Elvis Presley is Not That Interesting

Oh! There is a yuletide star in the sky...

follow it, and you'll find, not a manger....
but Youtube videos! Of Charlie Rich and Elvis Presley!




"Well, I make it alright/
Monday morning to Friday night/
but oh...
Those Lonely Weekends".
Don't be 'so sorry Charlie'! Christmas is around the corner; then you have a few days off... so it's like Every Day is the Weekend! (...oh, ah, ... nevermind)

"you said you'd be good to me, said our love would never die/
said you'd be good to me, but baby-- you didn't even try".

I pulled this Charlie Rich sound out of my vinyl stacks for you, because I heard the following song on the ol' radio :



(live version of Elvis' "Blue Christmas")

Well, of course I heard this on the radio, 'tis the season, right?
Now I like this song, even though I have heard it a time or two. I once sang the most Elvis-y part ("bluuuuuuuuhuhuhuhuhuhuuue") to my cousins, some far ago Xmas, and it cracked them up. At least that is how I remember it!

Anyhow, Charlie Rich's singing and playing covers a vast swath of styles: country-gospel; rockabilly-y;

straight old country;

early RocknRoll or RnB (you know, with the "Blues" still in RnB).

But on "Lonely Weekends", as you can clearly see/hear, he is doing a little Elvis impression. And he's so good at it, and just flat out so good, as one YouTube comment said, "Who needs Elvis?"
Me, I couldn't be bothered to give Elvis coal for Christmas: I just don't care about him. But Charlie Rich? If you see a Rich-Record, for Christ's sake (it's his b-day after all), get me the damn thing!
What do you all think: please tell me someone else out there prefers Charlie Rich to Elvis.
Any takers?

Halloween: Rockabill-o-ween edition (twang!)

With Halloween coming, c'mon, you gotta listen to The Cramps.
(listen to darn near all of it, if you wanna)


Grab that DL on the DL

It might hurt, burn, sting, a little-- yet "when the devil drives, you needs must go".

If that song brings you to a dark place, friend, try this version instead: Roy Orbison's more upbeat and swinging version. This is closer to Casper the Friendly Ghost (in the best possible way).

Download Domino by Roy Orbison




And to finish, an earlier Roy Orbison version, that sort of splits the difference between Casper and Lux:

See, everybody loves sunglasses. "Sunglasses: Not just for Albinos Anymore!"

Halloween- HalloNew Order Edition

Download "SkullCrusher" (BOO!) by New Order

New Order created the theme to a movie, called Salvation! (the exclamation mark is not mine), and the songs are all real gems.
The movie, is "maybe not" a real gem.
(although it does have Viggo and Exene Cervenka in it... wait, now I am thinking "maybe so" )
It seems to involve blackmailing a sham preacher... pretty Halloweenesque.

"Sputnik" is airy, atmospheric, like fog drifting around a car, coasting through a deserted back stretch of highway... with no driver!!! (scary)

It's movie music, you know, so most of these songs have zero words. Only "Touched by the Hand of God" has any.
"Sputnik" is the most clearly from a movie- it's 'filmic';
the other ones are that subset of New Order style which reminds you forcefully of Joy Division.

(pic from "100 Great Film Deaths"

"Skullcrusher" is the one that sounds the very most like Joy Division; "Let's Go" is a close second.
Now, I like New Order when they don't sound like Joy Division, absolutely (we all do, right?!?! ),
but when developing a Halloween theme, by God, it had better sound like Joy Division.

Halloween!: Soft Cell-oween Edition

Okay, so you gotta play these back to back, okay? They run directly into each other on the album, so let's try to mimick that magick.

Fair warning: there are totally nipples in the sexdwarf video- actually, there is all manner of batshit shit going on- so don't try watching it at work. Ain't nobody need to get fired in "this economy".

If you've already been fired, fantastic! Because not only musically and lyrically, but also *visually*, these videos are a match for the current Halloween theme.





(love that line: "luring disco dollies to a life of vice")

These songs come off the Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret album. This album has "Tainted Love" on it, but it is no exaggeration to say that every song on this album is good. So if you see it in a record bin, don't be scared to buy it.

By the way, it looks like this:

 

Except bigger, you know? Like 12"x12".

Also, it doesn't fit at all with the Halloween theme, but Kyle might recognize this Soft Cell song too. But nobody else click on it! Promise?

Halloween- HalloWoman Edition

Halloween- yes! The best international holiday ever, easy.
(except for maybe Thanksgiving, which I just learned Canadians also celebrate)
(and except my birthday)

So to help you celebrate- because I'm a giver, see?- I will put up a slew of unholy holiday-related songs.
Now, this song musically is not so dark or spooky-ooky. But, it is by the great (late- that's sorta Halloween-ish) Marty Robbins.

(download Devil Woman- Marty Robbins as you watch below)

Now, you kids these days, with your John E. Cash, or what have you... Sure, he's who all those kids- who are demanding candy already- would post for their Halloween songs. Sure, sure, "Ring of Fire"- but you already know about that song. Lord, you probably already have that song! So I give you this instead.

Or rather, these instead:


(maybe you can snag that one too.

And this one, you just gotta hear.



Listen to it- it's nuts! It has killing, stampedes, lightning, Mexico, lightning which performs a miracle, and the face of Jesus Christ- the OG Zombie- Respek!

"Get [a post] On Down!", quick!

Just going to quickly put a few things "down" on "paper". The Dells are a really solid band.

They have a "The Sound Of Philadelphia"-type sound. In fact, one of their two lead singers has a gruff, take-charge voice, somewhat reminiscent of Teddy Pendergrass. (...that would not be their falsetto singer...)

See what Eddie Murphy has to say about TP's singing style here- you can see what kind of voice you will be treated to if you snag this track by The Dells.

That's raw, nawImean?
(I mean, the video is from Delirious- the joke, the voice, are raw. Sorry for the confusion: it has been a while.)

Un-Covered Melody

So I did pull off the masterstroke, the (bloodless) coup that I promised last post. And it's pretty grand. Pretty epic, like the better-known version of this song:



-- Please download this fresh-from-vinyl version, of Belafonte's version of "Unchained Melody" --
( I also have, all ripped from vinyl, Charlie Rich, Al Green, Ricky Nelson, and Sonny & Cher covers. I can post those, of you'd please. )

Of course, the better-/best-known version of this song is by the very righteous Righteous Brothers. And I post Harry Belafonte's version, not because their version lacks anything-
No, quite the contrary-
but just to show what changes Belafonte has wrought.

Margeaux and I were talking at her house (that's the coup, FYI), and she posited her general rule about covers:
Don't cover a song that you cannot improve.
I like this rule; it makes sense. If you just want to play the damn song, sure: play it. But to record it and send it out there, why?, unless you have done it one better.

Now, we could, with all good reason, say that nobody can improve on the Righteous Brothers' version.
However, in Belafonte's slowed-down version, there is a delicacy that is not present in the Righteous Brothers' version.

Oh And Also, I failed to mention this little historical tidbit:
Belafonte covered this song in 1956, on the album pictured above.

The Righteous Brothers covered it on this album, in 1965:


So Belafonte did not violate Margeaux's good rule about covers.

The original? It's from a movie about prison!, which is where the 'Unchained'-name comes from.
Oh, and somehow, Belafonte was Oscar-nominated for Best Original Song for this, even though he did not write it, and it had already been covered a few times by then.

Anyhow, his is not the original, but it is less a cover or less un- an original (if that makes sense), than the Righteous Brothers version.

"Brevity: soul of wit": here we go.
Trying to give a little taste of some recent musical acquisitions. Haven't even told you yet what I got in Portland, let alone given you a taste!
For Shame.



Okay, so Teddy Pendergrass again, a solo joint this time.
(Not HMBftTP)

Got this after Portland, in Philly, mais oui, at Molly's Outlet in South Philly- 1117. E. Passyunk Ave. You can still check out their special outlet sale this weekend. All records a buck, and a much sharper selection than a thrift store.



Haven't copied It's Time For Love yet to hard drive, because 1) très cray busy and 2) got a new laptop to replace my worn-out "CRAPtop" and haven't loaded the requisite software yet.
Busy for the normal reasons,....
plus...
I am plotting something big right now. I'm about to pull off a real coup, wait and see. A masterstroke, to cap all things good.

Literally Quite Shitty

My new place is shitty. Quite shitty. For instance, just seconds ago, the front door is open, as it sometimes is. There is of course snow on the ground right now, but sure, let’s get a little fresh air in here.


Dowload J Mascis, "If That's How It's Gotta Be" (ripped from vinyl, FYI)


The place is literally so shitty, that when we were unloading the moving truck,

There was feces in the toilet.

And there was no handle on the toilet.
There was, generously, a coat hanger attached to a string for flushing…
but the water was off.

That is sort of the low- highlight. But there’s more.
One day, someone let the air out of both my bike tires in the hallway.
The door is left open randomly, and is almost never locked until sometime after dark.
Actually, maybe it’s best that they let air out of my tires- since the door is wide open, flats would make my bike more difficult to walk away with!

There is a full size window in the shower. I have since painted over the window (to keep the children at the school across the street from learning too much); the previous solution, which was left for me to remove, was car window tinting.
I doth not jest! The car tinting had a wonderful dual nature: I could see out, and, right, we have to trust, still be unseen as I looked out on the neighborhood!
So the trashy local kids who drink and shout and cuss and spit and cough and yell and laugh (the demons) directly under this window, could perhaps be spied on while I take care of my hygienic needs.

Right after I moved in, someone left a couch (too big for the stairs) in the hallway.
For ten days.
Eventually, we all stopped being polite (like the Real World!) and shoeprints and bike tires began to leave their marks.

When I moved in, no cleaning or anything resembling cleaning had been done. Compounding this, I have a Chinese-style oven, which means two fans, high gas flames, and… covered with wok grease. The fans and hood had so much ‘ambient grease’ covering them, that there were little stalagtites of (somebody else’s!) fat hanging down. (still can’t remember difference between ‘tites and ‘mites)

On the food tip, it’s South Philly, so there are plenty of bugs. And the fridge, until I divined the Goldilocks temp, alternated between freezing my lettuce solid and melting my just-bought ice cream. It also runs all the time.
Ah yes, the fridge also is in front of one of two electric outlets in the entire house. None in bathroom (how am I to curl my hair?), one in bedroom, just one plug left in kitchen, so my sous-vide process must be done in the bedroom (not really).
But there are two cable outlets in the bedroom, so we have the essentials covered.

The cabinets were perhaps put in by a sadistic child with a learning disability, since one door opens into the side of another cabinet (i.e. opens 2 inches), and all of them have an inaccessible top shelf, unless you have a step ladder. They were not so kind as to supply a step ladder, although they did leave other furniture.

There also was no working smoke detector (took them a month to replace it), which became an even more pressing issue when my brand-new flouro bulbs kept burning out, just weeks after I put them in. I looked at the lighting (as if I’m some fucking electrician) and the copper wiring was so old, it was green.

There is a lot of great stuff about my neighborhood (not so much ‘a lot’ about my house though), and maybe I will share that with you all later. But right now, I feel like complaining, because I am like that wiring:
old and fussy and smoldering.

Which is why I played you J Mascis: he’s like that too.

Epictetian Preachin'

Here we go, here's a little uplift, to match our weather today:



Oooooh, if only "everyday" felt this good!
Going to go eat goose with friends tonight (my idea),
doing research on Stoic philosophy in combination with Foucault's use of their ethical care of the self,
sat in a park where they were mulching Xmas trees, which smelled better than you could possibly imagine.

Well, I won't bore you with all the rest of my "day, people"-- for it is not your duty to mark down and be concerned with my joys and ills, nor mine to fret and tut-tut over yours. As Epictetus tells us:

But the judge condemns you on the charge of impiety. And did not the judges similarly condemn Socrates? Surely it is no concern of yours...
Your father has a certain function, and if he does not perform it, he has destroyed the father in him, the man who loves his offspring, the man of gentleness within him. Do not seek to make him lose anything else on this account...
Again, it is your function to defend yourself firmly, respectfully, without passion. Otherwise, you have destroyed within you the son, the respectful man, the man of honour. What then? Is the judge secure? No; but he too runs just as great a risk. Why, then, are you afraid of what decision he is going to render? What have you to do with another man's evil? (Discourses, Book III, xviii)

So, if I be condemned, I will not let that affect the respect which I hold for myself, nor will it affect my judgment on what a nice fucking day it is.