Tales of True Adventure for Rugged Men Not Unlike Yourself
Free piano (you pick it up). Lester circa 1966. Lutz area. Not possessed or haunted in any way. Tuned less than 24 months ago; played by human hands ~6 minutes since. Not a player piano — does not play by itself. Comes with bench. Has wheels. Please take this out of my home.
Maybe not….Actual ad here.
Predictably, they slay this cornball classic.
Here’s a little know remix of an iconic 80’s hit.
I hope Hot For Teacher Is Next. By the way, when did this become a country blog?
What happened to “aw shucks” country-boy virtuosi like these guys, Glen Campbell, and Roy Clark? Are they still out there? Are they all just session guys since no one like them could lauch a solo career in Nashville these days? But would there even be sessions for such players? I hear nothing in current country music that would require this level of musicianship.
Don’t try any of this at home.
https://youtu.be/ivIHZCdvJO4
For better or worse.
Here’s Making the Grade, a forgettable Judd Nelson film shot at Rhodes College in Memphis back in 1984.
Enjoy or don’t, you dirty bastards!
Palmer Woodrow (Dana Olsen) is a rich prep school kid who rarely attends class and has been expelled from numerous prep schools. His parents are traveling internationally and inform him that he has been enrolled at Hoover Academy and he has one last chance to graduate or he will be cut off financially. Meanwhile, Eddie Keaton (Judd Nelson) is a small-time con artist who has run afoul of a local loanshark named “Dice.” Via a chance meeting, Woodrow hires Keaton for $10,000 and a Porsche to attend his prep school and graduate, freeing Woodrow to travel to Europe for skiing.
Crudely done, but some telling snippets from the luckiest mediocre singer to latch on to talented relatives.
Favorite comments: “Pet Sounds was entirely my idea. I told Brian ‘write something brilliant and timeless, man’…so I deserve most of the credit”-Mike Love; “I never trust a man with that many rings”; “Mike Love, the original Douche Coupe”; “Mike Love, still dancing like your creepy uncle since 1961.”
If you enjoy failed-rock-festival porn, check this out. Apparently things got so dark that even the reigning Dark Lords of rawk and Satan’s representatives on earth, Black Sabbath, felt compelled to cancel.
“Silly Thing” has a somewhat complicated history. Of which, Wikipedia says …
The original version of the song, on which Paul Cook sings lead vocals and Steve Jones plays bass guitar, was recorded with engineer Steve Lipson at Regents Park Studios in London in April or May 1978. The recording of further guitar overdubs and the final mixing took place at Rockfield Studios in Wales with producer Dave Goodman in late May 1978.
This original version of “Silly Thing” appeared on the movie soundtrack album of The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle and was used for the single in New Zealand, France and Japan.
A different mix of this original version, with Cook singing the verses and Jones singing the chorus, was released in 1988 in Japan, along with an outtake from the same recording sessions, the original version of the Jones/Cook composition “Here We Go Again”.
In the second week of March 1979, Jones and Cook went into Wessex Studios in London with engineer Bill Price and recorded a new version of the song. On this version, bass guitar was played by Andy Allen of the Lightning Raiders, who later in the year formed The Professionals with Cook and Jones.
This version of “Silly Thing” was used for the single in the UK, Australia, West Germany and Portugal. It appeared on the 1992 Sex Pistols compilation Kiss This.
The B-side to the Steve Jones single is “Who Killed Bambi?” written by Edward Tudor-Pole, with lyrical assistance from Vivienne Westwood. It’s really … something …
Having just re-watched The Kids Are Alright (thanks, Makerbot), I thought I’d post the original of this song in case any of you bastards are unfamiliar. I purchased Live At Leeds in the early 70’s and for years just assumed YMB was a Townsend song. I didn’t hear this original until the early 80’s.
The Who weren’t the first to do a heavy cover of Mose Allison. Acid-rockers Blue Cheer and blues-rocker Johnny Winter recorded “Parchman Farm,” a song about the infamous Mississippi Delta prison camp (Mose was from Mississippi). Below is the Blue Cheer version, which for some reason they changed to “parchment” (to skirt copyright?) Although I’m not a huge Blue Cheer fan, they’re interesting enough for a separate post, if for no other reason than they were considered the loudest band in existence. They also get credit for representing the dark, aggressive underbelly of the late 60’s San Francisco scene. Some believe them to be the first heavy metal band, and they’re probably right. Hell’s Angels in particular liked them. One Angel said that when Blue Cheer played, the air turned to cottage cheese. I think that was his way of saying they were really loud, although acid might have been involved.
Not-so-fun fact: Vernon Presley did time at Parchman.
You can hear a lot of Mose (and Chet Baker) in Alex Chilton, who put me on to both of them. My upbringing was jazz-deprived.
ZZ Top bassist Dusty Hill has hopped the twig at 72.
And holy cow, I don’t think I’ve seen this video in 35 years.