Stooges update

Here's some rare footage of the '73 Iggy & the Stooges line up. Iggy sent out a press release a few weeks back announcing that James Williamson will be rehearsing with the Stooges in July for some as yet un-announced gigs--" the repertoire will be Raw Power" according to Iggy. After Ron Asheton died I assumed I'd never leave the house again, but I sure won't miss this one. By the way, that's Nitebob's Firebird Williamson's playing (James had been compaining about how heavy his Les Paul was, so Nitebob who was their sound man lent him his Gibson Firebird), the footage was taken at the Academy of Music in New York City New Year's Eve 1973/74, too bad Ron's not visible, he was wearing one of his Nazi uniforms that night. CBS recorded the gig on a 24 track mobile unit but the tape has never surfaced, only a poor sounding audience recorded cassette that was issued as a bootleg called Night Of The Iguana.

Sam Butera

Louis Prima's band leader and saxophonist Sam Butera died Wednesday morning, June 3rd at 6 a.m. at his home in Las Vegas, he was 81 years old. He was born in New Orleans on Aug. 17, 1927 and led Prima's backing band the Witnesses from 1954 until 1975 when Prima went into the coma that would eventually kill him. He was on all of the best Louis Prima & Keely Smith Capitol LP's: The Wildest (here), The Call Of The Wildest, The Wildest Comes Home, The Wildest Show In Tahoe (here), etc.) I caught him at the Tropicana in Vegas as recently as 1997 and he was still great. He made lots of good solo records including Easy Rockin' (Capitol), Bim Bam (Capitol), Little Liza Jane (Prima 1) She's A Kookamonger (Dot) as well as singing lead on many songs on Prima's LP's like his killer reading of Richard Berry's The Next Time (from The Call of The Wildest it can be heard here along with the best of Louis Prima's Capitol sides). He also made several solo LP's for Capitol including The Big Horn (here). He had retired from performing in 2004, so I was already missing him. With Sam's death comes the end of an era, that of the great rock'n'roll Vegas lounge acts which included the Treniers, Freddie Bell & the Bell Boys, Bill Ward & the Dominos, and of course Lous Prima with Sam Butera & the Witnesses.

DAVID CARRADINE DEATH: AUTO-EROTIC ASPHYXIATION?  Check out today's Smoking Gun.  Sounds like a better explanation than suicide, after all, why would he have wrapped the rope around his genitals? 

Billy Fury

Nice suit, and check out the make up! Not everyone can get away with white, cuban heeled boots.... Yet another variation on the gold suit....

Early British rock'n'roll was a sad affair. With no decrepit old black alcoholics straight from the cotton fields, or speed wired hillbillies in sequin suits to teach them the licks, the style, the songs, they did the best they could by simply copying what American records they could lay their hands on. With no independent record labels or crazy all night disc jockey's they had to then enter the already established British showbiz system and hope for the best. Recording studios were staffed by men in white lab coats and studio musicians wore jackets and ties (unlike in America where studios where staffed by cigar chomping gangsters and studio musicians guzzled cheap wine straight from the bottle and popped dexadrine like they were tic-tacs). Still, occasionally they'd hit the mark-- there's even a few genuine vinyl masterpieces from this era-- Cliff Richard's Move It, Johnny Kidd & the Pirates' Shakin' All Over, Vince Taylor & the Playboys' Brand New Cadillac and Jet Black Machine, but these were rare occurrences, few and far between. What early British rock'n'roll did have was a guy named Larry Parnes, himself a failed singer turned manager/Svengali, he was known to get behind young talent and give a big push. He would buy them new clothes, teach them how to comb their hair, and re-name them (rumour has it the names Parnes chose for his acts came from their performance in his bed, hence a stable of catamites with names like Johnny Gentle, Duffy Power, Marty Wilde and Wee Willie Wayne). The closest England came to developing a real rocker was today's subject--- Billy Fury. He was no Esquerita, in fact at his very best he was sort of a second rate Ricky Nelson, but I love Ricky Nelson, and I have a soft spot for Billy Fury. Fury came from Liverpool, born Ronald Wycherley in 1940. As a child he suffered from rheumatic fever which caused a permanent heart condition. Growing up in the rough, working class neighborhood known to locals as The Dingle, Fury who had spent much of his early school years in the hospital had few friends and and less education. At age 16 he left school and became a rivet thrower in the shipyards, then later signed on as a deck hand. Liverpool being at the time Britain's biggest port city gave young Ronald exposure to American country music and rhythm and blues, and when the film The Girl Can't Help It was released in 1956 he became infatuated with Eddie Cochran to whom he bore more than a passing resemblance. He got a guitar, changed his name to Stead Wayne and formed the Formby Sniffle (sic) Group, probably in that order. He also began writing songs. In 1958 he entered a recording studio in Liverpool and recorded four Elvis tunes and an original called Love's A Callin'. He sent the tape and a photo of himself to Larry Parnes. In October of that year a Parnes package tour was playing in Liverpool and Parnes invited young Ronald to present himself, which he did, even pitching two tunes-- Maybe Tomorrow and Margo to Marty Wilde backstage. Parnes could spot talent, and was taken by the youngster, putting him onstage that night where he performed for eight minutes, wowing the audience. He was added to the show and the next day he was headed for Manchester, an overnight sensation was born. Parnes signed him up, changed his name to Billy Fury, dressed him in a tight gold suit and black mascara and soon he was signed to Decca Records, Ronald/Stead/Billy was soon chartbound. His first single was Maybe Tomorrow and it rose to #18 on the U.K. pop charts. Soon Fury was appearing all over the country, onstage he was a wild performer, and like Elvis in the U.S. he was met with great dismay by the press and adult censorship organisations like the British Watch Committee (which tried to have him banned from all U.K. stages). As a result of the bad press his next single Margo reached only #28 and his next two releases didn't chart at all. Fury was ordered to tone it down or he'd be back on the Liverpool docks before his stock of mascara ran out. He relented and toned his stage show down a bit, no more humping the mike stand, no Elvis-like hip swivels, etc. It didn't matter, Billy Fury became a huge star in Britain, probably second only to Cliff Richard as far as home grown rock'n'roll stars went at the time. He churned out the records, and his recorded output was surprisingly good. His biggest hit-- Halfway To Paradise, a cover of a tune that was a minor hit for Tony Orlando in the States was fairly typical of his hits, an Elvis style ballad, aimed at teenage girls, not half bad but nothing that would upset your parents. I Will, Jealousy and Please Don't Go fall into the same category. His first really great record was Collette, an original that would have fit into Buddy Holly's set list perfectly. I Can Feel It is an excellent country style rocker with a psuedo gospel style call and response refrain and a killer guitar solo from Joe Brown. Play It Cool is a cover of the Eddie Fontaine tune from The Girl Can't Help It that bests the original, another good rocker of his was You Got Me Dizzy. Also worth mentioning is Don't Jump, a teen snuff classic with a big, twangy guitar sound.His finest moment was the whacked out, out of tune sax section driven Gonna Type A Letter-- you haven't lived until you've seen a whole room full of aging Teddy Boys jiving in line to this one (as I witnessed back in the early 80's).

Around 1959 Decca issued the ten inch LP-- The Sound Of Fury, probably the best pre-Beatles British rock'n'roll LP and one that has been cited by Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck as highly influential in their formative years. Consisting of ten original tunes, and showing off Joe Brown's guitar to great effect this little disc had some actual rock'n'roll classics including Don't Leave Me, My Advice, That's Love and Turn My Back On You. Fury kept up the furious pace, girls mobbed him where ever he went, he was on the package tour that ended with the car crash the killed his hero Eddie Cochran (and maimed Gene Vincent).

In the early sixties he hired the Tornados (of Telstar fame) as his backing band and together they cut a live LP-- We Want Billy! One of the first Brit live albums and while not exactly Jerry Lee Lewis Live At The Star-Club (Phillips) or Bo Diddley's Beach Party (Checker), it does have a sort of perverse appeal for me, especially the more rockin' cuts like his renditions of Sweet Little 16, I'm Movin' On, Just Because, and That's Alright Mama. I don't think it's ever been re-issued.

Bill Fury's career wound down considerably after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones changed the game. He would make an appearance in the 1973 movie That'll Be The Day, stealing the show as an old rocker. Later Billy Fury played the supper club circuit, appeared in dozens of U.K. television shows, and finally in 1983 his heart gave out. He'd been running on borrowed time since a teenager, the rheumatic fever had permanently damaged his ticker and he knew he'd never live to a ripe old age. But for a few years there, Billy Fury rocked harder than anyone else on that little island. Once the Beatles opened the door all manner of mania would issue from the place from inexplicably brilliant Rolling Stones, The Pretty Things (and their maniacal drummer Viv Prince), the sonically visionary Yardbirds, and a seemingly endless supply of groups devoted to reproducing the sounds of Bo Diddley, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James, even Chan Romero. But if Billy Fury hadn't have gotten there first, they'd have had to do it without the eyeliner.

Gillian's Found Photo #14

This week's found photo comes from Hot Springs, Arkansas and is a shot of a fellow named Little Buddy. I love Hot Springs, if you ever get there check in to the Arlington Hotel (built by Al Capone) one of the most luxurious and beautiful monuments to Art Deco in America. Getting back to our photo, I'm not sure what Little Buddy is holding (a racing form?), but what I find odd about this picture is, well, check out Little Buddy's shadow. This man is obviously some sort of sent from hell satyr, or perhaps an alien from a previously unknown galaxy. A person's shadow, like their handwriting can tell you a lot about them, and this shadow scares me.

Magazines- They Ain't What They Used To Be pt 2. (Brigitte Bardot Special Edition)

The Sleaze mags loved Bebe.... and she gave 'em plenty of ammo, like three suicide attempts the art of the pout (no plastic surgery for Bebe!) a Brazilian TV Guide cover Got this at a Paris, Flea Market in '81 Great moments in passion! too big for the scanner! While I was pickin' through old music mags I found some misfiled Bardot ephemera that I thought I'd post today as a way to buy time while I work on the next two blogs (and probably won't finish until mid-week). Enjoy. Next subjects will probably be old music mags and Rene Hall.

Magazines- They Ain't What They Used To Be

One of Brigitte Bardot's first American magazine covers, pre-blonde hair! More digest size magazine stuff, these were 5" x 7" pocket size. Nice Shot of Nappy Brown in action. "Folk idiom"? Don't they mean "fuckin' idiots"? I love these little digest size magazines from the fifties. In fact I love magazines, although there's really not many good ones anymore. I mean there's Blues & Rhythm: The Gospel Truth (amazing photos), Ugly Things, and ......I'm at a loss for another good modern magazine. Like the record biz, the magazine business is in decline because it is run by idiots and thieves. Take it from me, I've written for at least 100 different mags and newspapers over the years and I can count the intelligent editors I've met on my fingers. Anyway, here's some old favorites to look at, I'll post some old music mag stuff soon, I just dug out a pile of old Dig, Star-Club News, Rhythm & Blues, etc. and plan to go through 'em this weekend.

The "5" Royales and Lowman Pauling

early promo pic    VG+ VG- insane guitar solo original version of James Brown hit their best record Lowman Pauling solo disc another Lowman Pauling solo disc

The "5" Royales (the quotation marks were part of their name, which is pronounced roy-ALS) were one of the seminal rhythm and blues groups of the fifties, and their guitarist Lowman Pauling, in an era with so many brilliant and original sounding guitar players (Mickey Baker, Guitar Slim, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Ike Turner, Clarence Holiman, Rene Hall, Cal Green, Chuck Berry, Pat Hare, Gatemouth Brown, Pee Wee Crayton, Bo Diddley, Jody Williams, insert name of your favorite here) stands out as one of the wildest and most unique string benders in the history of rock'n'roll. The group came together in the countryside outside of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, tobacco growing country and all it's members grew up working the land. In High School guitarist/bass singer Lowman Pauling met lead singer Johnny Tanner (they may have been cousins) and put together a gospel group called the Royal Sons Quintet. Other original members included Paulings' brother Clarence (the first to leave the group, he'd later show up at Motown Records as Berry Gordy's assistant), Otto Jeffries, William Samuels, Johnny Holmes and Obidah Carter. Johnny Tanner was drafted in 1945 and replaced briefly by Jimmy Moore. Like all R&B vocal groups they would go through a bewildering number of personal changes with Johnny Tanner and Lowman Pauling being the constants. At some point Johnny Tanner's brother Eugene joined the group and often sang lead, especially when Johnny lost his voice from the rigours of touring. Otto Jeffries would leave the group and become their road manager. Johnny Holmes was gone before they cut their first sides. Their first break came when original road manager Robert Woodward sent a letter to Bess Berman's Apollo Records in New York City along with a demo tape. Bessman signed the group in 1952 and brought them to New York where they recorded their first single-- a version of Thomas A. Dorsey's Bedside Of A Neighbor b/w Journey's End. The a-side had already been recorded by the Norfolk Jubilee Quartet and the Dixie Hummingbirds, and the Royal Sons version went nowhere. A second gospel single-- Let Nothing Separate Us sold even less. Two months later they were back in the studio and Apollo executive Carl Le Bow, who would eventually become their manager suggested the group change it's name and start recording rhythm and blues, either that or they'd soon be back in the tobacco field. They were redubbed the "5" Royales and their first R&B single, two Lowman Pauling originals -- You Know I Know b/w Courage To Love were recorded in August of '52 and with sales strong sales in the south, they were encouraged to follow the R&B path to stardom. They were back in New York at Beltone Studio in the Brill Building in October of that same year where they recorded their first hit-- Baby Don't Do It, which would rise to #1 on Billboard's R&B chart in January of 1953. So began their gravy years (1953-4) on Apollo Records. Unlike the "bird" groups like the Ravens and the Orioles who were topping the R&B charts at that time, the "5" Royales were not a smooth harmony group, their sound was rough, with gravel voiced Johnny Tanner wailing out the blues in the style of shouters like Wynonie Harris and H-Bomb Ferguson. The instrumental backing was dominated by guttural sax and whomping drums (Lowman Paulings guitar wouldn't come to the forefront of their sound until later in their career), and the lyrics were often lascivious double entedres. Their next record would leave the church for the alley, more specifically the laundromat on the corner of the alley-- Laundromat Blues, although it didn't chart in Billboard (I don't have access to Cash Box magazine's R&B charts, which for R&B were far more accurate since they counted juke box sales and plays), it was a big seller, and one of their finest records, using the idea of an automatic washing machine as a sexual metaphor. They would chart four more times between May '53 and February of '54 with Help Me Somebody (#1 R&B), Crazy, Crazy, Crazy (#5 R&B), Too Much Lovin' (#4 R&B) and I Do (#6 R&B) their final hit for Apollo. Apollo even issued an LP-- The Rockin' "5" Royales, a copy of which I found at the Astor Place thieves market for $1 in 1980. They hit the road and toured constantly, but payment from the hard boiled Ms. Bessman was practically non-existent and soon they filed a lawsuit to recover lost royalties, and in April of '54 they left Apollo and signed with Sid Nathan's King label out of Cincinnati, Ohio (a move that would cause the Royals then rapidly rising up the R&B charts on King's Federal subsidiary with a bump and grind fuck song-- Work With Me Annie to change their name to the Midnighters, see the November, 2008 posting Hank Ballard for their story). The "5" Royales entire Apollo output can be found here. The "5" Royales would record for King from 1954-1962, and although they only appeared on Billboard R&B chart twice in those eight years first with Tears Of Joy (#9, June, 1957) and then again with Think (#9, September, 1957) their records must have sold because King kept releasing them, issuing dozens of singles and at least four LP's. They were one of the most influential groups of the era, most especially for James Brown and his Famous Flames who would base their original sound very closely on the "5" Royales hard shouting style. Brown would cover their tune "Think" in '62 taking it to the top of the charts, and it was this rivalry that led the group to eventually leave King Records. Other "5" Royales tunes from the pen of Lowman Pauling would find their way to the charts via cover versions like Tell The Truth, which Ray Charles would cover in a thrilling live rendition, and Dedicated To The One I Love which would top the charts twice, first for the Shirelles in '61 and then again for the Mamas and the Papas in '67 (Michelle Phillips only lead vocal that was released as a single). As the saxophone based style of R&B was eventually replaced by guitar dominated rock'n'roll thanks to hit making string busters like Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, B.B. King, Guitar Slim, and John Lee Hooker, the "5" Royales style too evolved into a guitar dominated sound, with Lowman Pauling's Les Paul Custom taking center stage. His ultra distorted sound recalls that of Johnny "Guitar" Watson, who as Young John Watson had recorded a crazed instrumental called Space Guitar for Federal in 1954, all bizarre stops and shrieking feedback and echo noises. Pauling, who would indulge in all manner of guitar acrobatics onstage, would record some truly monstrous guitar noise, the best of the bunch being the 1955 single Say It b/w Messin' Up, a record that is still ahead of it's time. Their best single came in 1956-- a rocker called Slummer The Slum a sort of protest song with a whacked out guitar solo that never charted but would work its way into the repertoire of almost every white group on the southern frat party circuit (Sun Records last great group-- The Jesters would record a fine version that remained un-issued until 2008). Another of their finest moments was the bluesy ballad-- Don't Let It Be In Vain on which Paulman's guitar cuts like a broken off Thunderbird bottle. The best of the "5" Royales King recordings can be found here. While at King, Lowman Pauling also began a solo career on the Federal subsidiary, recording some of his greatest tunes including the bluesy I'm A Cool Teenager issued under the name El Pauling & Royalton, and the rockin' gospel sound of Solid Rock which are particularly good. Lowman Pauling would become a major inspiration on an entire generation of younger guitar players. Steve Cropper for one has never been shy about citing Lowman Pauling as his greatest influence. Another highlight of Paulman's solo career is Mr. Moon Man pts. 1 & 2, I'm a sucker for outer space records with weird guitar solos. In 1962, after the aforementioned falling out with James Brown, the "5" Royales moved to Memphis where they signed with the Home Of The Blues label which was connected to the Beale Street record shop where Elvis bought his 45's. Their first single was a cover of James Brown's Please Please Please. Their output for Home Of The Blues was varied, including Coasters' style rock'n'roll (Goofball) and proto-soul (Catch That Teardrop), and Pauling's guitar was prominent on all these discs, but the small label couldn't give the Royales a hit and soon they recorded a session for Vee Jay, and then another for Todd (an excellent remake of Baby Don't Do It), but the times they were a changin' and by 1963 the "5" Royales had gone their seperate ways. Their Home Of The Blues sides along with Lowman Pauling's Federal recordings can be found here. 

Lowman Pauling died in 1974. The Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame (whose publicist called Danny Fields a couple of weeks ago and asked if Joey Ramone would be available for interviews after the re-dedication ceremony for his award) never heard of him, or the "5" Royales. That's okay, that's what I'm here for.