Some Bodies Have Organs

All right, the archive extends- Part Two- the second half of records I bought last trip to West Philly.


Charlie Rich, singing about 'The Most Beautiful Girl in the World'


Elton Britt: The Wandering Cowboy. His band probably is not wandering too far; there is plenty of honky-tonk organ in this.
Surely, you can drag your slide-steel, your banjo across the country- but not your Wurlitzer.

"My Organ is too BIG!"

This is my record's cover:
(I sort of wish this was the cover:)



Jose Melis Plays the Latin Way. His album before this is titled Senior Prom!

Don't know much of anything about this/him yet.


Beatles '65, Older B's stuff. I can't hardly be bothered to listen to most Beatles' stuff, for various reasons. This, however, is good.

Chuck Berry covers, Birth-of-Rock-n-Roll kind of stuff, which, if you've been downloading my mixes, you know is my passionate attachment lately. ("IF?") I think the first Beatles Anthology has different versions of a lot of these songs.

Lou Rawls Merry Christmas Ho! Ho! Ho! and an Al Green Xmas album. The Rawls is solid- even behind a veil of ignorance (...) you would recognize that.

The Rev. Green's Xmas, though, is basically a bag of coal.
I would wear the hell outta that suit above, btw.

Richie Havens Mixed Bag

Quite Good, one of the real discoveries of this music-spelunking trip.

Charlie Rich Silver Fox.

Check the sweet Fox Logo!
Does a very odd 'medley' on the first side. In which he discusses his bio (including his many musical shifts- from Jazz, to Rock 'n' Roll, to Country), cracks a few 'jokes', etc. In between the spoken bio bits, he plays newly-recorded versions of his most famous songs, usually just the chorus and a verse. Why does he do this? I haven't the foggiest, frankly.

Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway

A little mellow for my normal listening tastes, but real slow burn soulful heavenly stuff. Perfect for relaxed cooking, doing the dishes, a light summer rain outside, etc. (I know all that does not sound like high praise, but I'm trying to describe the mood that would make you put this record on- it is much more enjoyable than washing the dishes.)
Unfortunately, the first two tracks- on both sides- are all warped to hell. So I can only listen to about 60% of this album.
Pffffffff.

Lion-Less Helter-Skelter Honky-Tonk

That's Duane Eddy, on Youtube. Okay?
Create a makeable digital download-version of the same here, plus other songs

So, more deets about the most recent AMX mix that I birthed,
entitled "AMX: Black Mask McGuffin".



This one was modeled after the Pulp Fiction soundtrack; precisely, it's based upon my imprecise memory of it. SO there is Al Green-ish RnB; there is surf-y, country-y, honky-y tonk-y rock too. About 6 of one, half dozen of the other.
You should have a good idea of the BLACK side- see all my posts on Philadelphia International Records, on Jerry Butler, etc.

Now I'm giving you a dose of the WHITE side- the honky-tonk bits. You know, the white man's blues: barroom sad-sack business. Chorales for "The Loser's Cathedral", as a jam by David Houston calls bars.


You are asking yourself why the mix "Black Mask MacGuffin" is called what it's named; or conversely, why it is named what it's called.



Definition of a MacGuffin (from www.filmsite.org):
"Alfred Hitchcock's term for the device or plot element that catches the viewer's attention or drives the logic or action of the plot and appears extremely important to the film characters,
but often turns out to be insignificant after it has served its purpose;
its derivation is Scottish, meaning a "lion trap" for trapping lions in the lion-less Scottish Highlands (i.e., a trap that means nothing, since it is for an animal where there is no such animal)."

That would be the suitcase in Pulp Fiction.

"Black Mask" was a working title of the movie: I think that would refer to "the Gimp".


One last chance: Download AMX: Black Mask McGuffin.zip.

Bill Withers: "Who Is He", and How Is He Still So Ill?

I was supposed to go to Memphis this weekend, but I wasn't able to. Travel plans became a casualty of infinite snow.
No big deal.
What is a big deal is that my favored coffee shop is closed today- some holiday of some sort- and the other one?
Having a birthday party
(a V-day B-day Par-tay)
for children, in the back. I am deeply pleased with myself for bringing headphones...
Now, to the business at hand.

Download a little valedictorian valentine, for all you valetudinarians out there! This one will make you feel tuff and buff!
Bill Withers- Who Is He (And What Is He To You?)
"Valedictorian" means 'highest' in 'class', and this songs does possess class for days.
You, however, are like school in the summer, or school this last week in Philadelphia: NO CLASS.
A "valetudinarian" is a sickly, weakly constituted little pffff of a person.

Even if you are such a pffff, this song has a boss little edge to it. It's about a guy, looking at his girl, who appears to be looking at some other guy. Looking at him like, 'oh hey, I know you and I got a thing, but this guy is my guy, so don't mean-mug him, you knew we were OPP and all that' or somesuch. But Bill is not sure he wants to be caught up in all that, ya know?




Mr. Bill is so slept on! We all know him from that 'Use Me' song from American Beauty, we all know 'Lean on Me', and some of us love "Ain't No Sunshine" (yes, all these are the same gentleman). But what about "Granma's hands", "Harlem", "Kissing", "Another Day to Run", "I Don't Want You On My Mind"?!?!?!
People! Let's get our shit together! Now a movie is out about the guy; we missed the screening in West Philly, but can still catch it in Lower Merion.
ROADTRIP?!!?!?!

(sorry about so many exclamatory question marks- I've been
at home
alone
a lot
lately.)

Still Bill Trailer from B-Side Entertainment on Vimeo.

The trailer has stupid sting in it, boo, but also awesome Cornel West. Sure, s was in The Police, but Cornel West is a philosopher, which according to Ranciere means that he disrupts 'police', and also, Dr. West's album has Prince, Andre 3000, Talib Kweli, Black Thought, and WHYY Philadelphia's own Tavis Smiley.

That's enough for now. One of the Vday Bday children lost a pair of glasses. I should go help them find them.
no, not really

Epic Delights: Essential Finds

Next List!
Musical Delights this time!



The O'Jays in Philadelphia

(the above is the lead-off song from this album)

Jonathan Richman : Not to be Loved, So Much as to Love
(awwww.... what a romantic...)

Patsy Cline

Prince and the Revolution: PURPLE RAIN !!!
I already have this on vinyl, of course, but got it for cheap on CD too. The record comes with the epic poster at top of pic below



Some more Harry Belafonte

[ 1) Read the blurbs on that magazine cover
2) Doesn't Harry Belafonte look like Devon there? ]
On record and CD- the CDs are, embarrassing enough, the Reader's Digest Edition. So some grandparent died, left these to their unwitting offspring, who unloaded them on the GoodWill, much to the GoodLuck of myself.

Ghostface Killah: Fishscale
(which I already owned- bought even, which adds insult to the injury of losing it: so I rebought it, rebooted it)

Jackie Wilson

A vinyl compliation called Super Girls! Three slabs of vinyl with all sorts of girl bands on them... epically delightful!


(Notice that there are 3 of Triplicate Girl in this SuperGirl comeek...)

More Brook Benton

Teddy Pendergrass (Rest In Power: Jan 14 2010)
He is ALSO Philadelphia-based like The O'Jays, although I got this in Oregon. So maybe Philly is not the only place to get that hott Phillee Sound...

Oh Boy! Obey the Oboe

Just wanted to mention that, because of my 'research' for the last post, I knew that mayflies have two penises.

2!

And at Quizzo in West Philly last Sunday, we were asked about it! And I knew! And we got a point!

Other than that though, you could say we were 'down and out' in West Philly.



youtube got it: James' Brown - Down and Out In New York City

This is from the James Brown-scored movie soundtrack I mentioned last time. See, he's using 'movie-style' instruments here- orchestra, flutes, etc.
Say which you prefer: Curtis' Junkie or James' ...Out In.. in the comments

I think somebody is rocking the oboe?


Which is of course a vaguely phallic instrument. So, if you had two of them, battling it out, dueling banjos style,
or a la "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" (which is a song I like, but do not like at Oscar's, which you can no longer smoke at, at all),
then it would look a little like a mayfly.
Because they have

2!

Oh, and please do not ever forget that oboe players have a posse:

A Junkie Mayfly, He's Sure to Die

To celebrate Labor Day the other weekend, I did what every American was supposed to do:
1) I spent money, and
2) I worked/labored as little as possible.

Youtube link to Curtis Mayfield's "Freddie's Dead", from the Superfly Soundtrack



I got 3 CDs, 3 DVDs, 1 jacket, shoes (2 total).



Like any living mayfly, all of these were new, which is unusual for me. Well, the digital media came from FYE and some of it had been listened to in store, but that's not really used, is it now?

Obviously, one of the CDs was Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack to the blaxsploitation flick "Superfly". Probably a bit better than James Brown's entree into the world of soundtracks, itself pretty good.

I also got Jesus and the Mary Chain. Psycho Candy, evidently a German pressing, for whatever that's worth.
Also, for what it's worth, I am teaching St. Augustine tomorrow. If you Google "Augustine" and "Devil", to better determine that the Devil in Augustinian theology is nothing but 'persuasion' towards sin -- that is to say, he is not a giant fucking bat that shoots lasers or something -- you will get many more sites related to fishing (in Devil's Elbow in St. Augustine, FL) than you expected.

I'm saying this hypothetically, of course: I would never use the internet as an aid to research.




I also got some random Japanese cartoon (one character is named Cat: ?!? ), "White Heat" with James Cagney, "Technique" by New Order (obv VG), and Truffaut's "Wild Child". None of them cost me more than $8.55 (w/ tax); shoes and jacket, only $10 each.

Can I pick 'em, or what?

It feels much more natural to say "'em" than it does to type it. Just so you know.

Racist!

For those of you (few) who still haven't downloaded the mixtapes I've deemed "Pirate Radio"

(dis one is 1)
(dat one is 2)

here is a little sample.



(here's a link to its youtube page...)
This is not the best song on there, but it still is very good (else it wouldn'a gone on the mix!, right?).
I put it up today because I said it might be racist.







You know, the Prof. Gates thing is dying down, Conrad and I disputing about it notwithstanding. Beer either calms or inflames. Seemingly, with Gates/Obama/Crowley, it calmed; with Conrad and I, it inflamed.

Hopefully, the song, along with this blog post, will reinvigorate the debate. Really get America discussing race.
Or, race-baiting will garner me a few more hitz.
I'd be really psyched either way.

Why (might) it be racist? Minstrel show type stuff. Guy goes to jungle, nearly gets cannibalized. Jungle chants, etc. You know, 'that sort'.

It's not a Blog- It's a Blog Lobster (Pirate Radio 2 mix)

Another Mix! This is 'Lost- Pirate Radio 2'!
I posted another mix based upon the TV show a ways back (here). Since I have never seen the show, I had to do a lot of research. This 'research' consisted of thinking about sunny weather, daydreaming that I was a pirate, and swimming some.
Arduous.
Out of that came these two great mixes: highly appropriate for sitting around drinking margaritas, dancing in living rooms, wearing thongs/flip-flops.

You'll enjoy this, I promise.
Download 'Lost- Pirate Radio 2' with just one lil' clicky.

And what do we have on such a mix?
A song sung like a boy, like a girl, like a frog. We might hear this song sometime at Bouffant Bangout.

A song about being protected on the subway by the Guardian Angels. This is a finger-snappin', clap-happy disco tune.

This group is a sort of vigilante city patrol, and they mocked it in Sunny.


[{(download the freshly mixed fresh mix here.)}]

More sunny day, happy time, mellow Calypso. Island music.

A song about being stranded in the Jungle, that, if it weren't potentially racist (cannibals in the jungle?!...), you also might hear at BB-out. Is it racist, or not? You'll have to listen to it and see!

One of those new-wave, dance-punk-before-the-fact, snotty girl song. It says: 'Can I have a taste of your ice cream? Can I interfere in your crisis?'
'No! Mind your own business!'

[{(download it here.)}]


A song that sounds like those Indian Youtube singalongs.

Thanks to Charlie for showing these to me a while ago. GIRLY MAAAAAN!


[{(download it here.)}]

A sort of pseudo-cover of a Misfits song, but by Miss Kittin and the Hacker- you can dance to this one, despite the fact that it's lyrics are all like thus: "Mommy, Daddy, can I go out and kill tonight?".

"It's not a rock:

It's a Rock Lobster!"

Here is the track listing for
Lost- Pirate Radio 2 , complete:

Mind Your Own Business--- Delta 5
Rippin Kittin (Glove Radio Mix) ---Golden Boy With Miss Kittin
Rock Lobster ---B-52s
Ten Speed (Of God's Blood And Burial) ---Coheed & Cambria
Standed in The Jungle --- the Cadets
The Guardian Angel Is Watching Over Us--- Golden Flamingo Orchestra Featuring Margo Williams
New Hollywood Babylon ---Don Cavalli
Water--- The Esso Steel Band & Lloyd Simmons
Anna ---Brute Force Steel Band
Cool running ---Champaign
Ain't got not home --- Clarence 'Frogman' Henry
Sunny side of the street --- Big Shell Steel Band
Camilla ---George Symonette


[{(download 'Pirate Radio 2' here.)}]

We got 'A Thing' going on...

Whoa, Okay, Hey, Yeah-
been busy celebrating Black History Month; too busy to bust out songs for you.
But here's one. Billy Paul sings that ol' chestnut "Mrs. Jones" (which you can stream way below). But here he asks the pressing question, "Am I Black Enough For You?". (I query myself the same, often: that's how I stay on top of it- and yeah, that's a download up there)




Download Billy Paul's "Am I Black Enough For You?".


Billy Paul will do some scat-style singing at times; you even catch a bit of that in "Mrs. Jones". "...meeeee,eeeee, me, me and miss-'n'misssssesss Joooonesss..." (listen to it- it's just like that!)
Now, I'll be honest, Billy- I find that shit a little annoying. BUT you avoid all annoying, all together, on "Am I Black Enough For You?", and I thank you for that.
Both these tracks, by the way, are on "360 Degrees of Billy Paul", which is the cover presented here. Dude's from Philly too:I got this album on Broad Street, at The Official Philadelphia International Records memorabilia and Album Selling Place, located here:



Digitally, it is located here.

Here's "Mrs. Jones", which is a serious cut in its own right.


Ah, Billy, that really hit the spot. I owe you one.


"You're welcome!"

Black History Month - "and Yet, Without Heirs, Memory is Meaningless"

It's time for Black History Month! I saw Angela Davis talk the other day, and it reminded me that this, the shortest month,+
is, in fact, dedicated to the history of Black Americans.
Now, I know little about strictly political American history, so most of what I know about Black Americans is musical history. It goes without saying that Black people have contributed their fair share to other aspects of this American life++;
but I have been very busy and so have heard, in the main, about musical contributions.

+Angela Davis told us that it used to be called 'Negro History Week', then 'Black History Week', now 'BHM'. Just saying: both points (name, and duration) are relevant.

++Not the radio show "This American Life"; I'd wager Black people have done very little to contribute to that show. Call it a hunch.

The Young Folks - Jackson 5


Okay, you all were way into so-called "HOPE" recently: this song's for you. It basically is exactly how Obama got elected. (If you missed the details of that, don't worry- this song sums it up in just under 3 hummable minutes.)
It's the Jackson 5 doing what everyone else did during the 70's/late 60's: they got political. This track's all about not letting The Man tell you what to do anymore: they're "marching with signs" even! That line gave me pause at first; watch:

"We're marching with signs
We're standing in lines, yeah, yeah
Protesting your rights
...
to turn out the lights, in our lives"

Oh -I see- your protesting the way they mess up your lives! You aren't protesting RIGHTS as such. Cos, that's a really radical political position. Even more radical when you consider that Michael is only 12 or so when he sings this...
He's fifty now, by the by: talk about your history!



The quote from the title is from Nietzsche, okay, so please excuse the seeming pessimism. I'm not pessimistic that Americans won't/don't have 'heirs'; that is, have a legacy ahead of them. Am I optimistic, then?
That's my little secret!: Blogs aren't suited to talking about yourself, obviously!
(That's why Michael Jackson doesn't have one- he's on Twitter)