TuneIn

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Shock After Shock @ Fool's Paradise Twin

GRUESOME EXPERIMENTS !
FLESH-EATING MAGGOTS !!
TEENYBOPPERS DEFILED !!!
THIS WEEKEND !!

TWO BIG NIGHTS
OF HORROR !! 

FIRST...

See Veronica Lake in Her Final Role !
in
FLESH FEAST
(1970, dir. Brad F. Ginter) 
 
THEN...
TEENAGE STRANGLER
(1964, dir. Ben Parker) 
   


FULL SERVICE SNACK BAR
featuring: 
Tasty corndogs!  Refreshing beverages! Savory BBQ! 
and
- for this engagement only -
GUMMY WORMS !
 

*No Outside Food Or Drink*

PROGRAM BEGINS AT DUSK
ONLY THOSE OVER 17 ADMITTED • LEGIBLE PROOF OF AGE REQUIRED 
  
THE FOOL'S PARADISE TWIN ACCEPTS
JAMES BROWN BLACK & BROWN STAMPS
JB_B&B_STAMP

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Membership Card


Join The Sir Douglas Quintet International Fan Club!  (thanks to Postman Tom)

Cowboy Peyton Place

Doug Sahm Month: Tracker, Tiger, Jagger, Sahm


Sir Douglas's 2nd 45 on Tribe was fronted by this great "Searchin'" styled stalker stomp, here reproduced live on Shindig in July of 1965.  Let's take a moment to note that Sir Douglas and the Quintet all have their headcoats on.

When I first came across this song, it was on the Tribe "Best of the Sir Douglas Quintet" album (which I think we'll all agree is a fine way to title your very first LP). I didn't bother to check the song titles when I'd spin it, and I thought that the lyric was "I'm a Tiger". I guess I thought Sahm was hunting this object d'affection down to gobble her up. Certain lines really had to be twisted to get the verses to follow my delusional chorus. When I finally realized that he was saying "I'm a Tracker", the whole thing made much more sense. Thing was, my wife thought it was "I'm a Tiger", too.

Shortly thereafter, a couple of friends, newly married, came to town, and we were driving around the area with a Doug Sahm comp. tape blasting away. This song came on, and was playing for a while, when the bride in the back said, "Why does he keep saying 'I'm Mick Jagger?!?'"

This made even less sense than "I'm a Tiger" but was way funnier.

My thumbs will be her jail!

The Gowanus All-Stars!


Recorded live at the Rock Shop in Brooklyn on Monday, June 25th.  Catch them every Monday this month, except July 16th!

Gowanus All-Stars Live!!

Happy 4th!


1963 dancin' holiday from the good lovin', tater mashin' slop stompers.

Doug's Country Groove


Sir Doug & The Texas Tornados  -  Country Groove

Of all the tricks Doug Sahm had in his nearly bottomless bag, none made me smile more than his tendency to revel in his love for honky-tonk sounds, as he does on this 1976 album track that appeared on his Texas Rock For Country Rollers LP on the ABC-Dot label.  His lyrics, delivered over a superb shuffle beat, salute country MVPs like George Jones, Lefty Frizzell, Willie Nelson and fiddler Link Davis.

By the way, the Texas Tornados that appear here are not the same Texas Tornados that Sahm recorded and toured with beginning in the early 90s, though keyboardist Augie Meyers was on hand for both projects.  For much more information about this LP, and the opportunity to stream each track, head over to the Adios Lounge.  You'll be glad you did.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Tassel Twirler Tuesday!


Blo_Jangs!

Please Stand By


Chief Adler informs me that the Ichiban webstream will be down for routine maintenance today at Noon.
Homework

Monday, July 2, 2012

Sir Doug Serves Up The Bacon Fat


Sir Douglas Quintet  -  Bacon Fat

Welcome back to Doug Sahm Month.  Yesterday we served up the SDQ's version of The Rains Came, so tonight we'll check out the other side of this astonishingly superb 45.  Despite what the label here says, Bacon Fat was written by the larger than life R&B kingpin Andre Williams.  I have no idea how the name Syd Nathan (president of King records in Cincinnati) was listed as the author.  In any event, the Sir Douglas Quintet really nails this one.  It's one of my all time favorite 45s.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Crack The Whip (Don't Follow This Advice!)

The following post comes to us from reader Bruce Lagerquist, a tenacious researcher who emails me with some regularity regarding odd facts about some of the obscure records and singers whose music I've posted here.  Don't try to give him the slip, he'll find you.  / Greg


Allan Copeland and his Hot Rodders  -  Crack The Whip

Whatever you do, don't follow the advice found on this 45.  I did and I now wish I hadn't.  I bought a whip, and just like Allan told me to I used it.  I had problems with the girlfriend - CRACK....SLAM, she's gone.  The dog wouldn't stop barking - CRACK...CHOMP, part of my leg is gone.  When my Mom wouldn't stop talking, CRACK...WHAM, I have a purse imprint on my face and I'm no longer in the will.  Luckily, I have no children or who knows what might've happened.  So much for the whip, it's bad advice so don't follow it.  Who the hell came up with the advice anyway?  With my life in ruins and vengeance in my heart, I turned to the net and started to search.  Here's what I found.

Arwin Records - The name comes from combining the names of two publishing firms, Artist Records and Daywin Music.  The outfit was owned by Doris Day and her husband and (mis)manager Marty Melcher.  If Arwin rings a bell, it's probably because it was the original home of those squeaky clean surf kids Jan and Dean, still known as Jan and Arnie at that point.

The Frank Comstock Orchestra - Frank was not only the composer of the Rocky & Bullwinkle theme, making him a god amongst men, but was also responsible for composing and arranging music for Adam-12, Dragnet, Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Ensign O'Toole, McHale's Navy, F-Troop, Pete Kelly's Blues, The D.A.'s Man, Temple Houston, and The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.  I'm currently working on deciding the best place in my house to build a Frank Comstock shrine.  On top of everything else, Comstock worked as an arranger for the Les Brown Orchestra, arranged, orchestrated or conducted music for many Warner Brothers' films, including The Jazz Singer, Some Like It Hot and Hello Dolly.  He even scored four Mr. Magoo theatrical animated shorts, and when Disney came calling he signed on to arrange music for their theme parks.  My theory?  He never slept; no one can do that much in a regular lifetime.

Allan Copeland - Copeland, who generally used only one "L" in his first name, got his start as a choir boy in the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir before moving on to acting.  He appeared in such classics as Angels With Dirty Faces, Going My Way, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, and Yankee Doodle Dandy.  In the early 50s, he joing the singing group the Modernairs and eventually formed his own group, the Allan Copeland Singers.  Like Frank Comstock he must have never slept because he also wrote charts for Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme and was the choral director for Bing Crosby's Christmas TV shows.  Here's a clip of Allan on the Bob Crosby Show.  He sort of makes Pat Boone look light a tough guy, doesn't he?

The Hot Rodders - they must have been fake hot rodders.  Or more likely some crack group of studio pros just as photogenic and perky as Allan himself.  And I bet their hot rods were Cadillacs.

Frank Lloyd - was a veryfrequent co-writer of Allan's; they have over 600 songs registered with ASCAP.  And like like all the others on this record he was a talented arranger.  Lloyd wrote much of the music for Doris Day's 1967 feature film The Ballad Of Josie.

I'm betting this record was a joke, a poke at Rock and Roll, the newest craze of the moment, by a bunch of guys who didn't really care too much for it or about it.  It's something they probably worked up at the end of a session for a laugh and to give Frank's group a chance to cut loose (and that's exactly what they do in one glorious instrumental break).

UPDATE - last weekend I had the chance to talk with Crack The Whip writer and singer Allan Copeland during his appearance on a radio show.  Well, sort of.  Let's just say it didn't go exactly as planned. Copeland appeared, along with Peter Marshall of Hollywood Squares' fame, on DJ Peggy King's big band radio show on WYYR.  I was instructed to call in at a specific time to request the song.  It would be quite a surprise for Allan and I'd get a chance to ask his some questions about the record, or so Peggy predicted.  Unfortunately, my questions went unasked and unanswered.  At the first utterance of "Crack The Whip" Allan reacted as though a bastard child from a one-night stand had shown up at the door and proclaimed "I'm here Dad!"  He immediately slammed the door shut in his song's face and proclaimed "I'm not going to talk about it!"  Even with the cajoling of the host (and also fellow guest Peter Marshall), he refused to speak of it and clearly wanted to move on as quickly as possible.  He claimed he'd spent all of his life and most of his money trying to bury Crack The Whip.  Looks like his efforts were in vain as it's now resurfaced.  Evidently the grave he dug wasn't deep enough or maybe it's just too good of a song to be buried.  Have a listen, you decide.

The Rains Came (Doug Sahm Month)




The Rains Came, written by the fabled Texas music man Huey P. Meaux, was originally recorded in 1962 as a tender ballad by Big Sambo And The House Wreckers and released as the flipside of their storming R&B stomper At The Party.  Hear them both (in the same clip) over on YouTube.

The Sir Douglas Quintet got hold of it three years later and turned it into a unbelievably catchy organ-led rocker.  As with the Big Sambo version, Meaux was handling the production duties.

Doug Sahm



July is Doug Sahm Month on Ichiban!!  Big thanks to Michael McMahon for the video!

add