Pure Hell - These Boots Are Made For Walking - No Rules

Today i give you the 1st all black punk band Pure Hell:

Established in Philadelphia in 1974, during the flashpoint of the punk culture in New York City, London and Los Angeles. Pure Hell was the first all-Black punk band.

Amid the pioneers of the post garage, acid rock, glam-theatre era of the late 60's/early 70's, Pure Hell are considered one of the first of their kind, comparable to the Sex Pistols, Dead Boys, The Germs. Commercially, the band had little success, and only released this one single. There was an album recorded that was never released but it has since seen the light of day now.

oh yeah, this was produced by Curtis Knight!

Happy 4th of July....

Pure Hell - These Boots Are Made For Walking

Pure Hell - No Rules

Drunk Driver - Knife Day - January 2nd

Enjoying Labor Day!!!???!!!

I'm glad kids these days are still making fucked up noise... & this is about as fucked up and noisey as it gets!!!

Too bad these cats have already broken up... i read something fucked up shit about the break up...

Thanks Big Tim!

Now get drunk and break shit no work today!!!!

Drunk Driver - Knife Day

Drunk Driver - January 2nd

The Majik - "The Black Album"

THE MAJIK - STORMY RECORDS M12-3

In my never ending search for all things Jersey i just dug this little nugget up. Obviously "rockers" who were "trying to cash on on the "now sound" of the times this falls a bit short but it does have a certain charm w/ its slight cars vibe... i even hear a tiny bit Devo.... I'm sure this thing is long out of print so grab it now if South Jersey New Wave / Power Pop is your vibe.

A very rare record, featuring former Versylus vocalist Art Devlin. Versylus was a late 70's progressive rock band based in South Jersey. Devlin left in 1980 to pursue an opportunity with The Majik, a more pop oriented vocal group.

The Majik (1980) featured Art Devlin (vocals and keyboards), Rich Rankin (lead and rhythm guitars), Hoppy Riddle (bass guitar) and John Leper (drums). They were a group based out of the South Jersey area from 1979-1980 and were compared to such bands as the Cars and Talking Heads. Two albums were recorded by this four piece band. The first album just called the 'White Album' was written in a more traditional 'classic rock' style while the second album including their single 'I Don't Need You To Tell Me So' was written in a 'new wave' style as it was known at that time. The second album known as the 'Black Album' was recorded in Philly in a 'live' or no overdubbing style in a session that lasted two days. Thirteen songs were recorded but only ten made it to the final pressing.

The Majik - "The Black Album"

Little Jerry Williams - Detroit - 1965 Kingsize Nicotine Blues

An early single from Little Jerry William AKA Swamp Dog!



Jerry Williams, Jr., (born 12 July 1942), is a soul music artist who is better known by his pseudonym Swamp Dogg.

Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, Williams made his first recording in 1954 under the moniker "Little Jerry", a 78 rpm single on the Mechanic label titled "HTD Blues" / "Nats Wailing". In 1963 he began using the moniker "Little Jerry Williams", recording with Loma Records, and by 1966 he had dropped the "Little" to record as Jerry Williams.

In 1970 he took on the persona of "Swamp Dogg" and released his first LP record, Total Destruction to Your Mind. The cover of his 1971 album, Rat On!, featuring Williams on the back of an oversized white rat, was ranked as one of the worst album covers of all time. Moving from one record label to another during the next 26 years of his recording career, he finally settled on his own record label S.D.E.G. Records [Swamp Dogg Entertainment Group]. His latest recording is titled Give Em As Little As You Can...As Often As You Have To...or...A Tribute To Rock 'n' Roll (2009), although he is rumored to be working on new material, including a collaboration with the author Ben Greenman.

Williams is also a noted songwriter and record producer. In an interview on NPR's Studio 360, Williams stated he was raised on country music: "Black music didn't start 'til 10 at night until 4 in the morning and I was in bed by then.. . . If you strip my tracks, take away all the horns and guitar licks, what you have is a country song." Williams also produces country music and has been nominated for a Grammy, along with Gary US Bonds, for writing the Johnny Paycheck record "She's All I Got". Other artists he has worked with include Doris Duke, Irma Thomas, Z. Z. Hill, Dee Dee Warwick, and Arthur Conley.

Little Jerry Williams - Detroit

TLittle Jerry Williams - 1965 Kingsize Nicotine Blues

George Baker Selection - Little Green Bag

So the story goes:

"Little Green Bag" is a 1969 song written by Dutch musicians, Jan Visser and George Baker (credited as Hans Bouwens), and recorded by the George Baker Selection at the band's own cost. The 7" single debut of the George Baker Selection was released by the label Negram, which misprinted the actual title of the song, which is "Little Green Back (greenback meaning money) and "greenback" is the lyric actually sung. This has caused the song to be misnamed ever since. "Little Green Bag" appeared on the album, Little Green Bag, by the George Baker Selection. Also, the song is included in the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino's film "Reservoir Dogs", and appears in the famous intro scene that leads into the opening credits.

Funny, i always thought it was a about weed...

George Baker Selection - Little Green Bag

Avengers - Paint It Black - Thin White Line

So last week i got to do something i don't get to do very often anymore and that was go out without children! So me and the lady went out for some food and a few drinks at the newly renovated Bond St. Bar in Asbury Park. I used to drink there back in the day when it was a lesbian bar because they used to sell 50 cent Meister Brau! It sat dormant for years but now it is back open and pretty cool. Cheap drinks and cheap, but good food. After we had a few pints of Guinness & some grub (Sweet Potato Fries, Fish Tacos and a Grilled Cheese w/ Artichoke and Sun Dried Tomatoes) we headed north to Long Branch to see The Avengers @ The Brighton Bar! The Brighton is Rock & Roll Legend and so are The Avengers. It was a pretty packed house with a mix of youngins and old farts. After a slew of opening bands, some that were ok, The Avengers took the stage and pretty much nailed it. They played all the "hits" opening the set with We Are The One... Nice. I would have thought they would have played that last but the stormed right out the gate. Singer Penelope Houston looked and sounded great. we didn't have a camera but the lady snapped a blurry pic with the phone. So in honor of getting to see this legendary band i bought myself this here little 6 inch from 1983 and now i give it up to you. They did in fact play the Stones cover live too!!! I bought the patch and button at the gig too. I'm a sucker for kitschy collectable shit...

If you need the 411 on the Avengers here is the Wiki info:

The Avengers are an American rock band in the first wave of American punk rock, formed in 1977 in San Francisco, California. Penelope Houston, who later became a folk musician, was their singer.

Original history
Drummer Danny Furious and guitarist Greg Ingraham decided to start a band, and Danny approached Penelope Houston to be their singer, who agreed. They finished their lineup with Jonathon Postal on bass, although he was replaced shortly after by Jimmy Wilsey. Their first release (which is also the only while the band was originally together) was We Are the One, a three-song EP which was released on Dangerhouse Records in 1977.
The Avengers opened for the Sex Pistols in San Francisco at their final show at Winterland, which led to Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones producing a recording session for the band. In January 1979, Ingraham left the band and was replaced by Brad Kunt, although the band only lasted a few more months until June 1979. An EP, titled Avengers, was released on White Noise Records a few month after the band broke up, which included songs from the Steve Jones produced session.
An album called Avengers (sometimes referred to as the Pink Album, including by Houston herself) was released in 1983. It featured tracks recorded through the band's whole time together, and was compiled by drummer Danny Furious. The album was out-of-print for a long time due to being in "legal limbo", during which time Houston would sell the album in CD-R format directly through her website. The album was re-released in 2010.

Avengers - Paint It Black

Avengers - Thin White Line

Plus - Twenty Thousand People

Plus put out 1 album and 1 single in 1969 on Probe the psychedelic subsidiary of ABC records and was not heard from again... This should get your weekend off to a thunderous start!

Plus - Twenty Thousand People

Three Degrees - Collage

The Three Degrees are a female Philadelphia soul and disco vocal musical group, formed in 1963 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Although always fronted by a three person line-up, there have been a number of personnel changes, and a total of twelve women have represented the group so far. The original members were Fayette Pinkney, Shirley Porter and Linda Turner. They are best known for their million selling 1974 hit song, "When Will I See You Again".

They were formed around 1963 in Philadelphia. They were discovered by producer and songwriter, Richard Barrett. Barrett was responsible for groups of the 1950s such as The Chantels, Little Anthony and the Imperials, and The ValentinesBarrett recorded the original line-up on their first song entitled, "Gee Baby (I'm Sorry)", for Swan Records. Turner and Porter both left the group and were replaced by Helen Scott and a variety of other ladies before Janet Harmon joined in the mid 1960s. Barrett also began managing and producing Sheila Ferguson who was a high school friend of Scott. Barrett also signed Ferguson to Swan Records in 1965. The Three Degrees released a number of singles such as "I'm Gonna Need You" and a cover version of "Maybe" with Scott taking the lead vocals.

By 1966, with many performances lined up, Scott decided to leave the group to start a family. Ferguson filled in for Scott and would remain in the group for 20 years. Ferguson sang backup on all the group's Swan recordings as did the Three Degrees for her solo singles. By 1967, Harmon left and was eventually replaced by Valerie Holiday. Barrett signed them to recording contracts over the next three years with Warner Bros., Metromedia, and Neptune record labels; the latter of which which was owned by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff who would work with group five years later. Their close harmony singing made them a popular nightclub act but that hit record still eluded them.

By 1970, they were signed to Roulette Records and they released their first album, Maybe. The title song took them to #4 on the U.S. R&B charts. Other singles like "I Do Take You" and "You're The Fool" followed, as did their second album, So Much Love. This success landed them a cameo appearance in the 1971 film, The French Connection, filmed during one of their appearances at the Copacabana nightclub in New York.

In 1973, with their contract with Roulette ending, Barrett signed them to Philadelphia International Records under Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, where they were to have their greatest successes. They also made an appearance on the television series Sanford and Son, singing their song "I Didn't Know." The first song they recorded there was with the studio band MFSB, entitled "TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" which was the theme song for Soul Train. In total, The Three Degrees recorded four albums for the Roulette label.

The first album spawned three hits. "Dirty Ol' Man" went gold in the Netherlands and Belgium. The second single was "Year Of Decision" which made it to the Top 20 in the UK Singles Chart. Their third single "When Will I See You Again" was the one that broke the trio into the mainstream. It topped the UK Chart and reached no.2 in the US, earning the trio a gold record.

That is the wiki low-down; my low-down is that this song reminds my of my younger days driving around in the car with my Mom while she sang along with the A.M.radio. And this is a real song of the times, iot couldn'y have been recorded at any other time than the late 60's or early 70's, in this case smack dab in teh middle, 1970.
A song that mixes in soul with pop and with slight psychedlic edge... Enjoy.

And before anyone gives me shit about the sound quality, this was dug at a flea market and cost me 50 cents... If you like the song go buy some mp3's or whatever and get off my back.... I'm sure some of these ladies are still alive and could use your cracker ass green backs!

Three Degrees - Collage

The Spacemen - The Clouds

"The Clouds" is a 1959 instrumental by The Spacemen, an instrumental studio group. The single released on the Alton label, was the only chart hit by The Spacemen. "The Clouds hit number one on the R&B chart for three non consecutive weeks, and also peaked at number forty-one on the Hot 100.

The Spacemen Consisted of one Samuel "Sammy" Benskin (September 27, 1922 – August 26, 1992) who an African American pianist and bandleader.
He was born in The Bronx, New York City, and made his professional debut around 1940 as piano accompanist to singer and guitarist Bardu Ali. He worked throughout the 1940s with jazz musicians including Stuff Smith, Benny Morton and Don Redman. By the early 1950s he had begun leading his own piano trio, as well as appearing as a soloist and as accompanist to singers including Roy Hamilton and Al Hibbler. In 1954 he also joined a group, The Three Flames. Later in the 1950s he worked as accompanist to Dinah Washington.
In 1959, with the band credited as The Spacemen, he recorded an instrumental, "The Clouds", written and produced by Julius Dixson and issued on Dixson's Alton record label. Other session musicians playing on the record were Panama Francis, Haywood Henry, and Babe Clark. The song originally had vocals, which Dixson removed, releasing the instrumental version. This rose to # 1 on the Billboard R&B chart, and # 41 on the pop chart. "The Clouds" was the first number one on any chart released by an African-American owned independent record label, predating Motown's first # 1 by a year.

Sammy died in Teaneck, New Jersey, aged 69.


The Spacemen - The Clouds

Unholy Swill - War Pigs

It's crazy to me to think that 1990 was already over 19.5 years ago....

Damn...

Anywho, here is something to get the weekend started, some noisy, don't give a fuck lo-fi punk ass shit from unholy swill. so bad its great.

I don't know shit about this band but i own a bunch of their 7 inches. I always suspected they were from one of the 5 boroughs of NY, probably queens... And in my mind each one of these gutter punks is long since dead of an O.D., AIDS or murdered. But in reality they are all probably wall street bankers and business tycoons. Either way for a hot second back in the late 80's and early 90's these dudes were making some seriously low brow and lo fi burnt out records. Anyone who can destroy War Pigs they way they do here is A-OK in my book...

Post Script: While writing this i got curious about the band and did a quick "google"... heh. Here is their myspace page for the 2 of you that might give a shit...Unholy Swill

Now i gotta go and find one of these shirts!



edit: my kid just came upstairs as i was playing this track, he's 10, and he says "where do i know this song from" i said its a cover of Black Sabbath. His replay was "It sounds like someone took a shit on Black Sabbath"!!! Ha Ha Ha!!!

Perfect description!

Unholy Swill - War Pigs

The Lyrics - My Son

Whenever shit starts getting heavy and life starts to sometimes spin out of control as it has around here lately i have something that sets things straight, or at least puts some perspective on things; something i didn't always have to help me along in my earlier years but something i am thankful for everyday of my life since their arrival... My sons, who as anyone who knows me in real life can attest too, i love more than anything in this world!

As most people know i usually dig my soul funky and with an edge but after i had my own sons this song really struck me. This a really beautiful heartfelt soul song with a message, that who ever this is on lead vocals from the lyrics, at least in my mind, really means what he is singing... or at least i hope he did.

Before my 1st boy "Herb Apple Pie" was born i made him a tape (yep, cassette) while still in his mom's belly and this was one of the tunes i put on it. I know he still doesn't fully "get" that tape or why i made it but one day maybe he will understand. It may take until he has his own children but i know he will...

For my Sons, i love you both more than you could ever imagine...

The Lyrics - My Son

Louis Jordan - Old Age - What I Say

It's a rainy, wet and basically miserable day here on he east coast again and not unlike how its been around the devils lair lately. I was out of work for 4 weeks after some surgery and went back 2 weeks ago only to find that nothing was done in my absence and i've been slammed at work ever since, my kids have been sick & i've been dealing with some other issues as well, and on top of all this crap another friend of mine has died. Seems the older i get the more friends i lose. i guess that is the nature of life and the same for everyone....

R.I.P. "Psycho" Sam...

Old age aint nothin' but a matter of time...

Louis Jordan - Old Age

Edit 7/5/09: I added the B side per comment request.

Louis Jordan - What I Say

Isreal "Popper Stopper" Tolbert - Big Leg Woman (With A Short, Short Mini Skirt)

Blind Israel Tolbert had a genuine surprise smash with “Big Leg Woman” in 1970 on Warren records. A great soulfull funky blues party record with some cool guitar, superb keyboard work and some funky drumming and horns.

Tolbert was born in Montgomery, AL on October 28 1939 and went to High School with Clarence Carter. Before and after making records he was a DJ which was how he got the nickname “Popper Stopper”, following in a line from a series of famous New Orleans DJs. After Warren records he started his own Tolchose label.

Isreal "Popper Stopper" Tolbert - Big Leg Woman (With A Short, Short Mini Skirt)

The Relations - Puddin-N-Tang (Is My Name)

Some classic soul to get your weekend started!

The Relations - Puddin-N-Tang (Is My Name)

Messiah - Alpha Wave - Easy Livin'

Keeping w/ the Funk, here are 2 kill tracks from Messiah. Alpha Wave is a bit more modern and trippy sounding, not unlike something you might hear on a Billy Cobham record... while Easy Livin' goes a little more towards traditional funkiness, it still has a bit more modern vibe. Either way pretty cool tunes and a record you don't see everyday.

Messiah - Alpha Wave
Messiah - Easy Livin'

Sonny Richards - Skinny Minny Olive Oil

I posted the B side Voodoo Walk to this 45 during my Halloween song bombardment. And here now i give you the A-side for your listening pleasure.

I am also sending this out to the Red Boy
and this time for way different reasons than in the Ronnie Self Bop-A-Lena post, and he knows why....

Sonny Richards - Skinny Minny Olive Oil

Ronnie Self - Houdini

Keeping this a Ronnie Self weekend here is my minty copy of Houdini w/ company sleeve.

After his Decca contract expired in 1962 Self's credibility was still sufficiently high for him to secure a one year deal with Kapp Records.

I for one dig this tune, i mean its a song about freakin' Houdini! How do you go wrong with that?

See below the below post whole R.S. story...

Ronnie Self



Ronnie Self - Houdini

Ronnie Self - Bop-A-Lena

Long ago when I first met The Red Boy and we got to talkin' about records and the fact that we both collected and we were talking about some of our fave tracks he asked me if i had ever heard this here gem and told him i had not, so he spun this here monster rocker that borders on insanity for me and my tongue fell out my face and my brain popped out the top of my head like a Tex Avery cartoon! I mean really this thing burns with fire and passion and thrashes about kinda like punk rock 50's music, some other folks might have been this amped up but reckon most must have been black performers on goof balls!

Needless to say I have been a Ronnie Self fan ever since, so even though you are a skinny legged prick thanks Red Boy, you aint half bad half the time....

Now i didn't write the below info i lifted it from the free web see, but if you don't know Mr. Self's story read on dear reader because his tale is almost as good as his music and that is pretty fucking good...

Why Ronnie Self never made it as a performer is one of the great mysteries and injustices of pop music history. He had the look and the sound - a mix of country, rockabilly and R&B that sometimes made him sound like a white Little Richard, but mostly like the young Elvis or Carl Perkins - and he wasn't lacking for good songs, which he mostly wrote himself. He should have been there, thought of in the same breath as Perkins or Jerry Lee Lewis; instead, he's a footnote in rock & roll history outside of Europe, where he's treated as a legend. (AMG - Bruce Eder)

Ronnie Self was born the first of five children of Raymond Self, a farmer-turned-railroad worker, and Hazel Sprague Self. Self had a reputation as a wild boy, with incidents of vandalism and assault in his background. He became interested in music while still a boy, and began writing songs while in his teens. The relationship between Ronnie and his parents is somewhat clouded. "When I first met him," recalled his wife Dorothy, "he carried a Bible in his pocket and talked of being able to make enough money to get his folks out of poverty, but as the years went on he showed an increasing hostility toward them that I never really understood."

On December 16, 1957 Self entered the cavernous Bradley's studio in Nashville and, armed with a composition from the unlikely team of Webb Pierce and Mel Tillis, turned in one of the most frenetic performances from the early days of rock & roll. Quite what Columbia's debonair expatriate Englishman, Don Law, thought as he sat behind the console is open to conjecture. Session stalwarts Marvin Hughes, Ray Edenton and Buddy Harman probably left the session shaking their heads. But when Bop-A-Lena, was released early the following year, during the height of the short lived vogue for primitive, energised rockabilly, it broke into the 'Billboard' charts, peaking at number 68. Unfortunately, it was Ronnie Self's only chart entry as a performer, a statistic that galled him as the years passed.


Self had a unique and tortuous career in the music business. He eventually gained a fairly steady income from his songwriting but, with the exception of Bop-A-Lena, he was capable of much more than the larynx-searing Bop-A-Lena, though, and could move with ease from country to pop and onto R&B, leaving his imprint on it all. However, a mixture of problems and sheer bad lick conspired to keep his name no more than a by-word among a few.

Since 1954 KWTO Springfield, MO had been the originating station of the Ozark Jubilee, ABC's alternative to the Opry. They had recruited Red Foley to head the regular cast and made the show available for network television. One of the producers, Si Siman, later became a music publisher and had an on/off involvement with Self. During the early '50's, Red Foley was managed by Dub Albritten, who had a close involvement with Cedarwood publishing by virtue of the fact that he also booked Webb Pierce who owned a piece of Cedarwood. Siman, Albritten and Cedarwood would play a large part in Self's career.

"Ronnie was in and out of the station with demos," recalled Siman, "and showed all kinds of promise as a prolific writer." The exact train of events that took him to Nashville to cut his session for ABC is still a little cloudy.

Self was signed to a songwriting contract. His first recording sessions were held in Nashville on behalf of ABC Records, which led to a contract and the release of a single, "Pretty Bad Blues"/"Three Hearts Later," both of which were written by Self. Issued in 1956, the record failed to chart.

It is unclear why Albritten, who had strong ties to Decca via Foley, Webb Pierce and another Jubilee regular, Brenda Lee, would place Self with ABC. Even stranger was the fate of the second single, "Sweet Love" b/w "Alone". It was assigned an issue number (ABC 9768), scheduled but apparently not released. The tapes also disappeared. That disc has never been found, nor have the tapes for those two songs. It was an inauspicious debut but Self had acquired an important booster in Dub Albritten, as well as his first significant publishing affiliation.

In early 1957 Albritten was called upon to help assemble a cast for the Phillip Morris Caravan and act as promotion manager. Wayne Russell's research has dated the origin of the Caravan to some annual shows that the company sponsored for their employees. They launched the Caravan in January 1957 with a troupe that included Carl Smith, Red Sovine, Goldie Hill, Gordon Terry, Mimi Roman and Ronnie Self. Admission was by invitation, probably to those bearing a sample of Phillip Morris's product. Most of the acts on the package show were country players, and Self was the resident rockabilly representative - he quickly began attracting attention with his wild and highly animated stage act, not to mention the nature of his songs, which combined the intensity of R&B with high-energy rockabilly. A spurious 'live' album was issued featuring studio cuts with overdubbed applause.

"He'd start at the far back of the stage," recalled his sister Vicki, "throw his guitar over his back and run out to the mike, grab the mike stand and go right down on the floor with it and sing the first song. That was how he'd start. He'd never stop moving on stage ... He'd turn around with his back to the audience and face the band - but he never stood still. He'd never talk to the crowd, just went from one song to another but the band never knew what it was gonna be. He did "Roll Over Beethoven" and he rocked up some stuff that was country, like Hank Williams, and his own tunes."

Because of the response that Self generated on the Phillip Morris tour, Albritten secured him a contract with Columbia. He was signed on February 10th to a deal calling for a paltry two per cent royalty. The first session, held on February 16th, resulted in one single, "Big Fool"/"Flame of Love", with a session band to include Grady Martin and Hank Gariana on guitars with the singer, Floyd Chance on bass, Buddy Harman on drums, and Floyd Cramer on piano. This single failed to chart, and a third song, Self's own "Black Night Blues," was unissued until 1990.

The follow-up, recorded in June of the same year, allowed Self to display a little more originality. "Ain't I'm A Dog" and "Rocky Road Blues" being his second release for Columbia. By now, his pronounced rasping hicuppy vocal styling was well to the fore and he was constantly urging on the backing musicians in rockin' creativeness. These are examples of rock 'n' roll excitement at their finest. From accounts of his frantic stage act, it was a small wonder that he stood in front of the microphone long enough to snarl out the lyrics. "Ain't I'm A Dog" had a proto punk snarl and lyrics to match ("Forget about the danger and think of the fun..."). It apparently sold well on a regional basis (indeed Dorothy Self thought it was his best-selling record) and encouraged Columbia to shelve the two remaining cuts from the June session.

Come December 16th, 1957, Ronnie was back in the studio with John T. Hill, and Ray Edenton on guitars plus the faithful Buddy Harman on drums along with Ike Inman on bass plus Marvin Hughes on piano, he laid down the rapid-fire, high-powered rock 'n' roll classic "Bop-A-Lena", a little ditty composed by country stalwarts Webb Pierce and Mel Tillis. The raw power of Self's singing, coupled with the frantic beat, has resulted in "Bop-A-Lena" being labeled as the first punk single in some quarters. That might be a bit extreme, but not too far off the mark - that record moves, and it's just anarchic enough to be recognizable not only to modern rockabilly practitioners like The A-Bones, but lots of punkers as well. It was a classic of raucous overstatement that would inspire uncounted garage bands. Two other sides, "I Ain't Going Nowhere" and the raucous "You're So Right For Me" were also recorded.

"Bop-A-Lena" slowly but surely started to break out big and eventually peaked at position 68 on the billboard charts. There is a photograph of Self with Dick Clark on the American Bandstand TV show, the use of the word American before Bandstand in the picture dates it after August 5th, 1957 when the show started to broadcast across the nation. He also appeared on the Grand Ol Opry and, never one to compromise, rocked like crazy.

Ten days after the "Bop-A-Lena" session, Ronnie took a bride. "I met him when he was dating a friend of mine." recalled Dorothy, "and we went backstage at Wally Fowler's All Night Singin' show. 'Pretty Bad Blues' had just been released. He looked at me and said, 'I'm gonna marry you.'" On December 26, 1957 Ronnie and Dorothy were married.

After "Petrified" faltered, Don Law lost no time in jetisoning Self from the roster. Albritten's credibility at Decca was still high, though, and he succeeded in placing Self on a three year deal with the label in which he was also contracted to Decca's publishing affiliate, Champion Music, for five years. It was during 1960 that Self saw his greatest success as a composer with Brenda Lee's "I'm Sorry", of which Dub Albritten took a 20 per cent share. Brenda had started on the Ozark Jubilee and was managed by Albritten after he had disassociated himself from Foley. She earlier recorded another of Self's compositions, "Sweet Nothin's" on which her pharasing is strongly suggestive of the writer. Some have said that Self effectively produced the sessions.

The Decca contract expired in 1962. They left a novelty song, "Whistlin' Words", in the can. Ironically it foreshadowed Roger Miller's success with offbeat novelties by a couple of years. Self's credibility was still sufficiently high for him to secure a one year deal with Kapp Records. The top side, "Houdini", was a fairly trite piece of material but the flipside, "Bless My Broken Heart", was a beautifully melodic song that featured the then omnipresent twelve string guitar. It was probably during the Kapp session, held at Sam Phillips' Nashville studio, that Phillips' guitarist and publishing manager, Keelso Heerston, picked up one of Self's songs for Jerry Lee Lewis's last Sun sessions a few weeks later. The song, "Love On Broadway", was unissued in 1963 but fared quite well when Shelby Singleton released it in 1971.

Champion Music placed him on salary in the early '60s because he had a tendency to cash a big royalty or BMI check and spend all the money in a few hours. After parting company from Decca and their publishing companies, Self wrote once again for Cedarwood and eventually reunited with Si Siman. The craziness continued unabated, especially after Dub Albritten died in 1971. Albritten had retained his faith in Self and had assumed the role of a father figure.

Around the mid 60s, Self recorded a five track demo session for Cedarwood, according to his sister Vicki. It was through Si that he got a recording deal with AMY Records who released Self's "High On Life" and "The Road Keeps Winding" in 1968 with Dale Hawkins producing. The first of these two titles was also recorded by Gene Vincent on his "The Day The World Turned Blue" album issued by Karma Suttra Records in 1971. There was to be one more record release by Ronnie Self during his lifetime and this was "Long Distance Kiss" and "Ain't I Dandy" on the obscure Scratch label circa 1969.

Ronnie wrote a sacred song "Ain't That Beautiful Singing" performed by Jake Hess which received a Grammy for Best Sacred Performance in 1969.

With the death of Dub Albritten, Self decided to move back to Springfield, where he formed Tablerock Music with Si Simon on a 50/50 basis. Siman provided the funds and Self the music. One song published by the company was "Home In My Hand" and was recorded as a great rockin' opus by Dallas Frazier. However after two years Self abruptly terminated the partnership. He was becoming more and more unpredictable and was becoming meshed in a vicious cycle of booze and pills. There is a story that one night he blew up a shelf of his demo recordings with a shotgun.

Dorothy left for the last time in 1978 and remarried another man. Ronnie called her again shortly before he died trying for a reconciliation. "I'd tried and I'd have given anything to see it work," she said. "It was unbearable to see someone so talented destroy themself."

Self had also burned his bridges with Si Siman, "He came back to see me after a few more bumps in the road and wanted to start over but I couldn't afford to re-tie that knot. I think he was probably clinically insane then, doing real unusual things. It wasn't safe to be around him although I still thought he was a terrific writer. When he was straight, he was great to do business with. He was a gentleman. But when he got some juice inside him he'd shoot holes in the wall, fire off a bow and arrow, chase people and try to run 'em down with a car. He was in and out of jail God knows how many times. His talent was a curse. When success was real close, he'd have only had to do what people were telling him, but he couldn't handle that - and he blew it.

"He was a perfectionist. He wanted to do it all. He was like the guy who hires an artist then tells him how to paint the picture. I wanted to be his friend but he wouldn't let me. Nobody could get real close to him."

Self moved into an apartment building in Springfield. His brother ahd a room in the same building. It was there that he died on August 28th, 1981. A year before Self died, Dave Edmunds received one of his songs, "Home In My Hand". Five months after he died, Diana Ross scored a huge pop and R&B hit with "Mirror, Mirror"; on the flip side, generating mechanical if not airplay royalties, was "Sweet Nothin's". It highlighted the timeless and cross-cultural appeal of Self's work. He could write or perform in a variety of styles and sound convincing in all of them. On an unissued Decca recording, "Some Other World", he wrote his own epitaph:

Down with your theories/Down with your conventions
This cat lives in another dimension
You like my sounds/You like my song
I guess I'm right and you cats are wrong.


One of the last recordings, if not the last, that Ronnie made was "Waitin For My Gin To Hit Me" in June of 1981.

Self had some good moments and good times as a performer later in his career. He was especially highly regarded in Europe, practically like visiting royalty. Ronnie Self left behind some four hundred songs, and what is amazing is their sheer quality. As a singer/songwriter/performer, he was a triple threat, equally strong as a singer of country ballads, hot white (and white-hot) R&B, and some of the fastest, most bracing rockabilly heard this side of The Sparkletones. It's been said too many times about too many performers, but as a singer, Self could have been another Elvis Presley, and had the potential to be bigger....he lacked Elvis' dark, brooding, charismatic sexuality (although he had a dark side, to be sure), which translated well on screen, but he could take a song and turn it into the hottest piece of dixie-fried rock and roll this side of Carl Perkins, and with a frantic Jerry Lee Lewis edge to it as well. He may have been a little too country-fried for the rock & roll market after 1956 (a problem that Carl Perkins also ran into), but his songwriting had enough variety to keep his stuff fascination, and the quality of his music was extraordinary.

Ronnie Self - Bop-A-Lena

The Devil's Music: Devil Dick Funky Magic Disco Vol. 7.5

Alright peeps happy Monday!

The Devil will be out of town for the next week or so jamming with my band over in Holland at the Roadburn Festival so I am giving you something to hold you over for a while!

So while I'm overseas playing Heavy Metal riffs i leave you with something FUNKY!

I'm also going try something different here to see if anyone is paying attention.

You don't get the track list until I get back!

How many of these tracks can you name! The only hint you get is that these are all OG album cuts here, no 45's!

Sit back and get Funky! (and name that tune!)

Track list added 4/29/09

T-Connection - Do What You Wanna Do
Riot - Put Your Gun Down
Gangsters of Love - Never Is Too Soon
Tribe - Think People
Energetics - Beat the Heat
New Birth - Grand Daddy
The 5 Stairsteps - Vice the Lights
B.T. Express - Do It Till Your Satisfied

The Devil's Music: Devil Dick Funky Magic Disco Vol. 7.5

Atomic Rooster - All In Satans Name

Atomic Rooster were an English progressive rock band, formed by ex-Crazy World of Arthur Brown members, Vincent Crane and Carl Palmer in late 1969.

In January, 1970 Atomic Rooster (at that time consisting of Crane, Palmer and Nick Graham) released their self-titled debut album.

Between Palmer's departure (to be one third of Emerson, Lake & Palmer), and the recording of a second album, guitarist John Du Cann (Andromeda) joined them, giving a whole new dimension to the music with his distinctive guitar attack.

Having found success on the UK Singles Chart, the band was augmented with singer Peter French (ex-Leaf Hound) for their third effort on vinyl, In Hearing Of Atomic Rooster. It showed the band at full throttle. The import version included the hit single "The Devil's Answer", although this was strangely missing from the original UK release. After this album, Cann, Hammond and French left the band. French went to join Cactus, while John Du Cann and Paul Hammond teamed up with ex-Quatermass bass player John Gustafson and founded Hard Stuff.

Crane put the band together one more time, recruiting 1960s British R&B singer and ex-Colosseum vocalist Chris Farlowe. Along with old friends John Goodsall, then known as "Johnny Mandala", and Rick Parnell (who is the son of orchestra leader Jack Parnell, and composed material on the last album, plus came up with the piano riff on "Tomorrow Night") they released Made In England.

They managed to release one more album, Nice 'n' Greasy, but the sound was somewhat diluted, although the tracks "Voodoo In You" and "Take One Toke" reminded their fans of past glories. It proved to be their last record in the 1970s.

Atomic Rooster - All In Satans Name