Robert Quine

Hangover Hop (Live WFMU radio broadcast) 1992 Brian Redman, Me, Robert Quine.

Me, Jeremy Tepper, Quine, Hangover Hop 1992. photos by michael macioce

Since the old links don't work, I thought I should re-post this, since there's no other way to hear this music. These are the last recordings done by Robert Quine whom I've already posted on. Today is his birthday. He would have been 67. He was one of my closest friends and I miss him something awful. These recordings were done for the soundtrack to a film made by a neighbor of his. I've never seen the film and have no idea if it was ever released, or even what the title of it is. It was done in his home studio, he's playing all the instruments (guitars/bass and drum programs). You can get a good idea of what a tortured state of mind he was in in those final months. When these recordings were made it had been five months since his wife Alice Sherman Quine passed away. These recordings show that Quine was playing better than ever in his last days, and also that his style had changed a bit. He was no longer was using the whammy bar or even his trademark Stratocaster, having made the switch to the Telecaster a couple of years earlier. I think some of his best playing can be found on these tracks.

I have already posted on Quine, his life, and death and my friendship with him and have nothing to add to what I've already written. Here's the music:

Film Music 1, Film Music 2, Film Music 3, Film Music 4, Film Music 5, Film Music 6, Film Music 7, Film Music 8, Film Music 9. Happy birthday Quine, where ever you are.

Gillian's Found Photo #33

This guy seems to come from the same gene pool that produced Anthony Quinn and Louis Prima, no? A gene pool that originated in the part of southern Italy known as the mezzegiorno. I guess he got what he wanted for Christmas because he sure looks happy.

I have another possible theory about this snapshot. Having never seen a photo of him, perhaps the fellow with a gal dangling from each paw is the photographer himself, Don Bronstein? Of course that changes the origins of the gene pool to Jewish origins, but Jews and Italians always seem to end up together (see Art Fein's liner notes to Rhino's Louis Prima compilation for more on this theory).

Bronstein, a Chicago native who photographed many Playboy centerfolds (and eventually married a Playboy Bunny), also took the incredible photographs that adorned all the Chess and Checker LP covers including iconic images of Little Walter, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Dale Hawkins, Sonny Boy Williamson, et al. Bronstein, who died of a heroin overdose in the early 70's is one of photography's great unheralded demi-gods. Has anyone ever seen a picture of Bronstein? Anyone out there ever met him? What did he look like? Bronstein also provided the photos for a book called Chicago, I Will, a photo essay on his beloved hometown, fairly rare today, but since Bronstein is unknown in the art world, it's usually inexpensive when it turns up. Just a possibility and admittedly a far flung one. More than likely, this is just some mook who got some sticky paged back issues of Playboy in his Christmas stocking.

Old Links...

Link Wray

Link Cromwell (Lenny Kaye)

You may or may not have noticed, but the MP3 links from Houndblog before Oct. 15, 2009 no longer work. This is because it was being hosted by a homemade server run by our good friend and technical consultant Brian Redman (who also hosts the Hound Aircheck site).

Well, for various reasons Brian can no longer store these things (the airchecks are still available as full shows and podcasts but you can no longer download individual songs). Anyway, I'd like to thank Brian for all the hard work he's put in and the service he has provided for the first year of the blog and for the Aircheck site, not to mention all the help he's given me over the years with the radio show, the Hangover Hops and my own computer problems. Without Brian, there could never have been a Hound. Anyway, if you missed something, it's probably somewhere else on the web, try the Chewbone and Captain Crawl links on the right side of this page. The Great Lost Hasil Adkins Album is still posted at WFMU's Beware The Blog (here). Remember, nothing good lasts long, so if you see something you like, jump on it. Links after Oct. 15, 2009 will stay up until I run out of space or somebody asks me to pull them down.

I'll be reposting the Quine un-issued final recordings on Thursday (his birthday).

Classie Ballou

Classie Ballou 1957-- Lookin' sharp....

and soundin' good... another Classie classic...

twenty five years later and still soundin' good...

Live At The Ponderosa Stomp- 2009

Most of the musicians I've been writing about in this blog over the last fifteen months are long gone, dead and in the ground with only a handful of obscure sides and sad story left behind.

But not all of them, and here's one who is not only still alive, he's still rocking, playing as well or better than he did when cut his rare and wonderful (and too few) discs. Classie Ballou may not be very well known, but life is strange, so that can change at any moment, and here is where I put in my three cents (inflation) in hopes that he will find the notoriety and cash he deserves, because he may very well be the greatest rocker in the world at this moment in time.

Classie Ballou was born in the tiny country town of Elton, Louisiana in 1937. He folks sharecropped cotton, potatoes, and corn, he was one of two children, although his younger sister passed away at the age of six months, leaving him an only child. Classie learned to play accordion from an uncle, and joined his first band at age nine, playing the rubboard.

He soon picked up the guitar, and in 1952 the family moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana. In Lake Charles he acquired the Fender Telecaster seen in the above photo and hooked up with a drummer named Kee-Dee, and soon the two were appearing in night clubs in Lake Charles, although Classie also had a day job in construction. Technically he was still too young to play in clubs but nobody seemed to notice, and he found regular work plentiful, even putting in a stint with Clifton Chenier's band for six months. Lake Charles had a rich R&B scene at the time, and young Classie was soon playing with Shelton Dunaway and Ernest Jacobs (later of Cookie & the Cupcakes of Mathilda and I'm Twisted fame), and then formed his first band-- Classie Ballou and the Tempo Kings which featured Dunaway on sax and vocals, another sax player known simply as Biscuit, and eventually Cookie Thierry himself joined the group. They played John's Bar and Ball's Auditorium, doing covers of tunes by Fats Domino, Guitar Slim and Gatemouth Brown. Soon he was the hottest thing in Lake Charles. Eddie Shuler, owner of the Lake Charles based Goldband label, one of the greatest recording companies of all time with a mind numbing number of great records (blues, R&B, cajun, country, rockabilly) and artists (including a young Dolly Parton), got wind of Classie through Guitar Gable and hired him to play guitar on Boozoo Chavis' chaotic classic Paper In My Shoe (the recording of which ended with Boozoo falling off his stool, accordion and all), the record that would be the blue print for all zydeco music to come.

Classie cut his first disc for Goldband 1956-- Lovin' Huggin' Kissin' My Baby b/w D-I-R-T-Y Deal (Goldband 1037, the a-side was covered on RCA by rockabilly Milton Allen, my copy of that 45 seems to be MIA at the moment, these came from Eddie G).

A year later ('57) he was recorded by Jay Miller (producer of Slim Harpo, Lightnin Slim, Lazy Lester, Al Ferrier, Jimmy Anderson and many others) in the studio in the back of his Crowley, Lousiana record store. This session was sold to Nasco who issued two tunes--- Confusion b/w Crazy Mambo (Nasco 6000) the same year (a, faster, alternate take of Crazy Mambo later surfaced on a Flyright CD in the UK, as did this wonderful French rocker Hey Ma Ma). Both tunes are wild guitar dominated instrumentals with pronounced Afro-Cuban feel to them. This coming via the influence of Xavier Cugat, one of Classie's favorites. In 1958 he recorded one last time for Miller, in a session that included the great Jockey Etienne on drums and Tal Miller on piano, these sides were released on Nasco's sister label Excello with it's classic blue and orange label-- Hey! Pardner b/w Dream Love (Excello 2134). The a side was another wild instrumental, the flip a swamp pop ballad in the classic south Louisiana mold. These three singles are the entire 50's output of Classie Ballou, he would not record again under his own name until 1968 when he cut Classie's Whip b/w Soul Philly (Soulsville 1001) for a tiny, San Antonio based label.

From there Classie headed for Dallas where he went to college and worked for a promoter named Howard Lewis who had him backing up touring artists like Floyd Dixon, Wilbert Harrison, Chuck Berry, Etta James, and whoever else came through town without their own band. He put in some time touring in Rosco Gordon's band, playing on his Vee Jay hit-- Just A Little Bit, that's Classie playing the classic guitar lick, as well as Gordon's remake of No More Doggin. The Blues Discography credits Lefty Bates with playing on Just A Little Bit, but Classie says that it's him, and I believe him.

In the late 50's Classie Ballou was based out of Little Rock, Arkansas, where he held a three year residency at the Flamingo CLub, playing with the likes of Fenton Robinson, B.B. King, and Wayne Bennett (long time guitarist with Bobby "Blue" Bland and later Ray Charles). He moved to Los Angeles in '62 where he cut some sides for Token (which I've never heard or seen), then settled in Waco, Texas where he's been playing six or seven nights a week ever since. He made an excellent 45 for Lanor in '83-- All Night Man b/w Jealous Woman (Lanor was one of those strange southern labels that seemed to exist in a time warp). This record sounds like it could have been recorded in the fifties, All Night Man is a hard grinding blues with a shimmering slide guitar solo from Classie, while Jealous Woman is an uptempo rocker with funny lyrics about not wanting to watch Dallas and Dynasty with the old lady. He started his own label--Yeah, Baby in 1994, releasing a bluesy disc called The Real Deal produced by his son Cranston.

Family is extremely important to Classie, who raised his own band, these days, billed as The Classie Ballou Family Band he works with his son Cedric (bass), grandson Cedryl (accordion, drums), and daughter CeChaun (drums, sax, accordion, she also fronts her own all girl Zydeco band-- the Zydeco Posse when not working with her father). Although it's not unusual for them to switch up instruments if someone has to take a piss or get a beverage. His wife mans the merch table. Playing mostly in the greater Waco area they can call up tunes from Brick House to Sweet Home Alabama and give them all Classie's unique stamp. Of course they play his own classics-- Crazy Mambo, D-I-R-T-Y Deal, etc., but can pull nearly any good song from the last half century-- Honky Tonk to Jambalaya out of the hat, they'll stomp it out until the dance floor's worn through.

When we opened the Circle Bar in New Orlean back in '99, me and my partner Kelly Keller (the place soon had as many partners as customers) became acquainted with Ira Padnos aka Dr. Ike who was then just laying the ground work for what became the Ponderosa Stomp concert series, now a New Orleans tradition, as well as bringing shows to Austin, Memphis and New York City. One of the first artists Ike brought into the Circle Bar was Classie Ballou. After his first successful weekend stint, Classie became quite fond of Kelly, and would often call to book shows, especially around Mardis Gras and Jazz Fest time. I remember how Kelly would put the phone on speaker when he'd call, and his voice would boom through the office--"KELL-EEEE!

It's CLASS-EEE!" A nicer gent you'll never meet, with a larger than life personality both onstage and off. The Ponderosa Stomp has been good for Classie, spreading his name to the four corners of the globe, I hope somehow, someway, something big comes his way. He deserves it and more. He's as close to a national treasure as exists in American music these days, he deserves some sort of big break, or at least a MacArthur Foundation grant.

Addendum: I forgot on another on of those 80's Flyright LP's (now long out of print) of Jay Miller's un-issued recordings was Classie Ballou's fantastic rendition of Lucille. So here it is.

This entire series of discs which feature un-issued and alternate takes of Jay Miller's entire stable, some of it things that were rejected by Excello and Dot (labels he leased his sides to when he wasn't putting them out on his own labels like Feature and Roscko) can be found over at Uncle Gil's Rockin' Archives, link on the right side of this page.

Gillian's Found Photo #32

I love this photo! The red suede boots (from Granny Takes A Trip no doubt), the Les Paul Jr. (just like Johnny Thunders), the Sticky Fingers era poster of Mick, and best of all, the totally glazed, drugged out look in her eyes. Fang really picked a winner this week.

It conjures up everything I liked about the 70's (Quaaludes, Star Magazine, etc.) in one (slightly) faded Polaroid. Wonder where she is today?

Andrew Loog Oldham

"What's is going to be then, eh?" ALO and KR contemplate a bit of the old ultra-violence.

Andrew in the studio with protege Vashti, from Let's All Make Love In London Tonight (dig that board!) Andrew Oldham talking about hepatitis C Mick and Keith talk about Andrew

"(This is THE STONES new disc within. Cast deep in your pockets for the loot to buy this disc of groovies and fancy words. If you don't have the bread, see that blind man knock him on the head, steal his wallet and low and behold you have the loot, if you put in the boot, good, another one sold!)"-- Andrew Loog Oldham, liner notes for The Rolling Stones No. 2 (Decca, U.K., 1964).

I'm glad Andrew Loog Oldham has never been sentenced to that retarded institution of senility, the so called Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. I guess it's nice that they finally decided to ordain the Stooges. For this, along with a $2 Metro Card will allow any of the Stooges to ride the subway in New York City from the Bronx Zoo to Coney Island, one way. They can sit along side such rock and roll greats as Art Garfunkel, James Taylor and (also inducted this year) David Geffen. I have long expressed my hatred for that ill conceived and corrupt institution. If it truly represented rock'n'roll Andrew Loog Oldham (and the Stooges, not to mention never will get ins like Link Wray, Art Rupe, MC5, Wild Jimmy Spruill, Mickey Baker, Jack Nietzsche, and the Bihari Brothers) would have been in there by the second year. But they will never induct Andrew Loog Oldham, even though his achievements have been far greater than those of Abba (whom he once co-authored a bio of, he must have needed the cash that day), Metallica, and Tito Jackson, for he was never one for respectability, and he may have beat the shit out someone on the nominating committee at some point past. It's not likely he gets invited to Jann Wenner's place in the Hamptons. But isn't this is just another reason to love him?

Well, let's not mention that hollow institution again, let us take this time to honor Mr. Oldham, who truly deserves great honors and more, for without his life, ours would have been much duller. For Andrew Oldham was every bit as important to what would become the "Greatest Rock'n'Roll Band In The World-- The Rolling Stones", transformed from a much better than average R&B cover band known as The Rollin' Stones, as Mick, Keith or Brian, and probably more important than Bill Wyman. And better looking. If you don't believe me, just ask him. Or better yet, read his two-volume autobiography-- Stoned: A Memoir Of London In The 1960's (St Martin's Press, 2000) and 2Stoned (St. Martin's Press, 2002). These book(s) shine a 1000 watt light bulb on the man who was perhaps the only really mysterious figure in the orbit of the Rolling Stones (unless you count that strange looking Count and alchemist offspring of Balthus, a one time member of Vince Taylor's Playboys, whose is one of Keith's best friends, and Brian's former roomate, who has always fascinated me-- Stanislas Klossowski). My old pal David Dalton was originally brought on board to help Oldham write the book(s) but soon left the project (he would go on to help Marianne Faithful with her autobiography, which is excellent), and whenever I ask him about Oldham a look comes over his face that is commonly referred to as the "thousand yard stare", then he changes the subject. Andrew Loog Oldham is not a name that brings a lukewarm response, people either love him or loathe him, the sure sign that he's done something right. I never want to meet him.

What's left to be said about the Rolling Stones? Andrew's take on their personalities, at least in print, is what you might've guessed-- Keith and Charlie are basically likable, what you see is what you get types, Brian was an ogre, Bill somewhat dislikable but harmless, and deep, down, inside, Mick is quite shallow. Of course Ian Stewart hated Andrew's guts, and could you blame him? What more do you need to know, or rather, have reinforced? Let's face it, the life of a musician is mostly pretty boring to read about. They spend their lives getting to and from "the gig", and the rest of it in the recording studio. Once in a while they go on vacation, or fall out of a tree. While it's certainly more fun than anything this side of leading armies into battle, playing three chords, having sex with nubile Lolitas and taking lots of drugs, is pretty much all there is to it. Fun to do, getting dull to read about. Can you stand to read another book about the Stones? (If somehow you've avoided such things, the best is Stanley Booth's The True Adventures of The Rolling Stones, back in print as a Vintage paperback). Oldham's life is another story. He had the vision that turned a bunch of blues fans into a Clockwork Orange fantasy set to music. Younger than the Stones themselves, he lived his life with more reckless abandon than any musician this side of Charlie Parker. And he not only remembers most of it, he remembers what he was wearing while he was doing it. Really, I don't think my description is doing these books justice, but they're easy to find, and well worth your time and money. Keep in mind it was Andrew's little touches, like hiring David Bailey to shoot their first two album covers, the classic "would you let your daughter go with a Rolling Stone" hype, and of course, locking Mick and Keith in a kitchen until they wrote an original song, that pushed the Stones to the level of success they could have only dreamed about when they were learning to play Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley tunes. Without Andrew they would probably still be playing Jimmy Reed covers on Sunday nights in a pub with the Downliners Sect and the Bo Street Runners.

A couple of tunes to help pay tribute to our subject-- one is the Stones, Gene Pitney, Phil Spector along Alan Clarke and Gram Nash of the Hollies (also in R&RHOF this year) jamming out a tribute to the man-- Andrew's Blues , it was recorded at Regent Sound, Feb. 4, 1964. The other tune is familiar from Metamorphosis. It is one of the few early tunes not credited to Jagger-Richards, but Oldham-Richards, so it's safe to say Oldham wrote the lyrics to this pop nugget, his take on the girl group sound-- I'd Much Rather Be With The Boys, I've always dug it. It's not the Stones, just Mick and some studio musicians (Andy White, Joe Moretti and John McLaughlin supposedly) on this demo, but it would have sounded right at home on Between The Buttons, or even U.S. only early compilations December's Children or Flowers. The place-- Decca's studio in London, date is usually sited around Feb. of '65. I remember Johnny Thunders and Wayne Kramer's band Gang War used to do a cover version of it.

While I'm on the subject, when will they get around to re-issuing the U.K. versions of the Stones albums? Vinyl only would be fine with me. In those beautiful, laminated Decca covers, without the ugly graphics that marred the American LP's. I've always preferred them (I'm listening to Rolling Stone No. 2 right now, since I had to pull it off the shelf to get the liner note quote right, it still sounds great, clicks, pops and all). Why did their American label-- London screw with the track line ups? Actually, I can explain that. The UK versions didn't contain the tracks that were already released on 45's or EP's, giving the fan maximum value, the US versions were always a hodgepodge of LP, EP and 45 a and b sides. I think the first album that didn't mess with the track listing was Satanic Majesties Request, one of their most underrated discs, don't you love Citadel and 200 Light Years From Home? I'm really not much of a fan of psychedelia except for the 13th Floor Elevators and the Chocolate Watchband and a dozen or so 45 rpm singles, but when it comes down to it, the Stones were the best psychedelic band of all time, think about it, in addition to those two tracks add Please Go Home, She's A Rainbow, Dandelion, Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Goin' Home, Paint It Black, Child Of The Moon, Gomper, I'm missing a few I'm sure but you could put together an album (or, since this is the 21st century, playlist) and make the greatest psychedelic album of all time from it. I'm getting way off the track I guess, except of course that Andrew Oldham produced all those records, which counts for something, in fact, counts for a lot. He was a great record producer, manager, conceptualist, fashion plate and all around nut in the greatest tradition of British eccentrics. His non-Stones productions, mostly on his own Immediate label deserve a separate posting, which I may get around to some day. Not today.

These days Andrew Loog Oldham lives in Bogota, Columbia, and of course, like all shut ins, he has a blog, it's called Everyone Must Get Stoned. I won't bring up Scientology or Sirius Radio, eerrr....except I already did.

Addendum: There's an interesting aircheck of Mick and Keith playing blues dj's on a Danish radio station circa 1970 posted over at Hardluck Blueschild blog. They play some obvious choices (Robert Johnson, Little Walter, Muddy Waters), and some surprising ones (Barbecue Bob and Laughing Charlie, Bertha "Chippie" Hill). It's a lot of fun to listen to.

Addendum #2: As an afterthought I think I should throw in this one, it's from The Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra plays the Rolling Stones Songbook LP, yes, it's the version of The Last Time that the Verve sampled for Bittersweet Symphony (one of the best singles of the 90's). Allen Klein made plenty of trouble for the Verve, forcing them to give up 100% of the publishing and writing (even though the Stones only wrote the verses and the opening guitar riff to The Last Time, the tune itself is a gospel standard that had been recorded by everyone from the 5 Blind Boys Of Alabama to the Staple Singers to James Brown, Bittersweet Symphony is now credited to Jagger-Richards with lyrics by Richard Ashcroft, despite the fact that Ashcroft wrote the entire tune, and cleared the sample with Oldham before the disc was released). Klein came close to having the single and the LP pulled off the market just as the record was topping the U.K. charts in 1997. Still, it seems appropriate to include it with yesterday's post. I also really like the version of Play With Fire from that album. In fact, I like the whole album. If you want the whole thing try here.

Christmas 2009

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.