From the Vaults

Stan Freberg: The Old Payola Roll Blues (1960)

6 Nov 2012 | 1 min read

While British commentators congratulate their culture on its history of comedy and satire (Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, David Frost, Peter Cook, Monty Python et al) they conspiciously fail to note that America had a similar, but often darker and more biting, tradition. Stan Freberg was -- although at the time of this writing he is still alive at 83 -- one of the great satirists of... > Read more

Jean Claude Vannier: Les Mouches (1973)

5 Nov 2012 | <1 min read

French writer/arranger and producer Vannier has worked with anyone who counts in his home country (Gainsbourg, Francoise Hardy, Juliette Greco, jazz pianist Martial Solal etc) as well as Astor Piazzolla, American pop writer Mort Shuman and many others. His trippy and conceptual sonic journey album L'enfant assassin des mouches in '73, from which this track comes, was reissued in 2005 and... > Read more

Frank Zappa: The Talking Asshole (1978)

1 Nov 2012 | <1 min read | 1

Here's a rare and odd one, taken from the vinyl album You're A Hook: The 15th Anniversary of Dial-A-Poem (1968-1983), a record which came through the label Giorno Poetry Systems. The idea behind Dial-A-Poem was exactly that: call this phone number and hear a poem. The contributors included John Giorno (who initiated the project), William Burroughs, Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, Lenny... > Read more

Screamin' Jay Hawkins: Alligator Wine (1963?)

31 Oct 2012 | <1 min read

When Oasis celebrated cigarettes and alcohol on their debut album Definitely Maybe, they were onto something. These twin poles of working people are traditionally the escape from the drudgery of life (if these days much frowned upon) . . . although we'd have to concede for an increasing number of young people they seem to be de rigueur for a lifestyle with not a lot of back-breaking... > Read more

Howard Tate: Keep Cool (1972)

30 Oct 2012 | 1 min read | 1

In this column about shameful record covers I'm proud to own, I noted you should never judge Eastern European -- or bellydance -- albums by their covers. They are often an afterthought and the contents can be often much more interesting and exciting than the kitsch covers might suggest. You'd guess perhaps only soul singer Howard Tate's family though the cover of his self-titled '72 album... > Read more

Wilson Pickett: Land of 1000 Dances (1966)

25 Oct 2012 | 1 min read | 4

Although Bob Dylan brought a literary sensibility into popular music in the early Sixties, most pop music -- whether it be rock, soul, reggae, hip-hop or whatever -- isn't poetry. Most lyrics don't stand much serious scrutiny. But that is not a criticism, there's a very good case to be made that, as Little Richard once memorably said, "It ain't what you do, it's the way how you do... > Read more

Jimi Hendrix and Curtis Knight: Hush Now (1965)

19 Oct 2012 | 1 min read | 1

It's well known that Jimi Hendrix didn't have much business sense, but he sure knew how to play guitar. This track -- one of about 60 recorded with the little known singer/guitarist Curtis Knight at a small studio in New York -- is a measure of both. Hendrix -- at that time Jimmy James -- had recently been fired from Little Richard's touring band and had done a few gigs with Ike and Tina... > Read more

Freur: Pronunciation/Audiobiography/Hold Me Mother (1983)

17 Oct 2012 | 1 min read

A decade before Prince became TAFKAP (The Artist Formerly Known As Prince) and adopted an odd symbol instead of a name, this band of mysterious origins also did the same. They insisted their name was the even more odd pictogram which appeared on the cover of their Doot Doot single, but at the counter-insistence of their record company CBS they had to adopt a name people could pronounce --... > Read more

James Darren: Goodbye Cruel World (1961)

15 Oct 2012 | 1 min read

One of the most popular shows on American television in the late Fifites/early Sixties was the Donna Reed Show, a middle-class family of mum (attractive and smart Donna Reed) the doctor dad (handsome and jut-jawed Carl Betz) and the teenage kids Mary (attractive and girly Shelley Fabares who went on to appear in three Elvis movies) and Jeff (geeky-then-handsome young Paul Petersen who, like... > Read more

Willi Williams: Right Time (year unknown, mid 70s?)

11 Oct 2012 | <1 min read

Reggae singer/writer Willi Williams is best known as the man who gave the world Armagideon Time which the Clash covered (and which appears on the Tougher Than Tough collection) -- and many other deep roots reggae songs. Always well connected, Williams first worked at Studio One in the mid Sixties, recorded with Jackie Mittoo in Jamaica and Jah Shaka, Yabby You and Augustus Pablo, and the... > Read more

The Beatles: Love Me Do (1962)

5 Oct 2012 | 1 min read

It was 50 years ago today . . . Half a century ago, the world was a very different place. Germany was divided, racial lines split South Africa and the Southern states of America, the world held its breath when the young US President JFK prevented Soviet ships from taking missiles to Cuba . . . In music the big hits of the day were jazzman Acker Bilk's clarinet ballad Stranger on the... > Read more

Silk: Custody (1969)

3 Oct 2012 | 1 min read | 1

As those who visit these pages know, Elsewhere often buys albums on the basis of their covers (see these articles on Shameful Record Covers I'm Proud to Own). Some of those were bought for their tackiness, oddity or kitsch quality. A few others because a name in the band went on to do something more interesting, or worse. The sole album from Silk in '69 however puzzled me. The name... > Read more

Joe Medwick: Letter to a Buddie(1963)

21 Sep 2012 | 1 min read | 2

Soulful singer Joe Medwick coulda been a contender but somewhere along the way he lost many of the songs he wrote for the likes of Bobby Bland, and his own singles and albums didn't really get much attention. He also had a thing for the drink, and preferred to play bars and nightclubs around Houston than chance his arm on the wider circuit. He actually had what we might call a nightclub... > Read more

Elvis Presley: Always on My Mind (1972)

18 Sep 2012 | 1 min read | 2

Unlike the Beatles -- especially John Lennon and often George Harrison -- we rarely think of the Rolling Stones writing autobiographical songs, or lyrics which have come from some deep emotional place in their lives. And even less so with Elvis Presley who, after all, didn't write and would pick up anything from a Christmas carol to a raw blues and turn it into gold, or a very passable... > Read more

Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee: Screamin' and Cryin' Blues (1964)

17 Sep 2012 | 1 min read

Although this song didn't appear in wide circulation until the Terry/McGhee 1964 compilation Pawnshop Blues, it seems to date back to the Thirties. Blind Boy Fuller recorded a version late in that decade (very similar, perhaps more considered) and as always with the blues, songs pass from hand to hand and down the decades. It seems likely however that blind harmonica player Terry picked... > Read more

Crowded House and Roger McGuinn: Eight Miles High (1989)

14 Sep 2012 | <1 min read

Recorded live at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles when Crowded House met up with former Byrd Roger McGuinn, this song -- and their versions of Mr Tambourine Man and So You Want to be a Rock'n'Roll Star -- appeared on a '91 version of the CD single for Weather With You (other versions had live Crowdies tracks from the period). Not the most psychedelic guitar solo (Neil Finn could pull out... > Read more

Johnny Ace: Pledging My Love (1954)

12 Sep 2012 | 1 min read

And further to the now familiar story that death is good for a career . . . Johnny Ace had been enjoying a very good run of hits throughout the early Fifties, so much so that maybe he thought he was bulletproof. Literally. His story is well known, how on Christmas night in 1954, while at a gig in Houston he was fooling around with a gun (legend has a Russian roulette game but that has been... > Read more

The Beatles: Old Brown Shoe (1969)

10 Sep 2012 | 1 min read

Although there's probably no such thing as an obscure Beatles' song, this one by George Harrison comes pretty close. It was the b-side to Lennon's Ballad of John and Yoko, and made it onto the second Past Masters compilation. But when the catalogue was remastered and reissued, it was pushed off the mono Past Masters in favour of another Harrison song, Ii's All Too Much (from Yellow... > Read more

Bob Dylan: Ballad in Plain D (1964)

7 Sep 2012 | 1 min read | 3

With a few exceptions (the song about John Lennon's murder on his new album Tempest), Bob Dylan's songs have long since ceased to be about anyone in particular. And there's a case to be made that perhaps many of those in the mid Sixties which appeared to have been aimed in particular directions (girlfriends Joan Baez, Edie Sedgwick and Suze Rotolo, running mate and fellow bear-baiter Bob... > Read more

The Beach Boys: In the Back of My Mind (1965)

5 Sep 2012 | 1 min read

In the very interesting DVD doco Brian Wilson; Songwriter 1962 - 1969, Bruce Johnston -- who replaced Brian in the touring line-up of the Beach Boys in the mid Sixties -- identifies this song as anticipating the classic BB album Pet Sounds. It appeared on the album The Beach Boys Today!, a record which largely went past many people who by this time had wearied of the BB's endless... > Read more