered down to the punk era by the likes of Dr.Feelgood, The Lambrettas, Los Straitjackets, Mink DeVille, El Vez, Queen, Mötley Crüe, Brownsville Station, Patti Smith, ZZ Top, Twisted Sister, The Cramps, AC/DC, MDC, White Stripes, Flotsam & Jetsam, Motorhead, Pennywise and The Blues Brothers (This version was the ending song of the movie, performed with other musicians such as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Cab Calloway), even Negativeland and John Oswald. They were usually good sports about that, if somewhat bemused.
Exhibit H;
"Searchin'" ~ The Coasters;
Jerry Leiber died at the age of 78 on August 22, 2011, from cardio-pulmonary failure.
Exhibit I;
"Stand by me" ~ Ben E. King;
Exhibit J;
"There goes my baby" ~ The Walker Bros.;
In my earlier post I talked about some great really short songs, mostly punk. These are the obvious logical extension of punk's "less is more" philosophy which came as a result of the excesses of the psychedelic era, like long sprawling solos, rock operas, and endless Grateful Dead concerts that went on for days. I am down with that in theory. But you have to admit there were some really cool, really long songs of the psychedelic era. Before prog rock had to ruin everything.
The evolution of rock from the Jump Blues, Swing, R&B, Rockabilly, Doo-Wop, Honky-Tonk, Girl Group, Skiffle, Mersey Beat, Surf, Frat Rock, Folk Rock, Garage days of rock's first decade to the Psychedelic excess of the late 1960's was actually perfectly logical in retrospect. The first generation of Rock was based around the limitations of the jukebox single, tightly constructed dance songs or ballads that could fit onto a two and half to four minute single. AM radio simply followed that model. However by the late sixties the single had been taken over as the main focus of Rock by the long playing album which meant that artists were no longer faced with the time limitations of the 45 single. Jazz musicians had already been exploring this new freedom with the likes of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Cecil Taylor and Ornette Coleman abandoning structured, song oriented swing in favour of long jam oriented suites with extended solos that could take up the entire side of an album. Many Rock musicians were fully aware of these developments and were eager to engage in some of the same freedoms.
This brings us to the other change in rock in it's second generation aside from the technical development of the LP, and that is the fact that both the artists and audience had now grown up listening to Rock and Roll and were not just high school kids and working class youth but now included middle class, educated and cultured youth who would never have been caught dead listening to Rock and Roll in the 1950's. It's often forgotten that in Rock's first decade few university students took it seriously and instead listened to either jazz, folk or pop vocals. However by the late sixties there were a whole generation of youth who had grown up with Rock and Roll as well as being exposed to jazz and classical music as well as poetry and high literature and art. For these musicians the freedom of being able to explore these ideas in the context of Rock and Roll was perfectly logical. Others had also developed ideals of virtuoso musicianship that opened the way for extended jazzy solos and instrumentals. Add in to this the influence of psychedelic drugs, pot and/or heroin as well in place of the liquor and pills of the 1950's as an added ingredient. The new medium of FM radio, looking for a way to differentiate itself from AM radio's top 40 formats eagerly embraced these new approaches.
Later this sort of experimentation would lead to sprawling, wretched excess of course. And hopelessly wrongheaded ideas like rock operas and classical rock fusions. Which would in turn lead to an inevitable back to basics reactions like punk, new wave, glam, pub rock and revivals of rockabilly and garage.
But as necessary as these reactions were, that doesn't mean that some of the early extended explorations of the psychedelic era should just be dismissed as bloated hippie crap. Some of the classic examples still stand as solid rock songs in their own right. Some are really just basic garage or R&B songs stretched out with long solos, (ie Iron Butterfly, CCR, Chambers Bros, Black Sabbath, Ten Years After, The Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray") while others are jazz influenced jams (Paul Butterfield, Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, Pharaoh Sanders crossover epic) and then there are conceptual art pieces like The Velvet's "Heroin" or Arlo Guthrie's comedy jam.
The Top 20 over 7 minutes long (I figure they are so long that a Top 40 would go on forever);
1. The Chambers Brothers ~ "Time has come today";
2. Credence Clearwater Revival ~ "I heard it through the grapevine";
3. Paul Butterfield Blues Band ~ "East/West";
4. The Velvet Underground ~ "Heroin";
5. The Chambers Brothers ~ "Love peace and happiness";
6. Iron Butterfly ~ "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida";
7. Credence Clearwater Revival ~ "Suzie Q";
8. Led Zeppelin ~ "Stairway to Heaven";
9. The Temptations ~ "Papa was a rolling stone";
10. The Doors ~ "The End";
11. Pink Floyd ~ "Interstellar Overdrive";
12. Black Sabbath ~ "Warning";
13. The Velvet Underground ~ "Sister Ray";
14. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band ~ "Work Song";
15. The MC5 ~ "Starship";
16. Vanilla Fudge ~ "You keep me hanging on";
17. Ten Years After ~ "Going home";
18. Quicksilver Messenger Service ~ "Who do you love";
19. Pharaoh Sanders; ~ "The creator has a master plan";
20. Tangerine Dream ~ "Journey through a burning brain" (a remix, couldn't find a embeddable copy of the original;
21. Arlo Guthrie ~ "Alice's Restaurant massacree";
As mentioned in an earlier post Toronto radio station CKLN was finally, deservedly ordered off the air in April. Refusing to take "fuck off" for an answer CKLN's stubbornly inept management recently announced that hey had gotten permission to broadcast again as a "micro broadcaster" with a less than 1 watt signal. No that's not a typo, not even one whole watt with a range of about 700 feet. No that's not a typo either, 700 feet. Wow. That should carry clear across the street. Thus reaching that much coveted "people who happen to be driving by for a split second" demographic. They could literally reach more people by putting the speakers out the window.
My reconstruction of the conversation in a car of loyal CKLN listeners driving down to listen in on their car radio;
(sounds of static)Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.."You're listening to.." Bzzzzzzzzzzzz
1st CKLN fan; "Wait! Back up!"
(gears shift and..)Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...."CKLN.." Bzzzzzzzzzzz"
1st CKLN fan; "Wait! Go forward!"
(gears shift and...)Bzzzzzzzzzzzzz...."88.1fm" Bzzzzzzzzz
2nd CKLN fan; "This is stupid"
I'm guessing they are going to have to play a lot of really short songs.
That's where I can help. No really, I can offer some free advice here. The genre of "absurdly short punk songs" is much beloved if inherently limited one. Remember the first album by DRI where half the song were less than 30 seconds long? Actually some were less than 20 seconds long. Then Napalm Death once took this sort of thing to it's logical conclusion by having a one second song called "you suffer". In the immortal words of Napalm Death singer/guitarist Justin Broadwick;
"We played that song in front of 30 local kids, like, every weekend. We played that song 30 times."
There is even a word for this; "Micro Thrash". Therefore in the spirit of radio brotherhood I offer up for further research some bands known for songs 90 seconds long or less (this list is by no means exhaustive);
The Accused
Adrenaline O.D.
The Angry Samoans
Black Flag
The Circle Jerks
The Descendants
Destroy All Monsters
Discharge
D.R.I.
The Feederz
The Germs
Glue Gun
Government Issue
The High Fives
Minor Threat
The Minutemen
The Mr.T Experience
The Misfits
The Mono Men
Muck and The Mires
The Mummies
Napalm Death
The New Bomb Turks
Operation Ivy
The Ramones
Rancid
7 Seconds
REO Speedealer
Screaching Weasel
Social Unrest
State of Alert
The Subsonics
The Teen Idles
T.S.O.L.
The Undertones
Verbal Abuse
The Vibrators
Voorhees
Wehrmacht
Wire
Need some Can Con? No problem;
Beyond Possession
Bloodshot Bill
Bored Stiff
The Brutal Knights
Cub
Death Sentence
Dementia 13
DOA
The Evaporators
Danko Jones
Deja Voodoo
Thee Goblins
The House of Knives
The Leather Uppers
Maow
Maximum RnR
Molested Youth
The Rocket Reducers
The Sadies
The Screamagers
Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet
The Sick Boys
The Smugglers
The Sophisticatos
The Subhumans
The Ugly
The Vapids
The Viletones
These actually range in quality from the obviously stoopid and proudly goofy to those who surprisingly managed to come up with proper songs, with a beginning, middle and end, sometimes even a solo, in under 90 seconds. Some of these are classics, all should be required listening for any aspiring rocker. Less is more.
THE MISFITS ~ "RETURN OF THE FLY" (this video has a long intro which pads out the song length which is only about 90 seconds);
WIZO ~ "The Count";
FIZZY BANGERS ~ "SHORT ATTENTION SPAN":
DEJA VOODOO ~ "STOP";
DUANE EDDY ~ "SOME KINDA EARTHQUAKE";
SHADOWY MEN ON A SHADOWY PLANET ~ "INTERLUDE/COUNTDOWN" (TWO SONGS);
MAOW ~ "MS. LEFEVRE";
THE GRUESOMES ~ "MY BROKEN HEART WILL NEVER MEND";
THE JAM ~ "BATMAN THEME";
THE ANGRY SAMOANS ~ "THEY SAVED HITLER"S COCK";
THE VIBRATORS ~ "YEAH YEAH YEAH";
THE CYNICS ~ "BUSINESS AS USUAL";
T.S.O.L. ~ "SUPERFICIAL LOVE";
THE NEW BOMB TURKS ~ "I WANT MY BABY DEAD";
THE DESCENDENTS ~ "I DON'T WANNA GROW UP";
THE VANDALS ~ "TO ALL THE KIDS";
WIRE ~ "FEELING CALLED LOVE";
THE MINUTEMEN ~ "POLITICAL SONG FOR MICHEAL JACKSON TO SING" (live);
THE FORGOTTEN REBELS ~ "ELVIS IS DEAD";
THE UNDERTONES ~ "SMARTER THAN YOU";
ADRENALINE O.D. ~ "SUBURBIA";
CAUSTIC SODA ~ WELCOME TO DUMPSVILLE, POPULATION YOU";
MR.T EXPERIENCE ~ "SPEEDRACER";
THE RAMONES ~ "CRETIN HOP";
THE CIRCLE JERKS ~ "WASTED";
DEAD KENNEDYS ~ "I LIKE SHORT SONGS" (live);
BLACK FLAG ~ "REVENGE";
SCREECHING WEASEL ~ "I HATE LED ZEPPELIN";
OPERATION IVY ~ "BOMBSHELL";
7 SECONDS ~ "NOT JUST BOYS FUN";
GLUE GUN ~ "THE SCENE IS NOT FOR SALE;
DEATH SENTENCE ~ "FEEL FUCKED";
BEYOND POSSESSION ~ "NO RELIGION";
DRI ~ "Who am I?";
DISCHARGE ~ "HEAR NOTHING SEE NOTHING SAY NOTHING";
VOORHEES ~ "KEVIN KEEGAN";
NAPALM DEATH ~ "YOU SUFFER";
And then here is of course an entire compilation called "Short Music for short people" which has 99 songs 30 seconds and under.
Want some thing a little less punk and obnoxious? How about Elvis Presley, Duane Eddys, Hank Williams, Ersal Hickey, Chan Romero, Mac Wiseman, Ray Campi, Link Wray, Arch Hall jr, Cliff Richard, Glenn Glen, Merle Travis, Roscoe Holcomb, Hobart Smith, The Byrds, Bluecaps and The Swingin' Blue Jeans? There are also demos from Johnny Horton, Willie Nelson, Elvis (again), Cliff Richard (ditto), and Buffalo Springfield. Then there's the Alan Lomax collections which have some really short tracks by blues, folk and gospel singers including Josh White, Jimmie Strother, Moses Clear Rock Pratt, May Fortune and others.
Of course CKLN could also just play some of those Cabaret Voltaire, SPK, Throbbing Gristle, Nurse with Wound, Ramleh and John Cage records that sound like static anyway.
I actually did that once; while doing an overnight show I played John Cage's "HPSCHRD" which is basically 20 minutes of three or more harpsichords playing randomly buried under mountains of distortion. Eventually somebody called in;
Caller; "Are you on the air"
Me; "Probably"
Caller; "It sounds like I'm going under a tunnel and I'm not"
Me; "Well let's see (turning up volume);
JOHN CAGE ~ "HPSCHD";
Me; "Sounds fine to me. I'll be playing some Cabaret Voltaire later, you may want to stick around for that."
Ever since SUN TV (AKA FOX North) went on the air smack in the middle of the last election FOX North has been searching for a wedge issue comparable to the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, anti-gay hysteria that their American mentors have used so successfully. Not that they haven't also pushed those buttons as well, but they must sense that that sort of thing will exclude them forever from mainstream Canadian society.
That brings us to the arts, yeah that's the ticket. Attacking "elitists" is the new black. The poisonous idea that anybody who makes the mistake of actually treasuring arts, culture, education, science or the environment over greed, guns and god is naturally an "elitist".
Never mind that those who scream this the loudest are always rich and powerful media types and politicians who get out of their limos long enough to plant themselves in front of another microphone and complain about how they are once again being silenced and victimized for their "patriotism" by "the elite".
Of course they are utterly shameless and cynical hypocrites who deserve to be treated with the utter disdain usually reserved for those wingnuts who walk around with their sandwich boards warning us about the end of the world. Combined with the contempt given to telemarketers who scam us while we are trying to have dinner, with perhaps a touch of the "shut the fuck up" we save for those ignorant louts at hockey games screaming at the ref and cheering the most concussion inducing body checks with all too revealing glee. (Significant aside; I can't help but noticing that these types usually don't actually play hockey themselves). I seriously doubt these soulless opportunists have any actual beliefs other than lust for power, greed and attention who will not only yell fire in a crowed theatre, but then blame the resulting stampede on those damn liberal elitists. And the artists on stage of course, let us not forget the real enemy.
In the recent (and ongoing) budget debate in the U.S.A. the Republicans have used deficit hysteria to once again demand the cutting off of such perennial straw men as the National Endowment for the Arts, PBS and NPR. Hey it almost make sense to ask about taxpayer funding during a recession and budget cuts right? Until you realize that arts funding in the USA counts for less than one tenth of one percent of the entire U.S. budget. That's right, you read that correctly. Less than one tenth of one percent. Mind you most Americans think it's more like ten percent. Gee, I wonder how they got that idea? Could it be that Republicans find it useful to attack the arts so as to distract voters away from the cost of the massive tax cuts and giveaways Republicans have pledged to protect even at the cost of total economic collapse? What a cynical elitist idea and you should be ashamed of yourself for even thinking that. GET A JOB YOU STONERS!!!
And yet; I can't help but remember in the previous election Stephen Harper's speech attacking the "cultural elites" in Quebec which cost him the lead in the polls there and which he has never recovered from. After that he kind of backed of a bit. But now the election is over and he has his "More centrist" (remember when they promised that?) majority promising massive cuts to deal with the deficit they would like us to forget they did not in fact inherit from the previously Liberal government. I can't help but noticing SUN TV, AKA FOX North's new fixation on attacking the arts in Canada, especially those artists that most of us have frankly never heard of.
First there was Ezra Levant attacking some band B.C. called "Living With Lions" for accepting a FACTOR grant. We had the spectacle of this comically smug tightass proclaiming his love for The Clash and punk rock and demanding that the band return the money and demanding that “public funding” to be cut to “so called musicians", "a bunch of losers" and a “crummy band". He also brayed his outrage of their "anti-christian" message calling them "Christophobic", which is a little rich coming from a blowhard who made his bones by attacking Islam on a regular basis.
He demanded that the band "return the money" to the taxpayers. Which the shell shocked band then did. Clearly the band should be renamed "Living With Pussies" All of which proves by the way that punk is truly dead. And so is satire.
Then enjoying the taste of easy blood FOX North picked another easy target. An award winning interpretive dancer who I am apparently not elite enough to have ever hard of named Margie Gillis.
The resulting ambush interview between SUN TV's mini-skirted attack bunny Krista Erickson and the almost comically soft spoken and polite Gillis has become a much re-posted horror show of an absurdly uniformed and arrogant host alternating between rank sycophancy of the most cloying sort and text book bullying tactics borrowed from FOX and every other talk radio dick with delusions of grandeur. Constant interruptions, blanket assertions, manufactured outrage, faux working class self pity, bizarre digressions and non-sequitors, oh and of course a completely gratuitous invoking of "Our Troops". It has to be seen to be believed.
(aside update; It turns out you can't actually see it after all since SUN TV regularly uses bullshit copyright complaints to ban any and all embarrassing clips from Youtube. They have had to do this quite a lot lately given the tendency of SUN TV's "Flagship Show" host Ezra Levant to engage in the sort of vitriolic race-baiting that actually got them on the receiving end of a police investigation for violating the country's hate laws, seriously, he's that disgusting. For months the response from the SUN Bunker was to defiantly state that they would never, ever, apologize or cave in to "political correctness" so there, take that. Until the police paid a polite call, then SUN fired off a hurried and half-assed apology. Then they had all the numerous Youtube evidence banned. Not to state the obvious but this is the same SUN TV which has always demanded "openness and transparency" of The CBC. And Native Band Councils. And Arts Groups. And Unions. And any political parties they don't like. Just sayin. Back to our rant already in progress.)
Then a strange thing happened. Normally polite Canadians were revolted by the spectacle of a perfectly nice (if somewhat goofy) hippie lady being attacked by this hard faced bottle blonde harpy and did something they rarely do in large numbers. They got off their butts and complained to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (AKA CBSC). I know there's been complaints before, Howard Stern got a bunch and earlier this year there was a whole kerfuffle over a Dire Straits song (which I also blogged about on here) but there has literally never been a deluge like this. That entire Dire Straits clusterfuck came as a result on just one single complaint for example.
How bad? The CBSC got an astounding over 4,350 complaints an a matter of weeks where they normally get around 2000 in an entire year. In fact they got so many complaints that the CBSC took the unique step of actually putting out a press release begging people to stop sending in complaints as they were completely overwhelmed. Allow me to paraphrase; "We heard you the first 4,350 times! Now please stop, really, we are totally swamped over here". Wow; Nice work people. Seriously, I am impressed.
Just to add salt to the wounds according to the BBM surveys thus far the ratings for SUN TV are so pathetic that at times they have only averaged 7,000 viewers nation wide. So I guess they should be happy that over 4,350 people were watching at all.
For some reason Sun TV and Erickson don't see it that way of course and have been predictably whining about being "bullied" and "threatened" with "four letter words". SUN TV's owners blamed the whole thing on Facebook. Turns out they are outraged at the idea of people using the media to push political agendas. Yeah; this is all your fault Facebook! Shame on you. So let us never forget that the real victims are always the right wing media, our most vulnerable resource.
Now the CBSC doesn't have the power to ban Erickson or fine FOX North and I'm fine with that but I like the fact that Canadians were actually willing to show support for their artists. Harper learned that one once already but that was before the recession so it's nice to see it again. I think Canadians also stood up as well for basic civility, if Erickson had merely asked a question about tax dollars and arts funding that would be one thing, but honestly, she's a snide whining bitch.
But then again if they are going to suckerpunch the straw man of arts funding then FOX North and Erickson have a few questions to answer themselves.
First of all Krista Erickson herself made her name working at the taxpayer funded CBC for years so if FOX North can smugly demand that the hapless band "Living With Lions" return the their funding to the taxpayers than surely Erickson can do the same. Now. And if we are really going to make the tired argument of pay based solely on "merit" then the next obvious question is exactly what are Erickson's qualifications anyway for being some sort of expert on public policy, I mean aside from the obvious fact that she is exactly the type of imperious pinch faced, blow dried, bottle blonde, mini-skirted harpy that right wingers get a hard on for. I mean if we are supposed to give jobs only to the most qualified and experienced than why not give the gig to former Reform M.P. Deborah Grey? She's actually done policy and media stuff and could do actually do a credible job. She also has impeccable conservative credentials and is even good on camera, she certainly wouldn't behave like a rabid chihuahua. I'm guessing that FOX North is assuming that there is little demand to see Deb Grey in a mini-skirt. No offense to Deb Grey. She seems nice and polite.
But now I'm engaging in the sort of nasty "persecution" that conservatives so love to complain about suffering. Sorry about that. Won't happen again. So how do you respond to these tea-bagger douchebags? How about by pointing out the indisputable fact that SUN TV gets more taxpayer money than all these silly dancers and musicians combined? No shit. I kid you not.
SUN TV is owned by Quebecor, which also owns the SUN newspaper chain (obviously) along with the free daily "24 Hours" commuter paper and a bunch of other papers and magazines. All presumably profitable. And it turns out they also get a lot of taxpayer grants from something called The Canadian Periodical Fund. How much you may ask, since clearly nobody at FOX North will.
Well check this out;
"Granted to magazine publishers under the Canadian Periodical Fund.
A list of Quebecor properties and the commensurate amount they received from taxpayers for 2010-11, via the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Chez Soi: $487, 735 Cool: $191.136 7 Jours: $327,160 TV Hebdo: $1,157,100 TV Hebdo Teleromans: $8,480 Les idees de ma maison: $376,943 Clin d’oeil: $480,749 Cote Jardins: $33,678 Derniere Heure: $154,966 Echoes Vedettes: $188,704 Le Lundi: $376,018 Moi & Cie: $7,947 Tout simplement Clodine: $99,489 Clodine Hors serie: $4,366
TOTAL $3.7 million."
And keep in mind that's in JUST ONE YEAR,
not the decade that Erickson was so hot and bothered about. Soooo...Krista, Ezra, howabout it? When is Quebecor going to return that money? All of it? As a taxpayer I demand to know. Now. Why should I have to subsidize your no doubt generous salaries? Surely Quebecor doesn't actually require an annual taxpayer bailout? And even if they did then surely you would be the first ones to insist that Qubecor must be allowed to fail. No?
And when are you going to do an ambush interview about that? I'm waiting. And I'm sure so are your 7,000 viewers.
If you are a (probably) white Canadian over the age of 30 you probably remember "The Rodeo Song". The infamously filthy non-hit that could never, ever. get played on the radio anywhere. And yet we all knew it, and used to sing it idiotically in high school to show how bad ass we were. Yeah sure there's gangsta rap and death metal but really, who could listen to that crap? Besides it wasn't nearly as funny. And juvenile. And filthy. It actually came as a bit of a surprise to discover that it was actually a legitimate song recorded in 1980 by a band from Alberta called The Showmen, who actually recorded a full album, which is more low key.
The Showmen ` "The Rodeo Song" (note whoever posted this on youtube obviously thought it was by the late American country singer Chris LeDoux, in spite of the fact that he sounds nothing like this. He did have a song with that name though, as did David Allen Coe);
That does mean that there was an actual songwriter for this. It was in fact Gaye Delorme, a usually respectable and successful song writer and session guitarist who also worked with a number of thoroughly respectable people including Jann Arden, the Powder Blues Band, Lenny Breau, David Foster and even the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. He also produced KD Lang's first album. He did have another comedy hit though as he also wrote the Cheech and Chong semi-hit "Earache my eye". This was another hit with the easily stoned back in the day. It's since been covered by the likes of Metallica and Korn. I'm not sure this is the legacy a respected producer was looking for but on the other hand most musicians slave away their entire lives without anybody noticing so what the Hell. Delorme died June 23 aged 64 of a heart attack.
CHEECH & CHONG ~ "EARACHE MY EYE":
As for The Showmen, they never lived down their notoriety and broke up some time in the 1980's after recording another album which included a straight forward cover of the classic "Make me do anything you want" failed to break through.
Wildman Fischer died a few weeks ago and it got some sympathetic coverage from music journalist Bob Lefsetz saying among other things;
"Wild Man Fischer was an institution. A club you became a member of in high school or your college dorm. Someone cool but friendly, not a football player or a cheerleader, would start talking about a record, with a smile on his or her face, and begin singing..."
and
"You remember the cover of that initial double album. With his electric hair?
Maybe you don't. Maybe you're just too young. Maybe you equate music with money, learning about the riches of Led Zeppelin or seeing all those acts on MTV.
But once upon a time, it was about music.
And it was certainly about creativity.
Could you question convention?"
Exhibit a)
Bongo George Coleman ~ "I wish I could sing";
For those who don't know, Wild Man Fischer was a mentally ill street person who was known for his off key singing for change on the streets of 1960's L.A. Back in the days of the hippie counter-culture some found this sort of thing endearing, or a refreshing change from corporate culture, or something like that. So Frank Zappa brought him into the recording studio for an album of off key caterwauling and rambling that some hipsters (including notably Dr.Demento) found, and still find endlessly amusing. It didn't last of course because Fischer was mentally ill and soon ended up coming to blows with Zappa who recoiled in horror, canceling his record deal. Turns out when a mentally ill street person is no longer amusing they are just crazy and actually scary. Who knew? In fact those records have been spitefully kept out of print ever since by Zappa and his estate which pretty much destroys any "but how else is Fischer supposed to make a living?" argument.
Exhibit b)
The Shaggs ~ "My pal Foot Foot";
Any of this sound familiar? Remember the late Wesley Willis? Another mentally ill street person brought into the studio to record a couple albums of demented, utterly talentless rambling. A few years ago, before Willis died, Jim DeRogatis wrote a thoughtful piece about this wondering about the ethics of a bunch of white middle class hipsters and fratboys openly laughing at the large lumbering brain damaged black man cavorting for their amusement. That's a question I had been wondering about before and since. And setting aside the issue of race which doesn't apply here since Fischer was white, Lefsetz' comments brought the issue back.
Exhibit c)
Hasil Adkins ~ "The Slop";
I get the theory of "outsider art" or "naive art" that Lefsetz is getting at here, that those amateurs who are untainted by "corporate culture" can give us an alternate voice untainted by the excesses of that culture. It's the basic message of "One flew over the cuckoo's nest" and to a lesser extent "To kill a mocking bird". But I don't buy it. This always seems to me to be a rationalization to give otherwise decent people an excuse to laugh at a geek show that would never be allowed in modern society.
Exhibit d)
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy ~ "Paralyzed";
I like some of Lefsetz's often insightful comments and I don't question his sincerity, besides anyone who despises Gene Simmons even half as much as I do can't be all bad. But I call bullshit on this bullshit. By any rational standard the actual music they created is terrible. If it were not coming from someone the audience is fully aware is mentally ill there is no way it would have been treated as anything other than a silly joke for the amusement of largely white hipsters and drunken fratboys. But since it's coming from an "outsider" their records are seen as an alternative to corporate music, which then gives the hipsters a chance to laugh "ironically" at the geek show? I think not.
Exhibit e)
Herbie Duncan ~ "Hot lips baby";
There are plenty of other examples of clueless amateurs who accidentally made some oddly cool records in the first three decades of rock and roll; Hasil Adkins, Jenks Tex Carmen, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, The Shaggs, Lucia Palmoa, King Uszniewicz, Mrs. Elva Miller, Herbie Duncan, Bongo George Coleman, even Florence Foster Jenkins and I gleefully recommend them all without having to engage in the fetishistic worship of the mentally ill. And spare me the smug hipster "if you don't get it you just aren't as cool as us" implications of your "club". By the way Bob, "clubs" are not cool. Clubs exist to exclude people, and that's not rock and roll.
Exhibit f)
King Uszniewicz ~ "Doo Wah Diddy";
Exhibit g) Mrs. Elva Miller (w/Jimmy Durante) ~ "Inky Dinky Doo";
This spring Toronto had one radio station finally go off the air for good while another finally won it's battle to go on the air. Still another once proud radio icon engaged in yet another one of it's revolving door format changes.
First the deceased;
CKLN 88.1fm was a campus/community radio station based at Ryerson University since 1983, or earlier depending on who you ask. Over the years a lot of good programming went on there and the station was quite influential on the Toronto music scene. Some talented people got their start there, Handsome Ned, Mean Steve Piano, Sucking Chest Wound, Jill Heath, Brian Taylor, Bill Grove, David Scurr, James Bailey, Arnie Achtman, The Blue Demon, Mike Hanson, Gerry Belanger, Charles Watson, Jaymz Bee, DJ Barbie, Dave Neudorf, Michie Mee, Freedom in a Vacuum, The Tape Beatles, Chris Twoomey, Ian Danzig. A bunch of people who later went on to The Flow and CBC and Exclaim Magazine. Oh and I did a show there too for several years before moving to CIUT.
Unfortunately like a number of other campus/community radio stations in Canada CKLN was also full of professional DJ's and show promoters who used CKLN to make money on the side and also became a haven for a cadre of fanatical left wing activist types who engaged in their usual vicious sectarian infighting that inevitably tore the place apart. In 2008 the left wing groups staged coup to seize control of the station. After a year long campaign of harassment, slander, nuisance lawsuits, frivolous complaints to the CRTC, threats and occasional violence backed by the equally leftist Ryerson Student Union (RSU, who also withheld the station's funds to force it into bankruptcy) the leftists got their way. But only after the RSU actually seized the station itself, changing the locks and forcing it off the air for seven months. Unfortunately for them after getting the run of CKLN it turned out that left wing activists didn't know the first thing about running a radio station. So after several months of jaw dropping incompetence the CRTC finally called hearings to decide if the whole sorry embarrassing mess should be allowed to continue. The hearings happened in December 2010 and I testified as a witness. There is no room here to go into the hilarity of the proceedings and the awe inspiring ineptitude of the new CKLN management but suffice it to say the CRTC was not impressed and ordered the station shut down for good. CKLN tried to fight this shut down order in court and via a public campaign claiming "corporate censorship". To the surprise of absolutely nobody the court challenge failed and the public campaign fizzed out and CKLN finally went dark this April.
The Torontoist had the best article about the CKLN debacle which I can't improve on so here it is;
"Timeline: Why CKLN Radio's Broadcast License Was Revoked by Steve Kupferman on January 28, 2011 3:30 PM
Today the CRTC revoked the broadcasting license of radio station CKLN—an independent community-run radio station located in Ryerson University's campus (and largely funded by its student union) but not officially affiliated with that institution—citing the station's failure to comply with federal broadcasting regulations for the past three years. The decision document announcing the revocation is an epic catalogue of alleged violations, some of them outrageous in their negligence. But the document is long, and you have stuff to do. So we've boiled the whole thing down to a series of key points.
August 13, 2007: The CRTC renews CKLN's license for a term of seven years.
Between August 2007 and March 2009: CKLN is riven with internal disputes. The station fires staff and volunteers, and eventually elects competing boards of directors. (A case concerning the competing boards is currently underway at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.)
The Palin Foundation, the building manager for Ryerson's Student Campus Centre (where CKLN has its studio), locks staff out from March 2009 until October the same year. During the lockout, rather than its usual programming, the station plays a recorded loop of a jazz program, complete with spoken commentary. CKLN is denied access to its transmitter at First Canadian Place, so broadcasts are intermittent.
July 2, 2009: After hearing complaints about CKLN's alleged "ongoing difficulties with its governance structure," CRTC staff sends a letter to CKLN requesting responses to the accusations.
September 14, 2009: CRTC staff members meet with representatives of CKLN to discuss the station's compliance difficulties. Face-to-face meetings of this kind are not something the CRTC typically does.
September 17, 2009: CRTC staff sends another letter to CKLN, requesting information on the station's operations and governance structure. The letter informs CKLN management that the station hasn't filed its required annual returns with the CRTC for the past two years.
October 6, 2009: CKLN files its response to the CRTC's letter of September 17. It promises to hire paid management staff and resolve its internal difficulties.
February 10, 2010: The CRTC sends CKLN a letter requesting tapes, logs, and program schedules relating to the week of January 10, 2010. CKLN sends the tapes on time, but files the schedules and logs almost two weeks late. The tapes are full of static, and they don't match the logs. Later, the CRTC reiterates an unfulfilled October, 2009 request for tapes and logs from June 2009 (which was during the lockout period) and again CKLN sends them after the deadline. When a CRTC staff member asks why the material is late, a CKLN representative says that the person responsible for sending the stuff was "in the Caribbean for a month.
March 1, 2010: In response to the CRTC's continued insistence on receiving those required annual returns, CKLN sends a letter saying that it has "no knowledge as to why the returns had not been filed," and that they'll be in the mail within a few days.
May 12, 2010: The CRTC adjourns a public hearing on CKLN's alleged regulatory violations, but requires CKLN to file monthly reports beginning June 14.
July 7, 2010: A scheduled host doesn't appear at the station for his or her show, and so a CKLN volunteer broadcasts the online stream of a Seattle, Washington, jazz radio show as a substitute. The CRTC takes this and other lapses as evidence that the station's infighting is ongoing. CKLN has not hired management staff and is still controlled by a "working board."
September 14, 2010: CKLN tries to file its annual return for the broadcast year of 2006/2007 with the CRTC, but sends in the wrong form.
October 13, 2010: CKLN tries to file four years' worth of annual returns with the CRTC, all at once. But the data for each year goes only until April 30—the CRTC requires data ending August 31. CKLN promises to file corrected returns within a month, then doesn't.
December 8, 2010: The CRTC reconvenes the previously adjourned public hearing on CKLN's alleged violations. Ron Nelson, head of the station's working board, tells the CRTC that the board has no experienced guidance. "We have never been a program director at a radio station before," he reportedly said. "So we had to do a lot of consulting with the NCRA and other radio stations and their program directors, such as CHRY and CIUT, to find out how to do our job properly."
January 28, 2011: The CRTC revokes CKLN's broadcast license, effective February 12."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On another note, not an entire radio station but rather the last remaining shred of a once respected radio station's glory years. In the 1980's CFNY was Toronto's Alternative, Toronto's New Wave. Then at some point in the late 1990's they changed formats, substituting new wave for Madonna and (gasp) Phil Collins. There were protests, mass firings and resignations, an ownership change and CRTC hearings, which I also testified at come to think of it. The new owners promised to bring back the old format and foster new talent. Instead there were more mass firings and a re-branding as "The Edge 102.4" whatever that means. One of those few from the glory days who managed to survive was DJ Alan Cross. But only just. In 1992 he was given the choice of doing a new project of doing a historical retrospective show called "The Ongoing History of New Music" which would give The Edge some CFNY gravitas. Or Cross could dust off his resume. He reluctantly chose to do the show and given his deep musical knowledge and research skills honed when he had earned a history degree he was able to turn it into a much respected show. Recently he was unceremoniously dumped off the Edge who have long ago learned that gravitas doesn't sell nearly as well as marketing. Sometime this year CFNY also closed their street level audience friendly studios at the Eaton Center. Speaking of which this year Q107 also closed their street level studios across the street at the Hard Rock Cafe. Why in an age when radio is under challenge from newer user friendly media forms these corporate geniuses would want to isolate themselves from the public I'm sure I don't know. But then again I also couldn't for the life of me figure out why CKLN's far-leftist fanatics wanted to turn that place into an insular sectarian cult either. Hey how did that turn out again? Oh right.
The Caribbean Radio Network (or CARN) has been pushing laboriously for a license since 2002 and after having been shot down a few times finally got permission from the CRTC to broadcast at 98.7fm in June. CARN Had to get past objections from the CBC (because of their fears that CARN's 98.7fm signal would interfere with the CBC's 99.1fm signal) as well as unrelated objections from Rogers, Astral and CTV (because they're dicks). Also Ron Nelson from the soon-to-be corpse of CKLN also complained on the air calling CARN "vultures" for having the temerity to claim that CARN would be "The Voice of the Black and Caribbean Communities in Toronto" a role that CKLN had claimed. It has been noted that once upon a time The Flow made the same claim only to abandon that role to become a more mainstream (and more profitable) station. For that matter the same has been said about CFNY and Proud fm so we shall see. CARN is not actually on air yet and there will be a delay while they get ready, they will also probably have different call letters.
On another note there is the never ending saga of 1050 CHUM am. Once the powerhouse of Toronto rock radio from the 1950's to the early 1980's. CHUM ruled the roost in Toronto for twenty years presenting everyone from Elvis to the Beatles and could claim the title of "The Voice of Young Toronto". The CHUM Top 30 charts became a fixture and eventually branched on to a television version as well. The owners of CHUM Group also started a CHUM FM sister station as well. I have fond childhood memories of all of it. However times were changing as AM lost ground to FM and top forty lost ground to more specialized rivals like the avowedly hard rock Q107, the new wave CFNY and more eclectic campus/community stations like CKLN and CIUT. CHUM seemed not to notice times were changing until suddenly in the mid eighties it's ratings finally tumbled dramatically. In 1986 they switched from Top Forty to Adult Contemporary Soft Rock and Pop, then in 1989 they went to Golden Oldies. When that didn't work they suddenly gave up on music entirely in 2001 to become an all sports station, ignoring the fact that Toronto already had an all sports station. That turned into a disaster and the ratings cratered completely so they desperately switched back to golden oldies only a year later.
They never recovered from this debacle and in 2007 when the network was sold the new owners, CTV, abruptly switched formats again to a 24 Hour news station, once again ignoring that Toronto already had such a station. This time it was widely assumed that the new CHUM was just making time by running a shell station since there was no actual programming at all, just a direct feed from the Cable Pulse 24 television channel, which led to some odd moments when the television announcers referred to video images that the radio audience (assuming there was one) could not see and long unexplained silences. This year brought another change back to...wait for it...another all sports station. This time they took the time to plan it out and got a fair amount of press attention for the big switch over to what they are now calling TSN Sports Radio. Whether there is still any point to having another sports station in Toronto remains to be seen. At any rate the long winding road of CHUM and CKLN is a unique one in the history of Canadian radio for better or (eventually) worse.
I was a little under the weather this year so I didn't get to see as many bands this year as I usually do, also I wanted to see the Three Blue Teardrops on Saturday. There were also a couple of long lineups I didn't have the patience for, however I actually got to see most of what I really wanted wanted.
Pick up press pass on Wednesday. Actually there have been films showing since Monday, including ---- but they don't issue press passes until Wednesday so I don't get to see them. Why do you always do stuff like this NXNE? Really, there is always some sort of completely avoidable scheduling fuck up every single year. Anyway there is only one actual show this night.
The Drive-By Truckers ~ The Phoenix;
One of the best Southern Rock bands around today, they're tight, play well and have some good songs. I just wish I could remember more of them after-wards. I wish they had more personality. And I wish they would rock out more. Still those who like the genre like them a whole lot.
Thursday;
The Descendants ~ Dundas Square ~ 9pm;
Easily the most popular show of the weekend, with people literally coming in for miles around, I ran into people I haven't seen in a decade. Milo and the boys are still as rock solid and tight as ever. And the toughest nerds in punk rock. At some point somebody through a bottle and hit Milo right in the head, drawing blood even. Hey asshole! This is a free show for fuck sakes. Shouldn't you be in Vancouver celebrating your teams ability to choke like George Bush on a pretzel? Sorry where was I? Oh right Milo; anyway he continued on as if nothing happened. Not only did he not miss a beat but he never even mentioned it after the song was done. Now if that had been Mike Ness or Glen Danzig they would have stopped the show for half an hour while they harangued the crowd about how they were punk rock while you were in kindergarten.Speaking of which Milo brought his two young kids on stage to read the Descendants Ten Commandments to the crowd; to wit, Adorable Young Daughter; "Thou shall not partake of death" Milo; "Uh no sweetie, that's decaff" Yes well, It's still good advice though.
Take Drugs ~ The Bovine ~ 10pm; So-so local punk band in that grey area between early hardcore and old school punk.
Darlings of Chelsea ~ The Bovine ~ 11pm; These local guys are always a solid trash punk band. I really must get a cd at some point.
CJ Ramone ~ The Bovine ~ 12am As one of the last standing Ramones, albeit one of the least important ones, CJ knows where his bread is buttered. All Ramones songs all the time. Reminds me of the version of The Misfits that has been touring for the last several years now featuring fellow bassist Jerry Only (finally living up to his name). Still even though unlike CJ Jerry actually played on the original songs CJ pulls this of with less embarrassment. Must be the makeup.
Komunga ~ The Hard Luck ~ 2am Formed by the singer of the late lamented Brown Hornets. The Hornets were a blues/r&b garage band with a smoking love show that never really translated in the studio. The new band is more 1970's Grand Funk with less swagger and more volume. We'll see.
Friday;
CATL ~ BBQ at Casa Del CATL; CATL put on a BBQ and played a few acoustic blues numbers, they should really add that into their live set. Col. Tom Parker from the late lamented Backstabbers played a few old timey country numbers as well and a low key good time was had by all.
The BB Guns ~ The Silver Dollar 11am; Another most girl garage band. Featuring the guitarist from the late Machetes. I saw them last year time when they had the worst amp malfunction I've ever heard but I was assured that wouldn't happen again. And it didn't. They were in fact better than White Eyes or The Dum Dum Girls with more melody and variety.
White Eyes ~ The Bovine 12am; A band from Taiwan getting some buzz. They are indeed loud and intense and they do indeed have an attractive scantily clad girl singer. But to me they sound like every other buzz band from the orient that comes here every couple of years; a whole lot of distorted guitar, driving bass and a singer's indecipherable caterwauling which may or may not be in English. See also; Guitar Wolf, The Zoo Bombs, Melt Banana, Jittering Jim. I don't know if all bands in Asia are like this or lust the ones who come here. Probably the latter. Also as usual the audience is full of Asian students who I never see at another gigs.
The Dum Dum Girls ~ The El Mocambo (secret show) ~ 1am; Another band getting some buzz right now. An all girl four piece dressed all in black playing mid tempo droney guitar pop. There pretty cool alright but I couldn't help but notice that all their songs are exactly the same. Seriously, Alana, guitarist from the BB Guns comes over and asks my opinion; "I like them enough but all their songs are the same". "They are using all the same chords!" She says, "Really, they are just changing the placement a bit or using a capo". Also while they have two guitars they are both playing the same chords as well. I note that they are also using the same Mo Tucker drum pattern in every song as well. We wonder how they are going to last long term if they don't start to change it up a bit. Oh well she assures me they are very nice.
Saturday;
Devo ~ Dundas Square; I only caught the last few songs so no "Whip It" or "Satisfaction". I have to admit I've never seen them before and had no idea they were so rockist. I swear one of their songs lifted a riff from a Black Sabbath song. Yes they did wear the black jumpsuits. No conehead hats though. Apparently those got lost before I got there.
UK record producer Martin Rushent died June 4 aged 62. Producer for the classic New Wave hit albums of the 1980's by The Buzzcocks, Stranglers, Human League and Soft Cell. The Buzzcocks and Stranglers albums made his name but he really hit the big time with the classic and massively successful series of hit albums with The Human League and Soft Cell. Besides selling tons of copies these records (that's right kids, actual records!) were also hugely influential to a new generation of electro music artist and dj's for better or worse. This is in spite of the fact that the technology then used will probably never be used again and would be considered by today's electronic musicians as being as hopelessly out of date as the player piano.
THE HUMAN LEAGUE ~ DON'T YOU WANT ME;
Today's electro musicians do can do everything from a single computer program using premade samples, drum tacks and auto-tuning which removes any actual human fingerprints. Rushent's records with The Human League and Soft Cell were done with analog technology (ask your parents) and required not only that each sample clip be separately edited in but also that the entire mix be programed in step by step lest it go out of time. Then you add in flourishes like a horn section which also had to be programed in step by laborious step and you have days and days of work for something that could be dashed off in a day now.
SOFT CELL ~ TAINTED LOVE;
At the time many music writers and musicians didn't see these records as being legitimate in the way that guitar oriented New Wavers like say, The Pretenders, Blondie, Police, Talking Heads or even avowedly keyboard heavy bands like Ultravox. Now, in retrospect we can see them as much a part of pop (if not exactly Rock and Roll) as the heavily orchestrated girl groups of the 1960's.
THE STRANGLERS ~ NO MORE HEROES;
And if that weren't enough remember Rushent also produced the classic albums by The Buzzcocks Generation X, 999, Dr. Feelgood, the dB's and the Stranglers, and nobody could deny those. He had actually been around since the early 1970's and had worked with T Rex, Fleetwood Mac, Gentle Giant and even Shirley Bassey.
999 ~ HOMICIDE;
Partial Martin Rushent discography;
1971; T-Rex ~ Electric Warrior Gentle Giant ~ Acquiring the Taste Fleetwood Mac ~ Future Games 1972; Gentle Giant ~ Three Friends Gentle Giant ~ Octopus Shirley Bassey ~ I Capricorn 1975; Shirley Bassey ~ Good, Bad but Beautiful 1977; The Stranglers ~ Rattus Norvegicus The Stranglers ~ No More Heroes 1978; The Stranglers ~ Black and White The Buzzcocks ~ Another Music in a Different Kitchen Generation X ~ Generation X The Buzzcocks ~ Love Bites 999 ~ Separates Dr Feelgood ~ Private Practice 1979; The Stranglers ~ Live (X Cert) The Buzzcocks ~ A Different Kind of Tension J-J Burnel ~ Euroman Cometh 1981; The Human League ~ Dare Pete Shelley ~ Homosapien The Raybeats ~ Guitar Beat Altered Images ~ Happy Birthday The dB's ~ Stands for Decibels 1982; The Human League ~ Love and Dancing Altered Images ~ Pinky Blue 1983; The Human League ~ Fascination! Pete Shelley ~ XL1 1984; The Human League ~ Hysteria The Go-Go's ~ Talk show
