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

Jon Thomas - Fat Back

well, i'm back and it looks like my funky guessing game didn't go over so well huh?

i guess no one wants to do any "work" and just fly in and grab the tunes and run... oh well. i won't do that AGAIN!

anyway here is just a little something to let the few that come around that i am back and will have more new stuff up soon as i get over my let lag...

Jon Thomas – “Fat Back”: A nice slow burning soulful Las Vegas Grind instrumental R&B number type number with plenty of Killer organ and sax from 1957. I posted this over at Planet Mondo Atomic Blog a while back but thought this needed its own treatment.

Jon Thomas - Fat Back

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

The Alberto Combo - The Green Monster

Here is a great little dirty garage instrumental on the Tammy label. Hell if i could find anything out about the group except they did cut several singles for the Tammy label out of Youngstown Ohio. I did find a Tammy records discography here: Tammy Records
Other than that a search says this is uncomped... if that matters to you?
If you have any info please drop it.

I'll be honest i only bought this off the strength of the amazing Iron Knowledge 45 which is also on the Tammy label and was the very 1st music posted on this lil blog and knew nothing about this 45 but the label coupled with the title "Green Monster" were enough for me to shell out a few clams and take a chance. And I'm happy i did because this is a pretty cool little record. Any record that starts off with engines reving and then steals some Bo Diddly with some cool horns and nifty guitar work is A-OK in my book! Dig In!

The Alberto Combo - The Green Monster

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

The Devil's Music: Devil Dick Mix Vol. 7 - Pile Of Rocks

Here just a big dumb pile of rocks strung together by a guy with rocks in his head and a stone heart and just something to start your weekend out a little rocky... (lame i know, whatever....) The Devil's 7th mix, enjoy some big dumb rock!

Turn it up and get rockin'!!!

REO Speedwagon – Ridin’ the Storm Out: Odd choice you say? Not so much.
Before all that lame ass 80’s shit and before that skinny Kevin what’s his name these guys were laying down some real rockers. Don’t believe me? Crank up Ridin’ the Storm Out and you be the Judge…

Leslie West – Blood of the Sun: From his solo album oddly enough titled “Mountain”.
This has one of THEE coolest and heaviest riffs ever produced short of Iommi himself.

Power of Zeus – It Couldn’t Be Me: Way sought after 70’s rocker with some killer moves and vibes. This song simply jams!

Nektar – Fidgity Queen: German prog freaks getting funky!

Groundhogs – The Grey Maze: I have a soft spot for these English blues hounds and their twisted mix blues & hard rock!

Savage Grace – She’s a Woman: Nice tight Detroit rocker with a somewhat funky edge but still staying pretty hard and heavy. Personally I think these guys are way under-rated.

Tucky Buzzard – Stainless Steel Lady: British Hard rock band formed in 1969 by three former members of The End. Also notable; Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones produced them. Cool loose vibe on this cut and once again under-rated band IMHO.

Heavy Metal Kids – Nature of My Game: They took their name from a gang of street kids featured in a novel by legendary beat generation writer William Burroughs. This is certainly a ROCKER and not metal…

The Devil's Music: Devil Dick Mix Vol. 7 - Pile Of Rocks

Trio - Da Da Da (Long Version)

I used to date a gothy punk girl in the 80's and she definitely widened my punk and metal muisc pallet to a lot of different stuff and i remember her digging this tune a great deal. DJ Jack the Ripper what is your excuse? And do you have this "Long Version" or only the single?

Anyway here's the trio deal;

Trio was formed in the small German town of Großenkneten in 1979. By far, the band is most noted for the song "Da da da, ich lieb dich nicht du liebst mich nicht aha aha aha" (or simply "Da Da Da"), or its English version "Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha", which was a hit in about 30 countries worldwide.

The song is often given as an example of a song that has become popular while being extremely repetitive. However, to understand Trio one must understand its context. It was a product of the Neue Deutsche Welle (or NDW). However, Trio preferred the name Neue Deutsche Fröhlichkeit, which means "New German Cheerfulness", to describe their music. At that time, as now, popular songs were based on extremely simple structures that were ornately produced. Trio's main principle was to remove almost all the ornamentation and polish from their songs, and to use the simplest practical structures (most of their songs were three-chord songs). For this reason, many of their songs are restricted to drums, guitar, vocals, and just one or maybe two other instruments, if any at all. Bass was used very infrequently until their later songs, and live shows often saw Remmler playing some simple preprogrammed rhythms and melodies on his small Casio VL-1 keyboard while Behrens played his drums single-handedly while eating an apple. This simplicity was not simply due to an inability to sing or play well; Remmler's later solo career shows that he was capable of much more complicated music, and Kralle has demonstrated considerable ability as a guitarist in other ventures. Rather, their songs were bare-boned to show how bare the bones actually are.

Trio - Da Da Da (Long Version)

Aphrodites Child - Rain And Tears - Don't Try To Catch A River

I’ve already blogged about this band a time or 2 here at the devil’s music so I’ll spare you the gory details but before the heavy psych masterpiece of 666
they were much more a child of the 60’s and in a lighter psych vein. And while it pours buckets of rain on the East Coast today I thought it fitting to post these 2 numbers that I have had on deck for a good long while now.

So with no more useless chatter from me, enjoy.

Aphrodites Child - Rain And Tears
Aphrodites Child - Don't Try To Catch a River

Forward to the Caves 4/2/09 Play List:

On the air now: 8 to 10pm EST


www.wlfr.fm

Here's what were playin'

The Adverts - One Chord Wonders
Electric Eels - Agitated
Swimming Pool Q's - Rat Bait
Killdozer - River
Crime - Lost Souls
Joy Division - New Dawn Fades
Snakefinger - Talkin' In The Town
The Lurkers - Out In The Dark
Flipper - The Lights The Sound The Rhythm
Missing Foundation - Pistol Archive
F.O.D. - Umi Heto
Butthole Surfers - Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald
Union Carbide Productions - Ring My Bell
Scab Cadillac - Explain This
Eddie Fiction - UFO Pt. 2
Punishment of Luxury - Puppet Life
Kaos - Cone of Silence
Rude Kids - Thoughts In The Shadows Of Death

Ribeye Brothers - We became Snakes
Raven - Can't You See
Pink Fairies - City Kids
Hawkwind - Motorhead
Jesefus - I Saw A Killin'
Flower Trevellin' Band - Map
Chocolate Watchband - Medication
The Thunderbirds - Hey Little Girl
Werps - Loves A Fire
Rocking Ghosts - Ghost Walk
Alberto Combo - Green Monster
Monacles - I Can't Win
Bintangs - Please Do Listen
Johnny Horton - Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor
Babywoodrose - I Lost You In My Mind
Yo Yo's - Mole In the Hole

Trini Lopez - Sinner Man

I'm not a huge Trini Lopez fan but this is a good tune and something the devil knows a little something about...

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone...

Trini Lopez - Sinner Man

Bobby Cole - The Omen - Holly

Songs removed due to someones pussy having sand in it....

douche

Bobby Cole - The Omen

Originally posted 9/5/08, I've added the flip "Holly" because i've had a few folks ask for it. (Sorry no label scan now but I'll get one up at work next week)

If you didn't catch this the 1st time around here you go!

Here is another odd one:
From one time Jazz cat and lover of Judy garland.

Here’s part of the story:

BOBBY's first album “New New New” was issued in mono and stereo by Columbia.
Not all that different from what other jazz trios were doing, about the only thing NEW NEW NEW was Bobby himself...his youthful voice already having a smokey burr to it. I thought he was effective on "Ebb Tide," "I sound like I have a sock in my mouth!" he said.
There are some "tasty" arrangements (as they used to say) and one trademark tune is "The Lady's In Love With You." This would be one of Bobby's piano-pounding up-tempo trademarks on the bistro circuit. I'm sure he sang it to many a ringsider couple...the guy feeling proud, and the girl...staring and dreaming about Bobby.
Bobby could've gotten a deal with Capitol through his pal Sinatra...but Bobby didn't want to be doing what Frank and Dino were doing. Or do what he did on the Columbia album. It was do it his way, or not at all
So it was not at all

In 1963 Bobby and Judy Garland became an item, and Bobby became the conductor and arranger (replacing Mel Torme) as "The Judy Garland Show" sputtered toward the end of its run .

Here's where it gets a bit more interesting:

One night in Greenwich Village, Bobby saw Jerry Jeff Walker strumming a little tune called "Mr. Bojangles." It wasn't much...but Bobby saw its potential. Seized with new energy and purpose, he worked all his magic in trying to get backing for a single. He was so worked up over the arrangements and what he would need, he barely even considered the B-side
"Mister Bojangles" (released on Columbia's subsidiary Date Records) was a little masterpiece, something George ("For the Benefit of Mr. Kite") Martin would've been proud of. With its sorrowful violin and sweet calliope, the orchestration set the tone for an elegy to an old vaudevillian, and Bobby's world-weary vocal made the sentiment truly ache
The big surprise was the B-Side, a folk-rock original called "Bus 22 to Bethlehem." Excellent lyrics here on the commercialization of religion. Bobby just tossed it off with some guitars and a beat...but it was a very worthy companion to "Mister Bojangles."
Unfortunately for Bobby, Atco signed Walker and Jerry Jeff's country version fought a regional war with Bobby's production. Depending on where Columbia and Atlantic had better coverage and strength, radio stations played one version or the other, and the two versions hovered around bottom of the Top 40 without either breaking through.
But it was Bobby's version that led to ballad-jazz versions from Sammy Davis Jr. , George Burns and others. Walker's version yielded another twangy try via the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Bobby was asked if that was his only single. And he said yes
But actually, a second single appeared on the Date label. Bobby may have been correct that it was pressed in white label demo versions but not really "released" in a meaningful quantity. So it wasn't really an official second "single." Or, he may simply have not thought much about "The Omen," a kind of heavy "message" effort with heavy, symbolic lyrics (very fitting for the time).

Info lifted from: Bobby Cole Music

So that being said: here’s the date single….

Songs removed:

Zip-Codes - Sweet Meat Part 1

Alright peeps, switching gears here with something funky from the Zip-Codes on Better records that will have to hold you over for the next week or so because I'm taking me and my sunny disposition on the road and out to Texas for SXSW (South By South West), where yours truly and my band Solace will be playing Friday the 20th @ the Room 710 in Austin.

A quick search of the interwebs came up goose eggs on the zip-codes except that a few peeps are selling this thing, but I'm shouting this out to my man DJ Prestige because i was planning on spinning this at the last 45 session but the Guinness got in the way so maybe next time!

See you 'round the way...

Zip-Codes - Sweet Meat Part 1

Marvin Rainwater - So You Think You've Got Troubles

Going to stick with the country/hillbilly side of things and give you some Marvin Rainwater from 1957 for the weekend. This dude kicked in Jersey and man could he rock a headband = way cooler than you.

Marvin Karlton Rainwater (born July 2, 1925 in Wichita, Kansas) is an American country and rockabilly singer who had several hits during the late 1950s including "Gonna Find Me a Bluebird" and "Whole Lotta Woman." He was best-known for wearing Native American outfits on stage. He is 25% Cherokee.

Rainwater was one of country's most noteworthy stars in the 1950s, when his good looks and baritone voice made him popular. One of the first rockabilly songs he recorded was "Gonna Find Me a Bluebird." Released in 1957, the song became a big country-pop crossover hit, making Rainwater one of the first country singers to appeal to a pop market. The song reached number five on the country charts. During the song's success, Rainwater re-located to the New Jersey-New York area. His next single, "So You Think You Got Troubles," was a successful follow-up on the country charts, but not on the pop charts.

Ya know, whenever I'm feeling down, i put this little tune on and think to myself, yep, life still sucks...

so I'm puttin' me a bar in the back of my car and drive myself to drink.

Marvin Rainwater - So You Think You've Got Troubles

Bonnie Lou - Tennessee Wig Walk

Going to stick with the King label here and some more early country rockin' style, this time from 1953.

Bonnie Lou (born Mary Jo Kath October 27, 1924, Talawanda, Indiana) is an American Rock and Roll and Country Music singer. During the mid 1950s, rock and roll was the hottest selling music on the market. Few women however ventured into this territory, like Bonnie Lou. Bonnie Lou was one of the first female Rock & Roll stars who proved to the public that female singers could indeed sing rock and roll.

Bonnie Lou's real name is Mary Jo Kath, and she was born in 1924 in Illinois. Mary grew up listening to Patsy Montana and her band "The Prairie Ramblers", and was greatly inspired by her. Mary learned how to yodel, which was from the help of her Swiss grandmother. As a child she learned how to play two instruments, the violin and guitar. By the young age of 16, she was singing and performing on a local radio show in Bloomington, Illinois. By age 18, Mary went on a bigger radio show, which aired in Kansas City, Missouri. Her exposure on this radio show in Kansas City, helped her land a job as a singer on WLW Radio in Cincinnati, Ohio, where station executive Bill McCluskey hired Mary as a singer a yodeler for his radio show called Midwestern Hayride Country & Western Radio Program. McCluskey was the one who gave Mary Jo the stage name she would be known by for the rest of her life, "Bonnie Lou". While on the radio show in Cincinnati, Lou performed regularly with Country Music girl group the Girls of the Golden West, which Lou listened to as a child.

Bonnie Lou continued radio performances until the end of the 1940s. Her radio performances were even cut to acetate and released to the public. However, Bonnie Lou never truly broke as a recording artist until the 1950s.

In 1953, Lou signed on with her first record company called King Records in Cincinnati, Ohio. In the beginning stages of her recording career, Lou recorded Country Music material and released it. Bonnie soon had big Country Music hits with "Tennessee Wig Walk" and "Seven Lonely Days". Both songs were Top 10 Country hits. The flip side of her hit "Seven Lonely Days" featured the song "Just Out of Reach", which would later be covered by other Country singers, like Patsy Cline, Billie Jo Spears, Jean Shepard, and k.d. Lang.

Soon, Bonnie started recording Rockabilly or Rock & Roll. In 1954, she recorded the song "Two-Step Side-Step", which was written by Murry Wilson, who is the father of The Beach Boys, Carl, Brian, and Dennis. In 1955, she released her first Rock & Roll record called "Daddy-O". The song was a Top 15 Pop hit that year, and turned Lou into a major Rock & Roll star overnight. The song was later covered by The Fontaine Sisters on the Dot Records label. It wasn't until 1958 though that Bonnie had another hit, this a duet with Rusty York called "La Dee Dah". They soon recorded a Teen Pop song together called "I Let the School Bell Ding-a-Ling". Soon, Lou left the King label for another Cincinnati record label called Fraternity. She released several different singles for Fraternity, one of which were as successful as her singles for the King label.

Bonnie Lou - Tennessee Wig Walk

Neal Burris - The Sissy Song

Not much i could find out about Mr. Burris here 'cept this;

He was born March 11, 1929 and this is a 1951, cover version of the Billy Briggs song. Don't ask me how there are pictures of Neal on the interweb but no info.

Also, I'm pretty sure this Mr. Burris never shot himself in the leg... (OK the spelling is different but it's phonetically the same, you get the joke no?)

Neal Burris - The Sissy Song

Forward to the Caves 3/5/09 Play List:

On the air now 8 to 10 PM EST

www.wlfr.fm

Playlist:

union carbide productions - born in the 60's
duochrome - theremin
steel pole bath tub - quark
daisycutter - elektrokill
barkmarket - radio static
6L6 - Goodbye
steel pole bath tub - pause
the wretched ones - bottles & cans
instant death - the enabler

bubblegum thunder - 2x4
bubblegum thunder - cheater
bubblegum thunder - coward
craw - 405
cough suppresant alcoholics - cunt super aeronaut
guinea worms - i'm a cobweb
dr gunni - eddi hnifur
dr gunni - gott mal
dr gunni - nonni stubbur
snakefinger - the spot
drain - flower mound

aviso hara - how to feed your family
transmegetti - mercitron
cough suppresant alcoholics - metal is not dead
monsterland - plastic
aviso hara - raspberry beret
bubblegum thunder - regret
transmegetti - rent a rocket
craw - stomp
cough suppresant alcoholics - tab at the liquor store
monsterland - vegas hate fuck
transmegetti - yes i can read

union carbide productions - ring my bell
unsane - vandal-x
scientists - there's a monster in me

The Life - Snake Bite

This was originally posted on 8/26/08 but I'm re-posting this little number because i had a very cool comment left and because this post is so old would most likely would not be seen by many, but one of the members of "The Life' left a very informative comment. So while maybe i'll bitch about no one leaving comments (see previous post) events like this make it worth my while, knowing that members of long forgotten bands are out there and approve of the devil trying to keep their memory alive is very cool. So please if you didn't check this tune out the first time around please do so now and leave some more comments!!!

I couldn't find anything about this kooky little garage number here except that it is from 1967 or 1968? But that might not even be correct because this sounds earlier unless these guys were just stuck in time.... Every time i searched all i came up with was "records" of people losing their life from snakebite! And not the good kind of records but those lame ass ones cops put in folders and then box up and go on your permanent RECORD...

So enjoy this little odd garage type number on HI records and recorded in Memphis in 1967? and written by Walt Stewart.

Here is the additional info given by Bill of "The Life"

Dick,
Great to come across "Snakebite" on your blog. Here's a bit more info about "The Life". We recorded this in about '67, along with about five other songs by Walt. "Snakebite" was a "pick-hit" in a handful of cities in the South, but faded from play in a few months. "The Life" was the recording name for our group, otherwise known as the "Hungry I". We were a seven piece (keyboard, bass, 2 guitars, 2 trumpets & drums) group that did a lot of traveling across the south in the late 60's, based in Auburn, AL, where most of us were students at the university. Walt Stewart was lead singer & guitarist, and did a good bit of song writing. Marvin Taylor was lead guitarist, Stacy Goss and Mike Stough-trumpets & vocals, Bill Stubblefield on keyboards & vocals, Ed (Sunshine) Roberts on drums & vocals and Bill Baggett (me) on bass.
Can't recall how the opportunity to record in Memphis came about, but we were all pretty hyped about finally getting what we considered to be, our share of sunlight. Although the group was a good combination of talent and personalities, we finally split up after a couple of years and everyone went in different directions. A web search today indicates that most have stayed in music and have done very well for themselves, although a couple of us eventually headed in a different professional direction. The visual arts turned out to be my calling.
I've got a great photo of the group that was a publicity shot made around the time of the recording, but don't know how to enter it on the blog.
Keep up the good work. I appreciate your ear for the choices you consistently shed a bit of light on.
Bill
February 28, 2009 11:18 AM

Bill if your still out there many thanks! and email me that photo so i can add it to this post!
DD

Check the comments for a link the more info!!!

The Life - Snake Bite

Jokers Wild - All I See Is You

Testing, testing...

Is this thing on?

Is there anybody out there?

The few, the proud, the demented...

Today on this VERY snowy day you get a kinda punky garage psych tune... Has a little bit of a 66 vibe but goes for some psych moves and what the fuck with the crazy theremin sound? is that theremin or one of those plastic whistles with a slide? I don't know anything about these guys but from the sound i'd say this is 1967 but what the fuck do i know. Ah, fuck it, no ones listening anyway...

Matters.

Jokers Wild - All I See Is You