Good to the Bone!

My no-good ex-patriot brother has been goin' on about this tune for some time now. I'm beginning to see what the fuss is about. Not only do you have a filthy-delphia motha-funker singing the praises of fried chicken (A vocation worth following if ever there was such a thing), but this fair fowl is so "kickin" that it sets our cake-walk prince here to moan - Truly the benchmark of any religious chicken-eating experience.

Besides a certain Philly pedagree, I know very little about this clucker, save for a name change (Radars) and a later repress on 'Yew' records (Mutton!? Ewww!). Comped a gazillion times I'm sure, rub this fucker in some flour and drop it in the pan! You won't be sorry, but you might be hungry (Nom, nom nom).

Finger Licking Chicken - Radors, or Radars, or whatever

Note: A little stone-soul birdie tells me that the great Mel Brown has gone up to that big coop in the sky. Click here to honor the man and his chicken-chompin' memory.

RedBoy V

Currently Reading...

From University of California press:

"The life story of Ishi, the Yahi Indian, lone survivor of a doomed tribe, is unique in the annals of North American anthropology. For more than forty years, Theodora Kroeber's biography has been sharing this tragic and absorbing drama with readers all over the world.

Ishi stumbled into the twentieth century on the morning of August 29, 1911, when, desperate with hunger and with terror of the white murderers of his family, he was found in the corral of a slaughterhouse near Oroville, California. Finally identified as an Indian by an anthropologist, Ishi was brought to San Francisco by Professor T. T. Waterman and lived there the rest of his life under the care and protection of Alfred Kroeber and the staff of the University of California's Museum of Anthropology. Karl Kroeber adds an informative tribute to the text, describing how the book came to be and how Theodora Kroeber's approach to the project was both a product of her era and of her insight and her empathy."

If It's A Whippin' You're A Wantin'...

Charles Whitworth, AKA. Chuck A Luck, AKA. Little Charles...

That's a lot of aliases for this Greensboro North Carolina native to be hidin' behind (and this RedBoy should know). I guess if you were killin them suckers nightly with w/ the criminal funk you'd wanna change your name and hit the road too, lest the law come down on you like a ton of bricks.

Tay-Ster managed to jam this Tay-Stee track on two back too back releases, the latter release subsequently spell-checked by some cracker-ass cracker('Whip You') and tattooed w/ a different flip (Are You Experienced?)

My own experience being beyond reproach, trust me when I say that if you are lookin' for a track to back up your strut, then look no further.

Whip Ya - Chuck A Luck & the Lovemen

I'll Always Love You - Chuck A Luck & the Lovemen

RedBoy IV

It's What She Would Have Wanted?!

Nicholas Hughes, Son of Sylvia Plath, commits suicide.

Update: Popcorn has the last word

Double Dragon

My perevious post put me in an instrumental mental state and as the 'Clumsy Dragon' sprang to mind I figured I might as well jump on the dragon wagon w/ the addition of a combo of 'noble' birth. Take it in, cause this is about as noble as I get.

“Meddle not in the affairs of the dragon; for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.”

-Unknown




Dragon Walk - Noblemen

Clumsy Dragon - Five Sounds

RedBoy III

Well, The Revenue Man Finally Got Him...

Courtesy of SayUncle:



Marvin "PopCorn" Sutton, famed Tennessee moonshiner, has taken his own life in lieu of an 18 month jail sentence. It's obvious this frail old man was a criminal mastermind and now, thanks to the federal government, the hills and back-yonder hollows are that much safer from the threat of homemade whiskey and folksy wisdom. If only they put this much effort into all their endeavors...

Make sure you toss one back tonight, if not in his honor, then for the contempt of every Revenue Man in every branch of government.

R.I.P. Marvin "PopCorn" Sutton. You have earned your stake in the 'Angel's Share'.

Jinx!

Fresh from the litter-pan, here's one for all ya'll Triskaidekaphobics out there.

Whether you do hoodoo ala William Seabrook, or you just have cliche tattoos, you are undoubtedly familiar w/ the intimate relationship between black cats and bad luck. While ancient cultures equated black cats asleep beside the hearth w/ coiled vipers, the most I can attribute to their demeanor is a complete indifference to their owners, not to mention the proclivity for licking their crotch when company is about.

Seeing as how I cannot achieve the latter (too many ribs -I counted), the most I can do is exalt the virtues of these frisky lil' harbingers o' doom by way of the Pacific Northwest.



While Seattle can be a cruel mistress to those w/ Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D !?), history has proven those Space-needle junkie skies as down-right conducive to rock and roll. All references to the Kingsmen and the Wailers' aside, quite a few bands, including the 'Checkers', were chompin' at the bit in 63' for a place in the sun (or lack thereof) and Jerden records, in it's many incarnations, was their jumping -off point:

Jerden Records was based in Seattle and majority owned by Jerry Dennon (JER-DEN) and Bonnie Guitar, both of whom had been involved previously with Dolton Records and the careers of The Fleetwoods. A split with Dolton due to artistic control problems brought about the new Jerden label. Certain Jerden record issues were distributed by Liberty Records.

The label closed after the first year's trading due to a complete lack of success. Its owners went their separate ways although both ended up in Hollywood, Bonnie as an artist for RCA Victor Records and then Dot Records and Dennon doing promotion work for Era Records.

Dennon's promising career in the music business was halted briefly by military service but in late 1962 he was back in circulation and resurrecting his old label as full owner but lack of funds meant that he began releasing old recordings from Jerden's early days...even a disc by Bonnie Guitar herself issued in January 1963.

It was during this second life that The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" arrived (1963) and it is this million selling disc that is by far the best known of all Dennon's products. In Summer 1964 Jerden updated its label design with a turquoise background. In Fall 1965 Jerden began a distribution agreement with ABC-Paramount Records. This agreement ended in October 1968.

Burdette Records founded in 1967 by Jerry Dennon was the label that took Jerden's place for national exposure. Burdette was distributed by Tower Records which was a division of Capitol Records. The label ended in 1971.

The Sonics may get all the glory, but if you ask me, the Checkers are the cat's ass. Don't cross em', or they just might tear your shit up, or, at the very least, piss in your houseplants. Happy Friday the 13th!

Black Cat - Checkers

Soft Blue - Checkers

RedBoy II

The Art of David Nicholson

http://www.aeroplastics.net/David_Nicholson/index.html

"Never Had Nuthin' But Misery."

Here's another gem on 'Jewel' records (Clever, right?), this time from the inimitable Carter brothers. Practically a blues number, this track has just enough brass shoved up the midsection to place this firmly in the soul category - and just enough fried chicken references to place it firmly in the sub-cockle area of my heart. The flip ain’t no slouch for that matter (Do the Flo' Show), but fate saw fit to carve a very obnoxious furrow through the groovy grooves on my copy, so you’ll have to take my word on it (or, better yet, get your own damned copy!).

The Carter Brothers Roman (lead vocals, bass), Albert (guitar), and Jerry (vocals, piano) came from Garland, AL, and began recording in 1964 for producer/songwriter Duke Coleman's local label. Stan Lewis' Jewel Records licensed a pair of their singles, of which "Southern Country Boy" got to number 21 on the R&B charts nationally. They never cut an album, but before splitting up in 1967 (when Albert and Jerry Carter were said to have been drafted) the trio recorded more than a dozen single sides.

It certainly is a special kinda trim which is willing to de-seed a melon for her man. Don’t let her get away fellas, or else you'll just have to kidnap yourself another one, and who has the time or the Chloroform for that?

Southern Country Boy - Carter Brothers

RedBoy I

Pussy-Whipped in Rhode Island

Only the addition of big honkin' guitars could've ever gotten the redux of this sappy 66' love dirge across Tim Warren's desk and into the annals of BFTG. If the original version - presented here- seems a tad dandified it's because Rhode Island's Malibus hadn't yet gotten around to futzin' w/ the AM formula by way of some cowbell and a liberal dollop of germanium-fueled excess.

Yup, these kids actually put a lot of effort into murdering their nice little ditty for subsequent re-release on 'Planet' records. Is the version which appears of BFTG vol 1 superior? Beats me, but plenty of people with funny haircuts tend to think so. Personally, I think they're both aces (and you ain't even seen my haircut).One things for sure, these kids sure grew a pair between cuts.

Let this be a lesson to you romantic types out there w/ your silk handkerchiefs and your "feelings" - You may catch more flies w/ honey than you do w/ vinegar, but you can catch even more w/ crap.

Cry - Malibus

David's Current Mood: Anger.

Ok, so you are Jack Ely, the singer of Portland Oregon's own watered-down Wailers, the Kingsmen. Now, you ain't no sap. You've been kickin' the shit just long enough to know that playing this Rock and/or Roll junk in some crappy little band is just never going to cut the mustard. Taking matters into your own adolescent hands, you drop your band mates like a two-dollar pistol (or, if it pleases you, a twenty dolla' ho) for the life-affirming embrace of college (Yuck!)

There you are, on the fast track w/ your keggers and your Cardigans, when a certain Boston DJ blows the dust off one of your previous band's old singles and Bang! You ex-band mates got America by the short-hairs w/ their hit version of Richard Berry's 'Louie Louie', and you got 'Advanced Calculus' and your dick in your hand.

But not to fear! Your old band would always take you back right? Wrong! They are, after all, the mighty Kingsmen, and even though you sneered your way through their hit single, they tell you, in a decidedly kingly fashion, to hit the bricks before they crown ya.



So, picking yourself up and dusting yourself off, you do the only thing a musician of that time could do, you form your own goddamned Kingsmen, and when that doesn't pan out you rustle up some 'Courtmen' and cut your own 'Louie'(b/w a catchy little instro dubbed 'David's Mood') on the McCoy's old alma mater, 'Bang!' Records, and what happens next?

I'll give you a hint: THEY SPELL YOUR FUCKIN" NAME WRONG ON THE DISC!

Still...I guess it could be worse. I mean, you could be Pete Best. Poor Pete.

David's Mood - Jack Eely & the Coachmen

"A Teenage Tiger Lookin' for a Feast."

I must confess, its been several days and I'm still rather bummed about this Lux Interior business. Besides the fact that never again can I set my Elgin movement by a Cramps tour (Much like the Hale-Bopp Comet & Brigadoon, it was only ever a question of 'When' the Cramps would come around again), I'm left w/ the lingering suspicion, given a litany of ham-fisted obituaries, that the Cramps cultural significance has already been reduced to a kitchy slurry of panties, pumps and pancake make-up. How soon we forget that a certain six-foot-four cross-dressing golem was, in addition to all those things (and more), a bonafied musical archaeologist.

Take Ronnie Cook's 'The Goo Goo Muck'. That this Bakersfield, California ode-dee-doo-dah-day would have disappeared down the toilet of obscurity is certain, had not some wax-dipped skeleton from Ohio uncovered in this singles grooves, a statement of the average nubile teen's more libidinous intentions.

Much has been made of the Cramps proclivity to 'borrow' chords and progressions from yesteryear (or in the case of the 'Muck', a flat-out cover), but as the Cramps never hid their influences, and in fact, have openly championed the re-discovery of erstwhile useless artists and genres of music, then that makes them some of the least selfish and indeed most self-less musicians to ever drink wine out of a stranger's shoe or otherwise shove their head through a bass-drum.

Cut in 65'on the left coast's predominantly soul-centered 'Astra' label, if you can find another record besides 'Muck' which so perfectly typifies the 'modus-operandi' of the American teen...well, then I'll eat my Wighat.

XOXO - RB

P.S. "I'll get you baby w/ a little luck..."

The Goo Goo Muck - Ronnie Cook & the Gay Lads

The Scotch - Ronnie Cook & the Gay Lads

"Life is Short, Filled With Stuff..."

I had the pleasure of playing w/ the Cramps several years ago @ Irving Plaza in NYC. After a brief exchange w/ Lux and Ivy (I make no pretext of having known him - though I like many other people in NYC have seen his dick waaay too many times to be considered strangers) I watched as Lux proceeded to lay on the floor backstage w/ a camera taking pictures up the skirts of the opening act (Unbeknownst to them) during sound check. Stage hands kept tripping over him during the entire set, but he did not waver from his purpose, which I can only assume resulted in some memorable photographs. Bottom line - in a world of artifice, where nothing is done w/o an ulterior motive and authenticity is bought and sold like any commodity, Lux was just as weird and offbeat offstage as he was w/ spotlights on him and a microphone shoved in his mouth. The Cramps weren't just an act, they were a state of being.

R.I.P. Lux Interior 10/21/46 - 02/04/09

Sooooo Wild!

Here's some bonafide Rock o' billy from northern New Jersey of all places. That might seem strange for a genre pursuant of cotton plants and medicine shows, but it would please you to remember that the Mason Dixon line actually passes through Jersey (Technically 'around'-albeit Southern Jersey.

To put it in perspective, we're kinda like Pennsylvania - Yankee by geography, Southern by affectation. Shit, we even got our own species of hillbilly (see: Piney).

Anyhoo, Boonton NJ's 'Castle' label featured such cool customers as the 'Southlanders' and 'Ray Arlo' of 'She's My Steady Date' fame (I'm sure Devil Dick will be getting to that disc sometime soon). Rounding out the trio of 'Castle' releases, 1959's 'So Wild' was written by the 'Pete' portion of 'Pete & Jimmy' otherwise known as Peter Navaez and subsequently published by R'n'R demi-god Alan Freed (And just who the hell are you to deny the Moondog?)

As if 'So Wild' weren't enough to pad a whole post, I've also included the sentimental flip 'Bye & Bye' for a solid twin-spin. Better get to it before the Pineys eat ya!

Don't make any sudden moves...just back away from the post slooowly...




So Wild - Pete & Jimmy w/ the Rhythm Knights

Bye & Bye - Pete & Jimmy w/ the Rhythm Knights