My favorite Christmas record, maybe Santa will bring me the picture sleeve....
Rockets Redglare as Santa Claus, Christmas Hangover Hop, '91.
Why is it that at Christmas time, when you really need to lose yourself in TV, the worst movies are on? Everything else is re-runs. If station programmers had half a brain they'd save all their weirdest, whacked out stuff for Christmas week and the week after and get the alienated crowd, which I'm sure is huge (that's why Christmas day is the biggest day for movie theaters). Since I don't have kids, I'm allowed to hate Christmas, which I do. New York City is jammed with morons rushing around, pushing and shoving, no one looks happy. Everyone will be in debt until next August for crap no one needs. I didn't post Christmas discs this year, I'm still sick of them from last year, anyway, there's tons old Christmas rock'n'roll, country, blues and R&B onn the airchecks at the Hound aircheck site, I think the best one was in '93. You can no longer download individual songs, only entire shows, mainly because it was getting rather expensive to maintain the thing. I figure everything that's there is up somewhere else anyway, or most of it, besides, it's been up there for years now and anyone who cares has already gone through itall. Unfortunately since last year's two part Christmas disc posting was taken mostly from airchecks, the song links no longer work. Sorry, but nothing good lasts for very long in this life. Besides since the sound quality ain't so good since it comes from cassette recordings from WFMU's always (in NYC) dodgy signal.
I think I'm sort of in shock that the decade's already over and nothing seemed to happen except everyone died, and the world I knew just seemed to vanish. I blame the worst president ever, but if he wasn't so bad we would have finally gotten a black one. So I guess something good came out of it. Too bad he (Obama) is going to get blamed for the entire mess he inherited. Poor guy. I feel sorry for him.
The whole world I knew disappeared, even the cities I loved-- New York and New Orleans are barely recognizable. The world just seems like a much meaner, uglier place.
They say that crime is going down, but I don't believe it, they're just manipulating the statistics.
If crime's going down, why are two million people in jail? I don't understand the kids today,
why do they want to join gangs and shoot each other? Is it all that bad music, bad movies, ugly clothing, bad jobs, bad drugs and really bad hair cuts? I guess I'd want to shoot somebody too if I was nineteen years old. I came to New York with $200 in my pocket. What would I do if I was just leaving home in this day and age? I have no idea.
The only thing that got better was TV--- we've had some great ones-- The Wire,The Shield, The Sopranos, Big Love, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry Sanders (ooops, that was twenty years ago? My time flys....), Breaking Bad, etc. And great big, HD flat screen TV's to watch 'em on. Orwell in reverse. You wait, it'll end. They're already threatening to raise cable prices by 300%, which would bring my bill to around $500 a month. I hope they don't stop making books.
Awwwy, I don't mean to be a scrooge, I'll leave you with one tune, my favorite Christmas record ever: Canned Heat & the Chimpmunks-- Christmas Boogie. That seems rather stingy, here's another Christmas present for you all, from WFMU's Rock Rock'n'Soul Ichiban blog page, Bo Diddley, live 1959, you just gotta hear his version of Night Train! I guess it's okay for me to give it away here since they gave away my Great Lost Hasil Adkins record (which turned out to be a good thing since they set up a faster connection). Despite a slightly distorted sound on the vocal mike, it's a really great record. It's nearly as good as Bo's Beach Party (Checker, 1963). Evidently, someone pressed up a few copies of this 1959 frat party gig in the early seventies, I've never seen the actual LP, or even knew about it. I wish the garage jam tape from the old Bop comic book would get released. If you never saw the story, this kid invited Bo to his house to jam with his band, around 1963 and the next day Bo and Jerome showed up and played all day with these kids, they taped it and the still tape exists, but Bo's manager wouldn't let it come out, he was too busy pushing Bo's rap record and horrible jams with Ron Wood. Now that Bo's gone, what's the harm of releasing it? Some day it'll come out, I just hope I'm still around to enjoy it. Whenever I think of poor Bob Quine, I think, the little guy waited his whole life for the Link Wray Cadence LP, and then it comes out six months after he dies.
WoW!
ReplyDeleteA Bo Diddley set I had never heard of! This is a real treasure, as I thought I had everything he ever put out. As for that jam
you mention, Wouldn't that be something!
Even mainstream Beatles fans can't get a mono CD until they are in a wheelchair. Hail bootlegging!
ReplyDeleteI met Bob “The Bear” Hite when I lived in Topanga Canyon and danced at the Corral. Never met that Alvin dude.
ReplyDeleteC'mon Jim, you know what's wrong with today, drugs and the assholes who've been selling them all these years.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to the Bo set, I read about it a few weeks ago, I am glad to get a chance to hear it.Sounds Killer
ReplyDeleteThanks to Kogar for the Bo set, and to The Hound for pointing it out. (I picked up the re-issue, but I am currently without a working vinyl player, so I was yet to hear the goddamn thing!)
ReplyDeleteBTW, the "Handle with care" blog, now sadly departed, ran a 20+ volume "Bo Did It" comp series, where vol 18 included scans of the crazy night with Bo Diddley story. You can find these three pages in a zipped file here: http://www.mediafire.com/?t2wlnzhmzrd
"where vol 18 included scans of the crazy night with Bo Diddley story. You can find these three pages in a zipped file here: http://www.mediafire.com/?t2wlnzhmzrd"
ReplyDeleteYup, that's the story, thanks, I'm too lazy to go digging for it in the basement. I know of at least one label owner who has a copy of the tape and wanted to release it, but as I said in the posting, Bo's manager nixed it. Hopefully we'll see, I mean, hear it it soon.
I just wanted to post a personal thanks to The Hound for all these great blogs and the great radio shows and to Brian Redman for making the shows available online.
ReplyDeleteStaffan from Sweden
I still have on tape somewhere your Christmas bit (early 90's ??) where you listed the 10 things to do when going home to the family for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteBasically stay drunk and watch the 3 Stooges instead of Football.
I played it for my daughter her first Christmas home from College several years ago. She loved the part about "MoFo" written on your knuckles while passing the gravy.
Classic. Thanks.
--Ken from NJ
Yea...all right, New York and New Orleans ain't what they used to be & there's no going back. I gotta say though, I saw Andre walking alone, down Esplanade Ave. last night around 7:00pm, and man-oh-man did he look fine, pin stripes like nobody knows. Thank you, heart, for the Bo and this beautiful thing that you do.
ReplyDelete"The whole world I knew disappeared, even the cities I loved-- New York and New Orleans are barely recognizable. The world just seems like a much meaner, uglier place.
ReplyDeleteThey say that crime is going down, but I don't believe it, they're just manipulating the statistics.
If crime's going down, why are two million people in jail? I don't understand the kids today,
why do they want to join gangs and shoot each other? Is it all that bad music, bad movies, ugly clothing, bad jobs, bad drugs and really bad hair cuts? I guess I'd want to shoot somebody too if I was nineteen years old. I came to New York with $200 in my pocket. What would I do if I was just leaving home in this day and age? I have no idea."
AMEN!
I went around the world and back again on a guitar, a dream, quality footwear, friends, friends of friends -and their sofas!- and a smattering of street smarts. I can't imagine my early-20's aged nieces and nephews getting to the closest Taco Bell without instructions and a hefty infusion of parental cash, let alone N.Y. or say, Berlin.
I always said I'd never be one of those guys to live in the past -and I'm not- but I just think the world changed more in the last fifteen years than the previous hundred. Maybe it felt similar at the dawn of the industrial revolution?
Toke!
Hey Hound, thanks for a great year of posts.
ReplyDeleteCoz' you deserve it, here's a Xmas gift for you. It's a 1977 interview with John & Legs about the magazine & NY punk in general. I thought it might take you back to those early days, hope you dig it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scr2TAOW38U
BTW, the "Handle with care" blog, now sadly departed, ran a 20+ volume "Bo Did It" comp series, where vol 18 included scans of the crazy night with Bo Diddley story. You can find these three pages in a zipped file here: http://www.mediafire.com/?t2wlnzhmzrd
ReplyDeletewow, can someone upload the handle with care bo did it series? i made one as a sequal to the "bo did it" lp bootleg called bo did it again (its on my blog if anyone wants it)...
You feel sorry for Obama? Save your pity for the kids he's sending to Afganistan to die for the American empire.
ReplyDelete"You feel sorry for Obama? Save your pity for the kids he's sending to Afganistan to die for the American empire."
ReplyDeleteOkay, I will. I keep thinking he'll come to his senses and realize what a bad idea it is
Yeah, GET DOWN for Xmas w/Canned Heat & the Chipmunks... I met Bob Hite backstage at a Minneapolis/St. Paul arena show circa '74 (he died in '81). I told him I'd never received any issues of my subscription to his fanzine RHYTHM & BLUES (or maybe it was just called 'R&B'). He chuckled, said "Oh, sorry man," and offered me a hit on the joint he was smoking. Which was alright but I would've rather had the 'zine...
ReplyDelete". I met Bob Hite backstage at a Minneapolis/St. Paul arena show circa '74 (he died in '81). "
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine took me to his house in Laurel Canyon once in the 80's, he had a whole 'nuther house behind it full of 78's. I remember he pulled out some 16" transcriptions of a Soul Stirrers recording session that had never been issued, at one point the song breaks down and one of 'em goes "aww fuck, that was mah fault...(then starts singing) Sweet Jesus...". I wonder what ever happened to those?
He was notorious for breaking 78's in stores after grabbing two copies for himself, so that his would become rarer, then he'd leave notes on the wall like "too bad-- the Heat's been hear already!" The guitarist, Henry Vestine's wife divorced him when he was in jail and got a-j of his record collection in the settlement. He was also in the surf group the Gamblers of Moon Dawg/LSD-25 fame (I think they're on one of Norton's Kim Fowley collections). When I met him he was pot dealer to the rock stars and a bit of a White Power nut.
> If crime's going down, why are two million people in jail?
ReplyDeleteLocking away two million criminals actually seems like a pretty good way to guarantee a reduction in the crime rate.